The owners and vendors of the Flower Mart and the Kilroy Corporation have signed an agreement that guarantees the 100 year old institution will remain at its current location for generations to come. The document includes assurances that the existing vendors will continue to be able to rent at an affordable rate, that the vendors themselves will make the decision as to whether the new location will be underground or at street level, that the new development will provide twice the amount of parking that currently exists (and new space for outdoor markets and community events) and recognizes the ownership rights and ability to pass the affordable rates on to the next generation or to any other entity of the vendor’s choice. Continue reading
Category Archives: planning
SF Chron reports, “Flower Mart developer heads off thorny ballot fight”
Last-minute negotiations have headed off what could have been a costly ballot fight between tech money and longtime small businesses that are feeling priced out of San Francisco — in this case, at the Flower Mart in the South of Market.
San Francisco Chronicle →
San Francisco Examiner →
Eagle “plaza” and Russian-based developers pursue height loophole for numerous SoMa projects
Imagine one additional floor squeezed into this project, which is already at the maximum height allowed. That’s what Michael Yarne and Build Inc. decided to do after their ploy to avoid paying for affordable housing fell through.
by JIM MEKO
The Planning Department convinced many of us who were involved in community planning to accept an additional five feet of building height in our recent rezonings. Planning Commissioner Dennis Richards, who recalls the promises made during the Market/Octavia process, requested an explanation. John Rahaim, the Director of the Planning Department, explained the intent to the Planning Commission recently:
“The intent of that provision, and that has been put in place now in many places across the city, the intent now is to provide an extra five feet of height on the ground floor, to provide a more generous ground floor, higher ceilings for retail space and a better proportion of the building along the street.” Continue reading
Private party for Mayors Conference closes Rincon Park access to public
by JAMIE WHITAKER
Without any communications from The Port of San Francisco or the Mayor’s Office to anybody that lives along the SoMa waterfront, it was a great surprise to find that the BCDC’s supposed Public Access Seating Area that sits between Waterbar and Epic Steakhouse was closed to the Public because the U.S. Conference of Mayor’s party planners decided to buy the Embarcadero Pedestrian Promenade and Rincon Park away from the Public starting around 5pm today (Saturday, June 20th) to set up their party – and I’m guessing it will continue to be closed off to the public on Sunday. Continue reading
Filed under open space, parties, planning
One more group housing project that won’t skirt its affordability obligations
145 Leavenworth Street
by JIM MEKO
Supervisor John Avalos has amended the inclusionary housing legislation he recently introduced to apply affordability requirements to buildings that have not yet received their building permits as of May 2015.
The amendment would embrace two Tenderloin “group housing” projects, at 361 Turk Street and 145 Leavenworth Street, that are scheduled to go before the Planning Commission on June 4. Continue reading
Filed under housing, planning, politics, social justice
Signatures add up to democracy with a small “d” in San Francisco
How the Board of Supervisors votes next Tuesday on Supervisor David Campos’s interim controls on the construction of market-rate housing in the Mission will determine whether signature gatherers fan out across the city in support of a November ballot initiative that would put a moratorium on market rate housing in the Mission.
Negotiations also continue between Kilroy Corporation and the vendors at the Flower Mart even as they report that they’ve already collected 7,000 signatures to place a “Save the Flower Mart” measure on the same ballot.
And former Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin has already submitted the 1,000 signatures necessary to put him on the ballot to challenge District 3 Supervisor Julie Christensen, Mayor Ed Lee’s choice to replace David Chiu on the Board. Continue reading
Kim dumps more noise into Western SoMa neighborhoods
by JIM MEKO
Hard on the heels of her vote to restrict your ability to sue noisy nightclubs, Supervisor Jane Kim introduced legislation last week that would open up primarily residential portions of the Western SoMa Plan Area (from approximately 7th Street to 12th Street, from just shy of Mission Street all the way down to Harrison Street) to Limited Live Performance permits. Continue reading
Filed under entertainment, planning, politics, Uncategorized
“Co-living” scheme succumbs to practicalities of affordability
Build Inc’s cluster of six story buildings at 1532 Harrison, across the street from the SF Eagle, will no longer pursue an unconventional “co-living” arrangement that takes advantage of the city’s “group housing” code provisions, bowing to pressure to provide a more ordinary housing model that comes with the inclusionary housing requirements most housing is already required to provide. Continue reading
Filed under planning, Uncategorized
Campos proposes moratorium on new housing in the Mission
Supervisor David Campos proposed a halt to new housing production in his District this week. Continue reading
Filed under housing, planning, politics, Uncategorized
After 8 months, developer still hasn’t complied with city planning rules
The story of 660 Third Street is a sad example of how big commercial property owners can get away with ignoring zoning rules
by ZELDA BRONSTEIN
48hills.org
Last September supporters of PDR (Production, Distribution and Repair) jobs — and the rule of law in San Francisco — thought they’d scored a rare victory, when the Planning Commission told the owners of the PDR-zoned property at 660 Third Street that it would not authorize their illegal conversion of the entire property to office space. But more than seven months later, there are still office tenants in the space that is supposed to be limited to PDR, and the building manager is advertising office space for lease, as Planning officials struggle to get the owner to comply. Visit 48hills.org to read the complete story.
Filed under planning
soma leadership council 