By Noah Baustin : sfstandard – excerpt
Photo by Dennis Minnick of one of many boat races that passes by the Marina Green.
A grassroots neighborhood movement to stop the construction of a yacht harbor in front of the Marina Green won a victory Monday when the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ Land Use and Transportation Committee approved an ordinance that would block the contentious plan.
Marina District neighbors began organizing their opposition last winter after learning that the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department wanted to spend some of a $160 million settlement with PG&E to finance the harbor extension. The funds were intended to clean up the bay after decades of pollution from a former coal gasification plant.
Instead of just using the funds to clean up the pollution, the city proposed putting the money toward a wholesale redesign of the area’s waterfront. Most controversial, the proposal would expand the existing West Harbor in front of the Marina Green, a popular community green space.
If passed, the ordinance would prohibit the city from moving forward on any project that would extend the West Harbor Marina beyond the existing jetty, home to the Wave Organ, though other versions of the project would still be allowed…
Safaí authored the ordinance that sailed through committee Monday with a unanimous vote from Supervisors Aaron Peskin, Myrna Melgar and Dean Preston…(more)
We may have witnessed a first at City Hall. There were a lot of supporters and no one spoke against the ordinance.