The viral photo of a neighborhood meeting at San Francisco’s Fort Mason in July shows what’s been described as a sea of gray hair. Taken by a San Francisco Chronicle reporter, the photo quickly became a meme. Commenters quipped: “These people should be sent to Alcatraz.” Others wrote: “Imagine being in the final months, or even weeks of your life and spending your precious energy ensuring younger generations have no chance at enjoying the same lifestyle you had,” and “We must rebel against boomer despotism.”
Hundreds of residents had gathered to discuss the controversial redevelopment of the Marina District Safeway into a mixed-use housing complex. Composed of two towers that rise up to 22 stories tall, the proposed project at 15 Marina Blvd. has proven to be polarizing.
Critics, with jokes abound, saw the photo as a symbol of how older, established residents are trying to block new housing.
But Marina resident Erin Roach isn’t laughing. She’s disgusted by “vile” and “ugly” reactions to the photo, saying it unfairly targeted seniors.
“It’s become a YIMBY versus NIMBY thing, and it’s just absolutely the wrong framing for this project,” she said in a phone call with SFGATE, referring to the “Not In My Backyard” and “Yes In My Backyard” movements.
Roach is president of the Marina Community Association and one of the community leaders calling for more environmental review of the waterfront project. Roach said the real concern among residents is that the project lies on landfill and a former industrial site that’s contaminated with toxic waste – digging into this site could expose the neighborhood to these toxins.
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“I’m not inventing this when I say there are contaminants, and I’m not inventing this when I say this is the most documented liquefaction zone in San Francisco,” she said. “The city is being irresponsible … No one here is saying they don’t want the site to be built. We’re just saying that we would like these things to be addressed before they get entitled … If they find that they’re all solvable, great. Let the chips fall where they may.”
Her major concern: the property being entitled and turned into a construction site with no grocery store and no housing while the developer becomes entangled in lawsuits due to toxic contamination or subsidization resulting from construction.
Nonetheless, the project has moved forward.
Next steps
A rendering of the redevelopment planned the Safeway in San Francisco’s Marina District. (Arquitectonica)
In an email to SFGATE, Department of Building Inspection spokesman Patrick Hannan confirmed that the project is eligible for accelerated approval under Assembly Bill 2011. AB 2011, passed in 2022, fast-tracks the conversion of commercial property into multifamily housing projects that include affordable housing.
Now, the Planning Department is required to approve the application on Nov. 11, Hannan said.
San Francisco city officials are under pressure to meet state housing mandates. They’re also trying to produce more housing to address an affordability crisis in a city where a two-bedroom apartment now rents for upward of $6,000 a month.
Developer Align Real Estate announced the Marina project in December 2025. It is part of Safeway’s big bets on housing in the Bay Area’s real estate market. It has plans to develop close to 4,000 units of housing at its Safeway locations while retaining grocery stores at the ground floor.
Align Real Estate Principal David Balducci said that a majority of District 2 residents support this project because they understand that making housing more affordable starts with building more homes.
“This project gives families and future generations the opportunity to stay in the city they love by bringing more new housing to this neighborhood than it has seen in a generation,” he said in an email to SFGATE.
Housing advocates spoke in support of the project, which includes 254 studios apartments, 268 one-bedroom units, 212 two-bedroom units and 114 three-bedroom units. Align implemented changes to its latest application in July after receiving feedback from the city: Thanks to density bonus laws, the two towers have gone from 790 to 848 units, the amenity space has been cut nearly in half and the max height has been reduced from 25 to 22 floors.
“It’s a fantastic project that addresses San Francisco’s critical housing shortage,” said Brandon Powell, the Bay Area organizing director for YIMBY Action, in a phone call with SFGATE. “The mix of unit sizes addresses the needs of a lot of San Franciscans and a lot of people who want to be San Franciscans.”
Associations banding together
A rendering of the proposed 11-15 Marina Blvd. project. (Courtesy of SF Planning/Rendering by Arquitectonica)
Roach’s group joined the Cow Hollow Association, the Golden Gate Valley Neighborhood Association, Marina Cow Hollow Neighbors & Merchants Association, and Neighbors United for San Francisco to file an objection to the project in early May. They also filed a complaint with the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development in early August, but the HCD declined to take a position.
They are backed by District 2 Supervisor Stephen Sherrill, who represents the Marina. On June 25, Sherrill – along with six neighborhood associations – wrote a letter to “the Planning Department and Mayor Daniel Lurie urging them to reject the project’s review waivers,” the San Francisco Public Press reported.
Still, Sherrill noted that he supports the city’s Family Zoning Plan to add needed housing throughout the city and that the eleventh-hour Marina Safeway plan took advantage of old zoning designations that were about to change.
“Regardless of what has been proposed, it’s absolutely necessary that every inch of government is transparent, accurate and specific when applying the law,” he said in an email to SFGATE. “If residents don’t trust government to apply the law accurately, how will they trust government to change the law appropriately? Most housing projects still cost 30% too much to build – and that’s the biggest thing we have to fix to address San Francisco’s housing crisis.”
Lurie has also formally opposed the project, but those like Roach said he has done little to stop the development, dubbed the “not so safe Safeway” by unhappy residents, from moving forward.
Efforts to convert commercial properties to residential
FILE: Signage for Safeway. (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
As far back as 2004, the nonprofit SPUR suggested that large underutilized retail sites – large grocery stores, bank branches, strip malls and others – would make for suitable spots to build housing. Utilizing these spaces could lead to over 4,500 new units of housing, the report stated.
“If done right, redevelopment of these sites can result in better neighborhoods and thousands of sorely needed new housing units,” according to the report.
Throughout the city, there are other efforts to convert commercial space into housing. In early August, Mayor Lurie announced plans to convert the former Nordstrom Rack on Market Street into 136 apartments. At the same time, JPMorgan Chase pledged around $200 million to new housing development, including to finance a 342-unit housing complex in the Dogpatch neighborhood.
Safeway’s investment in real estate comes at a time when Safeway’s parent company, Albertsons, like many other grocers, is struggling with sales as food prices remain high and customers try to manage their spending. An Albertsons representative could not be reached for comment before the time of publication.
Safeway already has a ground floor store topped by housing on King Street near a Caltrain station and Oracle Park.
Powell of YIMBY Action, for his part, said he thinks the opposition to the project is coming because people are generally resistant to change.
“It’s human nature, and that’s fine, but we need to address the housing shortage,” he said. “Our status as queer community, as a sanctuary city, is threatened by the inability [of people] to find housing.”
Roach will continue her fight. She and her group are in the process of convincing HCD’s Housing Accountability Unit to reprimand the city for what one resident described as “misapplying perimeter definitions, improperly counting public parklands, and unlawfully deferring mandatory environmental site eligibility reviews.”
“I would love to see housing at that site, but as a community leader, I need to be assured it’s going to be safe,” she said.
The Chronicle and SFGATE are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms.
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This article originally published at SF’s Marina Safeway plan advances amid environmental concerns.