San Francisco Land Use Committee Hears Housing Rezoning, Passes Interim Hotel Housing Ordinance on June 16, 2025
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San Francisco Land Use and Transportation Committee Regular Meeting – June 16, 2025
This regular meeting of the Land Use and Transportation Committee, chaired by Supervisor Mirna Melgar and joined by Vice Chair Supervisor Cheyenne Chen and Supervisor Bilal Mahmoud, addressed two agenda items. The first was a routine ordinance to allow certain tourist hotels and motels to be used for interim housing without losing hotel use classification. The second was an informational hearing on the 2025 Housing Element Rezoning, a complex plan to rezone large portions of the city to meet state-mandated housing production targets. The hearing featured extensive presentations, supervisor questions, and over 70 public comments, reflecting deep community division. The committee voted to advance the hotel ordinance to the full board and filed the rezoning hearing.
Public Comments & Testimony
Item 2 – Housing Element Rezoning: Over 70 speakers provided public comment. Positions were deeply divided:
- Opposition (39 speakers): Residents and neighborhood groups argued the plan would displace existing tenants and small businesses, demolish rent-controlled housing, harm historic resources, and primarily produce market-rate luxury units rather than affordable housing. Many cited outdated population projections and the state mandate as flawed. Speakers from Neighborhoods United SF, Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods, Planning Association for the Richmond, and others urged rejection or major revisions.
- Support (19 speakers): YIMBY groups, housing advocates, and some residents highlighted the need to increase housing supply to lower costs, retain families and workers, support public transit, and avoid state-imposed building remedies. They praised the plan’s focus on transit corridors and inclusionary housing options.
- Conditional/Amendment (17 speakers): Organizations such as the Race and Equity in All Planning Coalition, Chinatown Community Development Center, and the Labor Council called for stronger tenant protections, a right of return for displaced tenants, affordable housing funding, small business support, and 3D modeling to visualize impacts. They expressed cautious support if equity measures are strengthened.
Discussion Items
Item 1 – Ordinance on Interim Housing in Hotels and Motels (File 250257): This ordinance amends the Planning and Building codes to allow certain hotels and motels used for temporary COVID-19 shelter to be used for interim housing without losing their hotel use designation. The committee had previously amended the legislation. Public comment was called but no speakers came forward. A motion to send the item to the full board as a committee report passed unanimously (3-0).
Item 2 – 2025 Housing Element Rezoning (File 250552): This informational hearing occupied the majority of the meeting. Planning Department directors Rachel Tanner and Lisa Chen, alongside Josh Switsky, presented the “Family Zoning Plan.” Key details:
- The city must accommodate an additional 36,200 housing units above current zoning by 2031 to meet state law.
- Of these, 20,300 must be affordable to low-income households, 8,400 to moderate-income, and 7,500 to above-moderate income. A 15% buffer brings the total target to approximately 94,300 units.
- The plan proposes height increases along major corridors (e.g., 40–85 feet on transit streets, up to 140 feet in select areas) and density decontrol in residential areas, allowing up to 6 units at base zoning under a new local program.
- The local program offers flexibility on inclusionary housing, height, and open space to incentivize projects to opt for local rather than state bonus programs.
- Related policies include tenant protections (codifying SB 330), an affordable housing sites strategy, and small business support measures.
Supervisor questions touched on:
- Density decontrol and family housing: Vice Chair Chen expressed concern that removing unit caps could reduce family-sized units. Planning responded that a 25% requirement for units with 2+ bedrooms would be maintained.
- Affordable housing strategy: Planning noted a forthcoming sites analysis tools to help identify parcels for 100% affordable projects, but acknowledged funding is the primary constraint.
- Historic preservation: President Mandelman stressed the need for a clear plan to landmark buildings before upzoning triggers demolitions. Planning agreed to develop a strategy.
- Incentives for local program: Supervisor Mahmoud requested comparisons with state density bonus. Planning highlighted flexibility in affordable housing compliance and design standards as key incentives.
- Local refinements: Supervisor Ingario requested height reductions near the Sunset coast and Merced Manor; planning agreed to review.
Key Outcomes
Item 1: The committee initially voted 3-0 to recommend the ordinance as a committee report. After discovering a typographical error (lot number listed as “101” instead of “010”), the committee rescinded the first vote, adopted the correction as a minor amendment, and then voted again 3-0 to forward the amended ordinance to the full Board of Supervisors for consideration on June 17, 2025.
Item 2: The committee voted 3-0 to file the informational hearing, meaning no further action was taken. The rezoning legislation is expected to be introduced in the coming weeks, with additional hearings scheduled at the Planning Commission (June 26) and later at this committee. The final adoption deadline is January 2026.
Meeting Transcript
Okay, good afternoon, everyone. This meeting will come to order. Welcome to the June 16th, 2025 regular meeting of the Land Use and Transportation Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. I am Supervisor Mirna Melgar, Chair of the Committee, joined by Vice Chair Supervisor Cheyenne Chen and Supervisor Bilal Mahmoud. The committee clerk today is Mr. John Carroll. And I would also like to thank Seuss Enos from SFGov TV for helping us broadcast this meeting. Mr. Clerk, do you have any announcements? Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. Please ensure that you've silenced your cell phones and other electronic devices that you've brought with you into the chamber today. If you have any documents you want to have included as part of any of today's files, you can submit them to me. I'll meet you up front at the rail and you can pass them over to me. People today have begun filling out speaker cards. I would certainly appreciate having speaker cards so I can spell your name properly on the minutes, but you are not required to fill one out if you want to speak today. If you do fill one out, please drop it up in front of that television in that hopper there, and I will periodically stop over there and grab speaker cards. Public comment will be taken on each item on today's agenda. When your item of interest comes up and public comment is called, please line up to speak along your right-hand side of this room. Alternatively, you may submit public comment in writing in either of the following ways. First, you may send your written comments to me at J-O-H-N periods C-A-R-R-O-L-L at SFGOV.org. Or you may send your written comments via U.S. Postal Service to our office in City Hall. That's the clerk's office. One, Dr. Carlton B. Goodlit Place, Room 244, San Francisco, California 94102. If you submit public comment in writing, I will forward your comments to the members of this committee. And I will also include your comments as part of the official file on which you are commenting. Items acted upon today are expected to appear on the Board of Supervisors' agenda of June 24th, 2025, unless otherwise stated. Thank you so much, Mr. Clerk. Please call item number one. Agenda item number one is an ordinance amending the planning code to allow certain tourist hotels and motels to be used for interim housing without thereby abandoning or discontinuing the hotel use classification under that code and authorizing the re-establishment of hotel use for certain shelter in place hotels, amending the building code to allow interim housing without thereby changing the underlying occupancy classification of the property, allowing re-establishment of hotel use for shelter in place hotels, affirming the planning department's secret determination and other necessary findings throughout the ordinance. And Madam Chair, this item is on our agenda as a potential committee report. It may be sent to the Board of Supervisors for consideration tomorrow, June 17th, 2025. Thank you so much, Mr. Clerk. Colleagues, you may remember that we amended this legislation at our last meeting. So if that's okay, let's open up this item for public comment. Um and then I'll make a motion after that. Thank you, Madam Chair. Land use and transportation. We're now here public comment related to agenda item number one. If you have public comment for this item, please come forward to the lectern. Madam Chair, it appears we have no speakers. Okay. Uh so public comment on this item is now closed. Um I would like to make a motion that we send this item out of committee with a positive recommendation as a committee report. On the motion offered by the chair that the ordinance be recommended as a committee report to Vice Chair Chen. Chen I, Member Machmud Mahmoud Aye, Chair Melgar.
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