PAR’s well-attended General Membership Meeting on May 2, 2025, dealt with the most pressing issue affecting our neighborhood: the State Housing Mandates and the looming threat of the Mayor’s rezoning plan.
To better inform our members about this issue, PAR convened a panel discussion with experts to break down the upzoning issue and how it will affect tenants, homeowners and small businesses in San Francisco’s neighborhoods.
First, San Francisco Planning Dept staff representative Rachel Tanner presented Mayor Lurie’s proposed San Francisco Family Zoning Plan, a plan created to fulfill the State’s Housing Mandate requirements.
According to Tanner, while the market rate housing requirements have been fulfilled many times over, only 10% of affordable and mixed income housing has been built in “housing opportunity areas,” over 50% of the city. The Planning Department claims that the upzoning plan will create “affordable and mixed-income housing to overcome historic patterns of exclusion and segregation.”
Moreover, if San Francisco does not comply with rezoning, we risk loss of state funding, including for transportation & affordable housing, fines and lawsuits, and state seizure of local permitting powers, the “Builder’s Remedy,” which would allow developers to circumvent local zoning control.
Lori Brooks, Co-Founder of Neighborhoods United, laid out some of the major issues with the proposed upzoning plan. The State’s Housing Mandate targets are based on pre-pandemic levels and have not been adjusted to reflect the plateau in new residents. The Housing Mandate is an un-funded mandate meaning, it does not provide any funding or infrastructure for the increased population. Should all the units required by the Housing Mandate be filled, hundreds of thousands of new residents could move San Francisco with no new infrastructure. According to Brooks, the Housing Mandate is excessive, unpredictable, risky, speculative, and punitive, and the Builder’s Remedy is a bullying tactic.
Upzoning does not translate to affordability, because as we have already seen, market rate housing dominates, and will continue to dominate. Families cannot compete against investors and international capital. Speculators can buy housing and sit on it indefinitely. The upzoning legislation has irreversible consequences: the law does not allow for down-zoning. Berkeley and Vancouver both build significantly, and both cities became more expensive as a result.
San Francisco is one of the densest cities in the country and the Richmond is one of the densest neighborhoods.
Joseph Smook of Race in Equity in All Planning provided an analysis of the upzoning plan from a tenant perspective, contending that market rate developers have already built double the luxury housing they were allowed to build, and less than 50% of the affordable housing they were supposed to build. We cannot justify the upzoning plan by claiming there is a housing shortage, when there are at least 60,000 vacant units within San Francisco.
The Planning Department has approved nearly 70,000 units that developers have not built. They have not built it because they don’t see a demand.
These actions by the state have already led to an increase in speculation, which leads to an increase in displacement. Several existing state laws need to be reversed and repealed. We need to demand truly and permanently affordable housing, and that public lands be restricted for 100% affordable housing.
Sean Kim, Vice President of the Geary Merchants Association and owner Richmond District Legacy Business Joe’s Ice Cream helped to share the perspective of a small business owner and the concerns he has with the proposed upzoning.
Joe’s Ice Cream’s new landlord wants to demolish the current building and build a new building that is 8 stories high. If this is allowed under the new upzoning plan, Joe’s will be evicted. Sean Kim believes he would not be able to relocate because the same incentives to demolish and build higher could apply to any other replacement building in the neighborhood.
In conclusion, there are many reasons to be concerned with the State Housing Mandate, the Mayor’s proposed Family Housing Plan, and another proposed legislation that would allow for upzoning of the Western neighborhoods, including San Francisco.
Planning Association of the Richmond (PAR) will continue to follow the upzoning legislation closely, submit letters of opposition and facilitate community gatherings wherever possible.