Friday, September 21, 2012

UCSF eyes bigger Mission Bay play

Mission Bay (foreground).
University of California, San Francisco, could build nearly 850,000 square feet more of labs, housing and offices than originally expected at its Mission Bay research campus, according to plans being weighed by university officials. The institution is considering several options as it looks at how its booming 43-acre research campus will develop over the next 20 years. The most aggressive would raise the existing 2.65 million square foot building cap by nearly a third, but, ultimately, any proposal must jump through a lot of hoops — starting with community meetings in October and November and ending with UC Board of Regents approval in November 2014. The process has implications for other Mission Bay players. It could force the city to undertake a new, lengthy environmental impact report, and it might handcuff further private development in the high-profile medical and life sciences enclave. Unless UCSF can offset increased lab and office space by, for example, building more housing to lower the number of car-driving commuters, the city might seek an EIR that looks more broadly at Mission Bay and surrounding neighborhoods.

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