Planning Dept. Faces Opposition Over New Housing Proposal

By Carol Dimmick

City planners are facing strong opposition from neighbors, who fear new proposals to promote affordable housing by increasing housing densities along transit corridors will diminish the quality of life in their neighborhoods.

The majority of the 100 attendees at a meeting of the SF Planning Commission told the commissioners to take a slow and careful look at eight new policies being proposed by the SF Planning Department that would set new guidelines for how and where housing is built in the City.

Several of the policies that drew the most criticism from residents and neighborhood organizations at the June 5 meeting were aimed at increasing bulk and height limits along transit corridors.

Opponents also spoke out against a new policy that would eliminate or reduce requirements that builders provide parking spaces.

"It is a repeat of the failed policies of the '70s and '80s to build housing without parking. And if you expand the height and bulk limits the neighbors are not going to have light and air," said Patricia Vaughn, a Cow Hollow resident.

Penelope Clark, a Russian Hill resident, told commissioners that ignoring the fact that people have cars is a recipe for disaster.

"Heavy density without parking already exists in Chinatown and Russian Hill. People there are parking in front of fire hydrants. People have lives beyond what public transportation can provide to them," Clark said.

Ron Miguel, president of the Planning Association for the Richmond (PAR), made a number of recommendations on behalf of the 1,600 member organization. The Richmond District is targeted by the policies because of the Geary Boulevard transit corridor.

He asked commissioners not to support any policy that removes parking requirements for builders unless there is language requiring an improvement in public transportation in the affected areas.

"Increased density and relaxed parking requirements may exacerbate the off street parking situation in the Richmond," Miguel said.

PAR's recommendations stressed that neighborhood conservation and affordability should be a priority of any new policies that are enacted.

The policies being debated, which would be incorporated into the city's General Plan if adopted by the SF Board of Supervisors, were the result of several years of work by the staff of the planning department and are embodied in a report entitled "Housing Element."

The report, which serves as the foundation for the recommendations, paints a gloomy picture. It warns that unless the City takes immediate steps to increase its housing stock by 2,700 new homes each year - more than twice the annual average of 1,200 currently being produced - it will not make a goal set by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) of 20,374 units by 2006. At least 62 percent of these new units should be affordable for low- and moderate-income households, according to the report.

To reach that goal, the planning department is seeking to add eight new policies to the city's General Plan that would encourage housing along transit corridors and in downtown neighborhoods by loosening density restrictions and reducing or removing minimum parking requirements. Policies would also encourage the practice of infill, or dense development, on vacant corner lots.

Commissioners Michael Antonini and William Lee questioned ABAG's goals embraced by the report's recommendations of asking San Francisco to build 2,700 new homes each year.

"San Francisco has lost 50,000 jobs and 10,000 to 12,000 residents since your (ABAG's) study. Does ABAG still believe we should produce these amounts of units?" asked Lee.

Antonini questioned ABAG's numbers because he said that 45 percent of San Francisco's workers commute to their jobs.

ABAG's Alex Amoroso said that it was their decision to "put more of the housing units where the jobs were.

"Several more meetings, including an environmental review, must be held before the planning commission can take action on the policies, according to department officials.

Copies of the "Housing Element" report can be obtained from the SF Planning Department and are available on-line at www.sfgov.org/planning/citywide/c1_housing_element.