I ask that you oppose the demolition of 50,000 square feet of light industrial and artists’ spaces in the Mission so that a private developer with out-of-town financial backers can build luxury housing and a huge street-level parking lot. The demolition permit, up for approval, would allow for the destruction of this 1907 erected building containing:

-Tortilla Flats Cafe – a family-run, minority-owned business; the site has been a local restaurant/cafe since 1933

-Earwurm Studios – a local multimedia studio focused on affordable recording, rehearsal, photography and videography production serving 50+ musicians and filmmakers and hosting 95 guest events for showings, there 8 years

-Lutsko Associates – an award-winning local landscape firm that designed the Garden of California Native Plants, Strybing Arboretum, and Golden Gate Park

-San Francisco Auto Repair – a local shop employing nine full time workers for 32+ years

-A custom carpet installation and repair business, there 25+ years

-Production Specialties – a custom submarine parts factory with at least 15 machinists

-A community arts center with art gallery, performance and artists’ studios spaces, a Mission cultural institution founded 20 years ago, in part by city grants, former home to CELLspace

-A.C.T.’s Prop and Scene Shop – the set production facility and prop house for all American Conservatory Theater performances, there 35 years, displacing nine full time Union and blue collar workers; the work will completely go away without this space, outsourced to Canada
Three rent-control dwelling units

The site, located on most of the block bordering Bryant/Florida Streets, between 18th and 19th Streets, is currently PDR and residential use, and is zoned UMU where “Housing is also permitted, but is subject to higher affordability requirements”. Notwithstanding, the developer, Nick Podell, is proposing that only 16% of the units be affordable, to maximize his profits. Urban Mixed Use zoning was created to have a mixture of light industry (jobs) with housing, not to convert PDR use into luxury housing.

The developer is ignoring the principles of the Mission Area Plan of the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan, as well as being in direct conflict with the Housing Element, the Arts Element, and the Commerce and Industry Element of the SF General Plan. Moreover, the blanket Environmental Impact Report (EIR) from the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan – now eight years old – no longer applies, as conditions have significantly changed. This project needs its own full EIR to reflect the current conditions of the neighborhood.

This project requires a Conditional Use permit, which means:
a) Some benefit to the community must be conferred for a change of use,
b) The proposed project must be desirable or necessary.

Mass luxury housing will decimate the flavor of this neighborhood’s character and culture. The proposed less spacious retail units offered in this project cannot support the unique types of legacy businesses being displaced. Existing residents will be displaced, and more rent controlled housing will be lost. San Francisco needs to build affordable housing in the Mission, not continue to gentrify the neighborhood.

This is not underdeveloped property and should not be treated as such. Converting this PDR block into luxury housing, which 80% of SF residents cannot afford, would create a new wealth ghetto that will directly displace working class residents and jobs out of the Mission neighborhood. The project is a detriment to the Mission.

Please deny demolition and conditional use permits for 2000 Bryant Street (Planning case no. 2013.0677CUA & 2013.0677X and Bldg Permits 2014.06.23.9909, 2014.06.23.9100, and 2014.06.23.9109). Doing so will assist in:

-Preserving existing affordable housing units

-Preserving an arts and cultural institution space in the Mission

-Preserving the PDR businesses and jobs in the Mission

-Demonstrating responsiveness to the Mission residents and majority of Supervisors calling for a moratorium on new Market Rate Housing and PDR-to-Office conversions in the Mission.