Potrero Yard Modernization Project
The SFMTA is planning to rebuild and expand the Potrero Yard, located at Bryant and Mariposa Streets.
The Potrero Yard Modernization Project will replace the obsolete two-story maintenance building and bus yard with a modern, three-story, efficient bus maintenance and storage garage, equipped to serve the SFMTA’s fleet as it grows and transitions to battery electric vehicles. A modern Potrero Yard will also help the SFMTA prepare for natural disasters like earthquakes and the effects of climate change, be more cost-effective and, most importantly, help us keep more buses on the road, serving you.
Why Replace the Potrero Yard?
Every day, 102,000 riders rely on buses from the Potrero Yard to get them where they need to go.
However, the current facility is more than 100 years old and presents challenges for our operations. Built in 1915, the Potrero Yard originally served 100 streetcars. Today it houses 158 trolley buses.
The building does not meet modern seismic safety and maintenance standards and, in many of the maintenance bays, the ceiling is too low to do roof repairs indoors or lift buses to repair them from below. This slows down maintenance work, making it difficult to get buses out of the garage and back into service. Fewer buses in service mean longer waits and more crowding for riders.
As Muni expands service to keep up with our ridership, we need more space to park and maintain our growing fleet. Over the last several years, the SFMTA has increased service by 10% – the largest expansion since the 1970s. By 2025, Muni will operate 200 more vehicles than the nearly 1,300 transit vehicles we operate today. San Francisco’s fleet of transit vehicles is the greenest in the United States, and we are gearing up to transition to battery electric buses by 2035. Our existing maintenance yards are too small to accommodate our new vehicles and too old to retrofit for new technologies. A modern Potrero Yard means San Franciscans get better transit service.
Housing on Top of a Bus Yard?
The 4.5-acre site presents an intriguing opportunity for the SFMTA to add another land use above the bus facility’s roof. This is what we refer to as “joint development”.
The SFMTA has two principal reasons for considering joint development. First, revenue from the housing units could potentially offset some of the cost of rebuilding the yard. At the same time, this is 4.5 acres of land that could contribute to meeting City goals for more housing.
In December 2018, the SFMTA began a community conversation about the potential for housing here with two public workshops. We are committed to deepening our engagement with the community to help make a modernized the Potrero Yard an asset to the neighborhood. At our public workshops in February 2019, the SFMTA invited the community to provide input on the best way for the building to fit into the neighborhood, and how to move residents and employees to and from the site.
Stakeholder Engagement
Our Promise to the Public: The SFMTA is committed to an inclusive, transparent stakeholder engagement process in designing this important new project. We believe that the community should help to shape many of the decisions that are needed to rebuild Potrero Yard. The SFMTA promises to:
- Be transparent about the constraints of the project that will guide our decision making
- Work to understand and address stakeholder concerns and priorities
- Balance stakeholder concerns and priorities while also meeting the project's core transit objectives
Potrero Yard Neighborhood Working Group
The SFMTA is excited to announce the formation of The Potrero Yard Neighborhood Working Group, a diverse group of community members who are working with SFMTA staff to provide input to the project concept, elements of the project design, and shape the public outreach. Their input and feedback are important to ensuring that diverse viewpoints are considered and incorporated into the decision making for Potrero Yard.
Meetings of the Working Group are open to the public. You can find agendas, materials, and meeting minutes in the documents sidebar of this webpage.
Members of the Working Group as of February 1, 2019:
| Seat Type | Member |
| Environmental/Parks Advocate | Mary Haywood Sheeter (Friends of Franklin Square) |
| Transportation Advocate | Ryan MacPhee (SF Bike Coalition) |
| Housing Advocate | Erick Arguello (Calle 24) |
| Housing Advocate | Scott Feeney (YIMBY) |
| Preservation/Beautification | Alexandra Harker (Landscape Architect) |
| Youth/Family Services | Alexander Hirji (SF Youth Commission) |
| SFMTA/Muni Frontline Staff Advocate | Kamilah Taylor (Muni Operator) |
| SFMTA/Muni Frontline Staff Advocate | |
| Small Business within 0.5 miles | Roberto Hernandez (SF Carnaval) |
| Small Business within 0.5 miles | |
| Merchant Organization | J.R. Eppler (Potrero Boosters) |
| Resident within 0.5 miles | Magda Frietas |
| Resident within 0.5 miles | Claudia DeLarios Moran |
| At-Large | Thor Kaslofsky |
| At-Large |
Applications Open for Yet to Be Filled Positions on the Potrero Yard Neighborhood Working Group
To ensure diverse and inclusive representation, the SFMTA will be accepting additional members to the Potrero Yard Neighborhood Working Group after the December workshop. To apply, complete the online application form, or you can download the pdf application from the sidebar and email it to Licinia.Iberri@SFMTA.com. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
