Historic Preservation Commission reviews Housing Element 2022 update and EIR preservation alternative

The Historic Preservation Commission on Oct. 20 heard an informational presentation on San Francisco’s Housing Element 2022 update and the draft programmatic environmental impact report (EIR) preservation alternative, with staff describing how the plan centers racial and social equity while increasing the city’s housing targets.

Shelley, Cultural Heritage Specialist on the planning department’s housing team, told commissioners the housing element is the city’s legislative housing plan required by state law and that the 2022 update “will direct the city to recognize and repair the harms done, to bring stability to communities that have faced discrimination.” She outlined outreach results, including about 1,600 survey responses and dozens of focus groups aimed at low‑income residents and communities of color.

Kimia Haddadan, the project’s policy architect, described the plan’s scale: staff modeled a 30‑year target that planners have characterized as roughly 150,000 units through 2050 and said the update will require substantially more production of deeply affordable units than the previous cycle. Staff also noted roughly 70,000 units are currently in the pipeline under existing approvals.

The update contains four major policy shifts staff said are designed to make housing policy more equitable: recognizing a right to housing; prioritizing the return of residents displaced by past discriminatory programs; expanding programs to stabilize low‑income communities of color; and distributing growth to increase affordable housing in high‑opportunity neighborhoods. The draft also embeds cultural‑heritage tools (cultural districts, preservation incentives, regulatory review and interpretation) intended to protect intangible and tangible heritage while directing growth differently across neighborhoods.

Lisonbee Vanderslice and environmental planning staff explained the EIR approach. Because the housing element would guide future actions over decades, the EIR uses a 2050 future baseline (growth under the 2014 element) and evaluates the incremental difference expected from the proposed 2022 policies. Vanderslice said the EIR’s built‑environment historic‑resource analysis will present a forecast to 2050 and that “it is likely that the EIR will identify a significant and unavoidable impact to built environment historic resources,” though the draft preservation alternative would reduce some impacts.

Staff presented a broad mitigation program under consideration, including: completion of a citywide historic‑resources survey to improve baseline data; documentation and digital records for properties that may be altered or lost; salvage, relocation and interpretation programs (oral history, on‑site displays or community memorials); and exploring a mitigation‑banking fund to finance larger preservation or rehabilitation efforts. Vanderslice said mitigation measures would be tailored to the type of resource and the project type, and that many measures would be applicable both to the proposed action and the preservation alternative.

Commissioners generally welcomed the preservation alternative but pressed staff on data and sequencing. Several commissioners asked whether the citywide survey — still in progress — could and should be completed or better integrated into the EIR. Staff responded the survey will not be complete by the draft EIR publication (aimed for spring 2022) but that the EIR will disclose survey status and use available datasets; future, project‑level reviews would use updated survey results as they become available. Commissioner Black emphasized that documentation alone is not preservation and urged accelerated survey work.

Commissioners also questioned the projected housing totals and assumptions behind the 150,000‑unit 30‑year target; Kimia said that figure is derived from regional projections, growth‑capacity modeling and an average annual goal of about 5,000 units per year over 30 years. Commissioners discussed climate‑change linkages to reuse of existing buildings, demolition risks to contributing buildings in historic districts, and policy tools to incentivize rehabilitation or minimize demolition in vulnerable district edges.

The hearing was informational; no action was required or taken on the element or the EIR. Staff said the draft EIR will be published for public review in spring 2022, the racial and social equity analysis will continue through the coming year, and staff will return with further briefings, including an informational update on the citywide survey. The Commission encouraged continued community engagement and detailed examples of mitigation measures for community review.