Transcripts For SFGTV Government Access Programming 20240713

SFGTV Government Access Programming July 13, 2024

Approved my proposed amendments to the boards original resolution. The amendments clearly state the need for sb50 to ensure that existing area plans are respected and allow the community to engage in planning to increase housing density giving communities a seat at the table. Number two, capture more of the value conferred to developers when we upzone and direct it to Affordable Housing and community benefits. Number three, provide meaningful funded and enforceable protections against displacement and gentrification. And number 4, ensure there is adequate Transportation Resources to go alongside housing development. I went to work in good faith with the state representatives as we work on our local efficients on Community Planning and Affordable Housing development. Including our accomplishments with eraf, housing bond, jobs housing linkage fees, prop e and budget wins, both local and state, for planning and development, particularly on the west side. Its not enough to say what were against. We need to say what were for. To imagine a future that includes a middle class and working class in San Francisco that prioritizes Community Needs overdevelope overdevel ov overdevelopers bottom lines. We need to build that future. I urge you to support this amended resolution on sb50 today. Thank you. President yee okay. Thank you. Supervisor preston. Thank you, president yee. Colleagues, its no secret that i think that the sb50 is bad for our city as drafted, the bill would make our Housing Market less affordable. The bill gives away valuable rights in San Francisco, enriching developers at the expense of our community. Notably, as supervisor mar has pointed out, the bill does not even require higher rates of Affordable Housing or transit investments in exchange for the Development Rights that it gives away. So i want to thank supervisor mar for introducing this resolution, working so closely with advocates to call for essential amendments to sb50. I also want to recognize and thank the Affordable Housing advocates and residents here in San Francisco and in gentrifying communities all around the state who have worked hard to expose the problems with asb 50. I think its a shame that so much of their time and ours must be spent challenging the latest developer bill, rather than focussing on Real Solutions to our Affordable Housing crisis here in San Francisco. Ill be supporting the resolution and thank you, supervisor mar, for moving it forward. President yee supervisor peskin. Supervisor peskin thank you, president yee. I actually that supervisor preston on his first day took the words out of my mouth. I want to thank all of you in your incarnation as members of the sfcta for your vote earlier today, particularly supervisor mar. I also want to say what i said in committee, which is that the hope that my former colleague and now state senator wiener will heed this. I think this is this is not a measure that says opposed. This is a measure that actually says if you take a few commonsense amendments and you actually stop working with the developers and work with with everyone in the state of california this could move toward housing density that could be equitable and just. I wanted to sound that note and associate with the comments of supervisor preston. President yee supervisor safai. Supervisor safai thank you, president yee. I think this is a really important debate for our city to have. I think that certainly weaver weve had Uncomfortable Conversations in policy areas. One in particular recently i know supervisor haney that pushed forward out balancing out the number of Navigation Centers in the city. I think thats an important conversation to have. And i appreciate that. We recently christened and opened the first safe parking in district 11, the balboa bart station. This is something that has been talked about in San Francisco for over a decade or more. But we actually stepped up and were very proud to be the first neighborhood in the city to do that. And so im not shy to have Uncomfortable Conversations. I think this is one that is very uncomfortable conversation. I think you can approach it from many different angles. You can say this is developer giveaway. You can say its not sensitive to lowincome communities. Or where this bill is today and where it started out, it has evolved significantly. I think the things pointed out, i appreciate what supervisor preston said, i think first and foremost, there has to be strong conversation about sensitive communities. Senator wiener has made amendments to say that any Community Working with equity, coalition, would have a fiveyear moratorium of having this implemented. Those conversations are ongoing. I appreciate that. Actually things that there should be a further conversation in particular about having lowincome communities in general probably left out of this conversation. I think that would put a lot more people at ease, if we had a clear definition of lowincome communities and how this bill would not impact lowincome communities. But the thing that gives me a good confidence in this piece of legislation is that the senator has pushed forward the conversation around having a local flexibility option. Hes been working with Planning Departments around the state. Hes worked with our own Planning Department. So places like San Francisco that have area plans, that have done density and upzoning, would get credit for those. And the impact of sb50 would be minimal to zero in those areas. There are areas already zoned for over 45 feet. Soma. I know chinatown is on the cusp of that. I know there are other parts of the downtown area and other