2022-07-28 · 14 comments · 8 / 6
Support homes at 925 Bryant!Commission Commission Secretary, Dear Commissioner, San Francisco is in the midst of a severe housing shortage, displacement, and affordability crisis. It is essential that more well-designed and well-located homes are built to alleviate our city's housing problems. That's why I'm writing to express my support for an innovative new group housing project at 925 Bryant that would bring 218 much-needed ne… Commission Commission Secretary, Dear Commissioner, San Francisco is in the midst of a severe housing shortage, displacement, and affordability crisis. It is essential that more well-designed and well-located homes are built to alleviate our city's housing problems. That's why I'm writing to express my support for an innovative new group housing project at 925 Bryant that would bring 218 much-needed new homes to the SoMa neighborhood of San Francisco. Some of the project's many highlights include: 1. Transforming a vacant space and surface parking lot into new homes. This project replaces a vacant warehouse dominated by surface-level parking with 218 new homes. 2. Creating affordable homes. The project will create new homes for our middle and lower- income neighbors, as 24% of units are affordable to households making 50%, 80%, and 110% of the Area Median Income. In addition, the market-rate units, which are designed to be affordable based on their smaller size, will be roughly 20-30% less expensive than a comparable traditional studio apartment in the area. 3. Providing a diverse housing option. 925 Bryant is a group housing project<U+2014>meaning the units are small studio apartments that have private kitchenettes and bathrooms, along with access to abundant community amenities, including open space (more than 50% over City requirements), multiple communal kitchens, a coworking space, as well as a fitness center and other spaces for people to gather and socialize. 4. Encouraging environmentally friendly modes of transportation. The project site is near multiple forms of public transit and provides residents with 218 bike parking spaces, but only 25 car parking spaces that include car share and EV charging, encouraging residents to reduce car use and take advantage of alternative modes of transportation. 5. Environmentally sustainability. Along with sustainable building practices that focus on water-conserving landscaping and water efficient plumbing, this project will include over 50kW of solar and will be 100% electric, with no natural gas service or utilities of any kind. For these and many other reasons, I urge you to approve these affordable, well-designed, well-located, and environmentally-friendly new homes without delay. Thank you. Nikki Childs [email removed] San Francisco, California 94109show more Letter of Support for 925 Bryant Street
Hello, Please see our attached Letter of Support for the proposed development at 925 Bryant Street. Thank you for your consideration, Michael Budahn YIMBY Law
UPDATED -- Request to present -- 7/28 Public Hearing for 925 Bryant DevelopmentI am a resident on Langton street and would like to have these materials shared to emphasize my safety concerns during the public hearing for the 925 Bryant Development project. I will be there tomorrow to join the session. Regards, Sharon Beerling This message (including any attachments) contains confidential information intended for a specific individual and purpose, and is protected by law. If you are not the … I am a resident on Langton street and would like to have these materials shared to emphasize my safety concerns during the public hearing for the 925 Bryant Development project. I will be there tomorrow to join the session. Regards, Sharon Beerling This message (including any attachments) contains confidential information intended for a specific individual and purpose, and is protected by law. If you are not the intended recipient, you should delete this message and any disclosure, copying, or distribution of this message, or the taking of any action based on it, by you is strictly prohibited. Deloitte refers to a Deloitte member firm, one of its related entities, or Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited ("DTTL"). Each Deloitte member firm is a separate legal entity and a member of DTTL. DTTL does not provide services to clients. Please see https://url.avanan.click/v2/___www.deloitte.com/about___.YXAzOnNmZHQyOmE6bzo2NG UzYTIzMDczOTc4NjlkNDI1OTNiNDRkMGU0ZDU0ZTo2OjQwZWM6ZThhZDk1NTAyZ WU5NmQ3YzFiODdiYmUzMDk5ZjIxYzRkMjFiNmQ2MjFjMjFkN2RiZTY4YjQ3Yjc5Yz UzMWE0MDp0OkY to learn more. v.E.1 1 Langton <U+2013> Voice of concerned resident <U+2022> I live at 301 Langton 6-plex with my dog, Tolstoy <U+2022> Worked from home since 2011; With Covid, being able to work from home in a safe environment is even more important for our health <U+2022> As 18 year resident of Langton, I<U+2019>ve observed housing projects approved for our neighborhoods I support this project in principle. I only ask that you consider the health and safety impact and reconsider key incentives and waivers included in this project. 