The Marina Safeway Approval Starts a Permit Process. The Store Stays Open Through It.

The San Francisco Planning Department signed off on the Marina Safeway redevelopment on Nov. 6, and the store at 15 Marina Blvd. is still listed as open, with pickup and delivery running as usual.

The approval matters on paper. In a letter to Align Real Estate, planners found that the project qualified for streamlined approval under Assembly Bill 2011. That 2022 state law lets eligible housing on commercial land skip public hearings and environmental review, as The San Francisco Standard reported. The letter sets no demolition date, no closing date for the store and no construction start. Everything that happens at the store now depends on steps that come after it.

What the Nov. 6 letter allows

With planning approval in hand, Align can now apply for permits to demolish the store and excavate the site. Several more steps come before any equipment shows up on Marina Boulevard:

1. Post-approval permits. SF Planning's Director Bulletin No. 9 says a ministerial approval still requires separate building, grading, excavation and demolition permits. City agencies must process them without unreasonable delay and cannot apply new objective standards along the way.
2. Financing. Align declined to tell the San Francisco Chronicle whether it has secured financing or when construction could begin.
3. Site assessment. Under the bulletin, an identified hazardous condition triggers further assessment. Any release must be removed or mitigated before a certificate of occupancy is issued, which is the final step of the process.

The money question carries the most weight. A city economic-feasibility analysis earlier this year estimated development costs, excluding land, at $700,000 to $1.2 million per home across its market-rate housing models. Applied to 848 homes, even the low end of that range is a very large sum to raise. The Chronicle also noted that large-scale housing construction has been mostly frozen in the city for years, though rents have been rising and the market shows early signs of thawing.

The city's own numbers show how far approval and construction can sit apart. SF Planning's pipeline report, current as of April 2026, counted 75,853 units in the citywide pipeline, with 3,301 of them under construction. The city only counts a project as under construction once a full building permit, or a site permit plus an approved first construction document, has been issued. The Marina Safeway joined that pipeline on Nov. 6, and it is not under construction.

The approval's three-year window, and the court case

An AB 2011 approval for a project without public investment beyond tax credits does not last forever. The bulletin requires construction activity, including demolition, grading or other site preparation, to begin within three years. It also sets out when that clock starts:

"...the approval shall remain valid for three years from the date of the final action establishing that approval, or if litigation is filed challenging that approval, from the date of the final judgment upholding that approval."

Under that rule, a court challenge to an approval ties the project's deadline to the court's schedule. A federal case over this project is already underway. On Sept. 11, 2026, almost two months before the final approval letter, a group of neighbors and two organizations, YesAnd Foundation and Neighborhoods United SF, filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The suit names the City and County of San Francisco and PG&E, with Align, Albertsons and Safeway listed as real parties in interest. According to KQED, the plaintiffs argue that the project was improperly deemed eligible for streamlining and that environmental and health-and-safety requirements were not met. They are asking the court to set aside the streamlining decision and halt the project pending review.

The Standard reported that the case is before Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín. A hearing on Align's motion to dismiss the due-process claim is set for February 2027, and no ruling on the merits had been reported as of early November.

How the expiration rule applies to a particular case is for the parties and their attorneys to sort out. This post is general information and not legal advice, so anyone whose plans depend on the outcome should confirm the details with a qualified professional.

What the approval covers

The approved plan replaces the store, built in 1959 on land where PG&E once operated a steam power plant, with a mixed-use complex.

The height comes from a second state law. By setting aside those 86 units, Align qualified for a 49.3% state density bonus, which allowed it to waive the 40-foot limit. Align filed a preliminary application before the Family Zoning Plan took effect, which locked in the rules that applied at the time. City officials have estimated that under the new rules the project might have had 500 to 600 homes and been substantially shorter.

The plan also touches the shoreline. In the approval letter, planners acknowledged that the tower "may create some new shadow on the Marina Green and Fort Mason" but concluded it "would not be significant or adversely impact the use of the park." On the soil question, Align has said it will comply with all environmental testing requirements under state law. City planners say further assessment and any needed cleanup can happen during permitting and before residents move in, and state regulators have said the known contamination at the site poses no current exposure risk.

The store closes only when construction starts

The current store has no closing date. When the project was first reported in December 2025, the Chronicle said the Safeway was expected to close for an indefinite period during construction. Safeway confirmed it would return to the finished building, and current employees would be temporarily reassigned to nearby Safeway stores. The store's closing therefore depends on construction starting, and construction depends on permits, financing and the court case described above.

These are the other grocery options within a short walk or drive:

• Marina Supermarket, 2323 Chestnut St. The Chronicle called it the area's only other major grocer in its December 2025 reporting.
• Lucca Delicatessen, 2120 Chestnut St., open daily 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., with groceries, Italian imports and housemade pasta.
• Luke's Local Cow Hollow Market, 2190 Union St., open daily 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• The Epicurean Trader, 1909 Union St., open daily 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. It is currently taking Thanksgiving preorders.
• Mollie Stone's Pacific Heights, 2435 California St., open daily 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
• Trader Joe's North Beach, 401 Bay St.
• Fort Mason Center Farmers Market, 2 Marina Blvd., every Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., rain or shine, with more than 50 farmers and vendors.

The farmers market is the closest of these to the project site. It sits just down Marina Boulevard from the Safeway lot, on the waterfront that the approval letter's shadow finding covers.

The next public milestones are concrete: permit applications for demolition and excavation, any statement from Align about financing, and the February 2027 hearing in federal court. Until one of them moves, 15 Marina Blvd. stays a grocery store.

If you own near Marina Boulevard and want to talk about how a long, uncertain construction timeline fits into your own plans for the next few years, I'm glad to go through it with you. Regina Gaspari | Let's Connect