When Pet Food Express lost their battle to occupy the former Blockbuster space on Lombard Street, a non-chain pet store (Wolf & Lion) was granted a lease, but it’s likely not for long. For behind the scenes, plans to level the site and construct a four-story building with 53 condos over 11,000 square feet of retail and an underground garage have been drafted.
As proposed by J.S. Sullivan, the 2444 Lombard Street site would be excavated to a depth of 18 feet to make way for a basement garage with 53 parking spaces for residents, and 20 spaces on the ground floor for the retail, with the driveway located on Divisadero rather than Lombard.
And as designed, the Marina District development would include 18 studios, 18 one-bedrooms, 15 two-bedrooms, and two three-story, three-bedroom townhouses. A mix of balconies, roof decks and rear yards would provide residents with around 12,000 square feet of “open space.”
Nice to see a blighted area finally developed. There remains several former gas station lots on Lombard, Bay, and Van Ness that need updating. The NIMBY’s kept the pet store from the Marina.
agree. lombard is kind of a crappy street considering how everything surrounding it is so nice. would like to see the prostitution cleaned up there as well
I hope Wolf & Lion come back love that store and they have great prices. it will be nice to see the area improve!
I’m with MarinaBoy. Would hate to see Wolf and Lion go.
As much as I’m going to miss Wolf & Lion, sounds like a positive change. Does the city have any vision for the Lombard corridor? What’s it supposed to be?
Good question. The city did a great job with Cesar Chavez (or Army for those that remember the name) – I wonder if they have any similar plans for Lombard. A streetscape project would definitely be a great start to an overall vision for the corridor.
There has been talk in the past year about streetscaping Lombard now that Van Ness and Doyle Drive are being reinvented. I think it’s very preliminary at this point though.
Streetscape is nice, but anyone check the traffic flow on Chavez (nee Army )lately? Kinda slow going there getting down to 101.
Traffic has really slowed down on Cesar Chavez: much more congestion. Landscape is nice, but we pay a price by more congestion.
I’m on CC daily and I really don’t notice much of a difference. Most of the cars are in a big hurry to get to the freeway only to get stopped at congestion on the onramp.
With these improvements, it may take all of 5 minutes longer to reach the freeway to be stuck in traffic all the way down the peninsula.
Nice for the people who live around there though and they are more important than a few extra minutes are for drivers
I’ve noticed it’s not so nice for the people on Precita, parallel to Cesar Chavez, as drivers headed to 101 try to bypass the backup by going into the neighborhood.
precita is a one way street going the other way though so the people doing that are most likely just coming from alabama. since it’s a stop sign, then a merge (and we all know how SF people merge) I don’t imagine it being easier
Yeah, saving lives is more important than a minute or two for a few drivers. Especially since there is a schol right there. I find Cesar Chavez to be much more pleasant to use, both on my bicycle and in a car.
My 2 cents is that the slower traffic is well worth the trade off of a more walk able and green street. I use to live over there and CC was essentially a no man’s land that divided Bernal and Mission. I think the changes have done a lot to repair this.
I’ve heard and read similar things from people who live in the area– they feel much safer walking around CC with the changes.
Lombard is also Highway 101 so SFMTA/Bike Coalition cabal will have a hard time removing auto lanes for bikes, or trying to make traffic miserably slow to punish drivers. How about some landscaping down the center for a start and a greener design for the sidewalks?
lombard is already miserably slow and really makes no sense for bike lanes. the marina green and bay street are very close by and better options for bikes anyway. its also easy to bike on filbert.
yeah I’d agree (and I bike daily). Bike lanes on major streets only make sense where they are the flattest route and there are no other alternatives.
My only concern is the traffic is slower, sitting still longer, with more noise and more pollution for the residents right on Chavez as the engines may be idling more….
Do you have any reason to believe that traffic is slower, other than your subjective opinion? They took out a lane, but added a left turn lane, so I am guessing that the traffic flow is about the same. It feels about the same to me.
Are you kidding? Traffic on Chavez is much, much smoother, faster and safer now.
I commute on Chavez and find the new configuration is easier to drive on, not to mention much more pleasant.