This is a recipe for economic disaster. Build 510 housing units and NO car parking? People will die. The community will be harmed. Imagine the amount of bad air due to people looking for parking spaces. Worse, how will families and friends be able to visit these apartment dwellers if there are no parking spaces?
“The largest affordable housing development to be built in the Mission – 510-units that will sit on top of the Potrero bus yard – will be constructed without any parking, raising concerns from current residents of the northeast Mission who already struggle to find parking.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s current plan of action to address those concerns?
“Anyone moving into the area will know that they can’t park anywhere for free,” said Mari Hunter, the transportation planner in charge of the revised parking plan, at a Tuesday meeting between SFMTA and community members to discuss the development and its impacts on parking.
This is actually a good thing—lets get rid of all parking in San Fran. Why? That will force people to leave the city, quickly, you could get down to 200,000 with a year if cars have no parking spaces in town or if a parking space costs $100 for three hours. Great way to stop commerce as well.
510 proposed units, zero parking, and controversy in Potrero
Meeting attendees debate whether lack of parking is incentive to go car-free or clueless idea for low-income, car-dependent people
by CHRISTINA A. MACINTOSH, Mission Local, 4/5/23
The largest affordable housing development to be built in the Mission – 510-units that will sit on top of the Potrero bus yard – will be constructed without any parking, raising concerns from current residents of the northeast Mission who already struggle to find parking.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s current plan of action to address those concerns?
“Anyone moving into the area will know that they can’t park anywhere for free,” said Mari Hunter, the transportation planner in charge of the revised parking plan, at a Tuesday meeting between SFMTA and community members to discuss the development and its impacts on parking.
“Maybe they’ll see if they can live without a car,” Hunter added, though she conceded that “some number are probably going to bring a car.”
Participants of Tuesday’s meeting conjectured about whether the income limits on the 510 units – half will be low income and half will be workforce units for such professions as bus drivers and teachers – will make future residents more or less likely to own cars.
The Protrero Yard Project will include 510 units atop the bus yard. Of those, 292 units will be affordable housing: 101 for seniors between 30 and 70 percent of the area median income, and 191 for families within 35 to 100 percent of the AMI. The remaining 218 units will be workforce housing, with qualifying incomes between 80 and 120 percent of the AMI.
Peter Belden, a Livable Streets Committee Co-Chair and SF Bike Coalition member, felt “sure” that “an overwhelming majority of those folks won’t have cars.”
Roberto Hernandez, who is on the executive committee of the Latino Task Force, argued the opposite and urged the developers to survey residents of nearby affordable housing complexes about whether they own vehicles. Within a one mile radius of the project are four other recently constructed affordable housing complexes with a total of 510-units, none of which include parking.
An SFMTA survey on car ownership from 2019 found that 53 percent of households making less than $100,000 in annual income did not own cars, and that 75 percent of households making over $100,000 did.
But the survey also found that 81 percent of households with children have at least one vehicle. And even two person households making $100,000 would qualify for units in the new development, given the income limits of the project.
Should the agency be mistaken about the extent to which the lack of free street parking will disincentivize car ownership, it seems that hundreds of new cars will be competing for spots in the neighborhood.
At least one participant in last month’s meeting about the development proposed that residents of the affordable housing complex be barred from applying for neighborhood parking permits.
On Tuesday, however, Hunter clarified that the SFMTA is not able to prevent residents from obtaining permits.
“If they do show up with a car, they will be eligible,” she said.
The SFMTA redesign of parking in the northeast Mission further muddies the outlook on parking. The agency has proposed eliminating free parking between 13th/Division Street to Valencia Street, and 21st Street to Potrero Avenue.
The aim of the plan is to make parking easier, as replacing free parking with metered parking will increase vehicle turnover. But Hunter’s comments on Tuesday revealed a hope that by requiring residents to purchase permits to park in the neighborhood, the revised plan will push some residents to go carless.
