{"id":225906,"date":"2026-03-18T21:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T21:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/225906\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T21:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T21:58:11","slug":"the-mission-district-and-more-will-get-upzoned-after-all-thanks-to-scott-wiener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/225906\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mission District and More Will Get Upzoned After All, Thanks to Scott Wiener\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

After three years of labor and argument, San Francisco passed the Family Zoning Plan in December. It lifted 50-year-old restrictions on building heights and densities across many neighborhoods, including the Sunset, Richmond, and Marina Districts.<\/p>\n

But the plan avoids many other neighborhoods considered \u201cpriority equity\u201d areas where residents are more likely to be low-income renters than in other neighborhoods. The Tenderloin is one of the city\u2019s lowest-income, for example, and Chinatown, the Mission, and the Bayview are home to minority populations that at various times in SF history have been subject to restrictive racist policies and redevelopment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the city\u2019s decision not to loosen building restrictions in these neighborhoods doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re off-limits. Thanks to a new law from SF\u2019s own state Sen. Scott Wiener<\/a>, whose earlier work also led to the Family Zoning Plan, select parts of south and east neighborhoods, including the Bayview, Mission, and Excelsior, must be unlocked as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The law, SB 79, also calls for changes to parcels in Potrero Hill, along Guerrero and Valencia Streets, and in other areas that are not designated for equity protection.\u00a0<\/p>\n

SB 79 requires California cities to make housing easier to build near major transit lines. In many cases, this new round of zoning only means small-bore changes, such as making room for a single new home near St. Mary\u2019s Playground in the Outer Mission. But some parcels will be zoned for more, such as 20-plus units next to the former Candlestick Park site or at the corner of Cesar Chavez and Guerrero Streets. In all, planning documents<\/a> call them \u201cmodest zoning changes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

All affected sites are all within half a mile of BART, Muni, and Caltrain stops and stations. The first local hearing is at the Planning Commission Thursday afternoon. The new rules will then make their way to the Board of Supervisors, which must approve them by July 1.<\/p>\n

If SF doesn\u2019t meet that deadline or tries to modify the rules, SB 79 could trigger more dramatic upzoning across much more of the city. \u201cEven if they are against this type of legislation, supervisors don\u2019t really have a choice,\u201d says Zach Weisenburger, policy analyst at SF-based Young Community Developers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

The train has left the station, in other words. But that doesn\u2019t mean new housing is coming to these key neighborhoods anytime soon. The Family Zoning Plan was one of SF\u2019s most substantial land-use changes in decades, but actual production will depend on the economy and other factors. The city\u2019s chief economist last year made rather modest projections<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like it or not, SB 79 will now make more room. The current changes encompass some 2,080 sites, mostly in the city\u2019s south and east, but planners have not projected how many actual homes those sites could reasonably produce.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The \u2018spirit\u2019 of 79<\/p>\n

On its own, SB 79, or the Abundant and Affordable Homes Near Transit Act, would drastically boost height and density limits in San Francisco, well beyond the changes spelled out in the Family Zoning Plan. (See map below.) <\/p>\n

When it was on the verge of passing last year, former Board of Supervisors president Aaron Peskin called it \u201ca betrayal.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AIf San Francisco hadn\u2019t passed the Family Zoning Plan last year, SB 79 would have raised height limits across much of the city. With the Family Zoning Plan in place, only some 2,000 parcels are subject to change via SB 79. (Courtesy SFPlanning)<\/p>\n

But SF will almost certainly be spared from these upper limits. That\u2019s because the law has a loophole that lets cities create their own new zoning maps around transit. SF\u2019s Family Zoning Plan does that for the most part. It \u201cprovides a way for the city to satisfy the spirit of SB 79 \u2014 which is to place homes near transit \u2014 in ways that support San Francisco\u2019s urban fabric,\u201d SF\u2019s Director of Community Planning Rachael Tanner tells The Frisc.<\/p>\n

