Susan Mullaney wraps a ribbon around a tree at Crocker Amazon Playground in San Francisco on March 8. The city is considering a plan to turn a section of the park into renovated baseball fields, in partnership with the San Francisco Giants. But the proposal has drawn opposition from residents.
Brontë Wittpenn/S.F. Chronicle
Keep Crocker Real member Wesley Saunders, left, and Mary Fecher push wheelbarrows full of signs to hang on trees advertising opposition to renovation plans at Crocker Amazon Playground in San Francisco.
Brontë Wittpenn/S.F. Chronicle
Controversial plans to transform much of the rundown Crocker Amazon Playground into a youth sports complex got a major boost Thursday when city park commissioners endorsed a $28 million gift from the San Francisco Giants Community Fund for the renovation.
The Recreation and Park Commission, which operates the facility in the Excelsior District, voted unanimously to recommend that the Board of Supervisors accept the grant, which would include renaming the six baseball and softball diamonds the Willie Mays Field of Champions. The grant would pay for more than half the $50 million project, with the Recreation and Park Department responsible for the remaining $22 million.
Commissioners took no action on the proposed project itself, which would remove 120 mature trees and install synthetic turf at five of the six ball diamonds. With 10 acres of synthetic turf already covering the adjacent soccer fields, the project would result in more than half of the playground being covered in artificial surfaces.
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The plan has been met by vocal opposition — including a protest outside a Giants spring training game — from residents arguing that it would reduce shared green space and limit public use of the park.
In response to the outcry, Supervisor Chyanne Chen, who represents the area, has scheduled two community meetings on April 26 and asked the Rec and Park Commission not to take any action until neighborhood input is fully accounted for.
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“I’m here because this grant is being considered before the project has been truly vetted by the community,” Chen said at the hearing. She wants at least two of the fields preserved as natural grass and two-thirds of the existing tree canopy preserved. She said nothing should be decided before input from the community meetings is taken into consideration. “Our residents have invaluable knowledge and deserve equitable engagement in this process.”
These trees would be removed to make way for baseball fields at Crocker Amazon Playground in San Francisco under a proposed $50 million renovation plan.
Brontë Wittpenn/S.F. Chronicle
Also working against the plan and advising against acceptance of the $28 million grant is the advocacy group Keep Crocker Real, which says it has gathered 1,600 signatures on a petition opposing the installation of synthetic turf at Crocker Amazon and every other city park. Keep Crocker Real has called for a citywide moratorium on artificial turf.
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“We are developing the People’s Renovation Plan,” said Bob Hall of Keep Crocker Real. “Stop the Giants overreach.” He was among about 20 opponents of the plan who spoke at the meeting Thursday.
Jack Bair, an officer of the Giants Community Fund, said about half of the $28 million has already been raised. An LLC has been created as a subsidiary of the Community Fund, and naming rights for the individual fields are on offer. The plan is to name each of the fields after a Giants great, in consultation with donors.
The overall complex would be named for Mays, the late Hall of Famer. His “Say Hey Foundation” contributed the first $5 million to the fundraiser.
Bair said the fund is committed to synthetic turf because that is the only way to ensure maximum use.
“The simple fact is that San Francisco has a significant shortage of fields. It cannot begin to meet demand,” he told the commission.
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Bair said that the Giants have been involved in upgrading and maintaining the ballfields at Crocker Amazon for more than 30 years and that it serves the neighborhood in the city with the densest population of kids who play ball. He said that one of Mays’ wishes was to preserve these opportunities, particularly for minority kids in the city.
“Synthetic turf is the key to increasing play and safety,” he said. “It will have lighting which will be state of the art and light the field, not surrounding neighborhoods.”
Project designs are still in the works and will be presented later this year. The plan still must go through environmental review and a vote of the Board of Supervisors. Money contributed by the Giants Community Fund could not be used for other purposes. Construction is expected to start in 2027.
“The Giants have been a first class organization for many, many decades, and they are stepping up to build a complex that is sorely needed,” said Commissioner Larry Mazzola.
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Commission President Kat Anderson said that even if five of the six diamonds are covered in synthetic surface, synthetic fields citywide will still only amount to 1 percent of surfaces in the Rec and Park portfolio.
“In this city people care about their dogs more than their kids,” she said before calling for the vote. “I’d like to see an investment in our children. This project is on balance a great project.”