On April 21, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved the designation of five Priority Conservation Areas (PCAs) in San Francisco.
Priority Conservation Areas are Bay Area open spaces that “provide regionally significant agricultural, natural resource, scenic, recreational, and/or ecological values and ecosystem functions; are in urgent need of protection due to pressure from urban development or other factors; and are supported by local consensus.”
PCAs are eligible for regional funding for land acquisition, public access and recreation improvements, and environmental restoration. PCAs are intended to complement the designated Priority Development Areas,and both are elements of Plan Bay Area, the Association of Bay Area Governments’ regional transportation and land use strategy.
San Francisco’s five priority conservation areas are the Palou Phelps Natural Area, Bayview Hill Natural Area, McLaren Park, Twin Peaks Bioregion (San Miguel Hills), and San Francisco Bay Area Water Trail.
Livable City successfully advocated for an expanded priority conservation in the San Miguel Hills, reaching from the edge of Golden Gate Park to Glen Park, and including Mount Sutro, Laguna Honda, Sutro Tower Twin Peaks, Glen Canyon, and surrounding publicly-owned lands. The current designation greatly expands on the prior PDA, and advances the vision of an interconnected network of public parks across central San Francisco.
Livable City nominated two additional areas – Yerba Buena Island, and the Eastern Waterfront. These were not included in Supervisors’ Resolution, but we will work to include them in the next update.
