A new state housing law will likely green light a Starbucks topped by 20 condos proposed by San Francisco developer Chris Foley. The project was rejected a decade ago after pushback from neighbors.
Foley’s flatiron building will likely be approved for 2201 Market Street in the Duboce Triangle thanks to Assembly Bill 2011, a state law that went into effect July 1, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The developer and real estate consultant is the city’s first to employ the law that gives “ministerial” approval to housing developments on commercial corridors.
By triggering AB 2011, the project won’t have to slog through an environmental review, Planning Commission approval or a conditional-use authorization required for shops like Starbucks.
The law says a city has 60 days to decide whether AB 2011 applies to a project and another 90 days to give final approval.
Project plans call for 20 condominiums after Foley employed state density bonus laws to boost the size of the project at Sanchez and Market streets. The Planning Commission rejected a 13-unit proposal in 2013 on a 5-1 vote after opposition from 16 neighbors, compared to 25 in support.
“I have had this thing on my plate for 10 years,” Foley told the Chronicle. “We had a broken 13-unit project and now we have a super cool 20-unit project.”
AB 2011, sponsored by Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, D-Berkeley, was intended to bring new life to wide retail boulevards and dying shopping centers in suburban areas.
It requires that streets be 75 feet wide and within a zoning area where office, retail and parking are the principal uses. It requires at least 50 feet of frontage along a commercial corridor and can’t be used on or next to industrial sites.
The bill is among dozens of pro-housing bills passed in Sacramento by development proponents.
While some community groups have argued the “by right” laws quench the voices of local residents and support greedy developers, lawmakers such as San Francisco state Sen. Scott Wiener and Wicks have pushed transit-oriented projects to boost ridership and cut pollution.
“No longer will red tape and bureaucracy prohibit us from building housing in the right locations to address our climate crisis,” Wick said after AB 2011 passed.
In San Francisco, the law won’t apply to intimate shopping corridors in places like North Beach, Chinatown, Hayes Valley, West Portal or Bernal Heights, according to the Chronicle.
But it will work on broad thoroughfares such as Geary Boulevard, Market Street and busy east-west streets through the South of Market, including Folsom, Harrison and Bryant streets.
Foley, a longtime San Francisco builder now working on a 62-story highrise on Folsom Street, said AB 2011 will set a new course for developers. He hopes to break ground next year on the eight-story cafe and condo building, if construction costs and interest rates come down.
“You are going to see everybody using AB 2011,” Foley told the Chronicle. “It’s a beast.”
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