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Five years ago, in a room filled with land use attorneys and developers, a plan to add massive amounts of new housing to South of Market was unveiled. Land once reserved for job producing uses would be opened up to market rate developers, our alleys sacrificed to massive condo developments and community serving institutions replaced with offices and upscale retail. Jim Chappell from SPUR enthused that SoMa was one huge opportunity site. Heights should be raised to at least 85 feet, he said, and the area turned into a vibrant new neighborhood.
Outside the room, a group of Filipino teens milled around the brightly colored displays. Hey look, one told his friends, there’s no place for us.
This is already a neighborhood. Our families and friends call it home. SPUR, once respected for its commitment to the neighborhoods of San Francisco, has become an apologist for market rate developers. Those who think of this as an unpopulated, abandoned, blighted wasteland insult the thousands of us who live, work and play here.
Between 2001 and 2004, 3000 new units of housing were built here. The Mission produced less than a quarter that amount and the Outer Sunset contributed a paltry 140 units. We’re doing our share. Now, just give us all the other elements — parks, open space, recreational facilities, community institutions, jobs, etc. –that the great neighborhoods of San Francisco take for granted.
Two developments come before the SoMa Leadership Council next week that raise questions of respect. One seeks to build housing in the SLI zoning area where the goal has been to preserve job opportunities and the other challenges the recently enacted formula retail (chain store) controls. A few years ago, neither project would have caused much of a stir because no one even bothered to ask what we thought. How times have changed …
The Mayor’s Office of Housing has been the driving force behind an affordable housing project at 7th and Townsend Streets, in the heart of our industrial protection zone and across the street from the rail yards. To say the area is lacking in infrastructure is an understatement: they don’t even have sidewalks. But 100% affordable housing is a permitted use (at least for the time being) and the project has moved forward despite misgivings expressed by the Western SoMa Task Force.
In fact, a consensus seems to be forming that no more housing of any kind be allowed in the SLI, an area south of Harrison Street that stretches from the Flower Market on the east to the Veterans Cab site on the west side. When housing is allowed to compete for scarce land, the cost of that land increases so much that job-producing opportunities cannot compete.
What of the housing already there? Much of it consists of live/work lofts, residential units that got around the current prohibition of market rate housing by masquerading as commercial properties. In some areas, it has complemented existing pockets of residences but elsewhere it has created conflicts with local businesses. The current thinking of the Task Force is that the boundaries of SLI could be adjusted to shift some of this housing into the more appropriate adjacent zoning districts.
AF Evans, the developer of the Townsend Street site, has made an effort to preserve some ground floor light industrial space in the latest iteration of their plan and the residential component is more focused on the alley side of the site, so the project would acknowledge the industrial nature of Townsend Street but reinforce the existing residential enclave of Gilbert Alley. They will be looking for feedback next week from the SoMa Leadership Council.
The other project will be the first test of Formula Retail controls since the Task Force convinced the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors to impose Conditional Use requirements on new chain store proposals. Costco, Trader Joes, Bed, Bath and Beyond, REI, Sports Authority, Best Buy, Office Max and Staples are examples of the chain store invasion that’s occurred over the last ten years. Many have questioned just how much these retail uses have benefitted the local community.
The block occupied by Trader Joes and other tenants exemplifies what little effort these suburban-style developments make to respect the surrounding community. Originally designed with doors and windows facing the sidewalk, not a single store in the complex allows entrance from the outside of the building, instead directing everyone to enter through the parking structure that the complex is built around. Most windows are obscured with frosted glass and the entire exterior is a wasteland of urine-soaked indentations and abandoned shopping carts.
TJ Max, the discount women’s apparel retailer, would like to take over the equally obscure Staples site to the east on Harrison Street. Once a thriving commercial building, Office Depot converted the ground floor to retail a few years ago and moved the sidewalk entrance around to face into an obscured parking lot. Office Depot failed at that site, was replaced by an equally unsuccessful Staples store which now would be converted into another suburban-style discount clothier.
What has changed however is the adoption of controls that require that any new development respect the community they seek to move into. Scroll down to “Chain Store Policies Adopted by Planning Commission” on the News page of the SoMa Leadership Council web site. A complete list of conditions unique to the Western SoMa Special Use District can be found at http://web.mac.com/jimmeko/iWeb/SoMaLeadershipCouncil/Form%20Retail.html (paste this URL into your browser bar if this link doesn’t work). The Boston-based retailer is reluctant to make any significant changes to the existing layout and the location of the entrance remains a sticking point. They have asked to explain their position to the leadership council next week. A potential showdown is brewing over whether all the supportive lip service being paid to the Western SoMa community-based planning process translates into anything resembling respect.
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Jim Meko is a South of Market activist, currently serving as chair of both the SoMa Leadership Council and the Western SoMa Citizens Planning Task Force and is a member of San Francisco's Entertainment Commission. Here at the Bulldog, of course, he's expressing his own personal opinions. He can be reached at jim.meko@comcast.net.