Preservation commission backs Central SoMa plan and urges at least $50 million for Old Mint rehabilitation

The San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission voted unanimously on March 21 to recommend that city decision-makers increase the Central SoMa plancontribution for the Old Mint building to at least $50,000,000 and to increase funding for cultural heritage programming.

Planning Department project manager Steve Wertheim told the commission the Central SoMa plan is a 25-year strategy to bring jobs, housing and public benefits to the area around the central subway, and that the plan as presented would create about 7,000 housing units and roughly 40,000 jobs under the current proposal. Wertheim described an estimate of about $2.1to $2.2 billion in public benefits over the planbuildout, with proposed allocations including nearly $1 billion for affordable housing, $500 million for transit, $130 million for complete streets, $70 million for resiliency and $40 million for cultural preservation. "We would get nearly a billion dollars would go towards affordable housing," Wertheim said during the presentation.

Several preservation advocates and commissioners pressed staff to increase the plan's $20,000,000 allocation for the Old Mint, a federally significant, city-owned historic building. John Lau of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development described the project's due diligence and preliminary capital stack work and said staff is using a $100,000,000 construction-cost estimate for planning purposes while continuing to refine that figure. "A commitment early on from this city plan would be a big step in that direction," Lau said.

Commissioners debated whether to name a specific figure. Several commissioners argued for a concrete ask tied to rehabilitation priorities such as stabilization, life-safety and exterior-envelope work. Commissioner Johns said the building's rehabilitation needs likely exceed the planbaseline and suggested $50,000,000; Commissioners Matsuda and Hyland echoed support for a larger, targeted contribution.

The commission amended its recommendation to request that the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors increase the Central SoMa contribution to the Old Mint to at least $50,000,000 and to increase funding for cultural heritage (tangible and intangible) programming to at least $50,000,000. The motion passed unanimously, 7 to 0.

Staff stressed that the Central SoMa public-benefits total is finite and that increasing allocations for one purpose reduces the amount available for others. Wertheim and other staff described additional components of the benefits package: funding for parks and open space, school and childcare investments, support for industrial/production-distribution-repair (PDR) uses and a proposal to allow transferable development rights (TDRs) to support historic buildings.

Next steps: the Planning Department expects the planning commission to act on the general-plan amendments in mid-April and to forward a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors for final action later in the spring; the Historic Preservation Commissionrecommendation will be included in that record.