By Steven T. Jones
Artists rendering for the Treasure Island development.
Mayor Gavin Newsom just announced an agreement in which San Francisco will pay the U.S. Navy more than $100 million for Treasure Island – property that we were originally supposed to get for free to offset the economic impacts of military base closures and which could be underwater by the end of the century.
In the press release, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus called the agreement “good for the American tax payer” and Newsom expressed optimism that “having the terms of this conceptual agreement with the Navy in place will allow us to finalize our development plans and generate badly needed jobs in this difficult economic climate.”
But this project is still years away from breaking ground. And despite what the release called a project “widely heralded as one of the most environmentally sustainable development plans in US history,” an April report from the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission indicates that a 55-inch sea level rise from global warming – which models show we could experience within 90 years — would inundate most of the island.
Yet project developers, including Lennar Corp. and the politically connected Darius Anderson, will be long gone when Treasure Island sets a new standard for underwater sustainability.