By Calvin Welch, HANC Board
Last month the Board of the Haight-Ashbury Neighborhood Council voted to oppose unless amended Supervisor Melgar’s rather misleadingly labeled "Family Housing Opportunity Special Use District" that included both the Haight-Ashbury and Inner Sunset in its boundary. Sold by the Supervisor as making it easier "for homeowners to add up to four units on their lots," she said repeatedly that the legislation was for "Westside homeowners".
The legislation’s chief objective was to allow demolitions of existing units with neither public notice nor public hearing. In its initial form the legislation would have required that the property be owned only a year prior to applying for the no notice demolition, creating an unmistakable opportunity for speculators. Moreover, there were no affordability requirements for the density and demolition concessions, making it even more attractive for "buy, demo and displace” real estate "investors," nor was there a prohibition on short term rental use for the new units.
Had the legislation only applied to western neighborhood single family home lots such an open invitation to rampant speculation would have been limited in scope. The legislation however includes all of the Inner Sunset and Haight Ashbury, neighborhoods in which tenants outnumber homeowners three and four to one. Allowing such speculation in these neighborhoods would produce far more serious displacement of tenants for no additional affordability.