Streetsblog San Francisco

In an effort to make the Presidio function less like a traffic shortcut and more like a national park, the Presidio Trust is trying out an idea that's caught on in the dense city that borders it: a trial street closure. From today until October 27, Presidio Boulevard will be closed to private automobiles between West Pacific Avenue and Upper Simonds Loop [map PDF], as the Presidio Trust and the MTA study traffic impacts. Muni and emergency vehicles will still have full access.

Traffic on Presidio Boulevard is about 60 percent cut-through, compared to 50 percent in the park as a whole. When the Doyle Drive replacement project is completed in 2013, that volume could go even higher, since the newly constructed Presidio Parkway will have a new interchange that will make Presidio Boulevard an attractive approach route for drivers.

The Presidio Trust wants to experiment with road closures that will train drivers not to use routes through the park once Presidio Parkway - the Doyle Drive replacement - opens. Planners are rushing to study the traffic impacts under regular circumstances since construction will begin later this year, altering the area's normal traffic patterns.

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Revised plans for the Main Post of San Francisco’s Presidio national park, which include construction of a contemporary art museum for the collection of billionaire businessman Donald Fisher, are still unsatisfactory, say many preservationists, environmentalists, and neighbors who attended a hearing on the new plans Tuesday night.  Despite the fact that the museum plans have been scaled down since their original release to the public and the National Park Service, they could, in fact, lead to a lawsuit to stop the project from moving forward.

In addition to Fisher’s proposed Contemporary Art Museum of the Presidio (the CAMP), the seven-member governing body for the park, the Presidio Board of Trustees, has tentatively approved a Heritage Center in what is now the Officers Club, a 129-room hotel called the Presidio Park Lodge in one of the barracks, and an expansion of the Presidio Theatre, all at the Main Post.  It has already adopted plans for the Walt Disney Family Museum for the Main Post.

According to Presidio Executive Director Craig Middleton, the organizing theme of the altered Main Post will be sustainability, with the use of reclaimed water for landscaping, the improvement of PresidiGo shuttle for transportation around the entire park, the installation of permeable surfaces to reduce runoff, and photovoltaic panels on buildings.


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