Sixteen years after the Embarcadero Freeway was damaged, planners still cannot resist erecting barriers between the city and the bay. Most people know about the controversial mall the Mills Corp. planned for Piers 27–31, but few realize another huge shopping complex and 325,000 square feet of office space are part of the planned cruise ship terminal south of the Bay Bridge. There are many smaller projects planned as well. All of these projects will mean a net loss of views and access to the bay.

     Rincon Park is one of the smaller projects under the radar. In November 2005 the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) gave the final go-ahead for an 18,000 square foot view-blocking restaurant complex in Rincon Park on the Embarcadero. This ends almost 10 years of “planning.”

     The outcome was no surprise. Without a large neighborhood population, or a strong elected official raising objections, most of these projects south of the Ferry Building get rubber-stamped.
     Aside from defying planning common sense by inundating a 2.7-acre park with two “mega-restaurants,” most BCDC Commissioners seem to be defying their obligation under state law to maximize views and access.
     Under state code sections 66602-4, BCDC is obligated by law to review projects for consistency with the Bay Plan and to reject projects inconsistent with the Bay Plan. The Rincon project violates Bay Plan policies on public access, appearance, design, scenic views, and recreation. The BCDC has never justified these violations.
     The process is clearly stacked in favor of the developer. During the November meeting held in Oakland, the chair of the BCDC Commission, a Schwarzenegger appointee, openly advocated taking a “straw vote” to see if the developers had the votes to win approval. If they didn’t, he was going to delay the vote until another meeting.

     In one of the most blatant examples of corrupted planning, BCDC staff, Port staff, and the various developers consistently misrepresented the size of the buildings and tried to cover up the violations of the RFPs (Request for Proposals) height, location and square footage requirements.
     Various developers competed for the opportunity to build a single, one-story restaurant in Rincon Park. Official restrictions specified in the Port’s RFP stated that the restaurant could have no more than 12,000 square feet and be no more than 17-feet high.
     After winning the competition over other developers, the successful team decided they wanted to build two, two-story restaurants instead. The square footage would be increased fifty-percent, and they would exceed the height limit. One building would be completely outside the boundary shown in the RFP.
     The Port agreed to all these increases in the scope and size of the project and claimed that “the project is consistent with the Request for Proposals.” When questioned off-the-record about the increased height, the development’s project manager said they “interpret” the height limit to mean 17-feet above the park’s grade.
     At the time, the site was flat and no mounds of any kind were contemplated. The overall problem with expansion of buildings and mounds is that they act as barriers between the city and the bay. The mound under the Cupid’s Span sculpture blocks views and limits access for an entire block now.
     The area west of Rincon Park is about to be inundated with high-rise residential buildings (two are under construction now just one block from the park), and the area seriously needs open space. Also there are enough high-priced restaurants in the area already.
     The proposed restaurants are laid out with long sides parallel to the waterfront maximizing views for restaurant patrons only. Instead of situating the restaurants to allow more visual and physical access to the public, they will block the Bay views of thousands who pass by on the Embarcadero every day including streetcar (N-Judah), bike, and bus (12-Folsom) riders. Heavy planting and a steep slope around the Cupid’s Span sculpture makes much of the area inaccessible to the public now, and the addition of commercial buildings will mean that over half of Rincon Park’s 2.7 acres will be off-limits to the public.
     Developers worked hard to deceive decision-makers about the changes: deceptive contour maps and inappropriate rounding methods concealed the real elevation. The relationship between the height of the mounds and the height of the buildings was never explained to decision-makers. The developers and port staff routinely referred to the buildings’ 17-foot elevation and the 12,000 square-feet without explaining that both were being exceeded. Decision-makers never seemed to question the buildings’ locations or their elongated dimensions.
     The previous president of the board of Supervisors in an interview on “News Hour,” noting the corruption that seems to infect our city hall, called on prosecutors to stop looking the other way and start cleaning house. District Attorney, Kamala Harris, who makes the decision whether to investigate planning irregularities like these has declined to do so. In addition the news media gives these projects little attention before they are approved and built. Supervisors who serve on regional boards and commissions, such as BCDC and the Golden Gate Bridge board need to be reminded that they are there to represent the entire city, not just their own districts.
     It is clear that the opportunity to develop a really outstanding waterfront is not going to happen. Projects that serve as barriers between the city and the bay will return. These developments are considered individually without taking into account the overall loss of views and access to the Bay. The Rincon developer argued at one hearing that, while thousands of passersby on the Embarcadero will indeed lose site of the Bay, it will only be for a few seconds. Of course this logic will be used for all the other projects too.

     More pictures and documentation can be found by clicking on the Rincon Park link at: www.RinconNeighbors.com/embarc.html

…David Osgood (RPNA)