A fully affordable, eight-story housing development is one step closer to reality after building permits were approved Friday.
The project site at 730 Stanyan St. in Haight-Ashbury sits across from Golden Gate Park and was for many years the location of a gritty McDonald's. The restaurant closed in 2018 after the city bought the property and was demolished two years later.
The long-awaited new development will feature 160 affordable homes upon completion—costing around $1 million each to build, with the full build cost listed as almost $166 million in planning documents.
The homes breakdown as follows: 128 units of affordable family housing, 20 for unhoused families, 30 units for transitional-age youth residents coming out of homelessness and two for on-site managers. The homes will be 43 one-bedrooms, 42 two-bedrooms, 35 studios and 40 three-bedrooms.
The project approval will likely end the numerous battles over what to do with the site, which included bitter disputes over interim uses while a permanent housing plan could be agreed upon.
The project is a joint effort between the Chinatown Community Development Center and the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation.
The rooftop will be covered in grass, and the fifth floor will work as a public space with views of Golden Gate Park. There will also be an urban farming terrace along Waller Street.
There will be a public plaza and community room on the ground floor, with two courtyards at the back, a cafe and a childcare facility.
The planning applications are still under review, according to the San Francisco Planning Department website. It must also be approved by the Board of Supervisors. Supervisors Gordon Mar and Dean Preston have publicly supported the project.
It is hoped that construction will begin by 2024 and take 20 months. Families could be living on-site by 2026.
The update on 730 Stanyan comes as the total number of units in San Francisco’s housing pipeline hit a record high of over 80,000 in the first quarter of this year, according to Socketsite’s queries of SF Planning Department databases.
The state government is currently asking questions of SF’s home-building track record, launching an investigation into why it takes so long and demanding the city submit a plan to build 82,000 homes by 2030.
Editor's Note: This story was updated to clarify the nature of the disputes over the site.