Planning and Recreation & Park commissions raise downtown park shadow limits to advance Transit Center District Plan; Rec & Park allocates Transbay Tower shadow

SAN FRANCISCO

The San Francisco Planning Commission and Recreation and Park Commission on an item heard jointly approved changes to how downtown park shadows will be measured and managed under the Transit Center District Plan, clearing a procedural hurdle for development in the Transbay area while prompting objections from some residents and preservation advocates.

Planning staff presented an EIR-based park-by-park analysis and a recommended package of actions that would amend a 1989 implementation memo for Planning Code section 2.95 (the citysunlight ordinance) to raise absolute cumulative shadow limits for seven parks, adopt additional qualitative criteria (time of day, duration, location on the park and days of year), and incorporate CEQA findings.

"The plan represents a realization of downtown growth and is the first comprehensive plan of this scale since the late 1980s," Joshua Switsky, planning department staff, told the joint hearing. He described a funding and implementation program in which the plan could generate roughly $600 million in net new public revenue, with more than $400 million directed to the Transbay Joint Powers Authority and about $160 million earmarked for downtown open-space improvements.

Scott Buell of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority said the district plan and related land sales are essential to keep the…