Homeowners jeopardize new housing
The Central SoMa Plan, seven years in the making, will leverage the area’s robust public transit infrastructure to deliver in the core of the city much-needed housing, as well as employment and visitor facilities. It’s one of San Francisco’s most important development visions ever.
But there are warning signs that a campaign by neighboring condo dwellers could delay the project and its ability to address the city’s housing crisis.
Under the plan, new development would accommodate over 25 years creation of 34,750 jobs and 8,450 homes, a third of which would be permanently affordable to lower-income families and individuals. It spurs economic diversity by requiring activities on large sites to be jobs-oriented, with production, distribution and repair uses, retail, hotels, and entertainment spaces. It accomplishes this while delivering neighborhood-focused public benefits valued at $2 billion. It has been thoroughly vetted, its impacts thoroughly analyzed.
The plan and accompanying environmental impact report were unanimously approved by the San Francisco Planning Commission on May 10, paving the way for Board of Supervisors approval.
At the southwest corner of Second and Harrison streets, one of nine “major opportunity sites” within the Central SoMa planning area, the potential for transformation is evident. A large site, framed by Second and Third streets to the east and west, and Harrison Street and elevated Interstate 80 to the north and south, is underutilized. The site is called One Vassar after what is currently a dead-end street.
The most significant proposal for this site is a 378-unit residential building at Second and Harrison. The proposed project has committed an additional 10 percent of subsidized affordable housing above the citywide requirement that was increased as a result of Proposition C. It will provide housing and multiple amenities to create a vibrant neighborhood South of Market, including a 12,000square-foot child care center, 30,000 square feet of retail, 33,000 square feet of production and repair uses, a new mid-block plaza, and new streets connecting Vassar Place and Perry Street, now dead ends, to Second Street.
Enter a handful of condoowners in the nearby SF Blu building. While their complaints are dressed up in highminded language about air quality and traffic, the raw truth is: Preserving penthouse views is this group’s only priority.
This group says the site is too far from transit — it’s within two blocks of the Transbay Transit Center and two blocks east of the new Central Subway. And the project’s density, near transit, is exactly what elected officials like state Sen. Scott Weiner and Assemblyman David Chiu have been fighting for.
The condo owners are threatening a lawsuit challenging the entire Central SoMa project unless the city reduces the maximum building height to 220 feet, down from 350 feet, at One Vassar. This change would affect the entire neighborhood, including Kilroy’s Flower Mart and Tishman Speyer’s Fifth and Brannan projects. Such an alternative would reduce the Flower Mart project to 65 feet, down from 270 feet, potentially displacing the Flower Mart community; Tishman would need to reduce to 130 feet, jeopardizing funding for the affordable housing component that is being developed by its partner, TNDC.
Contrast that with the years of planning, public hearings, and changes that have already been made. That’s why former Mayor Mark Farrell and District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim have been the project’s most visible advocates and co-sponsors of the plan. It’s also why it has garnered community support from our organization, the San Francisco Housing Action Coalition, as well as SPUR and the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.
San Franciscans should dismiss the penthouse dwellers’ histrionics as the worst form of NIMBY-ism and should support the community and elected officials, and the timely housing benefits the Central SoMa Plan will offer the city. Todd David is the executive director of the San Francisco Housing Action Coalition.