San Francisco’s Recreation and Parks Commission just voted to allocate  $237 thousand from the Open Space Contingency Reserve to hire a new consultant. Its job will be just  to respond to the approximately 450 comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) on the Significant Natural Resource Areas Management Plan (SNRAMP, Sin-Ramp) of the Natural Areas Program (NAP).

This will be the third consultant hired, and will bring the money spend on the Sin-Ramp – just formulating and publishing the Plan –  and the Environmental Impact Report on it to over $2 million. That is, $2 million for just the paperwork. Should the third consultant have whatever problems made the first two unsatisfactory, then of course it would mean even more money.  (The Commission seemed inclined to give them whatever they needed.)

(Based on information obtained from San Francisco city government)

That doesn’t include, of course, the cost of actually implementing the Sin-Ramp. Those would increase from about $1.8 million annually now to about $5.4 million annually if Sin-Ramp were implemented. Over the 20-year life of the Plan, that would mean $108 mn. And if the “Maximum Restoration” alternative were chosen, the costs would balloon to $10.8 mn per year, and over $200 million over 20 years.

Is this SF Recreation and Parks Department’s highest priority?

Costs of implementing San Francisco’s Natural Areas Program