Board blocks Starbucks at Geary and Fifth after Richmond neighborhood opposition

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted 9–1 to overturn the planning commission and deny a conditional-use authorization for a Starbucks coffee shop planned at 4041 Geary Boulevard, a corner retail space within a Toyota dealership and service center. The decision followed more than four hours of public testimony and a contested appeal led by neighborhood merchants.

Supervisor McGoldrick moved to disapprove the planning commission’s conditional-use authorization for a formula-retail (Starbucks) establishment at the site; Supervisor Ammiano seconded. In a recorded roll call, nine supervisors voted to disapprove and one voted no (Supervisor Jew), reversing the earlier planning commission decision.

The appeal — heard as Items 34–37 on the agenda — turned into a broad test of San Francisco’s post-Prop G procedure for formula retail. The planning commission had approved a small “star-box” occupying 750 square feet inside a larger 23,000-square-foot Toyota service center. Toyota told the board the retail space was a condition of the dealership’s approval and that the company had sought a neighborhood-serving tenant for more than a year. Planning staff had mapped the surrounding coffee and cafe businesses and reported that the proposed use…