The Central SoMa Plan, Part 2: Community-Based Solutions

The proposed massive rezoning will unload thousands of new jobs, office spaces, luxury housing units, and high-income residents into an area that is already facing extreme displacement from development and will further push out working-class families and people of color. Read Part 1 of this article.

While the Central SoMa Plan has been sold to the public as a way of generating “public benefits” through fees on new development, a larger more fundamental question remains. Who is this plan for, and by extension who does it leave out?

The Central SoMa Plan represents a plan by and for developers, not the existing community in the South of Market. The plan prioritizes office space for tech companies and new luxury, market-rate housing. The plan proposes adding roughly 33,000 new jobs and 8,300 new housing units, with nearly 70% of those units being luxury units.

By catering specifically to private interests, this plan will directly contribute to and exacerbate gentrification and displacement -- not just in the South of Market, but the entire city. The public benefits presented (represented by the City simply as a dollar amount) can be seen as an extremely inadequate tradeoff for what is to come. What is instead needed from the Central SoMa Plan are concrete solutions that will keep people in place and stabilize existing residents, businesses, and nonprofits.

SOMCAN outlines the following emergency steps and solutions to address gentrification and displacement that will be caused by the Central SoMa Plan:

Establish emergency controls in SoMa before the Central SoMa Plan is implemented to prevent gentrification and displacement:​

1. Aggressive acquisition of existing rent-controlled buildings;

2. Aggressive acquisition of new development sites for 100% affordable housing;

3. Right of First Refusal for residential renters and/or nonprofits and commercial renters; and a

4. Moratorium on the sale of existing rent-controlled buildings, the sale of public land for private or for-profit development, and on new market-rate housing construction for projects not included in the existing Central SoMa Plan.

Make the following changes to the Central SoMa Plan before the plan is implemented:

1. 50% affordable housing for any new market rate housing development, with an AMI range of 30%-90% for new affordable units. This percentage of affordable housing is consistent with San Francisco’s Housing Balance Policy passed in 2015; and

2. Mandatory land dedication of sites for affordable housing for any development that is 1 acre or larger.

The effects of this massive rezoning and developer giveaway will be felt throughout the entire city, not just the South of Market. Action must be taken now to address SoMa’s current crisis and the worsening of gentrification and displacement that will result from the passage of the Central SoMa Plan.

UPDATE: On May 11, 2018, the Planning Commission voted on the passage of the Central SoMa Plan. The Plan will now make it ways to the Board of Supervisors. If you would like more information or to learn how you can get involved, please email dwoo@somcan.org.