Little to Show After 20-year Battle
Parcel 4 Needs More Time to Flourish, Proponents Say

By Andy Sywak

From the sand path leading downhill from 48th Avenue, the boardwalk below looks like a curvy "Y" scribbled by a preschooler. It forges a path over a sandy plain enclosed by a chain-link fence and the steep ridges of Sutro Heights Park. Looking at the peerless views of Ocean Beach to the south, it is no wonder that this piece of land has been as disputed over as any in San Francisco.

Situated at the corner of Balboa Street and the Great Highway, Parcel 4 is the name of the 1.3 acre plot awkwardly sandwiched between condos and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA).

Currently under the jurisdiction of the city's Recreation and Park Department (RPD), the plot of land that has been the subject of battles between developers and preservationists for more than 30 years appears to finally have had its future decided.

According to local government spokespeople, non-profit environmentalists and neighborhood activists, the final plan to restore Parcel 4 as a native sand dune is proceeding as planned. This winter, the land was covered with sand and planted with native plants in an effort to return the land to its original habitat. According to proponents, all that's left to do is watch the plants grow.

"It would be natural for people to look at it (the parcel) and say, 'what's this?' but if they have the information, they might think differently," said Cheryl Arnold, leader of the Coalition to Save Ocean Beach. Together with her husband Tom Fryckman, Arnold formed the coalition to fight development of the land when it was slated for development in the '70s.

"It's taking a long time but that's just the way it is," she said.

"That's what we keep hearing," said Ron Miguel, president of the Planning Association for the Richmond about Parcel 4's future beautification. "I guess the neighborhood has been patient for 20 years or more so maybe patience wears thin. It should be better than it is now at some point."

Talk to Asha Setty, a field worker for the Golden Gate National Park Conservancy, a local non-profit, and it sounds as if the land will soon be abuzz with shrubs and flowers. She helped plant almost 5,000 native plants there last winter after $47,000 worth of sand was dumped on the parcel. The sagewort, live-forever, dune tansy and sand verbena plants were "outplanted" - taken out of pots and put into soil - before the fence was erected to keep pets and people from disturbing their growth. Formerly, the parcel was a vacant lot with weeds.

"It's gonna take at least three years to develop the composition and assemblage of a sand dune community," Setty said.

"This is a particularly difficult site to restore due to the sandy environment and the blowing winds," said Chris Powell, spokesperson for the GGNRA. "It will take some diligent effort to ensure the native plants become established."

According to Powell, an April agreement signed by the National Park Service (which oversees the GGNRA), the city and county of San Francisco, the non-profit Friends of Recreation and Parks and a state agency, the Coastal Conservancy, will transfer the parcel to the GGNRA after restoration is completed.

According to Powell, the "Agreement to Protect the Public Interest in Improvements and Developments" bestows responsibility on the City for adding signs and constructing facilities for public access. As of June 1, Parcel 4 had only a boardwalk of gray granite on the property with some small plants poking their way through the sand.

"The plants need to establish, they need to build up their root structure," said RPD spokesperson Becky Ballinger. "The plants will keep the sand in. Our goal is to get the fence down as soon as possible."

Ballinger concurred that the GGNRA will be responsible for the land in the near future. "We're maintaining Parcel 4 for a year and then NPS (National Park Service) gets it for two years."

History of Parcel 4
Parcel 4 has a complicated history of controversy far out of proportion to its tiny size. Part of the old amusement park Playland at the Beach stood here until closing in 1972 - the same year GGNRA was established. Playland's land was then bought by a series of developers with the idea of building condos, which now stand on the other three parcels south of Balboa Street.

Lead by Arnold and Fryckman, the Coalition to Save Ocean Beach fought to block development of more than 150 housing units on Parcel 4 that preservationists thought would infringe upon the views of adjacent Sutro Heights Park. Added to the GGNRA by legislator Phillip Burton in 1978, but partially given back by a later political action, Parcel 4 remained in contention between the developer and preservationists throughout the '80s.

According to Ballinger, the General Plan adopted by the City in the early '90s called for the acquisition of Parcel 4 and subsequent preservation of the land under the Natural Areas Plan - a provision calling for native species - if it became available for purchase. After the prospective developer of Parcel 4, Zev Ben-Simon, fled the country on fraud charges, the City was able to buy the land using a combination of funding after his subsequent bankruptcy proceedings for just over $3 million.

"It'll look like Crissy Field," said Amy Meyer, co-chairwoman of People for a GGNRA and author of the forthcoming book "The Park That Saved The Golden Gate."

"If you look up the hill, you see how richly all the (native plants) come in."