San Francisco Delays Building 4 Years in the Making Because New Apartments Will Cast Shadows?!
The owner of a "historic" laundromat has been thwarted at every turn in his bid to build apartments in a city in the midst of a housing crisis.
Anti-development activists in San Francisco are raising an increasingly ridiculous set of objections to prevent the owner of a laundromat in the city's Mission District from converting his building into an apartment complex.
When Reason last spoke with Robert Tillman in February, the city of San Francisco was demanding that he study the historical significance of his coin-operated laundry before he be allowed to demolish it and put up a 75-unit, mixed-use housing development.
Tillman consented, paying $23,000 for a 135-page report which determined, several months later, that his property was not in fact a historic resource. In a sane world Tillman would be allowed to proceed with his project. In San Francisco, he is now being asked to perform yet another study, this time to measure the effect of shadow on a nearby school.
"You could just as easily ask me to do a study on the breakfast eating habits of the kids, or whether the building might affect their texting use," says Tillman.
Two shadow studies have already been conducted, finding that Tillman's project, if built, would cast shadow on a quarter of the playground of the nearby Zaida T. Rodriguez school for two hours a day.
According to Mission District activists from the city-recognized Latino cultural district Calle 24 however, neither study spent enough time considering the developmental impacts of asking children to spend recess in the shade.
"We know that the children will be forced to play in the shadows," said one impassioned activist at a recent public hearing on the project. "Whatever damage that is done to these children by the project will be permanent, irreversible, and detrimental." Said another, "we need housing, but let's get busy and creative. This project is not creative. It's not even respecting shadows."
In June these activists filed an environmental appeal asking for the third shadow study.
Last Tuesday, the city's Board of Supervisors led by Supervisor Hillary Ronen (D–Mission District) sided with these activists, mandating that another study be done before Tillman be allowed to proceed with building an otherwise zone-compliant housing project that would create 75 apartment units in a city suffering from a severe housing shortage.
"If what they want to do is say 'ah well we want to actually delay your project while we do another study, my answer is no," he tells Reason. "My answer is I'm going to court."
Tillman says that this latest delay is a violation of the laws governing the environmental review process in San Francisco, and that he plans on suing. On his side are the very bureaucrats tasked with reviewing and approving his project.
The environmental review process Tillman went through is governed by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which requires that new developments like his be studied for any potential environmental impacts they might have.
The list of possible impacts is long, as is the CEQA review process itself. This is especially true in San Francisco, where local law requires additional impacts be studied beyond what is demanded by state law. Making the process longer still is the ability of parties to appeal an environmental review they feel did not significantly examine this or that impact.
For the last six months Tillman has been delayed by these appeals, the first one demanding that potential historic impacts be studied more thoroughly, and second asking the same of potential shadow impacts.
The problem is that the shadow Tillman's theoretical apartments would throw off is not an impact either CEQA or San Francisco law requires him to study.
According to the city's Planning Department, shadow is only considered an environmental impact when it might fall on a public park maintained by the city's Parks Department. Since the previous two shadow studies performed on Tillman's project found that his project would only cast shadow on the nearby Zaida T. Rodriguez school playground owned by the city's school district, he is not required to mitigate this impact.
For this reason, the Planning Department recommended that Calle 24's appeal be rejected.
Nevertheless Ronan pushed her colleagues to accept the appeal, arguing that the Zaida T. Rodriguez playground could be made accessible to the general public at some point, thus warranting further shadow study.
"What they did is they basically made up a CEQA effect out of whole cloth," says Tillman, who was left flabbergasted by the Board of Supervisors decision.
The endless series of studies he's been forced to complete, he maintains, has a lot more to do with extracting concessions from him than it does with any actual concern about shadows.
Notably the San Francisco Unified School District—whose kids are supposedly at risk from additional shadows—did not sign on to Calle 24's appeal. Tillman says no one from the Zaida T. Rodriguez school has ever brought up any concern about shadows from his project.
"What they want to do is use the pressure of the delay to force me to sell below market value which I'm not going to do," says Tillman. "It's kind of the old-time equivalent of 'nice little project you got there, it would be a shame if something happened to it.'"
