Over the last year, the City of San Francisco has been proposing a dramatic initiative to remove the end of the 280 freeway after Mariposa, to extend the Caltrain/High Speed Rail tracks underground further, and to create a surface boulevard that would connect the cross-streets of Potrero neighborhood to Mission Bay, and create new area for the creation of neighborhoods.

A $700K study to examine these options is proposed in San Francisco County’s Congestion Management Plan (page 56) which is being reviewed by the Board of Supervisors Plans and Programs committee tomorrow , and afterward will be reviewed for approval by the full Board Supervisors.  The study is part of a $2.4 million budget for Priority Development Area planning.  Other proposed PDA planning studies include Embarcadero multi-modal planning, the Second Street Environmental Impact Report, Bayshore station relocation, and others.

If approved by the Board of Supervisors, this would kick off a study for an initiative that would transform that part of San Francisco, and potentially have a major influence on the Downtown Extension program.