Broken Promises

The Space Ceiling

In its Comprehensive Parnassus Heights Plan, released in October 2019 and revised in June 2020, UCSF has proposed a 2.04 million square foot expansion to its Parnassus Heights campus, and a 42% increase in the Space Ceiling described below, violating a longstanding commitment to restrict additional building. This expansion, which is the equivalent of adding the combined gross square footage of the Salesforce Tower and the Transamerica building, will place a massive 16 story building in a residential neighborhood, transforming it into another financial district.  The building does not even fit within the boundary of the existing campus but extends across a street into the Mt. Sutro Open Space Reserve. It would be the tallest building, but almost 100 feet, in the western part of the City. The surrounding neighborhoods are now quietly residential with a sprinkling of small, mostly locally owned, retail shops and restaurants. The CPHP will result in an increase of 7,855 people working at the campus every day, with the accompanying severe traffic congestion and housing shortages as well as noise and toxic emissions during the lengthy construction period.

 

The Regents Resolution.

n order to induce a citizens group to withdraw a lawsuit opposing an expansion to the Parnassus Heights  campus, the Board of Regents in 1976 adopted a resolution permanently establishing a Space Ceiling of 3.55 million square feet on the space it would occupy at that campus. The Regents’ resolution states:

“The total structures within the campus boundaries shall not exceed 3.55 million gross square feet (not including space committed to residential use …) and this limit shall be permanent.”

The CPHP would increase the Space Ceiling by 42% to 5.05 million square feet.

The full resolution: https://ucsf.app.box.com/s/h6f3cfzsznl1bl3kk0am5k9gtc5lila8/file/701809239489

The community, state and city politicians and UCSF were all at the table and involved in making the agreement which resulted in the resolution.

The Regents seem to be taking the position that they just voted for the Space Ceiling and can now just unvote it. This was a real agreement between many stakeholders that was negotiated in good faith and for good reasons. The Parnassus campus was too small to accommodate growth in 1976 and that is even more true today.

Reaffirmations.

UCSF has repeatedly reaffirmed its commitment to the Space Ceiling and to consulting with its neighbors before deciding on major planning decisions.  These reaffirmations generally occurred in the context of a UCSF planned expansion which would have exceeded the Space Ceiling if it were not for the objection of local groups. The 1994 Long Range Development Plan explicitly committed to the Space Ceiling and set forth how UCSF would satisfy its obligations. UCSF again reaffirmed this undertaking only six years ago in its 2104 Long Range Development Plan, Appendix D of which commits UCSFF pre-decision consultation.  See the timeline below.

 Representations to the Supreme Court of California and the City of San Francisco.

UCSF  also acknowledged the binding, permanent nature of the Space Ceiling  in a filing in a 1993 California Supreme Court case, Laurel Heights II, telling the court that it was not feasible to add to its Parnassus Heights campus because it was prohibited from doing so by the Space Ceiling.  The University also used the limitations on expansion at the Parnassus site as one of the primary justifications for the acquisition development of its campus at Mission Bay. It is completely disingenuous to publicly maintain  that the Space Ceiling has a binding effect preventing the University from expanding at Parnassus  then, without consulting the  parties who negotiated and relied on the commitment,  to later declare that it is  free to  disregard it if it so choses.

From the California Supreme Court case:

The draft EIR further explains that, because the necessary space at the Parnassus Heights campus can only be created by demolition of existing buildings fully in use or by violating the limits adopted in the long-range development plan, the alternative of expansion at this site is infeasible.

Read the Laurel Heights II case.

No meaningful input from Community.

Notwithstanding these repeated and publicly declared commitments, the CPHP ignores them.  Although a series of community meetings was convened on the CPHP, community comments were solicited in a highly scripted and biased manner and, despite repeated demands, the Space Ceiling never became a topic of the discussion.

This is not a normal project. The Space Ceiling was adopted and repeatedly reaffirmed because there was not enough space for expansion at Parnassus, and there still isn’t.

The massive scale of the proposed new hospital building would dominate not only the immediate Parnassus Heights neighborhood, but the entire west side of San Francisco. This is not a normal project; this aggressive plan would alter the views and horizon line of Mt Sutro from almost every part of the city.

Inexplicably, UCSF suddenly seems to regard the heretofore permanent space ceiling as expendable and the Regents’ longstanding commitment to uphold it as revocable. This is not a matter of compromise. This is not a matter of architectural design. This is not a matter of what UCSF wants or needs. The space ceiling was adopted based on the inherent physical and geographic limitations of the Parnassus site - to protect it, the Mt Sutro Forest Reserve, and the surrounding neighborhoods from the ever-growing demands of the university. In fact, the space limitations of the Parnassus campus have been used over and over again by UCSF to justify the acquisition and development of off-site properties, including the new campus at Mission Bay. It is disingenuous of the University to claim that they can overdevelop the site now. Although the needs of the university have continued to expand, the Parnassus site has not - it remains a small, urban, hillside campus surrounded by public greenspace and residential neighborhoods on all sides.