Tillman says he would be willing to sell his land, but only for fair market value.
Mission activist groups opposed to Tillman's project have been explicit about their desire to turn his laundromat into an affordable housing project. This includes the Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA)—a non-profit affordable housing developer—which wrote in a 2016 blog post, "it was good news to hear Tillman express that he would consider selling his property to the City, so that the latter could then designate it for 100 percent affordable housing. The bad news was Tillman's price of $250,000 per unit"—a price they are unwilling to pay.
Tillman says that on the morning of last Tuesday's Board of Supervisors hearing where the CEQA appeal against his project was considered, he received a phone call from Ronen asking him once again if he'd be willing to sell his land. He said yes on the condition that he be paid fair market value for it. He then spoke with a representative from Calle 24 where a similar conversation played out; Tillman expressing openness to selling his land but Calle 24 not willing or able to pay his asking price.
Having reached an impasse, Calle 24 representatives lined up before the Board of Supervisors several hours later to denounce the shadow impacts from Tillman's project, and the Board, led by Ronan, voted to delay his project.
These kinds of delays have proven effective in shaking down other Mission developers. For instance, about a block from Tillman's laundromat is the site of a planned 157-unit housing development being built by apartment developer Lennar Multifamily Communities. In order to get approval for its project Lennar—that had already been hamstrung by delays—hammered out a deal with Calle 24 and Ronen to rent out 25 percent of its new apartment units at below market value, and pay $1 million to Calle 24.
So far Tillman has refused to bend. He says that because he owns his land outright, and still has a profitable business in the laundromat, it is cheaper for him to go through litigation. As a one-off developer, he is less concerned about pissing off the powers that be.
Indeed, isolated from the typical pressures faced by more professional developers, Tillman has almost become a housing activist in his own right. The experience however has left him jaded about his or anyone's ability to change San Francisco's steadfast refusal to allow people to build housing for those who want to live there.
"There actually was a time when I thought I could change things. I've come to the conclusion that I won't, so many I'm just trying to get my project through," he says.
In that sense at least he is optimistic. The city attorney must provide Tillman with the legal reasoning for the latest delay within a month. Once that is unveiled, Tillman says he'll file his lawsuit, and could expect a decision by March 2019.
Provided the court sides with him, he will at last be allowed to begin construction.
Rent Free is a weekly newsletter from Christian Britschgi on urbanism and the fight for less regulation, more housing, more property rights, and more freedom in America's cities.
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This is only surprising to those who have no experience with SF building regulations.
Or government in general, or San Francisco in general.
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Remember, though, they want to tackle the housing problems there. They are quite serious about it.
they will tackle the housing problem but as in all politics its the wrong person tackling the housing problem.
As I've written so many times the government does not like competition. We've seen the government shut down people for feeding the poor now they want to shut down people who want to provide housing.
So now California does not care about children or the environment.
What about skin cancer? The shadows will enable the children to reduce their exposure to UVA / UVB without recourse to lotion.
Obviously the SF activists are funded by suntan lotion companies :-), or they are pressing a higher agenda related to solar power.
Or maybe they think that some children may suffer by having their melanin levels impact due to 'lack of sunlight'.
Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.
-- Helen Keller
San Francisco has good reason to be anti-shadow. This is just a consequence of them knowing history and literature.
Carry on clingers.
OT: Justice Kennedy announced his retirement.
Who will be forced to bake the cake for his retirement party?
RBG is still holding on though, huh?
She's gonna retire as soon as she wakes up from her current nap, so give it a few months.
Weekend at Ruthies. She is more machine than man now.
The jokes write themselves.
The jokes write themselves.
Archer: Oh great, you killed Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Esq.
Cyril: You mean The Honorable Justice Ru...
Archer: No, Cyril, when they're dead they're just lawyers!
If you don't want to deal with the shadows of other peoples' buildings falling across your shit, don't live in a fucking city.
What a surprise: I didn't even know that SF still allowed children....
Immigrant children only, orphans need not apply, only those separated from their parents.
