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Neighborhoods United SF

Advocating for Community-Centered Housing Solutions

In This Issue

TODAY! Rally & Hearing: Supervisor Land Use Committee, 10/20

Accountability: Demand Public Comment to Full Board

Rebuttal: What's Truly Radical? Mayor Lurie's Upzoning Plan

IRREVERSIBLE DAMAGE

Upzoning Rally and Hearing, Mon 10/20

Board of Supervisors' Land Use and Transportation Committee Hearing


Monday, October 20th

RALLY: 12:00pm outside City Hall, Polk St

HEARING: 1:30pm, City Hall, Room 250

SHOW UP AND MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD

Click Here: To print your Don't Demolish SF! sign and bring to rally and hearing.

The October 20 hearing may be the final opportunity for the public to speak out on one of the most consequential and irreversible overhauls of San Francisco’s land use policy in generations, and most residents have no idea it’s happening.

Only the Board of Supervisors’ Land Use Committee allows public comment. Once their recommendation goes to the full Board, the public will be silenced. This is unacceptable - see our demand below.

Mayor Lurie’s so-called “Family Zoning Plan” is being rushed through under Senator Wiener’s state laws, which force excessive and unachievable upzoning mandates on our city. These laws were designed to trigger the builder’s remedy and give local officials an excuse to say "their hands are tied", instead of standing up for San Francisco and local control.

Below are the major concerns with Mayor Lurie's plan and its lasting impacts on our vibrant and historic neighborhoods and communities.

✅ Require real affordability — mandate 20–25% on-site affordable housing and more 2- and 3-bedroom family units.

✅ Protect renters and neighborhoods — remove ALL rent-controlled homes from the plan and preserve existing small-scale housing.

✅ Keep our local businesses — maintain 40′ height limits on retail corridors, provide relocation aid and first right-of-return for small businesses, and prioritize independent storefronts.

✅ Add accountability safeguards — include a Circuit Breaker Clause to pause or reverse upzoning if it drives speculation, displacement, or fails to deliver affordability.

✅ End density gimmicks — remove overlapping base and density maps and excessive height bonuses that allow stacked State Density Bonus incentives.

✅ Promote small-scale infill — demand HCD account for more four- and six-plexes toward housing goals instead of forcing extreme citywide upzoning.

✅ Zone smartly for affordability — create Affordable Housing Districts on public sites and require infrastructure studies before new growth.

✅ Preserve our history — protect Class A historic buildings, landmark structures, and neighborhood character through stronger safeguards.

✅ Defend our coast and environment — invest in resilience, adaptive reuse, and sustainable development rather than reckless expansion.

✅ Support fair labor — ensure workers who build our housing are paid fair wages.

Related article: News media coverage about Lurie’s upzoning plan misses the most important player, Oct 2025

A Decision This Consequential Requires Every Supervisor’s Accountability

As mentioned above, on Monday, the City’s upzoning plan is taking a major step towards approval at the Land Use Committee, but only three of the eleven Supervisors will be considering amendments. They will then forward their recommendation to the full Board, yet no public comment will be allowed at the full Board hearing.

On an issue this consequential and permanent, all eleven Supervisors must hear directly from the public and respond publicly to defend their votes.

To ensure full accountability, we are demanding that the Board President or a majority of Supervisors call a 'Committee of the Whole' hearing so every member of the Board can hear from residents before making a final decision. 

Our neighborhoods deserve transparency, accountability, and a voice in decisions that will define San Francisco’s future.

Rebuttal: What’s Truly Radical?

Lurie’s Reckless Upzoning Plan

Lori Brooke presenting concerns about upzoning at a neighborhood town hall.

The recent misleading opinion piece "Lurie’s rezoning plan is radicalizing foes - even though there’s nothing radical about it” (9/22/25) praising Mayor Lurie’s upzoning plan badly misrepresents both the facts and the opposition to this reckless proposal. Let’s set the record straight.

First, the entire housing mandate rests on a false premise. The State Department of Finance projects San Francisco’s population will grow by only 16,937 people by 2050. Yet the State insists the city must plan for 82,000 new units by 2031, enough for roughly 172,000 residents. Doing the math, we are overbuilding by a factor of ten. Who exactly is expected to fill these homes? And what for-profit developer is going to build housing beyond demand? The idea that sheer “supply” will drive affordability is magical thinking.

Second, this isn’t about “cantankerous gadflies” worried about views. Residents across San Francisco, from tenants to homeowners to small businesses, are alarmed because this "plan" opens the door to massive upzoning with no guarantees of affordability, adequate infrastructure, or impacts on commercial corridors. Calling this “incremental” is disingenuous when the plan allows massive building heights and densities never before analyzed, even in historic districts and coastal areas. 

Third, the claim that San Francisco must adopt this plan to comply with the state’s housing mandate is simply false. Local law, signed by Mayor London Breed in 2023, already created capacity for 400,000 units through fourplex and sixplex legislation, with another 70,000 units already in the pipeline. That’s more than six times the state’s requirement. Another important fact is that nearly 46,000 of the mandated 82,000 units must be affordable, at a cost of roughly $19 billion. The real challenge isn’t zoning; it’s financing and delivering affordability. Lurie’s plan does nothing to address those realities.

Fourth, the opinion piece ignores displacement risk. Small businesses and rent-controlled tenants will face demolition and redevelopment pressures, no matter how much Planning insists otherwise. History proves this: increased density and height limits raise land values, and speculative development follows.

Saying “the commission almost never grants that permission” to demolish rent-controlled housing is laughable when the Mayor's legislation totally rewrites the rules to make it easy. Moreover, the mayor appoints a majority of the Planning Commission, and his appointees almost always side with development, as shown by their 4-3 vote to approve this plan.

Finally, dismissing citizen engagement as “obstructing” is insulting and undemocratic. San Franciscans are not fools. We know when we're being gaslit. Joel Engardio learned this lesson the hard way in District 4, and the same fate awaits officials who continue to side with YIMBY lobbyists and billionaires over their own constituents.

Mayor Lurie’s “Family Zoning Plan” is not a thoughtful path toward affordability. It’s an unnecessary, libertarian-billionaire and developer-driven scheme that sacrifices neighborhoods while delivering no real solutions. If the Mayor truly wants to lead, he should start by listening to the people who live here, not self-interested developers and their lobbyists.

There’s nothing radical about demanding honest math, real affordability, and respect for neighborhoods. What’s radical is sacrificing a city for billionaire, real estate and tech donors.

RECAP: WHAT YOU CAN DO!

Since our leaders have capitulated to billionaire-backed YIMBY lobbyists, it's up to us to protect our diverse communities and keep families here.


• Speak up: Send email demanding the full board hearing to allow PUBLIC COMMENTS!
  
• Show up: Supervisor Land Use and Transportation Committee Vote, Monday, October 20th at 12pm for rally and 1:30pm for hearing.
  
• Signage: click here to print your own Don't Demolish SF! Bring to the rally and hearing.
  
• Spread the word: Please share this email with friends and neighbors.

ABOUT NEIGHBORHOODS UNITED SF

Neighborhoods United SF (NUSF) has rapidly mobilized over 60 neighborhoods across San Francisco to resist extreme state-mandated, locally-implemented height and density increases.

NUSF champions community-led planning to protect vulnerable residents and small businesses from gentrification while ensuring the livability of San Francisco's neighborhoods.