Mayor Lee and Supervisor David Campos, who recently clashed over that supervisor's proposal for a moratorium on market rate housing in the Mission District, appear to be mending fences. As Mission Local reports, together the politicians have announced a fallow site that was once a gas station at the corner of 16th Street and South Van Ness Avenue — a site which was previously to become market rate condos — will now be exclusively affordable housing.
The address for the 72-unit project is 490 South Van Ness. Until now, just 12 units were to have been affordable. The project, as it was, took four years to gain city approval. A groundbreaking was scheduled for this year. But the new shift means the project will be back up for bidding once the city purchases land from the now previous developer, J.C.N. Developers LCC, for $18.5 million.
“A few weeks ago we did a walk through South Van Ness for the purpose of identifying land that we could, as a city, purchase to build affordable housing,” Campos said. “Whatever land is available we want to build housing.” Though it's likely the project will be a combination of low and middle-income housing, Campos says exact details are as yet unclear. Curbed notes, that the target is families of three who earn up to $55,000 or families of four earning up to $61,150.
Distinguishing it from other affordable housing projects in the Mission, this one is unlikely to see massive delays, as the land has already been entitled by the City according to the Mayor's office on housing.
Though Campos' moratorium proposal failed to gain the necessary votes from the Board of Supervisors, Campos clearly and powerfully tapped into the public upheaval caused by San Francisco's housing crisis. If his plan was to secure — however possible — land for affordable housing in the Mission, then he's probably succeeding.
It's likely Campos already pushed Lee in a more progressive direction, with the mayor earmarking $50 million from a coming bond measure for affordable housing in the Mission. It's from that pile that we're getting the $18.5 million to buy the land on South Van Ness.
The Planning Commission is also seemingly taking cues from Campos' popular moratorium proposal — which likely has enough signatures to land on the November ballot according to the Examiner. Now, planning commissioners are stepping in to say they may halt some market rate housing projects in the District.
Though news of an 100 percent affordable project will come as very welcome to many, it should be noted that it appears right after reporting from the Business Times on a Planning Department study showed that San Francisco is losing affordable housing as fast as it builds it.
The Board of Supervisors will vote on the purchase of the land at 490 South Van Ness on the 28.
Related: Planning Commission Says It May Halt Some Mission Development