Housing Element

INTRODUCTION

This Housing Element provides a roadmap to balance our employment growth and housing demand and is a comprehensive, long-term plan to address housing needs in the City of South San Francisco. The Housing Element is South San Francisco’s primary policy document regarding the development, rehabilitation, and preservation of all types of housing.

The Housing Element includes:

A review of the challenges and accomplishments in the last Housing Element planning period (2015-2023), including an analysis of housing production over the previous cycle.
An analysis of the City’s current and future housing needs.
An analysis of governmental and non-governmental constraints to housing production.
An inventory and analysis of housing resources to meet the City’s housing needs and address its housing challenges.
An analysis of Fair Housing issues and how the City will alleviate existing patterns of segregation, discrimination, and concentrations of poverty.
A comprehensive, long term housing plan setting goals, policies, programs, and quantified objectives to address the City’s housing needs and equity goals for the next planning period 2023-2031.

Achievements

The City achieved a lot during the last eight years

01We built new senior housing and new affordable housing.

The City provided incentives to deliver 100% affordable housing, including an 81-unit senior housing project at 310 Miller Avenue and two affordable housing projects totaling 84 units (located at 418 Linden Avenue and 201-219 Grand Avenue) that are under construction.

02The Downtown Station Area Specific Plan was a success.

Complete neighborhoods, where residents can reach community amenities (e.g., grocery stores and retail), public facilities (e.g., parks and community centers) and services (e.g., health care and affordable childcare) within a 20-minute walk.

03ADUs have ramped up.

Accessory Dwelling Units, or ADUs have become increasingly popular after the City adopted a new ADU ordinance and removed its previous mandatory parking replacement policy. Interested homeowners can now more easily add ADUs to their property, and many are, helping to create new rental housing in existing neighborhoods.

04We did most of what we said we would!

The City identified a number of policies and programs in the 2015-2022 Housing Element to address equity, fair access to housing, and affordability. Most of these were completed, including adoption of an updated Inclusionary Housing Policy, commercial linkage fee, and park impact fee. The funds we are now collecting from new commercial projects will help fund affordable housing projects in the next planning period.

OUR HOUSING NEEDS

South San Francisco has transitioned from industrial center to life sciences and research powerhouse. The continued growth of jobs has boosted the economy, but housing production has not kept up with demand. This has led to housing affordability and displacement issues.

South San Francisco’s population has been growing, with 12% growth in the City from 2000 to 2020 compared to 9% for the county and 15% for the Bay Area. This increase throughout the region is mostly due to natural growth and our strong economy drawing new residents to the region.
As the City has continued to grow, the racial composition has evolved since 1990, with a majority Asian Pacific Islander and Latino population in 2020. The majority of Asian Pacific Islanders reside in the Westborough sub-area, while most Latinos reside in the Downtown sub-area. More than half of all South San Franciscans speak a language other than English at home.

South San Francisco has a higher percentage of lower income households than the rest of the county and region, with 48% of households earning less than 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI) compared to 40% of households in San Mateo County and 39% of households in the Bay Area.
In this Housing Element, the City has strengthened its policies and programs to more effectively promote low, very low and extremely low-income housing over the planning period, including enhancing several strong policies and programs that are already in place and including clear timelines and quantified objectives.
The City’s need for additional housing extends to both the rental and the for-sale market and the City has a substantial need for increasing its overall supply as well as preserving existing units that are naturally affordable. “Missing middle housing” – including duplexes, triplexes, townhomes, cottage clusters and accessory dwelling units may open more options across incomes and tenure, from young households seeking homeownership options to seniors looking to downsize and age-in-place.

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT

The Housing Element is an important document that will shape the future of our community.

It is important that it reflects the vision of the people who make South San Francisco unique.
To accomplish this, South San Francisco developed a broad and diverse outreach plan designed to reach as many community members who live and work here as possible.

The development of the Housing Element underscores the importance of effective community engagement through strategies like targeted outreach to people with disproportionate housing needs, partnering with local organizations, and connecting people to services.
The City conducted 37 multilingual meetings, 5 Spanish language meetings, 43 board/commission meetings, and 54 other outreach meetings in the last three years.