neighborhoods that would have zero to minimal impact. The tenderloin and others. My neighborhood is zoned Single Family home. Lets have a conversation about where we can have more density around transit. I think this is a good start. I think that supervisor mar, i appreciate everything youve done, in terms of moving the conversation forward and saying what youre looking for, but at the end of the day i think there is a lot of negotiation going on. I think its very telling when the assemblyman from the west side of town is coauthor. He represents the west side of San Francisco. Senator wiener is the main author that represents the whole city. I feel confident in the leadership of assemblyman tinge and wiener to get this right. There is strong antidemolition intended protections that could be more robust to your point. But theyve already started. If a tenant has lived in any property for the past seven years, sb50 is not applicable. Thats on top of all of the like to say for San Franciscos purposes all of our own ceqa, cu, discretionary review, all of the Historic Preservation requirements, all of the antidemolitions we have in place and all the tenant protections we have in place. So im not saying there is not more work that needs to be done. I guess its just a particular approach in terms of stating whether were in opposition without these amendments, or if were going to allow this bill to have more time. So i will not be voting in support of the resolution today. But appreciate the spirit of it and what its trying to do. And the need to protect our sensitive communities and lowincome xhujts of communities in particular. President yee senior ronen. Supervisor ronen thank you, i will be supporting the resolution and i wanted to thank you, supervisor mar, for your work and nuanced work on this. I want to echo supervisor peskin and say, this is not about opposing the bill, this is about changing the bill so it recognizes that not every single neighborhood, not every single city, not every Single Community is the same. That we have done very careful Community Plans in many neighborhoods. And there is a miss out there, ive been getting the lot of, if you have criticism of sb50 you dont support Affordable Housing and housing density. Which is not true. I support both of those things. The executive director is here of Economic Development agency, that actually used the first citywide density bonus in 100 affordable project in the city in order to build as tall and dense as possible for an affordable building for seniors. Its not about opposing housing or nimbyism, but wanting to maximize the benefits that height and density bring and recapture that back into the community for the benefit of the working class, the middle class families. I want to thank you for your resolution, supervisor mar. I think the amendments that you suggest are absolutely the right ones. And i understand senator wieners desire to push, you know, some suburbs that are truly antihousing and antidevelopment by trying to create these solutions, but the tool has been too blunt all along. And it needs refining. And im really excited to support this resolution today. President yee supervisor haney. Supervisor haney thank you, president yee, and thank you to all of you for your comments. I agree and i want to appreciate supervisor mar for your leadership in really putting forward what would really make sb50 much more informed and grounded in what the needs of our communities are here in San Francisco. I agree with supervisor ronen that there is maybe a set of suburban communities of which a tool like this would be needed. For San Francisco, what i think that what ive heard from all of you, is that we really need to double down on our own Community Planning processes. I know that supervisor mar has started that and will be kicking off a process in the sunset for a community plan. I know supervisor fewer as well has been leading on that. And what we did with prop e is relevant, in demonstrating that we want to build more Affordable Housing and want to see that happen all over the city. Sb50 wouldnt have that much of a direct impact on district 6, but what i can say, because there is so much housing that is being built in district 6, i do hope that we can build more housing of all types across the city. So i really appreciate the commitment that you all have made to look at areas where we can upzone or become more dense and do it also in way that specifically recognizes the affordability needs that we have. And uses it as an opportunity to address those affordability needs as we grow our city and do it in way that invests in infrastructure and transportation, and does it in a way that is sustainable and equitable. Im sure well have another opportunity to talk about this bill. And also most importantly, the principles that underline it in terms of how we build more housing in a way that addresses the growth of our city, but most importantly the affordability of our city. So thank you, all, for your work on it and especially, supervisor mar, ill be supporting it. President yee supervisor mandelman. Supervisor mandelman thank you, president yee. I have been and remain opposed to sb50. I was cosponsor of this resolution when we considered an earlier version of it earlier this year and ill be voting for it today. From my perspective, the right way to solve the regime i would prefer to resolve this would be for regional allocations of necessary housing to be distributed around the state. And for local communities to then have the opportunity to plan appropriately to develop the housing that is needed in those regions and in those communities. The only problem with that, it is an approach weve tried for several decades and we just have