Trust them?

Presidio announces new park plan, assuring critics it hasn't abandoned the dream of a social and environmental center

By Daniel Zoll

When the federal government passed the 1996 Presidio Trust Act – requiring the national park to pay for itself by 2013 or be sold – critics feared the law would undermine the National Park Service's plan to transform the former military base into a home for organizations devoted to solving the world's most critical social and environmental problems.

The 174-page Presidio Trust Management Plan, released last week, does little to dispel those fears.

The plan calls for more open space and less building space and emphasizes preserving the Presidio's natural and cultural resources. Yet it has few details on specific leases or projects and stresses the need to "maximize revenues in the near term."

That worries activists such as Joel Ventresca of the Preserve Presidio Campaign. Ventresca, a former San Francisco environmental commissioner, thinks the pressure to charge high rents and enter into long-term leases will preclude the types of uses appropriate to a national park setting. The trust's recent approval of the massive 23-acre Lucasfilm studio project is a case in point, he said (see "The Presidio Menace," 8/4/99).

"Market forces seeking profits, natural resources, and public subsidies are on the brink of exploiting and plundering an irreplaceable, scenic, and historic park area," Ventresca told us.

Trust executive director Craig Middleton told us the plan takes a middle path between preservation and the trust's congressional mandate to maximize revenues. "It's a balanced plan," he said. "If we work within the parameters of this plan, we will be able to preserve the park, and it will be a public park forever."

The plan also makes an explicit commitment to future public involvement in park decisions. But the fine print of the plan's executive summary reveals that the trust will have no public meetings on major infrastructure changes, area plans, the demolition of historic buildings, or tenant selection.

Several members of the public criticized the trust at the May 21 hearing for apparently abandoning the concept of a global center for sustainability in favor of revenue generation.

"I'm wondering if there is a gap that just can't be bridged between these two visions," Fillmore resident Marc Tognotti said. "I submit that what has happened ... is that you've lost the vision and the soul is gone."