500+ affordable housing all within 0.2 miles radius of Langton <U+2022> 833 Bryant = 145 permanent supportive housing units <U+2022> 600 7th street = 221 affordable housing units (50% earmarked for formerly homeless adults) <U+2022> 925 Bryant = 218 units 2 Key waivers for reconsideration in context of private street With half of Langton as narrow, private street, key waivers create an UNSAFE environment for existing resident and the residents of 925 Bryant. This factor is not considered in the assessment & recommendation <U+2022> There<U+2019>s no street cleaning on private streets. Where entrance to 218 units (due to density) is via Langton only, trash problem will only exacerbate, creating health hazard for all residents and their pets <U+2022> Private street allows trucks to be parked <U+2022> Traffic - Cars on the north part of Langton must backout towards Bryant, creating traffic hazards at both Langton & Bryant <U+2022> Noise & Health <U+2013> Honking with backups makes it impossible to work from home, which is essential given continued Covid risks. Keeping windows closed in not an option as it is my main source of fresh air <U+2022> Exacerbated congestion <U+2013> Project is seeking exemption to eliminate off street freight loading zone. Every time someone moves in or out from 218 units, orders delivery (Amazon, Uber eats, etc), or visits retail, safety is at risk <U+2022> When truck blocks private end of Langton, cars must backout onto BRYANT <U+2022> Problem worsens with <U+2022> Amazon, Uber eats & other deliveries <U+2022> Move in/outs from 218 units <U+2022> Retail visits or deliveries 3 Key waivers for reconsideration Project vs shaded areas provided by key waivers -- narrow streets & alley, horizontal mass reduction & height CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION <U+2022> SF Planning Code exists to ensure public safety; Aspirations to help address housing crisis with massive concessions (shaded above) will only create an unsafe environment on both Langton and Bryant <U+2022> Two recommendations <U+2022> Project moves entrance to Bryant, incorporate narrow street setbacks, off street freight loading zones, horizontal mass reduction requirements into their redesign <U+2022> Planning staff to proactively develop with SFMTA, Police Department and Fire Department and share a feasible plan to manage traffic, noise and dust during construction along narrow, private street BEFORE final approvalshow more New development at 925 Bryant.Commission Commission Secretary, Hi Commissioner, I'm writing to express my support for the new group housing project at 925 Bryant. I know that the public hearings for planning can be an emotionally draining disaster, but I'd like to offer the following points either for reiterating on air or for your own record. The project is 24% affordable housing! That's quite nice. The current space is an aband… Commission Commission Secretary, Hi Commissioner, I'm writing to express my support for the new group housing project at 925 Bryant. I know that the public hearings for planning can be an emotionally draining disaster, but I'd like to offer the following points either for reiterating on air or for your own record. The project is 24% affordable housing! That's quite nice. The current space is an abandoned building. Nobody is displaced by demolishing an empty lot. The new development is close to public transit, making it better for individuals without vehicles and reducing traffic for everyone else in the city. Thank you for your time. I hope you will consider supporting this development. Cheers, Joseph Joseph Catrambone [email removed] San Francisco, California 94109show more Material for Planning Commission Tomorrow re 925 Bryan St Dev.To The Planning Commissioners, My name is Michelle Hunter and I am a resident at 309 Langton Street. I have lived on this alley/street for 9 years with my husband Mark and our two dogs. We are part of the 301 Langon Street Homeowners Association which comprises 6 loft units. I am attaching the following to this email: 2 letters from a resident on Langton Street and a business owner on Langton Street that has owned an… To The Planning Commissioners, My name is Michelle Hunter and I am a resident at 309 Langton Street. I have lived on this alley/street for 9 years with my husband Mark and our two dogs. We are part of the 301 Langon Street Homeowners Association which comprises 6 loft units. I am attaching the following to this email: 2 letters from a resident on Langton Street and a business owner on Langton Street that has owned and operated his business on this street since the early 1950's 301 Langton Building doc shows photos of our building from the front and back of the building. LangtonDeliveries shows photos of the constant amount of delivery trucks that enter our street for MacMurray Pacific Wholesale. The owner; Carl Windenradt, is copied on this email. Please reference his attached letter with the photos of this file. LangtonDev shows the number of market and low income housing currently and approved in a two block radius from our street. LangtonPrivate shows how only a portion of Langton is public and the other half of the street is Private. My husband and I strongly oppose the current design and height of the 925 Bryant Street Development for the following reasons: Construction & Environmental Impact on Residents and Businesses on Langton St Demolition and site preparation will cause excessive noise and debris on our tiny street. Even before the pandemic, many of us work from home and as shown on the 301 Building document, ALL of our windows face