Concerns over Presidio Plan Expressed

In a meeting organized by Beverly McCallister, a member of the Pacific Heights Residents Association, representatives of the Presidio Alliance, Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, Golden Gate Audubon Society, Friends of the Presidio National Park, Laborers Local 1141 and a spokesperson for the Presidio's residential tenants recently had an opportunity to voice their joint concerns.

In a March 28 meeting with Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi's Washington Chief of Staff Carolyn Bartholomew about the future of the Presidio, the diverse group emerged with a common theme opposing the Trust's over-development of the park and the Trust's perceived lack of accountability to the public.

In the meeting McCallister said the public favored something close to the original general management plan created by the National Park Service in 1994. The Trust drafted an implementation plan after the comment period that was far more aggressive in its development of the park than the public wanted, she said.

The Trust was also excoriated by many at the meeting for essentially abandoning its original vision of creating a center for examining global issues of peace and sustainability in favor of over-zealously pursuing a bottom line more appropriate to the private sector. By law, the Trust must break even at the Presidio by 2013.

Bartholomew said she felt she heard the consistency of the concerns and that they were about process and accountability issues as well as over-development. She said she would present them to the congresswoman.

- David Ish