Moratoriums, Loopholes, and Housing Fees

The SF Bay Guardian is jumping up and down patting themselves on the back over the indirect housing moratorium that was recently imposed on the southeastern neighborhoods (Mission, Central Waterfront, Mission Bay, etc).

EDITORIAL The San Francisco Chronicle has finally noticed what we reported a month ago: The Board of Supervisors has effectively put in place a moratorium on new market-rate housing on the east side of the city. We hear that city planners are looking for loopholes to undermine the temporary ban, but the intent of what the supervisors did is clear: Until there's a detailed and valid review of how new high-end condos and lofts impact blue-collar jobs and low-income housing, the developers will have to let their demolition and excavation equipment idle.

Meanwhile, Sup. Chris Daly is moving to increase significantly the amount of low-cost housing that private developers have to build to win permission for future projects. Daly's legislation is a good start and sets the right tone for the debate, but the board should go even further.

The Daly plan would apply to almost all new market-rate housing built anywhere in the city and would take effect whenever the moratorium ends. It would require most developers to offer 15 percent of the units of any project for less than market rates, and that number would jump to 25 percent if the affordable housing was built on another site. In other words, a builder who wants to put up 500 luxury condos in SoMa would have to build 125 affordable units somewhere else in the city.

That's nice, but it's not enough. [more...]

Not enough? Will it ever be enough for Daly? Until all homeowners are run out of town and San Francisco is a town of homeless shanties, he won't be satisfied.

I find it comforting to know that there are a large chunk of new voters in District 6 (1,800 according to SFSOS). Voters that have never had a chance to shoot down Daly's crappy rhetoric. We need new housing. Lots of new housing. All types of new housing. And prohibiting the construction of market rate housing is NOT the solution.

Rethinking the Guardian's suggested homebuilding moratorium [SFHomeBlog]
Battles are brewing for Mission rezoning plan [SFHomeBlog]
ABC Vol. 1 - Anybody But Chris [SFHomeBlog]