Category: Update

By Laura Waxman : sfchronicle – excerpt

Over the past year, San Francisco has slashed its building fees and cut its affordable housing requirements almost in half. The city has also come up with a plan that promises to produce thousands of new homes in the coming years.

Now, a supervisor who is running for mayor is working to create a permanent funding source for a section of the housing market that’s challenging to finance: the “missing middle.”

Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin — who earlier this month promised a “Marshall plan for middle-class housing” after starting his candidacy in the November mayoral race — announced legislation Tuesday to create a way to pay for workforce housing using tax-exempt bonds…

Peskin’s proposal, called the “Missing Middle Workforce Housing Act,” aims to “produce and protect” thousands of affordable units using “little to no public funds,” kick-start stalled housing projects and “bring people to live downtown and other opportunity sites.”…

If adopted, the ordinance would authorize the city to issue two new types of tax-exempt housing revenue bonds that, according to Peskin, would not impact the city’s general fund: government bonds for publicly owned but privately developed and managed facilities and 501(c)(3) bonds to finance projects owned by nonprofits that serve a governmental purpose.

Revenue bonds are already issued by city entities to finance projects such as roads, schools and sewers.

The city would own the properties and hire nonprofits to manage them or would work with for-profit developers to build and manage them

Peskin said that the new “tools” that the proposed program provides to developers can be applied to a variety of projects. These include acquiring distressed or foreclosed rental housing portfolios, funding office-to-housing conversions and public surplus sites as well as for new construction…(more)

By J. K. Dineen :sfchronicle – excerpt

A month before Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin announced his candidacy for mayor, London Breed stood on the steps of City Hall flanked by a dozen yellow-vested carpenters and delivered a scathing assessment of her soon-to-be rival’s approach to housing.

“What Supervisor Peskin is trying to do is what he’s always done, the NIMBY that he is, and that is to destroy housing production,” Breed charged. “I am sick of his shenanigans.”…

Yet Peskin’s record is more nuanced than critics are likely to admit. As board president, he shepherded through the rezoning of the eastern neighborhoods, which has resulted in thousands of units in Potrero Hill, Dogpatch, the Mission and Showplace Square. He supported and was instrumental in negotiating neighborhood plans for Market-Octavia, the Transbay Transit District, Rincon Hill and Central SoMa, as well as development agreements for mega-projects such as Potrero Power Station and Balboa Reservoir…

Peskin has also shown an independent streak on big housing decisions, voting against his progressive allies to support large projects. That was the case with the several key votes, including the a 2006 rezoning that set the stage for the approval of the redevelopment of Hunters Point Shipyard and Candlestick Point, which came after Peskin had left office. Then-Bayview Supervisor Sophie Maxwell needed one more vote to push through 13,000 housing units and millions of square feet of commercial space in one of the poorest corners of the city…

Over his many years in office, Peskin said he has supported neighborhood plans, development agreements and other approvals that have led to 80,000 units, of which 37,000 are affordable. He has worked to put three housing bonds on the ballot, totaling $1.1 billion, including the recent $300 million bond for which Peskin led fundraising.

“We don’t build things. We create conditions for things to get built. We approve development agreements. We approve zoning changes. We grant money for affordable housing. We put measures on the ballot for affordable housing,” Peskin said. “Put that up against any other supervisor in modern San Francisco, and that is an unbeatable record.”…

Peskin said he now supports the [Tresure Island] island development, where 1,000 units are either recently completed or under construction. “I went out there on a tour with Chris Meany a year ago,” he said. “It’s impressive — they are sinking a billion dollars of infrastructure into that piece of Jell-O.”

Peskin’s clash with Wiener has only escalated over the years. Peskin called California’s most prominent pro-housing legislator “a senator who hates his own Senate district.” Wiener says Peskin is committed to preserving a housing system that is “structurally broken” and “designed to fail.”…

Architect Mark Hogan said he has disagreed with some of Peskin’s positions, but they have worked together on legislation to allow more granny flats, making it easier for multifamily building owners to convert basement storage spaces and other common areas into units.

