Over-the-Counter Project Approvals Triggered in San Francisco
City is first to be cited by state for failure to meet housing permitting goals.
The California Department of Housing and Community Development ruled on Friday that San Francisco did not meet its housing permitting goals in 2023, making it the first city in the state to be subject to SB 423.
Under the new law, a majority of housing projects in the city now will be eligible for “over-the-counter” approvals, meaning they won’t need approval from the Planning Commission and therefore cannot be appealed to the Board of Supervisors.
The new state law, which also exempts eligible projects from extensive environmental reviews, is expected to cut the average time frame for entitlements from two years to under six months in San Francisco, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The law, passed by the legislature last fall and written by Sen. Scott Weiner—who represents San Francisco in the upper chamber—singles out San Francisco for annual evaluations to determine whether it is meeting its state-mandated goal to build 82,000 new housing units between 2023 and 2031. Other cities are evaluated every four years.
The city issued 3,039 permits encompassing 3,870 units in 2023. In the first half of 2024, only 831 units have been authorized.
The streamlined approval process mandated by SB 423 does not apply to large projects that are subject to development agreements or to projects that are inconsistent with zoning and affordable housing standards or those proposed for properties that include an historic resource, the report said.
The bill will require the city to process eligible applications within 180 days, speeding up the current time frame of up to 26 months, which Weiner called a “confusing and overgrown permitting process” that he said “has been throttling housing construction” in San Francisco.
“San Francisco has had the longest permitting timeline for housing in the state and now will have one of the shortest permitting timelines, and that is a game-changer,” Weiner told the Chronicle.
The streamlined permitting process under SB 423 that is being mandated in San Francisco this month will take effect in several other cities in California in 2026. The state has set a goal of constructing an additional 2.5M homes by 2031.
In order to meet San Francisco’s target of 82K new homes by 2031, city planners are proposing zoning changes that will allow for taller and denser housing development on the city’s West Side.