SF’s formula retail ban might be removed from a 23-block stretch of Van Ness Avenue, as the SF Planning Commission just unanimously passed a recommendation to exempt Van Ness from limits on large chain stores.
A little over two months ago, new Supervisors Stephen Sherrill and Danny Sauter floated an idea to remove the formula retail ban from Van Ness Avenue. SF’s formula retail ban was passed by voters in 2007, and forces retailers that have more than 11 locations to get special permits to open a new location in San Francisco. And we wondered when the supervisors introduced the idea, why only the Van Ness corridor, and not other neighborhoods?
Well, the proposal went before the SF Planning Commission Thursday, and Sup. Sherril’s aide Lorenzo Rosas gave his explanation for why to single out the Van Ness Corridor.
“Van Ness has an over 50% ground-floor vacancy rate,” Rosas explained. “That is compared to a citywide retail vacancy rate of approximately 7.7%,” he added, noting that was also “shockingly higher than the 22.1% vacancy rate in the Union Square district.”
Plus, as you may know, the famed Highway 101 partially runs on Van Ness Avenue. “The street has an outsized impact on public perception of the city’s economic health,” Rosas said.
This proposal would not lift the formula retail ban on all of Van Ness Avenue, but it would lift the ban on about 23 blocks of it. That 1.5-mile, 23-block stretch is seen above, stretching from the small Tenderloin alley Redwood Street, all the way north to Chestnut Street in the Marina.
The Planning Commission liked the idea, and approved the recommendation unanimously by a 7-0 vote. “We’re kind of scared of formula retail,” Commissioner Amy Campbell said before the vote. “If we’re going to put it anywhere, this is a really great spot to put it. I think it lends itself well to those larger footprints.”
But this is far from a done deal to allow formula retail stores on Van Ness Avenue. The proposal still need to go through one or more SF Board of Supervisors committees, and must still be approved by the full Board of Supervisors.
Image: Google Street View
