Supervisors Pass Ordinance to Increase Housing Options, Density

By Thomas K. Pendergast

To increase housing density on the City’s west side, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors made it easier for single-family homeowners to add rooms or up to four housing units on their single property lots.

Sponsored by Supervisors Myrna Melgar and Joel Engardio, the Board unanimously passed an ordinance on June 27 to create a Family Housing Opportunity Special Use District.

“The intent is to allow for people who want to build more units on their properties to do it more easily,” Melgar said.

“In the Richmond, there’s a bunch of blocks that have been upzoned to RH2 (Residential Housing for two units) or RH3 (Residential Housing for three units) but still have single-family house structures,” she explained. “So that’s where this would apply. It would allow those folks to add units more easily without getting into a big fight with the neighbors that would drag it on through a Conditional Use authorization or a discretionary review process.”

In her neighborhood are people who live in extended families, but she also wants to help those whose children left the nest long ago. In different ways, she hopes her legislation will help them all.

“The kids left 20 years ago and now they have these big houses with low tax bases because of Prop. 13, but it’s hard to adapt them,” she said. “If you want to live on the ground floor and put in disability upgrades so you can stay in place, it’s hard to afford it unless you rent out part of your space. I was hoping to give people more options and choices.”

To be considered as qualifying projects, the following criteria must be met:

• Located in an RH zone within the Special Use District (SUD).

• Not receiving a density bonus or sitting on property resulting from a lot split.

• Proposes construction or alteration of certain project types, including Single-Lot Development Projects, Lot-Merger Development Projects, or Group Housing Development Projects.

• Increase dwelling units or bedrooms on site.

• Demonstrate one year of lot ownership if a single-family home or five years if it’s a multi-unit house.

• Not demolishing rent-controlled units, or units with a history of evictions, buyouts or tenant occupancy within the previous five years.

Qualifying projects could receive density exceptions for up to four units per lot (eight units for two-lot mergers, 12 units for three-lot mergers) and additional group housing density exceptions are available.

The height limit would remain at 40 feet, but qualifying properties could get reduced rear yard requirements and reduced open space requirements.

Up to three merged lots will be possible, but then special requirements would apply, including reduced open space requirements. With three merged lots, the construction on the resulting lot would include at least nine and no more than 12 dwelling units, or one dwelling unit per 1,000 square feet of a lot area for a three-lot merger project. For a two-lot merger, at least six and no more than eight dwelling units, or one dwelling unit per 1,000 square feet of lot area would be allowed.

Units created through density exceptions will be subject to rent control, excluding affordable units required by the Planning Code.

A regulatory agreement must be entered with the City, waiving rights under the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act.

Subdivides of one-unit buildings may apply for condominium conversion if they create new dwelling units under SUD and if certain other requirements are met, but group housing units would not be eligible in this case.

Property owners who sign an affidavit to reside on their properties for three years after the completion of new dwelling units may receive more incentives.

“Supervisor Melgar’s proposal puts forth straightforward and good government improvements to our housing development process,” Engardio said. “It allows for more modest increases in density as permitted under state law without destroying neighborhood character.

“Most importantly, it creates strict requirements to protect existing tenants from displacement.”

Engardio highlighted the need for more housing.

“We don’t have enough housing for our teachers, first responders and the next generation of families, and that’s because we haven’t built enough housing to match decades of demand and that results in something sad,” he said. “What happens when people want to get married or have a kid? Too often they have to move out of San Francisco and have to say goodbye to family and friends. Seniors don’t get to see their adult children or grandchildren.”

After some amendments to the original legislation, Supervisor Connie Chan also gave her support to the ordinance.

“With critical amendments to ensure public notices and tenant protection against displacement and corporate developer speculation, this legislation gives the westside homeowners the opportunity to expand their families, continue to grow and create possible rental income for retirement in the future” Chan said.

Likewise, Supervisor Dean Preston threw his support to the ordinance after certain amendments were made.

“At a basic level, I’m supportive of the idea of adding a bunch of units on the west side,” Preston said. “The question is, how do we get some level of affordability?”

“What I appreciate in this legislation is the attempt to do that and to gain some of the community benefits, particularly through having the added units as rent-controlled units … and the amendments strengthening some of the anti-displacement language and tenant protections and then also having some provisions to make sure that we’re not incentivizing the big real estate speculator nightmare scenario,” he said.

“I want to distinguish the market-rate housing and our goals in building market rate housing as a city from affordable housing. I do think they tend to get conflated and they shouldn’t be,” Preston elaborated. “And I think legislation like this can help us reach our market-rate housing goals by incentivizing some additional market-rate units, but it is not a silver bullet for creating affordable housing.”

Categories: housing

Tagged as: housing, Joel engardio, Myrna Melgar, Richmond District, Richmond Review, SF Board of Supervisors, Sunset Beacon, Sunset District