A plan to include up to 465 affordable housing units on top of a new Muni bus yard in the Mission District is no longer happening in an effort to cut costs for the Potrero Yard Modernization Project.
In her report on Tuesday at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), Julie Kirschbaum, the city’s director of transportation, said that the agency needed to ensure that the project was still affordable and viable for a new Muni bus yard, especially as the SFMTA faces a $307 million budget deficit next year.
“The most important goal of this project is to replace the obsolete, centuries-old Potrero bus yard with a modern, efficient bus maintenance and storage facility equipped to continue and expand our trolley fleet,” Kirschbaum said.
One of the costs that will be eliminated is the need to build a “reinforced podium” on top of the bus yard to support the homes. Kirschbaum added that construction costs, interest rates, and market volatility all contributed to the escalation of the project’s cost, which was estimated at $2 billion. The project last year had already reduced the number of proposed housing units from 513 to 465, prioritizing fewer homes for seniors in favor of more homes for families.
Not all of the proposed housing units were scrapped. A new design rendering still shows up to 100 affordable housing units being proposed on Bryant Street, next to the bus yard, the agency said.
“These are very difficult decisions to make,” Kirschbaum told the SFMTA board. “We recognize how important housing, and particularly affordable housing, is.”
Other cost-saving measures listed in a blog post on the SFMTA’s website include a smaller basement, reducing the size of the mezzanine level, and eliminating the roof. Additionally, the SFMTA will assume the maintenance and operation of the bus yard, which the agency states will result in “significant cost savings.”
Kirshbaum said the SFMTA is negotiating the final cost of the project, adding that staff plan to bring the project to the board in advance of finalizing a project agreement by early next year.
A timeline indicates that construction is scheduled to begin in 2026, with the new bus yard expected to start operations in 2030. An estimated cost of just the bus yard project is $560 million. The lead developer is a private-public partnership with the Potrero Neighborhood Collective.
The SFMTA is hosting two public meetings about design changes. An in-person meeting will take place on Oct 15, from 5 to 7p.m. at the Mission Arts Center (745 Treat Avenue), and another meeting will take place online on Oct. 16, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. More meeting details can be found at the SFMTA’s website.