Planning Commission recommends family zoning plan to Board of Supervisors after months of debate

Planning Commission President Soe and commissioners recommended that the Board of Supervisors adopt the mayor’s Family Zoning Plan, a citywide rezoning package intended to create capacity for the city’s state-mandated housing targets.

The Planning Commission voted 4–3 on Sept. 11 to forward the package to the Board of Supervisors with the planning department’s recommended changes but excluding a single staff proposal the commission removed from its recommendation. The vote came after more than nine hours of public comment at a packed hearing where hundreds of speakers urged both support and opposition.

The Family Zoning Plan package contains general plan amendments, a zoning map ordinance and planning-code text changes intended to add capacity in “housing opportunity” areas, create the optional city ‘Housing Choice SF’ local program, and offer incentives for family-sized units and adaptive reuse. Planning staff said the rezoning is needed for the city to meet its Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) and avoid state intervention that could allow taller development with fewer local controls.

Lisa Chen, the Planning Department manager for the Family Zoning Plan, summarized the department’s case in a presentation that framed the measure as both a…