By Richard Ivanhoe, HANC Board Member

As reported in the March Voice, the Coalition for a Complete Community timely submitted its proposal for the interim use of 730 Stanyan (the former McDonald’s site) to the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD) on February 28. As the RFP requested, the proposal provided for a combination of youth services, senior services, and community services for a five-year period. One other proposal was submitted, to use the site for street soccer and food trucks. MOHCD said it would announce its selection in April but did not do so.

We have learned that neither proposal was selected. We have heard that MOHCD is hoping to use funds from a bond measure anticipated for the November ballot to reduce the interim use period from five years to one to two years, even though they have an extensive list of projects awaiting funding. We have heard that the short-term plan is to use the site for parking through Labor Day (this use began this month, June 2019).

Meantime, a permit to demolish the existing building was filed by the demolition contractor, Buhler Commercial, on May 21. It has been signed-off by the Fire Department’s Fire Prevention Bureau, and is awaiting approval by the Building Plan Review Services, City Planning – Zoning Plan Clerk, DPW Bureau of Street Use and Mapping, Permit Processing Center, and the Central Permit Bureau. As we understand it, demolition cannot proceed without these approvals.

Although demolition of the existing structure was part of the contract for the purchase of the site, HANC has learned that McDonald’s Corporation is no longer insisting that the structure be demolished, as they no longer consider it to have McDonald’s branding. HANC would like to see the existing structure retained for youth and senior services until construction of affordable housing for the site begins. HANC is open to supporting a time-limited parking plan combined with these services to partially mitigate construction impacts on our local merchants.