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Thursday, February 25, 2021. There is currently a movement across the Bay Area to end exclusionary single-family zoning by allowing four-plexes on lots currently restricted to single family homes. The building at 247 27th Avenue is a four-plex on a single-family lot.1of12 The view from the rooftop deck of 247 27th Avenue in San Francisco, Calif. Thursday, February 25, 2021. There is currently a movement across the Bay Area to end exclusionary single-family zoning by allowing four-plexes on lots currently restricted to single family homes. The building at 247 27th Avenue is a four-plex on a single-family lot. Jessica Christian/The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less The view from the rooftop deck of 247 27th Ave.2of12 The view from the rooftop deck of 247 27th Ave. Jessica Christian / The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less The entrance to a fourplex at 247-249 27th Ave.3of12 The entrance to a fourplex at 247-249 27th Ave. Jessica Christian / The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less 4of12 The fourplex condo at 247-249 27th Ave. Jessica Christian / The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less 5of12 A rooftop deck for two of four condos at 247-249 27th Ave. in San Francisco. Jessica Christian / The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less 6of12 The view from one of three bedrooms on the third floor of 247 27th Ave. Jessica Christian / The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less 7of12 The rooftop deck of 247 27th Ave. in San Francisco. The building is a fourplex crammed on a single-family lot. Most single-family lots in the city are too small for a fourplex. Photos by Jessica Christian / The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less 8of12 One of three bedrooms on the third floor of 247 27th Ave. A movement to end zoning for single-family homes is gaining steam across the Bay Area. Jessica Christian / The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less 9of12 Two of four condos that make up 247-249 27th Ave. in San Francisco. Ending exclusionary single-family zoning by allowing four-plexes on lots currently restricted to single family homes has gained steam across the Bay Area. Jessica Christian / The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less 10of12 The living room on the second floor of 247 27th Ave. in San Francisco. The fourplex is one o the few on a single-family lot in the city. Jessica Christian / The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less 11of12 The view from one of three bedrooms on the third floor of 247 27th Ave. in San Francisco. Jessica Christian / The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less 12of12 The entrance to a fourplex condo at 247-249 27th Ave. is seen in San Francisco. Jessica Christian / The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less * * * * * * * * * * * * The national movement to eliminate exclusionary single-family zoning is picking up steam in the Bay Area as cities explore the benefits of getting rid of a land use policy designed to keep people of color and working class families out of certain neighborhoods. Last week, the city councils in Berkeley and South San Francisco took steps to end single-family zoning, with Berkeley promising to get rid of it within a year and South City initiating a study as part of its general plan update. After the Berkeley vote, Council Member Terry Taplin, one of the authors of the resolution, called it a "historical moment for us in Berkeley." But while the movement to allow multifamily buildings in zones previously limited to single-family homes is being embraced as a correction of past discriminatory policies -- Sacramento, Oregon and Minneapolis have passed such laws -- the question of whether it will actually increase housing production is a lot more complicated, according to builders and architects. In particular, building "fourplexes" -- the four-unit building type that has been promoted as a more democratic, sustainable and affordable alternative to the single-family homes -- is challenging in fully built out urban centers such as San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley, where vacant land is scarce and expensive, construction costs high and lots are small. Housing Crisis * Bay Area Berkeley vows to end single-family zoning by end of 2022:... By Sarah Ravani * Bay Area California bill would lean on cities to build multiunit... By Alexei Koseff * Bay Area Berkeley considers ending single-family zoning by... By Sarah Ravani * Bay Area If San Francisco is so progressive, why is it so slow to... By Beatrice Cardenas-Duncan * Bay Area S.F. supervisor's creative proposal: Make it hard to... By Heather Knight In San Francisco, Supervisor Rafael Mandelman has proposed looking at allowing fourplexes in single-family zoned neighborhoods on corner lots and near transit stations. But builders say the city is home to a combination of factors that make fourplexes a tricky proposition. San Francisco has the third smallest lot sizes in the United States -- averaging 2,700 square feet -- which doesn't allow much room to shoehorn four units. And vacant lots are rare, as are "tear downs," small and outdated homes that don't have much value. Sean Kieghran, president of San Francisco's Residential Builders Association, said he supports getting rid of single-family only zoning but doesn't think it will result in many new units. Kieghran said that building fourplexes requires either two staircases or a staircase and an elevator, which takes up too much of the site. And, unless the city streamlined the process of building a fourplex on a single-family lot, builders would run into too many bureaucratic obstacles, Kieghran said. "With how long