This \u201clocal alternative plan\u201d also presents a legal pincer that Wiener also used in his legislation that led to the Family Zoning Plan: Cities can plan for more housing or else lose some or all local control to the state, which would likely mean even more housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But while the Family Zoning Plan satisfies most of the state\u2019s demands, it leaves the city a few homes short in some areas, including those given equity priority. The most new extensive changes are in Districts 9, 10, and 11, which were spared from the Family Zoning Program except for a sliver of D11. Because SB 79 focuses on housing near major transit corridors, the map reflects the influence of Mission Street (BART and Muni) and Caltrain.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"SB 79 requires San Francisco to add room for more housing on some 2,000 sites, mostly in the south and east. The first map shows all the sites, color coded by how many new homes could fit there. The second map shows the areas (shaded light purple) where the changes won\u2019t take effect until 2032.<\/p>\n

The supervisors representing these districts, Jackie Fielder (D9), Shamann Walton (D10), and Chyanne Chen (D11), voted against the Family Zoning Plan and voted to condemn<\/a> SB 79 last year for \u201cencouraging land speculation, displacement, and gentrification.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

None of the supervisors or their staff returned requests for comment. Erick Arguello of the Mission\u2019s Calle 24 Cultural District is fiercely protective against neighborhood change. When contacted, he said he wasn\u2019t aware of the SB 79 mandate to add housing capacity on and near 24th Street.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unlikely Fielder, Walton, and Chen will vote for the SB 79 changes, but a density-friendly majority of the board is currently in place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The deadline to pass the changes is July 1; the Planning Department says the package should reach the board in April. <\/p>\n

Timing is important. The pro-density majority could change after June\u2019s two special elections, in which challengers are vying to oust supervisors Alan Wong and Stephen Sherrill. Both voted for the Family Zoning Plan.<\/p>\n

If the board decides to put a stick in the SB 79 spokes, the city could face state sanctions and would default to a map that allows even more housing density across the city.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another twist. In large chunks of SF\u2019s southeast neighborhoods, roughly mapping to the priority equity designation, the SB 79 zoning won\u2019t kick in until 2032. <\/p>\n

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Weisenburger of Young Community Developers says the changes \u201ccompletely contradict\u201d planning priorities around equity neighborhoods. He echoes criticism of other upzoning plans, saying SB 79 doesn\u2019t guarantee affordable housing: \u201cHere in the Bayview, people are interested in new housing, but the interest is in housing they can afford.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Legally, SF can\u2019t zone for affordable housing. Zoning only accounts for the size and footprint of buildings. For affordability, city law requires new developments of 10 or more units include at least 12 percent affordable housing, although developers can use state law<\/a> to go as low as 10 percent in some buildings. Any site can be used for 100 percent affordable housing, but as developers of those properties note, having room for midsize buildings via upzoning is an important first step toward building them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At least a few local voices not only support SB 79 but hope for more aggressive options if local lawmakers undercut the current rules. One Bernal Heights neighborhood group was disappointed to be excluded from the Family Zoning Plan. \u201cBernal Heights remains a wealthy enclave of single-family homes,\u201d says Upzone District 9 spokesperson Brandon Powell. \u201cSB 79 could be one way to allow the neighborhood to do its part to keep working families in San Francisco.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

For now, room for more Bernal Heights housing would only happen if the supervisors reject the current SB 79 plan and trigger a more drastic map. In the city\u2019s housing politics, a lot can happen in three and a half months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMore from The Frisc…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After three years of labor and argument, San Francisco passed the Family Zoning Plan in December. It lifted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[14839,7,57127,9528,457,405,1011,13133,5409,101,103,102,51408,1621,104,106,105,19147,16505],"class_list":["post-225906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-bernal-heights","tag-california","tag-chyanne-chen","tag-family-zoning-plan","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-government","tag-housing","tag-jackie-fielder","tag-policy","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sb-79","tag-scott-wiener","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-shamann-walton","tag-urban-planning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}