{"id":62067,"date":"2025-11-20T14:24:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T14:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/62067\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T14:24:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T14:24:07","slug":"panicked-over-rezoning-sf-officials-say-dont-worry-nothing-is-getting-built-anyway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/62067\/","title":{"rendered":"Panicked over rezoning? SF officials say don\u2019t worry \u2014 nothing is getting built anyway"},"content":{"rendered":"

In order to avoid a state smackdown, San Francisco needs to rezone large areas<\/a> to \u201ccreate capacity\u201d for tens of thousands of housing units. That doesn\u2019t mean those homes will materialize.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the January deadline to pass the Family Zoning Plan inches closer, city planners have repeatedly reminded tenants worried about displacement of this distinction.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a funny argument for a plan ostensibly meant to help usher in the city\u2019s housing revolution: Don\u2019t worry, we\u2019re not actually going to build much of anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t imagine more than 10% of the capacity that we\u2019re creating is going to turn over,\u201d SF Planning Director Sarah Dennis Phillips said in an interview.<\/p>\n

But, she said, any new housing is better than none.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe point is to build more housing,\u201d she continued. \u201cCreating more capacity creates more opportunity and will eventually create more housing. I can\u2019t tell you exactly what number it is, but I know it will be more.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dennis Phillips added that, despite the fears of some renters and tenant activists, the rezoning is unlikely to increase demolitions of rent-controlled housing \u2014 or any multifamily housing, for that matter. Since 2012, the city has lost an average of 18 units to demolitions per year, and Dennis Phillips said she doesn\u2019t have any reason to think that number will increase under the new zoning.<\/p>\n

Developers will instead look to vacant lots, light industrial sites, and commercial properties upzoned by the plan. There are about 2,200 of these sites, according to the Planning Department. It\u2019s much easier to build on a vacant lot or a dilapidated warehouse than evict or buy out people from their homes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

That should be a relief, but one question that keeps advocates up at night is what happens when all that low-hanging fruit is picked. If the city is ever to fully capitalize on its enormous new capacity, a landlord will eventually have to knock down an apartment building and build a taller one in its place (or sell it to somebody else who will do so).<\/p>\n

Some residents displaced by midcentury \u201curban renewal\u201d in the Fillmore and Western Addition (opens in new tab)<\/a> were pushed out and never able to return to their homes. That memory still haunts discussions of rezoning and redevelopment, regardless of planners\u2019 assurances.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt highlights the lie that all we need to do is remove the protections and processes for community input and democratic land use and get out of the way of the real estate industry, and they\u2019ll solve our affordability problems,\u201d said tenant advocate Molly Goldberg of the San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition.<\/p>\n

Goldberg and SFADC Policy Director Meg Heisler, both of whom have been working on a tenant protection ordinance proposed by Supervisor Chyanne Chen, said they have seen an uptick in tenants reporting that their landlords are pressuring them to accept buyouts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis kind of displacement happens well before there would be financing for the construction of new units,\u201d Goldberg said.<\/p>\n

City and state law offer displaced renters certain protections, but Chen is seeking to strengthen them by forcing landlords to give six-month eviction notices and hiring \u201crelocation specialists\u201d to help tenants move.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tenants of a demolished building are guaranteed replacement units, and if the building is below market rate or rent-controlled, they\u2019re promised discounted rent in the new building. Displaced tenants also receive money to cover interim housing and moving costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But in San Francisco, construction can take years, and that money may not be enough to keep them rooted in the city until their new apartments are ready.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the perennial problem of unscrupulous landlords.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tenant advocate sources predict that most landlords will buy out their tenants before selling or redeveloping the buildings. If tenants take the money, they\u2019re not eligible for the same protections available to those facing eviction.<\/p>\n

It all amounts to an ironic promise: Trust us; we won\u2019t suddenly become a city that builds housing. Yet for tenants feeling the squeeze, the threat doesn\u2019t need a crane in the air \u2014 just a landlord testing the waters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In order to avoid a state smackdown, San Francisco needs to rezone large areas to \u201ccreate capacity\u201d for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[1337,24780,388,101,103,102,104,106,105,37511,7825],"class_list":{"0":"post-62067","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-housing-development","9":"tag-planning-department","10":"tag-real-estate","11":"tag-san-francisco","12":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","13":"tag-san-francisco-news","14":"tag-sf","15":"tag-sf-headlines","16":"tag-sf-news","17":"tag-sf-reality-check","18":"tag-tenants"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62067","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=62067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}