Potrero Yard, the Mission’s largest-ever planned affordable housing project, has shrunk by 48 units, its developers announced today at a Planning Commission hearing. The project, whose final environmental impact report was approved at the hearing, is now one step closer to full approval.
The Potrero Yard will bring in 465 affordable housing units at 2500 Mariposa St. They’ll be reserved for residents making a range of incomes — anywhere between $30,250 and $121,000 for a single person, or $43,350 and $172,900 for a family of four. The total unit count is decreasing from the 513 proposed in October because its developers now plan to build fewer senior homes and more family ones, which have bigger units with more bedrooms.
“So the bedroom count really remains the same for both versions,” said Bonnie Jean von Krogh, public affairs manager for the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency, which is developing the project on the grounds of the sprawling Muni bus yard. The project is split into three phases: The first to modernize the bus yard, the second to build housing on Bryant Street, and the third to finish housing on Bryant Street and add housing along Hampshire Street.
“Housing is a key part of the project,” von Krogh said, “and the refined project maximizes the housing units and affordability.”
The bus yard component is expected to be completed in late 2027; the housing component has no firm deadline, but could take several years. The project, at Bryant and 17th streets, would create 72 studios, 159 one-bedroom units, 157 two-bedroom units, and 77 units with three or more bedrooms, all along Bryant and Hampshire streets.
But von Krogh also said that, if funding is not secured for the full 465 units, the agency would go with an alternative plan of 104 affordable units, all along Bryan Street. As yet, SFMTA has not finalized its funding sources for the housing component, and commissioners on Thursday pressed developers on a timeline.
“In terms of the affordable-housing funding for it, where are we at right now?” asked Commissioner Theresa Imperial.
“We are still in the process of securing funding for phase two,” said Chris Jauregui, a representative of Potrero Neighborhood Collective, the lead developer of the project. “However, prior to doing that, there are a number of steps, including getting through environmental [review] and entitlements.”
The alternative 104-unit plan would extend the planned four-story bus yard into a fifth story, adding a paratransit vehicle yard above. Von Krogh stressed that the plan is only a backup if the agency does not secure enough funding for the 465-unit project after the initial bus-yard construction.
Jauregui added that the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development would allocate some funding towards the housing on Bryant Street, but that the project has still not secured funding for the rest.
Commissioners, in discussing the environmental impact report, asked the agency about mitigation measures: Commissioner Sue Diamond raised concerns about toxic air contaminants produced during construction and operation, hoping for “reassurance that every conceivable feasible mitigation measure is being included.”
Jennifer McKellar, environmental planner at SF Planning, said construction equipment would use “Tier 4” diesel engines — the cleanest currently available.
After an hour-long deliberation, the commission voted unanimously 7-0 to grant the environmental impact report, alongside a slew of other approvals.
The headline kind of buries the lede here – while it’s pointed out that the bedroom count stays the same and the headline is technically accurate, it will inevitably lead to folks getting the wrong impression about the scale of the project.
The rendering of the building would be the view from Mariposa Street and Bryant Street, not 17th Street, right? Bryant Street between 17th and 16th is more or less flat, not uphill as in the picture. Bryant Street is uphill between Mariposa and 17th.
The yard doesn’t traverse between 16th and 17th. You’re turned around, the uphill view in pic is 17th St.
Homeless but work and have a disability
“Affordable” housing is a lie. All housing is affordable to someone, or the price will naturally drop until someone can afford it and agrees to pay a certain amount for that property. Prices dropped 50% during the 2008 recession. Proof of my assertion. This is subsidized parasite housing. A city of parasites is very unhealthy city, just what is the problem with San Francisco currently…
Really?! Incomes between $30k-$172k?!!!!! LET’S GET REAL HERE! The people that NEED this housing DON’T EVEN COME CLOSE TO MAKING THE $30k mark! SF gov continues to DELIBERATELY DECEIVE residents/vistors by vomiting their BLATANT PROPAGANDA AND BS!
You may be correct there. But perhaps the city and voters want to help the working and middle classes, rather than those who are on the very bottom rung of the economic ladder?
A project like this is not welfare or charity. It is to help provide homes for those who can significantly contribute to the city.
I wish someone would write a story about if it will cast a shadow on the park, and the legality of it, if it is true.
Every new building casts a shadow somewhere.
That area has warm weather, and so more shade is welcome there.
Can we stop with shadow concerns?
Even if shadows are cast upon the corner of Franklin square, it won’t have any effect on whether or not that playground is usable for kids. It will be.
There is nothing wrong with shadows.