George Rebane

Grass Valley and Nevada County in the small may look to San Francisco in the large when it comes to managed growth mediated by the voter vicissitudes.  The 27may08 WSJ report on Lennar’s Hunters Point project outlines the travails of both the developer and a supportive city government to build a milestone addition to house the burgeoning population.  Michael Corkery’s ‘Lennar Plans Are Tough Sell in San Francisco’ details what happens when a project must also pass through a voting booth before breaking ground.

This large project near an African-American sector of the city stipulates that “32% of the rental and for-sale housing will be “affordable” and that it will donate $27.3 million for lower-income buyers to purchase homes. The affordable for-sale homes will be available for residents making between 80% and 160% of the area’s median income, which is about $82,000 for a family of four in San Francisco, according to Lennar.”  (Here we must remember that ‘affordable housing’ is politically defined, low-cost housing is defined by the market – see the relevant SESF report.)

But the good citizens of the city were also able to put on the 3 June ballot a competing measure which “demands that 50% of the units be designated affordable. Lennar calls that demand a “poison pill” and says it is prepared to walk from much of the proposed development if the measure is approved.”

So there you have it; on one side –

City Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, who represents the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood, says “the majority of people are for the project,” which promises to improve shopping and transit to the area. “People feel this is our best chance for change.”

But then a demonstration of how one of countless special interest or activist groups in the area could shove a stick into the spokes –

But Lennar hit a rocky patch with some residents last summer after coming under fire from the Nation of Islam, which said that the dust kicked up from construction contained asbestos and was sickening children at its nearby school. One of Lennar’s subcontractors had failed to properly monitor the air quality at the construction site for a time.

For this Lennar was branded a “rogue developer” and you can already see the media frenzy when such charges start going back and forth.  Christopher Muhammad, a leader of the Nation of Islam, stated that now “Lennar (has) now nullified its trust with the community.”  And so it goes.

Meanwhile the rest of San Francisco as represented by its elected leadership are also left in limbo –

Many city officials also have a lot riding on Lennar’s plans, which they say will bring economic development to one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods and help stem the exodus of working-class residents leaving because of high home prices. “It’s everything that matters to me in what I want to achieve as mayor,” Mr. Newsom says of the project.

And how are we in Nevada County to assess how the proposed Managed Growth Initiative will impact us as our local moral equivalents of The Nation of Islam flex their muscles and make their demands known?  Lennar has deep pockets and *may* have the staying power to pull off the Hunters Point project.  It is doubtful that the smaller developers eyeing Grass Valley’s sphere of influence in Nevada County would be able to trudge through such a blizzard.