Financing Pier 70 Waterfront District Development Plan upon Board of Supervisors Approval

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1 Financing Pier 70 Waterfront District Development Plan upon Board of Supervisors Approval D Proposition D Shall the City provide funds to develop Pier 70, based on new City hotel and payroll expense tax revenues from the development, if the Board of Supervisors approves a financial and land use plan for Pier 70? YES No Digest by the Ballot Simplification Committee THE WAY IT IS NOW: Pier 70 is a 65-acre waterfront area in southeastern San Francisco. The Port of San Francisco (Port) is the City agency responsible for the City s waterfront, including Pier 70. The City holds the waterfront in public trust for the people of California. The City does not generally provide the Port with any City funds to pay for the Port's management of the waterfront. As directed by the voters, the Port adopted a waterfront land use plan in 1997, including the development of a Pier 70 mixed-use area. Pier 70 is the West Coast's oldest continuously operating shipyard. Many of its buildings and structures are eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, but have deteriorated. The Port's 2007 capital plan seeks substantial investment in Pier 70. Developing Pier 70 may require one or more long-term leases with private entities. The Charter requires the Board of Supervisors (Board) to approve Port leases, except for maritime uses, if they have a term of ten years or more or provide anticipated revenue of $1 million or more. The Charter also sets forth the priorities for the expenditure of Port revenues. The Board's approval of the Pier 70 Plan would also authorize long-term Port leases in the area without any further Board approval. The Mayor may also submit to the Board agreements to facilitate the transfer of funds between City agencies and the Port. If the Board approves such agreements, the City would be required to provide the necessary funding. Proposition D would also change the priorities for the expenditure of Port revenues. It would clarify the use of revenues to pay for bonds and other indebtedness and allow revenues to be used to reconstruct or replace Port property, equipment and facilities. A YES VOTE MEANS: If you vote "yes," you want to change the Charter to provide City funds to develop Pier 70 if the Board approves a financial and land use plan for Pier 70. A NO VOTE MEANS: If you vote no, you do not want to make this change to the Charter. THE PROPOSAL: Proposition D is a Charter Amendment that would provide City funds to develop Pier 70 if the Board approves a financial and land use plan for Pier 70 (Pier 70 Plan). The Pier 70 Plan would determine the geographic boundaries for development, improvements, and financing. At the time the plan is submitted, the City would calculate the amount of payroll tax revenues collected from the Pier 70 Plan area and estimate the new hotel and payroll tax revenues the City would collect over the next 20 years if the proposed development occurs. If the Board approves the Pier 70 Plan, the City would provide funds for historic preservation and the development of infrastructure such as parks and utilities in an amount up to 75% of projected new Pier 70 hotel and payroll tax revenues. Notice to Voters: The Controller s Statement and How D Got on the Ballot information on this measure appear on the opposite (facing) page. this measure requires 50%+1 affirmative votes to pass. arguments f o r and against this measure i m m e d i at e ly follow this pa g e. the full text b e g i n s o n pa g e 230. s o m e o f the w o r d s used in the ballot digest are explained o n pa g e CP103-EN-N08 à38-cp103-en-n08~ä 103

2 YES on Proposition D Save Pier 70 Pier 70 Today Pier 70 is a 65-acre Brownfields site on San Francisco s Central Waterfront. For over 150 years, portions of this site has been used for ship building and repair, or other supporting heavy industrial uses. Now, Pier 70 is poised to become one of the City s most unique new neighborhoods, preserving the history that helped make San Francisco a world-class waterfront city. Cleaning up over a century of industrial pollution and revitalizing Pier 70 will provide up to 20 acres of new waterfront open space and a major new segment of the San Francisco Bay Trail for both residents and visitors to enjoy. It will also create as many as 8,000 new jobs and 3 million square feet of mixed-use development, while also preserving dozens of historic structures that help celebrate San Francisco s maritime past. Crane Cove Park Illustration Pier 70 Charter Amendment To ensure that the Pier 70 Master Plan becomes a reality, San Francisco needs to bring more certainty to the approval process for individual projects, and provide a tool to help fund the public benefits of the plan. Supervisor Sophie Maxwell has proposed a charter amendment that will help the Port realize the Pier 70 Plan by Streamlining the discretionary approval process Proposition D will amend the city charter to allow the Board of Supervisors to approve a Pier 70 plan, instead of individual leases, and empower the Port to negotiate these deals. The Controller and Department of Real Estate will review the Port s leases to make sure they are consistent with the Board-approved Pier 70 plan. Above: map of proposed parks, recreation and open space at Pier 70 Pier 70 Preferred Master Plan Since 2006, the Port has been conducting a public planning process to develop a Pier 70 Preferred Master Plan that is supported by the public and reconciles Pier 70 regulatory, economic, maritime, historic preservation, open space and shoreline access issues. Paying for public improvements Proposition D will provide an optional financing tool to pay for Pier 70 improvements such as waterfront parks, remediation of environmental conditions, rehabilitation of historic buildings, maritime terminals and features like solar panels and natural storm-water management. The Pier 70 Preferred Master Plan will: Create significant waterfront open spaces; Provide for clean up of polluted areas; Preserve ship repair activities and develop a compatible land use program; Define a Pier 70 historic district for listing on the National Register of Historic Places; Integrate with existing Central Waterfront neighborhoods; Photo by Ralph Wilson Pier 70 Open Space Jobs Preservation Connecting San Francisco s Waterfront