Langton Street and are the single source for fresh air and sunlight. Excessive debris and noise will disturb our daily lives and also may cause health problems with all the dust and debris. Construction over the course of 1-2 years will cause excessive traffic and disruption not only to residents but more importantly to a business, MacMurray Pacific Wholesale, who's only means for deliveries is through Langton Street (please see LangtonDeliveries file) Demolition, excavation and pile driving can cause damage to our buildings faade and potentially cause foundation issues to our buildings. Our street is more the size of an alley and is there any guarantee from the developer that this will not happen? What is their responsibility if our buildings are damaged during the construction process? Construction equipment, trucks, etc will cause excessive traffic issues on Langton Street not only for residents but also for MacMurray Pacific. How will the developer address this? Building Height Limit Will Eliminate Our Natural Light The height of this building is over the maximum height limit in our neighborhood and while I understand that a variance was allowed due to the number of low income units in their development, why hasn't the considerations of the current residents and businesses taken into consideration and how this will vastly affect our normal everyday lives? I understand and am compassionate about affordable housing, but if you reference the LangtonDev file, there is a significant amount of affordable housing in and approved in our neighborhood. Greg Pasquali mentioned in our meeting with him last year that his company is a for profit company. He also mentioned that any type of height and design change will not happen, so to say that he's done outreach to the neighborhood and has been open to comment is unheard of. His response to our concerns in height and garage location is that change is good for our neighborhood. But at what cost? Garage Entrance on Langton Street is a HUGE issue As mentioned a couple of times above, adding a garage entrance on Langton Street will only add to the traffic on our small street. Currently, our street is a two way street with basically one lane where drivers either have to pull to the side when someone is coming or in most cases, cars going in opposing directions squeeze in the small street space there is. Many of our cars have been damaged because of this and adding this garage entrance will make it worst MacMurray Pacific's business will also be affected as this will cause more headaches for deliveries to their business and for the proposed new tenants who are trying to enter or exit the proposed building. Number of Market and Affordable Housing in our neighborhood Please refer to the LangtonDev file which shows all the current and approved housing in a two block radius of Langton Street. With a large exodus of businesses (mostly tech) moving out of San Francisco, there has been a large exodus of residents leaving as well. As a realtor, I have seen this exit over the past two years through a larger number of condominium and SFH listing sales. WIth the addition of the Mercy Housing building on 7th St and Branna, we will have approx total of over 1,000 units in a two block radius of Langton St. To say there is a lack of housing while most of these market rent buildings have low occupancy is not true. Why do we need more? In summation, my husband and I hope that you consider the above points that have not been mentioned in any documents from the developer or in your assessment/recommendations document. While it says in your document that the developer has received over 80 letters of support, you need to ask yourself, who are these letters from? Are they from people that live in our neighborhood that will be directly affected? We, as residents and business owners, may be a small percentage of the total population of San Francisco, but Langton Street is a place that we call home. Many of us have lived here for over 10 years. We recognize that change happens, but change should also be in accordance with how it will affect people. Imagine if a 233 unit building that will block all your natural light were to come up in your neighborhood. How would you feel? Would you support this if it interrupts your quiet enjoyment of your home? I am a realtor in San Francisco and a resident in the SOMA neighborhood since 1992; I have seen change both personally and professionally in my neighborhood and all over San Francisco. I appreciate what housing can provide for EVERYONE and I support it. What I don't support is the disruption that this building will cause and the inability of a developer to not listen and work with the current residents to build a building that meets both needs. Thank you for your time and consideration. Michelle Hunter Mark Hunter 309 Langton Street L LANGTON STREET PUBLIC AND PRIVATE STREET This is the length of Langton Street before it becomes a private street. Proposed 925 development 321 Langton HOA bldg 301 Langton HOA bldg One of MacMurray Pacific Bldgs This is the private street that runs up to Brannan Street **note the signs on each side indicate what is private and what is public MacMurray Pacific Building Here is a close up of the two signs on the left and right hand at the end of Langton Street and where the private street begins Here is the private street from Brannan St for perspective. CURRENT & APPROVED DEVELOPMENTS IN 2 BLOCK RADIUS FROM 301 LANGTON STREET This is the current amount of market rate rental housing and low-income rental housing in a two-block radius from Langton Street. 