Background

TOO BIG

The proposed Baylands development would include 2200 housing units and 7 million square feet of commercial development¹, including high-rises up to 270 feet² and up to 800 hotel rooms.³ That would more than double the size of Brisbane.

TOO TOXIC

The landfill and rail yards were closed in the 1980s – there have been decades to clean and remediate the soil. Instead, even after all of the mitigation measures in the Environmental Impact Report (EIR), the native soil in some parts of the Baylands Project will be so contaminated with lead and arsenic that residents won’t be allowed to grow fruits or vegetables for human consumption in the soil. ⁴
Parts of the Baylands are so contaminated that the soil itself is producing potentially harmful gas vapors – but the developer plans to build there anyway, relying on air filtration systems to keep the building safe for humans where other mitigation measures do not reduce vapor levels to safe levels. ⁵
The project is projected to raise excess cancer risks, even after mitigation. The Environmental Impact Report admits that diesel particulate matter emissions would result in excess cancer risks that will affect Baylands residents and the new middle school.⁶

TOO EXPENSIVE

Brisbane housing is already unaffordable! The city’s median household income is roughly $151,000 a year, but the median home price is $1.2 million – completely out of reach on that income. (It would take roughly twice the median household income in Brisbane to afford the median home, according to the Zillow home affordability calculator.)

Now, imagine what’s going to happen to Brisbane housing prices when another 19,000 people are working in new offices, labs, hotels, and other workplaces in Brisbane and potentially competing for Brisbane’s housing?

And now imagine the devastating impact this would have on neighboring cities like Daly City, South San Francisco, and San Francisco. San Francisco alone is over 82,000 housing units behind its required housing goals – and there is very little money for affordable housing. What will the Baylands Project do to housing prices in the immediate region?

Notes

[1] Brisbane Specific Plan, Draft Environmental Impact Report, 3.13-3.14

[2] Baylands Specific Plan Draft EIR, 9-4.

[3] Brisbane Baylands Draft EIR, 3-14.

[4] Brisbane Baylands Specific Plan, Draft Environmental Impact Report, April 2025, 4.13-44

[5] “In areas where CVOC concentrations in soil vapor exceed risk-based site-specific cleanup levels, two rounds of indoor air sampling will be conducted post-construction to verify attenuation factor assumptions and test for seasonality. Additional indoor air sampling may be required based on exceedance of health-based screening levels.” (Environmental Impact Report, 2-40,2-41.)

“Impacts on soil vapor on the UPC OU-SM site that result from the residual CVOCs in groundwater from the Schlage OU will be addressed in the remedial design phase and mitigated at the time occupied buildings are constructed, if necessary.” (Environmental Impact Report, 4.13-25.)