South City scopes housing development goals

And with an additional roughly 800 units in the development pipeline, officials expressed optimism they would meet the immediate goals while acknowledging a more onerous task looming on the horizon.

Chief Planner Tony Rozzi projected that the coming round of RHNA obligations would compel South San Francisco officials to zone for construction of roughly 4,000 new units to be built between 2023 and 2031.

That figure floats even higher over the course of the city’s general plan update, which projects through three RHNA cycles and calls for construction of as many as approximately 12,000 new units.

“That’s pretty significant,” Rozzi said, during a South San Francisco Planning Commission meeting Thursday, March 18.

The allocation is distributed by the Association of Bay Area Governments, or ABAG, to meet the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development’s assignment. Cities that fail to meet the goal face state intervention to streamline construction of development proposals.

Meeting the RHNA goal is a challenge for communities throughout San Mateo County, and many cities are expecting that their allotment for the next cycle will be twice the previous issuance.

The issue is especially pertinent in South San Francisco though, because RHNA is designed partially to address the imbalance of housing and jobs and the city’s biotech sector continues growing.

With the industry’s constant economic expansion, the city’s housing allocation ticks up and officials are continuously pressed to find opportunities to zone for further residential development.

As part of a general plan update, city officials identified areas east of Highway 101 and south of downtown in the Lindenville neighborhood as areas for introducing additional residential development.

Paired with further residential construction downtown and along El Camino Real, officials are hopeful they will identify a sufficient amount of space to be zoned for future housing to meet the new state standard.

Zoning in the new general plan is a sensitive issue in South San Francisco, following councilmembers suggesting they favored exploring a proposal to upzone single-family neighborhoods.

The idea received vigorous opposition from many residents, and officials ultimately reversed course in favor of further studying the RHNA process alongside their colleagues across San Mateo County.

While city officials look ahead to the challenges associated with the future state allocation, issues with meeting the goals of the existing allocation linger as well.

The most challenging element of the current cycle is meeting the low-income housing allotment, as South San Francisco has only issued 85 permits of the allocation for 846 units.

For his part, Rozzi acknowledged South San Francisco has some distance to cover before its affordable housing goal is met, while addressing the challenges cities face in building those units.

“It is just a hard lift to get affordable projects built,” Rozzi said, noting the ability of cities to finance the developments is limited following the dissolution of redevelopment agencies.

Planning Commission Chair Michele Evans reiterated that same position.

“The reason we don’t have low-income housing is because we don’t have the funding and the developers aren’t going to do it,” she said.

austin@smdailyjournal.com