Building new housing in San Francisco isn’t easy, especially in development-phobic neighborhoods like the Sunset.
Between zoning restrictions, red tape, and neighbors who use city rules to delay the approval process, developers for decades have found obstacles at every turn. But even by these standards, 2700 Sloat Boulevard is swiftly becoming the stuff of legend.
Since 2020, three different developers have pitched four different proposals for this Ocean Beach-adjacent site, which since 1968 has been the home of a gardening supply center. All three have come up empty, but now a fourth candidate is stepping up.
It would be tough to stir more controversy than the previous attempt. Last year, developer John Hickey put the city on edge when he proposed a 50-story tower at the site, a building five times the height the property is zoned for.
But the coastal colossus from Hickey, a former fraudster who returned to the SF development scene after being sentenced to eight years in prison two decades ago, was based on a pie-in-the-sky reading of local codes. It was never going to prevail with city planners.
Hickey may not have raised any roofs, but he managed to raise a lot of people’s blood pressure. The address seems to have that effect.
In 2022, a different developer proposed a 12-story, 400-unit residence on the same spot and also provoked neighborhood ire. “Way too big,” said the anti-density group Save Our Neighborhoods SF, who complained that it amounted to “urban renewal 2.0.”
In exchange for including 120 affordable units, the developer would have been able to build 20 feet over the site’s allowed height, thanks to San Francisco’s HOME-SF program. Those subsidized homes would have been available to residents making between 80 and 130 percent of SF’s median income, which in today’s dollars include people making six-figure salaries.
Back in 2020, yet another developer imagined two possible projects on the property, one of them a 12-story building with nearly 300 homes, another an eight-story setup with just over 200 units.
Bad luck, bad timing, pandemic woes, neighborhood opposition, and, in Hickey’s 50-story case, hubris itself have scuttled all of those plans.
The Sloat Boulevard corridor is one of many on the city’s west side that a draft plan has identified for more density. The plan, which isn’t final, is part of the city’s “Housing Element” overhaul to make room for 82,000 new homes this decade.
Back when developers first eyeballed the Sloat Garden Center site in 2015, an employee of the store said owners had “personal reasons” for wanting to sell.
A new developer has now emerged. SF-based Housing America Partners is working on a proposal for “workforce, transit-oriented, for-sale housing just two blocks west of Ocean Beach.” The plan calls for eight stories of 100 percent affordable housing, although there’s no word how many units they’re aiming for. (There are also no renderings.)
A spokesperson initially said the firm would answer questions but after several queries from The Frisc declined to comment. Last year, HAP applied to be the master developer of the sprawling Concord Naval Weapons site but dropped out of the running one month later, according to a report.
Zero net Sunset
As Hickey was transferring the property to the new developers, his wife and business partner Raelynn Hickey wrote a memo to the SF Planning Department. Among other things, she noted that “the area desperately needs housing.”
She’s not the only one who thinks so. In 2018, 2019, and 2022, SF planners found that the Outer Sunset added zero net new housing units. Last year, the total was just 36, only nine of them from new construction, the rest the product of alterations.
In 1978, most of this neighborhood was frozen at some of SF’s lowest height and density limits. New projects have been exceedingly rare. The 135 units of new teacher housing near Ocean Beach have taken nearly two decades to complete, in part because neighbor complaints once helped scuttle a funding deal with the federal government. In 2022, opponents of a 100 percent affordable project on Irving Street distributed anonymous fliers that called Sup. Gordon Mar a “communist pedophile” for backing it.
Even though the new 2700 Sloat is barely a twinkle in anyone’s eye, it’s already taking flack. “That’s too tall,” Albert Chow, president of neighborhood group People of Parkside Sunset, told The Frisc.
Chow was a critic of previous pitches as well. HAP’s affordable housing emphasis “sounds great on the face of it,” Chow said, but he still believes eight stories is too much for the neighborhood. “I’m not against what they’re trying to do” in creating new housing, Chow added, “but the question is do we have the capacity?”
Jose Guevara, a Sunset realtor and property manager, went even further than Chow’s criticism, alleging behind-the-scenes trickery in the new proposal. “My read is that they fully intended an eight-story project from the beginning,” Guevara said, and charged that the previous 50- and 12-story buildings were merely ruses to make neighbors accept a shorter building: “Hopefully, everyone doesn’t fall for their slick manipulation.”
Jane Natoli, San Francisco organizing director for the pro-housing YIMBY Action and previously a fan of the 50-story tower, said “what I’ve seen looks good,” even though she would prefer “to maximize use of the site.”
Natoli noted that eight stories is several short of what HAP could build here. Up to ten stories is permitted, and both state and local “density bonus” laws allow up to 12 stories in exchange for a higher mix of affordable housing.
Without an answer from HAP, there’s only speculation why the firm’s proposal doesn’t extend to the limit. One possible reason, Natoli mentioned, is that taller buildings require more expensive materials.
Nods of approval
The Sunset’s representative in City Hall, Sup. Joel Engardio, is glad something has quickly replaced the previous proposal.
“Everyone can breathe a sigh of relief that there won’t be a 50-story tower,” Engardio wrote via email. “Eight stories seems reasonable given that the site has always been zoned for 10,” he added, suggesting that the HAP design could be compatible with his longtime “Dom-i-city” vision for denser Sunset housing that’s akin to many neighborhoods in Paris.
Another nod of approval for the project might surprise some veterans of the local housing scene. “Eight stories is eight stories; it’s not outrageous, and it’s already zoned for 100 feet,” said Dennis Richards, a member of Our Neighborhood Voices, an anti-density group that has tried twice unsuccessfully to enshrine local housing control in the California charter.
ONV slammed the 50-story tower, and another member told The Frisc earlier this year that Sup. Aaron Peskin’s mayoral run would turn the tide against new housing laws.
Richards, who once served on the SF Planning Commission, also gave his blessing because “we have an affordability crisis.” His nod comes a few weeks after westside opponents of new housing gathered to warn against a proliferation of new apartment buildings in their neighborhoods.
Adding an extra wrinkle, 2700 Sloat is about 1,000 feet from Ocean Beach and sits within California’s official coastal zone. State Senator Scott Wiener, who represents San Francisco, introduced legislation earlier this year to make residential development easier in the coastal zone. He then removed SF’s few parcels from the law in response to criticism from ONV and others.
If the latest proposal for 2700 Sloat advances far enough, the city will have to issue a special coastal development permit. If objectors feel the permit violates state rules, they can appeal to the Coastal Commission.
Commission spokesperson Joshua Smith told The Frisc that every year, cities issue about 1,300 permits. About 5 percent face an appeal, and the commission doesn’t take up every appeal. Smith couldn’t comment on whether appeals are more common in San Francisco, because it’s unusual for SF to have beachfront development at all. “It’s not Malibu,” Smith said of Ocean Beach.
Correction, 6/26/24: This story updates Jane Natoli’s title. She is no longer a YIMBY Action board member.