Final Open House For Haight Ashbury Public Realm Plan Approaches

Final Open House For Haight Ashbury Public Realm Plan Approaches

Photo: SF Public Planning

Camden Avery
Published on February 19, 2015

The Haight Ashbury Public Realm Plan, a neighborhood and streetscape improvement project that the San Francisco Planning Department has been working on over the last two-and-a-half years, is nearing the end of its planning phase.

Next Wednesday, February 25th from 6pm to 7:30 pm at the Park Branch Library, project liaisons Lily Langlois and Patrick Race of the Planning Department will be unveiling the department's latest and most up-to-date plans for Haight Street. The meeting format is open house, and city planners will be available to answer questions.

This comes after years of work and multiple rounds of surveys and public input from merchants and residents in the Haight, and with several more rounds of public feedback and community input in sight.

The plans being presented were also given a semi-public airing last week at the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council meeting.

According to Christin Evans, HANC's merchant liaison, last week's presentation served as an unveiling of the most current information about the plan, with the suggestion that although next Wednesday's presentation is billed as "final," there were still points for community input and revisions along the way. Evans is also the owner of the Booksmith, and has been working on the plan since its inception in her capacity as a board member of the Haight Ashbury Merchants Association.

"Lily and Patrick were presenting the most up-to-date outputs of their process (which spanned three years), and they shared survey results and data and presented three types of design that are going to be incorporated into the plan," Evans said.

The survey mentioned, taken in the summer of 2014 and first made public last fall, graded the community's desire for certain kinds of streetscape improvements and historical nods, and became the basis for the Planning Department's current plans.

So what can you expect to see next Wednesday?

Said Evans, "I saw at the HANC meeting for the first time the proposed concept for the corner of Haight and Ashbury," for example, which she said "will still require lots of community discussion and a final design process which incorporates artistic vision and historical perspective."

The final plans include designs for traffic  improvements (bulb-outs, additional crosswalks, etc.), public trees and plantings, historical plaques, art installations, improved street lighting, and public seating.

Although the renderings to be presented at next Wednesday's meeting aren't fully finished yet, Langlois said, the following are taken from the presentation given at the HANC meeting last week.

Here's a peek at a potential design for mid-block bulb-out in front of places like Pork Store Cafe:

And below, the illustration for a potential reconfiguration of the intersection of Haight and Ashbury:

The final-final plan, Evans said, will also "take into consideration the objectives for that corner, including the movement of people through it as well as the fact that it's a gathering place already." The plan will have to account for "how that corner is serving lots of different needs, and identify what if any changes should be made to the plan."

Next week's meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 25th from 6pm to 7:30 pm at the Park Branch Library (1833 Page Street).