Visitacion Valley Planning Alliance Meeting

NEXT MEETING:

Volunteer Work Party

Saturday, February 11
9 am - 12 pm
5 Points Hill where Alpha, Wilde and Goettingen Avenues converge

Wear your worst work clothes

RSVP so we will know how many tools to bring and how much mulch to order
Please Note: If it rains, we will have a short meeting at the Library at 10 am

UPDATE:

REDEVELOPMENT/SCHLAGE LOCK

At our last VV Planning Alliance meeting (January 14) Lila Hussain, planner from the (now defunct) SF Redevelopment Agency, discussed the elimination of the Redevelopment Agency and the negative impact on development at Schlage Lock. Since then I wrote a letter to Mayor Lee and other city and state legislators. I sent you a letter requesting that you send a letter to those same officials. You can still do so, if you have not yet done it.



There was a Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, January 30 that dissolved the SF Redevelopment Agency as of February 1 and created a Redevelopment Successor Agency Oversight Committee, which will oversee the new entity that will continue the work of the SFRA for Mission Bay and the Shipyard projects. Those redevelopment areas already had contracts between the developers and the SFRA, which have to be honored. Unfortunately, our V V Redevelopment Area did not yet have that protection. Consequently, we and the developer, UPC, are out of luck until the City figures out what to do. Redevelopment staff will continue in their posts working for the City, not Redevelopment, until March 30. Hopefully, we can persuade the City to retain the former V V Redevelopment Area staff, Lila Hussain, Kelly Kahn and Amy Neches to continue the work we have all begun at Schlage Lock.

Meanwhile, we must be vigilant and continue to monitor the evolving situation. Supervisor Cohen, as well as other city officials, is working to help us. We need to support their efforts. I will keep you posted as to what we can do. We are already lobbying in all directions trying to muster support. There are some good signs, but nothing definite.

 VISITACION VALLEY GREEN INITIATIVE:

Also at our last well-attended VVPA meeting we discussed creating a Visitacion Valley Green Initiative, which would lobby for a unified community planning and action process on 3 fronts:

1) Rec/Park open space in McLaren Park adjacent to Vis Valley

2) DPW unimproved streets for street parks

3) Streetscape improvements for traffic safety and green connections between our parks.

Rather than continuing with our monthly VVPA meetings, on occasion we will have work parties on selected sites throughout the Valley. We will begin with the 5 Points Hill site (where Wilde, Alpha and Goettingen Avenues converge) on February 11 from 9 am -12 pm. We will have a brief update about ongoing issues in the Valley at 11 am. Those who are unable to work are still invited to lend moral support and hear the update. Volunteers need not stay the entire time, but give as much time as they can. Our Visitacion Valley Volunteers (V3?) will weed, mulch and, hopefully, if time and volunteers, partially plant the site.

The goals are to clean up and create a green web across the Valley one site at a time and demonstrate resolve on our community’s part to make our neighborhood better. Once we show our ongoing commitment we will be better able to get retaining walls, sidewalks and community planning for the larger areas and so on.

Meanwhile, there will be 2 upcoming streetscape planning processes, which are coordinating efforts:

1) The Green Connections community planning process for Visitacion Valley with the Planning Department, MTA, SFDPH and Office of Housing. SEE ANNOUNCEMENT BELOW

2) MTA/TA for traffic calming.

It will take a couple of years to implement design plans for these planning processes. Streetscape improvements are more difficult for us to address directly, but we can start formulating some ideas, so we will be prepared when the time comes.

I hope that you will be able to participate on February 11. If it rains, we will just have a short meeting at the library at 10 am.

This is all an experiment and we are winging it. We have had tremendous success in the past and hope this project will get some momentum with your help.

Green Connections: Connecting pedestrians, bicyclists, and critters to the City’s green spaces.

Join the Planning Department and Our Partners at the Kick-Off Event to Help Improve the Paths to the City’s Parks!

When & Where:
Wednesday February 15th
5:30 to 7:30 PM
LGBT Community Center, Rainbow Room
1800 Market Street, San Francisco

Green Connections will increase access to parks, open space and the waterfront, by re-envisioning City streets and paths as ‘green connectors’.  This project builds on current efforts to create sustainable corridors that enhance mobility, green neighborhood streets, and improve pedestrian and bicycle access to community amenities and recreational opportunities.

Green Connections will result in a citywide network of green streets that can be built over time, improving pedestrian and bicycle access to parks, open space and the waterfront.

In the first year of the project, the focus will be to map a citywide network. The second year will build on this framework to design a green connection in the following six neighborhoods: Bayview-Hunters Point, Chinatown, Potero Hilll, The Tenderloin, Visitacion Valley and The Western Addition.

Green Connections is a collaborative effort of the San Francisco Planning Department, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, San Francisco Department of Public Health and the Mayor’s Office of Housing.  The City Agencies have partnered with three community based organizations: San Francisco Parks Alliance, WalkSF and Nature in the City.

GET INVOLVED!

The project team will host many public events to engage communities in developing Green Connections. To learn more:

Visit the project website http://greenconnections.sfplanning.org for project information, events and meetings.

Join the project mailing list by sending an email to greenconnections@sfgov.org