strong and twice as long and that will give them more of an occasion of the earthquake we would have. 10 percent isn't really the threshold of damage. when you triple it you cross that line. it's much more damage in earthquake. >> i want to thank you, harvey, thanks pat for

>> good afternoon. welcome and welcome to the san francisco land use & economic development committee i'm scott wiener to supervisor jane kim and supervisor malia cowen i want to thank sfgovtv specifically jessica larson and others madam clerk, any announcements? >> >> yes.

mr. pagers and similar sound-producing electronic devices items acted upon today will be in the april 14th agenda unless otherwise stated. . okay madam clerk, call item one >> it's an ordinance amending the planning and administrative code for the in-law unit within an ax letter structure. >> i'm the author of item number one so colleagues before us you today is legislation that will allow for the creation of in-law unit in the castro neighborhood for for the first place in more than 3 decades will add rent control united and was supported by planning commission. the legislation has broad

support by the bay area report and the lgbt 0 democratic club and liveable city and by spur. colleagues i'm sure you're aware of we have a housing affordability countries are ♪ the upper castro area other than the projects along market street we've added very little housing in the neighborhood. we know that in san francisco between 2003 and 12 our population increased by 75 thousand people and we have 18 thousand additional unit in the city. many residents in the castro are very understandly concerned they maybe priced out of thecation electro for people who have called the neighborhood home and wondering if they can stay or if

they'll be able to find housing if they lose the houser. the castro is welcomed new residents and people coming to san francisco from all over the country and world and particularly young people. those people as well are having trouble finding you housing. the legislation before us today will incentivize new in-law units in the castro. in-law units colleagues are probably the most affordable type of number one subsidize housing their smaller on the ground floor. their usual not as fancy as other units of housing. in addition because in-law units are typically placed into an existing building the infrastructure costs of new

development typically don't apply or in a reduce way because the buildings has the basic infrastructure required for housing. a number of studies have shown that in-laws are cybill more affordable than other types of housing and studies from uc berkley and hud and aarp have discussed this fact. in addition in-law units are typically nor assessable than other units because they're typically on the ground floor. and so for a neighborhood with a growing senior population like the castro and people with mobility challenges those units are a good option the in-law units can be added to a neighborhood without changing the feel of the neighborhood not new height or bulk or new

buildings that's within an existing envelope. i will note in selecting the castro for this legislation one thouft thought that was important the castro is one of the most transit rich neighborhoods in the district so he know that car ownership is lower than the city as a whole to people are less likely to have cars and lead to more parking challenges in the neighborhood. as i mentioned this legislation for the first time we can think of since 1979 adds new rent controls control to the market because any in-law units under this legislation that's added into a rent control building will be rent controlled. the castro eureka definition

contacted a survey to gain support for the legislation and several hundreds of resident participated and the survey found 70 percent support for the legislation. in terms of the basic details of the legislation or legislation that will allow in-law units to be constructed within 17 hundred and 50 feet of the co- castro exact date in hill streets on the south and church street on the east and approximately where market and clayton come together. it will allow one in-law unit for existing building you up to 10 unit and greater than 102 unit will be allowed. they must be constructed within the building envelope not to expands did building to create

the unit and the space utilized will be garages or large ground floor storage places or basements that is partially above ground the legislation says they cannot carve up those but if space not being used for residential purposes our goal is not to cancel implies the existing stock. the legislation is purely involuntarily we're not forcing people to add those units. the planning commission made several recommendations which i know planning staff will describe we've accepted some and the planning department can describe those representations today. in addition colleagues i've

disabled several pieces the planning commission has been incorporated into the legislation as substitute alleviation. we're also for us today, i'm introducing amendments to protect 9 existing rear yards and technical language for explore requirements. so colleagues, i ask for your support today and we'll call the planning department and i'll recognize supervisor kim >> i'm sorry, i didn't realize there was a presentation i'll hold off. >> so i'll ask the planning department to come up and address us. >> good afternoon supervisor i'm from planning. the planning commission responsible supports this to

