Planning commission hears Potrero Power Station vision calling for housing, tower and extensive public benefits

John Francis, a senior planner with the city, opened the informational presentation on the Potrero Power Station redevelopment, saying the planning team will publish the draft environmental impact report and a design-for-development document in mid-September. The presentation framed the proposal as a large, waterfront reuse that will be considered alongside other Southern Bayfront projects.

John Lau of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development said the site is part of a Southern Bayfront strategy that balances housing, jobs and open space, and that the city has treated the property as a priority because the closure of the plant was tied to a legal settlement requiring coordinated reuse planning. Enrique Landau, the project sponsor, described the roughly 29‑acre site and said it "offers a great opportunity to add much needed housing." He and project designer Kristen Hall of Perkins and Will outlined a concept that would emphasize housing while also creating neighborhood retail, open space and a walkable street grid.

Project designers presented three massing options and explained tradeoffs between height and open space. Krist en Hall described the preferred approach as a mixed vertical profile that includes a signature tower—about 300 feet tall—situated as a focal element that would be in dialogue with the site’s historic smokestack. Hall said the team expects the broader Southern Bayfront developments to target about 33% below‑market‑rate housing across the portfolio; the final BMR percentage for this site will be negotiated.

The sponsor said the plan could yield "upwards of 2,000 housing units" across the site and noted a mix of uses: housing, life‑science or R&D space, neighborhood retail, hotel and community facilities. Designers also highlighted publicly accessible waterfront open space, a central park larger than South Park, a rooftop soccer field atop a district garage and a transportation demand management package that would include a shuttle to Caltrain and 16th Street BART and a bus layover on‑site. The team said it is planning for about 66 inches of sea‑level rise in its shoreline designs.

Neighbors and community groups gave mixed remarks during public comment. Several speakers from Potrero and Dogpatch organizations applauded the sponsor’s outreach and the promise of waterfront access, new retail and a grocery. Preservation advocates urged careful review of brick and ancillary industrial buildings on site and asked the commission to seek ways to preserve district contributors where feasible. Some speakers emphasized jobs–housing balance and asked the city to secure transit and neighborhood services that will be needed as the area densifies.

Commissioners praised the sponsor’s outreach and asked staff to schedule detailed follow‑up briefings before the draft EIR is finalized. The meeting record shows the presentation was an informational step in a pre‑DEIR stage; no action on entitlements was taken at this hearing.