What worries Bayview residents is the prospect of Proposition F passing and Lennar leaving, which could set back the redevelopment another 10 to 15 years. “If this project is put off, you can forget about affordability down the road,” predicts James Walton, a local real estate broker.
Suspicions Raised
Opponents, on the other hand, see the expanded redevelopment plan as a land grab by a politically connected builder whose supporters are conflicted. (Walker, for one, is part of a group that has a joint venture with the builder to construct affordable housing on Parcel A, according to the San Francisco Bay Guardian.) Some opponents also don’t trust Lennar after it reneged on promises to build affordable rental units. (The builder has since agreed to build at least 300 rentals, says Bonner.)
Lennar does have political allies: Bonner once worked for former Mayor Willie Brown. Laurence Pelosi, the nephew of Rep. Nancy Pelosi and cousin of Mayor Gavin Newsom, worked for Lennar from 2002 to 2005, but wasn’t involved in the Hunters Point deal, says the builder. California’s senator Dianne Feinstein favors this project, as does the district’s supervisor Sophie Maxwell.
But the builder didn’t win any friends when, months into the grading of Parcel A, it discovered that equipment its subcontractors set up to monitor how much asbestos dust was escaping into the air wasn’t working. “We spent a considerable amount of time and money to find out what happened,” asserts Bonner. Christopher Muhammad, a minister who runs a school near the shipyard, accused Lennar of willful negligence and disputed claims by the Department of Public Health that dust levels didn’t pose a health risk. (Muhammad did not respond to Builder’s request for comment.)
Credit: Lenna Corp.
Retaining a Franchise
Everyone’s motives have been questioned, including those of supervisor Chris Daly, who—after failing last year to convince his colleagues to shut down this project—raised 8,000 signatures to get Proposition F on the June ballot. Bayview leaders resent Daly’s interference in a district he doesn’t represent and point out that Daly has never demanded anywhere near a 50 percent affordable-housing threshold for projects in his own district. “All he’s trying to do is kill this project,” asserts Al Norman, president of the Bayview Merchants Association. Cohen derides Proposition F because it’s being presented without any cost analyses and does not ask the city to switch developers or delay the project on public health grounds, even though he says Daly has made statements to that effect in the press. (Daly declined requests by Builder for an interview.)
Voters also had to consider how either proposition might influence the San Francisco 49ers, whose owners intend to relocate the team to Santa Clara. The city, through Proposition G, is trying to win back the 49ers by offering to build a stadium on Hunters Point (even if the financing is up in the air). But Cohen says the mayor and supervisors “recognize that this [redevelopment] is too important to let the 49ers’ indecision hold it up.” If the team exits, the land on Hunters Point would be used for science and technology facilities. Proposition G also calls for razing Candlestick Park stadium and the Alice Griffith Housing Project on Candlestick Point, and replacing them with parks, commercial facilities, and a mix of 800 to 1,000 market-rate and affordable houses.
A Long ROW to Hoe
Regardless of which proposition passes, everything still hinges on how quickly the Navy remediates Hunters Point. (The city has informed the Navy it needs 100 acres every three years.) The public will be asked to kick in between $900 million and $1 billion for the redevelopment through tax-increment financing. And it’s anyone’s guess who would complete construction if Proposition F passes. Assuming Proposition G passes and Lennar stays, market-rate homes on Parcel A could be priced from $485,000 to $700,000, based on local Realtor estimates. Bonner would only say about the affordable component that at least 50 units would be available to buyers earning 50 percent of the city’s median income at prices from $125,000 to $145,000.
For King, who lives with his wife and two children in subsidized housing, the redevelopment promises a better life for his family and the community. “I want us to be on the city’s visitors’ map again,” he says.