Big changes urged for Japantown
By: John Upton
June 19, 2009
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| Renovations: Buchanan Mall and Peace Plaza would be overhauled under a plan prepared by the San Francisco Planning Department to revitalize the area. (Cindy Chew/The Examiner) |
SAN FRANCISCO — The revitalization of Japantown — a neighborhood that wears the scars of past policies — could shut down two lanes of a roadway to make room for pedestrians where there are now cars.
The overarching plan for the area aims to bring in new visitors and add housing and ground-floor stores.
To do so, about one-quarter mile of two lanes on Webster Street would be turned into a public park, according to a draft plan. In addition, Peace Plaza and Buchanan Mall would be overhauled and new street-facing stores would open in the neighborhood.
San Francisco’s Japantown — one of three Japantowns remaining nationwide — has been the victim of decades of upheaval.
During World War II, the United States interned residents of Japanese descent.
Two decades later, land was forcefully purchased and buildings were razed amid U.S.-backed urban renewal efforts to demolish and rebuild neighborhoods considered blighted, planning documents show.
The neighborhood remains popular among Japanese-American residents and Japanese tourists.
Its urban form, however, is still scarred by the design practices adopted at the time, many of which are sharply criticized by today’s urban planners.
Geary Boulevard and Webster Street were both dramatically widened in the 1960s.
In what would be a dramatic shift for the area, the draft 20-year plan, prepared by the San Francisco Planning Department, calls for $41 million in public investment and new building rules for private property owners.
For instance, planning staff has proposed rules that would require many new or remodeled buildings to include transparent facades. Ground-floor stores or community facilities would be mandated in new housing towers and height limits would be relaxed.
Additionally, $41.3 million worth of improvements to Peace Plaza, streets and other publicly owned land are proposed. That would include the conversion of the western two lanes of Webster Street, between Geary Boulevard and Bush Street, into a neighborhood park.
Much of the needed money would be raised by levying fees on developers working in the neighborhood, and an additional $10 million could be raised through new neighborhood taxes, according to the draft plan.
Preparation of the Japantown plan was triggered several years ago when a Japanese company announced it would sell high-profile buildings in the district.
Californian company 3D Investment purchased malls, two hotels and the Kabuki Theater and announced it would overhaul those properties, but late last year it indefinitely suspended those plans.
Nonetheless, planning staff forged ahead with a neighborhood plan, aspects of which were presented Thursday to the Planning Commission.
During a Board of Supervisors budget hearing Thursday, the neighborhood’s supervisor, Ross Mirkarimi, urged the Planning Department to work more closely with residents and to prioritize funding to push the plan forward.
“We don’t really see the end to [the process], because there’s no funding,” Mirkarimi said.
Area overhaul
Proposed improvements to public property in Japantown
$22.6M Pedestrian improvements throughout the neighborhood
$6.9M Build a park over the western half of Webster Street
$5M Improve Buchanan Mall
$4.3M Add a network of new signs
$2.5M Redesign Peace Plaza
Source: San Francisco Planning Department
