The trio of developers leading the charge against the 0.55 percent tax they had agreed in principle to pay the City in exchange for an already adopted up-zoning of their parcels within the Tansbay Transit Center District are giving up the fight, but their payments will be spread over 37 years rather than the 30 years as originally structured.
The projected tax revenue to the city, which could now total $1.4 billion thanks to rising property values, will be used to help fund the extension of Caltrain from Fourth and Townsend to San Francisco’s Transbay Transit Center at First and Mission, laying the tracks for High Speed Rail to reach the Center as well.
Having delayed a vote to establish the tax yesterday upon the threat of being sued if they did, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors is now slated to vote on the revised agreement in two weeks time.
Does this mean it is going to take 37 years to get the HSR all the way into the Transit Center? I sure hope not!
37 years? What do you think this is, a productive society or something? 37 years alone will be the amount that a widowed grandmother from Palo Alto will hold up HSR because it might wake her birds up at night.
Moonbeam first pitched it in the 80s and it isn’t scheduled until 2029, it will probably actually be 2055 if that’s the plan, so yes.
If these developers don’t want the deal, the City should find competitors who do. Salesforce Tower already has a major tenant– find someone else who will build it. Is it too late to revive one of the other designs?