Category: Land Use

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OPPOSITION GROWS TO LURIE’S ZONING PLAN THAT WOULD TRANSFORM SAN FRANCISCO

By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt

Tonight at the PAR meeting in the Richmond, I learned that people had not received the notices regarding upzoning and they were hearing about it for the first time the day before the Planning Commisioners are considering approving the over 400 pages of legal writings and maps that supposedly define the new zoning parameters.
We also learned a bit more about the only options that are so far offered to mitigate some of the negative effects the rezoning map may have on existing residents and businesses. People are concerned and angry people when they learn about the plan. They are really upset with Senator Wiener who has been relentless in his efforts to usurp control over the entire state by removing single family zoning. Trust in government is at an all time low for a reason.

Tenants, neighborhood groups, and some supes are saying the plan will hurt renters and small businesses—and needs more environmental review

Opposition to Mayor Daniel Lurie’s plan to upzone much of the city is emerging on several fronts, from tenants, small businesses, and a neighborhood group that argues the sweeping plan never got a valid environmental review. There’s also a serious problem with providing transit service to the new residents.

Meanwhile, two supervisors are pushing legislation to address some of the displacement concerns, and Lurie has already said he will support one of those bills…

At Question Time today, Sup. Myrna Melgar told Lurie that a lot of people are worried about the displacement of small businesses and rent-controlled housing units.

Lurie said “we will not leave rent-controlled units and small businesses behind.” He insisted that “most new housing is built on vacant land,” which may be the case now—but there’s no way to build the tens of thousands of units his plan envisions without demolishing existing residential and commercial structures.

Melgar has introduced legislation that provides incentives to developers and landlords to protect housing and small business:..

Meanwhile, Sup. Chyanne Chen has introduced a broader bill. The Race and Equity in All Planning Coalition issued a statement saying that it will work with Chen to make sure the bill:

  • Requires disclosure of plans to demolish and early noticing of rights to tenants;
  • Prevents wrongful evictions and holds landlords accountable for bad behavior;
  • Guarantees the maximum possible relocation assistance allowed under the law; and
  • Enforces tenants’ rights to return to a comparable unit should their building be redeveloped…

RELATED:
The six fatal flaws in Mayor Lurie’s so-called ‘Family Zoning Plan’
Mayor will face opponents to zoning plan at rallies outside of City Hall
Engardio recall is a shot across the bow of every San Francisco elected official

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Can S.F. Mayor Daniel Lurie’s ‘family zoning’ plan survive political backlash?

By J.D. Morris, J.K. Dineen, sfchronicle – excerpt

One of many signs popping up in windows around the city as the plan is the “Family housing Plan” is introduced.

As his sweeping plan to allow 36,000 new homes in San Francisco advances, Mayor Daniel Lurie faces a difficult question: Can he usher in a seismic shift in local land-use rules without triggering massive political backlash?

The answer won’t be known for months, but an inflection point will arrive Thursday, when the planning commission takes up what Lurie calls his “family zoning” plan. It’s a far-reaching proposal that seeks to expand the city’s housing supply by allowing taller residential buildings from Fisherman’s Wharf to the west edges of the Richmond and Sunset districts.

Commissioners are expected to approve the plan, but they don’t have the final word. The plan will be taken up next by the Board of Supervisors, where some members are pushing for changes amid an outcry from critics who fear the rezoning would lead to the displacement of small businesses and allow rent-controlled housing and historic buildings to be demolished.

Lurie will have to balance competing interests as he works to ensure supervisors approve the plan by a state-mandated January deadline.

San Francisco is legally required to permit 82,000 new homes by 2031, though it will take far longer for all those units to get built. More than half the total will come from development that’s already approved; the remainder would come from the zoning plan. The stakes are high: If San Francisco doesn’t show it’s making a good-faith effort toward meeting the 82,000-home goal, the state will take control of the city’s housing approval process.

While Lurie tries to avoid a state takeover on housing, he must also grapple with political considerations…

A coalition representing organizations with concerns about the plan met with Lurie last week and sent him a letter afterward saying that the rezoning “risks fueling speculation, inflating land costs, driving demolitions, and making it harder for mission‑driven developers to build.”…

Separately, small business leaders have signed onto another letter to Lurie warning that the plan could “force closures of businesses that have served San Francisco for generations.” That letter asked the mayor to work with neighborhood groups to identify locations for denser development “without destroying existing corridors.”

