Housing on the DMV site

In the SF Chronicle:

An outdated Department of Motor Vehicles office in San Francisco is expected to become one of the city’s largest affordable housing complexes after Governor Gavin Newsom announced a plan to transform the site Thursday.

A mixed-use complex containing 372 affordable housing units, a new DMV office, and parking spaces is slated to be built on the state-owned 1377 Fell St. site. The tallest building planned for the complex would stand eight stories high. 

The current DMV building, which was built in 1960 and does not comply with health and safety codes, would be demolished, said Tara Gallegos, a spokesperson for the governor’s office.

“We will continue to use all our tools to create more affordable housing throughout California — including by converting underutilized state property into homes,” Newsom said in a statement. “I’m particularly proud of this site for bringing affordable housing to the heart of San Francisco in a diverse and thriving neighborhood.”

The modernized DMV office is scheduled for completion in June 2029, and the first phase of housing should be finished by August 2030. The housing units will be designated for residents who make 30%-80% of the area’s median income, Gallegos said.

In-person DMV services will be relocated to a temporary location in the interim and online services will be available as usual....

Building affordable housing on the state-owned site has been a key priority for Supervisor Dean Preston, whose district includes the site. He and Assembly Member Phil Ting have been working with state officials since 2023 to pivot the site to fully affordable housing.

Dean Preston:

“Since we called for this site in the heart of District 5 to be converted to large-scale affordable housing, Assemblymember Ting brought state officials together to make it happen. This shows what can happen when local and state leaders work together to ensure that our affordable housing needs are met. I’m grateful for the partnership, and thrilled that we will be adding 372 units of affordable housing to our district on this state owned land.”

Ting said he facilitated a meeting between Preston and state agencies to discuss the future of the Fell Street site and thanked him for his advocacy.

“Without his and his staff’s work, this project would not have moved forward,” Ting said. “This project demonstrates the incredible work that can happen when local and state governments work together.”

State agencies selected the Related Companies of California, a privately owned real estate company, and nonprofit Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation to jointly redevelop the 2½-acre lot overlooking the Panhandle. Officials first put out a request for qualifications in September 2023.

The site was identified as a possible location for affordable housing under a 2019 executive order from Newsom, which ordered state agencies to solicit proposals for affordable housing development on underutilized state-owned land parcels.

The planned housing complex could help the city meet its state-mandated target of building 82,000 housing units by 2031, more than half of which must be affordable. Affordable housing projects in other parts of the city have faced opposition or delays, like in a brewing battle over so-called Parcel K in Hayes Valley.

Back in 2008, state agencies also solicited proposals to build housing on the site and selected Build Inc. as the developer, but plans fizzled during the recession.

With plans going forward this time, officials said the DMV project could serve as a model for converting other state-owned parcels in the state into affordable housing....