Planners get sobering data on housing and office markets; commissioners focus on fees, CEQA and interagency delays

On June 23, 2022 the San Francisco Planning Commission heard a data-heavy briefing from Planning Department staff and the Chief Economist in the Controller's Office showing a marked slowdown in housing permitting and a dramatic increase in office vacancy.

The presentation by Joshua Switzky of the Planning Department and Ted Egan, chief economist in the Controller’s Office, framed the city’s development picture: “housing permits… are generally well below the 2019 trend,” Switzky said, and Egan warned that office vacancy climbed from about 6% pre-pandemic to roughly 22% by early 2022. Egan added that apartment rents in the city have held at about 14% below 2019 levels, a factor that reduces revenue assumptions for rental projects.

Why it matters: Commissioners said the trends complicate San Francisco’s ability to meet state housing goals and fund affordable-housing programs. Staff told the commission the city has a large pipeline of entitled and staged projects but that many are not moving quickly to building permits, and that fewer medium- and large-scale projects have been filed this year.

Key data and…