See Also: Index of all Measures

Under State law, Caltrans cannot rebuild the Central Freeway without City approval. Although the City can authorize Caltrans to rebuild all or part of the Central Freeway, it cannot require Caltrans to do so.

In November 1997, the voters adopted Proposition H, authorizing Caltrans to retrofit and widen the Central Freeway as a four-lane, single-deck, elevated structure over Market Street from Mission Street to Oak and Fell Streets.

In November 1998, the voters adopted Proposition E, which repealed 1997's Proposition H and authorized Caltrans to replace the Central Freeway with a new four-lane, two-way, single-deck elevated structure from Mission Street to Market Street and a street-level, four-lane boulevard along Octavia Street from Market Street to Fell Street with two additional lanes for local traffic.

THE PROPOSAL: Proposition J is an ordinance that would repeal last year's Proposition E. The ordinance would authorize Caltrans to retrofit and widen the existing lower deck of the Central Freeway to provide a four-lane, single-deck structure over Market Street from South Van Ness Avenue to Oak and Fell Streets. The portion of the freeway between the intersection of Haight and Octavia Streets and the Fell Street off-ramp would be replaced, and a new on-ramp would be built at Oak Street.

The measure also would direct the City to hold quarterly meetings on improving transportation in San Francisco and to develop an annual comprehensive transit plan. Proposition J provides that it could be amended or repealed only by a two-thirds vote of the voters.

Meaning of Voting Yes/No

A YES vote of this measure means:

If you vote yes, you want to authorize Caltrans to retrofit and widen the existing lower deck of the Central Freeway to provide a four-lane, single-deck structure over Market Street from South Van Ness Avenue to Oak and Fell Streets.

A NO vote of this measure means:

If you vote no, you want to continue to authorize Caltrans to replace the Central Freeway with a new four-lane, two-way, single-deck elevated structure from Mission Street to Market Street and a street-level, four-lane boulevard along Octavia Street from Market Street to Fell Street, with two additional lanes for local traffic.

League of Women Voters

• Voters Guide on SF Measures

FAQVoter.com

• Q&As on the Ballot Measures

• ELECTION '99

VOTE YES ON PROP J

Traffic in San Francisco has never been worse! New hotels, tourist attractions, stores, and sport stadiums are being built without thought on how to deal with the flood of vehicles they will bring. The City is in GRIDLOCK and road rage!

We need comprehensive transit planning like that called for in Prop J.

Prop J requires City agencies to meet regularly and create a comprehensive transit plan for San Francisco each year. This will force our government to stay on top of our traffic and transit problems and update their decisions annually.

Prop J also fixes the Central Freeway which efficiently moves 93,000 cars a day and was damaged in the Loma Prieta Earthquake. The freeway is a vital part of a comprehensive transit plan because it feeds into Fell and Oak's four lanes of timed-light, one-way traffic. It's the vital link between San Francisco and the Bay Bridge, the Peninsula, and Highways 80 and 101.

Prop J will provide the following benefits:

1. Less traffic congestion on city streets;

2. NO cost to San Francisco taxpayers;

3. Less traffic noise on the street level;

4. Less hazard to pedestrians, bicyclists and the disabled because of fewer vehicles on the street;

5. Less air pollution because of fewer idling vehicles; and

6. Settles the Central Freeway issue once and for all by calling for a two-thirds vote to make any future change to the future of the freeway.

Prop J gives us comprehensive transit planning and retains the freeway we've been using for the last forty years. Let's get traffic moving! Vote YES on J!

Scott Zeller, M.D.
Rolf Mueller
Sharon Bretz

Don't fall for a flimsy transportation plan thrown in as a "sweetener" for a flawed freeway proposal.

Proposition J CLAIMS to establish a new process that would require City agencies to meet and create a transportation plan:

FACT: City transportation agencies ALREADY meet regularly. A comprehensive transportation plan will be completed by April.

Proposition J CLAIMS to be about ending gridlock:

FACT: Prop J fails to restore access to Franklin and Gough streets. Instead it CREATES GRIDLOCK by funneling all freeway traffic to a single, residential intersection at Fell and Laguna.

Proposition J supporters CLAIM that their plan also provides for old freeway land to be used for building housing:

FACT: PROPOSITION J REPEALS A BOARD OF SUPERVISORS' BAN ON REBUILDING ELEVATED FREEWAYS ON THE SAME LAND WHERE THEY NOW SAY HOUSING CAN BE BUILT.

