Brisbane Baylands Development
From the air, the Brisbane Baylands looks like a wound between cities -- 660 acres of mostly empty land wedged between the Bayshore Freeway and San Francisco Bay, just south of the San Francisco border. It should be a neighborhood by now. It was a Southern Pacific railyard, then San Francisco's municipal dump, and by the time the landfill closed in 1967, the soil was so contaminated that redeveloping the site became one of the Bay Area's longest-running planning sagas. More than two decades of proposals, environmental reviews, and political standoffs followed before Brisbane's voters finally weighed in.
Earthquake Debris and Train Smoke
The Baylands exist because San Francisco needed somewhere to put its wreckage. After the 1906 earthquake, debris was hauled south and used alongside fill from the construction of the Bayshore Cutoff railroad line to extend the shoreline, creating a classification yard for Southern Pacific. When the railroad era faded, the city repurposed the land as a municipal landfill, which operated from 1932 to 1967. Decades of industrial and waste disposal use left behind contaminated soil and polluted stormwater runoff -- a brownfield legacy that would define every future conversation about the site. The roughly triangular parcel sits between Bayshore Boulevard and U.S. 101, with Brisbane Lagoon at its southern tip.
Five Plans and Fifteen Years
Universal Paragon Corporation, which owns the Baylands, submitted its first development proposal to Brisbane's city council in 2005. What followed was a planning process of almost geological duration. By 2013, the city's environmental impact report was analyzing five distinct visions: two developer-sponsored plans featuring up to 4,434 housing units and millions of square feet of commercial space, two community-proposed plans that excluded housing entirely, and a renewable energy alternative that would have dedicated 141 acres to solar power. The EIR's key finding cut to the heart of Brisbane's contradiction: the city had four times as many jobs as employed residents, and refusing to build housing would only worsen traffic, pollution, and commute times.
A City That Didn't Want Neighbors
Brisbane's resistance to housing on the Baylands ran deep. In 2016, the city council endorsed a no-housing concept plan, arguing that "ample housing" would be built across the border in San Francisco. The statement drew sharp criticism from San Francisco and San Mateo County officials. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors went so far as to draft a resolution investigating the feasibility of annexing Brisbane altogether if the city refused to contribute to regional housing needs. Mayor Clarke Conway captured the local sentiment plainly: "It was always my hope we'd never put housing out there." The conflict revealed the tensions at the heart of Bay Area governance -- dozens of small cities making land-use decisions with regional consequences.
Measure JJ and What Comes Next
In July 2018, Brisbane's city council certified the environmental impact report and put a modified plan on the November ballot. Measure JJ passed, amending the city's general plan to allow 1,800 to 2,200 residences and up to seven million square feet of commercial development. The vote broke the political deadlock, but construction remained years away. Before a single foundation could be poured, the site required a soil remediation plan that alone would take more than four years to develop and implement. The Baylands remain a landscape in waiting -- Caltrain's Bayshore station sits at the center of the site, and Muni's T Third line runs along its western edge, serving a transit hub that doesn't yet have a neighborhood to serve.
From the Air
Located at 37.707°N, 122.404°W, immediately south of the San Francisco-San Mateo County line. The triangular site is clearly visible from the air between Bayshore Boulevard (west), US 101/Bayshore Freeway (east), and Brisbane Lagoon (south). Best viewed at 2,000-4,000 feet AGL. Nearest airport: KSFO (San Francisco International, 5 nm south). Look for the large undeveloped area contrasting with dense urban development to the north.