Planning commission hears Southern Bayfront framework and India Basin park plan, staff aim for 33% affordable housing across projects

Planning Department and Office of Economic and Workforce Development staff gave the San Francisco Planning Commission a progress update March 9 on a coordinated approach to major waterfront projects that includes Pier 70, Mission Rock and India Basin.

Joshua Switzky of the Planning Department said the Southern Bayfront framework is intended to guide negotiations with developers so the city can secure public benefits — affordable housing, transportation investments, open space and workforce opportunities — in a consistent way across several large projects that will come forward this year. Mike Martin of OEWD told commissioners the three projects expected before the commission in 2017 together could deliver roughly 4,000 housing units and a large share of the city’s near‑term open space.

Ken Rich and colleagues said the city’s goal is an average of 33 percent affordability across the Southern Bayfront projects, which staff calculate would yield about 6,700 below‑market units if the full program is built out. OEWD staff also said project‑level flexibility may be used to capture moderate‑ and middle‑income workforce housing through techniques such as project‑funded off‑site acquisition and marketing targeted to neighborhood residents.

Carly Payne of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency outlined transportation expectations: enhancements to transit reliability tied to the central subway and other investments, support for bus routes, contributions to key bicycle and pedestrian connections and robust transportation demand management plans from developers. Staff emphasized that many major transit and waterfront infrastructure projects — central subway, Transbay terminal work and the Blue‑Greenway — form the baseline transportation environment for the new development.

Speakers from Rec and Park, Build Inc. and the design teams then presented a deeper look at India Basin: a mixed program of parkland and housing that Rec and Park described as an opportunity to create roughly 13 acres of connected public open space and to restore tidelands and habitat. Build Inc. described a proposed neighborhood roughly centered on 900 Innis and the flats, with about 1,200 housing units, neighborhood‑scale retail (roughly 275,000 square feet) and a potential school site; the team said it intends to dedicate roughly 43 percent of its site to open space and to coordinate closely with Rec and Park, the Trust for Public Land and community groups.

The presentations stressed phased remediation and design to address sea‑level rise and adaptive funding for shoreline protection. Rec and Park and Build said they are pursuing extensive community outreach: an India Basin neighborhood working group, Bayview outreach and a design competition that produced the current landscape concept.

Public speakers from neighborhood groups, the Trust for Public Land and workforce and community organizations largely supported the approach, while asking staff and project sponsors to ensure strong protections for existing residents, neighborhood hiring and permanent stewardship commitments for the parkland.

The commission did not take a vote on policy or approvals at the March 9 informational presentation. Staff told the commission they expect multiple development agreements and displacement‑risk issues to return later in the year when discrete approvals for Pier 70, Mission Rock and India Basin are scheduled.