Re:San Francisco’s Skyline, Now Inescapably Transformed by Tech
by boulos on Saturday December 30, 2017 @11:37PM
(#16039375)
I think the (ongoing!) tale of 75 Howard [1] makes for a good exemplar of the challenge of building in San Francisco.
tl;dr: It’s a very fancy building replacing a parking garage on the waterfront, so a well-meaning contingent have been trying to stop them because they’d prefer affordable housing. The YIMBY perspective would be “Who cares what they pay for housing? Let ‘em build.”
There’s lots of stuff that gets people riled up. The distinction between San Francisco and places that move ahead regardless is the set of decisions in the 70s and 80s to give the public a say in basically any development. Whether that’s your living space being plunged into darkness or a demand for affordable housing, you can bring your concerns to the planning department and planning commission (mostly in person, sadly).
The Planning Department and Commission are woefully understaffed, underfunded, and in an awkward position. The Board of Supervisors can overturn their decision at a moments notice, and thanks again to the conflicting desires of the loudest folks per district (hello Telegraph Hill!), it’s easy to see how they have to be conservative and move at a glacial pace if they want things to stick.
The one bright spot, is that thanks to some of the neighborhood plans in SOMA though (which then serve as “the overall community clearly believes X”), thousands of units were built in the last few years finally making a dent in the downtown market. Sadly, we seem to be going backwards with the so-called “Central SOMA Plan” which due to some lobbying now calls for something like 50000 people worth of offices and maybe 7000 people of housing.
FWIW, transit studies are required of all large projects because of CEQA unless I’m mistaken. Most of them are garbage though, and see above about the planning department being understaffed and generally outgunned.
tl;dr: It’s a very fancy building replacing a parking garage on the waterfront, so a well-meaning contingent have been trying to stop them because they’d prefer affordable housing. The YIMBY perspective would be “Who cares what they pay for housing? Let ‘em build.”
There’s lots of stuff that gets people riled up. The distinction between San Francisco and places that move ahead regardless is the set of decisions in the 70s and 80s to give the public a say in basically any development. Whether that’s your living space being plunged into darkness or a demand for affordable housing, you can bring your concerns to the planning department and planning commission (mostly in person, sadly).
The Planning Department and Commission are woefully understaffed, underfunded, and in an awkward position. The Board of Supervisors can overturn their decision at a moments notice, and thanks again to the conflicting desires of the loudest folks per district (hello Telegraph Hill!), it’s easy to see how they have to be conservative and move at a glacial pace if they want things to stick.
The one bright spot, is that thanks to some of the neighborhood plans in SOMA though (which then serve as “the overall community clearly believes X”), thousands of units were built in the last few years finally making a dent in the downtown market. Sadly, we seem to be going backwards with the so-called “Central SOMA Plan” which due to some lobbying now calls for something like 50000 people worth of offices and maybe 7000 people of housing.
FWIW, transit studies are required of all large projects because of CEQA unless I’m mistaken. Most of them are garbage though, and see above about the planning department being understaffed and generally outgunned.
[1] http://www.socketsite.com/archives/tag/75-howard