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City and County of San Francisco

April 5, 2007 - Special Meeting

April 5, 2007 Special Meeting

SAN FRANCISCO

PLANNING COMMISSION

Meeting Minutes

Commission Chambers - Room 416

City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place

Thursday, April 5, 2007

10:00 AM

Special Meeting

COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Alexander, Olague, Antonini, S. Lee, W. Lee, Moore and Sugaya

COMMISSIONER ABSENT: None

THE MEETING WAS CALLED TO ORDER BY PRESIDENT ALEXANDER AT 10:12 A.M.

STAFF IN ATTENDANCE: Dean Macris – Director of Planning, Amit Ghosh – Chief Planner, Linda Avery – Commission Secretary, Jonas Ionin – Acting Commission Secretary.

  1. AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN SAN FRANCISCO - The Mayor's Office of Housing will provide an information-only presentation on the City's affordable housing policies and strategies. The presentation will include information on the City's Inclusionary Housing Policy as well as publicly-funded housing development and programs.

SPEAKERS

Matt Franklin, Director of Major's Office of Housing

  1. Area medium income in San Francisco is the major engine that drives a lot of affordable housing programs.
  2. It is set by United States' Housing and Redevelopment and is 60% for rental and 100% for owners.
  3. San Francisco has a severe economic disparity.
  4. There is a challenge for rental housing. Ownership is dramatically higher.
  5. Most of families in the City pay more than fifty percent of their income toward housing.

Public Housing:

  1. Agencies and Departments dealing with Housing:
    • Major's Office of Housing
    • San Francisco Redevelopment
    • San Francisco Housing Authority
    • Human Services
    • Department of Public Health
  2. Four percent of the total public housing in San Francisco is administered by the Housing Authority.
  3. 40 percent of public housing serves singles and senior citizens.
  4. Our challenge for public housing is funding.

Affordable Housing:

  1. The Major's Office of Housing and the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency are the capital funding [source].
  2. We would typically put up 30 to 50 percent of development cost.
  3. We leverage other sources such as Tax Credit Programs.
  4. We target people with 25 to 50 of median-income for 55-year terms.
  5. Almost 50 percent of affordable housing we build are family size.
  6. Our 10-year plan is targeting permanent housing rather than shelter and transitional.
  7. We have Homeownerships Programs that includes help with down payments, owner occupied rehabilitation and lead program.

Doug Shoemaker, Deputy Director, Mayor's Office of Housing

Inclusionary Housing:

  1. The policy for Inclusionary is for projects with four or more units and includes three options:
    • 15 percent if provided on site.
    • 20percent if provided off site.
    • 20 percent if providing an in-lieu fee.
  2. The Major's Office of Housing administers what comes through the Section 315 policy.
  3. Frequently, small projects choose the on site unit option while bigger projects choose off site.
  4. The Inclusionary Program has three new improvements:
    • E-mail sign up for interested parties [will receive e-mail with information when list of projects is updated]
    • Weekly updates to counseling agencies.
    • Lottery requirement for resale to keep objective criteria.
  5. Pending Legislation, forwarded to Board of Supervisors, would clear:
    • Marketing outreach to public with different languages.
    • Fee update every year to represent cost issues.
    • Minimum occupancy guidelines.
    • Fixed formula for resale.
  6. The five most recent major plans and projects in the city includes at least 30 percent of affordable housing. [Bayview, Mission Bay, Transbay, Hunters point, Treasure Island]
  7. We would like to see in the Eastern Neighborhood private, non-profit and for profit get together and create more affordable housing.

Bernie Chodin

  1. Thanked the Director for the presentation.
  2. Housing has been addressed for low and high income but not for middle income.
  3. We need a Housing Element that deals with sustainable resources to meet our needs.
  4. He advocated to not sell land, but development rights to use ground rents.
  5. Suggested the organization of public/private partnerships for development corporations.

Calvin Welsch

  1. There are about 180,000 units under rent control in San Francisco.
  2. It is important to understand different programs of housing and their policies [rent control, affordable, market rate, below market rate and public]
  3. There is very little that this Commission could do about public housing, but so much for below market rate and affordable housing.
  4. Affordable housing production is about policy and advocacy.
  5. Octavia Boulevard Plan seems to ignore the question of designated sites for affordable housing.
  6. I had assurance by Staff that it would not happen in the Eastern Neighborhood Plan and hope it would be much more transparent.
  7. It is very important to map different types of housing built over the last decade.
  8. The Eastern Neighborhood Plan is an incredible and important resource to build affordable housing.

Mark Solomon

  1. We need to prioritize the plans that are coming out of the Planning Department.
  2. It is important to see what the city needs first and then plan developments based on those needs.
  3. None of the plans -- Eastern and Market-Octavia Neighborhoods -- reflect acknowledgement of changes in the market.
  4. Housing -- Urban Development subsidies go to private owners when it could benefit developments owned by the city [project based section 8]

Julio

  1. Being a teacher in the city, I am not able to live in the city.
  2. Most of my coworkers, friends, and my student's families no longer can stay here.
  3. You need to build housing for those of us who work in the City and want to live here.

Erick

  1. There are various potential opportunities within our portfolio to expand affordable units.

Steve Vettel

  1. The Eastern Neighborhood Plan could include a combination of different types of housing.
  2. We need to think about a policy for non-subsidized rental housing and start developing it.

ACTION: This was an informational only meeting and no action is required of the Commission.

Adjournment: 12:02 P.M.

THESE MINUTES WERE PROPOSED FOR ADOPTION AT THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE PLANNING COMMISSION ON THURSDAY, May 10, 2007.

SPEAKERS: None

ACTION: Approved

AYES: Alexander, Antonini, S. Lee, W. Lee, Moore, Olague, and Sugaya

NOTE: Per Section 67.18 of the Administrative Code for the City and County of San Francisco, Commission minutes contain a description of the item before the Commission for discussion/consideration; a list of the public speakers with names if given, and a summary of their comments including an indication of whether they are in favor of or against the matter; and any action the Commission takes. The minutes are not the official record of a Commission hearing. The audiotape is the official record. Copies of the audiotape may be obtained by calling the Commission office at (415) 558-6415. For those with access to a computer and/or the Internet, Commission hearings are available at www.sfgov.org. Under the heading Explore, the category Government, and the City Resources section, click on SFGTV, then Video on Demand. You may select the hearing date you want and the item of your choice for a replay of the hearing.

Last updated: 11/23/2009 12:17:59 PM