After rescinding their previous approval to build a large parking development near San Francisco's Civic Center due to neighborhood opposition, Hastings College of the Law board members appointed well-known Peninsula attorney Joe Cotchett to head a Blue Ribbon Committee to look into less controversial alternatives, says a Hastings spokeswoman.
The panel has revised the school's plan from an 885-space garage at Golden Gate Avenue and Larkin Street to a parking garage along with a YMCA athletic center, retail and restaurant space and student housing next to the school's campus in San Francisco's Tenderloin district.
The new plan includes 450 parking spaces, as well as 100 units of affordable rental housing at the YMCA's former quarters on Golden Gate Avenue. This plan is expected to meet the college's need for more parking and appease the complaints of housing activists who demand more affordable housing in the area.
School officials say about half of the spaces would be reserved for much-needed student parking, while another half would be set aside for state and public use.
Still, some opponents have voiced opposition to the revised project, saying that there is still too much parking. Opponents say there is plenty of parking space already available in the area and addition parking would only increase traffic congestion, while the neighborhood needs housing for people, not cars.
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