Home to 800,000 people, and the 2nd most dense city in the country, San Francisco has hit the wall. We’re surround by water on 3 sides, and have nowhere else to build. The rapid population growth in the region in the next decades will require new ways of thinking in order to accommodate the legions of new residents. In the next few posts I’d like to introduce a few ideas I’ve had on ways to incorporate new housing without disturbing the neighborhood feel that makes San Francisco the city we love.
This lack of housing is the simple fact that makes it expensive to live here. At the SPUR meeting on Tuesday, July 28, former Planning Director Dean Macris plainly stated what we all know: we can never build ‘enough’ housing. People will always want to live here, no matter the price point. Rent Control makes it affordable for some, along with other government controls. Some rules also make it untenable to provide more living space. Basic market forces are needed to bring down the cost of housing, which equals more supply.
In this city, either we build up, or we build out. It turns out that we need both. The long and expensive process of constructing more residential towers will not make enough housing to be competitive. The only other option is to better use the less populated southern and western areas of the city. Through more generous zoning, and the utilization of in-law apartments, we can easier absorb more people.
Lastly, my favorite topic about putting more housing near transit. I usually focus on areas like The Mission and SOMA for having good access to transportation, but as we’ll see, the southwestern regions served by the KLM lines are ripe for more growth. Naturally plans for Visitacion Valley and Balboa Park will contribute greatly to this goal, but more is needed. Areas with single family detached housing can still be allowed to be more dense than they currently admit.
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