Lower Broadway turning residential

OFFICIAL BCNA NEWS

The words affordable housing are among the hottest topics being bandied about in San Francisco’s currently frantic boomtown days.

They also are a much-used subject in BCNA and Port parlance because of the Port’s plans for Seawall Lot 322-1, bounded by Broadway, Front and Vallejo Streets.

Affordable housing has been on the agenda for many meetings of the Northeast Waterfront Advisory Group and will be again at a special session July 2nd at Pier 1. All NEWAG meetings are public, normally from 5 to 7 pm.

Providing the much-needed affordable housing is an accomplished fact on lower Broadway because of the enterprising non-profit Chinatown Community Development Center, established in 1977. The second of CCDC’s major Broadway projects–located at 235 Broadway–now is on track to be completed in January 2015, according to Kim Piechota, project manager.

CCDC’s initial project at Broadway and Battery Street has been up and running and fully occupied since 2008. The Port’s proposed development has its MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) between the Port Commission and the Mayor’s Office of Housing. Upon completion it would bring to three the number of affordable housing ventures in three blocks on Broadway.

Tracing how the foot of Broadway evolved into a residential haven may be useful knowledge for the Barbary Coast and waterfront community.

CCDC was the only respondent to the Mayor’s Housing Office’s RFP (Request for Proposals) for the Battery Street site. It became available because of the demolition of the Embarcadero Freeway following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. CCDC was the first entity to perceive the opportunity the teardown provided.

The award for the Broadway Family Apartments was made in 1999. This project is located in the Northeast Waterfront Historic District.

CCDC’s project now under construction is on the south side of Broadway and runs the entire block from Battery to Sansome Street.

Interestingly, the two projects are dissimilar and are unrelated to the Port’s undertaking, except in proximity and in the involvement of the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development. Also the Port plan contemplates parking; 235 Broadway does not have parking for vehicles.

The Port’s project is employing innovative concepts in overcoming barriers to housing at the seawall location chosen for it.

Port Executive Director Monique Moyer’s November 2011 Memorandum to the ruling Port Commission stated the idea of a “Port inland site, no longer needed for waterfront use, for affordable housing” and would “accelerate the redevelopment of Pier 70 through a reduced affordable housing development fee” at SWL 322-1.

(End of Part 1; Part 2 to follow next week)