Skip to main content

Reimagine Potrero Yard with Us – Summer Milestones

Reimagine Potrero Yard with Us – Summer Milestones
By Adrienne Heim

A rendering of the future modernized Potrero Yard

A potential rendering of the future modernized Potrero Yard

The Potrero Yard Modernization Project will rebuild the existing Potrero bus yard to ensure we maintain our bus fleet as efficiently as possible and enhance the facility’s resilience to climate change and other natural disasters. The Project will also ensure our staff is able to perform their work in a safe and efficient way and address the City’s broader goals for new housing and affordable housing.  The Project has issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ), an important step for modernizing the yard.

The Project Concept

The modern yard will be able to store 213 buses, increasing capacity by approximately 50%.

In addition, the facility will include the following features:

  • LEED Gold Certification
  • An elevated structural and seismic building standard
  • Infrastructure for battery-electric buses
  • Centralized location for Street Operations - Muni’s “first responders”
  • Centralized, modern space for Muni operator training
  • Active ground floor uses on Bryant, and possibly 17th streets

“This exciting project will help fix two of the city's most pressing issues: lack of affordable housing and unreliable transit service,” said Alexander Hirji, Potrero Yard Neighborhood Working Group member and San Francisco Youth Commissioner. “The yard portion of the Project allows the SFMTA to maintain buses effectively, send them out to the riders, and it allows for future bus technology innovations in years to come. Up top, the affordable housing portion allows this city to make strides toward its goals for providing quality affordable housing to residents. This project will shape the Agency for many decades, and in a good, sustainable, and equitable way.”

An image showing a three level bus yard with mixed-use housing on top

A modernized Potrero Yard would have multiple uses.

Housing on Top of the Yard

An image of the Potrero Yard

Potrero Yard is home to much of Muni's trolleybus fleet

The SFMTA is proposing up to 575 rental units of housing with an initial affordability target of 50%. The city’s committed to addressing the shortage of affordable housing and is therefore challenging potential developers to seek additional funds to maximize the affordability percentage, up to as much as 100% affordable. Many factors informed the proposed project’s size and unit count, such as building height, massing, financial feasibility and shadows on Franklin Square.

Two months ago, virtual community conversations were hosted to provide a refresher about the project and discuss where we are in the process. If you were unable to attend, please listen to the June 6 conversation to hear the project team and members of the community discuss the project. 

We’re excited to announce that we’ve achieved three major milestones last week:

  1. The Project’s Request for Qualifications (RFQ) was issued to begin the developer procurement process followed by a press release

The RFQ is the first of a two-step process to bring a developer partner under contract with the city. This stage is to pre-qualify a group of professionals who have the experience and financial backing to successfully complete this project. Ideally, we will end up with three qualified developer teams. 

The second step is to ask those pre-qualified teams for project proposals as part of the Request for Proposal (RFP) stage, which will end up in the selection of a single developer partner.

  1. Special legislation was introduced by the Board of Supervisors last Tuesday, August 18, to set rules for a long-term agreement with a developer team that would design, build, finance, operate and maintain the new yard.

The legislation obligates the project to prevailing wages, a Local Business Enterprise (LBE) program, the city’s local hire policy and first source hiring ordinance. The ordinance also allows payment of a design stipend for up to two unsuccessful respondent development teams. This special legislation will first be heard by the Budget and Finance Committee consisting of Supervisors Walton, Fewer and Mandelman.

  1. A meeting to introduce all the topic areas that will be covered in the environmental impact document (referred collectively as the “project scope”) will be held by the San Francisco Planning Department on Wednesday, September 2, beginning at 6:00 p.m. 

You may also view a video presentation by SF Planning for the project and provide comments to cpc.PotreroYardEIR@sfgov.org concerning the scope of the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) until 5:00 p.m., September 18.

The meeting event will take place on Zoom: https://swca.zoom.us/s/92577630432/ Meeting ID: 925 7763 0432, or join by phone at 1.888.475.4499.

The purpose of the meeting is to collect comments from other regulatory agencies and the public on the draft scope. This is an opportunity for the public to add topic areas that SF Planning may not have included in their initial scoping process. More information can be found at the Planning Environmental Review Documents page under Potrero Yard Modernization Project – 2019-021884ENV.

Community Outreach

We will be tabling on Labor Day weekend, September 5 and 6, from noon to 5:00 p.m. at John O’Connell High School (Harrison Street between 18th and 20th streets) for the Carnaval San Francisco Latino COVID-19 Healing & Recovery – Salud es Poder event hosted by CANA-Carnaval San Francisco in partnership with the San Francisco Latino Task Force, community based organizations, health providers, and San Francisco City Departments.

We’re also planning to host English- and Spanish-language virtual community events to discuss the second step of the developer procurement process, the RFP, which we hope to issue in early 2021.

Learn more about the project by visiting www.sfmta.com/PotreroYard.

For more information, please email PotreroYard@sfmta.com or call us at 415.646.2223.

 



Published August 27, 2020 at 06:53AM
https://ift.tt/34OCz63

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

New top story from Time: How Spirited Away Changed Animation Forever

https://ift.tt/3xVoGP5 Twenty years ago, on July 20, 2001, a film that would become one of the most celebrated animated movies of all time hit theaters in Japan. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, titled Spirited Away in English, would leave an indelible mark on animation in the 21st century. The movie arrived at a time when animation was widely perceived as a genre solely for children, and when cultural differences often became barriers to the global distribution of animated works. Spirited Away shattered preconceived notions about the art form and also proved that, as a film created in Japanese with elements of Japanese folklore central to its core, it could resonate deeply with audiences around the world. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The story follows an ordinary 10-year-old girl, Chihiro, as she arrives at a deserted theme park that turns out to be a realm of gods and spirits. After an overeating incident ...

