{"id":9860,"date":"2025-10-17T16:16:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T16:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/9860\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T16:16:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T16:16:08","slug":"daniel-lurie-warns-of-towers-everywhere-if-his-housing-plan-fails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/9860\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Lurie Warns of \u2018Towers Everywhere\u2019 If His Housing Plan Fails"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Daniel Lurie faced a tough crowd in the Sunset District last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The packed recreation center \u2014 a last-minute venue change to take in more people \u2014 generally opposed the city\u2019s plan to allow taller apartment buildings and denser blocks in their neighborhood and many others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The goal is to make room for 82,000 new homes by 2031, though not all are meant to be built by then. With state housing regulators watching closely, SF can count some of the units from big projects like Treasure Island and Pier 70 toward that goal, but that still leaves more than 36,000 units unaccounted for.<\/p>\n

In defense of the plan last week, Lurie made back-to-back appearances with State Sen. Scott Wiener, each taking questions from the Sunset crowd. The only reason Lurie didn\u2019t get more flack is that Wiener, who represents SF in Sacramento, went first and absorbed a good deal of the scorn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

SF lawmakers must approve some version of what\u2019s known as the Family Zoning Plan by the end of January, and it must be palatable to state regulators. This is thanks in large part to Wiener, who\u2019s spent much of his Sacramento tenure crafting laws and battling local resistance to new housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some Sunset residents, after ousting Sup. Joel Engardio in a decisive recall campaign, say they didn\u2019t just oppose his support for turning the Great Highway into a car-free park. They\u2019ve also cited Engardio\u2019s pro-housing stance, and they believe the recall has given them momentum to oppose a taller, denser city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The overlap between the two causes was clear last week. Several Sunset attendees flaunted \u201cOpen the Great Highway\u201d signs. The next night, when District 2 Sup. Stephen Sherrill laid out the plan at a Pacific Heights town hall, one<\/a> attendee mentioned Engardio and warned Sherrill about \u201csupervisors who don\u2019t listen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ThreeAt the Sunset District housing forum, several people sported \u201cOpen the Great Highway\u201d signs and extended their Joel Engardio opposition to anger over SF\u2019s housing plan. (Photo: Adam Brinklow)<\/p>\n

Both Sherrill and Lurie countered the hostility with a similar message: Our plan is good. And it\u2019s a hell of a lot better than the alternative.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lurie made his pro-housing stance no secret during his mayoral campaign. Last week, he tried to lend a sympathetic ear, calling his plan \u201cthe best way to protect San Francisco neighborhoods.\u201d If it doesn\u2019t pass, however, state regulators can suspend local housing rules, unleashing visions of developers carousing like spring break teenagers \u2014 but with concrete and rebar. \u201cThey\u2019ll put towers everywhere,\u201d Lurie said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ASF Mayor Daniel Lurie answers questions about his housing plan from a skeptical crowd on Oct. 6, 2025. (Photo: Adam Brinklow)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a deliberate echo of the warnings of development foes, who say Ocean Beach will turn into Miami Beach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lurie was invoking the Builder\u2019s Remedy, a California rule designed to scare cities and counties that aren\u2019t planning seriously enough, and not fast enough, for more housing. \u201cEight counties are already subject to the Builder\u2019s Remedy,\u201d Lurie told the Sunset crowd several times. \u201cWe could be next.\u201d (He could have added that state housing authorities have also put 63 cities on blast.)<\/p>\n

Sherrill said the Family Zoning Plan was a more sophisticated, sensitive way to add density to places like Fisherman\u2019s Wharf, Lombard Street, Geary Boulevard, Van Ness Avenue, and many other transit and commercial corridors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Quintin Mecke, director of the Council of Community Housing Organizations, an alliance of tenant advocates, neighborhood groups, and affordable housing developers, tells The Frisc he\u2019s not concerned about the Builder\u2019s Remedy. \u201cThere\u2019s almost zero chance of San Francisco ever being subject to it,\u201d Mecke says. \u201cIt\u2019s being used as a kind of political bogeyman.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mecke says SF has \u201ca good relationship\u201d with state regulators who will see SF is trying and not enact severe penalties.<\/p>\n

A few California towns apparently haven\u2019t tried hard enough. Just ask Santa Monica, San Jose, and Oakland.<\/p>\n

