The San Francisco Planning Commission on Thursday narrowly approved finalizing the environmental review of a $1.5 billion project to transform Treasure Island.
The commission voted 4-3 in favor of the proposal, according to Ron Miguel, the commission’s vice president.
The plan would add up to 8,000 residential units, up to 140,000 square feet of commercial space and as much as 100,000 square feet of new office space, as well as new and upgraded roads and infrastructure, including a new ferry terminal.
The city has been working to redevelop the 404-acre island in the middle of the Bay since the U.S. Navy closed its base there in 1997.
Commission President Christina Olague and commissioners Hisashi Sugaya and Kathrin Moore voted against the project’s final environmental impact report at Thursday’s meeting, which was held in front of a large crowd in the supervisors’ chambers at City Hall.
“It was pretty much a full house,” Miguel said today.
Miguel said he voted in favor of it because “in my mind, it was complete and accurate, which are the qualifications of an EIR to be accepted.”
The island, constructed by the federal government in the late 1930s, requires extensive seismic retrofitting and flood protection.
A report on the project prepared for the Treasure Island Development Authority states that the island is vulnerable to soil liquefaction during an earthquake.
The estimated rise in sea levels over the next century could also put most of the island underwater.
Opponents have argued that the project will add to already heavy traffic on the Bay Bridge.
The proposal still has to receive final approval from the Board of Supervisors.
Dan McMenamin, Bay City News
Want more news, sent to your inbox every day? Then how about subscribing to our email newsletter? Here’s why we think you should. Come on, give it a try.
