The late Chronicle columnist Herb Caen called North Beach the heart of San Francisco. A neighborhood group is now hoping to elevate the neighborhood’s status to one of the nation’s vital organs through an application seeking to add it to the National Register of Historic Places. The Northeast San Francisco Conservancy filed the application with California’s Historical Resources Commission, which could forward the request to the National Park Service for final review. The application covers roughly 12 blocks, mostly along Columbus Avenue, centered around Washington Square Park. It lists 720 buildings which it deems as contributing to the district’s historical character. “I would just say North Beach maybe more than almost any other San Francisco neighborhood has a very distinct character,” said Katherine Petrin, the architectural historian who wrote the group’s application. The application lists hundreds of houses built in the wake of the 1906 earthquake and fire – commercial buildings like the iconic City Lights Bookstore and even the 1962 Columbus Savings and Loan building on Green and Columbus that now houses a grocery store. It also includes the John J. Delucchi Sheet Metal Building, a silvery former commercial building covered in the very metal product the company sold. “It has the classical ornament that you’d see on an Italian palazzo,” Petrin said, gazing up at the building. Petrin pointed out a towering yellow apartment building – its original building permit filed in 1906. Petrin gestured toward a back cottage which the original family initially built to live in while the main home was built. Petrin said those sorts of details tell the story of the neighborhood. She pointed out the ornate Fugazi Building on Green Street, longtime home of Beach Blanket Babylon and current home of Dear San Francisco cirque, which was originally built by John Fugazi and inaugurated as the Casa Coloniale Italiana. “One thing we see time and again when we look through the original construction permits for all these buildings is that many of the original owners were Italians, Italian Americans,” Petrin said. Petrin said the historic designation would entitle some home and building owners potential federal tax breaks and grants aimed at historic preservation. It would also offer protections for historically designated buildings. Beyond that, she said, it would afford residents simple bragging rights. “There’s also a cache to say, ‘We’re on the National Register of Historic Places,’” Petrin said. “In the same way that Bourbon Street is or Little Italy in New York.” Saints Peter and Paul Church looks out on Washington Square Park in North Beach, which is at the center of a proposal to list the neighborhood on the National Register of Historic Places. In addition to the 720 historical buildings included in the application, Petrin said the group identified 92 it doesn’t deem historic. Those buildings would not be entitled to the same protections as other buildings.The group collected over 200 letters from neighborhood residents and business owners in support of the application. But the project has also met opposition and trepidation from political leaders and housing advocates. State Sen. Scott Weiner (D-San Francisco), who has pushed for California cities to increase construction of new housing, blasted the plan. “If successful, it’ll significantly exempt North Beach from state housing laws & make CEQA even worse here,” Weiner wrote on X, referencing the California Environmental Quality Act. Newly-elected San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie convinced the State Historical Resources Commission to postpone a Feb. 7 meeting where it was set to discuss the application. Lurie said he asked for the delay so his office could study the proposal and garner more feedback. District 3 Supervisor Danny Sauter has also urged further study of the designation. He did not respond to several calls to his office seeking to clarify his position on the application. Jane Natoli of the pro-housing group Yimby Action said the designation could hamper further efforts to construct more badly needed housing in San Francisco. “When we make it more difficult to build in some neighborhoods, it puts more of a burden on some neighborhoods over others,” Natoli said. Natoli said the group’s proposal to designate 720 buildings as historic was painting with too broad a brush — and included many buildings Natoli’s group doesn’t consider historic. “When you just say North Beach is historic, it sounds great,” Natoli said. “But when you get into the details of the impacts it actually has — down to making it harder for you to replace your roof or your windows — that’s when it starts to become more troublesome.” Petrin denied the intention of the designation was to stifle change or prevent new construction. She said the federal designation is far less restrictive for new building than if the group had chosen to pursue protections through San Francisco’s Historic Preservation Commission. “Who would argue that stopping change is a good thing?” She asked. “The best historic buildings, district sites are the ones that are beloved, that are full of energy and full of people.” The state’s Historical Resources Commission rescheduled its discussion on the application for its May 9 meeting. Petrin hopes the plan, which has been in the works for over a decade, will move forward. “There’s no controversy about the fact that North Beach is beautiful and that it is beloved and that it deserves some level of protection,” Petrin said. ...read more read less