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Planning Commission approves 150 Van Ness housing project with conditions after parents press safety concerns
Summary
The commission approved a 420‑unit project at 150 Van Ness (50 on‑site BMR units) but attached conditions to protect La Porte preschool: translucent non‑operable glazing on lower floors facing the school, no demolition adjacent to the school during school hours, increased car‑share spaces and a 3‑month monitoring check after demolition starts.
The Planning Commission unanimously approved the downtown project authorization, conditional‑use requests and variances for 150 Van Ness on April 2 after lengthy public comment from parents of La Porte (50 Fell) preschool and extensive negotiation over demolition and mitigation measures.
Emerald Fund sponsor Oz Erickson described the project as a 13‑story, 120‑foot building with 420 dwelling units, 50 below‑market-rate units on site and about 9,000 square feet of ground‑floor retail. Erickson said the existing building is structurally unsafe and that the development would complete the Market Octavia area’s transition to a more residential neighborhood.
Parents and school representatives urged the Commission to delay action, saying construction and demolition threaten children’s safety, classroom noise and natural light. Speakers described the building’s proposed separation from 50 Fell as roughly 5½ feet and called for binding guarantees on noise, dust, air quality monitoring and contingency plans. ‘‘Our children are of the utmost importance to us,’’ Erickson said when describing the sponsor’s written agreement with La Porte parents and school officials.
Commissioners pressed the sponsor and contractors on detailed mitigations: a demolition sequence that avoids heavy work adjacent to the school during normal preschool hours (7 a.m.–6 p.m. Monday–Friday), three layers of physical shielding, misting for dust control, installation of acoustic boxes to limit classroom sound, HVAC filtration for affected classrooms, and a promise to install new glazing and a light well where feasible. The developer agreed to translucent, non‑operable glazing on the lower six floors of the south facade that face the school, to adopt dust and noise controls required by the Department of Building Inspection, to increase car‑share spaces to eight and to a three‑month check‑in after demolition begins.
Demo adjacent to the school was estimated at about five months and will be restricted from occurring during normal preschool hours; contractors committed to doing the most intrusive work on weekends or outside school hours. The Commission recorded the modifications into the project’s conditions of approval and approved the project unanimously (7–0).
Next steps: staff will record and transmit the findings and the sponsor will proceed to obtain demolition and building permits subject to the agreed conditions and DBI enforcement.
