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Planning Commission Opens Public Review of Pier 70 Draft EIR; Neighbors Raise Historic, Transit and Recreation Concerns
Summary
The Planning Commission held a public hearing on the Pier 70 Draft Environmental Impact Report, where project sponsors described a 28-acre mixed-use plan with 30% below‑market units and 9 acres of parks. Speakers and commissioners pressed staff on transportation, park impacts and historic-resource mitigation; no final approvals were taken.
The San Francisco Planning Commission opened a public hearing Feb. 9 on the Draft Environmental Impact Report for the Pier 70 Mixed Use District, a decades-long waterfront redevelopment led by Forest City and the Port of San Francisco.
Planning staff said the DEIR identifies project-specific and cumulative significant, unavoidable impacts in transportation and circulation (notably transit and loading), increases in ambient noise and air-quality effects tied to criteria pollutants; staff said other impacts — including archaeology, historic architectural resources and hazards — could be mitigated to less‑than‑significant levels with the proposed measures and revisions.
Kelly Pretzer of Forest City summarized the proposal: an approximately 28‑acre special use district with a varied building-height plan (50–90 feet), rehabilitation of more than 280,000 square feet of historic buildings, nine acres of parks and open space, replacement and expanded affordable studio space for arts tenants, and commitments to a local‑hire target for construction and an aggressive transportation demand management program. Pretzer said the development team has committed to raising site grades to reduce flood risk and to provide a mix of housing and employment uses intended to keep the waterfront active day and night.
Public testimony ran for hours. Neighbors and interest groups questioned the DEIR’s findings on recreation and traffic, and urged more detail and enforceable mitigation. Speakers from Friends of Jackson Park and the Friends of Potrero Hill Rec Center said the DEIR underestimates increased use of nearby parks and the need for programming and investment to avoid deterioration. Historians and preservation advocates—calling particular attention to Irish Hill and other cultural landscapes—urged stricter protections and argued that some proposed demolitions could not be fully mitigated. Labor and union representatives supported the project for expected local‑hire and apprenticeship opportunities but asked for enforceable commitments. Transportation critics said the DEIR’s VMT and mode‑split assumptions underplay likely vehicle trips and signal that intersections could deteriorate without stronger, funded transit commitments.
Commissioners acknowledged the thoroughness of the DEIR while noting the volume of substantial comments that may require revisions. Commissioner Johnson signaled he expects written comments to spark revisions to the analysis; he noted the commission may consider a statement of overriding considerations for historic‑resource tradeoffs. Staff reminded the public that written comments will be accepted through Feb. 21 and that the Planning Department will prepare a comments‑and‑responses document and consider additional hearings focused on design standards and the project’s design‑for‑development document.
No action was taken on the underlying entitlements at the Feb. 9 hearing; commissioners framed the item as a public‑comment opportunity on the DEIR and directed staff to incorporate the record of testimony into the response document.
