Submit Comment to the Mitigated Negative Declaration

As part of the process to build the jail the building must go through an environmental review process. The planners of this jail decided that there was not enough evidence to point to any notable environmental concerns that would require a full Environmental Impact Report. Instead, they have released a Mitigated Negative Declaration, which you can read here. We believe that there are many environmental impacts to building this jail — not to mention human impacts. We have until June 5, 2015 to gather community comments responding to the Mitigated Negative Declaration, and voicing concerns about the environmental impacts of building this jail at 855 Bryant in San Francisco’s SOMA neighborhood.

We ask that you write your comments in the form on this page. If you would like you can use the provided template and personalize it for yourself. Every comment counts. Let’s stop this jail.

Here are some potential environmental concerns:

Displacement: The project could displace the individuals and families living in the 14 Single Resident Occupancy (SRO) units of the historic building at 480-484 Sixth Street.
Gentrification: By increasing office space and decreasing affordable housing, this will encourage further the ongoing gentrification in the city. Spaces currently used by well-established businesses in the community will disappear. Older businesses struggle to find affordable rental space in SoMA in this market; we will lose them forever.
More Cages: The “mezzanine level” mentioned in the report is not shown in the construction plans, and we believe that this is a way to build more jail capacity than the projected 640 beds.
Pollution: The jail plan includes having “outdoor” yards right next to a freeway; in the proposed design, the yards face the freeway. The design of the semi-enclosed yards may actually concentrate freeway pollution, which can be extremely dangerous.
Transportation: The planners have no plan to address loss of parking spots in the community, no plans to support or subsidize alternative transportation for construction workers or residents impacted, no plans to reduce traffic or construction worker/resident congestion, and will instead waste a ton of money on surveys and hiring unnecessary city workers to monitor the disaster with no real plans for alleviating the stress and burden this will place on San Francisco.

The form below will send your comment directly to Christopher Espiritu of the San Francisco Planning Department.

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Dear San Francisco Board of Supervisors, San Francisco Planning Department, and Sheriff Mirkarimi,

This email serves as public comment for the Preliminary Mitigated Negative Declaration issued May 13, 2015 for the 850 Bryant Street Hall of Justice Rehabilitation and Detention Facility Project.

The proposed project not only could displace the individuals and families living in the 14 SRO units of the historic building at 480-484 Sixth Street but could also serve to undermine the provisions of Annual Limit Program and the Accountable Planning Initiative (Proposition M) by increasing office space, decreasing affordable housing for our most marginalized residents, and encouraging gentrification.
 
This project will take away space currently used by well-established businesses in the community. Older businesses struggle to find affordable rental space in SoMA in this market; we will lose them forever.

The mezzanine level mentioned in the report is not shown in the plans, and we suspect that this is a way to warehouse more than the projected 640 beds.

Victoria Manalo Draves Park is a brand new, 2.5-acre park with a softball field, basketball court, dual-level playground, picnic area, community garden and large, grassy field in the SOMA neighborhood, next to Bessie Carmichael Elementary School and near Bessie Carmichael School/Filipino Education Center. The park is named for local diving champion Vicki Manalo Draves, the first Filipina-American to compete in the Olympic games. This project, in conjunction with other commercial development projects in the area, would cast shadows on both the northern and southeastern parts of the park. This conflicts with General Plan policies related to urban design and the preservation of sunlight on open spaces.

The project planners claim to be exempt from parking analysis because they are an "employment center” project that has an exemption. However, it is clear that "employment center" projects are on commercial zoned parcels, and this site is not zoned C. So they are not exempt. They also state that they will remove 22 off-street and 41 on-street spaces, all of them in a neighborhood of high demand. This requires careful analysis. It also looks like they knew this but attempted to claim the "employment center" designation, since they address the two other criteria for CEQA exemption but not the zoning.

The planners have no plan to address loss of parking spots in the community, no plans to support or subsidize alternative transportation for construction workers or residents impacted, no plans to reduce traffic or construction worker/resident congestion, and will instead waste a ton of money on surveys and hiring unnecessary city workers to monitor the disaster with no real plans for alleviating the stress and burden this will place on San Francisco.

The rehabilitation of the San Bruno facility has been rejected because of exaggerated costs and false information regarding transportation of prisoners to and from the downtown courts.

According to the California Register of Historical Resources, the Hall of Justice is eligible for listing in the California Register because of the many high-profile trials that took place there and the central role it played in several notable protests led by community activists in San Francisco during the 1960s,1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. This area of the city is also home to the historic building at 480-484 Sixth Street, which is a three-story, 14-unit single room occupancy (SRO) residential building with retail on the ground floor, constructed in 1916. It is also near the property at 887-891 Bryant Street, built in 1920, which is an Art Deco style commercial building.

Digging a pedestrian tunnel to transport prisoners would require approximately 18,000 cubic yards of soil to be removed from the project site and would have significant archeological impact in an area known to contain archeological resources from the “prehistoric period and Gold Rush Period to later 19th Century.” Planners are also “concerned” about vibration levels during construction that could significantly damage more local archaeological resources.
 
If any evidence of Native American burials are found, there is a 6 day window to figure out what to do with the remains, and the planners would be forced to delay excavation for up to four weeks. The planners have deemed this aspect of their project “less than significant.”
 
Filtration can provide people in jail with decent air quality, but how about during outdoor time? Having "outdoor" yards right next to a freeway is potentially quite dangerous; in the proposed design, the yards face the freeway. The design of the semi-enclosed yards may actually concentrate freeway pollution. They did not study this.
The wind analysis may have used the wrong height, 95 instead of 110, and did not include the future plan to demolish the Hall of Justice (HOJ).

There is a great deal that the planners did not plan for in this preliminary report.

For these reasons and many more, the project should be further studied and the Preliminary Mitigated Negative Declaration should not be approved. A new jail will not only be terrible for the environment, but will be terrible for San Francisco and its residents.

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