allow alternated i take it within the castro area this will establish a pilot area. these types of units are affordable housing by any studies and being allowed in many jurisdictions. the planning commission applauds scott wiener for taking an forest for the dwelling units in the csa 20 electro. the planning commission recommended an ordinance and supervisor applied some of those amendments and most important the commission wants to monitor the prices for the property owners. we thank scott wiener for this recommendation this will allow the city to monitor the affordability of those units for

future expansion of the provision. the commission made two other recommendations that are not reflected in the amendments first, the commissioner wants the removal of the cap for the unit those units are already limited in size duce to the building envelope and on rare occasions larger than 2 hundred square feet available the larger you united your united will be built. the last recommendation as the - the commission buildings the tent unit would be better suited for those units it's a term using other jurisdictions like santa clara that has spearheaded

those and more technical term than the in-law units that is limited in this definition >> assessabley dwelling units. accessory dwelling units. to conclude we're excited to see those and we believe this is a step in the right direction for the existing housing crisis in san francisco we're here for questions >> thank you if i i can say in terms of the recommendations i choose not to accept we did add the language instead of the in-law units we want the other technology and feel because most people know them as in-law units

to keep that because people know that term. in terms of the seven hundred and 50 square feet limit this is i think an area where reasonable minds can differ the limit is one of the things that controls costs and we do want to, you know, do what we can to keep all of our housing affordable so this is one way to do it i agree there are not that many buildings this have enough square footage to go beyond that. in the castro itself we know that in san francisco 40 percent even if people live alone i don't know what the percentage is in the castro it might be higher. we have a lot of single aging people i want to make sure we're

creating heirs that's educator to them and seven hundred and 50 square feet is not a tiny unit will help to control costs with that, supervisor kim >> thank you. i had a couple of questions and bay i really am appreciative to the planning commission. one of them was the report after the effective date of the ordinance to insure those accessory units will be affordable and if the pricing meets the a m i. it's the planning commission report would be enough this is not a pilot program but the opportunity to comment on the legislation and per say a

reopening of the legislation >> good afternoon emry rogers from the staff that was put in the the understand the department is engaging in a study of the units and we look at financial faesht and the affordability of citywide we'll have that implemented and by having this in the castro we'll understand the affordability and if will someone can look at our report and the test area the legislation can go forward as appropriate. >> what was you know, i really appreciate the thoughtfulness was there any other thinking on if the middle income bracket range if the rental if the price

i'm sorry were above the 8 hundred and 20 percent a m i any further thought that was directed in the memo. >> not specifically but we'll have an economic consultant as well as architects to do the cost testing and performs for the different types we'll get more information and as a general rile our department likes to get the cost recovery and in this case it's an untested yesterday we want to get more information. >> thank you. >> just some commits i thought that legislation is thoughtful and captured a lot of the concerns i had about allowing property owners to increase the property value.

i appreciate the thoughtfulness allowing it in the envelope and with the hope it will create for affordable housing particularly in the income brackets. i appreciate planning supervisor kim comment not on the seven hundred and 50 square feet it creates a weird shape but to make sure their affordable i was wondering how did the seven hundred and 50 square feet come about was it a number that was thrown out there >> there was nothing maskal about the seven hundred and 50 square feet. i think this seven hundred and 50 square feet is the size of a larger one bedroom or smaller 23 bedroom i think that was the thinking this was certainly no

precise science behind it >> there's no way to average the envelope let's say for example it was seven hundred and 75 square feet and we created an a.d. oddly shaped unit as an unintended outcome of the legislation but we don't have the data. >> i don't think we do. there's a pretty broad range in the castro. the castro there are a lot of one bedrooms and two bedrooms and a lot of three and four bedrooms in the neighborhood. similar to the hate >> will there be some type of appeal process if it will create - honestly i'm not sure i want to push but not to make

something for property owners that's challenging we hadn't thought through. >> i will say as i mentioned reasonable minds can defer on this one i see both sides. i could suggest perhaps if the logic could moved we will look at the size and there could be trailing legislation for the exceptional situations where it would create a weird situation so maybe we can look at that and study it and is >> the last piece i think i see accident amendment was one we got from the members of the public about insuring we were not allowing property owners to play with their nephew in order to capture more space and so i

