Land Use Committee Settles on Inclusionary Housing AmendmentsLandon Dickeybyline‚ Jul. 20‚ 2006At Wednesday’s Land Use and Economic Development meeting, everything seemed to be going Supervisor Chris Daly’s way. Supervisor Daly and co-sponsor Sophie Maxwell have waited seven long months for their efforts to come to fruition. Through the Inclusionary Affordable Housing Program, they have fought to bring a lagging San Francisco up to speed with the other cities and counties of Northern California. Currently, when any developer builds a set of apartment buildings, 12% of the units of the building have to be reserved for low-income residents (as determined by area medium income). Daly’s new legislation strives to reserve 15% of all new “on-site” units and 20% of all new “off-site” units for affordable housing. But San Francisco’s neighboring cities have already surpassed the standards this new legislation sets out to achieve. As Marna Schwartz of the Housing Justice Movement noted during public comment, Pleasanton, San Mateo, South San Francisco, and Berkeley have already achieved 20% affordable housing universally. And furthermore, Walnut Creek has established 25% as their base threshold. |