Planning Association for the Richmond, SF

Golden Gate National Recreation Area

 

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1.   Announcement:

Golden Gate National Recreation Area » General Management Plan - Golden Gate National Recreation Area » Document List

Dear Park Friend:

We are pleased to present the Draft General Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Muir Woods Monument for your review and comment (comment period opens on Sept. 9, 2011 and ends Nov. 7, 2011). This plan is intended to guide management of the park over the next 20 years. We invite you to review the draft and share your thoughts with us, and let us know how it addresses your aspirations for the future of the park.

Prepared over the last five years, the draft plan contains various ideas for future management of the park. Some of these came from the public and park partners, and other build upon earlier successes or from lessons learned by day-to-day management of the park since 1972 as directed by the 1980 General Management Plan. We employed a rigorous planning process to explore a range of alternatives and create the National Park Service's preferred alternative which encompasses what we believe are the best ideas. The preferred alternative is described in chapters four (for Alcatraz), five (for Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo Counties) and six (for Muir Woods). We hope you will give those chapters special attention.

We invite you to take this opportunity to help shape the future of the park by sending us your comments. You can do that on this website, by selecting the "Open for Comment" link on the left, or at one of the open houses we will host in communities around the park. Your thoughtful comments are important to us and will make a difference as we finalize the plan in the coming year. 

Thank you for your support and interest in this special place. 

Frank Dean
General Superintendent
Contact Information
Email: goga_gmp@nps.gov
Information Line: (415)561-4965

2.  NPS Website Link:

 

http://www.parkplanning.nps.gov/projectHome.cfm?projectId=15075

 

3.  Open House Notice:

 

Golden Gate National Recreation Area » General Management Plan - Golden Gate National Recreation Area

Open House - Saturday, September 24, 2011
Date	Start Time	End Time	Location
09/24/2011	1:00 PM	4:00 PM	Fort Mason, Building 201 First Floor Conference Room San Francisco, California

 

Park Town Hall

 

 

 

Dear Park User, Throughout 2010 - 2011, Neighborhood Parks Council has been hosting a series ofPark Town Halls to hear your views about managing our parks, get your creative solutions to challenges, and identify concerns before park decisions are made by officials. We are organizing our next Park Town Hall meeting and hope you will join us. The town hall will be held in Oceanview, details below: Wednesday, June 29, 2011 6:30pm - 8pm Oceanview Playground, Minnie & Lovie Ward Recreation Center Montana btw Plymouth & Capitol Refreshments will be provided We will be inviting City and park officials to ask questions about their service to you, their constituents, and listen to your inquiries about recreation, parks and open space. We hope that you will join us and encourage your neighbors and friends to attend as well to ask tough questions and offer creative solutions to Rec and Park. Sincerely,   Meredith Thomas, Executive Director P.S. Be sure to mark your calendar for NPC's Summer Social, scheduled for the evening of Wednesday, July 13. More details will be posted at sfnpc.org in the coming weeks!

Stay connected with NPC:

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Public Meeting on Proposed Hotel at the Presidio, Wednesday, Sept 22 at 6:30pm

NEWS RELEASE, proposed 14-building hotel on Presidio's Main Post

Sept. 17, 2010

For more information, contact

Gary Widman, 415/435-0360, gwidman@mindspring.com

Whit Hall, 707/778-6975, whithall@comcast.net

www.presidioassociation.org

 History Association Seeks Public Response to Presidio Hotel Proposal

 San Francisco…The watchdog nonprofit Presidio Historical Association (PHA) is asking the public to speak out against plans to build a new 88,000 sq. ft. luxury hotel in the most historic area of the Presidio of San Francisco National Park at next week's Presidio Trust Board's public meeting.

 The meeting is scheduled to begin at 6:30 pm on Wednesday, Sept. 22, at the Golden Gate Club, 135 Fisher Loop in the Presidio of San Francisco. The agenda includes an update on the massive 14-building hotel proposal and time for public comment on the complex.

The Trust, a federal agency charged with managing the Presidio's real estate, has proposed a hotel including 12 new buildings encompassing 70,000 sq. ft., and the conversion of two historic structures measuring 18,000 sq. ft.  The hotel complex would total nearly 90,000 sq. ft. located in the heart of the Presidio's historic Main Post, which dates back to 1776."The Presidio National Park needs a Visitors Center and History Museum, neither of which has been built by the Presidio Trust during its 10 years of overseeing the park," said PHA President Gary Widman. "This hotel is an improper and totally unnecessary use of this most important historic national park site."

The Presidio is already financially self-sufficient thanks to the rental income from its homes, offices and land.  To date, the Trust has not released any financial analyses that show the proposed hotel would be profitable, and its Executive Director recently admitted that hotel profits would be "marginal."

