District 2 Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier will be guest of honor at a PHRA-sponsored reception May 5 at the Schools of the Sacred Heart.

The reception has many purposes:

• To introduce the new officials and give them an opportunity to exchange views with constituents.
• To brief PHRA members on issues relevant to this area.
• To provide a venue for PHRA members to socialize with each other, and
• to provide a look inside the historic Flood Mansion for those who have not attended previous PHRA meetings there.

Cost will be $25 per person for members, $30 for non-members and $35 for all after April 20, (including at the door).  Wine and an array of hors d'oeuvres will be served.  Hours are 6-8 p.m.  Please RSVP with your check to PHRA,  c/o Janie Sutton, 2421 Pierce Street, San Francisco, CA 94115.  For information, call 567-3865.

Legislation passed recently by the Board of Supervisors puts a mild restriction on chain stores that want to open on neighborhood shopping streets such as Fillmore, Sacramento or Union.

The legislation calls these multi-outlet operations “formula retail,” rather than chains, because the emphasis is on discouraging stores that look alike and act alike. It affects only those companies that have a dozen or more stores.

The legislation requires only that “formula retailers” notify neighbors of their intention to move in, providing an opportunity for opposition.

District 2 Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier voted against the ordinance, expressing concern that sometime in the future some legislator might declare whole sections of the city off limits to merchants.

PHRA Directors want to know what members think of the legislation. Please send your opinion by letter to PHRA, 2585 Pacific Ave., SF 94115, or by email to info@phra-sf.org.

(The next public hearing on the Housing element is scheduled May 13 at the Planning Commission meeting in City Hall.  You can get an estimate of the time the matter will be on the agenda by calling 558-6422 after May 10.)

The Pacific Heights Residents Association is appealing the Planning Commission’s decision not to require an Environmental Impact Report on the proposed Housing Element of the city’s General Plan.

PHRA has sent a letter to the commission, with a copy to Mayor Gavin Newsom. It has also sent a check to the attorney assisting neighborhoods in this fight. Members are asked to make tax-deductible contributions as well, made out to PHRA and sent to 2585 Pacific Avenue, San Francisco 94115.

After the question of the EIR is settled, the battle will turn to the Housing Element itself. Some regard the Housing Element as simply a policy which the city must have on file to qualify for some state funds. Others believe that once the policy is in place, developers will propose projects at maximum levels and the Planning Commission will have no choice but to approve them.

PHRA President Greg Scott said that the city simply doesn’t have the infrastructure to support what the Housing Element requires.

Charlotte Maeck, founder of the Pacific Heights Residents Association is a moving force behind Save Our Neighborhoods, an ad hoc umbrella organization of neighborhood associations and individuals opposed to the Housing Element. Maeck said the issue is the survival of family housing in San Francisco. She said the Housing Element as written negates the planning code and neighborhood charter. She described the plan as a “very dangerous document for the future of the city.”

Save Our Neighborhood’s web site, www.saveourneighborhoods.com, claims that if the plan passes, “The Manhattanization of San Francisco will have been launched . . . Parking will become a nightmare, market-rate apartment builders will rake in the profits and leave us to suffer in traffic gridlock and over-crowded conditions.” The Housing Element would permit the creation of “in-law” units on virtually every block of the city, with no parking requirement. Restrictions on height, bulk and density of buildings would be loosened.

 

A committee of neighbors, including two PHRA directors, has been formed to monitor activities of the California Pacific Medical Center and to look for solutions to current problems, as well as providing input on hospital development plans. 

The CPMC Neighbors’ Coalition, as the group is known, is wrestling with the problem of multiple vans double and triple parking at the hospital’s Buchanan Street entrance, and traffic problems resulting from misuse of the Webster Street passenger loading zones. 

The group made the current hospital administration aware that the approved master plan calls for a lot on Buchanan street to be used for free patient drop-off and pick-up as well as doctor’s parking – e.g., the offending vans. Instead, it is being used primarily for doctors’ parking. The hospital maintains that it is being used as permitted, and has agreed to provide data on actual usage patterns. This data is eagerly awaited by the Coalition.

The Coalition has notified CPMC President Martin Brotman that neighbors will oppose any change in activities on the Pacific Campus that would increase traffic on surrounding streets. CPMC is developing an Institutional Master Plan that is expected to transfer acute care to a new building on Van Ness Avenue and use the Pacific Campus for ambulatory care.

 At the committee’s urging, the hospital also obtained the Post Office’s agreement to move mailboxes from the corner of Webster and Clay to a spot on Sacramento Street.  Customers’ double parking to put mail in the box and Post Office trucks blocking the area to pick up the mail several times daily are part of the serious congestion problem at that corner.

CPMC set up a telephone hotline to keep neighbors informed of progress on the intensive remodeling program that blocks one lane of Buchanan Street between Sacramento and Clay streets. However, according to Coalition chair Paul Wermer, the recorded information is not accurate or timely.

Wermer said the Coalition’s next move will be to contact neighborhood groups surrounding CPMC’s other facilities so they can coordinate some of their efforts in responding to CPMC’s Institutional Master Plan, which is due to be issued this year.

The Waldorf School, a fixture on Washington Street between Divisadero and Broderick since 1980, wants to expand to a building at 3105/07 Sacramento Street, adding preschool and parenting classes.

