Jane Kim Says She’ll Challenge Giants’ Development Plans

Supervisor Jane Kim said she will introduce a measure on Tuesday for the November ballot that strikes at the heart of the Giants’ well-calibrated plan. The measure would cut in half the height of some of the proposed buildings and require the Giants to dedicate much more of its housing to low-income residents. The multibillion-dollar redevelopment plan includes 1,500 units of housing, 8 acres of parkland and 1.5 million square feet of commercial space. The Giants have also committed to building 33 percent of the units as “affordable” — which the Giants define as families earning up to 140 percent of the area median income, about $142,000 for a family of four. Kim wants to cap the height limit at 120 feet and require half of the residential units be dedicated to affordable housing. Kim has the backing of Local 2, a 10,000-member strong union that represents hospitality workers in the city, the San Francisco Council of Community Housing Organizations, which promotes affordable housing, as well as neighborhood groups in Potrero Hill and Dogpatch, which lie to the south of the proposed project. “The housing is desperately needed, and these new affordable homes would help the mayor reach his aggressive housing production goals to help support low and middle income families,” the mayor’s spokeswoman, Christine Falvey, said in a statement. Staci Slaughter, the Giants’ executive vice president of communications, said Kim’s ballot measure, if passed, would “significantly put the project in jeopardy.” Jack Bair, Giants general counsel and senior vice president, noted that the project had already gone through significant revisions, including lowering heights of some of the buildings from 380 feet to 240 feet and increasing the number of below-market-rate units from 15 to 33 percent.