San Francisco supervisors OK taller buildings in exchange for affordable housing

[dimondpark]

SF supervisors OK taller buildings in exchange for affordable housing

By Rachel Swan
May 23, 2017 Updated: May 23, 2017 8:17pm

A housing density law that took two years to craft was approved by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, notching a win for developers and pro-growth advocates who say the only way to make San Francisco affordable is to keep building.

The ordinance, which allows developers to build taller residential structures in exchange for making 30 percent of the units affordable, passed 10-1, with Supervisor Norman Yee dissenting. Yee had asked for a special exemption for the Ocean Avenue corridor in his district, but failed to get support from the majority of his colleagues.

Supervisor Katy Tang first proposed the city density law in 2015 as a means to produce more homes for middle-class families who don’t qualify for federally subsidized housing. Her initial version died under opposition from her progressive colleagues, who said it didn’t demand enough of developers, and from westside homeowners, who said it would cause new real estate projects to flood their neighborhoods...

http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/a...r-11168644.php

[mthd]

for those who don't want to (hah!) read the actual legislation ( http://default.sfplanning.org/plans-...n_02142017.pdf ), it basically allows two additional stories beyond the zoning if 30% of the units are affordable to people making 90% to 140% of the area median income for for sale units, and 55% to 110% for rental units.

the bonus is 20 feet of height for two additional residential floors at the top, and an additional 5 feet of height for improved ground floor retail. it applies to a fair amount of the city, although not the very low density single/two family house districts or the more recently zoning districts which don't have density controls. for example, rincon hill and transbay are DTR districts, which have no density controls based on lot area. this will mostly apply to districts which currently have height limits in the 40-130 foot range.

[Pedestrian]

As far as I know, this legislation allows the usual "community input" and only affects what the Planning Department is allowed to approve. So what has happened will likely continue to happen: The Planning Dept staff will recommend approval at the allowed height under this legislation; community "acitivists" will show up at the Planning Commission hearing where final approval is expected and scream about the height and all manner of other things, the Planning commissioners will buckle and ask that the height be reduced before they will approve it or, if they grant approval, the "activists" will appeal to the Board of Supervisors who will insist on a height reduction in spite of the legislation they so recently passed.

This is how such things go in SF.

[mhays]

The system is nuts. The possibility of spending millions in design, land carrying costs, etc. then having all that be worth nothing is a lot to bite off.

Without knowing the details of the plan, it seems like it has a silver lining...protesters will be protesting the addition of affordable units as well as market-rate. Of course this is common but maybe they'll lose some steam.

[Pedestrian]

^^The hope is that the state legislature eventually passes some kind of "as of right" legislation. "As of right" means approval is more or less mandatory for any project as long as it conforms to existing zoning. The Planning Commission or BOS wouldn't be able to reduce heights below what the zoning and this new law provides for.

Naturally, SF legislators opposed past attempts to put this into affect. But hope springs eternal.

http://www.sfhac.org/category/as-of-right-housing/

[dimondpark]

and here I was hoping against hope that the Outer Sunset would be reborn as Vancouver South...