View this Email in Your Browser

Neighborhoods United SF

Advocating for Community-Centered Housing Solutions

In This Issue

Support: Vote for NUSF's Co-Founder by 10/5

Attend: Supervisor Sherrill Upzoning Town Hall, 10/7

Mark Calendar: Supervisor Land Use Vote, 10/20

Action: What You Can Do

Vote for NUSF's Co-Founder

Exciting news! Our co-founder, Lori Brooke, is nominated for San Franciscan of the Year 2025, an honor chosen by fellow San Franciscans.

This public vote will narrow the field from 40 nominees to 12 finalists. Becoming a finalist would shine a spotlight on our fight against reckless upzoning and give citywide visibility to protecting residents, small businesses, and neighborhoods.

Your vote helps amplify our cause, please take a moment to support Lori. Thank you!

Supervisor Sherrill's Upzoning Town Hall

Watch 18 second video

This is designed to ‘sell the plan.’ But the reality can’t be hidden: this is bad news and a big deal. Extrapolate it to Lombard, Chestnut, Fillmore and Union streets with far more buildings and even taller high-rises driven by state density bonuses. Who benefits from all this?

Supervisor Sherrill and Rachael Tanner, Director of the Citywide Planning Division, are hosting a District 2 Town Hall to present Mayor Lurie’s proposed upzoning plan.

Supervisor Sherrill will be voting on this plan in the coming months, and he needs to know where you stand and what you expect of him in this critical moment.

Sherrill's Upzoning Town Hall
Tuesday, October 7, 2025



Doors open at 5:30pm, event starts at 6:00pm

Calvary Presbyterian Church

2515 Fillmore Street (at Jackson)

Register

Key Questions City Hall Must Answer

Affordable Housing

How will this plan guarantee affordable housing rather than simply incentivizing luxury and market-rate units that drive prices higher?

Speculation & Land Banking

What protections will prevent speculative development, parcel accumulation, and land banking that fuel displacement and rising costs?

Demolitions

How will the plan safeguard existing rent-controlled housing and protect tenants from eviction under Ellis Act loopholes? You can not upzone without first tearing down existing affordable housing.

Small Business Displacement

What measures will protect small businesses and entire merchant corridors from being wiped out by demolitions, high-rises, and years of construction disruption?

Infrastructure

How will schools, transit, utilities, and public safety keep pace with increased density, and who will pay for the necessary upgrades?

Historic & Cultural Resources

How will San Francisco’s landmarks, Category A buildings, and cultural districts be protected from irreversible damage?

Housing Element vs. Lurie’s Plan

Why does Mayor Lurie’s upzoning proposal create capacity for 800,000 new units, when the 2022 approved Housing Element and its certified Environmental Impact Report planned for 140,000? Why are residents now faced with six different maps that overhaul land-use policy citywide instead of the single original map?

State Bills

How will this plan interact with Scott Wiener’s SB-79 and other pending state legislation if signed into law? Will it strip away even more local control? If exemptions are promised, are they enforceable or merely conditional?

Accountability

What binding mechanisms will hold developers to their commitments for community benefits, not just vague promises?

Neighborhood Input

How will resident voices truly shape the plan? How will neighbors be notified when projects are proposed, and how can they have a real say in how those projects proceed?

Population Projections

How does the city justify massive upzoning when the State Department of Finance projects flat or minimal population growth through 2050? Why are elected officials saying “our hands are tied” instead of showing true leadership and fighting on behalf of San Franciscans?

Permanent Change

Once neighborhoods are upzoned, the change is permanent and irreversible. What guarantees exist that these decisions won’t worsen affordability and displacement? Why isn’t there a staged approach, or a safeguard clause, to stop or reverse the plans if developers abuse it?

The former Walgreens location on Lombard at Divisadero!

Save the Date: 10/20

Supervisors' Land Use Committee Hearing

Monday, October 20 at 1:30pm

City Hall, Room 250

Show up with your speeches and support!

Round 1: Planning Commission – September 11

Predictably approved 4–3, with all of the Mayor’s appointees voting in favor of his plan, against the clear concerns of residents and businesses.

Round 2: Land Use Committee – October 20

This is an important moment to once again let City Hall hear your specific concerns.

Round 3: Full Board of Supervisors – Date TBD

This is where EVERYONE needs to show up and speak out.

Our elected officials are not just voting on a single “Local Plan” map. There are now six maps in circulation, each making sweeping changes to land use policy. These changes cover everything from how lots can be used, to new base height increases (outside the Local Plan), to new density allowances that stack with the State Density Bonus and can double or even triple heights.

And if that weren’t egregious enough, this week the City is also pushing General Plan Amendments, another massive rewrite of land use rules that overrides decades of thoughtful area plans created with community input. Instead of respecting these area plans, Mayor Lurie’s aggressive upzoning erases them. The ordinance on the table would permanently eliminate area plans that shaped development in neighborhoods across the city.

The proposed ordinance amends the General Plan to revise the Urban Design Element, Commerce and Industry Element, Transportation Element, and nearly a dozen neighborhood plans: Balboa Park, Glen Park, Market & Octavia, Northeastern Waterfront, Van Ness Avenue, Western SoMa, Western Shoreline, Downtown, and more. It even amends the City’s Local Coastal Program and directs the Planning Director to transmit the changes to the Coastal Commission. All of this is being packaged as part of the “Family Housing Zoning Program” and “Housing Choice-San Francisco Program.”

It never ends. This is the most insidious dismantling of San Francisco’s land use protections in our city’s history. The Lurie Administration is counting on people not paying attention so they can jam it through by the holidays. But we see it clearly: this is capitulation to Sacramento (Wiener), tech billionaires, and YIMBY lobbyists.

We must be there to show City Hall that voters reject this plan. We can do better.

San Francisco is not for sale.

WHAT YOU CAN DO!

Apparently Senator Wiener does not like this sign (see his tweet).

You know what to 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.



• Signage: click here to print your own Don't Demolish SF! . Post it in your window or anywhere it will be most visible!
  
• Speak up: Write to the Mayor and your Supervisor. Also, call the Mayor's office (415) 554-6141 and your Supervisors' office - leave a message if after hours.
  
• Show up: Supervisor Land Use and Transportation Committee Vote, Monday, October 20th at 1:30pm.
  
• Spread the word: There’s still time to make a difference—please share this email with friends and neighbors.

Share this email with your neighbors and friends across San Francisco!

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.