Trinity Plaza – FINALLY! – Gets Out of Land Use Committee

by Paul Hogarth, 2007-03-27

The mood was upbeat and celebratory at yesterday’s Land Use Committee meeting – as committee members unanimously voted to approve San Francisco’s largest rental housing project in fifty years. After Supervisor Chris Daly announced that the developer (Angelo Sangiacamo) has agreed to some last-minute amendments, the committee gave the project the green light. Supervisor Jake McGoldrick decided not to press with his additional amendments, allowing the project to finally go to a full Board meeting on April 10th. Once it passes the Board, it will end a four-year effort by the tenants of Trinity Plaza to save their homes and protect affordable housing.

Under the proposed project, 1900 rental housing units will be built at the corner of 8th and Market – revitalizing a street corner in the heart of Downtown. In a historically unprecedented move, the developer has agreed to build 360 rent-controlled units – which the current tenants at Trinity Plaza will be able to occupy. Even after these tenants move on, the deed restrictions will keep these units regulated – despite state law that exempts rent control from new construction.

In compliance with the City’s inclusionary housing law, an additional 15% of the other units (231) will be “permanently affordable” for tenants making 60% of the area median income. Therefore, the project will have a combined total of 591 below market-rate rental units – in an era where it is extremely difficult for the private market to build any rental housing at all. For all the talk that new housing units in South-of-Market are changing the political demographics of District 6, progressives should applaud this new development.

Last week, the project hit a snag when Supervisors were uncomfortable about approving a “condo-map” after the developer pointed out the 40% increase in construction costs. Under the Daly amendment – which Sangiacamo has agreed to – a condo map will be approved for the project, except for the 360 rent-controlled units. Therefore, while the owner could theoretically sell off individual units in the future – he could only sell the rent-controlled units as a whole package.

Since this project began in 2003, I have left the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, gone to law school for three years, taken the Bar Exam, passed the Bar Exam, become a lawyer, and am now back at the Tenderloin Housing Clinic writing for Beyond Chron. For the tenants who have lived at Trinity Plaza during this time and struggled to move on with their lives, I can only imagine how much longer this process must have seemed. Many of them have died in the process waiting for it to happen.

Initially, the Trinity Plaza tenants were going to be evicted and their homes demolished with no replacement units. With help from the Tenderloin Housing Clinic and other community groups, the tenants mobilized and pushed for an Ordinance – that would prohibit large rental complexes from being demolished, and therefore save their homes. The Ordinance passed the Board of Supervisors on the first reading with eight votes – a veto-proof majority.

Then, Sangiacamo proposed “lifetime leases” for all the tenants – but no deed restrictions – which convinced Supervisor Bevan Dufty to switch his vote on the second reading. Mayor Newsom then vetoed the Ordinance, and the Board could only muster seven votes to override the veto. So the tenants mobilized to place the Ordinance on the November 2004 ballot – and gathered 20,000 signatures.

In September 2004, a Superior Court judge invalidated the 20,000 signatures because of the petition’s format. Therefore, the Ordinance was removed from the November ballot. Undaunted, the tenants mobilized for a special election in June 2005 – in a last-ditch effort to save their homes from the wrecking ball.

But in December 2004, Angelo Sangiacamo proposed the tenants with a settlement – drop the effort to pass the Ordinance in exchange for a project that will save the tenants’ homes, create affordable housing units and revitalize the mid-Market area. The tenants agreed, and a historic project was born.

It’s been over two years since Sangiacamo proposed the settlement offer, and the Planning Commission has even approved the project – twice. Chris Daly fought hard on behalf of getting more affordable units, as he admitted yesterday that he “probably pushed the project almost to the point of extinction.”

Now the full Board of Supervisors will have the chance to pass the largest rental housing project in 50 years – one that sets a crucial precedent in the effort to build affordable housing in San Francisco. As Jake McGoldrick said yesterday, “we’ve gone through the sausage-making progress,” and it’s time to move on.

But as everyone knows, you can’t spend your whole life making sausages.

Send feedback to paul@beyondchron.org