"Whatever damage that is done to these children by the project will be permanent, irreversible, and detrimental."
On the plus side, I hear fertility rates are plummeting.
You'd think they would need a study to reach, and document, that conclusion.
Yes, because shade is a well-known hazard.
"Whatever damage that is done to these children by the project will be permanent, irreversible, and detrimental."
Why do they want children to get skin cancer and die?
Sorry everyone just the other day I said the progs in San Fran couldn't come up with a more lame brained idea. Apparently someone heard me and said "Oh just wait pal".
I would like to laugh at this but soon living without shadows will be another sign of White Privilege. By next year the feds will be giving out a 4 million dollar grant to study shadows.
Will the last entrepreneur to leave San Francisco please turn out the lights?
As Glenn likes to say, why are Democratic controlled cities such cesspools of corruption?
Of course, the answer is obvious. They are Democratic controlled cities.
If Calle 24 really wanted to build affordable housing why don't they buy another piece of land and build affordable housing? Is this the only available parcel in all of SF?
Is this the only available parcel in all of SF?
Well... that's not quite as far fetched as you might think. 😉
"We know that the children will be forced to play in the shadows,"
Only if they're forced to go to that school. Perhaps the bureaucrats like forcing children to that school AND forcing melanoma upon them.
According to Mission District activists from the city-recognized Latino cultural district Calle 24 however, neither study spent enough time considering the developmental impacts of asking children to spend recess in the shade.
Maybe this doesn't come up in San Francisco, but here in New Mexico, we actually sought out shade during recess.
In order to get approval for its project Lennar?that had already been hamstrung by delays?hammered out a deal with Calle 24 and Ronen to rent out 25 percent of its new apartment units at below market value, and pay $1 million to Calle 24.
I could swear that extortion was illegal.
Only for you and me; not for them.
Tillman says that on the morning of last Tuesday's Board of Supervisors hearing where the CEQA appeal against his project was considered, he received a phone call from Ronen asking him once again if he'd be willing to sell his land. He said yes on the condition that he be paid fair market value for it. He then spoke with a representative from Calle 24 where a similar conversation played out; Tillman expressing openness to selling his land but Calle 24 not willing or able to pay his asking price.
Having reached an impasse, Calle 24 representatives lined up before the Board of Supervisors several hours later to denounce the shadow impacts from Tillman's project, and the Board, led by Ronan, voted to delay his project.
This type of outrageous corruption has got to be illegal in some way. I mean, this is back to the 1930's political machine boss type of politics.
It really wouldn't be much of a tragedy at all if the members of Calle 24 were all raped to death by rabid baboons.
The movement of shadows may draw the attention of children and cause them to become interested in the science behind it. It is a positive enrichment of the playground experience!
So far Tillman has refused to bend. He says that because he owns his land outright, and still has a profitable business in the laundromat, it is cheaper for him to go through litigation. As a one-off developer, he is less concerned about pissing off the powers that be.
Well there's the problem. The city needs to draw up some regulations to cripple this shitlord's existing business, then pressure him to sell the land for pennies on the dollar so they can finally help solve the homeless crisis!
/proggie petty tyrant
Once again California and to be more specific San Fran liberals prove once again they are the Wile E. Coyote of the economic world. Practical solutions to issues at their finger tips yet they go right back to the ACME solar powered central planning rocket and surprised when it blows up.
"neither study spent enough time considering the developmental impacts of asking children to spend recess in the shade."
Of course the REAL issue here is that the children will have a CHOICE of shade or sun. Allowing impressionable school age children to learn that there is such a thing as choice is unacceptable. (other than killing babies, of course)
Erin Ferrell of MEDA is the culprit. I wrote about this extensively in my blog.
Although the SFUSD did not sign on, Rachel Norton of the Board of Education via the racketeering office (aka the "Student Services Division" once lead by Trish Bascom)
The point is to force Tillman into a short sale to benefit Don Davis of Prime Meridian Capital. Ronen is doing Norton's work, and Norton will return the favor, as Zula Jones might put it.
Crooked Hillary Ronen's Shady Deal