A controversial plan to put an auto parts store in an empty storefront along the main commercial corridor of San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood won approval Thursday. The unanimous vote by the San Francisco Planning Commission dismayed many residents of the working class enclave who had called for the building to instead be used for a grocery store, a pharmacy or retail spaces with housing above them.
The 13,000-square-foot building at 5300 Third St. has been vacant for a year and a half after Walgreens, the neighborhood’s only pharmacy, shuttered there. Filling the vacancy has posed a challenge, according to Supervisor Shamann Walton and the landlords, who said a search for a new tenant started when the company first signaled in 2020 that it planned to leave.
Bayview residents submitted more than 60 letters opposing the AutoZone project to the commission, calling for better investment in the basic needs of the community, which also lost a different Walgreens location in 2019 and a Lucky’s grocery store in 2025. The historically Black neighborhood is one of the most industrial areas of the city, and the Third Street property is in an area zoned for light industrial or retail use. The neighborhood has seen some progress on its development priorities, including through a community pharmacy that is planned for Third Street…