Planning department previews large-scale housing rezoning; supervisors, public press for tenant protections, historic preservation and small-business support

San Francisco planning staff on June 16 presented a sweeping family zoning proposal to the Land Use and Transportation Committee that would rezone broad areas of the city to create capacity for the housing the state requires in the 2025 housing element.

In a presentation to the committee, Rachel Tanner, director of the Planning Department’s citywide division, said the city must identify sufficient sites and zoning capacity to accommodate an additional roughly 36,200 housing units on land the state considers suitable and available for the RHNA period through 2031, and that Planning has added a 15% buffer to its calculations. The department showed a map concentrating mid‑rise and taller housing along major transit and commercial corridors (van Ness, Market, Geary and other arterials) and described a new local program that would offer developers a San Francisco‑specific alternative to the state density bonus.

Tanner and Lisa Chen, the department’s principal planner and project manager for the rezoning, said the package is intended to expand housing and “create stronger, more inclusive, and more resilient neighborhoods.” Chen described a set of base zoning changes, a menu of local waivers modeled on waivers used under state density bonus projects, and additional citywide policies: minimum density standards near frequent transit set to align with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s Transit‑Oriented Communities rules, dwelling‑unit mix rules to preserve family‑sized units, maximum new‑construction unit sizes, a…