"It is the political equivalent of cats and dogs playing nice together. And something rarely seen in California. Two groups often at odds — YIMBYs and historic preservationists — are uniting behind a measure by San Francisco Assembly Member Matt Haney that is designed to make it easier to convert office buildings to residential housing, something that could help to revive San Francisco’s fading downtown and others around California. Seeking a way to simplify and accelerate the transition, Haney introduced office-to-housing legislation that would relax environmental review, authorize municipalities to move these projects more quickly through the approval process and offer tax incentives to developers. The YIMBYs wanted more residential housing. The preservationists did, too, and saw that adaptive reuse might be a way to maintain buildings that might be lost in California’s — at least stated — urgency to build more housing. Developers and building owners and banks are making decisions about what to do with buildings that are now empty or or will be empty,” Haney said. “We need to put a framework in place now so that they can view housing conversion as a serious option that pencils out.”" YIMBYs and preservationists actually agree on a California bill to create more housing https://lnkd.in/gtPem6QY
Shayne Watson
3mo
For the record, half of the CPF Board voted against cosponsoring this bill with YIMBY, including me.
Matt Haney I especially appreciated the transparency with which you referenced this past ballot measure failure reported by CalMatters prior to passing of the latest CA Prop 1. Would like to understand how Gov Newsom is assuring that the failures of the previous ballot measure from 2018 will not be repeated. Accountability and transparency is necessary. Again, appreciate you calling this out to enable more transparency as we look for more success with Prop 1. As reported by CalMatters: “In the fall of 2018, California’s voters were determined to make a dent in the state’s rapidly escalating homelessness crisis. By a wide margin, they supported a ballot measure sold as No Place Like Home, which promised to use taxpayer money earmarked for mental health treatment to pay for a $2 billion housing bond. Voters who read the Yes campaign’s description of the measure that November saw a bold promise: 20,000 new units of permanent supportive housing. More than five years later, the state has completed just 1,797 No Place Like Home units.”
Stephen D.
3mo
Relaxing environmental review, authorizing municipalities to move these projects more quickly through the approval process and offering tax incentives to developers are steps in the right direction, but there are other more intractable economic constraints on converting most office uses to residential use. Flexibility in some building code requirements will also be required unless/until office property values fall another 30%-50%.
Look into options like this to make the progress we need. We know that the last ballot measure like this one that passed produced only 2K of the 20k plus units funded. Finding sustainable solutions is critical. https://www.kitswitch.com
Wayne Farrens
3mo
Wishing nothing but success, but converting office to residential is [usually] a lot more difficult than it sounds!
Columbia University Master of Science Advanced Architectural Design
3moWithout adequate transit changes Matt the ones Scott promised but never built an inch of track on is what is needed at the local and state levels. The ongoing auto sprawl of the valley shows that transit needs are ever greater and no amount of housing built should be done without a transit improved system. We are way behind on the adaptive reuse and rehab of existing buildings citywide and therefore there is more of a need to transform historical sites and rev up the cross city transit network so people can get across town in 5-10 min not 40+