SF could have dense, fine-grained, family-friendly Neighborhood, Not Megaproject

A design study proposes reimagining Candlestick Point as a dense, fine-grained, family-friendly neighborhood made of courtyard blocks rather than a single megaproject. The plan models small perimeter buildings with public-facing streets and protected interior gardens, ground-floor spaces for shops and work, piazzas, an athletic park and a waterfront promenade. It estimates capacity for roughly 16,400 homes - about 6,600 three- and four-bedroom units - more than double the current Candlestick program of ~7,200 homes. Illustrative floorplates show two four-bedroom corner units sharing stairs and a lift, and courtyard gardens sized for children’s play, bike storage and planting. The concept emphasizes life-cycle housing so households of different sizes can live locally and children can play outside in secure shared yards.

Implementation hinges on a fine-grained district framework that lowers barriers to entry for small builders, nonprofits, cooperatives and resident-led building groups, drawing on a Hamburg precedent for organized household commissioning. Repeated components and reused plans would reduce costs; parking is concentrated in shared garage parcels rather than beneath every home; and ownership models could include condos or co-ops. The appendix documents area budgets and assumptions, but modeled capacities remain conceptual: fitted layouts, code compliance, parking capacity, shoreline/drainage work, infrastructure financing and governance are unverified and require further testing.