SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — A preliminary agreement announced Monday will likely pave the way for the construction of nearly 1,700 new affordable housing units in San Francisco’s Visitacion Valley to start next year.
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Supervisor Malia Cohen plan to introduce to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday an agreement with Universal Paragon Corporation to develop the 20-acre former Schlage Lock factory site.
Source: The Visitacion Valley, San Francisco, CA crime data displayed above is derived from the FBI's uniform crime reports for the year of 2018. The crime report encompasses more than 18,000 city and state law enforcement agencies reporting data on property and violent crimes.
This score is meant to help you make Visitacion Valley Speed Dating For Seniors an informed purchasing decision and find the right solution for your needs. In order to keep this service Visitacion Valley Speed Dating For Seniors free, we receive monetary compensation - but only if you choose to use the services of any of the brands listed here. 1 of 9 Residents stroll down Leland Ave in Visitacion Valley, Thursday January 27, 2011, in San Francisco, Calif. Lacy Atkins/The Chronicle Show More Show Less 2 of 9 Russel Morine, 44, owner of.
The plan promises to transform the site, which has been vacant for the last 15 years, into a mixed-use community with housing, parks and a grocery store.
“At long last, the 20-acre Schlage Lock site will be reborn and transformed, from a blighted former manufacturing factory and railyard into a thriving, transit-oriented community with nearly 1,700 new homes that will enrich the unique and diverse Visitacion Valley neighborhood,” Lee said in a statement.
The development agreement provides for the creation of retail stores, a grocery story, nearly 1,700 housing units, and more than 2 acres of open space and parks, according to Francis Tsang, spokesman for Lee.
Fifteen percent of the housing units will be set aside for below-market rate housing, and the rest of the units are intended to be accessible to low and middle-income households, according to Tsang.
“This is a monumental milestone not only for the Visitacion Valley community but the entire city of San Francisco,” Cohen said in a statement. “We need to continue fighting to keep San Francisco affordable for everyone.”
The city designed the Schlage Lock site as a redevelopment area in 2005, six years after the factory, which had been in operation since 1926, shut its doors, Tsang said.
Redevelopment funding would have provided approximately $50 million for the new project. But the development project nearly came to a screeching halt in 2012 when Gov. Jerry Brown dissolved the state’s redevelopment agencies – and the money that went with them.
Over the last two years, Lee and Cohen have worked with city agencies, the Visitacion Valley/Schlage Lock Advisory Body, the Universal Paragon Corporation and the community to find a funding solution for the development.
The current agreement includes an increased number of housing units and taps into other sources of public funding, including Proposition K transportation funds.
The agreement is expected to be approved by the Board of Supervisors, the Planning Commission and other agencies by July, according to Yoyo Chan, an aide in Cohen’s office.
“We’re not seeing any opposition,” Chan said. “That’s a testament to how involved this community has been over the past 15 years.”
© Copyright 2014 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
San Francisco Chronicle
April 2015, J.K. Dineen
Pioneering developer Patrick McNerney, whose industrial, loft-style buildings helped establish both SoMa and Dogpatch as trendy areas, has set his sights on a new neighborhood: hardscrabble Visitacion Valley.
McNerney’s Martin Building Co. has bought a parcel of land that abuts the former Schlage Lock property on San Francisco’s southern edge, where developer Universal Paragon is about to start construction on the first phase of a 1,679-unit housing development.
McNerney paid $1.85 million for the property, according to public records compiled by the Old Republic Title Co. He said he hopes to build about 200 units of housing over ground-floor retail on the 1.2-acre property.
The developer said he wasn’t looking for land in Visitacion Valley, but stumbled on the listing while looking at the real estate website LoopNet. He was intrigued — even though the southern edge of the city is a long way from his usual stomping grounds around Mint Plaza, SoMa, Dogpatch and central Mission Street.
‘Great opportunity site’
“It’s a great opportunity site,” he said. “It’s a major transit hub. Visitacion Valley could use large-scale investment and pedestrian-friendly retail,” he said. “It’s an awesome place that has been overlooked.” The property is part of an old Union Pacific Railroad right of way located on Tunnel Avenue near the border of San Francisco and Brisbane.
While the Martin Building project is bite-size compared to Universal Paragon’s 20-acre undertaking, it means that money is flowing to the area, the result of years of work by city planners, Universal Paragon and Visitacion Valley residents. The neighborhood is one of the poorest in San Francisco and hasn’t attracted development in decades, despite its transit-rich location on both Caltrain and Muni streetcar lines.
Visitacion Valley residents hope that the new housing on both projects will pump life into its downtown retail strip, Leland Avenue, which struggles to attract enough foot traffic despite a nice small-town vibe. The plan calls for Leland Avenue to be extended into the Schlage Lock property.
Visitacion Valley resident Fran Martin, who has been involved in planning the Schlage Lock project for 16 years, said she is “excited because of the projects that Patrick McNerney has completed.”
“It gives me hope that people will want to live here — this guy knows what he is doing,” Martin said.
The investment comes as Universal Paragon is getting ready to commence the “horizontal construction” — curbs, streets, streetlights, utilities — on phase one at the Schlage Lock site, which has sat dormant since 1999 when owner Ingersoll Rand closed the factory that had operated there since 1926.
Consistency desired
Universal Paragon Development Director Jonathan Scharfman said a combination of open space and lower-density row houses had originally been contemplated for the Union Pacific Railroad property, but that he welcomes “high-quality development that is consistent with current plans and that doesn’t compromise the standards that were set over so many years.”
“Our concern is that any development that occurs on that site be consistent with design guidelines that were developed over years with the community and the city family,” Scharfman said.
Best Dating Agency Visitacion Valley Stream
McNerney said he’s had one meeting with city planners. “We are at the start of the process — and it will be a process.”
Best Dating Agency Visitacion Valley
Martin said she is looking forward to the first bulldozers moving dirt on the fenced-in swath of dirt and tall grass, a frequent dumping ground for unwanted household garbage.
“My main concern is that it all works together and that it be fabulous,” Martin said. “It’s going to be a tough sell, where it is, so it has to be really well-designed.”
Martin held the first neighborhood meetings about the reuse of Schalge Lock in 1999 when the factory was shuttered.
“It’s been a long haul,” she said. “I’m 70 years old, so it’s got to happen soon.”
In the press