Right across the street from the condos planned for Flax Art & Design, Paragon Real Estate and Forum Design have been drawing up plans for an eight-story market-rate residential building. In its proposed form, the project—which would replace the Fast Frame shop at the corner of Market and Gough—consists of 48 studios and one-bedrooms of between 295 and 550 square feet. The idea, project architect Warner Schmalz told the San Francisco Business Times, is that small units are better suited to the triangular site at 1700 Market. Planning does not agree, however.
At Thursday's Planning hearing, the commission asked Paragon to come back with a proposal more in line with the Market & Octavia Area Plan, which requires 40 percent of projects to include units with two or more bedrooms. The revised proposal will also include some affordable housing on-site. As the Business Times notes, some neighbors opposed the small unit sizes and their unfriendliness to families. The Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association filed a letter with Planning asking the commission not to exempt 1700 Market from the two-bedroom requirement. (Envelope A+D's proposed micro-units also fall within the bounds of the Market & Octavia Area Plan, so we're curious to see how they fare.)
Meanwhile, Planning unanimously approved a Conditional Use Authorization for 1178 Folsom, the David Baker Architects-designed micro-unit project developed by Erik Liu. With the Panoramic now rising a few blocks away, SoMa is looking like the friendlier choice for would-be micro-unit developers (and experiments in coliving, perhaps). 1178 Folsom's six stories will bring 42 micro-units between 290 and 350 square feet. Now that it's officially moving forward, construction could begin as early as this fall.
· Condo Plans Move Forward for Flax Art & Design Site [Curbed SF]
· More Condos Planned in the Impending Shadow of Flax [Curbed SF]
· In Developer's Pitch to Build Tiny Apartments, Opponents Rally for 'Family Housing' [SF Business Times]
· Envelope A+D Proposes 370-Square-Foot Micro-Dwellings for Hayes Valley [Curbed SF]
· 42 Teeny-Tiny Micro-Units Headed to Folsom Street in SoMa [Curbed SF]
· Inside the Partially Finished Micro-Units at SoMa's Panoramic [Curbed SF]
· Coliving Gains Momentum in SoMa with 1532 Harrison Proposal [Curbed SF]
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