Office space limits sought
Measure would tie development to new housing
San Francisco would restrict future office development if the city fails to meet its affordable housing goals under a proposed ballot measure.
The measure would reduce the amount of office space allowed by a percentage equal to the city’s shortfall in approving affordable housing, based on statemandated goals.
The advocacy arm of South of Market nonprofit and affordable housing manager Todco is sponsoring the measure with the hopes of getting it on the March primary ballot.
John Elberling, executive director of Todco, said less space for new jobs would reduce housing demand and aid lowincome residents who are struggling in a city with a median home price of $1.7 million.
“Either we have to increase our affordablehousing production or we have to slow down our office production,” Elberling said. “The tech industry, the city employment, the office buildings — we’re going faster than we can handle.”
Critics say the measure could make offices even more expen
sive and would cut funding for affordable housing by reducing housing impact fees, which new office projects are required to pay.
“Metering job growth does not actually produce affordable housing,” said Sarah Karlinsky, director of policy at SPUR, an urban planning think tank whose members include developers. “You need funding, and you need land. We have concerns that this will not produce affordable housing.” SPUR hasn’t taken a position on the measure, whose wording its backers have not yet finalized.
A March poll of 600 likely voters found 61% support the measure, with a margin of error of 4%. Todco's advocacy arm, the Yerba Buena Neighborhood Consortium, commissioned the poll, which was conducted by David Binder Research.
In a concession to developers, the measure would quicken approvals for seven large office projects in the city’s newly rezoned central SoMa area, totaling 5.5 million square feet. Those projects require approval under the city’s 1986 Proposition M, an antigrowth measure that limits the amount of new office space each year to 875,000 square feet. Unused space rolls over to the next year, but the city is on the verge of depleting its reserves this month as it considers approval of Kilroy Realty’s Flower Mart project and Alexandria’s 88 Bluxome project.
Todco’s measure would allow all seven projects to be approved immediately by essentially borrowing from future space allowances over the next decade. In contrast, the Planning Department’s strategy is to approve the seven central SoMa projects in phases, with part of their office space approved in future years.
Central SoMa developers Kilroy, Tishman Speyer and Strada declined to comment on the proposed ballot measure.
More than 30,000 new jobs and around 8,000 housing units are planned in central SoMa. That ratio, critics say, will exacerbate the region’s housing shortage.
“There’s a great imbalance in the amount of jobs being produced in central SoMa and the amount of housing,” said Sue Hestor, an attorney and original supporter of Prop. M, which grew out of a backlash over San Francisco’s growing skyline in the 1980s.
She said Todco’s ballot measure could help address the jobshousing imbalance, but declined to take a position until the measure is finalized.
Todco previously sued the city over the central SoMa plan, alleging that it didn’t adequately study the effects of the rezoning.
“We really feel they have failed to do city planning,” Elberling said. The two sides are in talks.
The ballot measure’s affordable housing requirements are based on the Regional Housing Need Allocation, which is overseen by the Association of Bay Area Governments. San Francisco is on pace to produce only twothirds of its goal of 1,633 belowmarketrate units for the 201522 period, according to the city Planning Department. Affordable housing is defined as units reserved for tenants making up to 120% of the city’s area median income, with housing costs of no more than 30% of income.
San Francisco has what’s considered a shortage of office space, with the vacancy rate around 5%. The city’s downtown office rents jumped to a record high of $84.16 per square foot annually.
Sonja Trauss, a prohousingdevelopment activist and former District Six supervisor candidate, said Todco’s ballot measure would extend the city’s low supply and price out nontech industries.
“Their goal is a small city. They don’t want office, they don’t want housing. This is very much in line with it,” she said. “Having an office space shortage means only the most highrevenue industries can afford to have offices here.”