Whole Foods in Haight comes up for debate
By: Katie Worth
Examiner Staff Writer
October 22, 2008
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| In with the new: The vacant Cala Foods site at Haight and Stanyan streets may be replaced by a new Whole Foods grocery store and 62-unit apartment complex. (Cindy Chew/The Examiner) |
SAN FRANCISCO — The controversial proposal to build The City’s largest Whole Foods grocery store on the corner of Haight and Stanyan streets won’t be vetted in a public forum until Thursday, but the project’s sponsors and detractors are already rolling up their sleeves.
The project would replace the vacant Cala Foods store and parking lot with a 34,000-square-foot Whole Foods, and add 62 market-rate residential units above the new store and 178 parking spaces under it.
The “overwhelming majority” of neighbors commenting on the project plan have said they’re excited by the prospect of a full-service grocery store returning to their neighborhood, said City Planner Jonas Ionin. But a vocal group of opponents remain concerned with the size, look and traffic impact of the project.
On Thursday afternoon, the Planning Commission will consider approving the project — with some preconditions that the design be changed and approved by the Planning Department, and loading hours be restricted, among other minor requirements, Ionin said.
But even if the project is approved, it’s unlikely it will be in the clear, said Mark Brennan, son of John Brennan, whose company owns and will develop the site.
“There’s a good possibility the decision will be appealed and we’ll have to go before the Board of Supervisors,” he said.
Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council member Calvin Welch has consistently opposed the project’s scale and impacts, and was the subject of a derisive mailer sent by the Brennan Co. to neighborhood mailboxes in July.
Welch said the organization is unhappy with the proposed conditions of approval proposed by The City.
Welch said if the commission approves the project, which he said he “assumes they will do,” it will “take a look at the option” of appealing it to the board.
Brennan said if the appeal happens, project approval could be delayed another two months.
Brennan said the project has already faced “many roadblocks.”
“Anytime you want to do anything in this city, you have jump through so many hoops,” he said. “I hate to say they should be begging us to do this project, but it’s a full-service grocery store. I can’t think of a more neighborhood-serving project than that.”
Ionin disputed the allegation that The City has stood in the way of the development.
“This timeline has been typical for the size of the project,” he said.
