The San Francisco Planning Department is working on a plan to rezone San Francisco to accommodate 82,000 new units of housing by 2031 to implement its housing element. At least, that's what they're telling the public. The reality is different. The Planning Department is not implementing crucial housing element programs adopted by city legislators, and their efforts are in fact subverting state law.

In January, San Francisco promised that its rezoning would create over 35,000 new units of housing by 2031. As part of its plan, the city adopted program 7.1.1, which stated that the rezoning would "reasonably account for sites’ likelihood of development," and that it would use "an analytical model" to do so. In other words, the housing elenent said the city would make the rezoning bigger if a study found that is needed to ensure 35,000 units are built. The Planning Department has so far ignored this requirement.

The department has released two draft rezonings, neither of which include any data on rezoned lots' likelihood of development. The city has no idea how much housing will actually be built according to the draft rezoning. The rezoning team must collect this data and apply it, or the rezoning could potentially fail dramatically. Economic conditions are tough right now, but city planners should show that the rezoning will be effective when San Francisco recovers.

Secondly, the Planning Department is trying to limit use of the state density bonus law in the rezoning. This state program lets developers add more housing units to projects if they set aside more units for affordable housing. Last year, almost 80% of approved affordable housing units in San Francisco used this state program, but the Planning Department wants developers to build affordable housing without it. The city is saying that project applicants can trust them to develop an even better program, even though the city has no track record of doing so. It makes no sense to replace a program with a proven track record with one which has none. In fact, we are concerned that this very concept is inconsistent with the state's Housing Policy and Practice Review and is only being pursued to eliminate state oversight over affordable housing projects.

Sign this letter to make sure the city hears loud and clear that it must follow state laws and ensure more housing is built.