- By Patrick Hoge | Examiner staff writer |
- Feb 25, 2025 Updated Feb 26, 2025 (SFExaminer.com)
San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors is poised to take another stab at making it easier to convert empty office and other commercial buildings downtown into housing.
The legislative body on Tuesday gave initial approval to an ordinance that would exempt certain projects in the city’s center that replace non-residential uses with residential ones from an assortment of fees and requirements, including The City’s inclusionary housing fee. City staffers have estimated the measure will eliminate the lion’s share of city-imposed costs on commercial-to-residential conversion projects.
Sponsored by Mayor Lurie and co-sponsored by District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey and District 3 Supervisor Danny Sauter, the measure passed the board on a 9-2 vote. District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder and District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton voted no.
The bill could be up for a second vote as soon as next Tuesday, said a spokesperson for the mayor.
In a press release, Lurie hailed the vote as evidence of a new epoch of cooperation in city government. The legislation will help revitalize downtown, he said.
“Transforming vacant offices into housing will help drive our recovery downtown while creating new homes for San Franciscans,” he said. “This is a win-win for our city.”
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San Francisco’s downtown has struggled since the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks in large part to the rise of remote work and the consequent decline in the number of workers going to offices for their jobs. Since the pandemic, San Francisco’s office vacancy rate has risen in all but two of the last 20 quarters to surpass 34% — with some estimates putting it at more than 36%. That is more than double the rate in New York and higher than Los Angeles, Austin and Seattle, Lurie said.
With the goals of both housing more people and diversifying downtown’s economy, planning advocates and developers have been pushing officials to make it easier to convert underutilized office buildings into housing. Although both The City and the state have enacted pro-conversion measures, those measures have yet to make a significant impact in San Francisco.
Lurie, in his press release, blamed that lack of traction on financial and bureaucratic hurdles that have inhibited office-to-housing conversion projects.
The legislation the board voted on Tuesday was introduced in September by former Mayor London Breed and Dorsey, whose District 6, along with Sauter’s, covers much of downtown. City staff have estimated the fee and other waivers would eliminate $70,000 to $90,000 of costs per residence.
Supervisors on Tuesday approved an amendment to the proposal that would cap the total square footage eligible for a development-fee waiver at 7 million square feet of floor space converted from commercial to residential use. Under the legislation, hotel space would not be eligible for conversion-fee waivers.
“Mayor Lurie and I are committed to reimagining downtown as a thriving neighborhood where people live, work, and play,” Dorsey said in the press release sent out by the Mayor’s Office. “Underutilized and vacant office buildings offer us incredible opportunities to unlock more units of housing and welcome new neighbors downtown.”
