When do the trucks on Frida Kahlo Way stop? The developer's answer is spring 2028. That is the posted finish date for the first phase of Balboa Reservoir. But a second project now runs on its own schedule a few hundred feet north. City College of San Francisco approved it on June 25, 2026. And the piece of Balboa Reservoir that neighbors would actually walk through, the park, isn't scheduled in any phase that is under construction today.
So for Sunnyside, 2028 marks the point where the first stretch of construction gives way to the next. Here is how the two calendars fit together.
Clock one: Balboa Reservoir's Phase IA
The site is a 17-acre parcel next to City College that used to be a parking lot. BRIDGE Housing and AvalonBay Communities are building it out, with Mission Housing Development Corporation as a partner. The current phase is called Phase IA. It covers site infrastructure for the whole community and two affordable buildings.
| Milestone | Developer's posted timing |
|---|---|
| Construction start | November 2025 |
| Building E construction start | March 2026 |
| Infrastructure substantially complete | March 2027 |
| Building E, 128 affordable units, substantially complete | January 2028 |
| Building A, 159 affordable units, complete | Spring 2028 |
| Phase IA overall complete | Spring 2028 |
The developer's two pages don't line up exactly. The construction-updates page puts Building E at January 2028, and the project page says spring 2028 for both buildings. The Westwood Park Association's Summer 2026 newsletter gives a projected overall finish of March 2028. Taken together, that's a window in the first half of 2028.
The sequence is already visible from the street. Building E finished its foundation this year, and crews were framing ground-floor walls and columns as of the summer newsletter. Building A was expected to start foundation work this summer. By September 6, 2026, SF YIMBY reported that the project team described both A and E as under construction.
What the work looks like right now
Most of what you hear from the site is infrastructure. The March 2027 infrastructure date covers it, and it runs underground. In March, crews began laying stormwater lines along Lee Avenue near Whole Foods. These are the deepest utilities on the project, running as much as 20 feet below street level with pipes up to 72 inches across. New sewer and water systems come next.
Three specific changes affect getting around the edge of the site:
- Diego Lane is the road beside Archbishop Riordan High School that links Frida Kahlo Way to the future Lee Avenue. It closed to incoming traffic on June 9.
- San Ramon Way, off Plymouth Avenue, is the workers' entrance. The site has parking for up to 105 construction workers, and the developer expects it to be fully used through summer 2027. Workers can arrive as early as 6 a.m., and work starts at 7 a.m.
- Lee Avenue will become the new connection to Ocean Avenue, with protected bikeways and street trees. It's included in Phase IA. In September 2025, the Ingleside Light reported that Lee would also serve as the project's main truck entrance.
After Plymouth Avenue neighbors complained about noise before 7 a.m., the general contractor said it would try to move worker parking farther from homes, remind subcontractors to keep early arrivals quiet, and secure a porta-potty door that had been slamming in the wind. Back in January, the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association reported that dust monitors and street sweepers were in use. It named Nibbi Brothers as the contractor for the infrastructure and Building E.
What Phase IA leaves out
The approved master plan has about four acres of public open space, including a Reservoir Park of roughly two acres. The developer's project page says plainly that Phase IA does not include Balboa Reservoir Park or any public open space. The new streets that form a loop around the park site are in this phase, and they will surround the future park. The park itself is not.
None of the current schedules gives the park a start date or an opening date. The phase labels make it harder to read. SF Planning describes two phases. The Ingleside Light's 2025 overview described three, with the park grouped alongside Blocks C and D. The May 7, 2026 Planning Commission agenda calls the C and D building part of "Phase 1."
The buildings that would go up around the park are moving forward. At an April 4 community meeting at Unity Plaza, the developers presented a redesign for Blocks C and D. It connects the two structures and lowers each by about one story while keeping the same number of homes. The Planning Commission approved the change on May 7. Building C would be about 69 feet tall and Building D about 58. Sources disagree on the unit count. The Westwood Park newsletter says 249. The Planning Commission agenda and the September building permits filed at 198 Wisteria Lane say 243. AvalonBay has also filed plans for Block G, a 164-unit building designed by Pyatok with parking for 206 cars and 118 bicycles.