Remedy projects<\/p>\n

The highest-profile Builder\u2019s Remedy case so far was three years ago in Santa Monica, which takes up much of Los Angeles County\u2019s Pacific coast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The remedy was only in effect for three weeks while the city was out of compliance. But in that window, 16 projects sailed through the approval process, mostly from one developer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Santa Monica then sued the main developer, WS Communities. They eventually settled<\/a>, with WSC withdrawing its Builder\u2019s Remedy applications. It is developing its buildings under standard review, and the city is allowing WSC to concentrate all required affordable housing in a single building. One project recently won approval from the planning commission.<\/p>\n

Now the remedy could be easier to use thanks to new state laws that protect it from legal challenges, according to density advocates. \u201cThis year\u2019s big CEQA reform clears up a big possible source of uncertainty,\u201d says Aaron Eckhouse of YIMBY Law.<\/p>\n

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

The Builder\u2019s Remedy is now in effect in the Bay Area towns of Clayton, Half Moon Bay, and Belvedere. Several more have recently been subject to it, at least briefly.<\/p>\n

Down in Pacifica, the city is fighting a proposal<\/a> for more than 1,200 affordable homes on an 87-acre property. Pacifica is not currently under the Builder\u2019s Remedy, but it was when the developer applied for permits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Faced with several Builder\u2019s Remedy projects<\/a>, Palo Alto, long resistant to development, loosened zoning rules to entice at least one project to a different part of town. Using the remedy, a plan to replace an old office park with more than 400 townhomes<\/a> seems to be moving ahead in Walnut Creek. In San Jose, 780 units of modular affordable housing<\/a> are in the works in the Alviso neighborhood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"A plan for more than 1,200 affordable homes on the coast in Pacifica is moving ahead via the Builder\u2019s Remedy. (BAR Architects & Interiors)<\/p>\n

The Builder\u2019s Remedy has been around since 1990. But the law was toothless until a Scott Wiener bill in 2018<\/a> made it easier to punish cities and counties that didn\u2019t meet their state housing obligations, which get updated every eight years.<\/p>\n

Once it\u2019s in place, developers can choose their own adventure. In other words, by invoking the Builder\u2019s Remedy, developers can decide the maximum height and density of a project.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s one catch: they also must price 20 percent of the building\u2019s units as affordable housing. That\u2019s actually higher than SF\u2019s requirements at the moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also lower than SF\u2019s requirements before 2023, when supervisors changed the rules to encourage more development. They will revisit the rules again next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

State: SF OK for now<\/p>\n

The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) is the watchdog making sure San Francisco and other municipalities plan for their fair share of new homes. HCD says SF\u2019s current map is in compliance. But if supervisors reject it, alter it too much, or attach rules that create development bottlenecks, there\u2019s no guarantee the state will approve it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In coming weeks, supervisors will debate the map as well as additional rules to protect tenants and small businesses from displacement<\/a>. Lurie yesterday endorsed another amendment, from Sup. Myrna Melgar, to exempt rent-controlled buildings with three units or more from redevelopment \u2014 about 84,000 units in all, according to Melgar\u2019s press release.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The advocate group REP-SF, which has been a fierce critic of the plan but also helped write one of the protection rules, says the state\u2019s approval criteria are unclear. They have \u201ca lot of questions about what the state really needs SF to do in order to avoid the Builder\u2019s Remedy,\u201d says REP-SF spokesperson Joseph Smooke, who blames the mayor for lack of transparency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(Lurie declined to answer The Frisc\u2019s questions at last week\u2019s forum.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

The map, which SF Planning designed, came from a blueprint known as the Housing Element. The Board of Supervisors passed the element unanimously in January 2023, although a few members made their distaste clear and said they had no choice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Housing Element focuses development on SF\u2019s wealthier neighborhoods, mostly on the west and north sides, that have resisted new homes for decades and that have plenty of amenities, like schools and green space.\u00a0<\/p>\n

West side resistance, fueled by the Engardio recall, has added a wild card to the final stretch. Another problem is the sour economy. Despite the best efforts of Scott Wiener and allies, looser rules around planning and construction have rarely moved the needle in recent years<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear a Builder\u2019s Remedy window would overcome those economic headwinds in SF. But as SF Planning chief of staff Dan Sider notes, \u201cDramatically greater allowable square footage on a given site can of course make the economics of a project more favorable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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