Citizen's Lawsuit Filed Against the Bechtel-designed Garage in Golden Gate Park

To read their suit, go to the San Francisco Superior Court Electronic Information Center, http://www.sftc.org/ , download and install the plugin necessary to proceed. Click on "Case Number Query," and enter: "427163" to read "COMPLAINT FOR VALIDATION."


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: DECEMBER 19, 2003

Contacts:

Stephan Volker, Attorney Chris Duderstadt, Director Stephen Willis, Director

Oakland, CA San Francisco, CA San Francisco, CA

(510) 496-0600 (415) 661-7927 (415) 621-3090



Citizens File Challenge to Private Underground Garage in Golden Gate Park



San Francisco, CA – Park advocates filed a citizens’ lawsuit yesterday against the City of San Francisco and financier Warren Hellman’s Music Concourse Community Partnership (MCCP) for failing to conduct a full environmental review of a $60 million Bechtel-designed parking garage proposed in the heart of Golden Gate Park.

The 800-vehicle garage would devastate the Music Concourse, a formal, open-space area of the Park constructed for the Mid-Winter International Exposition in 1894, by introducing noise, air, and visual pollution into the Concourse’s historic gardens. The garage would destroy historic pedestrian tunnels, increase traffic, and cram a dangerous vehicular entrance into the Music Concourse area. Additionally, the garage would privatize Golden Gate Park by turning control over the area to the MCCP, a private entity, for 35 years..

The Law Offices of Stephan Volker of Oakland filed the lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court on behalf of the Alliance for Golden Gate Park and Save Golden Gate Park, organizations formed to protect public use of historic park resources.

The Alliance, along with representatives from the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, Walk SF, San Francisco Tomorrow and the local Sierra Club, spoke against the garage project’s Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) during a formal appeal before the Board of Supervisors in mid-September. The Board rejected the FEIR appeal by a vote of 8-3, with Supervisors Ammiano, Daly and Gonzalez voting against the garage.

The lawsuit also seeks to invalidate a $60 million revenue bond proposed by the MCCP. The MCCP needs the bond revenue to compensate for having only raised one third of the funds needed to build the garage. In early November, the Finance and Auditing Committee of the Board of Supervisors, chaired by Supervisors Aaron Peskin, Gerardo Sandoval and Jake McGoldrick, approved the revenue bond and issued a 35-year lease to MCCP without a single hearing before the Board of Supervisors.

Plaintiffs contend that the revenue bond financing violates provisions of Proposition J, the Golden Gate Park Revitalization Act of 1998, that strictly require funding for the garage to come exclusively from private, philanthropic donations. The lawsuit also points out that over $300,000 in public funds from state Prop 40 have been misappropriated for the environmental study and surface road engineering directly related to the garage construction.

Chris Duderstadt, one of the Alliance directors commented, "We have been forced to seek court protection of Golden Gate Park because the City and the Concourse Authority have consistently ignored our concerns. We are only asking the court to order the City and the project manager, the MCCP, to comply with existing state and local environmental laws."



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