Victory on SF waterfront: Port cancels mall plan for Piers 27 - 31

Five years of controversy over a proposed mega-mall on San Francisco's historic northeast waterfront finally came to an end in March when the San Francisco Port Commission voted 4 - 0 to cancel the Mills Corporation's plans for Piers 27 - 31.

Following an intense campaign of organizing and activism by the Sierra Club, the Citizens to Save the Waterfront coalition, and hundreds of dedicated volunteers and concerned residents, the Port finally agreed that the proposal by national mall developer Mills was doomed to failure. The decision was a huge victory for the environmental community, which had opposed the Mills Project from the start. Flaws in the Mills proposal ranged from massive traffic and transit impacts to a plan for a water recreation area in the path of a city sewage pipe.

On March 14 the Port Commission voted to end Mills' exclusive-rights agreement for Piers 27 - 31 and to enter into a new six-month agreement with the Shorenstein Corporation and Farallon Capital Management, who have pledged to design a recreation and office project that will comply with the voter-mandated Waterfront Land Use Plan. Shorenstein and Farallon now have until Sep. 30 to come up with a truly recreation-oriented plan and bring it before the Port Commission and then the Board of Supervisors for approval. If they fail to win those approvals, the agreement will expire and the Port will put the Piers 27 - 31 recreation project back out for bid.

The Sierra Club will continue to play an active role in monitoring the new plans for a real recreation project at Piers 27 - 31, to ensure that they comply with appropriate waterfront planning guidelines and have no negative environmental impacts on surrounding neighborhoods and on the Bay.

Thanks and congratulations to all readers who wrote letters, made phone calls, and spoke out for the principle that our shoreline should be used in ways that benefit everyone rather than just a private developer.