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by\u00a0XUEER LU<\/a><\/strong> FEBRUARY 7, 2025, 6:00 AM (MissionLocal.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Two](\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_8201-1200x900.jpg\")
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Help grow our newsroom<\/strong>, joining the hundreds of San Franciscans who support us by giving below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Donate today!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The fate of a frog pond and detritus-strewn crater at 22nd and Mission streets where a three-story building burned in a deadly 2015 fire that displaced dozens has now been delayed for another two months. Its owner, Hawk Lou, hopes for it to be developed into 10 stories of market-rate housing<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But, in two months\u2019 time, it is unlikely commissioners will reject the 181-unit project, even though community leaders across the Mission District, including prominent YIMBYs, are against the project<\/a>. Commissioners\u2019 hands are tied, they said at Thursday\u2019s hearing, and they will likely be forced to approve the landlord\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have the power, unfortunately, legally, to do what the community wants us to do,\u201d said commissioner Sean McGarry. \u201cWe cannot put the moral over the legal, because it\u2019ll just be overturned a week from now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, dozens of Mission residents pleaded with the commission to stop Lou\u2019s plans<\/a>, saying he is profiting from death and displacement. They demanded he sell the lot to the city for 100-percent-affordable housing; Lou\u2019s current proposal has only 19 affordable units, or 10.5 percent, the minimum required for the state density bonus that allows him to exceed height limits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? Sign up for our free daily newsletter<\/strong> below.Sign up<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUnintentionally or intentionally, you will reward all the bad behaviors,\u201d said one commenter. \u201cIf this goes through, this is just another black eye on the Mission District,\u201d echoed another. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The 2855 Mission St. once housed a three-story residential and commercial building until it burned<\/a> on Jan. 28, 2015, in a fire that killed 38-year-old Mauricio \u201cEl Pel\u00f3n\u201d Orellana<\/a>, a tenant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The fire also displaced some two dozen commercial tenants, including Mission Local<\/em>, and more than 60 residents. After two<\/a> subsequent fires<\/a>, the building was condemned<\/a> and torn down in 2016<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In reporting after the fire, Mission Local<\/em> found that Lou owned<\/a> at least 19 buildings with hundreds of tenants, many of them monolingual Spanish speakers who lived in \u201crundown and often overcrowded spaces.\u201d Tenants at the 22nd and Mission site claimed there were no smoke alarms<\/a> in the building. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mission residents have long demanded that Lou sell the property to the city for affordable housing, and have blasted<\/a> his proposal as \u201cinsulting.\u201d They have also advocated for the right of the building\u2019s previous tenants to return<\/a>, although because the project is deemed \u201cnew construction,\u201d they have seemingly lost that right under city law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Thursday, 51 speakers accused him of being a negligent landlord, and reiterated those demands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But Pat Miller, Lou\u2019s attorney, deflected blame, saying without evidence that a tenant caused the 2015 fire. \u201cThe source of the fire was \u2026 a singular unit in the residential area where a pot boiled over.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n But fire department officials reiterated<\/a> to Mission Local<\/em> in 2023 that the cause was an electrical problem within the walls of the building. Asked after the hearing about the fire department\u2019s assessment, both Miller and Lou declined to comment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Other commenters brought up an attempt by then-Mayor Ed Lee to turn the building into affordable housing, saying Lou failed to uphold his pact with Lee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Reached by Mission Local, <\/em>Jeff Buckley, who was Lee\u2019s senior housing advisor, said there was no \u201cdeal,\u201d but that Lee did try to get Lou to sell the property. \u201cHe even went to Hawk Lou\u2019s butcher shop,\u201d Buckley said, to convince him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But Lou\u2019s price was too high, Buckley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEd Lee wanted the site to be 100-percent affordable, and was ready to pay for it,\u201d Buckley added. \u201cBut it had to be appraised, and the owner\u2019s price well exceeded the appraised value.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lou, who was stone-faced the entire evening sitting in the second to last row of City Hall Room 400, went up to the podium to address the interactions with Lee. It was the only time he spoke publicly during the four-hour hearing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He started by saying, \u201cNobody knows any more [than me] of the communication between me and Ed Lee\u201d and that Lee \u201creally, really, really\u201d wanted to help, before trailing off and speaking about the lawsuits he is facing, including from tenants<\/a> and the insurance company<\/a> of the building next door. He did not say anything else during the hearing, nor did he talk to any of the residents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Commissioner Derek Braun, for his part, said there was a possible path forward for residents: Pressure the city to allocate enough funds to buy the site for affordable housing, and pressure the landlord to sell it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But that, he said, is not in the hands of the Planning Commission. And it would be expensive: Sam Moss, the executive director of affordable housing developer Mission Housing, said that once projects receive permits and are \u201centitled,\u201d they become much more expensive for the city to buy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If, as expected, the project passes at the Planning Commission in April, Lou would next need to pull building permits before starting construction. Construction could then take several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Additional reporting by Joe Eskenazi.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We’re a small, independent, nonprofit newsroom<\/strong> that works hard to bring you news you can’t get elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n xueer@missionlocal.com<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Xueer is a California Local News Fellow,<\/a> working on data and covering housing. Xueer is a bilingual multimedia journalist fluent in Chinese and English and is passionate about data, graphics, and innovative ways of storytelling. Xueer graduated from UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism with a Master’s Degree in May 2023. She also loves cooking, photography, and scuba diving.More by Xueer Lu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Landlord Hawk Lou\u2019s attorney claims tenant\u2019s cooking caused deadly 2015 fire, but the Fire Department says otherwise. by\u00a0XUEER LU FEBRUARY 7, 2025, 6:00 AM (MissionLocal.org) Read Mission Local often? Help grow our newsroom, joining the hundreds of San Franciscans who support us by giving below. Donate today! The fate of a… Continue reading ![\"Mission](\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/mission-local-logo-300x300.jpg\"){kind=logo}
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