Unfamiliar Terrain

In response to Mayor London Breed’s recent Executive Directive, titled “Housing For All,” on May 4, 2023, the San Francisco Planning Commission voted to recommend that the Board of Supervisors approve a package of Planning and Building Code amendments intended to spur reinvestment in the City’s commercial core. (See earlier post regarding the Mayor’s Executive […]

On April 28, 2023, the Planning Commission received an informational presentation from Planning Department staff regarding its work to implement the City’s recently adopted Housing Element Update. (See earlier posts regarding the City’s Housing Element here and here.) As part of its Housing Element implementation, the Planning Department is working on legislation that would rezone […]

In a decision partially published on November 30, 2022, Save Lafayette v. City of Lafayette[1], the First Appellate District Court of Appeal upheld the City of Lafayette’s approval of the Terraces of Lafayette (the “Project”), a 315-unit housing development project, 20% of which will be affordable to lower-income tenants. That opinion—now final, as the California […]

The land use entitlement process in California is notoriously complicated, lengthy, and fraught with uncertainty. Less attention is paid to the process of receiving building permits, post-entitlement. Generally, this process is more straightforward because the local agency’s review is limited to ensuring state and local building code compliance. Accordingly, the issuance of building permits is […]

A roundup of news and multimedia from the Unfamiliar Terrain team: San Francisco Housing Wonks on a Mission to Shorten S.F.’s Permitting Process (Fixing Our City Podcast): Assemblymember Matt Haney and YIMBY advocate Bilal Mahmood explain how to spur housing construction. Planning Commission approves major legislative package to boost downtown San Francisco (San Francisco Business […]

A roundup of news and multimedia from the Unfamiliar Terrain team: San Francisco S.F. housing production slows to crawl as state goals loom (San Francisco Chronicle): The Planning Department’s annual housing inventory showed housing production plummeted. 87 permits, 1,000 days of meetings and $500,000 in fees: How bureaucracy fuels S.F.’s housing crisis (San Francisco Chronicle): […]

A roundup of news and multimedia from the Unfamiliar Terrain team: San Francisco ‘It’s insane’: Only-in-S.F. tactic to kill or slow housing might be on the chopping block (San Francisco Chronicle): Assembly Bill 1114 could bar San Francisco from allowing building-permit appeals. Everything Is About the Housing Market (The Atlantic): Examining the impacts of high […]

In an Executive Directive dated February 7, 2023, Mayor London Breed declared that “San Francisco needs to fundamentally change how we approve and build housing.” The Directive, titled “Housing For All,” comes on the heels of the Board of Supervisors’ January 31st adoption of its updated Housing Element, addressing San Francisco’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation […]

Local landlords and owner-groups filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court last week in response to the recently-passed Proposition M, also known as the Empty Homes Tax Ordinance. We previously covered the new San Francisco legislation here. The Empty Homes Tax Ordinance imposes an Empty Homes Tax (the “Tax”), which ranges from $2,500-$20,000 per […]

By Daniel Gershwin On January 31, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously and finally approved an updated Housing Element, on the schedule we referenced in our prior post. The City had obtained a compliance letter from the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) on January 20, which confirmed that the City’s final […]

San Francisco appears to be on track to meet the state’s deadline for adoption and certification of its Housing Element, with a final vote at the Board of Supervisors scheduled for January 31, the last possible day to remain in compliance under state law. On December 15, the Planning Commission reviewed a draft of the […]

Voters in San Francisco and Oakland approved[1] two measures with significant implications for residential property owners: San Francisco’s Proposition M, also known as the Empty Homes Tax, and Oakland’s Measure V, which expands Oakland’s Just Cause for Eviction Ordinance. Proposition M – the Empty Homes Tax (San Francisco) The Empty Homes Tax provides that owners […]