Concern over hillside doesn’t deter developer
A church hoping to build affordable senior housing at the foot of San Francisco’s well-to-do Forest Hill neighborhood is going forward with the project despite a new report that says the hillside above would have to be extensively strengthened so the project doesn’t destabilize the sandy slope.
Christian Church Homes of Northern California has filed plans to build a five-story affordable complex at 250 Laguna Honda Blvd., a long, skinny parcel now home to a church, preschool and parking lot.
The engineering report recommends the developer use “deep soil mixing,” where existing
soil is mixed with cement grout. In addition, Langan Engineering recommended the installation of a buttress at the bottom of the slope, which, along with the stronger soil, would “resist lateral soil movement.”
Eden Powell, who is leading the project for the developer, said it would be redesigned to take into account the recommendations. Whether the additional costs make the project infeasible remains to be seen. She said it would be 12 to 24 months before the environmental study is completed and the costs are known.
“At this point, we don’t have the information to be able to price it out,” Powell said.
The report comes after a year of acrimony between the developer and nearby residents. While some neighbors have objected to having an affordable development at the bottom of the hill — 20 percent of units would be set aside for the formerly homeless — the developer has also faced other challenges.
While the original plan called for 150 units and the demolition of the church, the city Planning Department has made it clear that it would oppose the church demolition. In a response to the preliminary proposal, Planning Department staff called the 12,000square-foot church from 1962 “an exceptional, rare and intact example of Expressionist architecture” and a “monument of midcentury modernism.”
In addition, the developer has decided to include a preschool, which was not part of the original plan.
Kate Hartley, who heads the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, said the project is “definitely still on.” She said the developer, its consultants and the city are analyzing the geological issues to ensure a safe building design.
She said that the monthly meetings between the developer and neighbors, convened by Supervisor Norman Yee, have “helped build trust.” If the project has to shrink to assuage some of the neighborhood’s concerns, that is something the city could live with, she said.
“We had hoped for 150 (units), but if it’s smaller that is OK, too,” she said.
The instability of the hillside has long been of concern for residents who live perched above Laguna Honda Boulevard on Castenada Avenue. The hillside has been weakened by vertical and lateral “creep” of the underlying sand dune. One home on the hill, 69 Castenada Ave., was destroyed by a gas leak after the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989.
David Yoo, who lives on Castenada Avenue and is on the board of the Forest Hill Association, said his opposition to the project “has always been about safety.” Yoo’s sewer main, which is buried in the hillside, snapped two years ago because the hill had shifted so much.
“We have always been advised by geotech engineers that you have to be thoughtful and do as little as possible to disrupt the hillside,” Yoo said. “None of us are against affordable housing or senior housing, but my house is on the hill. I have a 5-year-old daughter and another one on the way, and we don’t want our house sliding down the hill because some developer didn’t take precautions.”
While Yee is on the record as having opposed the original proposal, he now says that he is open to supporting it if issues with the neighbors can be worked out.
“The immediate neighbors who were opposed now feel they are being listened to,” Yee said. “There will always be a percentage who want nothing done there. My position is always about brokering a compromise.”
Powell, the developer, said her group is committed to ironing out differences with neighbors while not losing sight of the big picture.
“Adding to the affordable housing stock and finding ways to address the homeless problem are both big priorities not just in San Francisco but the whole Bay Area,” said Powell. “Those two things, in combination, make this project something that needs to happen.”