3 Frequently Asked Questions YES on Proposition D Save Pier 70 What is Proposition D? A charter amendment on the November, 2008 ballot, that would modify existing city code to provide the Board of Supervisors, Mayor and Port Commission the necessary tools to finance and streamline the approval process for the historic preservation and new development at Pier 70. The measure has no formal opposition, and is endorsed by a variety of organizations and clubs throughout San Francisco. Why is this charter amendment necessary? Today, in order to develop at Pier 70, 12 discretionary approvals are required from eight different agencies. Because of the extensive amount of time involved, there is a high entitlement risk for potential developers that could discourage quality projects from even entering into the process at all. Reducing the number of discretionary approvals needed will help entice high quality preservation, open space and new development to Pier 70. How does the optional financing tool work? The proposed charter amendment requires the Port to show, and the Board of Supervisors to find, that Pier 70 lease revenues and property tax growth are not sufficient to pay for waterfront improvements at Pier 70 before seeking new financing from the Board of Supervisors. Then, the Board of Supervisors could provide funding to the Port for parks, historic preservation and other improvements not to exceed 75% of the payroll and/or hotel taxes that the City Controller projects will be generated from the Pier 70 development, for a period not to exceed 20 years. Even if this proposition does not pass, won t the Port still be able to develop the property? Yes, but approving Proposition D is critical to ensuring some certainty to the entitlement process, and providing the level of publicly-oriented improvements to the site (like parks) that the public expects. The nationally significant historic resources on the site are in such a massive state of disrepair that if the City and Port do not act quickly to attract a development partner, it is likely that these structures will be lost. Like many major North American cities, including Chicago, New York, Vancouver, and Philadelphia, San Francisco will be able to seamlessly connect the Pier 70 Waterfront area with the adjacent neighborhood and community. Pier 70 is Endorsed by Supervisor Sophie Maxwell Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier Supervisor Tom Ammiano Supervisor Bevan Dufty Supervisor Sean Elsbernd SF Democratic Party (DCCC) SF Republican Party SF Chamber of Commerce SPUR SF Labor Council SF Building and Construction Trades SF League of Conservation Voters SF Tomorrow SF Architectural Heritage Plan C-SF Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods Dogpatch Neighborhood Association Pier70sf.org City Democratic Club Neighborhood Parks Council Potrero Boosters Neighborhood Association Potrero Hill Democratic Club SF Women s Political Committee (SFWPC) Raoul Wallenberg Jewish Democratic Club Noe Valley Democratic Club GreenTrust SF SF Young Democrats SF Young Republicans Westside Chinese Democratic Club Asian Pacific Democratic Club Irish American Democratic Club African American Democratic Club Richmond District Democratic Club And more everyday Committee to Restore Our Waterfront Yes on D 660 Mission Street, 2 nd Floor San Francisco, CA Treasurer: Steve Mele FPPC ID: Pier 70 Open Space Jobs Preservation Connecting San Francisco s Waterfront

4 Committee to Restore Our Waterfront Yes on D c/o 584 Castro Street # 414 San Francisco, CA Join Mayor Newsom, Supervisor Sean Elsbernd, Supervisor Tom Ammiano, Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, SF Labor Council, SF Chamber of Commerce, League of Conservation Voters, SF Architectural Heritage and The Democratic and Republican Parties - SITTING BY THE DOCK OF THE BAY VOTE YES ON D Ye s o nd Paid for by the Committee to Restore Our Waterfront, Yes on Proposition D. FPPC # preserve our waterfront

5 PROP D WILL PREVENT SAN FRANCISCO S ONCE-GREAT WATERFRONT FROM SLIPPING AWAY. PROP D WILL CLEAN UP WATERFRONT POLLUTION, CREATE ACRES OF NEW PARKS, PRESERVE HISTORIC BUILDINGS AND SAVE 1,000 MARITIME JOBS. PROP D is a plan to save Pier 70, which once served as the heart of San Francisco s shipbuilding industry. The PROP D plan will clean up 150 years of industrial pollution, preserve brick buildings teeming with history and save 1,000 ship repair jobs. Ye s o n D preserve our waterfront PRESERVE OUR WATERFRONT: VOTE YES ON PROP D PROP D helps ensure that funds raised from future development in the area go to environmental clean-up, rehabilitation of original brick buildings and new roads, parks and infrastructure for the neighborhood. create acres of new waterfront parks where now there are just crumbling piers. create waterfront parks. The 65-acre Pier 70 complex once housed steel foundries. replace collapsing piers and crumbling warehouses with acres of new parks. That s why Portero and Dogpatch neighbors support Prop D. PROP D WILL Clean up waterfront pollution direct the proceeds of future development to cleaning up 150 years of industrial pollution to protect public health and the bay. That s why Prop D is endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters. preserve historic buildings Pier 70 has more than 40 unique buildings eligible for listing on the National Register. Prop D will help repair and preserve these buildings before they are torn down. That s why Prop D is supported by SF Architectural Heritage. save 1,000 maritime jobs help repair and strengthen the Pier 70 complex, saving more than 1,000 jobs in the ship repair industry. That s why the San Francisco Labor Council, the Longshore Union and the SF Chamber of Commerce all support Prop D.