These San Francisco Condo Dwellers Are NIMBY Hypocrites
Residents of a building that sailed through the city's approval process want to stop a building next door because it would shade a senior center, alter a "historic" gay bar
Residents of a San Francisco condo building that sailed through the city's planning process are now trying to prevent the approval of another apartment building next door, saying the new development would block their views, cast shadows on senior citizens, and threaten a historic gay bar.
At issue is developer 1525 Pine Street Dev LLC's proposal to build a 21-unit, 83-foot-tall mixed-use building with close to 3,000 square feet of commercial space in the city's Nob Hill neighborhood. The lot currently plays host to Grubstake, a longstanding gay bar that the developer is promising to incorporate into the new development.
Two of the proposed Pine Street development's units would be affordable studio apartments offered at below-market-rates to low-income renters.
The sponsors of the Pine Street project first applied for approval to build a 15-unit development in 2016. In October 2019, they submitted a revised application that made use of a state "density bonus" law which would allow them to build the 21 units they're now requesting.
Despite the inclusion of affordable units, and promises to preserve the Grubstake pub as an operating business, the Pine Street project has incensed residents of the adjacent Austin condo building, who argue that the height of the proposed Pine Street development would cast too many shadows, block views, and endanger the privacy of people next door.
The demolition of the original Grubstake building, they say, would also diminish the character of the Polk Gulch LGBTQ Historic District that covers the area.
In February, attorney David Cincotta, on behalf of several of these Austin residents, filed an appeal disputing a draft environmental report issued by the city's Planning Department which found that the project would have no adverse environmental impacts.
That appeal, as well as letters of opposition from individual neighbors, says further study of the project's possible impacts—including its effect on traffic volume, wind, shadow, and the neighborhood's historic character—are needed before the project can move forward.
The city's environmental report "must also consider the impact to frail seniors associated with the permanent loss of natural sunlight to windows at the Leland-Polk Senior Community," wrote one Austin resident in a letter to the city's Planning Commission. "Residents of this community rely on light from the north facing windows that will no longer be available due to the 1525 Pine Street Project."
"Grubstake has a lot of historic and LGTBQ significance which is at the core of why some of us bought homes in The Austin," wrote another project opponent. "I have reviewed the proposals for reusing some of the existing materials, but not having the restaurant there for [two] years changing its original shape as well as staff, will lose the frequent patronage that a lot of us were hoping to have as neighbors."
Last week, the city's Planning Commission—which controls the Planning Department—was supposed to vote on this appeal, but instead decided to delay considering it until early May.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires that projects like the proposed Pine Street development undergo environmental review before being approved by government agencies. Citizens are allowed to appeal environmental reviews if they think they were not thorough enough.
Should all those appeals fail, people are empowered under CEQA to sue to overturn the approval of a project.
The law is frequently used in San Francisco to delay or derail projects over some alleged environmental impact, whether that be the destruction of a "historic" laundromat or the excess shadow coverage of a nearby park.
One building that actually managed to avoid administrative appeals and lawsuits was the Austin, where most of the people objecting to the proposed project at 1525 Pine Street now live.
The Planning Department received no letters of opposition when that building—a 12-story tower that required the demolition of five buildings—was going through environmental review in the summer of 2014. The Planning Commission approved it unanimously in October of that year. It was ready to break ground by the end of 2015 and was completed in 2017.
Had nearby residents at the time engaged in the same kind of anti-development activism that some Austin residents are now, it's quite possible the building would still be a work in progress today. It might not even have been built at all.
Obviously, that would be bad for the current residents of the building. Yet those same residents appear eager to deny the next group of migrants to the neighborhood a home by gumming up the approval of the building next door.
Rent Free is a weekly newsletter from Christian Britschgi on urbanism and the fight for less regulation, more housing, more property rights, and more freedom in America's cities.
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saying the new development would block their views, cast shadows on senior citizens, and threaten a historic gay bar.
So whether the new building is erected or not, someone’s taking it in the ass.
There’s another gay bar (or was, 35 years ago) down Polk a block or two called the White Swallow.
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I did a streetview of the condo. I wonder how many google employees work there.
Follow the money.
I don’t begrudge people their right to protest on zoning issues. But it really annoys me that we are subsidizing their lives of luxury with social security and medicare – so they can keep us out of their neighborhoods.
How can you cast a shadow on a north facing window?
Now you see how truly despicable white privilege really is.
How can you cast a shadow on a north facing window?
Easy, you build it in the southern hemisphere
Not a single mention of white privilege.
the character of the Polk Gulch LGBTQ Historic District that covers the area
lol. We used to call that the Tenderloin (the city has actively tried to rebrand the area by not calling it that anymore), where the sex shops, porn theaters (Mitchell Bros’ famous O’Farrell Theater, specifically), and hookers were. Where junkies offered $5 blowjobs. Apparently it’s gentrified, and now the gentrifiers think it had “character.” But don’t want to call it by the name it had when it had this “character” and so now call it “Polk Gulch” (which is distinctly not Nob Hill).
The actual “LGBTQ” neighborhood was/is the Castro. Tenderloin/”Polk Gulch” has historically been a cesspool of destitution. The anti-gentrification movement is something I just don’t understand.
The anti-gentrification movement is something I just don’t understand.
All you need to know is white people are racists. They were racists for White Flight and they are racists for Gentrification.
Don’t forget long-term real estate investment and home ownership and taking advantage of their privilege to appeal to a wider variety of landlords and achieve lower rents.
There, that should cover everyone.
“The anti-gentrification movement is something I just don’t understand.”
Two reasons I can think of are: We don’t want to pay much larger, market-value property tax assessments and we’re getting a ton of graft from servicing the lower-income residents of the area. Residents that will be moved elsewhere if the gentrification goes through.
There’s a lot of money and power in pretending to give a shit about the poor.
Right. Just ask Maxine Waters.
Funny that the NIMBYs and gentrifiers are generally young Progressives. Guess they’ve adopted the “Do as I say, not as I do” mindset from Pelosi and Feinstein.
“Grubstake has a lot of historic and LGTBQ significance which is at the core of why some of us bought homes in The Austin,” wrote another project opponent.
If you bought a home because you could get drunk every night with gay guys, I think you’ve lost the battle over ‘neighborhood character’. Notably because your neighborhood is focused on getting wasted and fucking, so who cares about a high rise that casts more shade on your drinking and fucking.
It would be terrible if someone bought that bar and then it burned down and just wasn’t rebuilt.
You know what they say – a developer is somebody that wants to build a cabin on the mountaintop, a conservationist is somebody who already owns a cabin on the mountaintop.
A lot of Grubstake regulars would be surprised to see this burgers-and-pancakes late-night diner called a gay bar, or even a bar.
Planning Commission decisions are not about wind and shade. They are about cronies and kickbacks. The process of the current LinkedIn building on Howard is a recent example. No shade or wind issues there, no sir!