SF neighbors want this vacant site revived but latest proposal is sparking backlash

Residents in San Francisco's Bayview have hoped a new retailer would move into the hulking, empty storefront on the neighborhood's main commercial street after Walgreen's shuttered there in 2025. But plans for an auto parts store aren't what most had in mind. They imagined a grocery store or pharmacy for a neighborhood that has long struggled to score retailers that can meet residents' basic needs.

Now, residents are pushing back against a proposal to put an AutoZone into a 13,000-square-foot building at 5300 Third St. that the neighborhood's only pharmacy vacated more than a year ago. 

The proposal would fill a vacancy that Supervisor Shamann Walton and the landlord have said has been difficult to address. But it has sparked frustration among residents who said they do not want to see the primarily middle-income, racially diverse neighborhood lean further toward an industrial and car-centric environment. 

Bayview residents submitted more than 60 letters opposing the project to the San Francisco Planning Commission - which is set to vote on the proposal July 23 - and have called for the lot to be used instead for housing, local storefronts, restaurants, a medical center, a pharmacy or a grocery store. The neighborhood lost a different Walgreen's outpost in 2019 and a Lucky's grocery store in 2025.

The fight over the lot's use reflects a broader push by Bayview residents for a comprehensive plan for the economic future of the neighborhood, which is one of San Francisco's most industrial areas despite its decadeslong history of racial and environmental justice activism. Residents have long complained that City Hall doesn't listen to their concerns and that the neighborhood needs more amenities. The fight comes as the neighborhood gets ready to elect a new supervisor in November, with Walton termed out.   

"Our commercial corridor should reflect the history, the culture and the future," said Tiffany Carter, whose family has lived in the Bayview for three generations. "We look at that particular location as the gateway into Bayview, and Bayview deserves to move in the same direction that San Francisco as a whole is moving into."

The property owners, Raj and Veena Kaul, said in a letter to the planning commission that AutoZone is the only tenant that "has emerged after years of exhaustive searching" for a replacement for Walgreens, the previous tenant. Although Walgreens did not leave the property until February 2025, the owners said they have been searching for a new tenant since the company first signaled in 2020 that it planned to leave.

The Kaul family and AutoZone did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Many residents, including those who serve on the Bayview-Hunters Point Citizen Advisory Committee - the neighborhood's planning advisory board that recently voted against the project - said the first time they heard about Walgreens' plan to leave was last year. They added that they did not know about the plan for an AutoZone until early spring.

The historically Black neighborhood has seen its Black population drop. While the neighborhood was 70% Black in 1970, today it's only 21% Black, though it still has the highest share of Black residents in the city. Today, roughly 40% of the area is Asian, 24% Hispanic and 8% white.  

Carter said San Francisco's rising rents have pushed out many of her friends and neighbors in the working-class enclave. The Bayview-Hunters Point area is one of the lowest-income parts of the city, with a median household income of about $80,000, according to census data.

Devanshu Patel, the chair of the citizen advisory committee, said city leaders and the property owners didn't adequately communicate about the project until a few months ago. He added that if residents had known Walgreens would leave, they could have worked with the city and the  landlord to find a different tenant.

The committee's May 6 vote against the project can be  taken into consideration by the city planning commission, but is not binding.

"There's a lot of spaces they could use, even in Bayview, but we felt that this location specifically was not the best location for an AutoZone," Patel said. "It's in a pretty important corridor for Third Street, and there's a lot of needs in the Bayview for different types of services that we don't have. From our perspective, AutoZone really serves people who need auto parts, who drive in."

The planning commission will consider several factors, including whether it "will provide a development that is necessary or desirable for, and compatible with, the neighborhood or the community," according to city planning documents. The area is zoned for light industrial or retail use, meaning some residents' suggestions for the lot - such as retail spaces with housing above - would require special authorization. 

The landlords said in a letter to the planning commission that they have conducted extensive public outreach for the project, including working with the city's small business and workforce development offices. 

"Denying a physical formula retailer like AutoZone from occupying a vacant storefront does not protect small businesses; it actively punishes the local community," the letter said. "It replaces a physical, neighborhood-serving, job-producing store with a boarded-up plywood wall."

Walton told the Chronicle that the AutoZone is a business the community needs, because it would revitalize the long-vacant building and provide new jobs. He added that he has seen widespread support for the AutoZone.

"It's important that everybody voices their opinion," Walton said. "But sometimes people can just be wrong."

He added that a new community pharmacy is planned for Third Street, supported by a grant from San Francisco's Office of Economic and Workforce Development.

"We need businesses to thrive in our community," he said. "We've been working on eliminating vacancies on the corridor."

Although most residents who submitted letters to the planning commission oppose the project, some said they support it, citing concerns that if AutoZone doesn't  move in, the building may remain vacant. 

"A staffed store at our most visible corner, right at the T stop, changes how safe this corridor feels to the next investor and signals that we welcome tax-generating businesses," wrote Bayview resident Barb Tassa. "That's how the grocery store we actually want and residential developments that bring even more life to the community, eventually become possible."

Dontaye Ball, president of the Bayview Merchant Association and owner of the local restaurant Gumbo Social, said the association has not taken a position on the project.  

"We want to see businesses do well in Bayview," he said. "We have heard there are people in the community who are concerned, though."

Theo Ellington, who lives in the Bayview and is running for District 10 supervisor, said he understands why the landlords want AutoZone to move into the building, but that the goal should be to "bring in neighborhood-serving amenities to this community that has been marginalized."

"When I first heard about the AutoZone coming in, I thought to myself, this community needs a whole lot of things," said Ellington. "An AutoZone is probably last on my list."

D.J. Brookter, who is also running for supervisor, could not immediately be reached for comment. 

Residents said they hope the planning commission will deny the project, at which point they could work to find a different tenant. 

"There's the diversity of Bayview, and our perspectives are mostly somewhat aligned on this," said resident Chad White. "There needs to be another way."

Subscribe

Read this story on sfchronicle.com