More than anything, Hogan said he has been struck with Peskin’s willingness to tackle the byzantine world of development — skills that fans and critics agree make him a force in the politics of housing and land use.

“Aaron’s knowledge of the planning code and development and land use is pretty exceptional,” said Rahaim, the former planning director, “Probably better than mine.”…(more)

By Julie Johnson : sfchronicle – excerpt

North Beach resident Serena Satyasai never thought much about her utility bill, but that was before February when California’s electricity prices rose to become the highest in the contiguous United States, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Satyasai’s Pacific Gas and Electric Co. bill jumped by about $100 compared with the same month last year. Like many of PG&E’s 5.5 million customers, she’s having to rescript her monthly budget around these rising costs…

“Everyone is getting squeezed,” Satyasai said.

Propelled in large part by PG&E, which hiked residential electricity rates by 20% for about 16 million Californians in January, the state’s high electricity prices are second only to Hawaii, which is always an expensive outlier because of the costs of shipping oil to the far-flung archipelago…(more)

By Josh Koehn and Gabe Greschler : sfstandard – excerpt

How close is too close in the famously incestuous world of San Francisco politics?

One political operative is testing those boundaries.

Jay Cheng, the executive director of the moderate political action committee Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, apparently spent time earlier this year moonlighting as a recruiter for the mayoral campaign of Mark Farrell.

Text messages shared with The Standard—first reported in a San Francisco Chronicle story on moderate political influence in the city—show that Cheng attempted to facilitate the hiring of a Farrell campaign staffer for a tidy $15,000 a month salary about two weeks after Farrell declared his candidacy.

“The offer is open!” Cheng wrote. “We’ll hold the position for you as long as you need.”… (more)

By Patrick Hoge : sfexaminer – excerpt (includes audio track)

TogetherSF Action, a group backed by billionaire venture capitalist Michael Moritz, said Tuesday it would stop trying to qualify a measure for the November ballot that would increase the San Francisco mayor’s authority after people expressed concerns that it might give newfound powers to the wrong person if a candidate they did not favor were to win the mayoral race.

“It’s disappointing to put something out there and have to pull it back, but I think ultimately, we have to make the decision that is best for the city, for our community, for everybody that’s involved in the effort,” said Kanishka Cheng, the group’s founder and CEO, saying she did not want to waste resources on an unsuccessful campaign…(more)

I wonder if someone from the group saw this video that describes the mayor’s powers and realized how powerful the mayor is already. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBb_UM4xm4U.

In my opinion, a political system works best with a balance of powers, something we are missing lately. It is particularly good when the balance favors the public will, not the will of government officials who are supposed to serve us. I look forward to a mayor who understands that.

By Kevin Truong : sfstandard – excerpt

Entities tied to the legendary Apple designer have spent tens of millions buying up nearly a city block in Jackson Square.

You can call legendary iPhone designer Sir Jony Ive something of a Jackson Square superfan—so much so that the famously private figure once penned an ode to the roughly six-block micro-neighborhood in the Financial Times.

Now appreciation has morphed into a mini-empire, as entities tied to Ive have spent the last four years accumulating the better part of a block in the neighborhood, bordered by Columbus and Pacific avenues and Jackson and Montgomery streets.

Consider it the Ive Hive, if you will…(more)

From Awattorneys via email:

Aleshire & Wynder, LLP Secures A Legal Win for Restoring Local Control on Housing: Court Rules In Favor of Five California Charter Cities Declaring Senate Bill 9 Unconstitutional

On April 22, 2024 at 11:00 AM, the Honorable Curtis A. Kin in Department 86 of the Los Angeles Superior Court issued a ruling granting a Petition for Writ of Mandate challenging the constitutionality of Senate Bill 9, as applied to charter cities. Senate Bill 9 requires all California cities to ministerially approve an application for a lot split, and up to four total housing units, on a single family residential lot that meets certain specified criteria.

