Timeline Unveiled for the 1,100-unit Balboa Reservoir Housing Development

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Developers revealed that the Balboa Reservoir housing project, a plan to build a new neighborhood atop City College of San Francisco’s parking lot, is expected to break ground in September 2022.

The project, which received approval from the Board of Supervisors last August, would build about 1,100 housing units on the reservoir. It includes about 4 acres of open space, a public community room and a 100-seat childcare center.

And, though the Balboa Reservoir Community Advisory Committee is expected to disband at the end of June, some members hope to continue providing community input as a committee through the development’s timeline.

“Neighbors have seen this as a focal point to make comments, and so therefore I suggest we consider not sunsetting at the end of this year,” said Michael Ahrens, president of the Westwood Park Association Board of Directors, at the BRCAC’s March 15 meeting.

BRCAC member Jon Winston, a Sunnyside resident, agreed and suggested merging with the Balboa Park Station Community Advisory Committee, which sunsetted years ago, to look at the neighborhood as a whole.

“That way we can really attack transportation issues and congestion and basically the ability in the whole neighborhood,” Winston said. “And also the CAC left a lot of loose ends when it sunsetted.”

Developers are currently focused on obtaining financing and designating the architecture, interior and landscape teams to pull together designs, said Nora Collins, director of development at Avalon Bay, one of the two main project developers known collectively as Reservoir Community Partners.

They’re beginning the building design for phase one of the project this year.

Phase one plans for 500 units across four buildings along with the street network, park and temporary surface parking for CCSF students and faculty, according to the presentation. Avalon Bay would build the two south buildings, with BRIDGE Housing being responsible for the two to the north, Collins said.

Collins added that in mid-summer or early fall, developers will talk through what the buildings and parks will look like and finalize deciding on a townhouse developer.

Developers plan to approve mapping, purchase land from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and start horizontal construction by 2022. They expect to pursue horizontal and vertical construction along with street approvals in 2023, according to the presentation.

They plan to sell the first townhouses in 2024, which would be when the first residents move into phase one of the project. The design for phase two is expected to begin in the same year.

Developers expect to complete phase one in 2025, which is also when they will apply for phase two financing.