SF New Developments

The Land Use and Economic Development Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved the overall Market & Octavia Neighborhood Plan and have established the “Van Ness and Market Downtown Residential Special Use District”.  There still is some work to do to finalize the zoning and height restriction map and that is to take 2-3 more months. What does this mean? It basically means that there will be huge changes in store (specifically residential developments / condos) for a swath of land centered around Market St especially by Van Ness Ave:

• The rezoning of a large area of land straddling Market St from Noe St all the way to Larkin St
• Creation of new public open spaces
• Encourage preservation of existing neighborhoods (Hayes Valley will see height limit REDUCTIONS)
• Area-wide streetscaping and beautification
• Creation of a new residential center in SOMA West / South Van Ness area with up to 400′ towers on the corner of Van Ness and Market.

According to JK Dineen, our favorite writer at the San Francisco Business Journal; on 10 South Van Ness where the current San Francisco Honda now sits, the property owners (The Boas family) hired Brand + Allen architects to come up with a project proposal for what a high-density 400 foot tower would look like (renderings courtesy Brand + Allen architects).

For some perspective, this 400 foot tower will consist of 603 residential condos on top of a 120 foot high podium! 400 foot towers on all 4 corners and you could have thousands of new condos in this area. In fact, if the plan was carried out to its potential, it could mean more than 4000 new housing units over the next 20 years.

• Market & Octavia Neighborhood Plan [SF Planning Department]
• Figures of Proposed New Height Limits and Land Use Changes [SFND Photoblog]
• Market Street towers plan still faces fight [SFND]
• Filling up Market-Octavia [SFND]
• Developers eye Van Ness auto showroom for condo tower [SFND]

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