By Rachel Brahinsky

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved development controls for lower Potrero Hill Dec. 14 – but only after exempting four Residential Builders Association proposals that could lead to the development of 579 housing units along 16th and 17th Streets.

The vote was made possible by an unusual coalition between Sups. Bevan Dufty, Matt Gonzalez, and Chris Daly, who all supported removing the projects from legislation that stops new development for a year on the north side of Potrero Hill so the San Francisco Planning Department can finish an environmental study on the area (see "The Potrero Land Rush," 11/17/04). The trio were joined by Sups. Sean Elsbend, Fiona Ma, and Gerardo Sandoval in approving the exemptions by a 6-5 vote, after which the legislation was unanimously approved.

The four RBA projects are housing proposals that surfaced over the past year. Critics have charged the RBA with sparking a wave of land speculation in the area, one of the last parts of town still dominated by light-industrial businesses that provide well-paying blue-collar jobs. RBA members insist their projects comply with city laws, and real estate developers have insisted at public hearings that light industry doesn't need to be protected.

"There's no wrong place for housing in this city," RBA chief Joe O'Donoghue told the Bay Guardian. "Housing and industry can live together." With that philosophy, the RBA swept through the industrial zones of the Mission District and South of Market in the 1990s with quickly built live-work lofts, and locals – who say they do want new housing built here – fear a similar sweep could irrevocably transform the landscape without enough city oversight.

While several of O'Donoghue's builders celebrated in the hallway outside the board's chambers just after the vote, RBA attorney Alice Barkley hugged and kissed Dufty, who introduced the amendment to remove the projects from the moratorium. Dufty said it was a matter of fairness, since the legislation didn't preclude other developers just a few blocks away from moving forward with their projects.

At issue: the boundaries Sup. Sophie Maxwell chose to use for the controls, which excluded a major project by developer Bill Poland's Bay West Group for a massive development with 600 housing units at Seventh and Brannan Streets. Maxwell, who sponsored the legislation, said she made the mapping decision because the development issues for his project were different and because, in order to complete the project as proposed, the city would have to approve a rezoning, which is a lengthy process. Another large project that would bring 400 housing units to the intersection of 7th and 16th Streets, known as the Daggett Triangle, was excluded for the same reason.

The RBA charged that she was playing favorites and initiated a multiweek campaign, including mailers to her constituents, and has threatened to initiate a recall election against her. In one mailer, a group calling itself Concerned Property Owners accused Maxwell of exacerbating the city budget crisis by failing to facilitate 5,320 new units of housing in the area.

The Dufty amendment passed after Gonzalez and Daly echoed Dufty's fairness argument. Gonzalez said the Poland project should have been included, but none of the supervisors moved to amend the legislation to include it.

The vote came after strong lobbying of several supervisors by RBA members, including Sean Keighran, whose project has made the most headlines, as he has clashed with Anchor Brewing Company owner Fritz Maytag. The legislation has been top-of-the-page news on BeyondChron.org, the Web site maintained by Tenderloin Housing Clinic executive director Randy Shaw. Shaw's attacks on the controls and his accusations that Maxwell is doing Maytag's bidding have been used as the basis for several of the RBA mailers.

Still, even with the RBA exceptions, supporters of the legislation claimed a victory as the moratorium was approved. "Certainly the message remains that we don't want any more of this [real estate speculation]," Tony Kelly, Potrero Boosters Neighborhood Association president, told us. "The idea is let's actually do this with proper neighborhood benefits."

The RBA projects will still have to go through the regular city planning process, as will Poland's. If the projects go ahead as proposed, according to city zoning administrator Larry Badiner, 41 units would be built by Keighran for 1717 17th St., 72 units at 1001 17th St., and 16 units at 1150 16th St., and 450 units would replace the Jamba Juice building at 17th and DeHaro Streets.

Those assessments will include reviews under state environmental laws of how the projects will contribute cumulatively to the loss of city industrial lands. At the same time, planners are working on a study to more definitively show whether light-industrial businesses – and the jobs they provide – need protection.

E-mail Rachel Brahinsky