by JUNYAO YANG August 26, 2025 (MissionLocal.org)
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In the far northwest of San Francisco, it’s rare to find support for the city’s plan to increase density and height limits in the less-developed, yet “well-resourced” neighborhoods that dominate the west side of the city.
But some 20 people at a Richmond District community meeting on Monday evening indicated YIMBYs may have a small toehold of support here.
Yvonne Perez, a homeowner in the Richmond since 2017, said at the meeting that she understands her neighbors who are concerned about views being obstructed, or fear change. She used to be one of them.
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“I wasn’t sure what to make of the upzoning plan. I didn’t want the Richmond to become downtown with all the high-rises,” she said. “But once I understood what it actually meant, more families, more younger generations, it changed my perspective.”
Now, she wants others to have a change of heart, too.
The Richmond is known for single-family homes and duplexes, and has seen limited development in the past decade: Only some 400 units were completed in the Richmond, while the Mission contributed more than 4,000 units. The city is mandated to build 82,000 housing units by 2031.
In the past, at hourslong City Hall hearings, the majority of the hundreds of public speakers have opposed the upzoning plan. YIMBYs hope to change that.
The meeting, sponsored by the local YIMBY chapter Grow the Richmond, invited planning department staffers to present the city’s zoning plan and answer questions. The attendees asked: What’s the protection for tenants and small businesses? How much more population growth is expected? Is the infrastructure ready?
Chuong Vu, a tenant in the Richmond, moved there from the Panhandle just three weeks ago with his wife and 8-month-old baby. They wanted to live in the Inner Richmond initially, but as the apartment search went on, he found himself going “west and west and west.” At an open house in the Inner Richmond, there were 20 other people in competition for a unit.
“It was really hard to find housing,” Vu said, explaining why he attended the YIMBY meeting: He wants more density in the Richmond. “I don’t want to do this again the next time I look for housing.”
That sentiment was echoed by others in the meeting.
Lisa Chen, principal planner from the Planning Department, walked through the new zoning plan, cautioning the audience that the additional housing units won’t all immediately get built. Listening to Chen, Vu was concerned.
“It’s not gonna do enough,” Vu said. On a zoning map handed out to the audience, only parcels along transit corridors would see increased height limits. “Why is it only directly on the transit lines? What about the adjacent lots?”
“We are stuck in the 1950s,” one attendee said, cracking a joke about the one- or two-story buildings on Geary Boulevard. The crowd chuckled.
“Why isn’t the whole Richmond more orange?” another attendee asked, referring to the parts of the zoning map allowing for 85 feet, or eight stories. Only parcels along Geary Boulevard, Fulton Street and part of California Street were marked orange.
The height limit in the Richmond tops out at the corner of Geary and Arguello, at 140 feet or about 14 stories. But other parcels, like the ones that stretch along Balboa and Clement streets, are capped at just 65 feet, or six stories.
“It’s been challenging,” Chen said to the audience, which was not her usual crowd in this part of town. “Every neighborhood we go to, there’s a lot of resistance to that idea of adding height. So we’ve been trying to just make sure that there’s no area that’s targeted more than another.”
The Richmond has not been fertile ground for urbanism and the YIMBY movement. Residents by and large like its single-family homes, and they like to drive.
In 2022, only 35 percent citywide voters supported Prop. I to bring cars back to John F. Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park, but 43 percent of District 1 voters supported it. Last year, though 54.7 percent of citywide voters favored closing the Upper Great Highway to cars, only 36 percent of District 1 voters did.
But Steven Shoemaker, the YIMBY volunteer organizer of the Monday meeting, is optimistic.
“There may be more support for denser housing than people expected,” Shoemaker said. And even though it’s nice to hold events with people who agree with each other, he said, the next step is to leave the echo chamber.
“What we want to do is create as many opportunities as we can to get the kind of pro-housing voice out there and create a different forum for those conversations,” he said.
The neighborhood actually has a lot of renters: According to the 2023 American Community Survey, Inner Richmond is 58 percent renter-occupied, and Outer Richmond 53 percent.
“Our population is stagnant, and it is getting older,” she said. “I would love to see younger people being able to afford to live here and also to be more vibrant. We have so much potential here.”
“Most people live in the Richmond, Sunset because they love the neighborhood character, and most people don’t want it to change,” said Steven Huang, who came to the meeting from his Sunset home. “But even if we do nothing, change still happens. So, how can we proactively make it continue to be a nice place to live?”
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JUNYAO YANG
I’m a California Local News Fellow, focusing on data and the Westside. I moved to the Inner Sunset in 2023, after receiving her Master’s degree from UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Sometimes I try too hard to get attention from cute dogs.More by Junyao Yang
