Make UCSF Keep its Promise
Protect Parnassus Heights and
Mt. Sutro Open Space
UCSF is breaking its promise not to expand in this historic neighborhood with a massive project which will take 30 years to complete.
Join us, the Sierra Club and others, in opposing this ill-conceived development.
Sign our petition to the UC Regents here
Future of Parnassus Heights with planned UCSF Construction
UCSF’s Expansion Plan at Parnassus Heights
In 1976, the UCSF Regents promised to permanently limit expansion at Parnassus Heights. They now want to add the equivalent of the combined Salesforce Tower and Transamerica building to the existing campus and squeeze 8,000 more people a day (not including patients and visitors) into an already crowded space.
UCSF’s proposed expansion will place a massive 16 story building in a quiet residential neighborhood. It will result in housing shortages, traffic congestion, harm to wildlife, loss of open space and increased cancer risk to nearby residents. More crowding also will increase the risk of spreading infectious diseases during future pandemics.
Learn more by reading UCSF’s Expansion Plan and Broken Promises
Superior alternatives are available to UCSF
UCSF has produced an unimaginative plan to address its potential future growth while many other, more creative and forward-looking, as well as practical, alternatives exist, including the Shipyard at Hunters Point and UCSF’s own hospital at Mt. Zion. Former Mayors Art Agnos and Willie Brown are working together to advance the Shipyard location as exceptional opportunity for UCSF. It would revitalize a neglected area of San Francisco and enable UCSF to design a modern medical site without the limitations imposed by the Parnassus site. Read more about Alternatives.
UCSF’s plan ignores the probable effects of COVID-19
UCSF has chosen to forge ahead without addressing the impact of COVID-19, stating in the draft EIR that the effects of COVID-19 “cannot be predicted without speculation.” COVID-19 will have far reaching impacts not just on healthcare provision and medical research, but on every aspect of urban planning. The CPHP relies on pre-COVID-19 healthcare, population, economic, and workplace data that can no longer be considered accurate. The imperative in a post-COVID-19 world is to reduce population density in indoor environments, but UCSF’s plan goes in the opposite direction. Why does UCSF want to charge ahead with a multi-billion dollar decades-long hospital project in this scenario? More information on COVID-19
Former San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos has called UCSF’s plan “deeply flawed”
Mr. Agnos wrote that “UC San Francisco has a well-deserved reputation of excellence in research, teaching and health care delivery. That’s the “medical” side; but the “developer” side is seeking to strangle the Parnassus Heights neighborhood. . .Our city deserves the same kind of superb caring attention always provided by the medical side of UCSF.” Read Mr. Agnos’s entire op-ed UCSF’s Parnassus expansion plan would strangle neighborhood.
The Construction Period will extend for 30 years.
UCSF’s plan contemplates that demolition and construction will take place in two phases, an Initial Phase commencing in mid-2021 and extending for ten years and a Future Phase which won’t be complete until 2050. During these periods the residential neighborhoods in the vicinity the Parnassus campus, including the Inner Sunset, Cole Valley and Haight Asbury will experience increased traffic, noise and toxic emissions. For the noise experience go here.
Learn about the issues and threats.
UCSF is threatening to violate a long-standing and oft reconfirmed promise to limit expansion at Parnassus Heights. Learn More
UCSF’s plan does not account for Covid-19. Increased densification will increase risk during future pandemics. Learn More
UCSF’s plan will put increased pressure on housing and will result in higher rents and more traffic. Learn More
UCSF’s Environmental Impact Report indicates that its plan will increase cancer risk and toxic emissions. Learn More
There is a 30 year demolition and construction period. Learn More
The plan will have a significant adverse impact on wildlife including the possibility of increased bird deaths by collision. Learn More
The plan will obstruct significant views throughout San Francisco and result in increasing shadows. Learn More
UCSF’s Environmental Impact Report does not comply with the California Environmental Quality Act. Learn More
Who We Are
View from Parnassus Avenue, near UCSF
We are residents of the communities surrounding UCSF at Parnassus Heights and have established the Parnassus Neighborhood Coalition to oppose UCSF’s proposed expansion of its Parnassus campus.
We are working with other neighborhood groups, including San Franciscans for Balanced and Livable Communities (Inner Sunset), the Cole Valley Improvement Association, the Edgewood Association, the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council, and The Yerba Buena Neighborhood Consortium, all of which also vigorously oppose UCSF’s expansion plan.
Cole Valley
Most of the individuals and groups challenging UCSF’s expansion plan are strong supporters of UCSF who want it to grow and succeed, but that does not change the fact that the Parnassus expansion plan is a flawed, expensive, destructive and ill-considered plan. This plan should be rejected by the University of California Regents., most of whom are from Southern California and are not aware of the nature of San Francisco’s neighborhoods. We need to make them aware and make sure they reject the plan.
Contact
Feel free to contact us with any questions.
Email
parnassusneighborhoodcoalition@gmail.com