Mission housing plan — a new try
Opposition rapid to reconceived development
The developer behind a longstalled mixed-use apartment complex above the 16th Street Mission BART Station in the Mission District has a new plan, but so far it is being met with the same staunch opposition as previous iterations.
Maximus Real Estate Partners, which owns the 57,000square-foot site at the southeast corner of 16th and Mission streets, has filed a revised design that calls for two 10-story market-rate buildings — one on Mission Street and one on 16th Street — totaling 285 units, as well as 46 affordable units arranged in a row of five-story townhomes along adjacent Capp Street.
The affordable units would be given to the city, and the rents spun off from that building, roughly $1.15 million a year, could be used to help subsidize rents in other nearby buildings in the rapidly gentrifying area.
The revised project, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, also scales back some aspects of the project, which critics have long dubbed the “Monster in the Mission.”
The 163-unit mid-rise on Mission Street would be moved back 15 feet to expand the usable space on the BART plaza by 40 percent. The three build-
ings would each have a distinct architectural style — one green tile, one red brick and one wood — to break up the massing and better fit into the character of surrounding buildings, project architect Leo Chow said.
There would be space for a pharmacy — a Walgreens now sits on the site — and a 19,000square-foot market, which would provide a venue for artists and small makers to sell their wares. The upper floors would be set back to decrease shadows, and the ground floor retail would spill out onto the BART plaza.
“Our proposal was drafted in direct response to the community’s feedback and concerns — to help families stay in the Mission, assist those potentially at risk for eviction and provide more housing for formerly homeless individuals,” said Seth Mallen, a principal with the developer.
But Maria Zamudio, a Mission District community organizer with Causa Justa and member of Plaza 16 Coalition, which opposes the project, said the new plan “doesn’t square with five years of community feedback.”
She called 46 affordable units “a bare minimum” and objected to the fact the low-income units would be “segregated” from the market-rate units. The previous plan had 41 affordable condos that the developer had proposed selling to raise money to finance 49 additional affordable rental units off site.
“It’s a really stagnant proposal that shows this corporation is not listening to the community at all,” said Zamudio, who called the idea that the developer should get credit for subsidies going to other buildings “funky math.”
“A rental subsidy is not an affordable housing unit,” she said. “They should not be able to take credit for buildings that have existed for decades and that they didn’t even build.”
The new plan comes as the Planning Department was forced to cancel a neighborhood meeting that had been scheduled for Thursday and was billed as a forum for the developer to present its latest vision.
Starting last December, Maximus and opponents worked with city planning staff to arrange the community meeting in the Mission District. But it was canceled after the host, Mission High School, decided it would be too big and too raucous and conflict with an open house for prospective students being held the same night.
On Wednesday, the cancellation prompted each side to blame the other. In a Facebook post, the Plaza 16 Coalition accused the developer of “threatening violence at Mission High School, which triggered the pulling of the original permit.”
Bert Polacci, a government relations consultant for Maximus, accused the project opponents of pulling out in the face of a large contingent of supporters who he said were prepared to show up and testify in favor of the development.
“For the past few months we have been gathering our supporters and speakers, and had over 500 people lined up,” Polacci said. “We have been trying to meet with the opposition for over a year, and they have refused to even return our phone calls.”
But Mission High School Principal Eric Guthertz said it was Maximus that called to warn of disruptions.
“I had agreed to host the hearing at the school, but when I began to receive phone calls about potential disruptions and protests, I had to pull the permit, because we were holding an open house the same night,” he said. “When I asked these phone callers where they were from, they first claimed to be from the Planning Commission, but then admitted they were from Maximus.”
He said he would be “honored” to host the hearing on another date.
Representatives of Maximus said that no one from their organization called to warn of disruptions, and suggested it was an opponent impersonating someone from the development team.
“We want this meeting to occur as soon as possible, and Plaza 16 will stoop to any level to prevent anyone besides themselves from being heard,” said company spokesman Joe Arellano.
On Thursday, supporters and opponents of the project held dueling protests.
The Plaza 16 Coalition gathered at the edge of Dolores Park and accused Maximus of impersonating Planning Commission representatives, and said the New York developer should forfeit its right to “do business in San Francisco.” The group marched to the 16th Street Mission BART Station to unveil its plan for 100 percent affordable housing at the site.
Maximus representatives and their supporters, including the pro-housing nonprofit Mission 4 All and the representatives of the city’s building trades, held signs in front of City Hall, one of which said, “Don’t let Plaza 16 Coalition halt housing.”
The original 16th Street Mission BART Station proposal was filed in October 2013, when the current economic boom was just kicking into gear. While other controversial housing projects have been approved and even built since then, the development — in the heart of what is considered by many to be the city’s most rapidly gentrifying neighborhood — has been stalled amid opposition that is fierce even by San Francisco standards.
Mallen, a Maximus partner, said the project has been transformed to incorporate many of the priorities expressed by local residents.
“We have learned a lot of lessons and reset our outreach program,” he said. “All we want to do, and all we have wanted to do for the last year, was to put the truth out there.”
Maximus says the environmental impact report is close to completion and the company hopes to go before the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors in 2019 for final approval.
But it’s unlikely to get a vote at the commission or the board until there is a community meeting in the Mission District. Planning Commission President Rich Hillis, who tried to arrange the canceled community meetings, said the passion and controversy around the project is intense enough that a public hearing is crucial.
“I think it’s important to have this meeting in the neighborhood,” he said. “This is definitely a contentious project, but I think we can have a productive discussion about it.”
Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who represents the area, said that she has offered to broker an agreement between the developer and the coalition, but “they have not reached out to me at all.”
“If either side wants me to play a role in trying to reach an agreement, my door is always open,” she said.
Ronen said there are things about the new proposal that are “creative and interesting” but that “it’s not even close to where it needs to be.”
“This should be one of the more exciting projects in the history of the Mission — a oncein-a-lifetime opportunity to build above a BART station,” she said.
Meanwhile, real estate sources say that Maximus is in contract to purchase an approved housing site at 2675 Folsom St., about eight blocks away. While Maximus wouldn’t comment on the property, the company said it is open to and looking at “all community benefit options that could help the Mission in the long run.”