not been able to get local communities to produce. So i think senator wiener is to be commended for looking for ways to get communities other than San Francisco to step up, and it is my hope that in the next year, he and his staff in the legislature will find ways to preserve some of the elements of local planning that really are essential and also make a contribution to solving the statewide housing crisis. But for the moment, i still cannot support sb50 and i will be supporting the resolution. Supervisor fewer thank you, president yee. I just want to mention, thank you to supervisor mar and that i am proud to have worked on these amendments with his office. As we share the west side concern of the defamation of our neighborhoods and displacement of our residents as well as the lack of commitment of transit resources to meet our current and future needs. These amendments i think are commonsense and urges the state to recognize that protections are needed before we embark on giving developers a massive gentrification, the ability to in the name of profits. I want to talk about prop e, really opens up the opportunity to build 100 Affordable Housing on so many more pieces of property in San Francisco. On lots that are actually 10,000 square feet or more, and this is for Affordable Housing. I think this planning, allowing us to plan for neighborhoods planning for this is a smart way to go. I want to thank supervisor mar for taking the lead on this. President yee okay. I also want to thank supervisor mar for bringing this forth. And by the way, your comments around transportation as infrastructure need before you build even more density, that you made this morning, was very elegant and articulate, i wont repeat that. But certainly its something to consider, especially for the districts out on the west side where the transportation available is maximized already. And if you try to catch it, catch the morning commute or evening commute, youre going to be standing waiting for the trains to stop at your stop. Because generally, you have to wait for several trains to pass by before there is any capacity to allow you to get in. You know, first of all, i want to say that San Francisco maybe could do better in terms of increasing our Housing Stock. Certainly we can. But to sit here and pretend were not doing anything is misnomer and certainly when people talk about the west side of the city, and talk as if we dont build anything there, again, ive given examples of the west side, especially in my district, in district 7, where basically were going to be building a good 1015,000 more units in the next few years. Including along awaited units that were anticipated for the park apartments. And i mentioned San Francisco state more recently wanting to expand their capacity from to house 4,000 students to 12,000 students. And now we have stone talking about developments there. And, of course, i mentioned the balboa reservoir project, which would bring over a thousand more units in which 50 of it will be affordable. And im working on other projects that will increase several hundred more units in the district. But i make these statements not because i want to just brag about them, or creating housing out in district 7, but the fact is, when these developments, or projects are put up, the community have a say. Theyre part of the process. They give input to come up with projects that are acceptable to most of the people out there. And im afraid some of the things that we might lose is this localized planning to make San Francisco be sort of a onesizefitsall, and make it look like were all california. I would say that is the same thing for within San Francisco. I dont want to make everything fit and look like downtown. Im sorry. I mean, the beauty of San Francisco is our districts, is our neighborhoods. And the choices that we have, whether you want to live in convenient place in the downtown in the high rises, or you want to live in a duplex or triplex, four plex, or whatever theyre called, in which i grew up in. And people who want to have a singlefamily home for themselves and their family, we need to continue the value to have those choices. We need to have that. But weve got to find smart places where we can develop the growth. Its not about everything looking the same. Its about where to put anytime a smart way. I think that many of our districts we have proven that is the case, where we work with our Community Members to make sure that its something that is supported. And still provide the continue providing the character of whatever, whether its the neighborhood or the district or the city. And i strongly feel, as a native san franciscan, born here, that we need to somehow keep some of the character that makes San Francisco, San Francisco. We dont want to be manhattan. Well, i dont want it to be manhattan. Or wherever places people come from. They think thats a better choice. So again, i dont want to go on and on. But basically, wed like to see growth. We like to see area plans be accepted. The fact that none of us on the west side have been able to do area plans is mainly because we havent had any resources. All the resources in the city in the last few decades forever decades, have been concentrated in this area for good reasons, but still, you have to open up the purses to make sure we have resources that we can actually plan for these things on the west side. Im glad were starting a process of supervisor fewer and supervisor mar, were looking at those issues. And so given all that, you know, i would be supportive of senator wieners bill if he could make some of these amendments that gives us opportunity to make a choices, to figure out how t

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