{"id":412268,"date":"2026-07-25T20:27:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T20:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/412268\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T20:27:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T20:27:00","slug":"s-f-approves-contentious-proposal-to-turn-old-bayview-walgreens-into-an-autozone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/412268\/","title":{"rendered":"S.F. approves contentious proposal to turn old Bayview Walgreens into an AutoZone"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a unanimous vote, the San Francisco planning commission on Thursday approved a hotly debated proposal for AutoZone<\/a> to take over a now-closed Walgreens in Bayview \u2014 with some caveats.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it perfect? No,\u201d said commissioner Sean McGarry. <\/p>\n

Despite residents\u2019 complaints about adding yet another auto-parts shop to the neighborhood, and their desires for a grocery store or pharmacy, commissioners said the store could pave the way for more retailers to move into the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could use this as a stepping stone to make the situation better in the future,\u201d McGarry said.<\/p>\n

The Bayview-Hunters Point Citizens Advisory Committee, a community group that gives advice to the planning commission and the Board of Supervisors, unanimously voted against the proposal earlier this year. <\/p>\n

Theo Ellington, a candidate for district supervisor who spoke against it at Thursday\u2019s hearing, said 70 people signed a petition<\/a> objecting to the plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, planning commissioners voted 4-0 to see it through.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As a way of assuaging residents\u2019 concerns, the planning department required<\/a> that the AutoZone incorporate a mural onto the building\u2019s facade, refrain from high-intensity lighting and signage, and collect all fluid and auto parts inside the facility, among other conditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Walgreens occupied the space at 5300 Third St. until 2025, when a slew of the pharmacies closed<\/a> across the city, citing \u201cincreased regulatory and reimbursement pressures.\u201d The pharmacy was the second Walgreens to close in Bayview, forcing residents to travel outside of their neighborhood to access medications<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The buildings\u2019 landlords, Raj and Veena Kaul, said on Thursday they were aware the Walgreens would close in 2020, and that they had searched for a new tenant for five years without success. But residents felt blindsided by the closure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere was the community in all of that?\u201d said Evangela Brewster, a Bayview resident, of Walgreens\u2019 decision to abruptly close. \u201cWhen Walgreens closed, it was really hard on this community,\u201d Brewster said at Thursday\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n

The now-empty storefront, located in the middle of Bayview\u2019s commercial corridor on Third Street and Williams Avenue, could have been \u201ctransformative,\u201d said Tyra Fennell, a Bayview resident, at an earlier July 9 hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is valuable commercial space,\u201d Fennell said then. \u201cBayview deserves a bigger vision for its future.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ellington, who is running to replace Supervisor Shamann Walton as District 10 supervisor, had circulated a petition<\/a> asking residents to weigh in on the proposal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bayview-Hunters Point has a robust history of environmental justice due to residents\u2019 disproportionate exposure to high levels of air pollution and the now-closed Hunters Point Naval Shipyard<\/a>, which spewed toxic chemicals<\/a> into the bay.\u00a0<\/p>\n

AutoZone, Ellington told Mission Local, would not be a good fit. The automotive retailer was forced<\/a> to pay $11 million to the state of California in 2019 after allegedly illegally disposing of more than five million hazardous waste items.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like they\u2019re trying to get one by us,\u201d said Ellington. \u201cThere\u2019s clear rationale as to why they shouldn\u2019t be there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

What should be on the site instead? Ellington said the neighborhood needs an \u201canchor institution\u201d to replace the Walgreens. \u201cOne that could help bring much-needed foot traffic.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oronde Sterling, a Bayview resident and contractor, proposed a few ideas at Thursday\u2019s hearing. <\/p>\n

\u201cImagine if this space became a workforce development center where residents could train for trades,\u201d Sterling said. \u201cA business incubator \u2026 a youth mentorship program.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Multiple new businesses have recently moved into Bayview\u2019s commercial corridor, including new restaurants and soon, a highly anticipated bookstore<\/a>. A nonprofit pharmacy<\/a> is also expected to soon open in Bayview to replace the shuttered Walgreens.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the neighborhood has struggled since the pandemic to recover from a significant drop<\/a> in sales-tax revenue. The neighborhood lost both its main grocery store and its last pharmacy in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The landlords of the shuttered Walgreens said that AutoZone has proven to be a \u201cresponsible tenant.\u201d The building, which has remained vacant for more than a year, said Raj Kaul, has been vandalized multiple times, and Kaul has had to pay insurance on the empty building. It has become a \u201cfinancial burden,\u201d said Kaul.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As is, the building is \u201cnot good for the community or anybody else,\u201d said Kaul.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But many residents believe it could be better.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hope is we can dream bigger and build the neighborhood that we deserve,\u201d said Ellington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a unanimous vote, the San Francisco planning commission on Thursday approved a hotly debated proposal for AutoZone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[11851,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-412268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-bayview","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}