South of Market housing activists and community members packed a city hall hearing room on Monday to demand that the impact fees for affordable housing remain at the level recommended in the Western SoMa Community Plan. They came out to oppose an amendment proposed by Supervisor Scott Wiener that would trim those fees in order to provide more funding for transit.
The South of Market Community Action Network (SOMCAN), Western SoMa Task Force members, the Council of Community Housing Organizations (CCHO), Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC), Veterans Equity Center (VEC), Community Housing Partnership (CHP), United Playaz, Oasis for Girls, SF Rising, Bayanihan Center, and the Chinatown Community Development Center (CCDC) all provided speakers and the hearing lasted for more than two hours.
They all wore bright pink stickers stickers that read, “Housing + Transit + Jobs = A Complete Neighborhood. Defend the Western SoMa Community Plan!”
In the end, compromise legislation proposed by Supervisor Jane Kim that would increase fees for transit but leave the housing money untouched was adopted by all three members of the Land Use and Economic Development Committee and the Plan was moved forward to the Board of Supervisors for a vote next Tuesday.
Supervisor Wiener indicated that he would not be voting for the Plan because of differences over the amount of deference played to nighttime entertainment interests. More than 90% of Wiener’s District 8 is off-limits to entertainment.
soma leadership council 
Affordable housing issue aside, what was the outcome of the frontal attack on the Plan’s current set aside for Big Club Entertainment….was the plan’s integrity maintained?
The Plan is intact. Changes for the entertainment lobby end with 11th Street. It has been rezoned to prohibit housing. The owner of the purple building has decided he will develop offices instead of housing. The idea of allowing entertainment along Folsom Street, where housing has been the predominant use for many years, went nowhere because that would contradict their argument that housing and entertainment along 11th Street are incompatible. And, the idea of allowing Limited Live Performance permits everywhere else is inconsistent with how LLPs are handled everywhere else. Supervisor Wiener continues to maintain that he’s still not satisfied and that he intends to vote against the Plan. The usual courtesy on the Board is to respect the wishes of the District Supervisor but Wiener apparently knows better.