PM Modi remembers Major Dhyan Chand on National Sports Day https://ift.tt/3hFXX0y

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid his tribute to hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand on his 115th birth anniversary. The occasion is celebrated as National Sports Day in the country. 

Amit Shah to visit West Bengal as BJP, TMC cross swords after attack on Nadda's convoy https://ift.tt/3gzz9Yq

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah is likely to visit West Bengal later this month. It will be Shah’s second visit to the poll-bound state within a month. 

FOX NEWS: Olympic gymnasts sound off on the evolving leotard: 'Power and prestige goes with those leos' The world may have grown accustomed to seeing Olympic gymnasts wearing leotards as they compete for the highest honor in the sport, but these garments haven’t always been the first pick for women.

Olympic gymnasts sound off on the evolving leotard: 'Power and prestige goes with those leos' The world may have grown accustomed to seeing Olympic gymnasts wearing leotards as they compete for the highest honor in the sport, but these garments haven’t always been the first pick for women. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/3BQEKE3

FOX NEWS: Mom accidentally walks by daughter’s Zoom call naked, recalls story in hilarious Facebook video: 'Humiliating'

Mom accidentally walks by daughter’s Zoom call naked, recalls story in hilarious Facebook video: 'Humiliating' This first-grade class got quite the eyeful. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/3gw5HCs

New top story from Time: The 5 Best New TV Shows Our Critic Watched in May 2021

https://ift.tt/2RRfMSR Finally: the sun is shining , the weather is warming, COVID-era regulations are relaxing as infection rates plummet and vaccination numbers (slowly) keep ticking upward. It may not be time to hang the “mission accomplished” banner—is it ever time to hang such a banner?—but as immunity sets in, May 2021 has seen America’s masked, distanced millions begin to venture out of our living rooms and back to some semblance of in-person social life. So, of course, this is the month that the TV gods chose to deliver the year’s biggest and best selection of new programming to date. Isn’t that always the way? [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] It was a struggle to narrow down the list to just five highlights. I also suggest checking out Starz’s Run the World , Apple TV+’s 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything , Showtime’s Ziwe and HBO’s rebooted In Treatment . For even more recommendations, here are my favorite new and returning shows of the year so far. ...

New top story from Time: China Says It Will Provide COVID-19 Vaccines to Almost 40 African States

https://ift.tt/3f34nYP BEIJING — China said Thursday it is providing COVID-19 vaccines to nearly 40 African countries, describing its actions as purely altruistic in an apparent intensification of what has been described as “vaccine diplomacy.” The vaccines were donated or sold at “favorable prices,” Foreign Ministry official Wu Peng told reporters. Wu compared China’s outreach to the actions of “some countries that have said they have to wait for their own people to finish the vaccination before they could supply the vaccines to foreign countries,” in an apparent dig at the United States. “We believe that it is, of course, necessary to ensure that the Chinese people get vaccinated as soon as possible, but for other countries in need, we also try our best to provide vaccine help,” said Wu, who is director of the ministry’s Africa department. While the U.S. has been accused by some of hoarding vaccines, President Joe Biden on Monday pledged to share an additional 20 mi...

New top story from Time: 11 Moments From Asian American History That You Should Know

https://ift.tt/330kaRq More than 30 years after President George H.W. Bush signed a law that designated May 1990 as the first Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month , much of Asian American history remains unknown to many Americans—including many Asian Americans themselves. Often the Asian-American history taught in classrooms is limited to a few milestones like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the incarceration of people of Japanese descent during World War II, and that abridged version rarely includes the nearly 50 other ethnic groups that make up the fastest-growing racial and ethnic group in the U.S. in the first two decades of the 21st century . To many, the resulting lack of awareness was highlighted after the March 16 Atlanta spa shootings that left six women of Asian descent dead. The killings fit into a larger trend of violence against Asians failing to be seen or charged as a hate crime , even as leaders lamented that “racist attacks [are]… no...

New top story from Time: Maryland In-Custody Death Reports to Be Reviewed After Medical Examiner’s Testimony in Chauvin Trial

https://ift.tt/3vgA5r0 BALTIMORE — Maryland officials said they will review all in-custody death reports during the tenure of the state’s former chief medical examiner after he testified that former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was not responsible for George Floyd’s death. Dr. David Fowler, Maryland’s chief medical examiner from 2002 to 2019, was a key defense witness for Chauvin, who was convicted Tuesday of murder and manslaughter for kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes. The announcement of the investigation came from Attorney General Brian Frosh and Gov. Larry Hogan on Friday, less than 24 hours after the attorney general’s office received a letter from D.C.’s former chief medical examiner Roger Mitchell, and signed by 431 doctors from around the country, saying Fowler’s conclusions were so far outside the bounds of accepted forensic practice that all his previous work could come into question. “Dr. Fowler’s stated opinion that George Floyd...

New top story from Time: Why the First Black Woman to Be a History Professor in the U.K. Sees Her New Book African Europeans as a ‘Call to Arms’

https://ift.tt/3vAXTFW Many academics don’t get much popular attention for their work, and historian Olivette Otele knows it. The Paris-raised, U.K.-based scholar was surprised to see her research draw widespread attention over the last year—but, given the global context into which her latest book arrived, perhaps she should not have been so shocked. “ I was very flattered that people think that what I do is not just staying in an ivory tower,” she says. “It has resonance for everybody.” African Europeans: An Untold History , which was published in the U.K. in October and in the U.S. on Tuesday, traces the presence of people of African descent in Europe from as early as the era of the Roman Empire up to the present day. In the U.K., the book has been shortlisted for the prestigious Orwell Prize for Political Writing , and received positive reviews from readers and academics alike. Otele, an expert on the history of colonialism and slavery, starts by looking at early encount...