SF: Tennis: 40; Housing: Love
One of the most deciding factors in San Francisco’s strong real estate market is the lack of new housing being built. Since the demand, at least in the past, exceeded the supply, the prices on the supply inflated– and for the most part have continued to do so.
And for the most part, our supervisors here in the city don’t seem to take the lack of housing seriously. Case and point the situation with Pulte Homes.
Back in December of 2006 , SF Tennis Club members won their bid in getting the SF Board of Supervisors to pass a resolution halting any development that would eliminate a recreational facility. As a direct result, Pulte Homes, which had been looking to put 500 condos on the site of the current SF Tennis Club at 5th & Brannan, lost their bid to begin construction.
Matt Lanning, of SFHomeBlog, quotes the SF Business Times from April, 2007:
Pulte Homes has abandoned plans to build 500 condos at the South of Market site of the San Francisco Tennis Club, a project club members had battled hard to defeat.
Pulte’s decision was driven by ongoing discussions with the Western SoMa Task Force, a neighborhood planning group that is studying rezoning the area, according to Kim Diamond, senior manager of land acquisition and entitlement for Michigan-based Pulte. The Western SoMa Task Force is pushing for a development mix that reflects the neighborhood’s low-key melange of industry, entertainment, office, housing and retail.
“The uses we intended for the site were different from what the Western SoMa Task Force wanted to put forth — it didn’t make any more sense to pursue it financially,” said Diamond.
San Francisco Tennis Club, on the southeast corner of Fifth and Brannan streets, has 1,100 members and was built in 1974. Its owner, Dallas-based ClubCorp., bought the club in 1981. In December the private equity group KSL Capital Partners bought ClubCorp.
Doug Howe, president of the San Francisco Tennis Club, said the owner is “evaluating our options.”
“I can’t tell you with any certainty what we’re going to do next,” he said.
Lena Grotz of Save Our San Francisco Tennis Club committee said the group would now focus on pushing a new planning code regulating developers building on recreational facilities. Under the proposed code, any developer looking to build on the tennis club — or any other recreational facility in San Francisco — would have to replace the facilities “in kind.” In December, the Board of Supervisors passed an 18-month moratorium on developing on recreational facilities.
In a nut shell then, the game came down to 1000 or so tennis players squaring off against 1000 or so would-be residents. The Supervisors ruled in favor of the players. Don’t get me wrong: I love recreational spaces and need places to play and enjoy the outdoors. I’m not even sure the decision by the Board was the wrong one; but I am sure that such decisions play into the continued lack of affordable housing in this city. Maybe I should just put a sleeping bag on the nearest tennis court…or would that be considered eliminating recreational space?
