Yesterday, the Board of Supes approved the new Treasure Island development plan by a 10-1 vote. The one holdout was the new guy, Ed Jew, and you gotta admire the dude for going against everyone else on like his first day of work. We're sure Daly and the rest of them are now sitting around going "frickin new guy" just like we did whenever the new guy at work would start raising their hands in meetings and volunteering for things.

ANYWAYS, the measure calls for $1.2 billion (yes, that's with a "b") dollars to be spent to develop the island. Called for in the plan is around 6,000 new units (some in high-rises), a bunch of hotels and shops, a new ferry terminal, a new park, and seismic retrofits. And with green being the new black these days, the plan is to make it as green as possible-- green materials, green fields, green development plans, green public transportation, so much so planners are having crazy dreams of a car-less island. It's hoped the plan will add housing for 13,500 residents with Chris Daly making it so that at least 30% of the housing will be available at below-market rates. The money for all of this will be made up $500 million thrown in by developers and $700 million on a bond to be paid for by future property taxes. Sadly, not part of the deal is to turn it into some huge ritzy casino like Willie wanted to put there. Oh well.

The next step is for the developers to negotiate with the Navy to get ownership of the island. Once that's taken care of, the Supes would vote to begin getting it all started and new housing will hopefully be ready by 2012.

Questions have been raised about expenses and the additional expenses the city will have to incur once the sucker is built and running. Then there's transportation issues because as anyone has been there knows, there's only one-way off and on the island. The plan is to encourage everyone to use the ferry by charging people $5 a pop to drive off the island. Good luck getting everyone to do that.

If you want to see exactly what's being developed, the Examiner breaks it down for you.