Mission Dolores Homeowners Need to Speak Up

Parking has become an issue that pits car foes against homeowners in the Mission Dolores neighborhood.  Car foes insist that reducing the number of off-street parking spaces offered in new residential buildings will deter people from buying cars. Our neighbors beg to differ – as they’re the ones who have to compete for street parking on a daily basis. Our neighbors believe a better transit system will reduce car counts faster than feel-good planning policies.

People who actually live on our neighborhood wonder how it is that people outside their neighborhood can make city living that much harder for them.

And what really galls them is how this parking battle was settled by an 11^th-hour compromise during the Market Octavia Plan zoning process but has to be re-fought every time a new project is proposed. But that’s the way it is.

For better or worse, the parking issue will have to be revisited once again when the 35 Dolores proposal goes before the Planning Commission for its final approval. Hoemowners must remind Planning Commissioners that the Commission is empowered to provide the parking spaces their neighborhood needs, in spite of the agenda of outsiders.



Collaborative Planning Reduces Unit Count to 37

As previously posted, we have worked with our adjacent neighbors, the Mission Dolores Neighborhood Association and the Planning Department over the past four years to reach a design that reconciles everyone’s interests.  A proposal that started with 47 units with 47 parking spaces was pared down to 37 and 37. Smaller condos became family-sized. Neighbors’ light and air were given their due, as were heritage trees.  Following is a sampling of the condos that will be built presuming the Planning Commission approves this collaborative effort.

Unit Types	Orientation	Approximate Size
2-bedroom/2-bath	Street	912 to 948 sq. ft.
2-bedroom/2-bath	Street	1,083 to 1,118 sq. ft.
2-bedroom/2-bath	Street	1,031 to 1,186 sq. ft.
1-bedroom/1-bath	Rear	667 to 691 sq. ft.
1-bedroom+den/1-bath	Rear	816 sq. ft.
2-bedroom+den/2-bath	Rear	1,182 to 1,206 sq. ft.
2-bedroom+den/2-bath	Rear	1,182 sq. ft.
2-bedroom+den/2-bath	Street	1,200 to 1,291 sq. ft.
3-bedroom/2-bath	Rear	1,334 sq. ft.



The train nears the station

Having inched our way along the City’s two-track approvals process for an agonizing four years, we are happy to be nearing the station.

• Track 1, the environmental review process, seems to have run in reverse. Though it may be as well-meaning as any other government-run “solution,” environmental review is absurdly wasteful and grossly under-served by the bureaucrats who speak its arcane tongue. We have squanderd more than a half million dollars grinding teeth over the architectural merits of an unstable auto body garage.

• In stark contrast, Track 2, the actual planning process has been pretty smooth. While it has involved countless meetings with planners, neighbors, politicos and the Mission Dolores Neighborhood Association, eveyone could have been satisfied in just a few months - because the process wan’t throttled by bureancratic paranoia nor starved by inattention. And most importantly, because everyone involved acted in good faith, this exercise was not wasteful. Indeed, it seemed to represent the best of collaborative processes.

Over time, the original 47-unit proposal was pared down to 37 units and a number of adjustments were made to accommodate adjoining residents.

Here is a quick-loading image (not a rendering) roughly representing what the proposal looks like today.

Our intent is to complete a more attractive project than both the Guerrero Street Nove development and the 14^th Street Landers Grove project.

Curbed SF Gets it Wrong

The blog “Curbed SF” reported on September 3rd that the “the City Planning Commission moved [the 35 Dolores Street forward allowing] a four-story, 47-unit residential building to be built on the site.” They got the facts wrong on several counts, but no need to belabor that here. My comments are posted at Curbed SF.

Find Out About The Dolores Neighborhood

http://www.missiondna.org/