The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) will host two virtual community conversations about the renovations needed as part of the Potrero Yard Modernization Project, which is essential to providing Muni service for some of the busiest routes.
The 105-year-old trolley bus facility does not meet modern seismic safety and maintenance standards and urgently needs to be rebuilt to continue to be able to support Muni service. The Potrero Yard Modernization Project will make the yard seismically stable and better able to support Muni operations, maintenance and cleaning and would ensure that staff is able to conduct their jobs safely and effectively.
The two virtual community conversations will take place Dec. 5 and 12 from 11:00 a.m. to noon.
The project concept
The proposed project improvements offer solutions to ensure SFMTA can maintain the fleet of buses as efficiently as possible, accommodate new buses that will be delivered in the next six years, enhance resilience to climate change and natural disasters like earthquakes and ensure that staff is able to perform their work in a safe and efficient way.
To support transit needs, the project proposes to build a three-level bus facility designed for ground-floor activities on Bryant and possibly 17th Streets. The project also provides an opportunity to address local housing needs, through mixed-income housing proposed on top of the yard, something that has never been done before on an active bus yard in the United States. The total facility would be up to 150-feet in height.
The new building would also include:
- Up to 575 residential rental units with a 50 percent minimum target for affordable housing.
- Infrastructure for all battery-electric buses.
- Centralized, modern space for Muni operator training.
- Centralized location for street operations, Muni’s “first responders.”
- Built to an elevated structural and seismic standard.
- LEED Gold Certification.
Project milestones
Since November 2019, SFMTA has been working with the planning department on the environmental review process, referred to as CEQA, that will analyze potential environmental impacts and identify strategies for mitigating those impacts.
At the same time, the agency has begun the developer selection process to procure a joint development partner to design, build and finance the project, as well as to maintain the common portions of the building. This August, SFMTA distributed the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) and is now working on the Request for Proposals (RFP) draft which requires the top three qualifying development teams from the RFQ to produce a project that includes community values and priorities laid out in the RFP document. SFMTA plans to release the RFP in early January 2021.
