La Playa Safeway neighbors fear noise, neighborhood division
Car alarms and honking horns star in a classic story of corporate development versus the town, but in this version the people may actually ultimately benefit.
The La Playa Street Safeway has long been the subject of complaints that is is an eyesore, providing a dimly lit parking lot for loitering and an overall dingy element in the otherwise scenic Ocean Beach area. The latest in a series of proposed remodeling plans was shown Thursday night at the San Francisco Zoo Great Hall.
“I want something that’s attractive and that will make you guys happy,” said Natalie Mattei, Safeway’s real estate manager.
Safeway architect Ken Lowney acknowledged that concerns remain regarding the newest plan, suggesting that residents “remain skeptical until [proven] otherwise.”
At La Playa and 48th Avenue, this Safeway branch is a main source of groceries for San Franciscans from the Richmond and Sunset districts as far east as 19th Avenue, and Safeway is planning a remodel that representatives say will be both an aesthetic and social improvement.
Some residents, however, expressed a continuing fear that Safeway may not be letting on to all of the company’s plans.
“My guess is that they’re not going to surprise us,” said Richmond District Supervisor Eric Mar, who introduced the new project plan. “I’ve really learned this process, and Natalie and Ken have been very transparent throughout.”
Safeway has been working closely with locals for the past two years to decide what the best remodel option is, and although support seems to be improving, some are still dissatisfied.
“The noise is horrific for us,” said La Playa resident Dianne Drosness, who is especially worried about the increased din that could accompany an uncovered parking lot. “You don’t know what the sound is going to be like until it’s done, and then it’s too late.”
In response, Mattei explained that Safeway would be bringing on acoustic and traffic specialists to address these specific concerns, and would address them in more depth after they are assessed professionally.
“We’ve been working with you for a long time together and our commitment to you is to work through the parking lot issue,” Mattei said. “Safeway was clearly not aware that there were any of the parking lot experiences that you guys were having.”
The new parking structure will consist of 200 above- and below-ground spaces, and an underground truck loading dock. The plan includes a residential and commercial space at the north end of the parking lot, but Safeway will not be involved in deciding its use.
Some residents wonder if Safeway is being as generous with its finances as it could be, in response to suggestions of enclosed parking.
“They’re creating a false dichotomy between 48th and La Playa residents,” said area local Daniel Horne. Rather than addressing the root problem, Horne believes, Safeway is instead pitting parts of the neighborhood against each other. Instead, he said, Safeway “just [needs] to spend the extra money for a covered parking structure.”
“Some of us are just sick of it,” said Drosness. “Safeway is a profitable corporation, let them put their money where their mouth is.”
Another concern is the decrease of exits, from eight to two. Mark Furman, a 48th Avenue homeowner, moved from Geary Boulevard to escape the noisy traffic sounds and wonders how much it will increase in front of his house when customers can no longer enter from Fulton Street.
Some key considerations regarding the plan’s exterior design are removing obvious places to loiter, increasing safety and improving the overall appearance of the area with native-plant landscaping and a traditional architectural approach.
The plan is still being revised and more community meetings will be scheduled. The final project must go through a planning and environmental review, and Safeway hopes to compile a final application for review soon. The approval process is expected to take approximately two years.
Images: Courtesy Safeway. Video: Lowney Architecture on Youtube.
This story has been modified to correct the name of the street from which drivers can enter the existing Safeway parking lot. It is Fulton Street.
Hi Lindsey,
Just to clarify my comments quoted above:
1. Many of us on both 48th Ave and La Playa Street believe Safeway should present an alternative proposal with parking that is not simply “covered”, but goes underground, rather than from ground level to elevated parking. We addressed this at the meeting immediately prior to the February 2011 meeting. However, we have seen no evidence that they have changed their plans at all in response to our concerns.
2. Safeway’s current plan currently effectively doubles the impact and noise of parking upon the residents living adjacent to the northern half of the La Playa St. / 48th Ave block.
3. It’s not that we all object to an uncovered parking lot per se. Safeway has an uncovered parking lot _now_. While that creates headaches, I know that I (for my part) signed up for that when my wife and I moved into the neighborhood.