Prop J's authors chose to reserve this vacant land for rebuilding freeways. Freeways AND housing CANNOT be built on the same land.

We are now 19 months away from completing a beautiful Boulevard that will pay for itself. Today the Boulevard plan is still far CHEAPER and FASTER TO BUILD; SAFER in an earthquake; provides BETTER TRAFFIC FLOW while also allowing for:

• 500-1000 units of new AFFORDABLE HOUSING; and

• $30,000,000 for REAL TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENTS.

VOTE NO ON PROPOSITION J.

Supervisor Tom Ammiano
Supervisor Sue Bierman
Supervisor Leslie Katz
Supervisor Mark Leno

SUPPORT THE PROGRESS WE'VE MADE.

VOTE NO ON PROP J.

Last year San Franciscans rejected this same flawed traffic plan, voting instead to replace the Central Freeway with new ramps and a four-block boulevard along Octavia Street. Sadly, Prop J would block the progress we have made to restore service to the Central Freeway, forcing the City to endure more political and traffic gridlock.

Voters chose the Octavia Plan because it can be built FASTER and CHEAPER, ensures GREATER EARTHQUAKE SAFETY, provides BETTER TRAFFIC FLOW, and restores lost freeway connections to Oak, Franklin and Gough streets.

The City has made great progress toward constructing the Octavia Boulevard:

• City agencies have completed conceptual design, nearly finished environmental review and established a Central Freeway Project Office to oversee construction. New estimates indicate that work can be completed in less than two years.

• State legislation is pending to give 8.7 acres of Caltrans' land freed up by the Octavia Plan to San Francisco. Proceeds from this land - worth over $30,000,000 - will not only pay for the Boulevard but also for numerous other transportation improvements in the City.

• 500 - 1,000 housing units could be built on this land, producing additional tax revenue for city services.

Support the Octavia Plan - a cheaper, faster plan that provides better traffic flow, desperately-needed housing and money for new transportation improvements to benefit all San Franciscans.

VOTE NO on PROP J!

Senator John Burton
Assemblywoman Carole Migden
San Francisco Democratic Party
Sierra Club - San Francisco Group

The people of San Francisco are angry because traffic is way out of hand. That's why in 1997, the people voted for the first time in 8 years to do something about the Central Freeway, replace it. Prop J honors the will of the people as they first expressed it in 1997. CALTRANS has also said that Prop J is not more expensive than the Octavia plan and has a shorter road closure time. Further, Prop J was placed on the ballot with over 20,000 signatures of angry San Francisco voters. Prop J's competitor, Prop I (Octavia), was placed on the ballot by four politicians.

The people also know that a cross-town freeway is not the only answer to our traffic problems. That's why Prop J also mandates that City Hall conduct comprehensive transit planning annually. This will hold our leaders accountable as they address our traffic problems in an environmentally safe and effective manner.

Prop J also provides for more affordable housing. By using only what remains of the Central Freeway and NOT extending it further than Fell Street, Prop J allows land formerly occupied by the freeway to be used for things like badly needed affordable housing. In fact, over 500 hundred housing units could be created.

Let's get cars moving again, prevent parking lots on city streets, save the environment, and create more affordable housing.

Vote YES on J!

Scott Zeller, MD
Rolf Mueller
Sharon Bretz

COMPREHENSIVE TRANSPORTATION PLANNING AND CENTRAL FREEWAY REPLACEMENT ACT OF 1999

SECTION 1. Title

This Ordinance shall be known and may be cited as the Comprehensive Transportation Planning and Central Freeway Replacement Act of 1999.

SECTION 2. Findings and Declarations

The people of the City and County of San Francisco hereby find and declare all of the following:

(a) Since the closure of the Central Freeway in 1989 as a result of the Loma Prieta Earthquake, there has been a dramatic negative.

effect on San Francisco neighborhood residents and businesses due to traffic disruptions.

(b) The closure of the Central Freeway has caused the South ofMarket and Civic Center neighborhoods to suffer from excess traffic congestion and pollution.

(c) Many businesses have suffered as a result of the traffic congestion, lack of convenient access and loss of on-street parking resulting from the closure of the Central Freeway.

(d) In November of 1997, the voters approved the San Francisco Central Freeway Replacement Project of 1997. In November, 1998, a confusing and misleading ballot measure was approved which undid the will of the people.

