The mayor’s plan to upzone swaths of San Francisco will no longer apply to buildings with three or more rent-controlled apartments.
The amendment, drafted by District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar’s office, has been accepted by Mayor Daniel Lurie into the zoning plan — which, if accepted by the Board of Supervisors and approved by the state, will allow developers to build taller, denser buildings in the western and northern parts of the city, so long as at least one additional unit of housing is being added to the lot.
The amendment exempts approximately 84,000 rental units in 11,500 buildings from the upzoning plan — and any ground floor retail that might be under them.
The amendment is in response to fears from renters and tenant advocates that the mayor’s previous plan created an incentive for developers to seek out buildings occupied by rent-controlled tenants because those sites could gain many additional units.
“Rent control helps preserve economically and racially diverse cities,” Melgar said. “I have always believed it is sound housing policy, giving tenants similar stability and predictable costs that homeowners enjoy with fixed mortgages and Prop 13.”
“The Anti-Displacement Coalition fought for the exemption of all rent-controlled housing from the beginning, so exempting 3-unit-plus buildings is a step in the right direction,” said Meg Heisler, a policy director at the Coalition.
Protecting the 84,000 number of rent-controlled units shouldn’t have an impact on the larger goal of the rezoning plan, which is to comply with a mandate from the state that is requiring San Francisco to create the capacity for 36,000 additional housing units — or risk losing its authority to approve or deny new housing projects.
That’s because the formula used to estimate how much housing San Francisco needed to add assumed that any building with more than four units constructed before 1979 — a proxy for rent-control eligibility — would not be redeveloped. This makes the amendment possible without risking loss of state approval.
“Supervisor Melgar’s new amendment to advance our Family Zoning plan will strengthen tenant protections while keeping our city on track to meet state housing mandates,” Lurie said.
Still, members of the Anti-Displacement Coalition warn that tenants remain vulnerable in the face of upzoning.
Two-unit buildings are not covered by the amendment, and there are 20,700 of them still included in the upzoning plan. However, since they are smaller (and some may be single family homes with accessory dwelling units), they tend not to be on the commercial and transit corridors receiving the bulk of the upzoning — approximately 16 percent of rent-control-eligible two unit buildings are receiving height limit increases under the plan.
Tenants of two-unit rent-controlled buildings already have fewer protections than tenants who live in buildings with three or more units, though, because a two-unit building can more easily be converted into condos. All that’s needed is for the owner to move in — and they can evict a tenant to do so.
Other changes to state policy have made tenants vulnerable in new ways, tenant advocates add. During the city’s last development boom, the Planning Commission had the power to reject a demolition permit for any reason. But under the state law “The Housing Crisis Act of 2019,” the commission can only deny a demolition permit if a developer fails to meet specific criteria.
Those criteria, outlined in the Tenant Protections Ordinance introduced by District 11 Supervisor Chyanne Chen’s office include: notifying tenants about their rights, hiring a relocation specialist to assist tenants when they move out, providing financial assistance to displaced tenants for 42 months, and offering tenants a unit in the new building — at the same or lower rent if the tenant is low income (or the opportunity to purchase a below market rate condo if the new building is not for rent).
While Lurie has previously said that there are already good protections for rent-controlled tenants, and that demolition of rent controlled buildings in San Francisco is rare, his decision to support these increased protections does not come as a huge surprise.
“I agree that preserving our rent control housing stock is essential to maintaining affordability in San Francisco,” he told Meglar during his Sept. 9 appearance in front of the Board of Supervisors. “I look forward to working with you on your forthcoming tenant protection proposals.”
The amendment will be formally introduced at the Land Use Committee meeting on Oct. 20.