New regulation on the creation of student housing passed the Board of Supervisors yesterday 9-2, aimed primarily at curtailing the Academy of Arts University's rapacious practices of turning apartment houses into dormitories for their 16,000-plus student body. According to the SF Examiner, the legislation introduced by Scott Weiner will allow the school to grandfather existing properties and convert some additional ones. In addition to illegal dwelling conversions, the school became notorious for code violations in its studio buildings. All that's in the past, apparently, but San Francisco's attractions for students are obvious, and housing them is obviously lucrative– the BoS wants to encourage new construction over conversion. As an adjunct to that, Weiner introduced somewhat controversial legislation to reduce the minimum size of new rental units from 290-square feet to 220, but a vote on how "small" minimum should be was moved to September.
· Board Restricts Ability to Convert Student Housing [SF Examiner]
· Academy of Art University [Curbed SF Archives]
· Small May Be About to Get Even Smaller [Curbed SF]
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