Fiscal Year 2023-24
Highlights
Housing Element: Proposed Rezoning
San Francisco is required to complete its Housing Element-mandated rezoning by January 2026 to accommodate a minimum of 36,200 additional housing units. As a key component of this, we conducted extensive public engagement throughout 2023 and 2024, issued a preliminary rezoning map in February 2024 and received extensive feedback from the public and elected officials. The Department is working to refine the proposal and address height limits, historic preservation, project feasibility, and protections for tenants and small businesses among other issues. A new proposed zoning map is likely to be issued in early 2025 and will be followed by public hearings and the legislative adoption process.
Aligned with the goals and policies of the adopted Housing Element, particularly to Affirmatively Further Fair Housing, the draft proposal would increase allowable building heights and density in well-resourced neighborhoods. The February 2024 proposed rezoning map appears below and includes the following key elements:
New housing would be distributed across “Housing Opportunity Areas” so that no single neighborhood or set of neighborhoods would bear a disproportionate share of new housing.
Mid-rise buildings (6 - to -8 stories) would be focused on major transit routes, commercial streets, and other main thoroughfares. These areas are better served by transit, retail, and other amenities, and contain more sites that are suitable and likely to be developed into housing.
Locate taller buildings (ranging from 140’ – 300’, or 14-to-30 stories) in more limited areas that currently allow buildings of 80’ or more (e.g. Van Ness Avenue) and at key intersections and locations along other major corridors.
Promote “missing middle” housing and smaller multifamily homes outside of major corridors by changing density limits to allow more housing to be built within existing height limits (generally 40’, or 4-stories).
