Defend Our Waterfront v. State Lands Commission

I.

INTRODUCTION

In this case, we address a discrete dispute arising out of the controversial “8 Washington Street Project,” a plan to develop waterfront land near the San Francisco Ferry Building. The site for the project includes a parcel of property commonly referred to as “Seawall Lot 351,” which is currently owned by the City and County of San Francisco through its Port Commission (the City), subject to the public trust for uses benefiting the people of California. The public trust restriction on the use of Seawall Lot 351 is inconsistent with the 8 Washington Street Project as conceived by the project developers, real parties in interest San Francisco Waterfront Partners II, LLC, and Pacific Waterfront Properties LLC (the Developers). To remove this inconsistency, the Developers and the City devised a plan to transfer Seawall Lot 351 out of the public trust and replace it with a different parcel of property pursuant to a land exchange agreement with the State Lands Commission (the SLC). In August 2012, the SLC approved the Seawall Lot 351 land exchange agreement, finding, among other things, that the agreement is a statutorily exempt activity under the California…