San Francisco Flower Mart 2014

A group opposed to the redevelopment of the San Francisco Flower Mart site at Sixth and Brannan is preparing to start gathering signatures for a proposed ballot measure which would effectively block Kilroy Realty’s plans for constructing an office complex on the site.

According to The Examiner, the draft language for “The San Francisco Flower Mart Protection Act” would prevent any zoning changes or exemptions from being granted for the Flower Mart’s Central SoMa site unless said changes were first approved by voters in San Francisco.

As we first reported last year, plans to raze 46,000 square feet of the 135,000 square foot Flower Mart and build a pair of office buildings rising up to 160 feet at the corner of Sixth and Brannan have already been submitted to Planning, but the site is currently only zoned for development up to 55 feet in height and the proposed development would require a number of exemptions and zoning changes, including a change from industrial to office use.

30 thoughts on “Ballot Measure Could Block Flower Mart Redevelopment”
  1. This city is amazing… but it’s filled with some of the most narrow-sighted, hypocrites and hornswogglers I’ve ever encountered.

    Nothing should be left “unchecked”, but drafting up ballot measures for every single thing that a seemingly specific, small group of people don’t agree with is absolutely absurd. And even after developers and planners bend over backwards to appease said groups, all we’re left with is mediocre architecture, insufficient / unaffordable housing (apparently, for most) poor transit infrastructure and a broken political system.

  2. “Hornswogglers”…I haven’t heard that word used since Gabby Johnson’s town hall speech in the movie BLAZING SADDLES!

    I do agree with your sentiments however.

  3. My suggestion: Build an office tower on one side of the site. The other side should remain the flower market, but rebuilt as a glass structure, that’s a modern version of the Arboretum. Have parking and commercial loading below ground. Have Traci des Jardins open a restaurant called “Fleurs du Jardins” in the office building. That would 1: Give an identity to the office building and increase its marquis value. 2: Maintain the current flower business and jobs. 3: Create a semi-public attraction. 4: Being lit at night, it will be a landmark building in SOMA. 6: Restaurant and market create an amenity for building tenants. 7: Create an interesting piece of architecture, like this.

  4. can we at least make it harder to get on a ballot? i would like to propose a ballot measure to make the thresshold for a ballot measure much tougher.

  5. Ballot measures should NOT be allowed when it comes to urban planning and design issues. We have paid professionals in out planning department and commission to speak for the public. If you don’t like what they are saying, then attend hearings and show your voice.

  6. All led by the darling of the no development movement – Art Agnos, with a special short nod to the anti development imp king Peskin.

    We are fast approaching the goal of this movement, which is to turn SF into a museum wherein nothing ever changes (until the objecting baby boomer dies)

    1. The anti-growth movement in San Francisco, lead by Art, Aaron, and others such as the Sierra Club, is the epitome of the hypocrite liberal. They act like they care about the world, the environment, problems of overpopulation, and resource exploitation, but they only really caring about those things as far as their own doorstep, and only to the extent they can actually see the results from their living room window.

      In the modern world, San Francisco is unquestionably THE place for growth, and the anti-growth movement here is nothing more than an exercise in selfishness.

      These two individuals have killed so much potential for this city that it is truly saddening to consider the extent of their influence.

      Art is now 76 years old, and hopefully doesn’t have a lot of good years left in him.

      Aaron on the other hand, is only 50.

      It would be a damn shame if the city had to wait another 30 years or more for this fellow to exit the political scene, one way or the other, before we could actually start moving forward and making progress here. Maybe someone will think of the bigger picture, the greater good, and make him an offer he can’t refuse?

      1. How long have you been here? A lot of progress is being made in the last 15 years. The preceding 15 almost nothing was built

        There has also been changes in Oakland and the Peninsula (I don’t know the South Bay as well)

      2. Just so I understand you correctly, you want to threaten to kill someone because they disagree with your politics? And you call your political opponents extreme! I agree with you about the Sierra Club though, I quit my membership in disgust. They used to actually stand for something, now they are just selfish NIMBYs who don’t care one bit about the environment.

  7. This is what you reap with District Elections…and the lack of anyone willing to stand up in public and tell these people to take a f****** hike.

    1. What does this have to do with district elections? I remember when we used to have citywide elections and the only way you could elected was to raise huge amounts of money, ensuring that only the wealthy and those representing powerful interests could get elected. I don’t want to go back to those days and a majority of my fellow citizens agree.

      1. if someone cant raise money through grassroots efforts, then they are obviously not charismatic or smart enough to win a citywide election. With the current system we get fragmented special interest projects, and the voice of this small city is not heard. its too easy for an idiot to get elected in a small district with low voter turnout

  8. this is someone else’s property. why do we allow people to dictate what someone does with their own private property?!

    1. It is well established in that cities can regulate the use of private property through zoning laws. This is for “health safety and welfare” which means pretty much any reason now

      1. So these ballot measures are essentially to change zoning to prohibit a certain use, height, or anything else that would make such development infeasible?

  9. Right on, “Indeed”. City-wide elections would keep out some of the looney tunes supervisors we’ve had in the last decade. To run and win, one would have to appeal to a broad base of voters.

    1. That’s also precisely why concerns for minority voting rights look poorly at at-large voting. This so happens to be San Mateo County’s first year of district elections for its BOS, having been sued over the minority voter thing when they were at-large. SF could probably afford 3 or 4 at-large supervisors to shake things up, but really the parochialism is a regional problem — I’ll keep dreaming of a Bay Area mayor.

      1. Yup, in an ideal world we’d follow the likes of London and Toronto, and have a broad “Metropolitant San Francisco” government that would more efficiently and effectively serve the greater majority of the people. Think of the better transit decisions it could make, for example – so ungodly ludicrous the number of transit agencies just in the central Bay Area alone.

        1. agree 100%. i would love to be able to vote some of the idiots down who are running in a district just a few blocks away. it makes no sense.

  10. District elections have had a negative effect on SF. The people that promote district elections cite that they give more voice to the people on a more local level. But when you have only several thousand people who vote in district elections you get supervisors like Pestkin, Daly, Compost, Avalos and Mar. These type of supervisors than impose their ideas for governance over the vast majority of voters in other districts that did not, would not vote for them. And Agnos was demonstratedly the worst mayor in modern times, thankfully, the City figured him out in his first and only term, he needs to go away and take Pestkin and Sue Hestor with him.

    1. SF is a city and county, so its budget includes healthcare. LA’s healthcare expenses are part of the county budget rather than the city’s.

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