2012 National Planning Excellence Awards: Hard-Won Victory

Candlestick Point-Hunters Point Shipyard Phase II EIR

California

The Bayview Hunters Point community of San Francisco was challenged by unemployment, extreme poverty, and high crime rates. Bayview was ranked by the Department of Justice as one of the 10 least advantaged locations in the U.S. The Candlestick Point-Hunters Point Shipyard Phase II Project goal is to revitalize the community through multiple channels, including maximizing reuse of a naval shipyard (a Superfund site); increasing business and employment opportunities; providing housing options at a range of affordability levels; and integrating transportation.

After a 30-year public outreach and community planning process, it was imperative that the project produce tangible benefits for the community. To analyze the environmental impacts of the project, the team was confronted with a number of challenges including ongoing hazardous materials cleanup at a Superfund site; addressing sea level rise; assessing biological resources; and phasing of parkland and infrastructure improvements with project development. The result is a 10-volume environmental impact report that is now being used by the city as a "model environmental document." The report also took into account the history of the community, and the massive direct environmental impacts, and the prospect of creating a metropolitan neighborhood that must be assimilated into San Francisco.