Unfamiliar Terrain

As expected, on June 28, the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) determined that San Francisco has not made adequate progress toward its State-mandated housing production goal. The City’s Housing Element—which it adopted and HCD certified in January 2023, just in time to avoid triggering certain penalties under the State Housing Element Law […]

The California Supreme Court recently upheld the Environmental Impact Report (“EIR”) for the Long Range Development Plan (“LRDP”) for the University of California Berkeley (“UC Berkeley”) and a controversial housing project at a site known as People’s Park. In so doing, it applied the principle that “no matter how important its original purpose, [CEQA] remains […]

On April 12, 2024, the United States Supreme Court issued an opinion that may significantly affect how development impact fees are assessed in California. In Sheetz v. County of El Dorado,[1] the Court unanimously held that legislatively imposed permit conditions are subject to the same constitutional test – informally referred to as the “Nollan/Dolan” test […]

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors recently amended the Planning Code’s controls to further regulate Fleet Charging and Parcel Delivery Service uses, primarily affecting Production, Distribution, and Repair (PDR) zoning districts. Below, we provide an overview of the legislative changes. Fleet Charging Background Fleet Charging[i] describes facilities that exclusively serve commercial or institutional vehicular fleets, […]

Voters in San Francisco and California will again confront a formidable ballot during the election on March 5, 2024, with an array of qualified City measures and one state proposition to consider. Key measures related to real estate and housing are as follows: San Francisco Proposition A (Affordable Housing Bonds): Proposition A would allow the […]

Recognizing that Downtown San Francisco is “struggling” post-pandemic, State Senator Scott Wiener has announced new legislation to exempt certain projects in the area from California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review for a 10-year period, together with a tax exemption for projects providing workforce housing. SB 1227 seeks to expand on SB 423, CEQA streamlining legislation […]

Throughout 2023, the State’s Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) loomed large in San Francisco land use policy and politics. In January 2023, the City adopted and HCD certified a new Housing Element setting forth San Francisco’s plan for approving and building a State-mandated 82,000 new housing units over the next eight years (see […]

As we discussed in prior posts from November 2022 and February 2023, San Francisco voters passed the Empty Homes Tax Ordinance, which is now codified in San Francisco Business Tax and Regulations Code Article 29A (the “Empty Homes Tax”), and becomes effective as of January 1, 2024. San Francisco (the “City”) will impose the annual […]

In 2018, San Francisco voters passed the Early Care and Education Commercial Rents Tax (“Commercial Rents Tax”), which became effective as of January 1, 2019. The Commercial Rents Tax generally imposes a 3.5% surtax on amounts that a business receives from the lease or sublease of commercial spaces in the City, and a 1% surtax […]

The 2023 California Legislative Session, which closed on September 14, was dominated yet again by efforts to address the state’s continued housing crisis. For the last several years, we have written about many bills enacted with the goal of increasing housing production. Although these efforts have helped move the state toward its housing goals, the […]

On September 5, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors finally passed on second reading two pieces of legislation, together referred to as the “Housing Fee Reform Plan.” The Plan, previously discussed on July 7, July 21, and July 31, plays a key role in implementing Mayor Breed’s “Housing For All” Executive Directive, reducing inclusionary housing […]

On July 25, the Board of Supervisors passed on first reading the “Housing Fee Reform Plan” legislation (see previous posts here and here). The Board is expected to hold a second reading and finally pass the legislation in September after returning from summer recess. The legislation consists of two ordinances. To help jumpstart housing production […]