The Planning Department will unveil new research about Glen Park history at an interactive community meeting this Thursday evening, including the possibility of designating a portion of downtown as historic.
Hosted by District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman and the San Francisco Planning Department, the meeting from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the Glen Park branch library will feature updated information about the neighborhood’s architectural and cultural history.
Glen Park Neighborhood History Night is part of SF Survey, the Planning Department’s multi-year city-wide program to identify and document places and resources of cultural, historical, and architectural importance across San Francisco.
The multi-pronged effort includes past research like the 2011 Glen Park Historic Context Statement, which found only Glen Park Elementary School and the Glen Park BART station as historic resources of note in the neighborhood. The Brutalist architecture of the BART station landed it a place on the National Registry of Historic Places.
Another prong is new information. Thursday’s meeting will feature recent fieldwork, research and evaluations of historic buildings and cultural history by the San Francisco Planning Department and by neighborhood historian Evelyn Rose, whose Glen Park Neighborhoods History Project is rich in local information.
The third part of SF Survey is community engagement, and this meeting is merely to gather feedback – no designations are being proposed at it. Specific properties or districts designated as a landmark or as historic would be brought before the public at a second community meeting, said Mandelman.
Mandelman indicated he would be inclined to ask the Historic Preservation Commission to look at designating a portion of downtown Glen Park as historic.
“There’s probably a district there if we want it, and I think we should do it, said Mandleman. “This is a way to preserve our history while allowing room for denser development.”
According to the SF Survey website, community outreach is followed by Planning Department staff proposing properties (or districts) as historically significant, meriting protection against changes and demolition. The proposals go to a public hearing before the department’s Historic Preservation Commission.
Once adopted the properties and districts are updated in the San Francisco Property Information Map. When the process has been completed across the city, the findings will be forwarded to the State of California Office of Historic Preservation. The process is not expected to be finished until 2027 at the earliest.
Thursday’s event is free, and light refreshments will be provided. No RSVP is required. Learn more about the SF Survey methodology and timeline here.
WHEN: Thursday, November 13, 5 to 6:30 p.m.
WHERE: Glen Park Branch Library, 2825 Diamond Street