Commercial real estate speculators pushing to convert a third of Clipper Cove at Treasure Island into a private luxury mega-marina have run into a series of setbacks over recent months. However, the developer group, led by political powerhouse Darius Anderson, has vowed to push on.
The developers, led by Darius Anderson, are pushing the Treasure Island Development Authority (TIDA) to approve their plan. The TIDA board is tentatively scheduled to vote on the developers’ proposal on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 11, at San Francisco City Hall, Room 400.
We urge supporters of the Cove to contact Supervisor Jane Kim, who represents Treasure Island and sits ex-officio on the TIDA board, to express their support for the Cove and their opposition to the proposed marina. Email Supervisor Kim at jane.kim@sfgov.org and copy her aide Barbara Lopez at barbara.lopez@sfgov.org. Tell Supervisor Kim that:
- Clipper Cove at Treasure Island is one of the most scenic and well-protected small-boat harbors on the West Coast. It is the largest and most valuable protected open water in San Francisco.
- Clipper Cove is home to the only community sailing center in San Francisco. It hosts a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) program that brings over 2,000 San Francisco public-school fourth graders onto the San Francisco Bay each year. For most of these students, this event is their first time on the bay; for many it is their very first time on water.
- The developers’ proposal to take a third of the Cove for a private luxury marina is an unacceptable sacrifice of public access to the San Francisco Bay. The public would never consider giving over one third of Golden Gate Park to a private luxury resort, so why would we do that with Clipper Cove?
- Changes in sedimentation in the Cove as well as the cumulative impact of annual dredging both would threaten existing eelgrass beds on the south side of the Cove. Eelgrass is a critically important and threatened keystone species in the Bay’s ecosystem.
Setbacks for the developer
The first blow to the developers’ plans came in April with the release of a damning feasibility study conducted by California Division of Boating and Waterways (DBW). The DBW report highlighted numerous holes in the developers’ financing scheme, threatening a default that would dump a half-finished, money-losing marina onto the hands of state taxpayers.
Disturbingly, the DBW report also found that the proposed marina would likely change siltation and sedimentation in the Cove, necessitating significant annual dredging to keep the Cove open. DBW expressed concern that the developers had not accounted for the cost of annual maintenance dredging in their budget, a cost projected to run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars every year.
Separate from the financial issues, the San Francisco Group of the Sierra Club has noted that changes in sedimentation in the Cove as well as the cumulative impact of annual dredging both would threaten existing eelgrass beds on the south side of the Cove. Eelgrass is a critically important and threatened keystone species in the Bay’s ecosystem. The DBW report came as a bit of a bombshell as the environmental impact report (EIR) for the project, conducted back in 2005, did not envision the possibility of changing sedimentation in the Cove.
In response to the DBW report, the Sierra Club wrote to San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim and V. Fei Tsen, chair of the Treasure Island Development Authority Board, highlighting the new environmental threat and underlining how the proposed marina would choke off access to Clipper Cove and the San Francisco Bay.
The April DBW report also revealed for the first time that the marina developers envision renting out part of the new marina as luxury live-aboard slips, each at $3,250 per month: a rate so exorbitant that the DBW noted it may be illegal under state law.
The developers’ luxury vision is consistent with their overall plan for the marina. They propose to tear out the current small-boat marina dedicated almost entirely to boats running in length from 16 to 36 feet. They propose to replace it with a luxury marina dedicated exclusively to very large boats running from 40 to 80 feet — million-dollar yachts, in other words. Under the developers’ scheme the footprint of the marina would expand from covering just 7 percent of the Cove to spreading over 32 percent of the Cove.
In May 2017, the Treasure Island Sailing Center posted a statement detailing the significant harm this marina expansion proposal would inflict. These excerpts are notable:
- “TISC is not pleased about losing 25% of the protected cove to the marina expansion (the current marina consumes 7% of the Cove)…”
- “…this footprint will reduce the range and depth of some our programs…”
- “…our beginner sailing program and our Set Sail Learn program that teaches science through sailing to over 2,000 4th graders each year would both be impacted since the proposed marina would consume about a third of the space that these two programs currently utilize for on-the-water classes and practice.”
- “…some beginning youth sailors would no longer be able to directly access/sail into the Cove or reach the beach at the west end of the cove – a very important location to teach the safety lessons required for our programs, and an important milestone for beginner sailors.”
- “…there would indeed be a large negative impact on high school and collegiate sailors since their practice area would be reduced and they would likely no longer be able to host regional and national events due to the size limitations of the racing area imposed by the new Marina.”
- “In addition to the impacts on high-school and collegiate sailing, adult racers who use the cove weekly for 7 months of the year would also be negatively impacted.”
Another blow to the project was delivered over the summer by the Science Department of the San Francisco Unified School District. The SFUSD Science Department wrote to the Bay Conservation and Development Commission urging the commission to protect the Cove and reject the proposed expansion. The letter pointed out how the proposed marina would choke off access to the Cove and diminish the STEM program.
As an example of a detailed plan better aligned with the public interest, the Treasure Island Sailing Center has identified the maximum marina expansion that could be implemented with minimal impact on current public access to the Bay. The footprint of this expansion would only cover 18 percent of the Cove, yet it would still more than double the number of slips in the marina and increase the average slip size from 31 feet to 42 feet. This alternative would have the least negative impact on public recreation and education on the San Francisco Bay and has been endorsed by the Sierra Club as the best of the existing alternatives.
Despite all this, the developers, led by Darius Anderson, are pushing the Treasure Island Development Authority (TIDA) to approve their plan. Please email Supervisor Kim today to tell her to protect public Bay access, educational opportunities, and sensitive environmental resources by opposing the developers' proposal.
Photo courtesy On Clipper Cove blog.