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Community meeting explores
possibilities for Schlage Lock site
March, 2004 Visitation Valley Grapevine -
Valley News
Visitacion Valley residents packed the Community Center gymnasium
Feb. 21 to learn latest developments in the planning process
for the controversial Shlage Lock site, a topic of intense
neighborhood concern since the company vacated the premises
in 1999.
Sponsored by Supervisor Sophie Maxwell and the San Francisco
Planning Department, several key speakers from various City
departments summarized past proceedings and the future speculation
of the former manufacturing plant - a large area of land on
the east side of Bayshore Boulevard between Blanken and Sunnydale
avenues currently occupied by vacant buildings.
"These things take much longer than we wish they would," said
Amit Ghosh of the San Francisco Planning Department in describing
the long-term transition of the large acreage from industrial
to neighborhood-friendly use. "Stick with it and you will
see your vision rise from the ground."
Most of the property being considered for development has
been owned since the mid-1970s by the Ingersoll Rand, which
has made selling the land in a timely fashion a top priority,
according to Elizabeth Hindall, a company representative.
She explained that the firm has been actively working with
remediation specialists and screening proposals of potential
buyers based on three criteria: successful experience; sensitivity
to the neighborhood and the city; and the limited liability
of Ingersoll Rand.
"We have been finding real positives about this process,"
said Hindall.
Highlights of the meeting included the presentation of three-dimensional
images from various angles of potential residential housing
along with a separate section reserved for new businesses
along the east side of Bayshore Boulevard. In the proposed
diagrams, both Leland and Visitacion avenues have been extended
eastward past Bayshore as far as a new roadway adjacent to
the Tunnel Avenue railroad tracks.
"We want to connect this and make it part of the neighborhood,"
explained Ken Rich of the Planning Department.
Featured with the proposed new housing were an abundance of
public open spaces, a north-south greenway, and a generous
amount of new trees.
"This planning project could be a model for the City on how
to do things right," said Jesse Blout, director of the Mayor's
Office of Economic Development. To further illustrate the
attractiveness of the proposal, photographic images depicting
efficient re-use of former industrial land in Oakland, Emeryville
and Hercules were presented by Stephanie Shakofsky, executive
director of the California Center for Land Recycling.
Information presented Feb. 21 updated a series of workshops
in late 2001 and early 2002 to shape a plan for development
of the former Schlage Lock site and a new Bayshore Station
for both Caltrain and the Third Street Light Rail now under
construction.
A Visitacion Valley Community Vision Workshop on Nov. 14,
2001 and a Goals and Strategies Workshop three days later
focused on development and revitalization opportunities for
the vacant 14-acre Schlage Lock factory site, as well as Bayshore
Boulevard and the Leland Avenue business district. Workshop
participants considered housing, employment, economic development,
transportation and parks, and suggested ideas on how development
in their community can address these issues.
Community members also raised vital questions, developed general
goals, and begin to discuss strategies for guiding development.
Ideas discussed included: how to meet the community's housing
needs; ways to create new employment opportunities; how to
revitalize local businesses on Leland Avenue and Bayshore
Boulevard; which neighborhood services and retailers are needed;
and how issue of toxins would affect development.
From 1926 until 1999, the Schlage Lock site was used mainly
as a hardware manufacturing facility which included plating
and machining operations. Chemicals used during the manufacturing
process included various metals and solvents that contained
volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
When Schlage Lock closed its San Francisco facility in 1999,
it vacated the existing buildings at 2201, 2401, 2445, and
2555 Bayshore Boulevard. These include six vacant one-to-three-story
industrial buildings, and a seventh building that formerly
housed the company offices. There are also several smaller
buildings that formerly served as storage sheds and a security
office. consist of approximately 470,000 square feet of floor
area.
Home Depot soon announced plans to construct a single-story
32-foot-tall commercial building of about 108,000 square feet
and an outdoor garden center of about 17,000 square feet that
would have occupied all of the east side of Bayshore Boulevard
between Raymond and Sunnydale avenues. A three-story building
formerly containing the Schlage Lock offices at 2201 Bayshore
Blvd. at Blanken Avenue on a 1.5-acre surplus parcel was not
proposed for inclusion in the aborted Home Depot project.
Neither was a 7,000-square-foot parcel at the southeast corner
of Bayshore Boulevard and Visitacion Avenue.
In 1999, the Visitacion Valley Planning Alliance, is a group
of Visitacion Valley neighbors interested in improving the
quality of life in the neighborhood, stated that the then-proposed
Home Depot project was "inappropriate in terms of size, single
use and traffic impact, to say nothing of forever denying
the neighborhood a chance to truly revitalize. Its tax revenues
will not create new revenue, but will be taken from existing
revenue accrued mostly from smaller businesses in the southeast
sector of the City which will be driven out of business."
In surveying Valley residents, they found the neighborhood
generally wanted to see the site as a mixed-use development
serving retail, a City College extension, a new library, affordable
housing, daycare and open space.
Working with architects, transport experts, urban planners
and landscape architects from Urban Ecology to create a conceptual
design, the Planning Alliance developed an alternative reuse
design - a site to link Visitacion Valley and Little Hollywood
and create a transit-oriented town center. A community meeting
held in October 1999 to present the design was unanimously
approved.
A draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) was compiled in
early 2000 by the San Francisco Planning Department to determine
effects found to be potentially significant to the surrounding
neighborhood during proposed demolition of existing buildings
to make room for a proposed Home Depot in Visitacion Valley.
Impacts on visual quality, transportation, operational air
quality, operational noise and contaminated soils were determined
to be potentially significant.
A remedial investigation of the soil and groundwater at the
Schlage Lock site in 2001 found both volatile organic compounds
and metals as the primary contaminants, according to a detailed
report recently issued by the California Department of Toxic
Substances Control (DTSC).
According to the report, the purpose of the investigation
of soil was to "define the extent and type of contamination
in soil, and collect data to support a human health risk assessment
and a soil feasibility study consistent with the planned redevelopment
of the property."
The program was conducted over a period of eight years and
included an analysis of more than 250 soil samples.
The Initial Study of the EIR had a response overwhelmingly
in favor of including a Town Center-Transit Village alternative
plan for the Schlage Lock site in the EIR process. More than
275 letters were sent from community members to the Planning
Department expressing support. In addition there were many
letters from local community groups as well as groups outside
of the area, including the Sierra Club and San Francisco Tomorrow.
After a number of community meetings, the San Francisco Board
of Supervisors passed a zoning control measure on Feb. 26,
2001barring construction for one year of any commercial building
larger than 65,000 square feet on the former site of Schlage
Lock Company, forcing Home Depot to abort its quest to build
its first store in San Francisco.
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