That's Mixed-Use: Housing on Top of a Bus Yard

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency wants to build housing on top of a Muni bus yard, reports Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez. Rodriguez calls the project a historic first.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is preparing to rebuild and revitalize its 103-year-old Potrero bus yard at Bryant and Mariposa streets. The facility is out of date in numerous ways — from its size to its electrical system — that slow down the repair and deployment of modern buses, staffers told the San Francisco Examiner.

The city needs more buses to meet the needs of a growing population, but the project is also expected to be very expensive. The city also needs housing to meet the needs of a growing population, which could cover the cost of some of the expenses of rebuilding the bus yard.

Rodriguez explains more:

In order to help foot a portion of that eyebrow-raising bill, SFMTA planners are proposing something they’ve never tried before: a developer-created housing project directly above the bus yard. Affordable housing would be part of the equation, but the entire development could not be 100 percent affordable with only SFMTA funding, as a major driver of the development is the need to help pay for roughly 10-15 percent of the bus yard project…

A lot more details on the potential design, financing, and politics of such a mixed-use novelty are included in the article.