“It effectively puts an end to this project on this site,” said a Home Depot spokesman. He was referring to the unanimous decision of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, lead by President Tom Ammiano, to adopt legislation that would prevent any store larger than 65,000 s.f. from locating on a roughly 14 acre piece of land on the southeast side of San Francisco known as Visitacion Valley. We told you about this community’s battle with Agent Orange on August 30, 2000 (see newsflash below), and the efforts of Visitacion Valley Planning Alliance to use this land for a “transit village” of mixed uses more compatible with an urban community. Home Depot had proposed its standard big box fare, and never really gave the neighborhood what it wanted. Home Depot could have waited a year to see what happened when the big box limit on this parcel runs out, but instead the company announced it was leaving Visitacion Valley, but not going very far. The company is now looking 2 miles further north of Bayshore Boulevard. But already residents in nearby Bernal Heights have made their distaste for the project clear. So it looks like the same battle, just moved a tad bit to the north.This is victory #148 against Big Box stores by my count.
Visitacion Valley will take the next year to develop its vision of how the land could be used to foster community and local economic development. “Visitacion Valley residents have stated repeatedly that they want development on this site. They are not NIMBYs,” Supervisor President Ammiano, who helped his constituents slam dunk the world’s largest “home improvement” center, told the San Francisco Chronicle. Many jubilant residents in the Valley no doubt feel that Home Depot leaving was the best home improvement to happen in more than a year since the company began trying to push its way in.
