Wealthy Developer Tries to Stop Rebuilding of Trinity Plaza
From today’s BeyondChron,
There is nothing unusual in San Francisco about neighbors protesting a proposed development project. But when the neighbor is a wealthy condo developer, whose company is building a controversial 24 story condo tower with five floors of parking, one would think they would think twice before trying to stop an adjacent project with 34% affordable units that is almost universally seen as a boon to the Mid-Market neighborhood.But Alexis Wong and her AGI Capital Group, who have an approved project at 1160 Mission, clearly have a different vision for the Mid-Market area than do the backers of the rental housing project slated for the adjacent Trinity Plaza. It’s a choice between a neighborhood dominated by upscale condos and parking garages or one centered by 1900 new rental units and pedestrian-friendly retail spaces—and the Planning Commission will soon decide.
The AGI Capital Group has filed five pages of challenges to the draft Environmental Impact Report (“EIR”) prepared by the City for the 1900 unit rebuild of the Trinity Plaza Apartments. The primary goal of the challenges is to create a smaller project, one that would necessarily have far fewer affordable housing units than currently projected for the site.
Huh? Why would anyone who is building housing in that neighborhood NOT want there to be more new development?
On March 21, land use attorney G. Scott Emblidge wrote a letter to the Planning Department on AGI’s behalf raising a host of concerns about the Trinity Project.AGI’s chief concerns are the EIR’s alleged failure to analyze a smaller project, its lack of analysis of a possible mixed-used project, and its alleged failure to recognize that the Trinity rebuild would “adversely impact” the neighborhood’s character.
Uhhh… Yeah… That’s the WHOLE POINT! It’s the non-housing character of the neighborhood that BOTH parties are trying to change. And I won’t call that adverse…
Does anyone else out there have a problem with the Trinity Plaza development? Is anyone else crazy enough to piss-off Angelo Sangiacomo?
Ritz-Carlton Lite [Curbed SF]
I support more affordable housing, but when/if completed,the three-tower Trinity Plaza complex will be one ugly addition to the neighborhood. It is very difficult to make 24-stories of punched concrete facades very interesting in a neighborhood that includes the new library, Asian Art Museum and the beautifully restored City Hall. Yet despite the beauty of these and many other structures nearby, one will sadly be drawn to this gargantuan aesthetic blunder of a building, much like one is unfortunately drawn to a wart or other large deformity on an otherwise beautiful face.
In sum, the consequences of this project are profound for the neighborhood and for the city at large; unfortunately, we are going to have to live with it for many years to come much like we live with the consequences of the Fox Tower Plaza development of a generation ago.
Anonymous at December 18th, 2006 at 2:22 am ( )