The LGBT community is split over a plan to build a Home Depot store on Bayshore Boulevard between Bernal Heights and the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhoods, with both proponents and opponents lobbying Supervisor Bevan Dufty about the project.

The Board of Supervisors is set to either approve or reject an appeal of the project's environmental impact report at its meeting Tuesday, October 25, and Dufty could be the decisive vote. Opponents of the project need six supervisors to support the appeal of the EIR, and in so doing, send a signal to Home Depot that it is not welcome in San Francisco, a city known to be hostile to big box, chain retail stores. Both sides say the vote will be close and that the issue impacts the entire city, not just the eastern neighborhoods closest to the proposed store, planned to be 140,000 square feet with a three-story, 585-space parking garage.

"It started with specific Bernal issues but really it has city impacts. The trend all over the city is people don't want chain stores in their neighborhoods," said Barbara Kyle, chair of the No Depot Committee and a 20-year Bernal Heights resident. Kyle, who is straight, said many LGBT Bernal residents belong to the committee. "It really challenges locally based retail and that is a sad thing for San Francisco. We really don't want to see this thing happen."

Foes of the giant construction and home improvement chain cite a number of reasons to reject the project. Those include traffic problems, negative impacts on neighborhood hardware stores, Home Depot's dubious history on gay rights matters, questions on the company's commitment to hire Bayview residents, and company officials' refusal to build space for day laborers expected to flock to the store. Instead, the company plans to consider day laborers a nuisance and has said it would call the police to remove them.

"At this point the EIR is deficient. It doesn't deal with traffic, air quality, jobs, or economic impacts. It is laughable in some areas," charged Kyle. "We are hoping the supervisors recognize that and vote the EIR down. Whether Home Depot is bluffing and comes back with something else, we don't know."

Supporters of the project counter San Franciscans already drive to the company's Colma location, resulting in lost tax revenues that the city could recoup by allowing Home Depot to open a store in town. They also question fears that Home Depot's entrance to the city would be a deathblow to smaller hardware stores and say that part of town desperately needs the jobs Home Depot would bring.

The Castro-based group, Plan C, is supporting Home Depot's desire to open a Bayshore Boulevard store and has been lobbying all the supervisors to support the company's plans. Plan C Chair Mike Sullivan said the group believes that location is the right one for a big retailer like Home Depot to build a store. Goodman's Lumber used to operate a store at the site.

"We are not in favor of big boxes everywhere in the city but we do think that is a good location for a store like Home Depot," said Sullivan. "We don't support big retail in North Beach or other neighborhoods. But in the right place there is nothing wrong with a business that will generate jobs and keep San Franciscans buying in San Francisco from opening there."

Sullivan, a gay man who helped found the "moderate voice" political group several years ago, openly admits while he supports Home Depot's opening a local store he nonetheless wouldn't shop there. He prefers local chain Cole Hardware, whose owners and other loyal customers have been vocal critics of the Home Depot project. But Sullivan doubts his favorite place for nails, paint, and garden supplies will suffer due to Home Depot.

"For one thing, people are already going to Colma for Home Depot. I don't think a lot of additional people are going to abandon Cole Hardware for Home Depot just because it is on Bayshore Boulevard," he said. "If you take that approach maybe we should ban Safeway because they are tough on corner merchants."

Dufty has yet to decide how to vote, he said this week, adding he has not had time to look through a four-inch stack of documents about the project sitting on his desk. For months he has received e-mails in support of the project, while opponents said they have nearly 300 letters from Dufty's constituents who oppose the store.

"I have talked to a lot of people in Bernal Heights who say the store will have a negative impact from a traffic standpoint. But a lot of people in Hunters Point and the Bayview say Bayshore Boulevard is just a dump and Home Depot is a consistent use for that site and would help bring other businesses to the area," said Dufty.

The matter has put Dufty in a political pickle with two of his board colleagues. Fellow openly gay Supervisor Tom Ammiano, whose district includes Bernal Heights, is against the project and has already said he intends to vote against the EIR. Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, whom Dufty considers a good friend, has vacillated from expressing doubts about the project to being supportive of it for the jobs it will bring to her constituents in the Bayview.

"I am obviously close to Ammiano and it is a big issue for him. I am not taking any position until I talk to him," said Dufty. "Sophie and I sit next to each other on the board. They are both coming from opposite stands on the issue."

A spokeswoman for Home Depot did not respond to requests for comment.

The battle over Home Depot's plans is similar in a certain respect to the one Castro residents waged, and ultimately lost, against Pottery Barn setting up shop at Market and Castro streets. But the Home Depot brouhaha has become more than just a fight over chain retail in one neighborhood. Residents and merchants citywide are weighing in on the issue.

Ernest Asten, owner of Cliff's Variety, a hardware and home goods store in the Castro, is publicly opposing the Home Depot project. It is a rare entrance into a political fight for Asten, who decided to take a public stance due to fears of seeing fellow storeowners go out of business.

"It is not going to impact us because our selection is more diverse than just a hardware store. But for some businesses it might be the difference between opening and closing. These stores are vital to the health of neighborhood commercial areas. Some are right at the margins," said Asten, who in previous battles over chain stores supported Pottery Barn coming to the Castro as well as the Walgreens store's expansion. "Those were good for the health of the commercial life in the Castro. But I see big boxes more as predators than as competitors. I don't want to see San Francisco neighborhoods decimated by big box stores which don't offer the same shopping experience or merchandise."

The jobs created by Home Depot would not be enough to replace the jobs lost by the closing of smaller hardware stores, argued Asten. And those jobs created by Home Depot would be "sub par" he said.

"Most are entry level positions," he said.

Asten also takes issue with Home Depot's stance in its economic report that its store will not have any negative effects, calling such claims a "pipe dream." And he fears once one big box retailer gains a foothold in the city, others are sure to follow.

"It is hard to believe Wal-Mart or Target wouldn't be far behind," he said.

Asten had asked the Merchants of Upper Market and Castro business group to officially oppose the Home Depot project at its September meeting. While the vote was 9-3 that day to oppose Home Depot and other big box retailers from coming to San Francisco, MUMC's board later overruled the vote, saying it was "not an official MUMC business action" nor did it translate into an official MUMC stance against Home Depot or other national chains. Stating that no prior notice to the meeting was given that a vote would be taken on the Home Depot project, the board opted to remain neutral on the project.

Kyle said Asten's decision to publicly oppose Home Depot has had a significant impact.

"People are taking notice of that because Cliff's does not do that. Think how great Cliff's is, there is no other store like Cliff's in the city. To approve a multi-state corporation with a bad track record to lose a business like Cliff's would be so sad. We would not just be losing the business but the jobs of the people who work there," said Kyle.