A planned Outer Sunset apartment complex has doubled in height — and if built, it will be the tallest building in a sleepy neighborhood known for avenues of single-family homes.
The owner of 3601 Lawton St., where building has been stalled for nearly a decade, filed new plans with the city Monday to increase the project from four to eight stories. The site is currently a gas station and auto repair shop at the corner of 42nd Avenue that’s blocks from Ocean Beach and surrounded by mostly two-story homes.
The owner purchased the property in 2014; plans for a four-story, 12-unit apartment complex were later approved. But little progress was made.
If the new plans are approved, the building will be a whopping 69,900 square feet and will include 23 one-bedroom units, 16 two-bedrooms, six three-bedrooms and one studio apartment. It will have 28 underground parking spaces, 50 bicycle spaces and an accessible roof.
Residents of the neighborhood were unconvinced when The Standard visited on Tuesday.
“I don’t believe it’s going to go up until it goes up,” said Abraham Lee, who lives across the street from the site.
Frank Zhang, who also lives across the street, had a strong opinion: “I don’t like it,” he said, standing outside his house.
Westside resident Michael Nohr worried about the closure of the gas station.
“I’m actually fine with that kind of building — that kind of height,” Nohr, a member of Sunset United Neighbors, told The Standard by phone. “Here’s where my issue comes in. There’s only three or four gas stations left [in the Outer Sunset], and this is gonna be one of the last ones taken away. The city wants to push everyone into bikes, but the reality is a lot of people need their car to get to work.”
Eight gas stations line 19th Avenue from Lincoln Way to Sloat Boulevard. There are also four, including Lawton Street’s Royal Gas, in the Outer Sunset neighborhood.
But the project may become a reality sooner than Nohr or Zhang would like, as it is one of the earliest to take advantage of SB 423, a bill passed July 1 that helps housing projects sail through the city’s bureaucratic approval processes. The bill, authored by state Sen. Scott Wiener, aims to reduce the time it takes for a permit to be granted from around two years — the longest in the state — to six months.
And 3601 Lawton St. is just one of several projects in the pipeline to completion across the Outer Sunset. The city broke ground on the contentious 90-unit project at 2550 Irving St. in June. Three other projects are underway within a one-mile radius: the seven-story, 200-plus-unit affordable housing project at 1234 Great Highway; the five-story, 20-unit 3945 Judah St. project; and the five-story, 134-unit teacher housing project at 1360 43rd Ave.
“We definitely need more housing in the Sunset,” Supervisor Joel Engardio told The Standard by phone. “[This project has] something for everyone; it has three bedrooms and two bedrooms. It offers a lot of things that people need, from affordable units and extra bedrooms.”