Public Health Hospital Plan Draws Fire

By Carol Dimmick

More than 100 Richmond neighbors braved wet weather in December to testify against competing plans to renovate the Public Health Service Hospital in the Presidio, citing the size of project, traffic gridlock and safety as top concerns.

Claudia Lewis, president of the Richmond Presidio Neighbors (RPN), an ad hoc group of residents formed to monitor the project, spoke for many neighbors when she objected to the scale and density of three of four plans under consideration by the Presidio Trust.

Lewis also testified that a large-scale development at the site would trigger traffic gridlock in the Richmond. She told board members that neighbors would fight any project that negatively impacts the neighborhood.

"The Richmond Presidio Neighbors will be relentless in preserving its character," Lewis said.

The vocal outpouring by neighbors against a large-scale development took place at a Dec. 10 "public scoping meeting" that was billed by the Presidio Trust as an opportunity for the public to comment on four different proposals. It followed an earlier meeting where competing plans were presented by Forest City Development and The John Stewart Company, the two remaining developers.

At the heart of the controversy are four alternatives, one of which would allow developers to build as many as 400 units of residential housing on the site. The hospital is the largest historic building in the Presidio and sits just north of an affluent neighborhood in the Richmond District at Lake Street and 15th Avenue.

The renovation project is viewed by the Presidio Trust, the governing body with responsibility for maintaining park land, as a way to rehabilitate the historic hospital building and generate enough revenue to meet its goal of becoming financially self-sufficient by 2013.

In an interview that took place after the Dec. 10 public meeting, Craig Middleton, the executive director of the Presidio Trust, explained that by achieving its financial goal the Trust was preserving the park for the future.

"We are going to protect and preserve the park for the public to use. It's all about preserving the park," Middleton said.

But neighbors contend that the Trust's financial goal is driving a $1 million yearly lease fee it wants from developers, making a smaller project less financially feasible.

Ron Miguel, president of the Planning Association for the Richmond (PAR), an organization which represents more than 1,000 households, called the $1 million fee an "arbitrary application" that overrode all other goals the Trust set forth in its mission statement for the project. The Trust's objectives included protecting environmentally sensitive park land and wildlife, and minimizing the negative impacts on neighboring communities.

Middleton says he does not believe the $1 million fee makes a larger development at the site more likely.

"I am not convinced that the $1 million rent fee is driving a larger project," he said.

Middleton declined to answer questions about whether the Trust would consider dropping the fee or taking a smaller fee, saying it could jeopardize negotiations currently underway with developers.

Driving the neighbors' concerns are elements in three of four alternatives presented for consideration at the December meeting that loosely fit proposals submitted by Forest City Development and The John Stewart Company, the two remaining candidates selected from a larger group of nine applicants that hope to win the right to build on the site.

One of the three alternatives would allow construction at the environmentally sensitive Battery Caulfield area, while two others would keep parts of the non-historic hospital building intact. All three proposals would allow an excessive amount of development, up to 400 units under one alternative, according to neighbors.

A fourth alternative, proposed by the Presidio Trust in response to neighbors' concerns, is considerably smaller and incorporates many of the neighbors' proposals. It would demolish the non-historic elements of the hospital, leave untouched the environmentally-sensitive Battery Caulfield site and limit construction to 210 residential units in the rehabilitated historic part of the hospital.

Trust Working on Dedicated Road to Site

In response to concerns by neighbors that the project will bring traffic gridlock and jeopardize pedestrian safety, Middleton said the Trust is continuing to work on a plan to construct a road to the site from Park Presidio Boulevard.

At the request of PAR several months ago, the transportation consulting firm Wilbur Smith Associates developed an alternative plan for the Trust that provides a direct connection from the hospital site to Park Presidio Boulevard via a new intersection that would allow right turns into the site from southbound Park Presidio Boulevard.

The route would also allow traffic leaving the site to turn north or south onto Park Presidio Boulevard. Traffic entering the site from the south (northbound direction) would be able to enter through both the 14th and 15th avenue gates, both of which would be open to one-way traffic only.

At the Dec. 10 meeting Middleton said the dedicated road is a part of an ongoing environmental assessment process that will continue for the next several months. He said the next step is to engage in discussions with Caltrans, the public agency that will ultimately have to approve the project.

Despite the neighbors' concerns, Middleton believes the public will be pleased with the plan that is ultimately selected.

"At the end of the process I believe the public will say that we listened and that we did a good job," Middleton said.

Editor's note: Notices of future public meetings on the Public Health Service Hospital will be posted on the Trust's website at www.presidio.gov.