The State - News from Feb. 17, 1986

A federal judge has indefinitely halted construction of a $1.7-million regional post office at the Army Presidio in San Francisco and added a threat to order the partially finished building demolished. The decision all but kills a $100-million construction program that included enlisted barracks, commissary and a child-support service center on the Presidio grounds. Lawyers for the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund charged the Postal Service and Army violated the federal law which created the Golden Gate National Recreation Area by building the new facility without proper environmental studies or public hearings. Federal law requires that any unused parcel of land on the Presidio must revert to the recreation area if and when the Army no longer has a specific need for it. The Army and Post Office carried out the construction in violation of the statute, U.S. District Judge William Schwarzer ruled.