Central Freeway project trades park for parking

Plans to convert Caltrans land underneath the Central Freeway between Duboce Avenue and Valencia Street have taken a turn toward less park and more parking.

The area is now proposed to include a just a skate park and dog run, scaled back from the children’s playground and basketball courts residents had originally envisioned.

Caltrans owns the parking lot and collects revenue, which means The City will have to lease the land from Caltrans. Due to budget constraints, city officials said they were left with no other choice but to let the state keep a large portion of the space and downsize the park.

SF Streetsblog quoted a February e-mail to residents from Gloria Chan, a spokesperson from the Office of Economic and Workforce Development:

“The City Parking Area is a vital revenue component to making the entire lease structure with Caltrans feasible; thus helping to fund the projects and keep them moving forward. Without this revenue, we would not be able to plug the funding gap needed for these projects.”

District Supervisor Jane Kim introduced legislation Tuesday that would move the plans forward and would allow construction on the skate park and dog run to begin in summer.