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Architectural historian stresses national‑register designation doesn’t block new affordable housing, cites Uptown Tenderloin projects
Summary
An architectural historian told the Historic Preservation Commission that National Register designation of the Uptown Tenderloin does not prevent large scale permanently affordable housing projects, citing recent nearby developments as examples.
Catherine Petrin, an architectural historian, used the general public comment period on Feb. 19 to clarify what National Register historic‑district designation does and does not do and to highlight the Uptown Tenderloin National Register Historic District.
Petrin said the Uptown Tenderloin district contains 408 buildings, mostly constructed between 1906 and 1929, including hotels and apartment hotels of three to seven stories, often of brick or reinforced concrete and designed with a consistent classical vocabulary. She told the commission that recent permanently affordable housing projects are located within the National Register district and show that preservation is not necessarily an obstacle to housing production.
As examples she cited a 175‑unit affordable project at 201 [address truncated in transcript] developed by Chinatown Community Development Center and Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC), and 180 Jones, a 70‑unit, 100% affordable building for formerly unhoused people developed by TNDC that broke ground in 2022. Petrin said tax credits have helped enable such projects.
Her remarks were presented as general public comment and not part of an agenda item; she closed by urging accurate public understanding of what National Register designation means for local projects.
