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Project History & CHA Concerns
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Go to Flyer to Cow Hollow Neighbors -
Dec. 19, 2003
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View More Information about this Effort
View Resolution to the Board of Supervisors
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACTS:
December 14, 2003
John Brooke 415.519.5950
Martina Ehlers 415.921.6337
PG&E has started work to bring The Lucas Powerline down Filbert
Street - a completely residential and small business street in the
middle of the Cow Hollow district. The Lucas Powerline has the potential
to deliver up to 24 megawatts of electrical power to Lucasfilm Ltd.
and the Presidio (enough power for 24,000 homes).
What: The "It's a Crime, The Lucas Powerline"
Rally & March
Seniors, Children, Pets & Parents, Business Owners
Possible guest appearances from Star Wars characters
When: 7 AM Monday, December 15, 2003
Where: Richardson (north of Lombard) at the Gorgas entrance
to the Presidio
San Francisco
Why: 1) STOP - The Lucas Powerline from being routed through
a residential
neighborhood.
2) INFORM - Other concerned citizens about Lucasfilm Ltd.'s and
PG&E's plans
3) PUSH - the CPUC and the Presidio Trust to step in and take action
Interested members of the media are invited to attend and provide
coverage of the Rally & March. Please feel free to call the
media contacts listed above to obtain additional information as
required.
Updates and more background information included on the following
pages.
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Dec 11 SFPD called to prevent Seniors, Soccer Moms, their friends,
family and dogs from facing off against PG&E's jackhammers,
backhoes, and bulldozers.
PG&E started to excavate on Filbert Street at Lyon today. A
diverse group or 30 or more neighbors and representatives from the
press were present. Our attempts to discuss additional improper
notification details with DPW failed. SFPD showed up to keep us
off the construction site. PG&E was ready to go with the jackhammers
and heavy equipment.
We have remained in contact with the Presidio Trust, Lucasfilm
Ltd., PG&E, DPW, Newsom's office (Introduced Resolution attached),
Pelosi's office, and the PUC in our efforts to stop further construction
of The Lucas Powerline.
Dec 10 Neighbors stop PG&E Jackhammer. DPW steps in and halts
PG&E work for the day due to improper notifications. Concerned
citizens testify at Presidio Trust meeting.
We stopped PG&E from beginning the trenching for The Lucas
Powerline - a new 24 megawatt capacity power project being routed
through a San Francisco neighborhood with residences, schools, and
small businesses. As PG&E started up compressors to begin the
initial jackhammering of Filbert Street, Ms. Brooke Sampson boldly
walked to the intended excavation site placing herself between the
jackhammer and its target. Other Concerned Citizens followed Ms.
Sampson's lead fully occupying that space as well as others down
the street. PG&E supervisors had the equipment shut down.
Not long after, a representative from the DPW arrived. Public Works
Code Sec. 2.4.50 Excavation in the Public Right Of Way, Notices,
requires that notification signs be posted and maintained at the
site of the excavation from a minimum of 72 hours to 10 days prior
to the commencement of the excavation. The signs were up for only
48 hours. Christopher McDaniels, Special Assistant to the Director,
Department of Public Works, stopped the project.
On Wednesday night, close to a dozen Concerned Citizens spoke at
the Presidio Trust Open Meeting and presented many of the issues
to the Board.
Other: Dec 16 - SF Board of Supervisors Resolution File No. 032016,
Item 58
Up for Adoption Vote urging Lucasfilm Ltd. and PG&E to consider
the route that best protects the health and safety of San Francisco
Residents
Resolution attached.
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PG&E is beginning an ill-planned electric distribution project
that unfairly burdens a San Francisco neighborhood and threatens
the health and safety of children for the sole benefit of a large
industrial power user located inside the Presidio, a federal facility.
The City's procedures are ill designed to address the permitting
of new electrical service through an established neighborhood, especially
where, as here, the new service is designed for a heavy, industrial-type
end user, and not for the neighborhood impacted by the power facilities.
The Public Works Code requires written notice of trenching (a provision
PG&E failed to comply with) but makes no provision for public
participation or the consideration of alternatives, for the study
of public health and safety issues, or for the mitigation of such
risks. Given the proximity of the Project's power lines to homes
(many of which are occupied by young children), shops and a school,
and the lack of any public information regarding alternatives or
mitigation measures, we feel we have raised legitimate concerns
as to public safety. Now is the time to stop this Project to allow
for community input and a rational planning process. Inertia alone
should not dictate the completion of a bad project when laws have
been violated and better, safer alternatives are available. We are
not willing to sit by and allow our neighborhood to pay the price
for PG&E's poor planning, the Presidio Trust's passive disengagement,
and the past unwillingness or inability of City agencies to exercise
effective oversight over this Project.
Residents and small business owners are calling for:
1. Stop work on the PG&E Feeder Line to Lucasfilm Ltd.
2. Abandon plans to route through residential neighborhoods, presently
Bay-Fillmore-Filbert-Lyon
3. Conduct an environmental review of the project - Precautionary
Principle and CEQA
4. Open the project to public participation in the selection of
the route alternatives, and the evaluation of these alternatives
and mitigation measures
5. Locate capacitor(s) in the Presidio
Over 50 affected neighbors sent letters to the following parties
in a four-day period:
SUPERVISOR GAVIN NEWSOM -
· Sponsor and support our Board Resolution opposing the Lucas
Feeder Line as proposed
· Work to seek support for our Resolution with the other
Supervisors before it is heard before the full Board.
