San Francisco’s Head Planner to Retire in July

San Francisco Planning Director Rich Hillis is on a mission: make room for 36,000 new homes in San Francisco.

He wants to ensure his mission to rezone much of the city before he steps down this summer after five years on the job, the San Francisco Business Times reported, after a report by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Hillis said he plans to stay in his role until mid-July — or until the city can identify his replacement.

In the meantime, he’ll work to create more housing, with the most ambitious zoning campaign undertaken by the city in decades.

The planning department plans to introduce an upzoning ordinance next month, in accord with state housing goals, according to Hillis. Dubbed the family zoning ordinance by the office of Mayor Daniel Lurie, it’s expected to be heard by the Board of Supervisors by this fall.

The board will have until the end of year to adopt the plan.

Hillis has served the city of San Francisco for a quarter century.

Before he was appointed by former Mayor London Breed to head up the San Francisco Planning Department just before the pandemic, he served as a planning commissioner.

Hillis began his work with the city’s Budget Office in the mid-1990s, he told city staffers in an email, calling it “an incredible privilege” to serve San Francisco. Stepping down “was not an easy decision to make,” he told city employees.

He spent years at the Office of Economic Workforce Development, where he led projects ranging from the redevelopment of Treasure Island to the expansion of SFMOMA to the Octavia Boulevard project, which included nearly 1,000 homes, according to the Chronicle.

He also spent eight years as executive director of the Fort Mason Center.

“I loved my job. I’ve loved the people I’ve worked with, and the things I’ve worked on,” Hillis told the Business Times. “But it’s been 25 years, and it’s time to think about what I’m going to do next.”

— Dana Bartholomew