Home » Open Space 2100

Transbay Transit Center and Tower

TRANSBAY TRANSIT CENTER AND TOWER
A NEW TERMINAL | LIVE WORK RIDE | TRANSFORMING DOWNTOWN | TIMELINE

TRANSBAY REDEVELOPMENT PROJECT AREA
CURRENT STATUS | FUNDING | AFFORDABLE HOUSING | BEYOND HOUSING | COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT | OPEN SPACE

TRANSBAY TRANSIT CENTER AND TOWER

On September 20, 2007, the TJPA Board selected Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects and Hines to design and develop the new landmark Transbay Transit Center and Transit Tower. The Board's unanimous vote culminates an eight-month international Design and Development Competition that was launched to select an outstanding, functional and economically viable design for a transportation centerpiece that will become the Grand Central of the West. Read the Press Release

A NEW TERMINAL

The new terminal will replace the existing loop ramp system with a set of stacked ramps on the west side of the station and will include an extension of the Peninsula Corridor rail line to a new terminus underneath the station that will accommodate Caltrain commuter service and eventual high-speed rail service to destinations throughout California.

LIVE, WORK, RIDE

The new Transbay Transit Center at First and Mission Streets will centralize the region's transportation network by accommodating nine transportation systems under one roof, including AC Transit, Caltrain, MUNI, Golden Gate Transit, SamTrans, Greyhound, BART, WestCAT, and future California High-Speed Rail. The 40-acre redevelopment area surrounding the Transit Center will be developed to include housing, retail, and an adjacent transit tower poised to redefine the city's skyline.

TRANSFORMING DOWNTOWN

The Transbay project is a visionary housing and transportation plan that will transform downtown San Francisco and regional transportation well into the next century. It consists of three interconnected elements:

(1) replacing the outmoded Transbay Terminal with the modern Transbay Transit Center

(2) extending Caltrain 1.3 miles from Fourth and King Streets downtown into the new Transbay Transit Center at 1st and Mission, with accommodations for future High-Speed Rail

(3) creating a new transit-friendly neighborhood with 3,400 new homes (35% of which will be affordable), and mixed use commercial development.

TIMELINE

The first phase of the project begins with the building of the temporary terminal, commencing in 2008, to serve passengers while the new Transit Center is under construction. Construction of the new landmark Transit Center and complementary Transit Tower is scheduled to begin in 2010 and be completed in 2014. This first phase of the project includes design and construction of the Transit Center building, the rail foundation, bus ramps, and bus storage facilities, and design of the underground rail level component of the Transit Center.

The second phase of the project, the construction of the Caltrain Downtown Rail Extension, is estimated to begin in 2012 and be completed and operational by 2018, or earlier, if funding allows.

 

 

Presentation Boards (.pdf; for optimum viewing in Adobe Acrobat, go to View > Page Layout and choose Continuous

Click here to read an exerpt from Pelli Clarke Pelli/Hines Design Proposal

TRANSBAY REDEVELOPMENT PROJECT AREA[1]

The Transbay Redevelopment Project Area, created in 2005, is approximately 40 acres in size and located south of San Francisco´s Financial District. The Project Area is roughly bounded by Mission Street in the north, Main Street in the east, Folsom Street in the south and Second Street in the west. The Project Area is currently composed of transportation-related infrastructure, a large number of vacant parcels, and commercial uses.

CURRENT STATUS

The most significant feature of the Project Area, the existing Transbay Terminal and its ramps, comprises an underutilized and outmoded transportation facility with serious structural, health and safety deficiencies. The remainder of the Project Area is composed primarily of vacant and underutilized properties and older buildings, many of which are substantially deteriorated and/or unreinforced masonry buildings. All of these conditions constitute blight that the Redevelopment Plan must address.

FUNDING

The project will be funded with the approximately $430 million in constant FY 2004/05 dollars that the Project Area is expected to generate in net tax increment over the life of the Redevelopment Plan, after the Agency meets its obligations to make payments to affected taxing entities.

Approximately $178 million of the net tax increment will be pledged to the Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA) to help pay the cost of rebuilding the Transbay Terminal into a regional transit hub.

Approximately $206 million in additional funding for the new terminal will be generated by the sale of vacant parcels currently owned by the by the State of California to private developers.

The remaining cost of the new terminal will be paid through a combination of federal, state, regional, and local sources.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

The remaining tax increment generated in the Project Area will be used for Agency activities. Approximately $126 million, or 50 percent of the total tax increment allocated for Agency activities, will fund the Agency’s affordable housing program. By state law, 35 percent of all new housing units built in the Project Area must be affordable to very low- to moderate-income households. Another $126 million in net tax increment will be used for planning, site preparation and development, public facilities, infrastructure and utilities, circulation improvements, building rehabilitation, facade improvements, historic preservation, economic development and other non-housing projects and activities.