Alerted by neighbors about the potential noise, added traffic and potential double parking as parents drop off and pick up their youngsters the PHRA Board of Directors plans to oppose the school’s plans.

The opponents are also concerned that once the school moves into the site, programs would inevitably expand into evenings and weekends. The parenting classes would include crafts as well as discussions.

Although Waldorf representatives say that they will be running a nursery program, not a school, a conditional use permit from the city Planning Department would be necessary for the plans to proceed. The building has been used for offices.

The Fillmore Grill, at the corner of Clay Street, is the latest establishment to get city permission to put tables and chairs on the sidewalk. It is now awaiting approval from Alcoholic Beverage Control.

Caper, replacing Sweet Inspirations between California and Sacramento Streets, plans to sell ready-to-cook food and wine when it opens at an unspecified date and has applied for a license to sell wine. PHRA supports the Neighborhood Commercial District rules and is opposed to issuance of any additional licenses along Fillmore Street:

More parking is available on Fillmore Street these days.

Parking meters along the street have been wrapped with new tags indicating that commercial loading zones, marked by yellow-topped meters and yellow stripes on the curb, are now available for general parking afternoon and all day on Saturdays and Sundays.

The changes followed a survey of the street, instigated by the Pacific Heights Residents Association and implemented by the Department of Parking and Traffic, it was determined that the yellow stripes along the curb restricted parking to commercial vehicles for too long.

Motorists would be wise, however, to inspect the sign on the meter before parking, to make sure that the hours have been changed. Elsewhere, most loading zone hours extend to 6 p.m.

As part of the same survey, the Repeat Performance thrift shop operated for the San Francisco Symphony now has a white-curb passenger loading zone in front of its doors. No parking is permitted there from 10 a.m. to noon. After that, short term parking, indicated by the green-top meters, is in effect.

Neighborhood Associations for Presidio Planning (NAPP) voted at its March meeting to oppose retaining the non-historic wings of the former Public Health Service Hospital in the Presidio when the building is redeveloped for housing.

The Presidio Trust favors retaining the wings to achieve more density and a $1 million annual return on the property.

NAPP, a coalition of 11 neighborhood associations including the Pacific Heights Residents Association and the Cow Hollow Association, believe that the integrity of the historic building off Lake Street at 14th Avenue will be compromised unless the wings are removed, regarding less of whether the Forest City or The John Steward Co. is selected to turn the building into housing.  Both plans are for market-rate housing.

PHRA's separate letter to the Trust pointed out that all of the project alternatives can meet the Trust's goal of $1 million in annual income, so the demolition of the non-historic wings is still preferred.

The Montgomery Street barracks, that row of stately brick building forming one side of the Presidio's Main Post should be retained without modification as the parks' histroical and architectual focus, in the view of PHRA Directors.

The future of the whole Main Post area is under review as the the Presidio Trust considers what to do with the main parade ground, which for a long time has been an asphalt-covered parking lot.

Various concepts all include three elements - an amphitheater situated between the parade ground and Crissy Field; a desire to definite the parade grounds borders, including construction of a new building at the south end of the grounds; and creation of a transit center.

PHRA advocates finding uses for the Montgomery barracks that will open them to the public.  Among those uses are a visitor center and activities or presentations dealing with local history, ecology, sustainability and conflict resolution .  PHRA also wants the military look retained and opposes additions that would turn the U-shaped buildings into squares.

The Presidio Trust is looking for activities that will bring people to the area in the evenings as well as during the day. PHRA's position is that an amphitheater in a cold and windy area won't do that; temporary tents or canopies would be better.

 Low ridership of the #3 and #4 bus and trolley lines has led to Muni’s proposing to eliminate one of them.

 The proposal also includes a reduction in frequency on the #2 Clement line.

The #1 will run slightly less frequently at mid-day and in the afternoon peak.

 Another public hearing on Muni’s plans is scheduled April 20. The meeting will begin at 4:00 p.m. in Room 400, City Hall.

Under Alternative A, the #4 Sutter line would be abandoned; its riders would use the #2 Clement instead. The #2 would be rerouted slightly, using California Street instead of Euclid between Arguello and Presidio Avenue, in response to a request from residents along Euclid.

Under Alternative B, the #3 Jackson would be abandoned. The #12 Folsom would be extended from Jackson and Fillmore over the #3’s route to Presidio and California or Geary.

Also under Alternative B, the #4 Sutter would continue to operate, but only as far west as Presidio Avenue, and would operate in the evenings.

The proposed route abandonment would require the approval of the Board of Supervisors. Muni staff recommend Option B (eliminate the #3, keep the #4). The #4 and #2 will be coincident except for the last six blocks, there they run one block apart (#4 on California, #2 on Clement). It is not clear why this is a better option than keeping the #3.

Substitution of the #12 for the #3 west of Fillmore is a good news/bad news situation for many. The bad news is inconvenience for regular riders of the #3 who would have to make at least one transfer to reach Union Square, and the introduction of #12’s noisy and polluting diesel buses west of the present turn-around at Steiner Street.

The good news is that the #12 buses would no longer linger at the congested corner of Jackson and Fillmore, double parking and causing traffic jams. Further, without the #3 there would no longer be a need for a stop next to the Calvary Presbyterian Church at Jackson and Fillmore; the #12 stop could be moved to the other side of Fillmore next to the Newcomer High school.

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