USF to open new science and innovation center on campus

by George McConnell

A proposed 52-foot-tall multi-story building to be built on the University of San Francisco campus has become the focus of ongoing problems between the university and the surrounding neighborhood.

Discussions between the two parties have been taking place for months over the project. But neighbors have now filed an appeal with the SF Planning Commission over what they regard as the university's lack of recognition of their neighborhood and failure to address its concerns.

The proposed project, called the Center for Science and Innovation, is part of the university's expansion and renovation effort that began in 2003. It will be built on the university's main campus, which is located on Fulton Street between Masonic Avenue and Stanyan Street. The project has been in the works since 2005, and construction is currently slated to begin in 2010. The new center will have approximately 60,000 square feet of classrooms and laboratory space. The project site, which replaces the current Harney Green and Plaza areas in mid-campus, totals approximately 80,000 square feet. It is estimated to cost $60 million, according to USF officials.

The Planning Commission's environmental review of the new center is being appealed by the University Terrace Association (UTA), which represents approximately 300 homeowners living in the area surrounding the campus.

The association argues that the review is flawed because it fails to adequately address the impact the university expansion will have on the surrounding neighborhood.

"It analyzes matters as if the main campus were an island unto itself. Areas outside the main campus are minimized or ignored. We are surrounded by USF, effectively making the neighborhood a part of the campus, and the impacts of these developments must be more carefully considered," states the association in its opposition.

A 2008 update to the university's Master Plan noted that nine projects are ongoing. Projects already completed on the main campus as part of the expansion include the renovation of Campion Hall, construction of the four-story Malloy Hall, and a remodeling of the Koret Law Center's Kendrick Hall. Additional renovation projects were competed at the university's Lone Mountain campus, located on Golden Gate Avenue, directly across from the main campus.

Traffic, parking and noise in the area are already problematic, and the expansion will only make it worse, according to UTA.

Many USF students drive to class, and they speed up and down the streets looking for parking spaces. In the 1950s, parking was available on campus, but over the years the university closed the campus off to traffic. The result has been a marked increase in traffic congestion and parking problems. In addition, trucks coming into the area for loading and deliveries on the campus "industrializes" the residential community, neighbors say.

The environmental review accepts the university's contention that there will be no growth in enrollment, according to UTA, although the university's official enrollment figures show a 17 percent increase over the last five years.

"One of the questions the environmental review should ask, but does not, is will the new science center enable USF to increase its enrollment and, if so, by how much and how will that effect the environment?" questions the UTA position paper.

In its 2004 Master Plan, the university agreed to mitigation measures, but UTA claims it has no immediate plans to implement them. In a meeting held between the two parties on Aug. 11, a USF representative conceded that the university provided only a few improvements and those were the ones that were of minimal cost.

The University of San Francisco was established in San Francisco in 1855 and began as St. Ignatius Academy in a small framed building on Market Street, between Fourth and Fifth streets, where the Westfield Shopping Center is currently located. In 1930, it changed its name to the University of San Francisco. It now has close to 9,000 students on its 55-acre campus.

The application has been in the Planning Department pipeline for approximately one year, according to Irene Nishimura, the city planner in charge of the project. Before approval is granted and a building permit application can be filed, the Planning Commission must vote whether to accept the environmental review, and consider granting the 52-foot-tall science center an exemption from the zoning district's 40-foot height limit.

"The appeal hearing is now scheduled for Dec. 3, and appellants and other interested parties will have up to three minutes to address the Planning Commission," Nishimura said.