{"id":477169,"date":"2026-09-27T05:59:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T05:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/477169\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T05:59:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T05:59:15","slug":"neighbors-up-in-arms-at-richmond-district-safeway-town-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/477169\/","title":{"rendered":"Neighbors up in arms at Richmond District Safeway town hall"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Zachary Nathan stood at a lectern in the sanctuary of St. John\u2019s Presbyterian church Thursday night, his fellow Richmond District neighbors understood he wasn\u2019t there to preach the gospel.<\/p>\n

In fact, by many neighbors\u2019 reactions, the retired architect had delivered bad news. Nathan and two others spoke to a crowd of some 60 people about a proposed eight-story Safeway redevelopment project at 850 La Playa St. near Ocean Beach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The takeaway: The project will be too large, too tall, and out of scale for the neighborhood. It would, as one speaker said, practically disenfranchise neighborhood residents \u2014 a sentiment attendees echoed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs this really how democracy works?\u201d asked that speaker, Bridget Maley, an architectural historian by trade and member of Neighborhoods United, who presented on the project\u2019s legal basis. \u201cOur objection to these housing laws is that they squash our voices,\u201d she added, saying the laws are well-intentioned and the need for housing is urgent \u2014 but \u201cthey don\u2019t allow the citizens \u2026 to have a voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ARendering of the proposed Safeway redevelopment at 850 La Playa St. Screenshot via San Francisco Planning\/Designs by Steinberg Hart.\"AerialRendering of the proposed Safeway redevelopment at 850 La Playa St. Screenshot via San Francisco Planning\/Designs by Steinberg Hart.\"ARendering of the proposed Safeway redevelopment at 850 La Playa St. Screenshot via San Francisco Planning\/Designs by Steinberg Hart.\"ArchitecturalRendering of the proposed Safeway redevelopment at 850 La Playa St. Screenshot via San Francisco Planning\/Designs by Steinberg Hart.<\/p>\n

Maley was correct: There is little Richmond residents can do to shape the project. Align Real Estate, which has partnered with Safeway\u2019s parent company to develop the site and many other Safeways across the city<\/a>, is taking advantage of state streamlining laws to do so without public hearing requirements or discretionary approval by government agencies. Thursday\u2019s meeting was organized by the neighborhood group Planning Association for the Richmond, and did not involve the developers or public officials \u2014 two of Supervisor Connie Chan\u2019s legislative aides were there, but did not speak.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m exaggerating when I say this is probably the closest that we are going to get to having a public hearing on this, which is traditionally not held by nonprofit organizations like ourselves,\u201d said Brian Kragh, an attorney who organized the event and is a member of the neighborhood group.<\/p>\n

Nathan, chair of the Planning Association for the Richmond\u2019s land use committee, broke down the project\u2019s architectural plans. As his voice echoed in the century-old church, neighbors couldn\u2019t seem to help but signal their disgust.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe total gross floor area is 721,000 square feet,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJesus,\u201d reacted one person in the audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe residential entrance lobby will be at 48th Avenue.\u201d<\/p>\n

An attendee let out a chuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe retail space will increase from 37,340 to 63,000 square feet, so almost double the size.\u201d<\/p>\n

An older woman shook her head. Sighs and scoffs continued at each turn.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Well over half of the attendees raised their hands when asked if they lived within five minutes of the Safeway, or frequently shopped there.<\/p>\n

The most recent plans for the site would see an eight-story, 562-unit complex built where the 55-year-old Safeway building currently stands surrounded by a parking lot<\/a> (\u201cprobably time for remodel, or a new store,\u201d said Nathan). Twenty percent of those units would be dedicated affordable housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The developer must work to meet the planning department\u2019s interpretation of the code, Nathan explained, describing a September letter from the city indicating that the developer may have to reduce the number of units by over 100, which could in turn reduce the height.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would be great,\u201d somebody chimed from the pews.<\/p>\n

Neighbors drew up a host of concerns: parking, transit, affordability, construction feasibility, shade, tsunami risk, earthquake risk. Kragh worried the loss of the Safeway would create a food desert during construction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maley said that streamlining has allowed developers to \u201cavoid local zoning policies,\u201d and \u201coverride local design standards,\u201d without hearings.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s name some names,\u201d said Phoenix Project president and investigative reporter Julie Pitta, a Richmond resident. \u201cWho\u2019s responsible for this?\u201d<\/p>\n

Maley stood up but declined to offer a name, and instead described a 10-year history of state housing laws that she said incentivized \u201ctall towers that are so expensive they can\u2019t get built.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pitta stood back up. \u201cI\u2019m going to name a name. State Senator Scott Wiener.\u201d Wiener has been perhaps the most prolific state legislator on housing, and while his laws have removed local control over development in many cases, Align\u2019s project hinges on Senate Bill 330, which was authored by Berkeley state Sen. Nancy Skinner.<\/p>\n

Among the few in attendance who spoke favorably of the project was Bobak Esfandiari, a YIMBY organizer who, by day, serves as executive director of the San Francisco Democratic Party (Esfandiari attended as a neighbor and in his personal capacity, he said).<\/p>\n

Esfandiari, sitting in the back corner of the pews, turned heads and elicited wide eyes with the words: \u201cFrankly, I think it\u2019s not tall enough.\u201d Earlier, someone sitting nearby had asked the audience if they would support the development if it offered 100 percent affordable housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would,\u201d said Maley.<\/p>\n

\u201cFour stories,\u201d demanded others \u2014 not eight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not anti-development,\u201d said one neighbor, who said she lived across the street from the Safeway, \u201cbut I would say I think this project is way out of scale for our neighborhood.\u201d\u00a0 The room filled with brief but loud applause.<\/p>\n

Neighbors repeatedly asked about subsequent hearings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDo we have any hope that the Coastal Commission will weigh in on this?\u201d asked one neighbor, an hour and a half into the town hall. \u201cDo we know what point this is at, at the planning department?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The neighbor listed her concerns: sewage and stormwater drainage, liquefaction, \u201cand what about compensation for all the noise? How long is this going to take? Do they have a projected start date?\u201d<\/p>\n

Maley eventually cut her off. No such hearings would be required, Maley said, and state streamlining laws made it difficult to establish a timeline. Minutes later, the town hall was over.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the night, Kragh had offered a consolation to some of those concerned:<\/p>\n

\u201cSure, they\u2019re not technically required to hear us because of the streamlining laws,\u201d he said. \u201cBut since we have reporters covering this, and since you all are speaking \u2014 they\u2019re sure going to hear about us now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Zachary Nathan stood at a lectern in the sanctuary of St. John\u2019s Presbyterian church Thursday night, his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[1011,976,101,103,102,69371,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-477169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-housing","tag-richmond","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-san-francisco-planning-department","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477169","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=477169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}