Episode 25: Bus Yard Housing
This episode brings together two hot topics – bus expansion and affordable housing. We’re joined by Rafe Rabalais, Long-Range Asset Development Manager, and Adrienne Heim, Public Information Officer, both with San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA).
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Where do buses go to sleep at night? And could someone sleep above them?
The SFMTA, which manages all surface transportation in the city and county of San Francisco, recognized the need to upgrade the Potrero Yard bus maintenance and operations building as part of improving bus operations and maintenance, resiliency to climate change and other natural disasters, a planned bus fleet expansion and battery electric conversion of the bus fleet.
If you did not know, the SFMTA boasts the cleanest, greenest bus fleet in the US. Six trolley bus routes are maintained and operate out of Potrero Yard, built in 1915. Together, these routes serve 102,000 Muni customers everyday. The SFMTA is planning a conversion to battery electric buses by the year 2035, hence the need to modernize and expand the Yard.
On this podcast, Rafe Rabalais and Adrienne Heim describe the planning processes for the new yard, the design issues involved in converting the bus fleet to battery electric propulsion and the introduction of housing in the form of joint development into the plan. A 2014 mayoral directive, Public Land for Housing Program, led to consideration of Potrero Yard as an opportunity to provide housing for San Franciscans.
An extensive and on-going public engagement process (including tours of the existing yard) has tackled such issues as housing affordability, integration with the neighborhood, design and massing issues (especially to ensure the adjacent park is not completely shadowed over), and parking. Listen to the podcast to find out how four acres in San Francisco’s Mission district are being recast for the future.