Five charter cities – Carson, Redondo Beach, Torrance, Del Mar, and Whitter – initiated a lawsuit in early 2022 against the State of California claiming that Senate Bill 9 is unconstitutional and invalid against charter cities. The League of California Cities and the City of Cerritos filed respective amicus briefs in the Trial Court in support of the Charter cities’ position. After extensive briefing and two hearings in Department 86, the Court ruled in favor of the five charter cities. In this litigation, the charter cities are represented by Managing Partner Sunny Soltani, Equity Partner Pam Lee, Partner Michelle Villarreal, and Associate Shukan Patel of Aleshire & Wynder, LLP along with Michael Webb from the Redondo Beach City Attorney’s office

For further information on what this ruling means or how your city can benefit from this decision, please contact Pam Lee at plee or visit awattorneys.com… (more)

Now we may approach the city and county of SF and the SF Planning Commission with the news.

Forgive repeats

By Steve Stallone : 48hills – excerpt

Peskin, Chan amendments offer accountability—but where is the affordable housing, and why are details still secret?

The supes will consider Tuesday/23 a risky plan to bail out the developers of the Treasure Island housing development. This so-called “Alternative Financing” plan, embodied in the Disposition and Development Agreement amendment, could leave the city on the hook for more than $200 million at a time when the city is already facing a huge deficit.

This should be taken seriously.

Alarmingly, many in the city, led by Mayor London Breed and Supervisory Matt Dorsey, have remained conspicuously silent about the plan’s obvious deficiencies, even in the face of the board’s own budget analyst’s dire warnings…

In accordance with the Sunshine Ordinance and the city’s commitment to transparency, the board should demand the release of the fiscal impact study the staff has cited to assure board members that the numbers will all work out. If it proves it, prove it.

The supervisors need to take the legislative analyst’s advice to “pause” the Alternative Financial Plan until that is done.

In the meantime, the board must demand a plan for when and how the promised affordable housing will be built, and tell anxious TI residents when it will be ready for occupancy…(more)

By Han Li : sfstandard – excerpt

San Francisco’s Democratic Party entered a new era Friday night as candidates from the city’s moderate political camp, who won in a landslide in the March election, were sworn into office.

The governing body, officially known as the Democratic County Central Committee, or DCCC, also elected Nancy Tung, a career prosecutor and chief-level attorney working for the District Attorney’s Office, as the party chair.

The committee will play a major role this election year as moderate mayoral candidates compete for endorsements and support. Tung said the mayoral endorsement process will start in June after the filing deadline.

The political calculation and manipulation for the mayoral endorsement may start soon, if it hasn’t started already, as multiple moderate candidates are running, including incumbent Mayor London Breed, former interim mayor Mark Farrell and philanthropist Daniel Lurie.

“The moderates in general are on the same page about ranked-choice voting,” Jade Tu, a newly sworn-in member and campaign manager for Farrell, told The Standard about the potential dual or triple endorsement of the moderate candidates. “People already are talking about endorsement, chatting about it.”…(more)

By Kevin V. Nguyen : sfstandard – excerpt

San Francisco is full of empty offices that residents and politicians keep saying need to be converted into housing, but most developers are not interested in pursuing such projects because of the high costs.

But in the exclusive Presidio Heights neighborhood, the back-to-back closures of two massive hospitals have opened the door for a different type of transformation—one where a local developer plans to turn medical campuses into over 1,300 new homes.

Both are located on California Street on either end of thriving Laurel Village—a business strip filled with ground-floor boutiques, small chains, fitness studios and beauty salons, among other small businesses. Historically, this is one of the city’s most built-out and tightly constrained neighborhoods.

One hospital is located at 3700 California St., which is the site of the former California Pacific Medical Center, recently home to Sutter Health before it decamped to Van Ness Avenue…(more)

Ever wonder why every piece of available property must be torn down and rebuilt to be converted into something it is not? As we understand it, there are plans to set up medical facilities for people who need to transition from using drugs on the street to living indoors. It seems like using the hospitals as medical facilities more or less as they are and turning some of the buildings into transitional housing within the shell would be the cheapest, and therefore our government avoids it. Somebody has to make money on every project or the government will not support it. How do we bring economic sanity to San Francisco?