At a news conference last week, Lurie told reporters that his administration was “always happy to discuss” the plan with critics. He promised to “work tirelessly to protect our small businesses,” and his planning director, Sarah Dennis Phillips, said the administration was receptive to “helpful modifications” embraced by the San Francisco Small Business Commission…

Dennis Phillips also said the mayor was working with Supervisor Chyanne Chen on legislation to strengthen protections for tenants whose homes may be torn down...

Mandelman said he wants Lurie’s administration to commit to a plan for preserving some of the city’s older buildings, either by creating new historic districts or designating individual landmarks…

Some of the same people pushing for the recall are also outraged about Lurie’s zoning plan — a fact that may weigh on the mayor if he is tasked with appointing a replacement for Engardio…(more)

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What you should know about the Upzoning

If you live in SF, or in the state of California you have probably heard something about Upzoing plans. If you are confused about the maps and the plans, you are not alone. See the September meetings listed on the calendar for where you may go to learn more: https://csfn.net/csfn-events/

People who try to follow it are constantly finding themselves running down another rabbit hole that leads back to Sacramento and our most controversial State Senator Wiener. After Wiener and Newsom removed the authority of the California Coastal Coastal Commission to control development on the California coast, Wiener is pushing SB 79 to remove single family zoning from the entire state. See the map below that attempts to illustrate the effects of SB 79 on the SF Zoning map

This iMap is supposed to indicate he targeted areas for SB 79

Wieners enemies may outweigh his friends, but his friends hold a huge,  powerful purse and they are shifting him toward Washington. Some would like to see him go just to get him out of Sacramento, but others want him permanently out of politics. Given his close ties to the most unpopular SF Supervisor in SF, and the disdain hundreds of cities and communities around the state have for him, Scott may need more than money to win the Washington post he covets.  But we are here to look a the maps.

The SF Planning Department has created many maps and overlays and new ones are popping up all the time.  Everyone appears to be confused.

The below map that indicates where density decontrol may be applied  is perhaps the most disturbing as it covers the entire city, including those neighborhoods that were already up zoned in the Eastern Neighborhoods.
Density decontrol is a new term that applies to the minimum size of a unit. It appears there is no minimum requirement where destiny decontrol is applied.

We understand the height limits along the pink areas are also open to density decontrol.

Given all the various maps and re-zoning at the state and local levels, the one question no one can answer is, how do all the state and local density laws affect each other? Can developers apply state density bonuses on top of city height limit increases? No one seems to know the answer.

Find out more by attending one of the September meetings where discussion will be held and SF Planning explains the plans and the public gets to ask what is means to them.

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Problems with SB 79 after Amendments

  • SB 79 still does not provide for enough affordable housing.
  • SB 79 will reduce affordable housing by allowing older, naturally affordable buildings to be replaced by largely market-rate buildings.
  • Local control of affordable inclusionary housing in SB 79 projects is a red herring  – HCD severely limits this “option”.  Local inclusionary built under
  • SB 79  should override any limitations by state administrative agencies.
  • SB 79 is a major state override of local control. – overrides the state approved housing element and mandates unneeded density in inappropriate places.
  • The bill is misleading by offering local control through allowing alternate plans by localities. – Any such plan still requires inappropriate density, overrides the state approved housing element, and requires approval of HCD.
  • Bus routes are an inappropriate basis for rezoning property. Routes can change or be manipulated in weeks. The housing built under SB 79 will be permanent.
  • SB 79 needs a 5 year sunset clause.

 

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‘Take your concert and go f*** yourselves’: Park neighbors lose it after weeks of chaos

By George Kelly and Tomoki Chien : sfstandard – excerpt

The Richmond has had it. 

After four consecutive weekends of major events that cumulatively will bring half a million people to Golden Gate Park, neighborhood residents are reeling from the impact of crowds, noise, trash, drunken foolery, and traffic disruptions that have transformed their neighborhood into a nonstop bacchanal.

The surge of large-scale events began in late July with the San Francisco Marathon and continued through three days of Dead & Company performances, three more for the Outside Lands Music Festival, and one last large-scale concert Friday, with legions making their way to and from Golden Gate Park through the Richmond.

