While the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency is seeking RFP’s from developers interested in restoring and re-purposing the long vacant two-story brick Muni Substation at the southeast corner of Turk and Fillmore (1198 Fillmore to be exact and the big pink rectangle above), it’s actually the new David Baker + Partners designed development that’s in the works next door (1345 Turk Street) that we’ve been keeping our eyes on.
The project consists of 32 affordable condominium units (1, 2, and 3 br). Buildings will be two-to-three levels of wood frame, Type V construction over a concrete Type I podium. An at-grade parking podium includes 62 spaces to accommodate residential and commercial needs. A double height lobby with a stair and elevator will serve as the main entrance to the project. Site work includes a landscaped courtyard on the podium, sidewalk planting and improvements, and landscaping along the Turk Street frontage. The project will be constructed in a single phase. Site area is approximately 0.61 acre and includes a loading area easement for the MUNI Substation Site. The Substation Site itself is not part of this project.
And for those neighboring residents who might be concerned about the preferred reuse of the Muni Substation as a music venue, don’t fret: “Because townhomes will be constructed on the east side immediately adjacent to the Muni Substation, special measures will need to be taken to provide for sound insulation that provides an aesthetic complement to the interior design scheme.”
What is this Walnut Creek??
1. Sheesh. The site requires higher density. It should be MIXED income. Keep same number of subsidized, and add market rate. (What doesn’t SF understand @ this late time?).Don’t underbuild in this critical site.
2. Kill McDonald’s while you’re at is (shame on us), and redev the whole block. Act like a grown-up city. Look around. McDonald’s even has a suburban style lawn to catch the Big Mac wrappers thrown all over the place.
3. Also, while in the groove — the half-block police parking lot across station is critical land for sorely needed MIXED use development.
Think Big SF; this is a critical stretch of Fillmore with excellent NON-CAR transit options. Say NO to underbuilding. This is not 1975!
IMO.
I couldn’t agree with you more Invented.
Density comments are right on.
McDonalds comments are right on.
Mixed use / mixed income comments are right on.
I guess I shoulda just said ditto.
“It should be MIXED income”
Exactly. Why on earth concentrate still more subsidized housing in a neighborhood that’s *already* overwhelmingly subsidized? It’s amazing how SF never learns.
Great comment Invented. It makes me wonder about the site and the zoning…was it a redevelopment agency owned property? Was there something in the RFP or the underlying zoning that restricted the height and density?
Strangely, much of redeveloped Hayes Valley/ Western Addition is very low density, so in a warped sense this project is just “contextual”. Much of the crap that replaced the Victorians torn down in slum clearances is two story garden apartments with surface parking lots. Much of it is just crying to be redeveloped again…..
One thing to keep in mind is that it appears the “project consists of 32 affordable condominium units”. These would be units ‘for sale’ so the residents would most likely be a mix of people from SF.
Cool! Roll out of bed and score crack in da hood without using your car.
I made the mistake of living in the hi rise on corner of Turk and Fillmore near the projects and actually got used to the sound of gun fire from the drive by shootings.
You would have to pay me big bucks to live anywhere in that neighborhood.
westernAddRox I hear the same shootings and am aware of the murders in WA and Alamo Sq environs where I currently reside.
The projects are gross, dangerous, under-built — everyone knows it. No one talks about it. (I think it’s a Calif thing.)
I can look the other way and stay away (which it seems SF is well practiced at doing – like the underground network of parents shuffling their kids in luxury cars in and out of garages — the kids rarely to be seen on um, a sidewalk) — or we can be in-your-face and demand and give voice to correcting the huge development mistakes made here. To the city, Ross, Dufty, to every head of Neighborhood Assn. Supes – don’t wonk @ our community meetings unless you’re prepared to talk about re-inventing the projects.
I basically grin & bear the insults of planning and redev — and where I have time try to get involved.
But it comes @ the expense of a level of exhaustion and disappointment in SF and a feeling like I’m only living in tomorrow’s SF.
But in the meanwhile, it’s site by site — and for Fillmore/Turk site we can’t afford to take a misstep; 32 condos is wholly lame for that key site.
And if 32 is what’s happening — SF — stop intoning your endless mantra about your housing shortage when you deprive more opp by building only 32 condos on a city-central site as this
IMO
Roof gardens! Where are the roof gardens?
I can hear the sound of my car window being shattered right now.
They need to determine the difference between “affordable” housing for the working class vs. “subsidized” housing for the criminal element, which is currently the standard for the neighborhood.
This Saturday’s shooting 3 blocks from Turk/Fillmore.
“The first shooting was reported at 9 p.m. Saturday at Webster and Fulton streets”
http://www.fogcityjournal.com/news_in_brief/bcn_sf_shootings_080106.shtml
Right here in all-is-good, live-and-let-live (!), look-the-other-way Calif.
Say NO to bad Planning.