State Labels San Francisco a Pro-Housing City

California has designated San Francisco a pro-housing city exactly one year after the state housing agency released a scathing report rebuking the city for having the state’s slowest project approval process.

More than 30 jurisdictions in the state have received the coveted designation, including Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, Oakland and Riverside. Cities and counties with the pro-housing designation receive an advantage in state housing and planning grant programs.

In bestowing the pro-housing label on San Francisco, the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) said the city has made “significant progress in accelerating housing development and removing obstacles that delay approval,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

“San Francisco has shown that it is serious about structural change, and I trust that—in collaboration with HCD—San Francisco will continue to take the steps necessary to produce and preserve housing for individuals and families at all income levels,” said Gustavo Velasquez, the HCD director, in a statement.

California’s Prohousing Designation Program (PDP) awards points for implementing zoning and land use policies that promote housing development; accelerating building timelines; reducing the cost of building new housing; and providing financial subsidies for housing development.

A year ago, the HCD concluded a yearlong investigation of the residential development process in San Francisco by issuing a report showing that approvals for housing projects in the city took 10 months longer than any other city in the state.

The October 2023 report said it took an average of 523 days for a housing project in San Francisco to get its initial entitlement, compared to 385 days in the next slowest jurisdiction. Building permits took an average of 605 days to be issued because the city applied a “blanket discretionary review process” to all permits, HCD’s report said.

After HCD threatened to revoke approval of San Francisco’s eight-year housing element plan, the city initiated a series of land use policy reforms aimed at speeding up housing development.

In the past 12 months, San Francisco has enacted a priority permitting process for 100% affordable projects and local density bonus projects; eliminated parking requirements; streamlined entitlements and eliminated hearings for certain residential projects; and established a “one-stop” permitting center where permits are coordinated across different departments.

City planners also are in the process of finalizing rezoning to increase height limits along transit corridors in parts of the city that have not traditionally produce new housing, an effort focused on western neighborhoods like the Sunset and Richmond districts and northern areas including the Marina.

The rezoning plan has been backed by groups including YIMBY Action and the Housing Action Coalition. However, a group called Neighborhoods United SF has called the proposed upzoning “unnecessary and counterproductive,” warning that the state is pushing for a level of density that will damage historic neighborhoods.

“We have sufficient capacity to meet future population growth, and we should start there before unleashing the unpredictable and speculative nature of blanket upzoning,” Lori Brooke, an organizer with Neighborhoods United SF, told the Chronicle.

Under the housing element plan approved by HCD, San Francisco is required to permit 82,000 new homes by 2031.