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VTA’s latest station area design for the BART 28th St/Little Portugal Station includes a 20,000 sq. ft. building next to the subway station entrance building, also called the “head house”. This nearly half-acre building will house machines to support the functions of the head house. Machines that were originally underground and nowhere to be seen in previous station area designs.
To put this in perspective, a 20,000 sq. ft. building is 30% BIGGER than the biggest Trader Joe’s. This 20,000 sq. ft. of prime real estate will be wasted on machines that should be underground and out of sight as originally planned. This ground level space could be better used for a grocery store or anything more useful to the community than a machine room (outlined in red below).
Furthermore, the layout of the station’s plaza is a drastic departure from the community’s vision in the BART Station Area Community Concept Plan (2010) and the current Five Wounds Urban Village Plan (2022). The community envisioned a European-style plaza surrounded by ground-level retail, restaurants, and services with residential above in low-rise buildings. As you can see in the layout below, two sides of the plaza are bounded by busy streets.