BEYOND HOUSING

A major portion of the Agency’s non-housing program will be to facilitate development on the vacant publicly-owned parcels in the Project Area, which include parcels currently owned by the State of California and a parcel currently owned by the Agency. The development plan for the publicly owned parcels in the Project Area was created through the Agency’s community-based Design for Development process, which culminated in the production of the Design for Development concept plan for the Project Area, and the Development Controls and Design Guidelines, specific regulations covering all private development in the Project Area. The concept plan includes high-density, transit-oriented residential development along Folsom Street and between and Beale Streets, as well as office and hotel space surrounding the new terminal. The concept plan also incorporates relatively few public improvements, of which include a 1-acre public park, new pedestrian-oriented alleyways and widened sidewalks.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

The redevelopment plan adoption process for the Transbay Redevelopment Project Area involved community participation. This included a Transbay Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) composed of residents of adjacent areas, property owners, and representatives of community organizations. During 2003, the CAC and the community at large participated in a series of public workshops on the Design for Development. In 2004, the CAC worked with Agency staff on the Redevelopment Plan and the Development Controls and Design Guidelines for the Project Area.

OPEN SPACE

EXPECTED GROWTH AND OPEN SPACE :

Approximately 3400 new residential units are expected to be built in the Redevelopment Area. When Rincon Hill (3675 units) and the residents of the new Transbay Tower[2] are included in the count, the neighborhood is expected to see an increase of about 20,000-30,000 residents over the next 10 years. Currently, there is NO existing open space in these two Redevelopment zones.[3]

MEETING STANDARDS :

There are currently about 26 acres of accessible open space adjacent to this neighborhood (see Table 1). A generous evaluation of current open space provision yields 1 acre per 1000 residents. However, 165 acres will be required to meet the General Plan’s guideline of 5.5 acres per 1000 residents. Therefore, this increase in density requires the development of an additional 139 new acres of open space. To hit the national standard of 10 acres per 100 residents, it would require 274 additional acres.

TABLE 1
Adjacent Open Space (according to Redevelopment Plan)
Yerba Buena Gardens (5.5 acres)
AT&T park (no acres!?!?!!)
South Beach Park (5 acres)
Rincon Park (2 acres)
Justin Herman Plaza (8 acres)
Ferry Building Plaza (5 acres)
---------------------------------------
TOTAL = approximately 26 acres.
**A conservative estimate yields 1 acre per 1000 residents**

LOCAL OPEN SPACE GAP ANALYSIS :


Figure 21 of the Recreation and Parks Gap Analysis included in the Eastern Neighborhoods EIR designates the area bordered in the west by Market, in the east by Bryant, in the south by 5th, and in the north by Spear Street as a service area gap. The analysis also defines a significant sub-section of this area as an area of HIGH need. It is important to note that these gap analyses are conducted with existing open space needs and does not include projected density increases. They also do not take into account types of uses, access, and competition for use.

OPEN SPACE REQUIREMENTS :[4]

 

Beyond the one proposed park, the only open space requirements in the redevelopment plans are for private open space – which includes one parcel per block. Each unit shall have access to the open space parcel from within the building. Residents should not have to exit the building and travel on the public sidewalk to reach the semi-private open space parcel within their block. These open space requirements can be met through any combination of private or shared open space for residential buildings including: front yards, individual porches, shared rooftop gardens, shared or private podium level decks, shared solariums, or additional landscaped areas contiguous with the open space parcel. Towers may include private rooms or community rooms designed as solariums for private or shared open space – and this area may be credited towards the open space requirement if such area is exposed to sun through clear glazing on not less than 50% of the perimeter.

TRANSBAY NEIGHBORHOOD PARK :


The plans also include a Transbay Neighborhood Park. Transbay Park is 1.1 acre site within the Transbay project area designated for recreational open space. Surrounded by proposed mixed-use residential developments and adjacent to existing commercial uses and the Financial District, the anticipated site users will be the newly emerging neighborhood residents as well as office workers.

The team’s analysis of adjacent open space within the greater framework of parks, boulevards, mews and plazas surrounding the Transbay project area, combined with an understanding of the scale of this site relative to other urban parks, informed this park program. The scale of the site requires the development of a park that has an inherent capacity for multiple activities that are unprogrammed so that a “layering” of uses can occur. A program was developed to facilitate informal play and recreation framed within a creative and sculptural expression. Design and programming objectives include the integration of the adjacent alleys, Clementina and Tehama, and the living street linear parks, at Main and Beale Streets, providing expanded recreational real estate.

It is not clear whether or not the team’s analysis of adjacent open space informed the size of this park, or in other words, how they defined gaps and service areas. As previously mentioned, according to the Design for Development Report, “adjacent open space” includes: Yerba Buena Gardens, AT&T Park, Justin Herman Plaza, Ferry Building Plaza, and Rincon Park. It is doubtful that the team’s analysis included projected density.

Finally it is important to note that the main focus of the plan is on “alternatives to open space” such as: sidewalk furniture, streetscape, alleyways, solariums, and so on. These are not meant to compliment neighborhood open space, but seem to replace them.

 


[1] Redevelopment Agency – Transbay Website

[3] Exception: Rincon Hill Park and a proposed Transbay Neighborhood Park. Together, these parks add up to 3 acres of open space.

[4] Development Controls and Design Guidelines for the Transbay Development Project, p. 34