City to Review, Patronize Neighbors' Plan for SoMa

Citizen journalism is all the rage these days, but residents of Western SoMa are trying out Citizen Urban Planning. And it's going about as well as you'd think— three years in, and the community is still butting heads over housing and commercial development. Of course, we're talking about the Western SoMa Citzens Planning Task Force, an ersatz development group composed of concerned SoMa residents assembled in 2004 by—who else?—Supervisor Chris Daly. The group's vision for the neighborhood has stirred up quite a bit of controversy and has even spawned a rival organization, Concerned Citizens of Western SoMa (C-CoWS?), who oppose the WSCPTF's plan because, they say, it places too many restrictions on new housing and business growth. Enter the bureaucrats: The real San Francisco Planning Commission will entertain the plan today, and begin an extensive environmental review. Let's not get too excited though, because the Commission seems to agree with the Concerned Citizens in regards to the housing and business restrictions. The likely outcome? Back to the drawing board.
· West SoMa blueprint to Planning Commission [SF Gate]
· Western SoMa: Yay for You! [Curbed SF]
· Curbed SF Reports: Tension High at SoMa Task Force Meetup [Curbed SF]
· Fun With Zoning: Western SoMa Community Plan Challenge [Curbed SF]

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