Defenders of the Vaillancourt Fountain, the 30-foot-tall, 710-ton concrete abstraction that has stood in San Francisco’s Embarcadero Plaza since 1971, are asking a judge to stop the city from removing the fountain in advance of a planned overhaul of the plaza, at least until officials issue a report on the environmental effects of the project.
“The City holds the historic fountain in trust for its residents” and “now refuses to consider feasible ways to protect the fountain and the public,” a group calling itself Friends of the Plaza said in a lawsuit filed Thursday in San Francisco Superior Court.
The suit accused city officials of fabricating an “emergency” that would allow them to tear down and remove the fountain without preparing an environmental impact report to inform the public about the reasons for the removal and its impact…