Planning staff previews fast-track rezoning plan to meet state housing targets

Planning Department staff on Thursday presented an informational update on "Expanding Housing Choice," the city'wide rezoning program intended to help San Francisco meet required Regional Housing Needs Allocation targets. Lisa Chen, a department planner, said staff is targeting a final rezoning proposal by January 2024 and has produced two concept maps that offer different trade-offs on height, density and where new housing would be concentrated.

The proposal aims to plan for a minimum of 36,200 units in state-designated housing opportunity areas by changing zoning to allow more housing along transit routes, commercial corridors and other key sites. "Most of this growth will be mid-rise in the range of 65 to 85 feet tall, which is roughly 6 to 8 stories," Chen said. Staff emphasized that concept maps are illustrative and that many iterations will follow, informed by technical analyses including a zone-capacity review and a financial feasibility study being conducted with consultant Century Urban.

Commissioners pressed staff on several policy details. They asked how a proposed local bonus program would interact with the state density bonus and whether state bonus projects could produce buildings taller than the "idealized final heights" shown on staff maps. Chen said one lever is to keep current local zoning as the baseline and offer a local program as an alternative to the state density-bonus route, adding that the city is in early-stage discussions with the city attorney and the state on that point. Commissioners also urged staff to make feasibility work transparent and to collect clearer geographic response data from outreach events.

Public commenters were split. Georgia Shudish urged the commission not to "rush the rezoning of San Francisco" and asked that staff publish the Century Urban feasibility study before final decisions; others, including housing advocates who attended the open houses, supported broader distribution of new housing beyond transit corridors. Staff noted two recent open houses drew about 200 attendees and that the public-engagement plan includes additional workshops, neighborhood walks and a streamlined online survey to gather targeted feedback through the fall.

The presentation was informational only; no vote was required. Staff said the next steps are to incorporate community feedback into revised zoning scenarios this fall, continue the feasibility and objective-design analyses, and return with a draft zoning proposal that reflects those findings.