Mission Bay Ferry Terminal Project Moves Forward

Plans for the new Mission Bay Ferry Terminal are moving ahead, with the Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) recently approving a supplemental memorandum with the Port of San Francisco about the project.

Kevin Connolly, planning and development manager for the project, presented at this month’s WETA meeting on the project’s goal to use $25 million of Regional Measure 3 (RM3) funding while including a measure to hold the Port of San Francisco financially accountable should the RM3 funding not go through.

Passed in 2019, RM3 is a transit funding initiative that raised the toll cost at seven state-owned bridges by $1 in 2019, another $1 in 2022, and another $1 in 2025. The package was intended to, among other things, provide WETA with funding for projects such as Mission Bay. The initiative has been stuck in litigation since its passage, but the funds are being collected and held in escrow at present pending the litigation’s outcome.

The $25 million planned for Mission Bay is more than half of the estimated budget of $54 million needed for the project. “The uncertainty of RM3 funding is certainly something that makes us uncomfortable,” said Jamie Hurley, development project coordinator at the Port of San Francisco, at February’s WETA meeting. “We may have some further work to do.”

“It seems like the only way forward. And obviously MTC has a process in place, just for projects like this that are otherwise ready to go, but for the availability of that funding. We’re certainly hopeful that it’ll come, that it’ll get resolved soon,” said Hurley.

At the meeting, a representative of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) voiced support for the Mission Bay terminal project, reminding those at the meeting that UCSF is the second largest employer in San Francisco (after the city itself), and that a quarter of UCSF’s employees work at Mission Bay. Avoiding traffic, particularly when major events like concerts are happening at the Chase Center, would be very helpful to UCSF’s employees. “We love them to be able to take the ferry,” she said.

Connolly’s presentation also discussed a provision that once the Mission Bay Ferry Terminal is completed, operation and ownership will be transferred completely to the Port of San Francisco.

With WETA’s approval of the new measures, Connolly estimated a four-month process for the next stage of the project. The measures will next be brought to the Port of San Francisco for approval in March, and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) will act on them in April. In May, budgets will be ready for adoption by WETA. Connolly estimated that construction could start sometime in June.