Tag Archives: Mayor Daniel Lurie

Upzoning Legislation Hearing – September 11

Posted on by

You should have received a postcard from SF Planning – with a QR code link to the proposed height and other zoning changes.  DHIC urges you to read details below and on the SF Planning site.  This proposed “rezoning of height and/or density” entails the most extensive and highest-impact changes possibly in the history of San Francisco’s planning code.  The plan will significantly affect Dolores Heights (expand this interactive map to ID changes to your lot.)  DHIC opposes this excessive upzoning.  We urge Dolores Heights residents to express your opinion to our elected officials  including our supervisor, Rafael Mandelman, and Mayor Lurie and to attend the Sept 11 hearing at 12 noon at City Hall, Room 400.  Following the Planning Commission hearing, the Board of Supervisors will vote on the proposed legislation to enact the “Family Zoning Plan” this fall.

State law and SF’s 2022 Housing Element require the City to create more “capacity” for housing.  The City has chosen to upzone roughly two-thirds of our City with new heights, density, and other planning code changes. These proposed changes have significant impacts on Dolores Heights.   

What will change in Dolores Heights?    

  • Our heights are currently 35 or 40 feet; the new allowed heights will be 40, 50, or 65 feet.  
  • The rear yard open space is currently 45% of the lot depth or 51 feet for a 114 foot lot.  The plan allows new properties to expand 20 feet further into the rear yard (18% more of the lot depth)
  • Properties on any corner can be up to 65 feet high.  This 65-foot height also applies to lots that are 8000 square feet (less than the size of three merged standard lots or an apartment building-sized lot.)     

Say hello to 50 foot buildings on many DH streets, to 65 foot buildings on corners, and to adjacent buildings that extend 20 feet past your home’s rear wall.  For specific proposed heights for your home, expand this interactive map.  You will see two heights “Base” and “Local Program.”   “Base” height will be the “new” allowed heights.  The “Local Program” height is often higher than the “base” height. To build higher and bigger in Dolores Heights, an owner or developer can “opt into” the local program and receive the benefits bulleted above. 

DHIC opposes this strategy to upzone hundreds of thousands of SF properties for several reasons.  

  • Overkill:  To meet its state housing mandate, San Francisco only needs to approve 36,200 additional projects by 2032 … not hundreds of thousands of projects  
  • Not affordable:  80% of newly proposed projects must be affordable housing. Yet, inclusionary units required under this program and other affordable subsidies will not produce the 28,700 affordable units needed to meet the state mandate. (Read this SF Planning primer for details.)  
  • Not financially feasible:  SF Planning’s own feasibility study modeled the impact of these changes and found that under current economic conditions, no project would meet minimum profitability.  With slightly improved economic assumptions, then multi-unit projects with apartments averaging 866 sf and renting for $4600 monthly would be profitable. (see pages 34 – 63 of SF Planning memo to SF Planning Commissioners, dated June 26, 2025)
  • Tenant/small biz displacement: Church Street and 24th Street are proposed for 65 foot heights along with most other NCDs.  Most renters and small local businesses on these streets that are displaced by new construction won’t be able to afford the new rents.   

What can we do?  DHIC is part of Neighborhoods United SF (NUSF.net ) which opposes the plan and advocates for alternative strategies.  You can write or call the Mayor to express your views on the plan. Questions? Feedback?  Or if you’d like to come with us to the Sept. 11 hearing, email DHIC at info@doloresheights.org  

For more details and the full list of proposed changes, see SF Planning memo, June 26, 2025, page 16 – 19, Figure 6.  DHIC is part of Neighborhoods United SF (NUSF.net ) which opposes the plan, provides factual arguments relating to its shortcomings, and advocates for reasonable changes to the plan. 

Castro CBD Needs Your Support!

Posted on by

From the Castro Community Benefit District:  We are at risk of losing our 2 critical grants that currently provide services to the Castro. Sign our petition asking Mayor Lurie to continue fully funding these two grants:

– Jane Warner Plaza grant:  funds the daily cleaning and table+chairs set-up in the plaza. Without it, Jane Warner Plaza will become a blight-ridden wasteland…just imagine!!  

– Castro Cares grant: funds four full-time Community Ambassadors, who help in resolving negative street behavior often caused by people with untreated substance use disorders and mental illness living on our sidewalks. The Ambassadors walk our district 7 days a week from 7 am to 7 pm. Without their presence and trained methods to de-escalate and engage, negative street behavior will grow dramatically. 

These grants are a critical piece of the puzzle in the Castro’s economic recovery. Please urge Mayor Lurie to keep these two grants funded, sign this petition and share the link with your friends.

The Impact of Lurie’s “Family Zoning” Plan on Dolores Heights

Posted on by

The City released a new proposed upzoning map on April 8.  Height limits in Dolores Heights would increase from 35 feet to 40 feet west of Sanchez, up to 50 feet in most of the area east of Sanchez, and up to 65 feet for properties along Church Street.  In addition, the proposal eliminates controls on density, or number of units per lot.  In other words, a project’s height and volume are regulated, but the number of units on a site is not limited to (for example) one or two units.

This interactive map provides details for Dolores Heights and for your own property.  Expand the map to zero in on your lot.  Click on the lot and a pop-out text box provides details.  Based on recent State and City changes to the rules, in most cases, you as an adjacent homeowner would have no input or no appeal rights on a proposed project. 

Specifically, Church Street can have multi-unit buildings up to 65 feet tall (current height limit: 40 feet.)   Between Church and Sanchez Streets, multi-unit buildings can be 50 feet high (current height limit: 35-40 feet.)  For the remainder of Dolores Heights, the allowed height would increase 40 feet. These changes will have a significant impact on public views and the view of Sanchez Hill from Dolores Park or from 24th Street.  This blog provides computer-generated models showing the impact of proposed height changes along Church Street.  While this program is being marketed as providing more affordable housing, during the past ten years in Dolores Heights, only luxury housing has been constructed.  This trend will continue owing to land prices.    

If you disagree with this blanket upzoning in our neighborhood and in most of the City, you can email the Mayor and our Supervisors by completing this email.  For more information, email info@doloresheights.org.  

Neighborhood Notification of Proposed Upzoning Required by Board of Supervisors

On Tuesday, April 22 the Board of Supervisors approved legislation requiring direct notice to residents and businesses when their own property, or one within 300 feet of it, is proposed for upzoning.  Specifically, it requires a mailed notice of increases in height and/or density.  The measure passed with an 8–3 supermajority!  

What does this mean for Dolores Heights?  All of Dolores Heights is proposed for increased building heights; so all of us will receive that postcard.   

Supervisor Chan (D1) sponsored this ordinance. These supervisors agreed with her that the public has a right to know of proposed changes that affect them: Sherrill (D2), Sauter (D3), Engardio (D4), Mandelman (D8), Fielder (D9), Walton (D10), and Chen (D11).