Affordable housing developers in San Francisco could soon build faster and at lower cost under a set of Planning Code changes that would exempt projects where every unit is income-restricted—as defined in Planning Code Section 406(b)(1)(A)-(C)—from several requirements that currently apply to all new construction.
The substituted ordinance, sponsored by Mayor Daniel Lurie and Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, would also create a new program to convert Residential Care Facilities into affordable housing with far fewer planning hurdles—and waive impact fees for those conversions.
What gets waived — and for whom
For any project where every residential unit (except one manager’s unit) qualifies as affordable under Section 406, the ordinance would eliminate three categories of Planning Code requirements that currently apply citywide.
First, the active use requirement—which mandates that commercial or other active uses occupy the ground floor facing any street at least 30 feet wide—would no longer apply…