Filed permits are not construction dates. They do mean that more building work is lined up on this site after the affordable buildings are finished.
Clock two: City College's garage
The second project sits at 95 Frida Kahlo Way, between Riordan High School and City College's new STEAM building. On June 25, 2026, the CCSF Board of Trustees certified the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Report and approved the parking structure as evaluated. The resolution says no project revisions or added mitigation measures were required.
The approved design is a five-level structure of about 200,000 square feet with about 641 spaces. It rises 52.5 feet to the parapet, or about 58 feet with rooftop solar equipment, and has space for the CCSF Police Department and Custodial Services on the ground floor. The estimated cost is $50 million from the 2020 Proposition A bond. Before the vote, the college expected to break ground in early 2027 and build for 18 to 21 months. No source from after the vote has revised those dates.
The garage is a response to the reservoir project. In February 2026, The Guardsman reported that construction had already eliminated about 200 student parking spaces. It also reported that the lower Reservoir lot, which once held about 1,000 cars, would shrink further as the housing went up.
Not everyone in Sunnyside agrees on the garage. In a Streetsblog piece published hours before the vote, Robin Pam of Streets for All said her group supports replacing lost parking but warned that a garage this large near transit would bring more driving. Jonathan Winston, vice president of the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association, argued that bond money should go toward making transit more attractive. The association's own pre-vote notice gave room to both views. It asked neighbors to weigh in whether they had concerns about traffic on Frida Kahlo Way or supported centralized parking to take pressure off neighborhood streets.
How the two clocks overlap
Line the dates up and the overlap is clear. If the garage breaks ground in early 2027 and takes 18 to 21 months, it would finish sometime in the second half of 2028. That's after Balboa Reservoir's first phase is scheduled to wrap.
- Now through March 2027: Balboa Reservoir infrastructure work, deep utilities and Lee Avenue construction. Diego Lane stays closed to incoming traffic.
- Early 2027: The garage's projected groundbreaking at 95 Frida Kahlo Way, while Buildings A and E are still going up.
- Through summer 2027: Worker parking through San Ramon Way stays in full use.
- January to spring 2028: Buildings E and A reach completion, and Phase IA closes out.
- Second half of 2028: The garage's projected finish, if the early-2027 start holds.
- No date: Reservoir Park, the other public open space, and construction starts for Blocks C, D and G.
San Ramon Way has a long-term plan of its own. The approved project turns it into a pedestrian paseo, and the Westwood Park Association is exploring an agreement to limit its long-term use for vehicles. It has no opening date either.
Where to take a question, and what's already back
For construction issues at Balboa Reservoir, BRIDGE Housing's community liaison is Michael Kupryyanov at (415) 321-3598. General project questions go to [email protected], and the project's monthly newsletter sign-up is at balboareservoir.com. The developer's construction page also lists [email protected]. Jasmine Kaw is the City College project manager listed for the garage, at [email protected].
Some finished work is already in place along this stretch. SFMTA's Frida Kahlo Way quick-build was substantially complete in fall 2024. The last pieces, a bus boarding island at Cloud Circle South and the northbound bikeway lead-in from Ocean Avenue, were pushed to summer 2026, with an evaluation planned for fall 2026. On August 28, City College returned "Sentinels," Aristides Demetrios's nine-and-a-half-foot bronze sculpture, from storage to a spot outside the Student Success Center at Ocean Avenue and Frida Kahlo Way. For the rest of what's happening closer to Monterey Boulevard, our Sunnyside neighborhood page and our summer roundup cover the other side of the neighborhood.
If you own a home near Frida Kahlo Way, Judson Avenue or the Balboa Reservoir edge and want to talk through how a construction calendar that runs into 2028 fits your own plans, Level Up Group follows these projects block by block. Schedule a consultation and we'll go over the timeline with you.