(e) As a result of the vote of the people in November, 1997, the California Department of Transportation has already spent approximately twenty million dollars to begin work on the San Francisco Central Freeway Replacement Project. As a result of the people's vote in 1997, FEMA approved ten million dollars for the project. If this ordinance is approved, all of that money would be available for the project.

(f) The project proposed in this ordinance is significantly less expensive to the City than the misleading measure which appeared on the ballot in 1998.

(g) This measure will guarantee public safety with respect to transportation and prevent a dangerous situation where thousands of trucks and cars are thrown onto our neighborhood streets.

(h) This measure will reduce MUNI bus lines from being disrupted, and thereby prevent any further inconvenience to MUNI riders.

SECTION 3. Purpose and Intent The people of the City and County of San Francisco hereby declare their purpose and intent in enacting the Ordinance to be as follows:

(a) To allow neighborhood residents the abili ty to enjoy the quality of life they experienced prior to the Loma Prieta Earthquake of
1989.

(b) To allow the South of Market and Civic Center neighborhoods to be free from excess traffic congestion and pollution.

(c) To allow businesses and merchants the opportunity to serve the public without disruption.

(d) To once again approve the will of the voters who previously approved the Central Freeway Replacement Project Act of 1997.

(e) To not waste the approximately twenty million dollars that has already been spent by the California Department of Transportation to fix the Central Freeway, and to utilize the ten million dollars already approved by FEMA, and finish the work on the Central Freeway Replacement Project.

(f) To approve a Central Freeway project that is significantly less expensive than the misleading measure which appeared on the ballot in 1998.

(g) To guarantee public safety with respect to transportation and prevent thousands of trucks and cars from being thrown onto neighborhood streets.

(h) To prevent MUNI bus lines from being disrupted.

SECTION 4. Repeal of the Central Freeway Replacement

Act of 1998 and Board of Supervisors' Resolution Nos. 541-92, 1065-98, 115-99, an d 116-99 Reinstatement of Board of Supervisors' Resolution No. 1073-97

(a) The Central Freeway Replacement Project Act of 1998, which was approved by the voters as Proposition E in November 1998, is hereby repealed.

(b) Resolution No. 541-92, approved by the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco, is hereby repealed.

(c) Resolution No. 1065-98, approved by the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco, is hereby repealed.

(d) Resolution No. 115-99, approved by the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco, is hereby repealed.

(e) Resolution No. 116-99, approved by the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco, is hereby repealed.

(f) Resolution No. 1073-97, approved by the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco, is hereby reinstated.

SECTION 5. Central Freeway Replacement Project

(a) The people of the City and County of Francisco hereby approve the Central Freeway Replacement Project alternative as described in this section.

(b) The existing lower deck of the Central Freeway shall be retrofitted and widened, providing a four-lane single deck structure from South Van Ness Avenue to Oak and Fell Streets.

(c) The portion of the Central Freeway structure from the intersection of Haight and Octavia Streets to the Fell Street ramp shall be replaced rather than retrofitted.

(d) A new on-ramp from Oak Street to Market Street shall be built to replace the demo lished Oak Street on-ramp.

(e) The existing Central Freeway shall remain open and shall only be closed as necessary for the shortest duration possible for construction of the replacement project as described in this subsection.

SECTION 6. Transportation Planning

(a) The Department of Parking and Traffic, the San Francisco Transportation Authority, and the Public Transportation Department, working in consultation with the California D epartment of Transportation, shall convene qua rterly a public meeting to discuss current and p roposed plans for improving transportation in San Francisco for buses, light rail, ferries, cars and bicycles.

(b) The Department of Parking and Traffic, the San Francisco Transportation Authority, and the Public Transportation Department shall prepare a comprehensive transit plan for the City and County of San Francisco on an annual basis. The transit plan developed by the Department of Parking and Traffic, the San Francisco Transportation Authority, and the Public Transportation Department shall take into consideration the City and County of San Francisco's "transit first policy" and develop programs and policies to improve the flow of buses, trolleys, and light rail vehicles on city and county streets.

(c) Bicycles are a crucial mode of transportation for many San Franciscans and shall be included in all transportation planning.

SECTION 7. Amendment or Repeal

This Ordinance may be amended or repealed only if approved by a two-thirds vote of the voters of the City and County of San Francisco.

SECTION 8. Severability

If any provision of this Act or the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid or unconstitutional, such invalidity or unconstitutionality shall not affect other provisions or applications of this initiative which can be given effect without the invalid or unconstitutional provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this initiative are severable.