By Adam Shanks : sfexaminer – excerpt (includes audio)
Mark Farrell has joined the growing list of candidates delicately attempting to accede to demands for new housing in San Francisco without rankling homeowners.
The mayoral candidate introduced a set of housing policy proposals Thursday that included targeting new housing largely in areas that have already seen the greatest surge in development in recent years, including SoMa and Mission Bay…
Farrell and Peskin’s prescribed solutions to The City’s housing woes differ radically, with the former seeking to get government out of the way and the latter calling for government to be an active facilitator…
Farrell and Peskin occupy opposite ends of San Francisco’s political spectrum but share a belief that The City can address its housing crisis without radically altering the aesthetic fabric of its iconic neighborhoods…
Farrell’s focus… Farrell’s plan focuses on neighborhoods in and around downtown, or on increasing the number of units in the existing footprints of west-side buildings. Asked if the housing built in the neighborhoods he highlighted in his plan would be hospitable to families, Farrell said his vision “will include housing for all sizes of families, from the single individual to larger families.”…Farrell has also called for ending the current caps on how many units can be built into a single building, but would maintain height limits. On the surface, it offers assurance to neighborhood preservationists that new apartment towers won’t be built next door…
Peskin’s plan…Peskin announced legislation Tuesday that would allow The City to issue bonds to fund housing projects in which middle-income families would live. Rather than heading to the ballot for a sweeping bond measure, the Board of Supervisors would issue bonds directly for specific projects…Peskin argues that the revenue generated by tenants paying rent would offset the debt without affecting The City’s general fund and — unlike low-income housing projects — would not need government subsidies…“The City must lead on addressing the real barriers to housing construction, particularly for demographics the market is not able to subsidize: middle-income workers who don’t qualify for significant public subsidies but who also can’t afford market-rate rents,” Peskin said in a statement…(more)
It appears Ferrell and Peskin hold similar intentions to protect the neighborhoods, but, have different ideas on how to add housing. They are both mindful of the voters’ desire to preserve their neighborhoods and lifestyles.
YIMBY spokesperson Corey Smith seems to doubt either of them can persevere against the state intentions of overriding everyone and everything that puts a damper on the desires of the developers to build as dense and as high as they want. The corporate carpetbaggers want to push land values up and the middle class out, even though it will take a while for the economy to cooperate. This is going to be a choppy ride. We will need to rely on the current board of supervisors to get as many protections in place as fast as we can.
We shall see how well the candidates connect with the voters during this stressful season.