4. However, Safeway’s new plan concentrates all their parking into a two-story structure. This concentration of uncovered “stacked” parking from ground level to the 2nd story increases and concentrates the parking noise to those homeowners and tenants living on the La Playa Street side.
5. As a result, people living at ground level on La Playa Street will now experience a new “wall of sound” created from concentrated cars and traffic, and people on the higher floors (2nd through 4th floors) La Playa will have the cars literally moved one story closer to them.
6. This would be a newly created adverse impact. It’s not simply a matter of Safeway failing to improve the status quo.
7. Safeway has done a good job of responding to concern of certain residents of the 48th Avenue side. I applaud that. All 48th Avenue residents should continue to receive the ocean views they paid for when they bought houses or leased apartments at that location.
8. However, the way Safeway went about this adversely impacts other members of the neighborhood, and particularly those living between roughly 825-855 La Playa, where the two-story parking will be concentrated.
9. Stacking two-story parking is not necessary as an engineering matter. Safeway simply doesn’t want to spend the money necessary to build underground parking.
10. This is what I mean by creating a “false dichotomy”. Preserving 48th Avenue views need not have come at the expense of concentrated and elevated parking at La Playa Street. If Safeway went with underground parking, then views would be preserved, and La Playa Street would not be dealing with two stories of stacked open-air parking.
11. The condos from 825 – 875 all have underground parking, so it’s ridiculous to suggest that Safeway can’t do this as an engineering matter.
12. Safeway has built underground parking at many other redeveloped properties, including those in Northern California. They have been willing to commit to this expense for other communities. Why not here?
13. We will have to live with the effects of Safeway’s new parking arrangements for decades. We shouldn’t have to suffer through increased parking and car alarm noise and concentrated traffic at an “open 24-hours” location, simply because Safeway wants save on developing costs. Natalie’s comments imply that our only concern is the noise issue to date. But that’s not it. It’s also the entirely reasonable fear that parking noise will double for our immediate neighborhood with the creation of a two-story parking stack.
14. Safeway has the money; just look at their latest annual report. They just don’t want to spend the money necessary to build underground parking. Here are the numbers on Safeway’s net income and profit margins, taken from their own website:
Net income / Operating profit margin
2009 $720.7 million / 3.3%
2008 $965.3 million / 4.2%
2007 $888.4 million / 4.2%
2006 $870.6 million / 4.0%
2005 $561.1 million / 3.2%
15. Ken Lowney has been very kind in hearing us out, and I look forward to seeing what, if anything, he’s going to do to address these concerns. But when he says “remain skeptical,” it’s for good reason.
16. Safeway management (both local and Pleasanton HQ) has a bad history of ignoring noise complaints from the neighborhood over the past several years. It’s only now that they are seeking to redevelop this site that they have taken any measures to appear responsive to our concerns. The lesson I have learned is that Safeway will only be as responsive as they must in order to “keep up appearances” while this project has high visibility to Supervisor Mar and the City Planning Commission. Perhaps I’m unduly cynical, but Safeway’s behavior to date has not given me great confidence that they are taking our concerns seriously.
Nice piece Lindsey, thanks. Isn’t there also a Safeway website that also details this project? Do you have it? I can’t seem to find it anywhere.
Was there any mention at the meeting of Safeway attempting to sneak in a Starbucks like they did on the Noriega remodel?
Hey Andy,
There is a website for that particular Safeway that I didn’t add earlier because it was down for maintenance. The url is http://www.safewayonlaplayasf.com.
There weren’t any hints of Starbucks sneaking into this Safeway, but the question wasn’t raised by anyone attending.
Hi Lindsey and Andy,
I’m not sure about the state of Starbucks @ the new Safeway site as of now. However, Natalie was definitely trying to gauge interest from the community on a Starbucks at the location, at different meetings around 2008 and 2009.
To Safeway’s credit, they’re not trying to sneak it in — they want to get input from the community as to whether a Starbucks, or some other coffee vendor, would be welcome at the new store.
“enter from Lincoln Way” ???
Good catch, Angie. It’s been corrected to Fulton Street.