833 BRYANT ST (between 7th & 6th Street) Mercy Housing Development of 145 Studio apartments for adults experiencing homelessness The Slate Residences 911 Bryant St (right around the corner from 301 Langton St) 16 total units for rent Astella Apartments 975 Bryant St ( a block from 301 Langton St) 185 Apartments for Rent with 135 parking spaces. -mix of market rent and low income *notice garage entrance is on Bryant St 855 Branna Street Apartments (located across from Langton St) 434 apartments and 21 flex lofts with 429 parking spots -mix of market rent and low income 600 7th Street Mercy Housing Development (across the street from Langton St) 221 New Affordable homes over half of which will be for formerly homeless adults and families These photos are just a few examples of the delivery trucks and semi-trucks that enter Langton Street on a daily basis. They deliver to MacMurray Pacific Wholesale, who is located on the private street at the end of Langton Street. Since the street is private, they have the right to block the end of Langton with their delivery trucks. **please note that this is during all times of the day. Concerning the 925 Bryant Street Project July 26, 2022 The proposed building height means we will long longer have direct sunlight. Consider making the tall part of building to the south at the far end of the property across from the warehouses and lower the height by stair-stepping down as jt approaches Bryant Street. Having a garage entrance on Langton Street is 100% untenable. Our street is already jammed with delivery trucks all day every weekday. These are 18-wheelers with trailers that are typically 70 feet long and that can be backed up 3-4 deep trucks at any given time. Idling trucks cause our homes to fill with diesel exhaust and soot. Also, the traffic jam causes frustration among cars trying to cut through to from Bryant Street to Brannan Street to reach the two-lane traffic stretch of 7th Street as a short cut to Dogpatch, Potrero Hill, etc. There is constant hornblowing, yelling, arguments, squealing of tires. It was mentioned previously that the city would not allow a garage entrance on Bryant Street. Is this true? The building currently at 925 Bryant Street has a garage entrance on Bryant, as does the new building just west on Bryant, as do many of the other buildings on Bryant. Where is the public space for this building that the city requires for new residential buildings? Langton is a narrow alley. In addition to having a large setback for your building, having the windows on the Langton Street side of your building face north rather than east would be ideal so no one is looking directly into someone else<U+2019>s units. As for the narrow alley, what about parking for all the additional residents? Realize not everyone has a car, but adding that many new units without addressing parking is not realistic. Whom is the concept of shared kitchens supposed to appeal to in a post-pandemic world? The original idea was that it appealed to Tech workers looking for more affordable housing. The tech companies are leaving San Francisco or allowing employees to work remotely. This type of building in today<U+2019>s world seems like it is designed to languish so the city will step in and purchase it in their ongoing plan to insist on housing the mentally ill drug addicts who are dying on our streets instead of getting them the medical and mental care they need. What assurances do we have that this won<U+2019>t happen? In summary, we are not opposed to a housing project at this location. But we are opposed to it in nearly all forms as currently proposed. We look forward to hearing how our concerns will be addressed. David Widener John Jenkins 321 Langton St Unit 4 This is the 301 Langton Street Association Building, which faces Langton St and is directly across the street from the proposed 925 Bryant Street development. All of our windows face Langton Street and is the ONLY source of light and our primary source of air into our homes. Building a 7 story building right across from us will eliminate any natural light into our homes. This is the back of our homes (see arrow), while we all have private roof decks, there are no windows on the back side of our building; further showing that all natural light comes from the window on Langton St. Back side of 301 Langton St building facing 7th Street Current concrete building on 925 Bryant St.show more Gregg Pasquali · spoken · 2022-07-28 · support
Project sponsor presentation
Ely Kline · spoken · 2022-07-28 · oppose
Volume of the building, reduce height and setbacks
Sue Hestor · spoken · 2022-07-28 · oppose
Rooftop height and freeway
Michelle Hunter · spoken · 2022-07-28 · oppose
Construction, height, light/air, Langston St.
Laura Campbell · spoken · 2022-07-28 · oppose
Mass and scale, shadow on open space, etc.
Brandon Powell · spoken · 2022-07-28 · support
Diverse range of housing types.
Andrew Day · spoken · 2022-07-28 · support
Housing, affordability
Jake Price · spoken · 2022-07-28 · support
Density and affordability.
William Duncanson · spoken · 2022-07-28 · support
Design presentation