Purchased along with the 7-story office building on the southwest corner of Francisco and Montgomery for $91 million in the fourth quarter of 2016, plans to raze the four-story, 274-space parking garage at 55 Francisco Street have been drawn.  And as envisioned, a 6-story building could rise up to 65 feet in height on the Telegraph Hill site.

While the block is zoned for development up to 65 feet in height, as proposed, the parcel is limited to a maximum of 61 residential units based on its size. But the project team is planning to utilize a State Density Bonus to develop 92 apartments, a mix of 18 studios, 51 one-bedrooms, 13 twos and 10 threes, on the site, along with a ground floor garage for 69 cars and 2,900 square feet of office space fronting Francisco Street.

Based on Planning’s preliminary review of the proposed plans, however, it would appear that a maximum of 46 parking spaces would be allowed for the building’s residents. In addition, while the potential bonus for the parking garage site was calculated based on it being a standalone lot, there is an existing “special restriction” for the property that requires that the 55 Francisco site, which includes the adjacent office building, the approval of which came with the restriction, to be “considered together in perpetuity as a single development lot with regards to all planning code provisions” and could affect the bonus calculus and potential. We’ll keep you posted and plugged-in.

8 thoughts on “Bonus Plans for Another Parking Garage Site on the Boards”
    1. Technically, the lots, which are a block off the Embarcadero, fall within the “Telegraph Hill – North Beach Residential Special Use District,” at the base of Telegraph Hill.

      1. And also the ‘Waterfront SUD 3,” which, along with “Waterfront SUD 2” covers most of the Embarcadero, excluding the areas in the Financial District and SOMA.

        In reality, this is a Waterfront/Embarcadero lot that is regulated in harmony with Telegraph Hill, because Telegraph Hill’s bay views are one of the most protected things about SF (for better or worse)

  1. Another sleepy part of the city that could be easily improved with housing and smaller-scale retail. I’ve always loved walking these tighter, tree-lined streets along the cliff, hoping to bump into something I’ve never seen (like a person).

  2. This part of town is far too underpopulated. Fix downtown and financial district by actually building some housing! And yes this will require pushing back on the out of touch Telegraph Hill residents.

  3. The city said it would remove those dangerous trees seen in this photo within two years, and here we are in 2022 and the only ones removed around the city that I know of are those that have fallen on people & cars or into the street.

    1. They’re “dangerous” because of the ludicrous way the city trims these ficus trees – making them inherently top heavy and catching higher-level winds to boot. I hate seeing these trees cut down and replaced by little 15′ lollipops.

      1. And usually replaced with scrawny brisbane box trees, which have their own issues and will never ever look a nice as even the ugliest mature ficus does.

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