Treasure Island, CA is a man-made island that was built in 1939. It was a naval base from WWII to 1990s. After the Naval Station closed in 1997, Treasure Island was opened to residential and other uses, but according to the US EPA and the State Department of Toxic Substances Control, the groundwater and air are contaminated with asbestos, plutonium, radium and other substances which are known to cause cancer and other illnesses. Treasure Island was declared as a Superfund site.
In 2005, one of the largest developers in the United States proposed to build a self-sustaining city on Treasure Island. The proposal has 5,500 units of housing in several lowrise buildings, restaurants and a ferry terminal facing San Francisco. The plan also contains several midrise towers, four 40-story towers and one 60-story tower called the Sun Tower.
The proposal is designed to be as car-independent as possible, with the ferry terminal and basic goods within a 10-minute walk of the residences. A toll of $5 has been proposed to deter non-residents from driving onto the island. Streets will be angled in order to maximize solar energy for heating, cooling and lighting and protect residents from the wind. Every single building built on the island will have LEED Gold certification.
About half of the island's 400 acres will be set aside for open spaces, including an urban farm to supply organic local food to the residents, constructed wetlands to purify storm water runoff, and a restored natural forest ecosystem. All food scraps and grass clippings produced on the island will be composted for use by the farm. Electricity will come from a combination of solar (drawn from solar panels on the island's buildings), wind and biogas, and possibly also tidal energy.
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