A San Francisco judge on Wednesday denied a motion to stop the removal of the embattled Vaillancourt Fountain from Embarcadero Plaza as an emergency safety precaution.
An advocacy group called Friends of the Plaza in February filed for a preliminary injunction seeking to set aside a Board of Supervisors vote to let the Recreation and Park Department remove the 710-ton sculpture in advance of a $32.5 million redesign of Embarcadero Plaza.
The motion argued that the city had inappropriately bypassed a full environmental review of the fountain’s removal under an emergency exception to the California Environmental Quality Act.
But Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ross sided with the Planning Department, which relied on a Department of Building report stating’s finding that the massive fountain posed a public safety hazard, particularly in the case of a major earthquake.
“We are pleased the court agreed that the city’s administrative record contains substantial evidence that the fountain poses an imminent public safety hazard,” said Jen Kwart, spokesperson for the city attorney.
The sculpture, which has sat along the Embarcadero across from the Ferry Building since 1972, has been inoperable, closed and fenced off since last year. City attorney Kristen Jensen described the concrete structure as being full of lead and asbestos and said two separate engineering firms hired to assesss it had determined it to be a “blaring life safety hazard.”
Plaintiffs attorney Susan Brandt-Hawley argued that the only public safety hazard was inadequate fencing and the absence of 24/7 security.
“The danger to the public is inadequate security,” she told the court Wednesday. “Security to the site takes care of the problem.”
After the hearing, Brandt-Hawley said she would appeal the ruling.
Joanna Goodwin, project manager for Rec and Park, said the fountain’s removal to off-site storage would proceed, though she did not know when.
“The city’s plan is to carefully disassemble and store the fountain offsite, allowing experts to study the deterioration and evaluate options,” said Kwart. “The project protects the public while preserving options for the fountain’s long-term future.”
Removal of the fountain and its elaborate system of water pipes and infrastructure is expected to cost $4 million. Storage is planned for up to four years while the San Francisco Arts Commission, which owns the fountain as part of the Civic Art Collection, makes a permanent decision about its future.
Though its removal has been described as temporary, Brandt-Hawley said dismantling it may cause “harm to a very important historic resource.”
Friends of the Plaza has sued to keep the fountain in place; that lawsuit is scheduled to come to court in August, also a bench trial before Ross. In the preliminary injunction hearing, Ross said that the plaintiff bears the burden of proving the likelihood of success on the merits of its case at trial. But he said the plaintiff did not reach that level of proof.
But if that suit prevails, it is conceivable that Ross may require the city to return the fountain to its original location and restore it to working order, according to Brandt-Hawley.