Neighborhood NIMBYs aren\u2019t the only ones up in arms over San Francisco\u2019s Family Zoning Plan. <\/p>\n
The pro-development advocates at YIMBY Law plan to file suit against San Francisco next month, claiming Mayor Daniel Lurie\u2019s upzoning scheme fails to fulfill the city\u2019s state-mandated allowance of housing, the organization\u2019s executive director, Sonja Trauss, told The Standard.<\/p>\n
In response to the decades-long housing crisis, California officials have in recent years been pressuring local governments to loosen zoning requirements or risk losing state funding or land-use control.<\/p>\n
San Francisco is mandated by state officials to plan for 82,000 new homes by 2031. Of that, the city must rezone to reasonably allow for about 36,000 homes in the next six years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Board of Supervisors approved<\/a> San Francisco\u2019s rezoning strategy \u2014 dubbed the Family Zoning Plan \u2014 in December.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Planning Department, which has been developing the Family Zoning Plan since before the Lurie administration, created its own projections (opens in new tab)<\/a> using various models that estimate rezoning would allow for the creation of up to 64,000 homes. (That doesn\u2019t mean all those homes will be built, as planners often note<\/a>.)<\/p>\n However, an analysis from Ted Egan<\/a>, San Francisco\u2019s chief economist, found that even in the most optimistic scenario, rezoning could create about 14,600 units over the next 20 years \u2014 a fraction of the benchmark set by the state.\u00a0The report provided ammo for those pushing for more aggressive housing policies.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhy do planners always make promises they can\u2019t keep? They\u2019re addicted to it,\u201d Trauss said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The plan met with fierce opposition from some residents who argued that wide-scale upzoning would change neighborhood character and function as a developer handout. Responding to those complaints, supervisors debated and approved a slew of amendments that included carve-outs and exemptions for specific areas.<\/p>\n The potential lawsuit mirrors litigation filed by YIMBY Law and Californians for Homeownership against Los Angeles, claiming the city (opens in new tab)<\/a> was not doing enough to rezone for new housing capacity as laid out under state law. If successful, the lawsuit could force sweeping rezoning or trigger the \u201cbuilder\u2019s remedy,\u201d under which a city loses the ability to approve or deny housing developments.<\/p>\n