Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Planning staff says downtown has capacity for housing but falls short on office space under 'smart‑growth' forecasts
Summary
Planning staff told the commission that a 25‑year baseline forecast and an ABAG 'smart‑growth' projection show downtown can absorb housing from the pipeline but would lack sufficient office capacity to meet the higher smart‑growth job projections; commissioners asked staff to add a 50/50 alternative and deeper workforce housing profiling to EIR work.
Planning Department staff told the San Francisco Planning Commission on Aug. 14 that while the city’s downtown has substantial capacity for new housing, it lacks sufficient capacity to meet higher forecasts for office job growth.
Joshua Switsky, planning staff, outlined two 25‑year brackets used in the analysis: a baseline scenario based on historical trends and forecasters such as Moody’s and REMI, and a higher “smart‑growth” scenario that follows ABAG regional assumptions directing more growth into urban cores. Switsky said the baseline projects roughly 58,000 citywide office jobs and about 17 million square feet of office demand through 2035; the smart‑growth scenario projects about 107,000 office jobs and more than 32 million square feet citywide. He said that downtown currently contains roughly 73% of the city’s office stock and that, after…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
