Construction:
Strict safety, distancing rules must be followed
Bay Area projects that had been put on hold can resume May 4.
A month after much of the Bay Area’s construction industry shut down to stop the spread of the coronavirus, a new shelterinplace order announced Wednesday will allow job sites to reopen with stringent safety and physical distancing requirements.
Under the new order, which goes into effect Monday, all construction will be allowed to resume as long as workers keep their distance and wear protective gear. The order will jump start hundreds of commercial and residential projects throughout the Bay Area, from singlefamily home renovations to office buildings to apartment towers.
“Not only does this mean opportunities for people who are working in this industry to go back to work, it provides opportunity to continue what we know is important construction work,” said San Francisco Mayor London Breed. “Housing production is something that is necessary.”
The previous order in March shut down construction of hotels, commercial buildings, and residential buildings with less than 10% affordable units. It allowed projects “that provide services to vulnerable populations” as well as those that are “required to maintain safety, sanitation, and habitability of residences and commercial buildings.”
The order exempted health care projects related to fighting the pandemic. It applied to six Bay Area counties — Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Contra Costa and Marin.
The new order, which is consistent with the rules Gov. Gavin Newsom put in place on March 20, was applauded by developers who said that a prolonged stopwork order could have exacerbated the Bay Area’s housing crisis and forced thousands of skilled trade workers to leave the region.
Developer Eric Tao of L37 Partners, which had to shut down a 242unit condo and 232room hotel project at 950 Market St., said the fact that the shutdown won’t extend into a second month means most workers will be in a position to return to the job site.
“There is a big sigh of relief among a lot of us in the housing development industry,” he said. “Another month would have meant a lot of furloughs and a lot of people out of work. The impact would have been exponential.”
The March order forced construction giant Build Group to shut down 60 out of 90 projects, including a $250 million campus for Intuitive Surgical in Sunnyvale, a housing and hotel project in Oakland, headquarters for Heritage Bank of Commerce in San Jose, and jobs for Amazon and Facebook. The San Franciscobased general contractor laid off about 15% of its 425 salaried employees, according to CEO Ross Edwards.
“The people who were laid off — probably we can get them back,” said Edwards. “If it had gone on much longer a lot of these guys would have packed up their cars and driven away.”
He said the industry, which already has daily safety meetings on large projects, would be quick to adapt to the new safety rules.
“The work we do is dangerous,” he said. “I’ve got people in harm’s way every day on highrise buildings, working with power tools. We are set up with intense safety training. We believe we can get workers in proper (personal protection equipment) and educate them on how to work safely.”
While the March 31 order was billed as an important step in stopping the spread of coronavirus on busy job sites, some construction industry leaders called it inconsistent and confusing. Work at public schools was allowed to go forward, while private schools were not. In San Francisco, where most neighborhoods have affordable housing requirements, many projects were able to continue. In contrast, most projects were forced to stop in Oakland, where developers pay a fee rather than include affordable units onsite. Some neighbors complained about what they believed was illegal construction.
And some complained that the previous order punished developers who had chosen to donate land for affordable housing to the city, rather than put the units onsite. This meant that housing projects at both 950 Market St. and 50 Jones St. had to stop because both developers bought land and gave it to the city for affordable housing.
Breed said that the coronavirus pandemic has underscored the area’s housing challenges.
“Housing shortages lead to higher costs, which leads to more homeless people,” said Breed. “We see this playing out all over the city.”
For Mike Ghielmetti, president of the Signature Development Group in Oakland, said the new relaxed order will allow the reopening of Oakland housing projects in Brooklyn Basin and along the BroadwayValdez corridor.
“I’m quite pleased, and there will be thousands of construction workers who will be quite pleased as well,” said Ghielmetti. “We feel construction is a necessary service for the Bay Area, given the housing crisis.”
On Wednesday, as word spread of the relaxed rules, Ghielmetti heard from a number of the contractors and subcontractors working on Signature projects. All said they are ready to get back to work.
“We will be up and running on Monday,” Ghielmetti said.