Growing demand for space is commonplace for every city. Development fights can get heated, especially in cities like San Francisco, where firms are paying an average of $52.21 per square foot. In downtown, the recession is fading and an economic recovery is fueling sharp commercial rent increases.

In the middle of this all, El Museo Mexicano, or The Mexican Museum, announced its relocation last year. The institution was originally located in San Francisco’s Mission District from 1975. The Mexican Museum was relocated in 2001 to its current location at Fort Mason Center, and nowadays the museum is due to break ground on its new building which is supposed to be located at 706 Mission Street in the Yerba Buena Arts District. The 510-foot condo tower will reserve the first four floors for the museum, and the other floors will be used for condominiums and shops above. The 38-year-old museum is being developed by Millennium Partners in August or September of 2014.

The development marks the beginning of a complicated fight over height limits, shadows on city parks, and environmental and historic-preservation. The opposition to the project (embodied in a ballot fight and popular referendum) is headed up by Mission residents and homeowners, regular neighbors who are worried about how the explosion of housing and office development could impact parks across the city. The organization “Friends of Yerba Buena” is one of the main oppositions. They support the Mexican Museum, but want a building that reaches a maximum height of 351 feet and would not cast shadows on the traditional Union Square. Matthew Schoenberg, president of “Friends of Yerba Buena”, said that the “let the sun shine on our parks” ballot referendum “was clear — (voters) didn’t want any additional shadows on parks.” The referendum prohibits buildings over 40 feet tall.

In response to this measure, Gabriel Metcalf, executive director of the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR), said “The growth we are seeing is planned. It is not haphazard. I would like to see us build on the strength of the planning process rather than create a culture where any time somebody doesn’t get their way, they do a ballot measure.”

Following this line of thought, Millennium Partners’s spokesman, Jeff Nead, said the company is willing to “find a way to ensure that the Mexican Museum takes its place among the Yerba Buena cultural showplaces that enrich all of us who proudly call San Francisco our home.” In addition, the Mexican Museum announced on June 25th the creation of the Arts & Letters Council to help the museum’s relocation efforts. These 51 arts and letter professionals whom have worked in the museum’s permanent collection (from Rupert Garcia to chilean writer Isabel Allende) are ready to “advocate for the finalization of the museum as well as helping with the design of programming at the museum once open” as Edward James Olmos, its Honorary Chairman, claimed. Andy Kluger, chairman of the Mexican Museum board of directors felt “deeply honored to have the support of such luminaries.”

The Mexican Museum was created to exhibit the artistic expression of the Latino, Chicano, Mexican, and Mexican-American people. It was founded in 1975 by artist Peter Rodríguez and holds a permanent collection of over 14,000 objects including Pre-Hispanic, Colonial, Modern, and Contemporary art. It also offers educational and public programming throughout the Bay Area. It is the only San Francisco museum to be named an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.

David de la Torre, former Executive Director, expressed that “What was so exciting for everyone who came in contact with the Museum was the quest for understanding how rich Mexican art is, and sharing that richness with others. (…) It´s a great vehicle for learning. It´s like the pebble in the pool – the ripples go out to community, then region, then country, then Mexico and beyond.”