Thread by @_fruchtose

Hello San Francisco. I'm at the winter meeting of the Glen Park Association. The MC notes that tonight has high turnout. I have limited bandwidth so I may not upload a lot of pictures.

We're starting with Captain Woon of the SFPD answering audience questions.

Sadly I have next to no signal so I can't promise a lot this evening.

Glen Park Recreation Center needs WiFi!

Residents are asking about how they can prevent home and auto burglaries. One person in the audience had their car broken into five times, with nothing visible.

One person asks about anything "high tech" going on, where the police can use artificial intelligence to identify criminals from surveillance camera photos to find a common culprit. That's a no.

The MC has let Captain Woon go. Moving to officer elections.

Scott Wiener is scheduled to speak but has not arrived yet.

In the interim, a woman who has lived here for 60 years says she wants to keep Glen Park a "backwater." She says she wants to invite Senator Wiener and the SF Supervisors to see how unsafe streets are in Glen Park for pedestrians.

The MC is talking about a time when SFMTA proposed a single-lane roundabout in Glen Park, and how then-Supervisor Jeff Sheehy was not in favor of it [and shot it down?]

One speaker expresses a desire to remove parking spaces on a street near the highway for pedestrian visibility. MC reports that that specific zone is owned by CalTrans and SFMTA can't touch it.

MC now telling the audience that you can submit a traffic calming application if you get the signatures of your neighbors. SFMTA will come and survey your block to see if a solution is necessary.

Scott Wiener is here. He's easily the tallest person in the room.

He's speaking now. He came to his first GPA meeting in '07. He loves the continuity of neighborhood associations. GPA is one of the most active associations in the city.

Scott: I'm honored to represent this community with everything happening. Elected the same night as the current president. We now have to re-litigate fights over basic human rights. But there are problems in California that Trump didn't create. He's working on those issues.

Scott: a few issues for this year. Homelessness, exacerbated by opioid, drug, mental healthcare system crises. We have 50% of the nation's unsheltered homeless population. But Gov Newsom is willing to invest in the problem, unlike Jerry Brown.

Wiener: we're giving more money to cities, funding supportive housing, streamlining navigation centers, mental healthcare and access to MediCal.

Supervisor Mandelman has arrived.

Scott: last year I created a new conservatorship program so people don't die on the streets. SF now implementing it. Working on mental healthcare access for EVERYONE. Issues start to manifest in high school. Working for early intervention money.

Scott: gearing up to fight insurance companies so that they'll cover all medically necessary mental health issues. Also trying to get safe drug injection sites legalized, for clean and supervised drug use sites with access to services. Europe has implemented them successfully.

Scott: on housing I have a "small, little bill" called SB 50. [Audience laughs.] And SB 35 shortened affordable housing approval times by 2 years in suburbs. It's caused the mayor of Cupertino to come to SF to campaign against me. It's weird. [Laughter]

Scott: We have a housing crisis. Production has slowed as the population keeps growing. It's easy to understand why housing costs more and people get pushed into sprawl. It's illegal to build apartments in most of SF.

Scott: we've added more local control to SB 50. League of Cities is sitting down to talk to us and local politicians like that. Bill will go to the Senate floor next week. Been talking to politicians and advocacy orgs, will contribute to do so.

Scott: victory on banning gun shows at Cow Palace. After he introduced a bill to give Cow Palace land to a joint powers association, they cancelled the gun shows. But the NRA is threatening to sue, so he wants to make the ban permanent with a bill.

Question: will CEQA be rewritten in the context of climate change? E.g. make the bill deal with existing conditions instead of change.

Scott: people try to change it all the time with little success.

Q: how will increased density in Glen Park housing improve our quality of life?
Scott: there are a lot of people struggling here. Either in overcrowded places or homeless. And kids go to college and can't move back. Not building housing is pushing ppl out, reducing diversity.

Scott: I don't think more people deteriorate quality of life. Creates more foot traffic and supports small business. But realize, housing won't be built the day after SB 50 passes. There won't be 10 new apartment buildings in a year.

MC asking how SB 50 affects transportation—increases need for it?
Scott: we need to invest a lot more using property tax, transit impact fees. New housing raises more money thanks to Prop 13. We've underinvested for years.

Scott: BART bond helps a lot. Muni and Caltrain will get better. Muni is a lot better than it was 5/10 years ago. We know how to improve transit. We need political will. Gas tax increase providing more money, 20% for transit.

Scott: LA passed $100B transit plan. We can do the same with the FASTER ballot measure.

MC introducing Supervisor Mandelman and Aide Jacob about density ideas for Glen Park.