it takes to get through planning and fire and DPW and all the other red tape it's not likely we are going to see anybody building fourplexes anytime soon," he said. Before the late 1960s, San Francisco developers regularly built two-, three-, and four-unit buildings. Stacked flats were the bread and butter of San Francisco's housing stock. But in the late 1960s and 1970s a series of laws changed that, and the majority of the city, especially the west side, was rezoned to prohibit anything but single-family homes. One of the few architects to design fourplexes on single-family sized lots in the last few decades is Daniel Solomon, who has worked on three such projects. One of those is at 247 27th Ave., a quartet of svelte townhomes that rise like matchsticks to a roof-deck with views of the Golden Gate Bridge and beyond. The building blends into a block that is pretty typical of the Richmond District -- there are single-family homes, stacked flats with two or three units, and larger apartment buildings on the corner. "These are nifty little projects, but they won't make a big dent in the housing need," Solomon said. "That zoning is a tool to create housing production is a widely held and completely fallacious idea. Just because something is permitted doesn't mean it happens. It's very hard to find a vacant lot or tear down at a price that would work." He said the fourplexes he designed and built were profitable, but barely. And they took as much time to design and execute as the 100-unit complexes his firm, Mithun, is known for. "You would need to find a developer willing to take a risk on a minuscule profit and an architect who enjoys brain damage," he said. "They are complicated little projects. It's the absolute opposite of economy of scale." While lots are bigger in the East Bay, there are still plenty of obstacles, according to Tom Anthony, a veteran Oakland builder. Land is expensive, neighbors unreceptive to development, and current requirements -- 12-foot driveways, open space requirements, parking minimums -- would make four units impossible unless it's a large lot. And the projects would be expensive -- four 1,250-square-foot units would likely cost more than $2.25 million, not including land, taxes, loan interest and other fees. Find a Home Where to live in the Bay Area Moving? Our guide lets you search dozens of cities, towns and neighborhoods to find the one that's right for you. The key will be making it easy and not piling on fees, according to Victoria Fierce of East Bay For Everyone, a pro-housing group. She pointed to an Oakland developer who wanted to do a fourplex on a vacant lot, but the fees -- $24,000 per unit plus a $50,000 administrative fee for doing a multifamily building -- made it too costly. Advocates of fourplexes argue that the buildings can help house "the missing middle," households who earn too much to qualify for subsidized housing. To hit the missing middle in San Francisco, the units would have to be affordable to households making between 80% to 120% of area median income, which for a family of four is between $102,500 and $153,700 a year. Opponents to the upzoning fear that it could lead to displacement. South San Francisco Mayor Mark Addiego said developers could target small single-family rentals that provide some of the city's more affordable housing. "I am fearful that the first houses to be gobbled up by developers might be that 60- or 70-year-old little rental on a fair sized lot that can be had for $700,000 or $800,000," he said. "The part of town that is under risk is downtown, the oldest housing stock we have and some of the best values for families." The model might work best in more suburban communities with larger lot sizes and less expensive land, said Peter Cohen of the Council of Community Housing Organizations. He said cities getting rid of single-family zoning should focus on who these units will be serving and how they will help solve the region's affordable-housing crisis. "If the underlying premise of the movement around ending single-family zoning is that it's going to make housing more affordable, my question is how? How is it going to make housing more affordable? What is the affordability strategy?" J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jdineen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfjkdineen Fifth & Mission The Chronicle's flagship news podcast. Listen and subscribe on your favorite app. Click the player below for the latest episode. * Find a Home Where to live in the Bay Area Moving? Our guide lets you search dozens of cities, towns and neighborhoods to find the one that's right for you. Written By J.K. Dineen Reach J.K. on J.K. Dineen joined the San Francisco Chronicle in 2014, focusing on real estate development for the metro group, a beat that includes land use, housing, neighborhoods, the port, retail, and city parks. Prior to joining The Chronicle, he worked for the San Francisco Business Times, the San Francisco Examiner, the New York Daily News, and a bunch of newspapers in his native Massachusetts, including the Salem Evening News and the MetroWest Daily News. He is the author of two books: Here Tomorrow, about historic preservation in California (Heyday, 2013); and the forthcoming High Spirits (Heyday 2015), a book of essays about legacy bars of San Francisco. A graduate of Macalester College, Dineen was a member of Teach For America's inaugural class and taught sixth grade in Brooklyn, N.Y. View Comments Top of the News * How a fierce lobbying effort amid COVID boosted California health funding Democratic lawmakers have secured a landmark agreement that promises $300 million a year in new state funding to fortify and reimagine California's hollowed-out public health system, a complex... 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