Bryan Goebel

299 Valencia Street

By Bryan Goebel

The San Francisco Planning Commission has unanimously approved a developer’s conditional use request to build new underground parking above the ratio set in the Market & Octavia Neighborhood Plan, betraying the spirit of a sustainable blueprint that took nearly a decade to craft, and inviting more vehicle congestion to the transit-rich Mission District, where a majority of residents do not own cars.

“For the planning commission to just give away something that should be earned…is quite offensive, actually, after eight years of a democratic planning process,” said Jason Henderson, a Hayes Valley neighborhood activist and assistant professor of geography at San Francisco State University.

The parking lot would sit below a proposed five-story building at 299 Valencia Street -- now a car share lot -- that would house 32 condos likely to be priced around a million dollars each. It would include four affordable housing units and nearly 5,000 square feet of ground level retail space. The developer wants to construct the underground lot for 30 residential and commercial parking spaces, or .75 per unit, under the guise of marketability and over the limits of the Octavia/Market Plan.

“The requested parking will be necessary to market the units, particularly in a difficult economic climate,” attorney David Silverman, representing the developer, testified at last Thursday’s meeting.
Valencia and 14th Streets, a major walking, cycling and public transit neighborhood
The building, which would be close to the polluting Central Freeway, would face two major cycling routes: the heavily traveled Valencia Street bicycle route, the vibrant 14th Street bicycle route and the 26-bus line. It would be located a block from the Mission Street transit corridor, blocks from the city’s main drag, Market Street, and a few blocks from the 16th Street BART station.

“We think that until the project sponsor can really demonstrate that they’re not going to harm these very, very important transportation routes (the conditional use request) shouldn’t be granted,” urged Tom Radulovich, the executive director of Livable City, who sits on the BART board of directors.
14th Street Bicycle Route
But a majority of commissioners, in their first major test of the Market/Octavia Plan adopted in April by the Board of Supervisors, seemed sympathetic to the developer, with the exception of Chair Christine Olague, who blasted Silverman’s assertion that more parking is needed to market the units.

“There’s no justification for additional parking in this area,” she said. “If less parking would mean a unit would be more affordable it would increase the marketability of certain units and it would widen the market for those who could afford to purchase one of those units.”

The Market/Octavia Plan, one of the first in the U.S. to allow developers to build new housing with no parking, set strict limits on new parking to one space for every two units. A compromise was reached that would allow more parking only in extreme cases, “like if a disabled person needed it for their van,” said Henderson.

“Conditional uses are common in plans and in zoning when a developer has an exceptional need or a very unique situation. So the zoning code is made flexible to allow for unique situations, compelling situations. This particular development and the arguments made by the developers offered no compelling reason to grant an increase in parking. There is none, really.”

Commissioners ultimately voted for a “compromise” offered by the developer that would create two car share spaces, replacing two residential parking spaces, but there are accessibility issues since the lot would be on private property.

There was also some confusion about the motion leading the progressive members, including Olague, to vote in favor. Still, Henderson says: “It was their first vote on this project and I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and I think they heard us and I think they’re going to proceed with a little more caution.”

Henderson and other opponents plan to appeal to force the issue before the Board of Supervisors. A majority must then be persuaded to hold a public hearing.

A spokesperson for the planning commission said no appeals had been filed yet.

If San Francisco is going to be a truly progressive and sustainable city it needs to stand up to developers who claim “marketability” as the only justification for clogging our streets with vehicle traffic and creating more greenhouse gas emissions.

But with a seven-member planning commission in which four are appointed by our supposedly green mayor, Gavin Newsom, we will continue to face these kind of challenges throughout the city.

(Photos by Bryan Goebel)