Town Square Team Recognized And An Unexpected Update

Congrats to the Residents for Noe Valley Town Square on being recognized as a "model for community groups" at this week's meeting of the Board Of Supervisors.

The Certificate of Honor reads:

In recognition of your efforts to create a permanent open space for the community to gather in the heart of Noe Valley, the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco extends its highest commendation to you. Your organizational and fundraising efforts are a model for community groups throughout San Francisco.

You can see video of the presentation with remarks from Scott Wiener and Todd David by opening the link for the 1/29/13 Board of Supervisors meeting on the BOS archive page and then skipping forward to minute 34. (Or you can go directly to the video.)

In related news, there was an interesting morsel from CookieTime yesterday. Yes...she sold the truck to her mother. But check out the buried lede: "The ownership of the Noe Valley parking lot has changed, so we can no longer park the truck there." Huh?

Conversations with Todd David and Scott Wiener's office confirm that the Noe Valley Ministry and the City are in negotiations, but that no deal has been finalized. The process continues, but is still heavily contingent on fund-raising. Meanwhile, Rec & Park has filed paperwork to convert the parking lot to public space in the event everything works out.

Details from Todd, who emphasizes that the timeline is fluid and largely in the control of the City:

I know that Rec and Parks staff is taking the appropriate steps to make that a possibility. The next steps are for Residents for Noe Valley Town Square to present to the Rec and Park Commission. And I am working with Rec and Park staff weekly to prepare for that presentation.

If approved by the Rec and Park Commission, Supervisor Wiener will sponsor legislation at the Board of Supervisors to access $x.x million from the Open Space Fund to purchase the lot. The hope is that the community fundraising plus the Open Space Fund will pay for the purchase of the parking lot. And then the State's Prop 84 Urban Greening Grant would help pay for a majority of the development of the "Town Square."

We're waiting to hear back from Marina (Cookie Time) about what she heard and will update when we do.

[NVSF: All Town Square posts]
[Photo: Office of Supervisor Scott Wiener; From left to right: Scott Wiener, Todd David, Leslie Crawford, Peter Gabel, Nisha Pillai, Christopher Keene, and Kate Sherwood]

First Republic Bank Bails On 24th St

In mid-July we heard from Leslie Crawford that she was appealing the Planning Commission's Conditional Use permit for First Republic Bank approved on June 14th. The Board of Supervisors was scheduled to hear the appeal this past Tuesday, but things turned out differently (emphasis ours):

[Public Hearing - Conditional Use Appeal - 3901-24th Street]
Hearing of persons interested in or objecting to the decision of the Planning Commission's by its Motion No. 18648 dated June 14, 2012, approving a Conditional Use Authorization identified as Planning Case No. 2011.1372C, under Planning Code Sections 728.49 and 790.110 to convert a vacant ground floor commercial space into a financial service (d.b.a. First Republic Bank) within the 24th Street - Noe Valley Neighborhood Commercial District and a 40-X Height and Bulk District and adopting findings under the California Environmental Quality Act on property located at 3901-24th Street, Assessor’s Block No. 6508, Lot No. 001. (District 8) (Appellant: Leslie Crawford and subscribed by Supervisors Wiener, Olague, Avalos, Mar, and Chiu) (Filed July 12, 2012) (Clerk of the Board)
The President indicated receipt of a letter from the Project Sponsor, dated July 30, 2012, withdrawing their application for conditional use. The President inquired as to whether any member of the public wished to address the Board. There were no speakers. The President declared the public hearing closed.
HEARD AND FILED

So we asked Leslie for clarification and this is what we heard back (again, emphasis ours):

Yes, First Republic withdrew their application for conditional use. They decided (from my understanding) that there was a good chance they wouldn't win the appeal and if they lost, they couldn't look for a Noe Valley space for a year. So they are (again my understanding) looking for something off the 24th Street corridor.

[NVSF: This Week At The Planning Commission: First Republic Bank Redux ]
[SFBOS: July 31, 2012 Minutes]