Hearing on Fate of Central Fwy.
Supervisor wants governor to halt project

By Carol Dimmick

In a move that caught some of his colleagues off-guard, SF Supervisor Bevan Dufty introduced a resolution in January asking Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to halt the rebuilding of the Central Freeway.

In mid-February, at a meeting of the SF Board of Supervisors, Dufty introduced a strongly-worded resolution asking the governor to freeze more than $90 million earmarked for rebuilding the freeway. The resolution also instructs the city to conduct further studies to explore the feasibility of moving on- and off-ramps back to Bryant Street.

Although the resolution was referred to committee for further review before a vote could be taken, Dufty's maneuver is sign that the freeway has, once again, become a hot political item.

Supervisor Jake McGoldrick called Dufty's maneuver "unfair" and said it was an attempt by a colleague to circumvent the public process.

"I would call it an end-run around the process. People must have an opportunity to debate the issue. This was an attempt to quietly make a drastic change," he said.

McGoldrick predicted that Dufty's resolution, if adopted, would undo years of planning, jeopardize more than $90 million in funding, undercut the Octavia Boulevard Plan developed to revitalize the Hayes Valley neighborhood and jeopardize more than 900 units of needed housing.

Supervisor Fiona Ma also weighed-in against the resolution.

"I am supportive of a long-term study, but we passed the project, funding is in place and I think we ought to finish it," Ma said.

The issue of how or even whether to rebuild the Central Freeway has been the subject of controversy for more than a decade.

After the freeway's structure was critically damaged by the Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989, it took four ballot measures before voters approved Proposition I, in 1999, and work could begin to rebuild the freeway.

The plan currently under construction calls for the freeway to be rebuilt from the I-80/Highway 101 juncture to Mission Street, with on- and off-ramps that touch down on Market Street, at Octavia Street. The project is scheduled for completion in mid-2005.

At the center of the controversy are the Market Street on- and off-ramps currently under construction.

Residents in the area say the removal of elevated structures over Market and Valencia streets brought a feeling of openness to the area which, in turn, prompted neighborhood groups, pedestrians and bicyclists to request relocating the ramps at Bryant Street.

But merchants and residents from Japantown, the Western Addition and Richmond and Sunset districts told members of the San Francisco Transportation Authority (SFTA) in February that they were suffering without the easy access the freeway brings.

"Our neighborhood has been harmed," said Linda Jofuku, a member of the Japantown Task Force. She told committee members that her organization was distributing a petition that opposes Dufty's resolution.

Critics of the resolution also contend the matter was settled at the ballot box and that Dufty's real motive for the last-minute maneuver to derail the project is to score points with a small, but vocal, group of opponents, many of whom live in his district.

"He is doing this to serve some of his constituents. We already tore down the Central Freeway - 98 percent of it. All we are trying to do is get a ramp," McGoldrick said.

Dufty admits he is taking a second look at the project in response to concerns raised by his constituents, but he insists that slowing the project down to make sure good planning measures are in place makes sense.

"The neighbors had concerns that the openness created by removing the freeway will be blighted by this structure," he explained.

Dufty Spearheads Two-Pronged Attack on Freeway
By introducing a resolution to scrap the Central Freeway, it was the second time in recent months that Dufty tried to stall the project.

Several months ago he asked the SFTA to study the feasibility of moving the ramps back to Bryant Street.

A report in response to Dufty's request was released in December that concluded that moving the ramps would trigger major traffic challenges, delay the project by as much as six years, more than double its cost and trigger legal and regulatory issues. The report was adopted by the Transportation Authority at its Feb. 24 meeting.

According to the 15-page report, entitled "Strategic Analysis Report on the Implications of Relocating the Central Freeway Touchdown Ramps," the financial implications alone are significant.

The report estimates that what is now expected to be a $90 million project could wind up costing as much as $193 million if the project is stalled.

Other potential challenges cited in the report include legal complications that would arise from the sale of some of the 23 parcels of land transferred to the city from Caltrans for the right-of-way for the project.

Editor's note: The resolution to ask the governor to scrap the Central Freeway project is scheduled to be debated at the SF Board of Supervisor's Land Use Committee at City Hall on Monday, March 15, at 1 p.m.