   UCSF should be held to its commitment to not exceed 3.55 million square feet at the Parnassus Heights campus. The Space Ceiling was originally negotiated because the campus was too small to accommodate further growth, and that remains even more true today.

Parnassus Heights Space Ceiling Timeline

1976

  • UCSF proceeded with a rapid expansion of the Parnassus Heights Campus. Alarmed by the fact that the expansion was threatening to overwhelm the surrounding neighborhoods and result in a significant loss of housing stock, a group of neighbors filed suit against UCSF alleging violation of various provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act. Faced with the opposition by the neighborhoods and by their representatives in Sacramento the University agreed to place permanent restrictions on the future use of the Campus.

  • In order to induce the neighbors group to withdraw the lawsuit, the Board of Regents in 1976 adopted a resolution, which among other provisions, permanently establishes a Space Ceiling of 3.55 million square feet on the space it would occupy at that campus. It should be noted that to encourage UCSF to develop housing on the campus, the neighbors agreed that housing should be excluded from the space ceiling. “The total structures within the campus boundaries shall not exceed 3.55 million gross square feet (not including space committed to residential use...) and this limit shall be permanent.”

  • Relying on the resolution the neighbors withdrew the lawsuit

1987

  • Concerned with the fact that UCSF, as a state agency is not subject to local development controls nor any fees or taxes required by private developers, Mayor Feinstein and Planning Director Dean Macris negotiated a binding Memorandum of Understanding with UCSF. The Memorandum provided for the City to have “oversite of University master planning, construction and real estate utilization. Among its provisions is also a requirement that UCSF convene a Community Advisory Group (CAG) to ensure community consultation and input into the planning process.

1988

  • The University acknowledged the binding, permanent nature of the space ceiling in a California Supreme Court filing in 1988 stating to the Court that it was unable to add to its Parnassus Heights campus because it was prohibited from doing so by the Space Ceiling. Laurel Heights Improvement Assoc. v. Regents, 47 Cal.3d 388

1989

  • UCSF expands into the Mt. Zion area by acquiring Mt. Zion Hospital.

1991

  • In keeping with the 1987 Memorandum of Understanding Chancellor Krevans and Vice Chancellor Bruce Spaulding convened a citywide Community Advisory Group (CAG). As one of the first activities of the CAG, Bruce Spaulding convened a group of the CAG consisting of the members from neighborhoods adjacent to Parnassus. He conducted a tour of the Parnassus campus during which he acknowledged that the campus was over the Space Ceiling by about 4%. He committed to working with the group to correct this.

1996

  • UCSF again acknowledged the binding nature of the Space Ceiling and committed to comply with it in the 1996 Long Range Development Plan. The plan which included the planned expansion to Mission Bay explicitly committed to the Space Ceiling and the need to “decompress” the Parnassus Campus. It also set forth how UCSF would satisfy its obligations under the resolution. The plan was jointly developed and negotiated with the CAG, which was involved in all aspects of its development.

2014

  • The Regents adopted the currently applicable Long Range Development Plan, again in full consultation with the CAG. With regard to the Space Ceiling Issue the plan provides:

    • “Under the LRDP, Parnassus Heights is to remain UCSF’s home for classroom instruction, the four schools, adult inpatient facilities, a variety of outpatient clinics, research, housing and support. However, as called for in the 1976 Regents Resolution and the 1996 LRDP, the decompression of space at Parnassus Heights is proposed to continue through the periodic demolition of buildings and the relocation to other sites of programs that are not essential to this campus site....”

2019

  • The Inner Sunset and Haight communities have relied on the repeated commitments to the ceiling as protection against the University’s voracious demand for space. Now that history is being ignored. UCSF released its Comprehensive Parnassus Heights Plan on October 7, 2019. In the plan, with no prior public discussion stated the attention to add 1,500,000 square feet to the space ceiling limit of 3.55 million square feet, for a total of over 5 million square feet. The University has since stated that the overage will be approximately 2 Million square feet less the square footage of housing. The proposal is an increase of 57% to the buildings on the campus.

  • Notwithstanding those repeated and publicly declared commitments, the CPHP ignores them. Despite claims to the contrary the community has not been engage on the question. The University has made its decision behind closes doors in violation of commitments made by the Regents to “carefully consult with neighbors and make efforts to reduce impacts before deciding upon major planning decisions”.

  • Appendix D to the UCSF 2014 Long Range Development Plan

  • In Appendix D to the CPHP the university acknowledges its intent to scrap the Space Ceiling and commits to “continue to engage neighbors and City representatives to discuss the implications of the Preferred Alternative, with a specific emphasis on the Space Ceiling....” Although a series of community meetings was convened at that point, despite repeated demands, the Space Ceiling never became a topic of the discussion.