Land Use and Transportation Committee Meeting: Prohousing Designation Application – April 1, 2024
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Land Use and Transportation Committee Meeting – April 1, 2024
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors Land Use and Transportation Committee met on April 1, 2024, at 9:45 AM, chaired by Supervisor Marina Melgar, with Vice Chair Dean Preston. Supervisor Peskin was excused. The sole agenda item was a resolution authorizing the Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD) to apply for the state's Prohousing Designation Program, which would make San Francisco more competitive for state housing and infrastructure grants. The committee heard presentations, public comment, and voted to send the resolution to the full Board with a positive recommendation.
Public Comments & Testimony
- John Avalos (Council of Community Housing Organizations) urged support for the resolution, noting that many community housing organizations would benefit from the designation. However, he highlighted a contradiction: a resolve clause in the resolution that could tie the city's hands by discouraging additional legislation that might jeopardize the designation, potentially limiting innovative approaches to protect neighborhoods against displacement.
Discussion Items
- MOHCD Presentation: Sheila Nicolopoulos, Director of Policy and Legislative Affairs, presented the resolution. She explained that the state's Prohousing Designation Program, updated in 2024, requires threshold requirements (e.g., compliant housing element, annual progress report, compliance with state housing laws, and an executed resolution). San Francisco's application highlights 14 existing prohousing policies, including local density programs, ADU allowances, no parking requirements, mixed-use zoning, a one-stop permit center, priority processing for 100% affordable projects, impact fee waivers, and local funding sources. The resolution does not commit the city to new policies. The state review is expected by May 17, 2024. She noted that two-thirds of affordable housing funding comes from state or federal sources, and the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) and Infill Infrastructure Grant programs have awarded over $309 million to 18 San Francisco projects since 2018.
- Supervisor Dean Preston expressed support for the resolution but criticized the state's "prohousing" terminology as a euphemism that conflates market-rate and affordable housing, arguing it primarily benefits luxury housing and conditions affordable housing funds on incentivizing unaffordable market-rate development. He listed several instances where the mayor's office has obstructed or defunded affordable housing initiatives approved by the Board, including refusal to budget Proposition I revenue, defunding the Housing Stability Fund by $20 million, delaying Parcel K development, and blocking affordable housing at 400 Divisadero. He warned that continued obstruction could compromise the prohousing designation.
- Chair Marina Melgar supported the resolution and agreed with the need for more robust affordable housing investment, capacity, and funding. She noted that her district (District 7, West Side) has historically low density and zoning that limits housing (e.g., West Portal Avenue zoned for 27 feet height). She emphasized the need to operationalize the Housing Element equitably across all districts, including the West Side, to allow future generations to afford living in San Francisco. She disagreed with Supervisor Preston's characterization of the state's approach, arguing that the city's past decisions concentrated development in certain areas while neglecting others.
- Supervisor Preston responded that his objection is not to West Side development but to the state's system of conditioning affordable housing funds on market-rate housing incentives, which he called "completely upside down" and harmful to low-income San Franciscans.
Key Outcomes
- Motion to excuse President Peskin passed unanimously (2 ayes: Melgar, Preston).
- Motion to send the resolution (Item 1) to the full Board of Supervisors with a positive recommendation passed 2-0 (Vice Chair Preston aye, Chair Melgar aye). The item will appear on the Board of Supervisors agenda of April 16, 2024.
- The committee did not take any other actions.
Meeting Transcript
Yeah. Okay, good afternoon. This meeting will come to order. Welcome to the April 2024 regular meeting of the Land Youth and Transportation Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. I'm Supervisor Marina Melgar, Chair of the Committee, joined by Vice Chair Dean Preston. The committee clerk today is John Carroll. And I would also like to acknowledge Jeanette Engelauf from SFGov TV. Mr. Clerk, do you have any announcements? Yes, thank you. Please ensure that you've silenced your cell phones and other electronic devices you brought with you to the chamber today. If you have public comment on any of today's sorry, if you have public comment on today's singular agenda item, when your item of interest comes up and public comment is called, please line up to speak along the western wall of this room. You may submit your written public comment by emailing me at J-O-H-N period C A R R O L L at SFGOV.org. Or you may send your written public comment to our office in City Hall, that is the clerk's office room 244. City Hall's address is one, Dr. Carlton B. Goodlitt Place, San Francisco, California, 94102. Items acted upon today are expected to appear on the Board of Supervisors agenda of April 16th, 2024, unless otherwise stated. Thank you very much, Mr. Clerk. Before we call item number one, I would like to make a motion to excuse President Peskin from today's meeting. On the motion offered by the Chair to excuse Member Peskin, Vice Chair Preston. Preston, I Chair Melgar. I Melgar, I, Madam Chair, there are two ayes. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Uh, please call item number one. Agenda item number one is a resolution authorizing the city and county of San Francisco acting by and through the mayor's office of housing and community development to submit an application to and participate in the pro housing designation program administered by the California Department of Housing and Community Development. Thank you. Uh Ms. Sheila Nicolopoulos from the Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development is here. And uh I also see the director of MOACD, Dan Adams, uh, who is here to answer any questions. Uh go ahead. Nicolopoulos, good afternoon. Sheila Nicolopoulos, Director of Policy and Legislative Affairs for MOHCD. Uh before you today is a resolution to support the city's application to the State Department of Housing and Community Development to their Pro Housing Designation Program. The board approved a similar resolution filed 220826 in October of 2022. The state's approval of that application was delayed to give San Francisco time to align certain policies, such as ADU regulations with the pro housing requirements. Earlier this month, under their newly updated Pro Housing Designation Program Guidelines, MOHCD resubmitted our application to the state for the pro housing designation. Having a pro housing designation will give San Francisco additional points and applications for competitive housing and infrastructure funding, including important funding sources like the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Grant Program, the Infill Infrastructure Grant Program, and certain state transportation funding programs. San Francisco needs state funding to build affordable housing. Two-thirds of funding for the construction of affordable housing in San Francisco comes from state or federal government. Only one third of the funding comes from the city. The competition for statewide affordable housing funds is intense, and every point towards a higher score matters when the applicant pool is crowded. The Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program and the Infill Infrastructure Grant Programs have awarded 18 San Francisco projects more than 309 million in four funding rounds since 2018. This funding helps build thousands of new affordable units. So 150 million total. To qualify for a pro housing city, San Francisco must meet threshold requirements, including a compliant housing element and submission submission of the annual progress report for housing element, compliance with a variety of state housing laws, adoption of best practices and its treatment of homeless encampments, and an executed apply for resolution, which is before you today. In addition, San Francisco's application includes documentation of existing pro housing policies and categories such as favorable zoning and land use, acceleration of housing production timeframes, reduction of construction and development costs, and providing financial subsidies. Our application to the state highlights 14 existing policies that fit into these categories, including our local density program, Home SF, which exceeds statutory requirements by 35%, local ADU programs that increase density in single family residential areas and expedite permitting for ADUs, our policy of no parking requirements for residential development, zoning that allows for mixed uses in commercial districts, establishment of a one-stop permit center to expedite permit processing, priority permit processing for 100% affordable projects and projects with increased affordability, impact fee waivers for 100% affordable projects with city subsidy, and local capital funding sources such as the housing trust fund and the affordable housing production and preservation fund and local operating subsidies such as LOSP and SOS.
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