The Newspaper of the San Francisco Bay Chapter
July - August 2005
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Club files brief for Transbay Terminal
Led by the Sierra Club, eight environmental and transportation organizations have filed a brief supporting the new Transbay Terminal, planned as the public transportation hub for the Bay Area.
The friend-of-the-court" brief supports the Transbay Terminal Joint Powers Authority and the city of San Francisco in litigation brought by a San Francisco developer challenging the terminal's approval.
The developer, Myers Development Company, owns a parcel adjoining the new terminal site. The site had been approved for a 50-story residential tower, but financial and engineering problems had stalled the project for over 10 years. Myers claimed that the terminal's approval violated the California Environmental Quality Act by failing to consider a joint project with Myers. San Francisco, in fact, had looked at a joint project and rejected it as infeasible. Unfortunately, Superior Court Judge Ronald Quidachay agreed with the developer and ordered the terminal project halted until its environmental impact report (EIR) can be rewritten to discuss a joint project.
The case is now on appeal, but the judgment blocks all work on the terminal until the appeal is resolved or a new EIR is completed and approved. The delay could cost the Terminal Authority over $50 million, and could even make it impossible to complete the project. The friend-of-the-court brief urges the Court of Appeal to allow pre-construction work to move forward while the appeal is pending, and to speed up resolution of the appeal. The court is expected to decide the issue in mid-June.
Along with the Sierra Club, the other filers are the Train Riders Association of California, San Francisco Tomorrow, the BayRail Alliance, the Regional Alliance for Transit, the Transportation and Land Use Coalition, and the Transportation Solutions Defense and Education Fund.
© 2005 San Francisco Sierra Club Yodeler