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS -
· PG&E sent improper notification to impacted businesses
and residents regarding the construction of the new power line
· No planning criteria / comprehensive review / public participation
for the new power line, the route options, or the capacitor design
and location
· Few if any health and safety considerations / alternatives
/ mitigation measures
· Support our Board Resolution to be introduced by Supervisor
Newsom
LUCASFILM LTD. -
· Neighbors are dismayed at Lucasfilm Ltd.'s refusal to heed
our written concerns and opposition to the PG&E feeder power
line through our neighborhood (1st letter sent on 10/10/03)
· Lucasfilm Ltd. is creating a negative impact on the neighborhood
with ill will to match
· Neither the Cow Hollow Association not the Concerned Neighbors
on Fillmore, Filbert, and Lyon Streets have received until Monday,
December 8, 2003, any response to the letters Lucasfilm Ltd. was
copied on by those two organizations
· As the customer, Lucasfilm Ltd. should direct PG&E
to look at appropriate alternatives to the selected route for this
industrial power line through a high density residential neighborhood
· As the customer, Lucasfilm Ltd. should inform PG&E
that the July 1, 2004 date to supply the initial power can be pushed
back to allow for alternatives to be discussed in a public forum
PRESIDIO TRUST -
· No environmental review to assess the impact of the new
power line and associated equipment on the residences and businesses
in San Francisco has been conducted
· No stated reason for Presidio Trust planners to refuse
an on-site capacitor in the Presidio has been given
· No alternatives for trenching and placing power lines through
San Francisco neighborhoods vs. constructing a power generator on
site in the Presidio has been disclosed
Attachment - Board of Supervisors Resolution File No. 032016, Item
58
Up for Adoption Vote on 12/16/03
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Resolution urging Lucasfilm Ltd. and Pacific Gas & Electric
Co., Inc. to work with the community on alternatives to its Bay-Fillmore-
Filbert-Lyon route for supplying power to the Letterman Digital
Arts Center in the Presidio, and to ensure that the route reduces
impacts on San Francisco neighborhoods to the greatest extent possible.
WHEREAS, Lucasfilm Ltd. has contracted with Pacific Gas & Electric
(PG&E) to supply power to Lucasfilm Ltd.'s Letterman Digital
Arts Center currently under construction in the Presidio; and
WHEREAS, PG&E plans to supply power to Letterman Digital Arts
Center as required by law, by running new power lines from its Marina
substation on North Point at Buchanan Street into the Presidio in
the vicinity of Chestnut and Lyon Streets; and
WHEREAS, PG&E has sought and obtained permits to dig trenches
for the installation of said power lines that westward along Bay
Street, south along Fillmore Street, westward along Filbert Street,
and north along Lyon Street; and
WHEREAS, PG&E has represented to the community that the installation
of said power lines consists of trenching San Francisco streets
and burying three new conduits, one of which will contain lines
delivering a minimum load of eight (8) megawatts of power, with
the potential to deliver twelve (12), and the second conduit designed
to contain power lines carrying similar loads at an unspecified
time in the future; and
WHEREAS, said power loads require the installation of a large pole-mounted
or pad-mounted capacitor along the power lines' route from the Marina
Substation to Letterman Digital Arts Center; and
WHEREAS, a suitable location for said capacitor is now being sought
and has not as of this date been determined; and
WHEREAS, A more suitable location for the neighborhood for the said
capacitor would be in the Presidio; and
WHEREAS, PG&E has represented to the community that its selection
of the Bay-Fillmore-Filbert-Lyon route was based on engineering
criteria, the needs of Letterman Digital Arts Center, and its plan
to mount the capacitor on an existing pole along that route, since
most alternative routes now have fully undergrounded utilities;
and
WHEREAS, No one has been able to demonstrate why said capacitor
cannot be located inside the Presidio and not within San Francisco's
neighborhoods; and
WHEREAS, No City or State agency has performed a review of the potential
human health and environmental risks of the undergrounding of power
lines; and
WHEREAS the Mayor and Board of Supervisors of San Francisco in the
summer of 2003 adopted the Precautionary Principle Policy (Ch. 1
§ 101 SF Environment Code), applicable to all City agencies
and to all businesses operating in the City of San Francisco; and
WHEREAS, The Precautionary Principle Policy provides that where
threats of serious or irreversible damage to people or nature exist,
lack of full scientific certainty about cause and effect shall not
be viewed as sufficient reason for the City to postpone measures
to prevent the degradation of the environment or protect the health
of its citizens; and
WHEREAS, there was no public participation the decision to select
the Bay-Fillmore-Filbert-Lyon route; now therefore be it
RESOLVED, that the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco urges Lucasfilm
Ltd. and PG&E to work with the community and ensure the route
for the powerlines servicing Letterman Digital Arts Center involves
as little impact to the community as possible and, to select the
route that best protects the health and safety of San Francisco's
residents; and, be it
FURTHER RESOLVED, that PG&E shall do everything within the company's
power to locate any above ground equipment including all above ground
wires and capacitor(s) needed for the power lines inside the Presidio
and not in San Francisco's neighborhoods; and, be it
FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors shall
forward a copy of this resolution the Presidio Trust.
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