REDEVELOPMENT COMMISION MEETING ON THE CONVEYANCE OF THE SHIPYARD

On April 1, the San Francisco Chronicle made the shocking announcement that the Navy and the City had just signed a conveyance agreement to give the green light to Lennar to start building 1,600 homes on Parcel A of the Hunters Point Shipyard as early as this summer. Yet Proposition P, passed in 2000 by an 87 percent voter landslide, calls for the entire Shipyard to be cleaned to residential standards before any development begins – and the Shipyard is far from clean.

To win environmental justice, the community is fighting back. Intent on stopping any conveyance or development, the Community First Coalition is sending this letter to the Redevelopment Commission. The Commission is holding a special meeting on the conveyance agreement on Tuesday, April 27, 6 p.m., at Burnett School, 1520 Oakdale Ave., just east of Third Street, in Hunters Point. Everyone is urged to attend.

Commissioner Ramon E. Romero, President

San Francisco Redevelopment Agency Commission

Dear Commissioner Romero:

On behalf of the Community First Coalition (CFC), a coalition of citizen groups dedicated to environmental and economic justice for the people of Bay View Hunters Point and other communities, we request the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (SFRA) continue the matter of your Agency’s approval, on March 31, 2004, of the Conveyance Agreement (CA) between the U.S. Navy and the City and County of San Francisco (CCSF) for the Hunters Point Shipyard for at least 60 days, but at least until such time as SFRA, as the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA; Public Resources Code § 21000 et seq.) "lead agency," completes its environmental review of both the CA and the Lennar/BVHP Disposition Development Agreement (DDA), executed on December 2, 2003, by the SFRA[1]. Both the CA and DDA are "projects' within the meaning of CEQA.

Request for Continuance of Conveyance Agreement Pending Environmental Review

The CCSF Redevelopment Commission took discretionary action on December 2, 2003, by approving the DDA for the development of the Hunters Point Shipyard. Additionally, by and through Mayor Gavin Newsom, CCSF took what is clearly discretionary action by approving (i.e., entering into) the CA with the U.S. Navy. The CA sets a specific timetable for giving CCSF a portion of the Hunters Point Shipyard for residential development (herein referred to as Parcel A), as well as giving commercial development rights to Lennar/BVHP, a private, non-governmental organization.