Federal funds may be used to build some or all of the hotel, which will compete with nearby hotels and inns on Lombard Street and in the Marina, Cow Hollow/Union Street, Pacific Heights, Laurel Village and Fisherman's Wharf.

In addition to attending the Wednesday night meeting, Widman urges concerned citizens to call Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and US Senators Boxer and Feinstein to protest the commercialization of the federal park, and to contact relevant local officials.

"Does a city with 33,000 hotel rooms really need another hotel in the midst of the most historic and open part of its new national park?" Widman asked. 

The Presidio Trust spent more than two years and more than $1 million in public funds fighting the public outcry against a controversial art museum proposed by the Donald Fisher family to be built on the Presidio's Main Post.  Fisher, who died in September 2009, withdrew his proposal and turned his art collection over to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art one week before his death.  

"Many of those who protested the museum also opposed the Main Post hotel, which was first proposed by the Presidio Trust in 2007.  But the Trust has chosen to ignore that outcry and is now trying to authorize this large hotel and a multiplex movie theater – creating a new commercial district in the historic heart of the park," said Widman. "The Trust is trying to change the rules that now prohibit such construction by amending the Presidio Trust Management Plan (PTMP) to allow it."

For more information, contact the Presidio Historical Association at (415) 921-8193 or visit www.presidioassociation.org.

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Founded in the 1950s, the nonprofit Presidio Historical Association (PHA) has worked in cooperation with the National Park Service and Presidio Trust since 1994 to advocate for preserving the integrity of the Presidio's National Historic Landmark District, located in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA).  PHA created a museum for the Army when it was based at the Presidio.  Earlier, PHA helped restore historic Fort Point at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Presidio Historical Association 
P.O. Box 29163 
San Francisco, CA 94129
(415)921-8193
www.presidioassociation.org

Environmental Assessment: North Slope of VAMC Overlooking Lands End Trail -- Public Comment Due by September 30

NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY

ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT

for

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

NORTH SLOPE SEISMIC/GEOLOGIC STABILIZATION

SAN FRANCISCO VA MEDICAL CENTER (SFVAMC)

 

 

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announces the preparation and availability of an Environmental Assessment (EA) for the proposed construction associated with the North Slope Seismic/Geologic Stabilization Project. The SFVAMC is located at 4150 Clement Street on a 29-acre site in northwest San Francisco and is a major tertiary care facility that serves as a VA regional referral center for specialized medical and surgical programs. 

 

The Proposed Action includes the construction of two soldier pile retaining walls and storm water drainage improvements on the northern slope of the SFVAMC campus. The Proposed Action would mitigate slope and land instability and stabilize a section of Veterans Drive and adjacent buildings against natural events such as major earthquakes and landslides caused by heavy rains. 

Topics addressed in the EA include aesthetics, air quality, community services and utilities, cultural resources, floodplains, wetlands, watersheds, rivers, lakes, coastal zone; geology and soils, hydrology and water quality, land use, noise, socioeconomics, solid/hazardous waste, transportation and parking, and vegetation and wildlife.

 

Copies of the EA are available for review between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday at the SFVAMC, Bldg. 3, Engineering Office, Room 19.  The EA can also accessed on line at http://www.sanfrancisco.va.gov/visitors/North_Slope_EA.pdf.

 

All inquiries should be directed to:

Project Engineer

San Francisco VA Medical Center

Office: (415)221-4810 ext. 2858

Mobile: (415)720-9716

Email: Matthew.Szeto@va.gov

 

The VA will consider public comments submitted during the 30-day review period. The public is invited to submit comments on the EA. Comments may be submitted by mail to the above address and must be postmarked no later than September 30, 2010. 

Volunteer Opportunity at Sutro Park -- Saturday, September 11

An invitation to volunteer, from GGNRA Ranger George Dugerian...

 

Hello Sutro Slope Stewards,

 

Our next stewardship day will be on Saturday, 9/11, and will be part of America's National Day of Remembrance events.  We will be joined by a Sierra Club youth group, and we'll be

 

    working to limb trees to the west of the site,

   place those cut branches along the sides of trails

   removing invasive exotics

   possibly putting down wood chips

 

 

 

We're meeting at the same Bat Time, same Bat Channel: 9-12 noon, just south of 48th and Anza.

 

I look forward to seeing you out there,

 

George

 

George Durgerian

Park Ranger, GGNRA: Ocean District

201 Fort Mason

San Francisco, CA 94123

415-601-1620 (cell)

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george_durgerian@nps.gov

www.nps.gov/goga

The National Park Service cares for special places saved by the American people so that all may experience our heritage.