Planning Commission initiates Potrero Yard modernization, framing up to about 513 housing units above rebuilt bus facility

The San Francisco Planning Commission on Oct. 19 voted unanimously to initiate general-plan and zoning actions needed for the Potrero Yard modernization project, a multiagency effort to rebuild the city’s 4.4-acre bus yard and pursue housing above and adjacent to the new facility.

"Before you today is the Potrero Modernization Project, an initiation of general plan amendments associated with that project," said Matt Snyder, a planning department staff member, introducing the informational item and the project’s sequencing. SFMTA public-affairs staff framed the work as part of a broader $2-plus-billion Building Progress program to modernize transit facilities and electrify vehicle storage and maintenance.

Why it matters: Project proponents described a combined infrastructure and housing approach intended to modernize an aging bus yard — replacing a more-than-100-year-old facility — while maximizing transit and affordable-housing benefits on a public land site. The team said the currently proposed design would increase bus capacity (from about 153 to as many as 223 buses), create roughly 698,000 square feet of bus-facility space and identify housing components that together could total about 513 units (about 381,000 gross square feet).

What presenters said: Bonnie Jean Von Crow (SFMTA public-affairs manager) said the Potrero Yard is the first out of a sequence of facility modernizations and that electrification and joint development are core program pillars. A representative of the Potrero Neighborhood Collective and its lead developer (Plenary Americas) described the project as a public-private partnership that pairs an infrastructure developer with three affordable-housing partners and a design team to make the site structurally and operationally ready for housing.

The team described a variant that SFMTA could exercise if housing funding or timing made rooftop residential infeasible. That variant would substitute rooftop housing with space for paratransit parking and operations (the presenters said the rooftop alternative could yield about 148,000 square feet of additional paratransit/storage space), in which case the adjacent Bridal Street housing component would be reduced to about 103 units. Presenters stressed the intent to entitle the full housing-maximization scenario while preserving operational flexibility if housing funding did not materialize on the same schedule as the transit facility.

Commission questions and finance: Commissioners pressed the project team on the incremental cost of designing a superstructure now that could support future housing, on the viability and cost differences of the single-loaded Bridal Street housing in the paratransit variant, and on financing timing for affordable units. The PNC/Plenary team said three affordable-housing developers were engaged in predevelopment and that the funding plan (tax credits, state/federal grants and local sources) remains to be completed. Staff noted the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD) has pledged $35,000,000 toward the project’s housing component.

Next steps: Environmental planning staff expect to publish response-to-comments documents in December and to return the project for entitlements; the commission voted to initiate the general-plan and map amendments and scheduled the formal hearing for January 2024. After commission action, zoning changes and project agreements would proceed before the Board of Supervisors and the SFMTA board, followed by construction timing targeted for the fall after entitlements and agreements are executed.

What remains unclear: Project proponents said housing financing and the selection of construction contractors and the design-builder will be finalized as the predevelopment phase continues. The commission asked for more detail on cost deltas for designing the transit superstructure to be housing-ready and for additional design detail on the smaller Bridal-Street housing component in the paratransit variant.

The commission passed the initiation motion unanimously 5–0; the project will return for further environmental and entitlement hearings.