June 4th, 1pm: Support City Approval of "The IRV" rent-controlled housing restoration at 4326 Irving St.
San Francisco Planning Department
![](https://can2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/petitions/photos/000/156/008/original/PrimaryPhoto-crop.jpg)
June 4th, 1pm, we have a "virtual" online hearing at the planning commission. We would like your support for our neighborhood project, renovating a vacant dilapidated building to provide high-quality rent-controlled housing for the outer sunset. We call it "The IRV."
We seek approval from the Planning Commission to renovate the existing building to add more bedrooms and baths to the existing vacant units to provide 100% rent-controlled housing for the people who live and work in our neighborhood: bar-backs, servers, nurses, teachers, firemen, etc.
Please note this building has never had any evictions: it was purchased vacant by the person who sold it to us, entirely vacant.
We seek approval for:
Adding a partial fourth floor set back 10' on the front and set back 45' from the rear yard. This would allow us to add 2 bedrooms & baths to each of four existing 3rd floor units, making each 2-story. It's adding ~2,400 sf total.
The character of the building will not change much -- see the before and after photos. As you can see, the addition will be barely visible from the street. But it will be real for the people who can live here.
Also we will improve the facade as shown in the second photo with new siding, new windows, etc. (a DIFFERENT project of ours, but it gives an idea of the look and scope.) We will also have new electrical, new plumbing, new fire sprinkler throughout, new finishes, new roof, new seismic, etc. We WILL be providing like-new units for the people in our neighborhood who need a quality place to live. As you know we live in the community too!
Everyone is talking about the "housing crisis" but this is a chance to actually do something concrete -- support environmentally responsible in-fill rent-controlled high quality housing. We really need your support! Thank you!
Our project showing "after" on the left, and "before" on the right.
Our other different but similar project BEFORE:
Our other similar project AFTER:
To:
San Francisco Planning Department
From:
[Your Name]
Dear Planning Department:
We support the renovation and minor expansion of the currently vacant "IRV" building at 4326 Irving.
The logic is no different from any ADU-type approval -- let's add bedrooms and bathrooms to existing vacant spaces so that more people have rent-controlled housing. In perpetuity. This will have a very positive, real impact on future residents -- a place to call home.
This will provide like-new construction on the West Side and will be one of the only projects providing new windows, new siding, new roof, new plumbing, new electrical, new HVAC, new voluntary seismic retrofit, and new finishes, all in a rent-controlled building. Providing all this is extremely expensive. There's a reason SF is now the most expensive place in the world to provide housing.
This project represents the most affordable least environmentally impactful housing this city can possibly provide. Let's give future residents the choice to live in proper, code-conforming like-new units instead of forcing them to stretch a sheet across a living room. Let's build on existing footprints with existing hardscape and utilities in zero-commute environment rather than build on farm land or wild-lands in drive-to inland markets. People would rather have a bedroom here than commute to a "palace" east of oakland.
Aside from being the right thing for our environment and future generations, this will improve our neighborhood character and dramatically improve the quality in real ways for real people who really need to live and work here. It's the right thing to do for all stakeholders.