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Full board to vote on parking garage restrictions
By: Joshua Sabatini
Examiner Staff Writer
02/08/10 2:45 PM PST
Board of Supervisors President David Chiu said Monday his legislation establishing tough restrictions on constructing new parking garages on residential buildings is warranted.
Chiu said when he first came into office in 2009 he heard about "a number of garage projects that were under way in North Beach that involved the loss of affordable housing.”
Not only that, but Chiu said research showed that “Ellis Act evictions were occurring tied to subsequent garage applications.” (The Ellis Act, which state legislators passed in 1986, granted landlords the legal right to evict tenants if they no longer wanted to rent out their housing but sell it on the market instead.)
Chiu said during Monday’s Board of Supervisors Land Use and Economic Development Committee meeting that research found “there were at least 166 Ellis Acts in recent years done with regard to buildings associated with garage additions. And most surprising, 50 percent of these were filed in my district, District 3.”
Chiu’s legislation would prohibit or make more difficult the construction of a parking garages in certain areas of the North Beach, Telegraph Hill and Chinatown neighborhoods. For example, no garages would be allowed if there was a no-fault eviction during the past 10 years. When not prohibited, construction of a garage would require a special permit, which could be appealed to the Board of Supervisors.
The proposal “is really about protecting affordable housing and building a transit-first city.”
The full board will vote on the legislation Tuesday.
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