Sweeping bike plan gets the go ahead
Wire reports
June 26, 2009
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| (Examiner file photo) |
SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency's board of directors, decided to approve a plan that would add 34 miles of bike lanes to the existing 45-mile network, among other changes to city streets, some of which were tabled for further discussion.
The plan, which was originally drafted in 1997 and had its updated framework approved by the Board of Supervisors and Mayor Gavin Newsom in 2005, had an injunction filed against it that year that required an environmental impact report be finished and certified before the plan moves forward.
The city's Planning Commission decided Thursday night to certify the report, allowing the bike plan to go in front of the SFMTA board of directors this morning.
A capacity crowd filled Room 400 at City Hall, necessitating an overflow area in the South Light Room to watch the 9 a.m. hearing on television.
Various city officials spoke at the start of the hearing, including Michael Farrah, director of the mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services, who said "our ultimate goal of the bicycle plan and its improvements is the safety and convenience of biking in the city."
A handful of opponents of the bike plan spoke next, arguing against the plans proposed at Second, Fifth and 17th streets, and Claremont Boulevard, arguing against what they said were inefficient designs in the plans, and a lack of proper community outreach about the projects.
Mary Miles, representing the Coalition of Adequate Review, one of the groups that filed the 2005 injunction and was granted an extension on it in 2006, asked the board to discontinue the hearing because of the group's plans to appeal the Planning Commission's decision to certify the report Thursday night.
Miles said she was "surprised that you would even consider these actions under the constraints of the injunction and by denying the public the opportunity to appeal the Planning Commission's actions."
Julia Friedlander of the city attorney's office responded to Miles, saying that today's hearing did not conflict with the injunction or the expected appeal of the Planning Commission, which will eventually go to the city's Board of Supervisors.
SFTMA spokesman Judson True said Thursday that if the bike plan makes it through the hearings and the expected appeal, the agency will work with the city attorney's office to have the injunction lifted and begin implementation by the end of the summer.
- Bay City News
