Unfamiliar Terrain

UPDATE: As of September 30, 2024, Governor Newsom signed all but one of the bills we wrote about in our original post of September 16, 2024. We have updated that post to identify the bills that have been signed into law and to reflect the veto of AB 3068. During the 2024 California Legislative Session, […]

A roundup of news and multimedia from the Unfamiliar Terrain team: San Francisco S.F.’s Stonestown to become west side’s largest residential development in 50 years (SF Chronicle): The plan to convert the Stonestown Galleria from a suburban shopping center to an urban neighborhood with thousands of units of housing received its final approvals from the […]

As expected, on June 28, the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) determined that San Francisco has not made adequate progress toward its State-mandated housing production goal. The City’s Housing Element—which it adopted and HCD certified in January 2023, just in time to avoid triggering certain penalties under the State Housing Element Law […]

A roundup of news and multimedia from the Unfamiliar Terrain team: San Francisco Ultra Wealthy Are Putting Money Behind Bets on San Francisco’s Comeback (Bloomberg): Big investments in City businesses and real estate assets continue. New data reveals what’s really fueling downtown San Francisco’s recovery (Business Times): New data suggests nightlife and after-hours activity may […]

The California Supreme Court recently upheld the Environmental Impact Report (“EIR”) for the Long Range Development Plan (“LRDP”) for the University of California Berkeley (“UC Berkeley”) and a controversial housing project at a site known as People’s Park. In so doing, it applied the principle that “no matter how important its original purpose, [CEQA] remains […]

On April 12, 2024, the United States Supreme Court issued an opinion that may significantly affect how development impact fees are assessed in California. In Sheetz v. County of El Dorado,[1] the Court unanimously held that legislatively imposed permit conditions are subject to the same constitutional test – informally referred to as the “Nollan/Dolan” test […]

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors recently amended the Planning Code’s controls to further regulate Fleet Charging and Parcel Delivery Service uses, primarily affecting Production, Distribution, and Repair (PDR) zoning districts. Below, we provide an overview of the legislative changes. Fleet Charging Background Fleet Charging[i] describes facilities that exclusively serve commercial or institutional vehicular fleets, […]

A roundup of news and multimedia from the Unfamiliar Terrain team: San Francisco Small and Mighty: How small businesses can reinvent downtown San Francisco (SPUR Policy Brief): SPUR’s research, drawn from a literature review and interviews with City staff, small business owners, and nonprofits, pinpoints seven interventions that would make a difference to help small […]

A roundup of news and multimedia from the Unfamiliar Terrain team: San Francisco San Francisco’s Montgomery Street Could Signal a Downtown Revival (NY Times): Why a seven-block stretch of Montgomery Street, from the Transamerica Pyramid to Market Street, offers hope for recovery in the City. Why TMG Partners Co-CEO Matt Field is still betting on […]

Voters in San Francisco and California will again confront a formidable ballot during the election on March 5, 2024, with an array of qualified City measures and one state proposition to consider. Key measures related to real estate and housing are as follows: San Francisco Proposition A (Affordable Housing Bonds): Proposition A would allow the […]

Recognizing that Downtown San Francisco is “struggling” post-pandemic, State Senator Scott Wiener has announced new legislation to exempt certain projects in the area from California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review for a 10-year period, together with a tax exemption for projects providing workforce housing. SB 1227 seeks to expand on SB 423, CEQA streamlining legislation […]

Throughout 2023, the State’s Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) loomed large in San Francisco land use policy and politics. In January 2023, the City adopted and HCD certified a new Housing Element setting forth San Francisco’s plan for approving and building a State-mandated 82,000 new housing units over the next eight years (see […]