Aiming to win her colleagues’ support, Supervisor Connie Chan has made two key tweaks to her proposed charter amendment that aims to streamline affordable housing development.
The proposal now appears to have the six votes necessary to pass the Board of Supervisors and appear on the November ballot.
Chan lowered the threshold of affordable units for a multifamily housing development to qualify for a waiver of certain permitting requirements, which can ensnare housing proposals and drag on for months or years in San Francisco.
The change brought at least one additional supervisor, Hillary Ronen, on board with the proposal. If approved by a majority of the Board of Supervisors later this month, the measure would appear on the ballot in November and compete head to head with a similar measure introduced by Mayor London Breed and backed by YIMBY advocates.
Under the revised Chan proposal, only an additional 8% of units would have to be affordable — defined as 80% of the area median income — beyond the 21% or more the city already requires for new market-rate housing developments.
"This still is 8% in addition to the existing standard — that is a thoughtful compromise,” Chan said while introducing the amendments on Tuesday.
In Chan’s initial version of the proposal, the development would have had to exceed the city’s existing standard by 15% — a figure so high that early opponents argued it would effectively stymie affordable housing production.
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Projects that are 100% affordable, or educator housing, would also qualify for streamlining.
For projects that are a mix of market rate and affordable units, Chan made a second amendment that would redefine multifamily housing from any residential building with at least two units to one with more than 10 units.
This would limit the streamlining process to larger developments and exclude proposals like fourplexes.
The Board of Supervisors agreed to make Chan’s amendments on Tuesday, but has yet to vote on the full proposal.
Thus far, six of the board’s 11 members have signaled their support by co-sponsoring the measure.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect that a sixth supervisor has signaled support of the charter amendment.
