The mayor’s Rich Family Zoning plan is going to be a tough vote for a lot of the supes, particularly on the West Side, where taller buildings and more density are not terribly popular.
But it’s shaping up as particularly tricky for Sup. Myrna Melgar.
Melgar, who has generally won with progressive support, represents D7, which has a lot of single-family homes and a fair number of people who want things to stay that way.
She also represents part of the Inner Sunset, which has more progressive voters, and more renters, and parts of Irving and Judah streets that may see small business displacement if smaller buildings are torn down to put up bigger, more expensive ones.
And here’s the tough part: Melgar has introduced amendments to the Lurie plan, which have been accepted by the mayor, that would limit the demolition of rent-controlled housing of three units or more.
But District 7 has some 2,000 units of rent-controlled housing in buildings with just two units.
Under State Sen Scott Wiener’s latest bill, SB 79, two-unit rent-controlled buildings in “transit corridors” are subject to demolition. If the city doesn’t protect them in Mayor Daniel Lurie’s plan, we could see the demolition of a fair percentage of the 20,000 two-unit buildings in the city. Given the average family size of about 2.1 people per unit, that’s 40,000 tenants at risk—although most of the housing on the East side of town is, for now, not in the new zoning plan.
Still, 4,00 tenants could be at risk in D7—and some activists are making a big issue of it.
Flyers with the headline “demolition notice” are appearing all over the district, delivered to rent-controlled buildings of two units. They urge Melgar to support Sup. Connie Chan’s amendments, which would block the demolition of any rent-controlled housing.
I asked Melgar yesterday why she wants to protect just buildings with more than three units, and she never responded. That’s unusual, since she usually answers my questions pretty quickly.
Melgar has been working with the mayor on the plan, and is in a political bind: If she votes to protect all rent-controlled housing, it will reduce the number of places where developers can demolish buildings and put up more luxury housing. If she doesn’t, there are going to be some very unhappy voters in D7.
Melgar chairs the Land Use and Transportation Committee, which will consider final amendments to the plan Monday/3.
