>San Francisco officials want to close a chronic housing shortfall with a new rezoning plan designed to concentrate taller homes in neighborhoods that haven’t had any major construction in decades.
>Why it matters: San Francisco is behind on meeting an ambitious California-set goal of building at least 82,000 new homes in the city by 2031.
>The state has determined the city must change its zoning rules in order to comply with state law or face losing funding and risk a potential takeover of its housing approval process.
>State of play: The new proposal backed by Mayor Daniel Lurie, called the “family rezoning plan,” could dramatically alter many parts of the city with new building heights and rules accommodating multi-dwellings on properties to help fill a 36,200 housing unit shortage.
>What they’re saying: “For too long, San Francisco has made it easier to block new homes than to build them,” Lurie said in an emailed statement. “Now, the state has given us a clear mandate to build more housing with real consequences if we don’t.”
>The big picture: The proposed changes are part of San Francisco’s switch to form-based zoning, which prioritizes the physical elements of a building and its surroundings instead of solely regulating land use, said Rachael Tanner, San Francisco’s director of citywide planning.
>The goal is to make it easier to create more homes in existing neighborhoods by removing strict unit count restrictions, she added.
>By the numbers: The rezoning is primarily targeted at areas that have been “historically exclusionary,” representing just 10% of all new affordable and mixed-income housing construction since 2005 despite making up more than half of the city, according to the plan.
>Between the lines: The plan would prioritize constructing more dense, mid-sized development near commercial streets and major transit corridors, with height limits reaching between six to eight stories in most areas around the Richmond and Sunset districts.
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>San Francisco officials want to close a chronic housing shortfall with a new rezoning plan designed to concentrate taller homes in neighborhoods that haven’t had any major construction in decades.
>Why it matters: San Francisco is behind on meeting an ambitious California-set goal of building at least 82,000 new homes in the city by 2031.
>The state has determined the city must change its zoning rules in order to comply with state law or face losing funding and risk a potential takeover of its housing approval process.
>State of play: The new proposal backed by Mayor Daniel Lurie, called the “family rezoning plan,” could dramatically alter many parts of the city with new building heights and rules accommodating multi-dwellings on properties to help fill a 36,200 housing unit shortage.
>What they’re saying: “For too long, San Francisco has made it easier to block new homes than to build them,” Lurie said in an emailed statement. “Now, the state has given us a clear mandate to build more housing with real consequences if we don’t.”
>The big picture: The proposed changes are part of San Francisco’s switch to form-based zoning, which prioritizes the physical elements of a building and its surroundings instead of solely regulating land use, said Rachael Tanner, San Francisco’s director of citywide planning.
>The goal is to make it easier to create more homes in existing neighborhoods by removing strict unit count restrictions, she added.
>By the numbers: The rezoning is primarily targeted at areas that have been “historically exclusionary,” representing just 10% of all new affordable and mixed-income housing construction since 2005 despite making up more than half of the city, according to the plan.
>Between the lines: The plan would prioritize constructing more dense, mid-sized development near commercial streets and major transit corridors, with height limits reaching between six to eight stories in most areas around the Richmond and Sunset districts.