Senator Wiener Praises Draft SF Rezoning Map: “This Plan Paves The Way For A More Affordable and Vibrant Future for San Francisco”

SAN FRANCISCO –  The San Francisco Planning Department, under the leadership of Mayor Lurie, released the first draft of its state-mandated plan to rezone the city to accommodate significantly more housing in San Francisco. This proposal will be the most ambitious change to San Francisco’s zoning since the historic downzoning of 1978 and will set the city on the path to produce tens of thousands of urgently needed homes to meet its state goal of building 82,000 homes.

This ambitious plan comes partly as a result of recent changes to state law by Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and others that require cities to plan for many more homes or lose funding and face other severe penalties from the state. In 2018, Senator Wiener authored and passed SB 828, which required the state to use real data, instead of politics, to set housing goals during the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) process. SB 828 is the main reason why San Francisco’s RHNA goal of building 82,000 new homes is triple the goal set during the last RHNA cycle 8 years ago. That goal obligates San Francisco to plan for more homes by rezoning. Combined with Senator Wiener’s streamlining law that is accelerating housing permits in San Francisco — SB 423 — this rezoning proposal could super-charge housing in our city.

To meet San Francisco’s state deadline, the Board of Supervisors must pass the rezoning proposal, after a period of input from the community, by the end of 2025.

Senator Wiener issued the following statement in response to the announcement:

“This zoning proposal is an ambitious step forward for housing in San Francisco. By allowing the homes we need to finally be built, this plan paves the way for a more affordable and vibrant future for San Francisco.

“San Francisco has made it far too difficult to build homes, going all the way back to 1978, when the Board of Supervisors voted to drastically downzone the city in an attempt to preserve single family neighborhoods. We have been paying the price ever since, as compounding layers of bureaucracy and process have strangled our housing production to create the horrific shortage of homes we face today. Our housing shortage is the main driver and root cause of the affordability crisis afflicting our city.

“Enacting this new vision for housing will be a massive step toward breaking San Francisco’s decades-long cycle of underbuilding and rising prices. Combined with our state-level work to accelerate permitting for new homes, the rezoning has the potential to move the dial.

“I congratulate Mayor Lurie for his clear-eyed leadership in charting a positive course for San Francisco on housing, and I look forward to the Board of Supervisors passing it.”

###