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At a glance:
Mayor Lurie proposes denser, taller housing across San Francisco
City, under state pressure, aiming to add 36,000 homes by 2031
Supporters of the plan say more supply will lower housing costs
Critics fear luxury development and loss of neighborhood character
SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie is trying to get more homes built for people like Liam Murphy: a fifth-generation city kid who found himself repeatedly outbid for tiny, two-bedroom houses that wound up selling for around $1.6 million.
Murphy, 39, now lives about an hour’s drive away from San Francisco, which he serves as a firefighter. He says it’s too late for his family to move back, but he hopes others can stay in a city where the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $3,500.
“That would just make for a better city overall,” said Murphy, “and the reason is because city kids just grow up being exposed to more. They’re exposed to all the cultures of San Francisco, which makes a more well-rounded person.”
Tiny, colorful San Francisco — just seven miles squared — embraces its image as a city that welcomes all. But its inability to add housing has put its diversity at risk.
Lurie hopes to change that with a plan to allow for denser and taller buildings throughout much of the city, including the westside Sunset neighborhood of single-family homes and the tourist friendly Haight-Ashbury, which is studded with classic Victorian and Edwardian homes.
The issue has roiled the city, and threats of recall loom over San Francisco supervisors who go along with Lurie. At a recent housing rally, the mayor who won a rare reprieve from President Donald Trump’s threats to send in federal forces struggled to be heard over angry chants of “shame” and “liar.”
Protesters demanded the city invest in 100 percent below-market-rate housing and accused Lurie of being a gentrifier and a Republican.
“I truly believe that this has San Franciscans’ best interests at heart,” said Lurie, who is a centrist Democrat. “Are some people going to be fearful? Absolutely. I get it. Change is scary. But the status quo is not working. There’s an affordability crisis right now.”
The city’s estimated 830,000 residents are passionate about both land use and equity. Housing projects have died as pressure to create more affordable units made potential developments unprofitable. Residents also want their stunning views.
But San Francisco is under pressure from the state to adopt a new zoning plan allowing for 36,000 more homes by 2031 — or else the state will decide what gets built where — and the mayor likely has the votes to pass his “Family Zoning Plan.”
Supporters say it’s a matter of supply and demand, and that more homes will bring down the overall cost of housing.
Critics say such trickle-down economics will not work in a city like San Francisco, which is in such global demand that some foreign investors buy properties sight unseen. They say developers will only build luxury housing that’s too costly for most workers, while displacing tenants and destroying entire neighborhoods’ character.
“There’s a herd of elephants in the room that no one will address,” said Eric Jaye, a Democrat and a political consultant who opposes the plan.
Much of the housing push has come from Democrats, including a former city mayor, Gov. Gavin Newsom, who signed into law a proposal by San Francisco state Sen. Scott Wiener to build more homes near transit.
The city has made enormous strides in recent years, with whole districts of tall condo buildings cropping up around downtown, said Rafael Mandelman, president of the Board of Supervisors. But he acknowledges that people come to San Francisco for its more intimate neighborhoods and access to green space.
“San Francisco, historically, was the city for people who didn’t love cities,” Mandelman said.
Katherine Roberts, 72, initially welcomed construction of an affordable housing complex near the three-story Edwardian home she labored to buy in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood two decades ago. But at eight stories, the 160-unit building has shattered her peace of mind, dominating her view.
“I’m looking out and it’s like I’m living in East Germany,” she said. “How can you build something this inappropriate in a historic neighborhood like the Haight-Ashbury? What about all the people who already live here? What are we supposed to do?”
For the most part, the new zoning plan allows for more housing to be packed into the space of a single-family home — say a duplex with a studio — without exceeding the city’s height limit of roughly four stories for such properties. At least 15 percent of new housing must be below market rate.
Buildings in neighborhood commercial corridors could be up to eight stories. Busier thoroughfares could see high-rises of 10 stories or taller, and in a few spots, on Van Ness Avenue, heights could hit 650 feet, rivaling some downtown skyscrapers.
Passage of Lurie’s proposal won’t necessarily lead to more homes in a city with high labor and construction costs and “notoriously complex and cumbersome” approval processes, as the state indicated in a scathing 2023 review.
And so city dwellers make do with overcrowded — and sometimes awkward — living situations.
Laura Foote, executive director of YIMBY Action, wound up living with the man who is now her husband — and the woman he was divorcing — in a one-bedroom apartment for about six months, until his ex could find another rental.
“We didn’t kill each other,” Foote said, “but it went on longer than it would have in a well-functioning housing market.”
Supervisors are still negotiating amendments to the zoning plan, which is still under review by the board’s Land Use and Transportation Committee. Some supervisors want to exempt historic properties, or all buildings currently used for housing. The mayor agreed to exempt buildings with at least three rent-controlled units.
The compromise was a major relief for Phyllis Nabhan, 78, who lives in the Richmond neighborhood, between the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park. She fears becoming homeless if a developer scoops up the property she’s called home for 47 years.
But Nabhan still objects to the proposal because she says it would ruin her neighborhood’s “cozy and wonderful” feel. She blames the state for forcing the city to change.
“I think that this mayor is trying,” she said. “It’s a horrible job; I wouldn’t want to be mayor.”