Rafael Mandelman: Two views about this. Either there's a housing crisis in CA (I agree with Scott), or that housing will ruin your neighborhoid.

"Here I am!" shouts a longtime resident at the front.

Rafael asks how many people think we should do something. Almost everyone raises their hand.

One person complains that we got the second position as a bad guy position, and that infill which keeps neighborhood character is good.

Rafael: I don't support SB 50, but that means that I have to propose local solution instead.

Presenting a slide [abbreviated]

PROBLEMS: Housing Crisis, Monster Homes

• Housing shortage: every community should do its fair share
• Monster Homes: expanding homes exacerbates issue
• Housing the Billionaire Class: upper middle class homes being converted to lux mansions

Rafael: I don't think monster home expansions are a win in any way. Example: 1783 Now St used to be an 875 sqft 2-story home with 1-car garage. $1.7M.

Now it's a 5,100 sqft home in 3 stories with a 2-car garage. Worth $7M.

Rafael notes he's an Elizabeth Warren guy.

Slide

WANTED: HOUSING FOR THE 99%

• Density: Add density near transit
• Neighborhood Character: Heights and setbacks should maintain character
• Monster Homes: Encourage increased density[...]
• SB 50: Adopt a local option to SB 50 "one size fits all"

Rafael notes Jacob came from the Planning Department.

Rafael presenting a zoning map. "You can only do a single-family home here" gesturing to zoning around Glen Park.

Jacob: all of Glen Park has a 40 ft height limit, except for one spot with a 30 ft limit.

Rafael: these are not ancient restrictions. They're 40 years old.

🤔🤔🤔🤔

Audience member: the origins of the zoning is racist, to keep the neighborhood from changing.
Rafael agrees.

Jacob presenting summary of SB 50 zoning changes re: density, areas around transit. It would make BART stop and J stop areas 55 ft limit zones.

Jacob compare and contrast

SB 50 Local bill
Density decontrol:. ✅ ✅
Density increase:. ❎ ✅
Height increases. ✅ ❎

Rafael: if people want to change heights, I'm open to it. But we don't have to do that.

Slide summarizing terms like RH-1, NCT, ADUs, etc.

Proposal:
• Eliminate current density limits, but with monster home controls...
• Maximum 4 units by right (to address State Density Bonus)

Jacob notes that the State Density Bonus kicks in when a lot is zoned for 5+ units, so this proposal avoids that.

Rafael: potential caveat about eliminating density limits. If SB 50 passes, that means you could have a 7-story building in the middle of a block. "That would look weird to me."

Rafael: with our proposal, maybe you could get 5+ units with conditional use, as one idea

ZONING TOOLS: LIMITING MONSTER HOMES, PROMOTING DENSITY

• Maximum size for new single-family
• Example: 1,500 sqft max per lot, bonus for more units
• Downside: doesn't allow for different lot sizes
• Downside: doesn't encourage added density

Continued:

• Floor Area Ratio (FAR) caps
• Limits building size based on kit size
• Can be used to encourage added density

Rafael: we can use FAR to account for larger lot sizes

Next slide summarized

• Proposal: FAR Caps
• 0.6 FAR for 1 unit
• 1.2 FAR for 2 units
• Based on current FARs in Glen Park

• Proposal: Min/max unit sizes
• Min unit size either ⅓ building area or 3k sqft, whichever is lower
• Max lot size - smallest unit sum

E.g. if you have a 6k sqft lot and the smallest unit size on the lot is 1000 sqft and you have three of those, the largest max unit you could build is 3000 sqft

( 6,000 - (3 x 1,000) = 3,000

Mandelman presenting Glen Park pilot proposal..
Jacob: we want density decontrol in a way that encourages more units... "no changes in height are really necessary here" to achieve goals of the pilot. We can maintain existing setbacks and open space reqs.

Mandelman: I believe in density control so you can't have 7-story buildings in a weird place. People like the feel of Glen Park. If you want to keep 35-foot height limits, you gotta increase density

MC: we're out of time, but Sup Mandelman wants feedback. They've given us a lot to think about.
Rafael: main input we want is, are you down with the idea of doing local planning to increase density of Glen Park? And what do people think about the heights?

Rafael: how annoyed by you by Glen Park? what is your view of what we should allow under the code? What's the max size of a single-family home? A lot of people think 1,800-2,200 sqft is the range. Can we have more density? Am I the only one concerned about 7-story buildings?

Rafael: is there anything else to address? I'll be outside to talk to people

That's it for tonight. I finally have cell reception, and I'm out!