Of course, when hundreds of thousands of revelers pour into a typically sleepy district, there are bound to be tensions — and complaints.

“Take your Outside fucking Lands and go fuck yourselves,” said one rant submitted to San Francisco’s 311 system. “Take your fucking Grateful Dead concert and go fuck yourselves. Take your Golden Gate Park concert and go fuck yourselves. This is a RESIDENTIAL neighborhood.”

In the nearly 100 submissions logged with 311, residents reported pee bottles on the street (including a photo), cars blocking their driveways, smoking concertgoers, and trash on the sidewalks. Mostly, though, callers complained about the “insufferably loud” thumps of bass.

Residents have long complained about noise at Outside Lands. In 2019, two peace-loving San Franciscans filed a California Environmental Quality Act appeal in an attempt to bar the city from renewing the festival’s permit.

This year, neighbors took to Nextdoor to air grievances, calling on residents to bring their gripes directly to Supervisor Connie Chan, who represents the Richmond…(more)

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The looming threat to hundreds of small businesses in San Francisco

By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt

Almost a third of all the small businesses in the city’s neighborhood commercial districts could face displacement under Mayor Daniel Lurie’s plan to allow more and denser housing in neighborhoods, data from the City Planning Department shows.

In some neighborhoods—the Geary corridor, for example—nearly half the small local merchants are endangered, the data shows.

That’s because the so-called “family housing” plan would encourage developers to demolish small buildings to put up larger ones—and many of those small buildings have small commercial tenants.

City planners tell me that they will discourage the demolition of existing rent-controlled housing (although SB 79)  a bill by Sen. Scott Wiener would encourage that practice.)

But 1,769 small businesses are in vulnerable places (sites that are prime for new development where there are no existing residential units)—and 47 are officially recognized “legacy businesses.”

As the planning report notes:.. (more)

The Small Business Commissioners agreed at their meeting on Monday. They took no action, pending plans to talk to neighborhood merchants and consider legislative remedies. They do not fee that any of the current Board of Supervisors are working on anything of substance yet. (July 28, 25 meeting)

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PRESS RELEASE: SAN FRANCISCO HERITAGE PROTESTS PLANNED DEMOLITION OF CITY LANDMARK

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 21, 2025 [SAN FRANCISCO]—San Francisco Heritage, the city’s leading preservation nonprofit, protests a planned demolition of 447 Battery Street, one of San Francisco’s 320 designated city landmarks, and calls on the Board of Supervisors to preserve the building.

As part of a proposed development agreement between the city and developer Related California, 447 Battery Street—the former Jones Thierbach Coffee Company warehouse and San Francisco Landmark no. 299—is proposed for demolition to make way for a mixed-use luxury office/hotel tower at 530 Sansome Street and new city fire station.

“This is unprecedented,” said Woody LaBounty, SF Heritage President & CEO. “Since the city’s landmarks program establishment in the late 1960s, only 320 have been designated and none have been intentionally destroyed.”…

“Landmarks are more than old or attractive buildings,” LaBounty said. “From the Mission Cultural Center to the Rainbow Flag in the Castro to City Cemetery in Lincoln Park, they tell our collective story. By establishing that they can be erased for needs of the moment we open the door to losing any of them.”

San Francisco has more than 200,000 parcels, but only 320 designated landmarks under Article 10 of the Planning Code. The purpose of Article 10 is described as necessary to promote the health, safety, and general welfare of the public through, in part, “the enrichment of human life in its educational and cultural dimensions…by fostering knowledge of the living heritage of the past.”… (more)

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YOUNG PEOPLE ARE LEAVING S.F. CAN AN OBSCURE CHANGE TO THE CITY’S CODE HELP BRING THEM BACK?

By Emily Hoeven – sfchronicle – excerpt

… An arcane city planning code provision prohibits more than five people from living together in the same “dwelling unit” — such as a single-family home or large apartment — unless they’re legally related family members or they function like a family, including by buying and eating all their meals together.

Six unrelated housemates living together in, say, a six-bedroom Victorian, is essentially outlawed….

San Francisco embraces co-living in places designated as group homes, such as “tech dorms,” tiny sleeping pods and single-room occupancy hotels. (Masimore’s building, which is attached to a church, used to be a rectory that housed the clergy.)

