Will Arnie’s 'park closure solution' save Candlestick Point?Text and photo by Sarah Phelan
Does San Francisco really need to sell Candlestick Point park for Lennar condos?
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has unveiled a plan to allow for all state parks to remain open without increasing Parks and Recreation budget appropriation. Does this mean the Bayview's only major park can be saved? Developers are arguing that if the state sells a chunk of the waterfront property for $50 million, the rest of the park can be saved. But environmentalists disagree, noting that Lennar simply wants the land for luxury condos.
“Working closely with my Departments of Finance and Parks and Recreation, we have successfully found a way to avoid closing parks this year,” Schwarzenegger said in a press release today. “This is fantastic news for all Californians.”
But does this mean that Sen. Mark Leno’s SB 792 is no longer necessary?
Leno’s bill would allow the state to sell a chunk of Candlestick Point State Recreation Area for $50 million, so that developer Lennar, which has entered into a nebulous public-private partnership with the city of San Francisco, can build luxury condos on this waterfront parkland.
Leno’s bill, which the Assembly and the Senate have approved, is sitting on Arnie’s desk awaiting the governor’s signature. But it has faced stiff opposition from environmental groups in recent months.
And their neutrality was only recently secured, based on the spurious argument that, without the bill’s approval, Candlestick Point SRA would have to closed in its entirerity.
But now the Governor is proposing to reduce ongoing maintenance for the remainder of 2009-10, eliminate all major equipment purchases, and reduce hours and/or days of operation at most State Park units, expenditures on seasonal staff, and staffing and operations at State Parks headquarters.
According to Arnie’s proposal, some facilities could close weekdays and be open on weekends and holidays, or portions of a unit could be closed, such as the back loop of a campground. For a park with multiple campgrounds, one whole campground or day use facility could be closed while the rest of the park remains open, while parks that already close due to seasonal conditions could see longer closures.
“Service reductions will be planned to minimize disruptions to visitors, achieve cost savings and maintain park fee revenues,” the memo says.
Hmm. Seems like Arnie’s memo just gave Candlestick Point park supporters more ammo in their ongoing quest to challenge Lennar’s plan to take 23 acres of Candlestick Point SRA.
Lennar never spelled out this plan to take a chunk of the Bayview's only major park, when they asked voters to approve Prop. G in 2008.
Instead, Prop. G was billed as a way to clean-up the abandoned Hunters Point shipyard and "create" hundreds of new acres of parkland.
It wasn’t until after Prop. G passed, that Lennar began publicly arguing that they would need 42 acres of the existing parkland, if the rest of their plan, which involves building 10,500 housing units on 770 acres of former industrial/ military land, is to pencil out. As for the new acres of parkland, that turned out to be acres of polluted shipyard that Lennar was proposing to cap with a cement cover and convert into a park.
Understandably angered, park advocates beat Lennar down to 23 acres, this fall, during the most recent round of the "parks for condos" battle.
Now, in light of Arnie's plan and the soon-to-be released environmental impact report for Lennar's massive redevelopment plan, those battlelines are perhaps, once again about to be redrawn. Only this time in favor of the park.
Stay tuned.
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Comments (3)
Mark Leno has a long record of doing the right thing on campaign finance reform, including providing critical early adopter support for voter owned elections.
It is disappointing to me to see Leno going to bat for a company that spent around $5m on a campaign, second only to PG&E in San Francisco history.
Let's hope that partisan animosity causes Schwarzenegger to veto this dog.
-marc
Posted by marcos | September 25, 2009 06:35 PM
WHAT A SURPRISE
LENNAR LIES.
With his proposal to give state park land to Lennar, Mark Leno has become the latest sock puppet for this unscrupulous corporation that is land banking real estate in our city in an attempt to shore up their bottom line. He joins the likes of Newsom, Maxwell, SF Labor Council and the majority of our elected and appointed 'leaders' who are enabling and profiting from their service to this rogue operation.
We have long been fighting against this Urban Renewal boondoggle, many for decades, in an attempt to inform and educate the citizenry on the devastation it will create in many neighborhoods, especially in low income/people of color communities in the SE sector. Unfortunately the adage "you will never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public", was once again proven when a significant number of folks were duped into voting for Prop G.
Virtually every 'promise' Lennar has made that would 'benefit the community' has been broken. In 2006 for example, the co-opted cabal of conspirators, including those named above, enabled Lennar to renege on it's 'promise' to build affordable housing in BVHP.
According to the most conservative projections of anticipated rise in sea level, as prepared by the SF Bay Conservation and Development Commission, a significant portion of the project is going to end up under water. This scenario was based on data generated a number of years ago; the effects of global warming have since been updated and project even more serious inundation of the coast line.
Now that our esteemed "Governor" has apparently shuffled the deck and found a way to protect our parks, I wonder what kinda sophistry we will see spewing from Leno's lying lips to justify his subservience to the speculators. The thought of him as Mayor, or Newsom as Governor, is just too terrible a prospect to be imagined, even in our darkest nightmares.
SAVE BAYVIEW HUNTERS POINT.
SCUTTLE NEWSOM'S SHIP OF FOOLS.
STOP LENNAR.
RUN JEFF RUN.
Posted by Patrick Monk | September 26, 2009 07:55 AM
I agree with both of the above comments. Especially the fact that sale of this parkland was not approved by voters with Prop G and the description of this entire deal as a rogue operation. Lennar's latest environmental remediation project is getting rid of all the hazardous drywall they have installed in homes. Mark Leno, you have lost my trust by getting in bed with Lennar on this. It is a disservice to our City. I hope this parkland can now be saved and Lennar told that Prop G does not give them carte blanche to do their dirty work in San Francisco.
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September 27, 2009 07:54 AM