San Francisco mayor seeks mid-rise solution to housing shortage

In San Francisco, future skyscrapers stacked with homes are out, while six- to eight-story apartment buildings are in.

Mayor London Breed said the city should prioritize smaller projects that would help San Francisco meet a state goal to build 82,000 homes in the next seven years, the San Francisco Standard reported.

In a letter sent to the Planning Commission, Breed said mid-rise developments in the six- to eight-story range will help usher in faster compliance with the state-mandated housing element, or blueprint for tens of thousands of new homes.

She said she spoke with housing planners and lenders who pointed to tough economic conditions that make skyscrapers challenging to pencil out — but added that high-rise projects should still be considered on the city’s “widest and busiest” streets.

The mayor also said the city should try to increase the density of developments near transit and commercial zones without stretching height limits. She has pitched legislation along those lines with Supervisor Myrna Melgar, despite pushback from Board President Aaron Peskin.

Breed’s proposal suggests a strategy known as “density decontrol” — which seeks to increase the number of units inside a parcel — could be expanded to other parts of town.

The mayor said San Francisco should take advantage of sites like parking lots to create affordable and mixed-income housing.

“This ambitious process is fundamentally about doing what is best for San Francisco and its residents while also addressing the reality that our city, as built today, cannot meet our current or future housing needs,” Breed’s letter reads. “And I believe we can do all of this while still protecting the uniqueness of our diverse San Francisco neighborhoods.”

The challenge for San Francisco is meeting the state-mandated housing plan to build 82,000 homes by 2031.

This year, the Planning Department created rezoning plans that aim to boost height limits across parts of the Richmond, Sunset, Castro and Nob Hill neighborhoods. The plans need to be finalized by the beginning of 2026.

Battlelines have been drawn by YIMBY advocates who cite the need for affordable housing and preservationists who argue upzoning won’t lead to affordability and could destroy the character of neighborhoods. 

The housing issue has come to the forefront of the mayor’s race, with Breed declaring during her State of the City address last month she would block any “anti-housing” legislation.

Breed then vetoed housing density legislation by potential mayoral candidate Peskin, which was later overridden by the Board of Supervisors intent on preserving historic districts on the Northern Waterfront.

In her letter this week, the mayor took a more conciliatory approach to the housing faceoff.

“Some believe the current proposal [from the Planning Department] doesn’t go nearly far enough,” Breed said, “and that we need to significantly expand its scope — others are concerned about what more height and density mean for their neighborhood and for the San Francisco that they know and love.”

— Dana Bartholomew

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