The Planning Commission swiftly approved plans to construct two four-story residential buildings at 915 Minna St. during last week's public hearing.
The developer, Equity Community Builders, now has the green light to demolish the existing surface parking lot between 10th and 11th streets and replace it with 46 units, six of which will be below market rate.
The new residences will be located in two separate buildings: one 40-unit building fronting Minna Street and one 6-unit building fronting Natoma Street. Both, designed by TEF Design, will share a 2,545-square-foot landscaped courtyard at the center of the property. Five units will enjoy private balconies, ranging from 144 square feet to 298 square feet, just below the rooftop.
As for onsite parking, the complex will offer 21 parking spaces for vehicles and 46 for bicycles in the basement-level garage, accessed via Minna Street, along with three bicycle parking spaces along the street for the public.
Planning received no advance correspondence or public comment during the hearing on this project.
Before handing the developer a large project authorization, the commission engaged in a brief discussion on "nested bedrooms," which do not look out onto the street or inner courtyard. According to the Western SoMa Plan, nested bedrooms are not considered official bedrooms, therefore the project did not meet the plan's requirement to provide 40 percent two-bedrooms in the unit mix. However, nested bedrooms are considered official bedrooms according to the Department of Building Inspection and the Market Octavia Plan and altering the design would reduce the unit count, the commission learned, so they approved a variance.
Equity Community Builders also received a variance allowing the firm to pay a fee of $300,000 in lieu of providing 735 square feet of additional open space for residents. Lessening the required open space allowed for building the affordable units onsite, the development team noted.
