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Planning Commission approves Fresh & Easy in the Mission with conditions after heated public debate
Summary
After extensive public testimony on alcohol sales, WIC participation and local hiring, the San Francisco Planning Commission approved a conditional-use permit for Fresh & Easy to open a grocery at 1245 South Van Ness, imposing conditions including beer-and-wine sales only, staffed alcohol checkout, WIC application when permitted, and a local-hire partnership and one-year reporting requirement.
The San Francisco Planning Commission on a 4'to—3 vote approved a conditional-use authorization for Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets to open a 16,241-square-foot grocery at 1245 South Van Ness, a heavily contested site in the Mission District.
The decision followed a full-day hearing in which staff described the proposal as a reestablishment of grocery use on a site occupied by a supermarket since 1959 and recommended approval with conditions. Planning staff said the project will reconfigure the lot, provide bicycle parking and landscaping, and pay approximately $530,000 in impact fees tied to jobs, housing linkage and transit mitigation.
Residents and community groups gave the hearing its length and heat. Opponents told the commission they feared Fresh & Easy's assisted/self-checkout…
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