The Draft Environmental Impact Report for the 8 Washington/Seawall 351 project is out, and it's predictably epic. It doesn't make things any simpler, since it includes a new alternative, a hotel. You'd think they could keep it simple, but apparently not. To catch up, it's a lot of drama about a developer taking over a private tennis club on public property plus a parking lot in exchange for paying rent. All the usual suspects are in there, but it looks like there are not that many unmitigated impacts. No big deal with shadows, but birds could hang things up a while- suddenly, we have proposed bird impact (no pun intended) regulations coming into the mix. Anyway, if you've got a long plane trip ahead, it's totally worth a read. As complex and satisfying a William Faulkner novel, it will keep you occupied from SFO to Seoul, easy. But to get a picture of its scope, under "recreation" it covers the proposal, then all existing tennis facilities in the entire city of San Francisco, and comes up with:
Some tennis users may be deterred by inconvenience from playing tennis as often as they otherwise might have under existing conditions. Such inconvenience is not considered a significant impact for purposes of CEQA because it would not result in a significant change to the physical environment. But there are other issues, like increased traffic, and still many nets to jump over before the first shovelful of dirt. The DEIR does conclude that 8 Washington does not contribute to flooding or sea-level rise, but points out that the project, along with its neighbors, will be effectively inundated in a hundred years. Plan accordingly.
· 8 Washington/Seawall Lot 351, Part 1 (.pdf) [SF Planning]
· 8 Washington/Seawall Lot 351, Part 2 (.pdf) [SF Planning]
· 8 Washington/Seawall Lot 351 [Curbed Archives]
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