San Francisco Housing Element

Click here to review the Housing Element - General Information

Click here to review the EIR Lawsuit - Fall 2004

Appeal Negative Declaration, Summer 2004

Despite opposition from several San Francisco neighborhood organizations, the San Francisco Housing Element has sailed through the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors. The Housing Element is a major part of San Francisco's General Plan that seeks to ensure adequate housing for current and future San Franciscans.

Its chief proponent, Gerald Green, Director of the Planning Department at that time, first presented the substance of the Housing Element to Cow Hollow at our 2003 annual meeting. At that meeting, he forewarned the members in attendance that the document would be controversial and it certainly is.

The philosophical premise of the Housing Element is based on two ideas:

(1) that the way to make housing in San Francisco more affordable is to build more of it (up to 20,000 units). The single family residence is an inefficient use of land and should be replaced with multi-family buildings allowing for greater density at affordable prices. and (2) a "public-transit first" policy takes precedence over the current requirement of 1:1 off-street automobile parking considerations.

The plan has proven controversial because its threat to increase housing densities in residential neighborhoods like Cow Hollow without an increase in parking, thus disturbing the neighborhood character. Beyond that, this extensive plan to build up to 20,000 plus units was done without an Environmental Impact Report (EIR), which is required by State law. Despite the fact the Planning Department had EIR's done in 1983 and 1990 for the previous Housing Elements, the Planning Department simply issued what's called a Negative Declaration claiming that any impacts on the environment would be speculative. The Housing Element was also prepared without any input from the neighborhoods that may be affected by the new policies contained therein.

For these reasons, and many others, neighborhood organizations came together to appeal the Negative Declaration and to demand an EIR be prepared. On May 13, 2004, the appellants, who included approximately 25 neighborhood organizations, testified at the Planning Commission hearing in hopes that the Planning Commission would insist that an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) be prepared for the latest Housing Element.

However, the Planning Commission unanimously denied our appeal and approved the Planning Department's decision to issue the Negative Declaration in lieu of preparing an EIR. The Planning Commission then heard arguments on the Housing Element itself. As expected, the Commission approved the project without any consideration of the appellants' arguments.

The appellants then appealed to the Board of Supervisors, requesting an appeal of the Negative Declaration and the preparation of an EIR. The hearing took place on June 29, 2004. Despite extensive lobbying efforts, the appellants lost again with a 6-4 vote with Supervisor Sandoval absent. Our votes came from Supervisors Hall, Peskin, Ma and Alioto-Pier.

As it stands now, the appellants have written a letter to the State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) detailing why the Housing Element is not in compliance with state law. HCD reviews the Housing Element for compliance. The fight is not yet over and litigation may very well be the next step. For further information and a more detailed analysis, visit the Save Our Neighborhoods website at www.saveourneighborhoods.org.

San Francisco Business Times Article on the Housing Element- January 19, 2004