The fate of a frog pond and detritus-strewn crater at 22nd and Mission streets where a three-story building burned in a deadly 2015 fire that displaced dozens has now been delayed for another two months. Its owner, Hawk Lou, hopes for it to be developed into 10 stories of market-rate housing.
But, in two months’ time, it is unlikely commissioners will reject the 181-unit project, even though community leaders across the Mission District, including prominent YIMBYs, are against the project. Commissioners’ hands are tied, they said at Thursday’s hearing, and they will likely be forced to approve the landlord’s plan.
“We don’t have the power, unfortunately, legally, to do what the community wants us to do,” said commissioner Sean McGarry. “We cannot put the moral over the legal, because it’ll just be overturned a week from now.”
Still, dozens of Mission residents pleaded with the commission to stop Lou’s plans, saying he is profiting from death and displacement. They demanded he sell the lot to the city for 100-percent-affordable housing; Lou’s current proposal has only 19 affordable units, or 10.5 percent, the minimum required for the state density bonus that allows him to exceed height limits.
“Unintentionally or intentionally, you will reward all the bad behaviors,” said one commenter. “If this goes through, this is just another black eye on the Mission District,” echoed another.
The 2855 Mission St. once housed a three-story residential and commercial building until it burned on Jan. 28, 2015, in a fire that killed 38-year-old Mauricio “El Pelón” Orellana, a tenant.
The fire also displaced some two dozen commercial tenants, including Mission Local, and more than 60 residents. After two subsequent fires, the building was condemned and torn down in 2016.
In reporting after the fire, Mission Local found that Lou owned at least 19 buildings with hundreds of tenants, many of them monolingual Spanish speakers who lived in “rundown and often overcrowded spaces.” Tenants at the 22nd and Mission site claimed there were no smoke alarms in the building.
Mission residents have long demanded that Lou sell the property to the city for affordable housing, and have blasted his proposal as “insulting.” They have also advocated for the right of the building’s previous tenants to return, although because the project is deemed “new construction,” they have seemingly lost that right under city law.
On Thursday, 51 speakers accused him of being a negligent landlord, and reiterated those demands.
But Pat Miller, Lou’s attorney, deflected blame, saying without evidence that a tenant caused the 2015 fire. “The source of the fire was … a singular unit in the residential area where a pot boiled over.”
But fire department officials reiterated to Mission Local in 2023 that the cause was an electrical problem within the walls of the building. Asked after the hearing about the fire department’s assessment, both Miller and Lou declined to comment.
Other commenters brought up an attempt by then-Mayor Ed Lee to turn the building into affordable housing, saying Lou failed to uphold his pact with Lee.
Reached by Mission Local, Jeff Buckley, who was Lee’s senior housing advisor, said there was no “deal,” but that Lee did try to get Lou to sell the property. “He even went to Hawk Lou’s butcher shop,” Buckley said, to convince him.
But Lou’s price was too high, Buckley said.
“Ed Lee wanted the site to be 100-percent affordable, and was ready to pay for it,” Buckley added. “But it had to be appraised, and the owner’s price well exceeded the appraised value.”
Lou, who was stone-faced the entire evening sitting in the second to last row of City Hall Room 400, went up to the podium to address the interactions with Lee. It was the only time he spoke publicly during the four-hour hearing.
He started by saying, “Nobody knows any more [than me] of the communication between me and Ed Lee” and that Lee “really, really, really” wanted to help, before trailing off and speaking about the lawsuits he is facing, including from tenants and the insurance company of the building next door. He did not say anything else during the hearing, nor did he talk to any of the residents.
Commissioner Derek Braun, for his part, said there was a possible path forward for residents: Pressure the city to allocate enough funds to buy the site for affordable housing, and pressure the landlord to sell it.
But that, he said, is not in the hands of the Planning Commission. And it would be expensive: Sam Moss, the executive director of affordable housing developer Mission Housing, said that once projects receive permits and are “entitled,” they become much more expensive for the city to buy.
