Legal Matters: San Francisco's Prop M
San Francisco will likely come up against its Prop M cap, which limits office development, this year. There's been a lot of talk about different solutions that might come into play, and we caught up with Allen Matkins' David Blackwell for his insight.
Earlier in our series on key legal issues this year, we spoke with David about affordable housing and environmental reform.
David tells us a stand-alone amendment to Prop M that would increase the large-cap allocation would be heavily opposed and would have a very difficult time at the ballot box. A ballot measure that tied any increase in the Prop M allocation to the provision of more affordable housing or some other progressive issue, or amendments that would provide higher office limits for specific areas of the city, would likely have the best chance of succeeding, he says.
Although there are discussions about short-term fixes that may not require voter approval, such as replenishing the large-cap pool with previously converted office square footage, these administrative actions would not provide a long-term solution, and they have not gained much traction to date, David tells us.
