San Francisco Examiner – City leaders broke ground this week on a 160-unit housing complex in the Haight-Ashbury
A momentous step in a years-long effort to transition the lot from affordable hamburgers to affordable housing.
An eight story, mix-use development at 730 Stanyan St. will replace an old McDonald’s that’s been mostly vacant since The City purchased the land in 2018.
The project also includes plans for an early child care center, retail and a public community space.
The building will run along Stanyan Street from Haight to Waller streets directly across from Golden Gate Park. Twenty of the new units will be dedicated to transitional-age youth residents and twelve will be for homeless families. The units will vary in size from studios to three-bedrooms.
San Francisco bought the fast food building as well as its parking lot, a 38,000- square-foot parcel altogether, for$15.5 million. The site had long been plagued by violent brawls and drug busts.
In 2015, then City Attorney Denis Herrera issued a public nuisance letter to the McDonald’s Corp. and the franchise owner, demanding that they address the “lawlessness” in and around the location.
From the start of 2014 to spring of 2015, there were more than 600 calls to police and nearly a dozen drug citations.
The fast food chain and franchisee paid The City $40,000 to settle the dispute prior to a lawsuit being filed, hired a security guard and installed security cameras.
San Francisco bought the lot a few years later, but it sat empty until the pandemic, when it was temporarily used as a homeless encampment …