If, as expected, the project passes at the Planning Commission in April, Lou would next need to pull building permits before starting construction. Construction could then take several years.
Additional reporting by Joe Eskenazi.
The activists in the Mission have stalled desperately needed housing. This location has been a pit for 10 years now. Build it.
Desperately needed housing? This city has THOUSANDS of vacant market-rate units and this will just add to the glut. We do desperately need housing but we need AFFORDABLE housing. This project will do nothing other than reward a landlord whose mismanagement of the former building led to someone’s death. Guy should be in prison not getting rich.
Pam is 100% right!
Mission is so full of whiners. This is a free country, anyone is welcome to buy it, but the seller doesn’t have to accept low ball offer. (Amazing he’s not bankrupt from attorneys fees to get through all the red tape).
Move on. These mtgs are just a waste of everyone’s time, they only serve for people to vent. Life is not unfair or fair, it just is.
Yes it’s awful the market area is gone, someone died and people had to move, but sh*t happens in life, things change, accept the change.
If anything people should be happy there will be new units at a time when no one is their right mind would build due to the interest rates and lower rents.
When you have substandard /older housing and can’t increase the rents due to local laws owners can’t cover the costs. Imagine the stress this guy has gone through for 10yrs.
Just hope it’s a decent design not a crappy stucco box.
The question is will the development ease the housing crisis, or not at all. When it’s yuppie condos in “decent design” units at market rates, that literally excludes 100% of the people who are actually affected by the housing crisis. It solves nothing for anyone. Yimbys are the most gullible class of voters in the world. They will literally pretend it’s saving the world to build modernist condos for the techies.
“things change, move on” that sure sounds like a loser argument. You just accept anyone with more power and money coming in and telling you what to do? I guess so.
that’s a loser argument for sure.
It’s insane that the Planning Commission even thinks that they should have a say in this matter. It’s his property and he can do what he wants with it. It’s time to tear down this whole system that’s gotten us into the housing crisis and move to by-right approvals.
He is a slumlord of the highest order. He already has 19 other buildings. He did not have proper fire alarms in place. He is lucky that he is not being charged with murder. He should be held accountable for the fire and displacement of people and businesses but instead now he doesn’t have to do shit and gets to make even more money with fancy housing for wealthy techies.
Welcome to the real world Bruce. You don’t “own” land, you rent it from .gov.
What is the rest of the city apparatus doing to protect his other tenants (and, uh, maybe make him a little or a lot uncomfortable continuing as a landlord)?
Good description of that disgusting hole in the ground. This saga has played out long enough and while far from ideal, just build it. Why delay an inevitable approval any longer?
WHY DOES BUILDING HOUSING INF SF HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS!?!?!? “Our hands are tied” “forced to approve” is this how a healthy local government is supposed to work?
Scott Wiener sold out.
RENT STRIKE in his other buildings until he relents!!!
We are pleased to see that when there is a question of law brought on by conflicting laws, and there is no documentation to back up claims, the Planning Commission is able to continue a hearing. Bravo to that.
” Lou’s current proposal has only 19 affordable units, or 10.5 percent, the minimum required for the state density bonus that allows him to exceed height limits. ”
Typical developer doing the minimum necessary to maximize $. Scott Wiener’s bankroll.
YIMBYS and FACTS are like sycophants and literalists.
Bring back the Popeyes
Super icky. Just awful. For all San Franciscans. yucko.
There are a gluten of condos on the market with prices at 10 year lows. I do not see a housing crises. I do see the heavy hand of bureaucracy over-influencing outr housing market though.
To wit, BMRs: though well intentioned, they have turned into a nightmare for many owners. The City decides what you can sell it for and to whom. Many are in older buildings with escalating maintenance costs. The icing on the cake is the SALT cap and doubling the standard deduction which makes these no longer pencil out for many.
In a free market, housing unit costs would find their real world market price.