Special VVPA Meeting tonight

In order to plan for the next meeting between residents and the SFMTA regarding measures that the community seeks so as to mitigate the move of the Auto Return facility to 2650 Bayshore, the Visitacion Valley Planning Alliance will be holding a special community meeting today, Monday, January 14 from 6-8 pm in the Visitacion Valley Library Community Room, 201 Leland Avenue (Cross Street: Rutland Avenue).  All concerned Visitacion Valley residents are encouraged to participate.

From Visitacion Valley's Fran Martin,

The reason for the meeting on January 14 is that the MTA will be at our next regular VVPA meeting on Saturday, February 9 to discuss Auto Return mitigation measures. It is important that we have some idea of what we want beforehand. For those who cannot make the meeting, we can talk about it another time or even schedule another special meeting before the VVPA meeting on 2/9/2013. 

This will probably be an ongoing conversation for awhile. Meantime, it is important that we have an idea of what we want to demand ahead of time. Our community has been treated in a shabby manner and we need to protect our neighborhood.  Below you will find the mitigation measures that were handed out at the last meeting with parenthetical comments in blue. They are only a starting point for further discussion and refining. The addition of other ideas are welcome.

Proposed Mitigation Measures 1)   Route tow trucks and auction participants around Visitacion Valley neighborhood including from 101 along Bayshore Boulevard to Auto Return facility. Fines for those tow trucks that do not comply. Find a means to enforce no parking by auction participants in the Visitacion Valley neighborhood. (Apparently there will be onsite parking, so this may not be an issue.  Nevertheless, auction participants should be asked to avoid Bayshore and the surrounding V V community. This would be difficult to monitor. Regarding parking - Maybe auction participants would be required to show a parking stub in order to enter the auction???) 

2)   Frequent periodic monitoring for pollution - air, soil and groundwater. Provide pollution prevention measures in advance. (What are the exact safety measures that will be implemented?) 

3)   Create a greenway to screen Auto Return and provide a park for residents on the abandoned RR spur alongside the site all the way to See’s Candy. (Prologis, the property owner, already has a landscape plan for the length of its property including the RR spur, which is a good thing on its part. Ed Reiskin, Director of the MTA, said he would look into whether the Greenway could be extended all the way to See's Candies) 

4)    Build a 12 foot tall concrete block wall to replace chain link fencing in the back parking area. 

5)    Absolutely no noise to emanate from the site, particularly at night. If there is noise, there will be significant fines. 

6)   Create a fund with a specified and significant percentage of the facility’s total revenue to be designated for public use in Visitacion Valley until Auto Tow is no longer at the site. (Ed Reiskin mentioned $50,000 which is a paltry amount given the lease could extend to 30 years. That works out to $1,500 a year, which is not much. Possibly a small percentage of the total revenue could be allotted yearly. The funding would be administered by a neutral party and distributed to deserving groups for the good of the entire Valley community??)

For some further background, Russel Morine compiled this round-up of the Dec 12 meeting between Supervisor Cohen, SFMTA Director Ed Reiskin, SFMTA staff, Prologis, and Vis Valley residents regarding the Auto Return facility's move:

Supervisor Cohen, representatives from Prologis (2650 Bayshore new owners), and MTA Director Ed Reiskin and staff attended the meeting. There were about 20 residents. 

Mr. Reiskin discussed MTA’s recent Master Plan that studied the various land uses needed by the MTA now and into the foreseeable future. AutoReturn’s usage of Pier 70 was identified as  problematic because the current lease is year to year and the Port has plans to redevelop  the property. The AutoReturn usage was deemed as incompatible.  Mr. Reiskin made is clear that the operation would not be able to stay at Pier 70. He also commented that the current site is difficult to get to by public transit. 

The MTA searched for a suitable relocation site. They needed about 10 acres with sufficient parking for towed vehicles. The site also had to accessible by public transit. The 2650 Bayshore site would meet their needs and “other functions” might move there. “Other functions” was explained as   MTA’s Traffic Signal Shop, a video repair group, and a driver training group.  the majority of the site will still be used by AutoReturn. 

Mr. Reiskin acknowledged that the MTA did not do their due diligence by opening a dialogue with the community before the process had moved this far along. He apologized to the community for having to discuss the issue after the fact. He said the “we can’t change what happened or didn’t happen” and we “should have done more outreach” 

A question was asked about the approval process and why Daly City was informed, but not San Francisco…why the impact studies only focused on Daly City. Mr. Reiskin responded that they did follow all applicable regulations. The questioner pointedly expressed his frustration with this issue and the lack of respect shown to the community.  Supervisor Cohen was also reproached for not informing the community and voting in favor of the lease. 

Comments were made that traffic along Bayshore is real and problematic and not just idle comments;  the apology was “hollow”; going forward all promises made to the community ‘must be in writing’; the outreach for this meeting was poor and is an indication of the lack of communication between the MTA and the community; AutoReturn needs be attentive to serial auction vehicle buyers (hoarders) that live in vehicles near the auction site. 

The meeting shifted to ‘how to move forward’. There were comments along the lines mitigations to lessen the impact of the undesirable use. A list developed by one individual was circulated. The railroad spur along the northern edge of the site was mentioned as a potential green buffer; limiting the number of cars on site was mentioned (it was explained that most cars would be indoors but an unknown number would be stored outdoors. All trucks and RV will be stored outdoors; Tow trucks not using the Bayshore/ Cow Palace exits was mentioned. It was mentioned that AutoReturn tries to schedule trips to the site at off peak hours. Like the rest of us, tow truck drivers don’t  want to sit in traffic. 

The meeting wrapped up with a verbal commitment by Mr. Reiskin to continue the dialog with the community.