San Francisco DMV Slated to Become Affordable Homes

A state DMV office at the bottom of San Francisco’s Panhandle could be turned into as many as 500 affordable homes.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles has sent out a request for qualifications to bulldoze the 60-year-old building at 1377 Fell Street and replace it with subsidized housing, the San Francisco Standard reported.

Its 2.5 acres is available to developers under the state’s Excess Sites program, meant to turn underused or surplus property into affordable homes.

As a state-owned parcel, the site is exempt from local zoning requirements, but the request for qualifications states that any housing should heed community input and neighborhood character.

The request doesn’t specify affordability requirements, only to “maximize depth and breadth of affordability while maintaining financial feasibility.”

Developers have until Nov. 22 to respond to the call. The DMV said it expects to choose a developer by March.

The DMV laid out certain non-negotiable requirements, including a new field office built to specific standards and making sure the housing won’t cut into agency operations. Developers will need to replace the public parking lot for the office, which contains 110 spaces.

The new DMV office is expected to open by May 2027.

San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston, whose district includes the DMV office, introduced a resolution to redevelop the site into housing. He was helped by Assemblyman Phil Ting, who set up a meeting with the DMV, the state Department of General Services and the Department of Housing & Community Development.

After state officials put out a request for information to gauge interest in a potential redevelopment, Preston said a dozen parties responded with proposals from 300 to 500 homes.

This year, the Board of Supervisors passed a state-mandated plan that would require the city to plan for 82,000 homes over the next eight years, of which more than half would be affordable to low- or moderate-income households.

But in the first half of this year, the city approved 179 units — far short of the more than 5,000 homes during the period needed to reach the mandate.

— Dana Bartholomew