Proposed Sixth Street Development Prompts Hearing On Shadow's Impact On SoMa Parks

Proposed Sixth Street Development Prompts Hearing On Shadow's Impact On SoMa ParksRendering: Realtext Group
Brittany Hopkins
Published on October 13, 2015

The Rec & Parks Commission is joining the Planning Commission at a special joint hearing Thursday to consider whether a proposed development at Sixth and Clara streets will have an adverse effect on Central SoMa's green spaces.

The project, sponsored by Realtex Group, proposes demolishing a 14,400-square-foot industrial building and surface parking lot at 363 Sixth St. to construct Saturn Apartments, a nine-story, 85-foot-tall mixed-use complex with 104 units (12 percent affordable) and 700 square feet of ground-floor commercial space. The development would also include 45 vehicle parking spaces and 109 bicycle parking spaces (for residents and retail visitors) in the basement. In total, it's expected to generate about $1.6 million in impact fees for the city's eastern neighborhoods.

Built in 1920, the industrial building at 363 Sixth Street is currently home to City Life Church. (Photo: Google Maps)

According to the Planning Department's assessment, the plans adhere to the guidelines set by the Eastern Neighborhoods Area Plan (which was approved by the Mayor and Board of Supervisors in December 2008) and will not result in significant environmental impacts beyond those already identified in the area plan's environmental review. Therefore, the project is not required to compile a project-specific environmental review.

However, given that the development is over 40 feet tall and could have the potential to cast new shadows on Gene Friend Recreation Center and Victoria Manalo Draves Park, the city was required to conduct a shadow analysis under Proposition K Sunlight Ordinance — which was approved by city voters in 1985 to protect public open spaces under Rec & Parks jurisdiction from negative impacts of development.

According to the shadow analysis conducted by CADP on behalf of the departments, the development would not cast any new shadows on Victoria Manalo Draves Park. Shadows resulting from the complex in the morning and evening would fall on areas already shadowed by surrounding buildings.

The analysis does find that the proposed Saturn Apartments would increase shadows on Gene Friend Recreation Center — which may receive a complete redesign in coming years — by .028 percent a year, but CADP predicts that the new shadow would subside before the park opens at 9am.

"The longest duration of new shadow would be approximately 22 minutes and the average shadow would be cast for less than 12 minutes," the report states. "All new shadow cast occurs before the park opens and is mostly projected on walkways, a small portion of the green field adjacent to the corner of Sixth Street and Folsom Street."

Image: CADP

Given that an application has been filed with Planning to construct an eight-story mixed-use residential building next-door at 345 Sixth St., the departments also requested an analysis on the projects' combined impact on Gene Friend Recreation Center. Similar to 363 Sixth St., CADP found that the 345 Sixth St. project would add new shadows to the recreation center on 26 days in the fall and winter between 7:30am and 8:22am, with all shadows disappearing by 9am. Combined, the projects would increase shadows on the park by 0.087 percent per year.

According to the Chronicle, the Parks and Rec commission has only vetoed one proposed development since the passage of the Sunlight Ordinance. That project was proposed for 190 Russ St. and would have added a .07 percent increase in shadows per year on Victoria Manalo Draves Park.

So far, 363 Sixth St. seems to have the majority of the neighborhood's blessing. As of Monday afternoon, the Planning Department had received more than 50 letters of support for the project and two in opposition.

The joint public hearing is scheduled for noon on Thursday in room 400 at City Hall. Once the Rec & Parks commission makes its determination on the shadow impact, the Planning Commission will vote on the project as a whole.

We'll let you know where the commissions land Thursday. In the meantime, give us your thoughts on this development in the comments.