By Richard Ivanhoe, HANC Board
HANC’s January general meeting was an old-fashioned discussion with our members and guests, as our invited speakers were not able to attend. We presented an update on the Panhandle, and discussed how car-sharing parking spaces and the proposed Area Q residential parking permits will affect our neighborhood. Car-sharing and residential parking permits are discussed elsewhere in this issue of the Voice, so this article will provide an update on the Panhandle.
For the Panhandle, there are four different projects or funding sources moving forward concurrently. As mentioned in the January Voice, HANC and other community groups helped obtain a $500,000 budget add-back to rebuild the pedestrian path, and a separate coalition of community groups and neighbors (again, including HANC), the Panhandle Improvement Project, worked on submitting an application for a Community Opportunity Fund Grant for overall improvements to the Panhandle (including improved signs, crosswalks and lighting, increased bike racks and trash cans, as well as repaving the pedestrian path and improving the irrigation system). Although the application for funding was denied, the group is working on another application and on developing other funding sources. The third project is renovation of the Panhandle playground. The Panhandle playground is one of six playgrounds selected for renovation by the Failing Playground Task Force, and Rec and Park is expected to spend $1-$2 million on the renovation. The fourth project affecting the Panhandle is the San Francisco Westside Recycled Water Project (SFWRWP). This SFPUC project will replace potable water used for irrigating Golden Gate Park with recycled water, with a pipeline along Oak Street for watering the Panhandle.
HANC was concerned when we heard that the $500,000 allocated for repaving the pedestrian path would instead be used for lighting. Further discussions have confirmed this rumor. The cost to repave the pedestrian path is estimated at $1 million. Supervisor Breed and her staff are concerned that if the $500,000 is not spent during the next two years while we attempt to secure additional funding for the path, the funds could disappear. Another concern is that if the repaving is done before the irrigation upgrade is complete, then the path would have to be torn up a second time to make the irrigation upgrades.
We have been promised, by Supervisor Breed’s office, and by Rec and Park, that all of the Panhandle projects will (eventually) be funded and completed. Rec and Park plans to assign a project manager to oversee all of the projects by late spring. The draft EIR for the SFWRWP is scheduled to be published in mid to late March this year. HANC will continue to follow the money, and ensure that the long overdue repaving of the Panhandle pedestrian path gets completed.