The latest negotiation tactic in S.F. housing fights? A coin-operated laundromat
But when residents of the New Rex residential hotel met with developers of a proposed condo building in North Beach, they had an unusual request: a coin-operated laundromat.
The Planning Commission recently approved a 75-unit condo development at 425 Broadway, an L-shaped surface parking lot that wraps around the New Rex, a single-room occupancy hotel.
The development by Montgomery Place LLC will include two buildings, a seven-story building facing Broadway and an eight-story structure facing Montgomery Street. It is the first project approved under the city's 2022 'Cars to Casas' legislation, which allows increased density for housing developments on auto-related parcels.
Rosa Chen, director of planning and policy programs for the Chinatown CDC, which represented tenants in negotiations with the developer, said residents at the New Rex — mostly monolingual immigrants from China — hang their laundry to dry in the window and were concerned that the new buildings would block the fresh air and sunlight. In response, the developer redesigned the buildings to include large lightwells and agreed to put a public laundromat on the ground floor.
'All the tenants were asking, 'How are we going to hang our laundry out,'' Chen said. 'They really liked the idea of the laundromat because they can't always wash everything by hand.'
The project approval comes as laundromats have been disappearing in San Francisco, with 41 closing between 2018 and 2021, according to data from the Treasurer and Tax Collector's Office. A report by the city's Public Utilities Commission found that 1 in 3 laundromats shuttered between 2011 and 2021.
While laundromats are increasingly using phone apps, Chinatown CDC advocates made sure the developer agreed to install coin-operated machines because many of the Rex residents are elderly and not tech-savvy.
'It's interesting to see a laundromat in a condominium building that I'm sure will have laundry machines in the units,' Chen said.
While the laundromat helped muster support of its only immediate neighbors, the project was not without opponents. Telegraph Hill Dwellers President Stan Hayes spoke against it, saying that the parking lot — one of the last remaining development sites along Broadway — should be preserved for future affordable housing projects.
Hayes also objected to the size of the project — Cars to Casas allowed the unit count to increase from 42 to 75 — and that the developer is paying a $3.8 million affordable housing fee rather than putting the below-market rate units on site.
He said the changes to the project since an earlier 2021 iteration — Cars to Casas allowed the developer to nearly double the unit count, eliminate onsite parking and cut 18,000 square feet of office space — all benefit the developer more than the neighborhood.
'For all these additional benefits, what does the developer offer us in return?' Hayes said.
'A coin laundromat? We can do better, and should.'
The vote was 5-2, with Commissioners Theresa Imperial and Gilbert Williams voting against it. Williams said the idea that 'luxury condos' will be built next to a building where 68 people live in 39 tiny rooms with shared bathrooms and kitchens laid bare the city's extreme income disparities.
'The contrast is worth noting,' he said. 'This is where we are as a city. We are failing dramatically on affordable housing and it's going to continue like that.'
But other North Beach residents spoke in support of the project, saying that the parking lot, located in the middle of a stretch of strip clubs and nightclubs, is dangerous at night and the an influx of residents would make it safer.
'Broadway is a tough street at any time of the day, especially in the evenings,' said resident Bailey Douglas. 'I have been chased down the street by people coming there to do various things.'
Housing Action Coalition organizer Brianna Morales said she sleeps at friends' small, and expensive, apartments in North Beach, a neighborhood that has seen little new development in recent decades. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in North Beach is around $3,525, while a 2-bedroom apartment averages $5,500, according to Zumper, a digital marketplace for rentals.
'I am one of those people lugging my laundry across the city,' she said.
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