A dolorous bear story
This is truly a hard town for
developers.
Just ask Edward Litke, who’s been
trying to build a little residential project called
Park Dolores at 19th and Guerrero for more
than 20 years. In April Litke “proposed new
construction of five two-, three-, and four-story
buildings containing a total of 43 dwelling units. The
site currently has a 32-space parking lot, which is
accessed by a gate on Oakwood and a facade of an
industrial building at the 3620 19th Street frontage,
which would be demolished. The new buildings would
reach a maximum height of 40 feet in a 40-X
height/bulk district…. with exceptions from the rear
yard requirements of Section 134 and density standards
of Section 209.1(g) & (h).”
Litke intended to insert his
collection of apartment houses into the middle of the
block, snaking their way between the backyards of the
residences lining the perimeter.
The Planning Commission smiled a
sweet collective smile and approved the project.
Then the neighbors entered the
scene, loaded for the bear they saw invading their
little community at the edge of Dolores Park. This
bear was threatening to settle down inside a gated
community — a gated community in the Mission? —
composed mainly of market-rate apartments. To the
neighbors, this was one more invasion of Monster
Homes. And they didn’t like it.
They formed the Guerrero
- 19th Street Neighborhood Association and began
to oil their weapons. A new version of last year’s
Bryant Square protests began.
One neighbor took aim, pointing out
that the Planning Commission (a very different
Planning Commission) had rejected the very same
project — only smaller — in 1979 because it was
not “designed to produce an environment of stable
and desirable character which will benefit the
occupants, the neighborhood and the city as a whole.”
Another got the Fire Department in
his sites, suggesting that it was dangerous and
illegal to route an emergency fire lane “through the
occupant-only shuttered parking garage,” where 100
residents will come and go at all hours.
A hazardous-waste transport expert
named Adam Klein worried about problems arising from
the removal of toxic residue in the soil, a memento of
years of auto repairs on the site.
A shadow study conducted at the PG
& E Energy Center discovered that the project’s
proposed 40-foot buildings would turn the nearby
14-foot-high homes into “depressing spaces where
residents would have to have their lights on all day
every day of the year.”
The San Francisco Victorian Alliance
weighed in, adding a historical perspective. It turns
out that the site was undeveloped for many years, a
fortunate omission perhaps, since it occupies the
Dolores Creek streambed, the zigzag course that marked
the path of greatest destruction in 1906. You may have
seen photographs of the telescoped Valencia Hotel,
which collapsed only a block away. The alliance added,
“We are also particularly concerned about plans for
underground parking in this proposed project in light
of the historic flooding, drowning, and subsidence
just described. We understand that recent soil probes
hit water only ten feet below the surface of this
site.”
The Planning Commission stuck to its
own guns, and the project continued.
So did the neighbors. More than 450
of them signed a petition, objecting to the project in
its present form. “We are not opposed to building on
this lot,” they said, “but whatever is built there
must be compatible with neighborhood buildings, per
the requirements of Proposition M (Code section 101.1
(2)(3)). And must be especially respectful of existing
and historic light and air requirements of all
buildings adjacent to the 19th Street property
surrounded as it is on the east and west and north
sides by more than 20 apartment buildings housing 200
or more residents.”
That’s really the heart of this
particular bear, isn’t it? Respect. Once again the
city has imposed a decision on its citizens, one that
has the potential to change their lives, without
taking their needs into consideration. The alternative
— intensive community meetings — is slow and
messy. But so is democracy.
A final appeal is scheduled for
Tuesday, May 29 at 3:00 in City Hall.
Betsey Culp
cybervoices
Caught in local battles against
runaway development, it’s easy for San Franciscans
to forget that citizens of other American cities are
engaged in a similar fight. Here are two commentaries
— the first from Washington, D.C.; the second from
New York City — which address a problem that has not
yet had a major impact on the city by the bay.
