Element of controversy
Housing blueprint approved after being gutted of its most environment-friendly provisions

By Rachel Brahinsky

After nearly seven hours of testimony and discussion May 13, the San Francisco Planning Commission finally signed off on guidelines for housing development that have been under debate for nearly nine years. The Housing Element, a 252-page portion of the city's General Plan that was originally supposed to be approved back in 1995, has been a source of contention for years, as neighborhood groups and planners have sparred over what sort of development to encourage.

During the mayor's race, the fight over the document became politicized, and the Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods' leadership endorsed Gavin Newsom after he promised to follow their recommendations on the topic. (We erroneously reported last week that the entire organization endorsed him; in fact the group doesn't endorse candidates.)

In the end, the CSFN won most of its demands – which, controversially, de-emphasize dense, public transit-oriented development – but not without some political bloodletting. Some CSFN members told the commission they felt left out of the process while a select few had an insider's edge. Mission District and South of Market housing activists, meanwhile, complained that the gutting of the document would slow affordable-housing development citywide.

Few were satisfied with the outcome. Even CSFN president Barbara Meskunas, who probably got the most concessions from the city, said the plan still isn't ideal. "This is a compromise and will give us the protections we need for the next few years," she said. "The last administration never would have given us the time of day."

Next up: planning for 2006, when another revision of the Housing Element is due. It's likely the dispute will continue – and will raise challenging issues for Newsom, who has wanted to please all sides. He's left with a telling conundrum: he campaigned on taking the politics out of planning and promoting public transit-friendly development of the sort the CSFN fought; now his commission has gone back on both promises, with his apparent blessing.

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