But until now, single-family homes and large apartments have been off-limits for these types of arrangements.

On Monday, Supervisor Bilal Mahmood plans to introduce legislation to change that, he shared with me exclusively.

The five-person limit is “arbitrary and difficult to enforce,” Mahmood told me, adding that it’s also “antithetical to San Francisco values” by creating a distinction between related family and chosen family. Furthermore, Mahmood said, “It doesn’t even reflect our range of housing needs.” …

By focusing on lease agreements, rather than individuals, Mahmood’s bill doesn’t limit the number of people who can live in a dwelling unit. (He’s setting the maximum number of lease agreements at nine to avoid interfering with another part of the city code that requires any building with 10 or more units to pay inclusionary housing fees.) .

Fixing San Francisco’s codes gets complicated quickly, but Mahmood’s legislation could prove to be an innovative solution to help the city’s housing crisis. … (more)

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A ‘poison pill’ in California’s budget deal ties state spending to construction

By Alexei Koseff : calmatters – excerpt

IN SUMMARY: A state budget is headed to Gov. Gavin Newsom for his signature, but it won’t take effect unless the Legislature makes changes to housing and infrastructure development rules that he has demanded…

After days of confusion in which a deal with Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened to unravel over his demand to include new housing and infrastructure regulations, the California Legislature passed an updated state budget on Friday.

With the start of a new fiscal year looming on July 1, budget negotiations — already challenged by a $12 billion and growing deficit — dragged on this week as Newsom and legislative leaders struggled to reach an agreement on waiving state environmental reviews for priority projects.

The details of that proposal were only made public Friday morning, hours before the budget vote, despite a poison pill that would invalidate the entire $321 billion spending plan if the Legislature does not also approve the infrastructure proposal, Senate Bill 131. Lawmakers are expected to take it up on Monday, alongside the housing measure Newsom sought, Assembly Bill 130, which was unveiled and then amended this week following fierce blowback from organized labor.

Officials involved in those negotiations have been loath to explain why the budget process staggered to such an odd and protracted conclusion this year, even as California is now set to adopt sweeping changes to how it builds without much public notice. Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas refused to speak with reporters after the vote…

The final budget relies on reserves and internal borrowing … (more)

Internal borrowing?

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SF plan to add housing density set to go before lawmakers

: sfexaminer – excerpt (audio)

San Francisco’s yearslong, often-contentious campaign to redraw its zoning map reached a major milestone Tuesday when Mayor Daniel Lurie formally submitted the legislative package for his “family zoning” plan, which aims to add housing density throughout The City’s western and northern neighborhoods.

“For too long, San Francisco made it easier to block homes than to build them,” Lurie said, during a press conference to highlight the legislative advance.

Lurie delivered his remarks in front of a five-story affordable development in San Francisco’s Westwood Park neighborhood that was built in the wake of a previous round of upzoning…

City leaders must approve an up zoning plan that passes muster with California authorities by January 2026 or risk penalties that include state funding cuts as well as the loss of more control over local development decisions.

But even as Lurie’s legislative package moves forward, a number of key companion measures — intended to address widespread unease about the up zoning proposals — remain very much on the drawing board.

Those measures include separate legislative packages that would add additional safeguards for tenants and small businesses. They have been drawn up in collaboration with progressive housing activists who warn that if The City fails to act, the proposed up zoning ordinance could unleash a wave of evictions, as redevelopment projects proliferate and displace longstanding tenants.

“At this point, it seems like everyone’s working diligently” to draft the companion measures, People Power Media cofounder Joseph Smooke, who has been helping to lead the advocacy campaign surrounding the rezoning effort.

Nevertheless, Smooke said, “we’re cautious of course, because the schedules could become out of sync quickly.”

Advocates are also pushing The City to adopt stronger preservation standards for historic buildings and to draw up an inventory of sites that are suitable for the development of publicly-funded affordable housing.

During the Tuesday morning press conference, Planning Department officials said The City is still on track to pass the companion measures alongside the central rezoning legislation.

“We’re ensuring that this plan reflects local voices and local values, and will continue to do that as it moves through the adoption process,” said Sarah Dennis Phillips, who has been leading the Office of Economic and Workforce Development but is now set to replace Planning Director Rich Hillis after he recently announced plans to resign from the role…. (more)