Where hundreds of scow schooner boats were once built in San Francisco now sits a future waterfront park. The 19th-century port in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood has changed over time from boat yard to Superfund site to neglected rock shore. Soon it will be a restored tidal marsh and open public space.
On Monday, the California Coastal Conservancy approved a $5.1 million grant to the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department to construct the third element of the India Basin Waterfront Park. It will fund the above-ground construction that will replace the old port property at 900 Innes Ave., and it will provide 2.4 acres of new access to the shoreline.
New construction will remove and replace dilapidated docks, remove the boatyard office and repave staging areas. The historic Shipwright’s Cottage will be rehabilitated into an interpretive center that will educate visitors on the history of the property and shoreline.
“There’s not a single bad thing I can say about the park,” said Sean Karlin, a resident who was on the Board of Directors of the India Basin Neighborhood Association during the property negotiations in 2014. “It brings everybody in the community together — white, Black, Latino, Asian. The whole community uses the park. There’s nobody that feels left out. And so, improving it is only going to be a massive boon for the community.”
The new construction will connect Heron’s Head Park to the north with India Basin Open Space (700 Innes Ave.) to the south. Altogether, the redevelopment will provide 64 acres of continuous shoreline space connected via 1.7 miles of trail. It will include recreational amenities like picnic areas, concessions and exercise equipment, and restored habitat with climate change adaptation features.
The Coastal Conservancy’s staff recommendation says the project advances the state’s 30×30 executive order, a commitment signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020 to conserve 30 percent of California’s lands and coastal waters by 2030.
A newly graded tidal marsh will be the final crowning phase. The distance between dry land and the water will be extended dramatically, buffering the community and the park amenities from sea level rise and restoring native ecosystems.
Very few birds foraged there, and no rare fish were observed during a preliminary biological study, according to the Coastal Conservancy.
“Despite its degraded habitat value, the open water area of the India Basin shoreline is considered part of the Essential Fish Habitat designated by the National Marine Fisheries Service,” said the Conservancy staff recommendation report.
It specifically mentions the establishment of ecosystems for green sturgeon and California Central Coast steelhead.
“The India Basin shoreline is also known to support foraging by birds such as the American avocet, black-necked stilt, and western gull, as it is a stopover for birds migrating in the Pacific Flyway,” the report said.
The neighborhoods around the new park are still considered a high poverty area according to 2020 U.S. Census data, and residents are predominantly Black, Latinx and Asian.
“These residents have continued to advocate for environmental justice and clean-up of toxic substances from the former Naval Shipyard, which was declared a Superfund site requiring long term cleanup in 1989,” said the Conservancy.
In an adjacent project on the India Basin Open Space, a mixed-use residential project will include 25 percent affordable housing units, according to the developer Build Inc.