In the shadow of Sutro Tower sits an idyllic piece of land. Its 1.7 hilly acres, covered by eucalyptus trees, overlook the lagoon-like Laguna Honda Reservoir.
There were housing development plans for the site as recently as 2019 and as far back as the 1970s, but so far, the only creatures to call it home are the hawks that fly above the trees and their prey scurrying below.
That’s because 113-193 Warren Drive, which is among the largest undeveloped pieces of privately owned land in San Francisco, is completely “landlocked,” according to Compass agent Rob Levy. He recently relisted the property for $1.35 million, after asking closer to $2 million last year.
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“We're trying to reduce all the friction on the purchase side, knowing that there will be some friction on the easement side,” he said.
Indeed, the easement side is the catch — and it’s a big one. There’s no way to legally access the site, much less build on it, as it’s surrounded by homes along Warren Drive, two townhome communities on Clarendon Drive, and San Francisco Public Utilities Commission land surrounding the reservoir.
The buyer will need to figure out an agreement with one of those parties, since Levy’s clients — whom he did not identify — are selling the property as is. And it’ll be more like a hike up nearby Twin Peaks than a walk in the park.
The sellers, known only as Orange County-based SF Development LLC, picked up the plot for $1.75 million in a 2022 trustee sale after the previous owner, who planned to develop up to 38 townhomes on the site, defaulted on a $2.1 million debt, according to city records. At the time, the property was appraised at $9 million, a value that was based on the assumption that an easement was in place. (It wasn’t.)
The sellers are small investors who don’t have the skill set to take on the complex easement issue, Levy said, making it “an opportunity for someone who has the time and energy” to negotiate access. The ideal easement would be off Clarendon, as the previous developer’s plans show.
But that would mean winning approval from the Public Utilities Commission. And — surprise! — securing access from a public entity is more difficult than negotiating with a private owner, according to M. Brett Gladstone, a land use attorney.
Getting an easement from the city would require a public hearing process that could easily take a year or more, while private owners could come to an agreement with a buyer in a month or two.
While the lot is unusually large for San Francisco, it's not uncommon for the biggest pieces of undeveloped property in this densely developed city to lack access, Gladstone said.
“Developers and their agents are constantly on the lookout for empty lots to develop. They find it, and they build it. So if there's any leftovers, they're usually problematic,” he said.
A representative of the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development pointed to the property’s hilly terrain and non-rectangular shape as two additional challenges to developing it for affordable housing.
The access issue, however, is not a dealbreaker, the spokesperson said. “MOHCD has worked with PUC on easement issues in the past, and while it isn’t the most straightforward process and involves lots of lawyers, it is definitely doable.”
The listing has seen much more activity this time around, Levy said, with about a dozen inquiries coming in since the lot returned to market — though most interested parties have not been sophisticated in land use issues.
He can’t take buyers onto the property and has to show it to them from outside a chain-link fence on Clarendon, looking up the hillside. The renewed interest, he says, comes down to a combination of lower interest rates and a sense that the city is more invested in getting homes built faster.
The agent is taking the long view — and hoping that potential buyers will too. “The city has been very ardent about trying to make building easier, at least in the last year,” he said. “But building developments take years to get off the ground. It doesn't turn around on Day One.”