San Francisco Considers Fee For Student Housing Projects
With a mini-boom in student housing underway, San Francisco is considering an annual per project fee. The fee would go toward staffing costs at the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development for monitoring that certain colleges and universities are following affordability requirements, the San Francisco Examiner reports. About 800 units of student housing and more than 2,000 beds are under construction or planned.
The $800/project fee applies to specific educational institutions exempt from inclusionary housing requirements that rent to students and build housing that does not displace residents. City planners said this exemption could be used as a loophole by developers seeking to avoid paying millions of dollars in affordable housing fees.
Two existing student housing developments and six in the works are exempt from this requirement. One project from the California College of the Arts in SoMa and a large project from CCA and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on Mission and Ninth streets were audited November 2016 and were in compliance, but the department auditing those projects did not receive additional funding for this process.
The remaining projects under development are 30 units at 75 Arkansas St. and 257 units at 188 Hooper St. from CCA, 150 units at 2500 Turk St. from the University of San Francisco, 117 units at 200 Van Ness Ave. from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, 200 units at 333 12th St. from Golden Gate University and the San Francisco Art Institute and 51 units at 630 Geary St. from the San Francisco Art Institute.
Find out more about student housing at Bisnow’s upcoming NorCal Student Housing & University Development event June 21.
