Mayor looks at ballot measure to raise affordable housing ratios

Mayor Ed Lee is convening a group of developers and affordable housing advocates to hammer out a ballot measure that would increase the percentage of below market units that must be included in new projects.

The announcement comes three years after city voters passed Proposition C, which lowered the city’s affordable housing requirement to 12 percent, a 20 percent drop from the previous minimum of 15 percent.

The discussions around the proposed measure promises to be prickly, with developers saying higher requirements for affordable units could kill the very projects that pump money into the city’s coffers for below-market-rate housing.

The affordable housing community would argue that high levels of affordable units are needed to mitigate the displacement and gentrification that have come with the building boom.

Lee said that the goal will be to offer developers benefits, such as raised height limits, higher densities, or fast-tracked approvals, to offset the increased requirements.

Peter Cohen of the Council on Community Housing Organizations, which lobbies for affordable housing developers, said the mayor’s decision to start work on a ballot measure is “certainly a step in the right direction at this point, and frankly I think San Francisco voters are expecting this.”

Forest City and the Hearst Corp., owner of The Chronicle, agreed to increase affordable house to 40 percent in their mixed-use project at Fifth and Mission, as did the San Francisco Giants at their Mission Rock project south of AT&T Park.