know the incision was we amended the envelope of january was that incorporated. >> basically there was a concern on the express that the legislation is clearly can only put the unit within the existing never not to expand the building if someone would do an additional pending into the rear yard and adding into their house a month later turn around and ask this be an in law unit like a serial permitting they do several permits but it's one project. there was a suggestion to define the envelope. i didn't want to go that route because for example, today

someone builds 3 feet into the rear yard and two owners later someone wants to put an in law in we couldn't say 92 no, because 20 years ago you can't use that space seems harsh. so i included an amendment if you impillage into the rear yard you can't seek a permit to include that space of an in law space for 3 years to reduce the incentive. if the zoning summary tells us i can't include living space in those units the zoning administer says that the chance of a permit to expand the rear yard to add more space to a

garage or storage unit is slim >> so appreciate the amendments again. appreciate seeing this moved as a pilot in some ways that's a con restricted you boundary we want to make sure we create more middle income units it's not tied up with a lot of the concerns those are not existing tenants units so no negative outcome from this i'm really hoping this will be successful and produce the outcomes >> i think a lot of people share that hope. i will also is a the monitoring we're very sensitive to the

confidentiality of people's rent information so there's information in there it be done in a confidential way so the rent information is separated from the people's identity. finally, i will note that in terms of the monitoring which i do agree is important. i think within a year we'll probably, you know, given with all respect to the planning department and dbi it will take time for people to consider this and get through the process so within a year we won't see a large number but after that we'll start to see the results. so colleagues no comments or questions we'll open this up for public comment. i'll say that the president of castro eureka valley association as well as the executive director of open house which

provides services for lgbt seniors both wanted to be here they have the flu but we have others. with that, i'll call our fully comment cards (calling names) and you can speak in any order >> good afternoon bill with the legal referral panel we provide services for people with aids and housing is our important issues its important for people to have caesar's access to affordable housing. it would be great to have new

section 8s coming into the castro and a ways ways to create affordable housing. i want to thank scott wiener for his leadership this is a reasonable approach to trying to provide more affordable housing in his district so thank you >> thank you, sir. >> thank you scott wiener and superstitions i'm to him with the liveable city i've lived in the deploring for 20 years i'm happy to see this legislation moving forward. we're finally joining other west coast cities to solving the housing criticize and santa clara and santa monica have lead the way they're using the

existing materials and saving the cost of the materials. they can be low-cost we have to comply with the housing code, etc. so we know know this is going to be a super low-cost but this will allow us to see how difficult it will be to use the buildings that exist we're happy to look at a pilot. this housing is rent controlled the only way to add them is to increasing the rent controlled housing. the castro make sense it's walkable and it has a strong neighborhood character so we can add with or without alternating the appearance of the neighborhoods and preserve the historic buildings in the

neighborhood. i say we support rome the size unit for two reasons one it would be is a ashamed to have seven hundred feet plus secondly, the other way to make units is to have housemates and that's multiple adults and children living together to keep the costs down >> excuse me. i was misinformed i want to speak later. >> i'm maria the director of the living campaign in san francisco it's our goal to make sure that seniors can live in

their homes and there's nothing more important than having accessible affordable housing. it's clear the time has come the extreme housing market has struck terror in the hearts even if folks knowing they are gone from the city. as part of the mayors council we know that the cost of subsidizing unit it expensive it takes years and years to bring them on line so bringing them out of the shadows and allowing new units to be added legally is something we can do now and it will add options for the growing number of seniors. i live in a 3 story building but the day will come with had i

can't climb the 26 stairs so when we can't do the stairs we'll move into the basement unit and stay in our neighborhood. i've heard a lot of stories seniors that rented out a unit that was built illegal and tenants stopped paying the rent and they higher a contractor to build it up to code and they lose their savings. how much better would it be if property owners had a better path like any piece of legislation it will take time to work it out but we strongly support this in the city >> thank you. appreciate it. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> >> good afternoon. i'm rob i'm the project manager for

the san francisco housing coalition i'm here to speak in support of this protective to allow the in-law units in the castro. adding the units they're an heritagely affordable space and it has no negative effect on our neighborhood. we understand the need for a pilot program and understand that people want to add amendments and the housing coalition didn't support adding legislation or worse have them built illegal and please move this legislation forward >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> h