https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/S-F-plans-to-rezone-the-city-to-allow-the-17494992.php Skip to main content San Francisco Chronicle Homepage Currently Reading S.F. plans to rezone the city to allow the production of 34,000 new homes -- many on the westside * Subscribe Subscribe * e-Edition * Sign In [ ] * Climate + Drought + Fire Tracker + Quake Tracker + Drought Map + Air Quality Tracker + Wildfires + Weather + Weather Forecast * Video & Visuals * Reader Tools + Audio Tours + Place an obituary * Subscribe * About Us + Newsroom News + Chronicle Store + Season of Sharing + Terms of Use + Privacy Notice + Do Not Sell My Info + Advertise With Us * Bay Area + Data + Housing Crisis + PG&E + Transit + SF Homeless Project + COVID-19 Map + Golden Gate Park + San Francisco + COVID-19 + Crime + Health + Monkeypox * Sports + Giants + Warriors + 49ers + A's + Sharks + High School + College * Politics + Election 2022 * Tech * US & World + California * Opinions * Food + Top Wineries + Top Restaurants + Restaurants + Wine, Beer & Spirits * Travel + Outdoors + Tahoe * Vault: Our S.F. + Portals of the Past * Podcasts + The Doodler + Chronicled + Extra Spicy + Fifth & Mission + Total SF + Fixing Our City + It's All Political * Obituaries * In-Depth * Real Estate + Find a Home * Datebook + Movies & TV + Music + Theater + Art & Exhibits + Dance + Classical + Books + Festivals * Puzzles + Comics * Membership + Newsletters + About Membership + Exclusive offers + Join Now + e-edition + App + Manage my account Most Popular * The European weather model's outlook for upper-level systems on Tuesday, with the ridge of high pressure (red) centered west of Washington and Oregon while a weak trough of low pressure (blue) sits over Southern California. 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Bay Area // San Francisco S.F. plans to rezone the city to allow the production of 34,000 new homes -- many on the westside J.K. Dineen Oct. 7, 2022Updated: Oct. 7, 2022 5:09 p.m. Facebook Twitter Email Comments The Sunset District has not seen as much development of new housing like other parts of San Francisco have. But, that could change as the city strives to meet state housing mandates. The Sunset District has not seen as much development of new housing like other parts of San Francisco have. But, that could change as the city strives to meet state housing mandates. Ethan Swope, Staff / The Chronicle San Francisco planners will rezone parts of the city to allow for 34,000 housing units -- about 36% more than a previous plan -- under the latest draft of the state-mandated "housing element" published on Friday. The 34,000 units of "added capacity" will be focused in "high-resource" commercial corridors of the city -- much of it in the Sunset and Richmond districts -- that have not seen much development in recent decades. It represents a 36% increase from the last iteration of the housing element, a contract with the state that governs how and where California cities produce their share of residential development. San Francisco's housing element must plan for 82,000 units between 2023 and 2031, 46,000 of which need to be affordable to low- and moderate-income residents. In addition, the element must create a blueprint for "fair housing," which means that a significant amount of the new residential development must occur in "well-resourced" neighborhoods where discrimination and zoning rules have historically combined to keep out newcomers -- especially people of color -- and new buildings. So rather than downtown, SoMa, Mission Bay, Potrero Hill, Dogpatch, Bayview Hunters Point, the Mission, and the Tenderloin -- where 85% of all new housing has gone since 2000 -- the 34,000 units of increased capacity will require the rezoning of busy transit corridors on the west side like Geary, Sloat, Junipero Serra and Park Presidio boulevards; Judah, Noriega and Taraval streets; Ocean, 19th and West Portal avenues; and others. In addition to increasing the amount of housing planned for rezoned neighborhoods, the new housing element draft added analysis on the factors that slow down housing production, such as the city's politically-charged discretionary review process. The latest element also includes "development of a comprehensive strategy to get to the new scale of sustained affordable housing funding and implementation required to reach 46,000 units over the next 8 years, as proposed by key affordable housing stakeholders." Changes could include eliminating the need for conditional use authorization in order to remove a single-family home and replace it with multi-unit building. "We get where (the state) is wanting us to head," said Rich Hillis, the city's planning director. "We are trying to get as close as possible to ministerial approval in high-resourced areas." Chris Elmendorf, a professor of law at UC Davis and expert on housing elements, called increasing the amount of units that will come from rezoning "a good move." "Essentially, the housing element is going to commit the city to a rezoning place -- not all the details, but the contours of the plan," he said "The most important contour is how much capacity do we have to provide through the plan." But, he said, in order to make the housing element meaningful the city will have to come up with a plan to remove barriers to development -- namely making it cheaper to build. That will require a comprehensive review of fees and affordable housing requirements. The new draft of the housing element mentions that a recently reconvened committee of housing experts would take a look at the feasibility of the current 22% inclusionary affordable housing requirement. "You need to combine streamlining with lower costs of building and that doesn't seem to be under discussion in any serious way," Elmendorf said. "There is a self-contradiction between what the city is aspiring to do and what the city's own analysis suggests is likely to happen. The only way to resolve the contradiction is to make it a lot cheaper to build." Principal planner Maia Small said that some of the projects that could be jump started by the rezoning of the city's westside are small to mid-sized developments that are more feasible than the steel-frame or concrete highrises common in downtown neighborhoods. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Area's largest water districts. "While all development is hard right now -- the capital markets are stressed and construction costs are high -- the small to medium sized projects in high-resourced areas are doing better than high-rise projects," said Small. "We have to open up strong in the first four years, to get a jump start on the process." Meanwhile, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors will hold a hearing on the housing element on Nov. 15. "This is among the most important policy and planning decisions we will be making as a city in the coming months," said Supervisor Gordon Mar, who represents the Sunset District. "When it comes before the Board of Supervisors it's just going to be an up or down vote. So this will be an opportunity for the Board of Supervisors to engage before that vote. It is an existentially important issue and the Board of Supervisors should be actively involved." Charlie Sciammas, policy director of the Council of Community Housing Organizations, said that the housing element should take the advice of Planning Commissioner Rachael Tanner, who, during a September Planning Commission hearing, "spoke to the importance of tackling the city's affordable housing production goals head-on with an ambitious and proactive strategy." "We know that meeting this goal will require a whole set of strategies and approaches to expanding affordable housing that is entirely different from those that we have relied on for the past couple of decades," he said. "We would love to see a process to convene community, technical and public sector experts in a series of discussions to outline a proactive strategy that is responsive to Commissioner Tanner's request." 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. * Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Area's largest water districts. Photo of J.K. Dineen Written By J.K. Dineen Reach J.K. on J.K. Dineen covers housing and real estate development. He joined The Chronicle in 2014 covering San Francisco land use politics for the City Hall team. He has since expanded his focus to explore housing and development issues throughout Northern California. He is the author of two books: "Here Tomorrow" (Heyday, 2013) and "High Spirits" (Heyday, 2015). 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