Demolishing
or removing any housing in San Francisco without first agreeing to
build replacement homes would become illegal, under a proposed new law.
After The City approved the demolition of three apartments in 18
months, Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi drafted legislation requiring all
demolished, merged or converted homes to be replaced with similarly
affordable housing units.
Mirkarimi drafted the legislation in the wake of controversy that
surrounded plans to demolish three rent-controlled apartments by the
Drew School to expand its Pacific Heights neighborhood campus.
That project, which was approved earlier this year, was the only
demolition project that would lead to an overall loss of housing units
to have been approved since anti-demolition policies were formalized
and adopted by The City in March 2008, Planning Department data shows.
Other demolition projects over the same 18-month period increased
the number of homes by clearing the way for new housing projects.
Additionally, during the same 18 months, 43 housing units were
consolidated into 24 units and three homes were converted for
nonhousing uses, the data shows.
There are roughly 365,000 homes in San Francisco, department data shows.
City laws and policies aimed at protecting homes generally focus on
the preservation of pre-1980 multiunit buildings, because those
apartments are protected by The City’s rent control laws.
The Planning Commission approved the Drew School expansion after
determining that the social benefits of the school’s expansion
outweighed the negative impacts of losing rent-controlled apartments.
The commission’s discretion to make such rulings on similar projects
would be stripped away if Mirkarimi’s proposed legislation is adopted
by the Board of Supervisors.
Mirkarimi’s draft law would also affect conversions of homes into
other uses and mergers of smaller housing units to create larger,
family-oriented housing.
Planning commissioners during a Thursday hearing into the
legislation said they would like to retain the ability to use their
discretion to approve the demolition of homes in some circumstances,
such as the expansion of a school.
Mirkarimi said he would like to work with the commission to finesse his proposal.
“I’m open-minded in terms of how we might want to sculpt the legislation,” Mirkarimi said.
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