For over a decade, San Francisco’s Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood has faced major internal battles over its future. From the controversial 1997 “stadium-mall” ballot initiative, to the 2006 fight over creating a Redevelopment Area, to the competing housing measures (Props F and G) on this June’s ballot, the city’s last remaining sizable African-American neighborhood is also its most sharply divided. But at 900 Innes Street in the Bayview, there is an opportunity to avoid this path of conflict and to bring affordable homeownership for neighborhood residents, a maritime museum that chronicles the area’s shipyard history, and new public access to the Bay. The question is whether the Board of Supervisors will move the process toward a rare “win win” solution in Bayview, or instead allow the three year fight over 900 Innes to escalate.

The Tenderloin Housing Clinic (publisher of Beyond Chron) is seeking to build a 200-unit family housing development at 900 Innes that would include 50% affordable units, with 35% of these prioritized to longtime Bayview-Hunters Point residents. But a dispute between preservationists and the site’s prior owner over the landmarking of a structure on the property has stalled progress for over three years, and could still kill the proposal.

Background of the Battle:

The conflict over 900 Innes Street began when builder Joe Cassidy acquired the site in 2004 and announced plans to build 170 condos. Virtually the entire site is a former shipyard, with a small structure on the corner facing the street.

Although no attention had ever been brought to this structure, Cassidy’s proposed development plans triggered efforts by neighbors to have it declared an historic landmark. On August 25, 2004, Supervisor Sophie Maxwell introduced legislation to landmark the building, which she had been told was the first Hunters Point School.

In response, Cassidy retained an architectural historian who determined that said school had actually been across the street, and had been demolished. Landmark proponents then argued that the structure was entitled to protection because it “was associated with the historic marine cargo industry and the community of shipwrights that had settled India Basin.”

On May 4, 2005, the Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board recommended to the Planning Commission that it approve landmark designation for the structure at 900 Innes. But the Commission split 3-3, and everything related to 900 Innes---both the landmarking process and Cassidy’s proposed project, which has still not been assigned to a planner despite his paying the agency’s required fees in 2005—came to a halt.

Tired of fighting with neighbors over the project, Cassidy donated the entire site to the Tenderloin Housing Clinic on December 31, 2007. In late February, Maxwell introduced legislation to landmark 900 Innes, and a hearing on the measure is slated for April 14’s Land Use and Economic Development committee.

Two Ships Passing in the Night:



Side view of 900 Innes

The framing of 900 Innes between the two sides is as different as two ships passing in the night.

For the India Basin Historical Association and its preservation allies citywide, 900 Innes is a “gem” that demands landmark status. In contrast, Cassidy has long argued that the building is a rundown shack with a trashed interior and an exterior that has been too modified over the years to be a landmark.

Both sides retained architectural historians to produce voluminous documentation of their respective positions. There has never been such a preservation fight in Bayview, which is why landmark advocates feel that 900 Innes is the last opportunity to preserve a portion of a history that has otherwise already gone under the wrecking ball.

Cassidy’s staunch opposition to the landmarking was partially based on the fact that nobody had cared about 900 Innes until he proposed his project. Two of the leading proponents also had private agendas; one is a contractor who had been in a number of lawsuits with Cassidy, the other is a neighbor who does not want housing constructed to block her view of the bay, and who continues to push for the entire site to become “open space.”

So while portions of the community saw the fight to landmark 900 Innes as a battle to retain a slice of neighborhood history, Cassidy saw landmarking as a strategy to stop his project.

Current Plans:

I head the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, and when we acquired the site I saw it as a great opportunity to address one of the biggest problems in Bayview-Hunters Point: the exodus of working families, particularly African-Americans, from the community. These families cannot afford the market-rate homes being constructed in the neighborhood, and the affordable units created are subject to a lottery that gives no priority to community residents.

I have heard frustration from many ACORN members that Bayview residents are not really benefiting from the affordable housing built in their community. Since our project involves no public funds and would be voluntarily offering family-sized units at affordable rates, we can prioritize local residents, thereby keeping working families with deep ties to community institutions in the neighborhood.

Based on the 208-units proposed, our goal is to make 50% affordable. 15% would be subject to the lottery under city law, but the other 35% can legally be prioritized to current residents of Bayview-Hunters Point.

We think 50% affordable housing on a site with unobstructed views of the Bay is a real boon for working families. Consider that Lennar’s Prop G offers only “up to 25%” affordable units, even though they are getting a gift of public land. And our project requires us to build public two streets at our own expense, which could expand public access to the Bay Trail.

Landmarking and Affordable Housing: Bayview Needs Both

I have told both the India Basin group and Supervisor Maxwell’s office that we have no problem with landmarking 900 Innes, so long as it does not impair our affordable housing plans. As currently proposed, the landmarking will eliminate twelve units from the project, remove a potential retail space, and increase construction costs by at least $250,000.

Since this landmarking proposal will eliminate affordable housing units, we believe that landmarking must be considered in the overall context of plans for the site. Important questions have not even been addressed. For example, many want to transform the structure at 900 Innes into a Maritime Museum, which is a great idea. But we should be discussing how to fund such a plan, as well as whether a public use at the structure’s current site is even feasible.

But proponents of landmarking have insisted on moving the process forward without regard to our affordable housing proposal, or their own plans to transform 900 Innes into a museum. A sense of crisis has been created even though the issue has been on the back burner for nearly three years, and the structure is not at risk.

We can transform a former shipyard site into affordable homes for longtime Bayview residents and create a great setting for a museum that chronicles the area’s maritime history. But this requires putting aside longstanding grievances against the former owner, and instead working collaboratively to achieve a positive solution for all.

Mutual trust and dialogue has not been the rule of the game in Bayview-Hunters Point over the past decade, but we would like to see these values prevail at 900 Innes.