By Jared Brey, Next City, September 11, 2020
“After years of protest and debate, developers have agreed to sell the so-called ‘Monster in the Mission,’ a proposed apartment building in San Francisco, as part of a deal that will create around 330 new affordable apartments, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The original proposal for the site would have established around 300 market-rate units with a small number of affordable apartments, according to the report, but a group of residents objected to the proposal because they feared it would accelerate gentrification in the area. Now, the group that has agreed to buy the land, plans to donate it to the city for affordable housing to fulfill its affordability requirements in conjunction with a separate project of nearly 1,000 units, the Chronicle reported.
“The deal came out of years of community organizing by the Plaza 16 Coalition, Causa Justa:Just Cause, and others, according to 48 Hills, a San Francisco news site. Those groups had already claimed victory earlier this year, when the original proposal for the site was officially canceled, Curbed San Francisco reported at the time.
“San Francisco Mayor London Breed welcomed the news of the new deal, according to the Chronicle, which wrote that ‘if finalized, the deal would be the latest example of community pressure helping push forward an affordable housing project.’”
This article is part of Backyard, a Next City newsletter. Republished with permission. Read the full article here.