by on

1481 Post could leverage major affordable housing benefits

San Francisco has a housing crisis. And while some see new market rate housing as worsening it, the November defeat of the Mission Moratorium (Prop L) and passage of the $310 Affordable Housing Bond (Prop A) shows most San Francisco voters want more housing for all income levels.

That’s why a 262 unit project proposed for a vacant site at 1481 Post Street would seem to be a no-brainer. The project gives District 5 Supervisor London Breed the opportunity to strike a major affordable housing deal in exchange for granting the development increased height. The developer has already agreed to fund the renovation of 169 rent-controlled apartments at nearby 1333 Gough Street on top of their on-site affordable housing obligations.

So why has 1481 Post been stuck in the Planning Department since 2005? And why has Planning requested multiple revisions so that it has been completely redesigned four times and then recently modified again?

It’s not because the project lacked quality architecture. Skidmore, Owings and Merril did the 2007 design, and the current design is by the New York City-based SLCE Architects and San Francisco’s MWA Architects.

Tthe holdup at 1481 Post is neither about public opposition to new housing or the building’s design. Rather, it’s about the ability of two well paid lobbyists to use all the tricks of the trade to stop a project, and their agenda being abetted by a supervisor’s inaction.

Development attorney Steve Vettel and corporate lobbyist Sam Lauter have led the effort to stop new housing at 1481 Post. Both were hired by the Sequoias, a senior facility whose roughly 325 residents live in a 29-story tower at 1400 Geary. The Sequoias is a remarkably lucrative business. That’s why it can afford to spend tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to defeat new market rate and affordable housing at 1481 Post, and to stop the privately funded upgrading of rent-controlled housing nearby.

The New Anti-Housing Coalition

The contradiction between Vettel’s usual role in urging Planning to support projects over neighborhood opposition and his lucrative work for the Sequoias to stop housing is no secret. The SF Chronicle’s JK Dineen wrote about this back in September 2014, “Cathedral Hill Tower Draws Fierce Opposition,” when the long delayed project had a Planning Commission hearing.

Eighteen months have passed and these highly paid professional NIMBYs have continued to hold up the project. Their biggest success is getting District 5 Supervisor London Breed to remain on the sidelines. Breed’s non-support sends a message to Planning that further delay at 1481 Post is politically acceptable; Planning has long deferred to district supervisors over handling projects in their districts.

The delay in processing 1481 Post comes after San Francisco just easily re-elected a pro-housing mayor committed to building 30,000 new units. On the same ballot voter rejected a housing moratorium while supporting an affordable housing bond.

Yet since November San Francisco has seen more activism against new housing development than ever before.

Last week, a large crowd came out in opposition to the proposed Affordable Housing Bonus Program program. The program is primarily designed to get San Francisco in line with state law and to make housing construction more economically viable in the western part of the city.

Opponents claim the plan is a backdoor way for developers to demolish such icons as City Lights Books and the Castro Theater. They made other criticisms, many of which I share. But while I did not hear all of the hours of testimony, the hours I did hear had almost no talk about how the plan could be revised to make it work.

Opposition to the program united affordable housing and tenant advocates with homeowner groups who oppose any new housing development. Now with pay-to-play Nimby’s like Vettel and Lauter in the mix, the coalition opposing either all housing, all market rate housing, or any projects they are paid to oppose, is even broader.

A 1481 Post Solution

Despite the long delay, a solution at 1481 Post is obvious: Supervisor Breed needs to strike a great affordable housing deal with the developer to achieve the type of “win-win” solution that Jane Kim struck with the San Francisco Giants at Mission Rock. Since the developer’s preferred design would require an increase in height over existing zoning from 240 to 260 feet, this is also the perfect opportunity for Breed to ensure that all the units are rent-controlled pursuant to Aaron Peskin’s soon to be released plan.

Heck, given the problem the developer has had Breed should demand vacancy control in addition to rent control. For a supervisor running for re-election in a very pro-tenant district, Breed’s delivering rent and vacancy control on new construction at 1481 Post would be quite a political coup.

Unlike other controversial upzonings, 1481 Post is nowhere near a waterfront. It blocks no views. It adds new housing to a part of the city that can easily accommodate it. If Breed doesn’t care about the developer’s offer to renovate adjacent rent-controlled housing as a community benefit, she can come up with an alternative.

If Peskin or Kim had a chance to make a deal around 1481 Post it would already be done or in the process of completion. Now it’s Breed’s turn to negotiate a similar agreement.

As San Francisco (and developer attorneys like Vettel) asks businesses and residents throughout SOMA, the Mission and downtown to tolerate construction noise for the good of the city, it sets a terrible precedent for a profit-driven senior retirement home to stop badly needed housing. It also sends a message that the Planning Department is very selective in its support for new housing, with its actions depending on the level of high-priced opposition.

Randy Shaw is Editor of Beyond Chron. His new book is The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco.

Randy Shaw Randy Shaw is the Editor of Beyond Chron and the Director of San Francisco’s Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which publishes Beyond Chron. Shaw's latest book is Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America. He is the author of four prior books on activism, including The Activist's Handbook: Winning Social Change in the 21st Century, and Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century. He is also the author of The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco More Posts

Tags: Aaron Peskin, housing, Jane Kim, San Francisco

Filed under: San Francisco News