	Existing Conditions Report	Community Visioning	Land Use Alternatives	Programs and Policies	Draft Plan Release	Up- coming	Total
Multilingual Meetings							37
Community Workshop		1	2	7	2	1	13
Sub-Area Meetings	9		4	3	3		19
Pop-ups	4				1		5
Spanish Language Meetings							5
Padres en Accion	1						1
Workshop		1					1
Sub-Area Meetings			1	1	1		3
Boards/Commission Meetings							43
Joint PC/CC	1		1		3		5
City Council	1	1	1			1	4
Planning Commission			2	1		1	4
Youth AdvisoryCommission	1		1				2
General Plan Community Advisory Committee (GP CAC)	5	2	5	8	3		23
GP CAC Forum		3		1			4
Commission on Racial and Social Equity				1			1
Other Outreach							54
Online Surveys		2	6	10	2		20
Videos			2	6			8
Story Bank	1						1
Stakeholder meetings	21	1					25

OUR REGIONAL HOUSING NEED ALLOCATION

The Plan Bay Area 2050 Final Blueprint, a regional plan covering the nine-county Bay Area region, forecasts that the Bay Area region will add 1.4 million new households between 2015 and 2050. For the eight-year time frame covered by this Housing Element (2023-2031), the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) identified the region’s housing need and assigned a Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) to each jurisdiction and distributes each jurisdiction’s housing unit allocation among four affordability levels, from very low-income households to market rate housing based on population projections.
The Housing Element must identify sites for housing development that are adequate to accommodate the City’s allocation of the regional housing need and a plan to implement a set of programs and policies help facilitate, encourage, and incentivize the production of housing for all income levels.
For South San Francisco, the assigned RHNA is 3,956 units. The total number of housing units and the distribution by income category requires the City to ensure there are adequate housing sites and programs to address a variety of housing choices, types, and densities.

RHNA = Regional Housing Needs Allocation

Income Group	South San Francisco Units	San Mateo County Units	Bay Area Units	South San Francisco Percent	San Mateo County Percent	Bay Area Percent
Very Low Income (<50% of AMI)	871	12,196	114,442	22.0%	25.6%	25.9%
Low Income (50%-80% of AMI)	502	7,023	65,892	12.7%	14.7%	14.9%
Moderate Income (80%-120% of AMI)	720	7,937	72,712	18.2%	16.6%	16.5%
Above Moderate Income (>120% of AMI)	1,863	20,531	188,130	47.1%	43.1%	42.6%
Total	3,956	47,687	441,176	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

Source: Association of Bay Area Governments

OUR HOUSINGOPPORTUNITY SITES

Most new housing development will occur at sites that are currently developed and will undergo intensification or redevelopment. Through the General Plan process, the City received community input and developed rezoning and development standards that have informed the opportunity site inventory.

	Very Low Units	Low Units	Mod Units	Above Mod Units	Total Units
RHNA Assigned	871	502	720	1863	3956
RHNA Projection w/20% Buffer	1045	602	864	2236	4747

Type	Very Low Units	Low Units	Mod Units	Above Mod Units	Total Units
Pipeline Projects	225	408	50	2,898	3581
ADUs (based on high projection)	113	113	113	38	376
Opportunity Sites	552	1,322	571	10,663	13,109
Total to comply with RHNA	890	1,843	734	13,599	17,066

South San Francisco’s Opportunity Sites are located in four corridors:

Lindenville Corridor as an extension of the Downtown
South Airport Boulevard Corridor to introduce housing east of 101
El Camino Real – North Corridor between SSF BART and Orange Avenue
El Camino Real – South Corridor between Orange Avenue and San Bruno BART

Lindenville Corridor South Airport Boulevard Corridor El Camino Real- North Corridor El Camino Real- South Corridor

Lindenville Corridor

The General Plan update and Housing Element proposes to create a new vibrant residential neighborhood in Lindenville, ensuring appropriate City services, amenities and retail to support new residential growth. As part of the General Plan and Housing Element implementation, the City has initiated a Lindenville Area Specific Plan to thoughtfully integrate housing with existing industrial and commercial uses.

For more information: https://shapessf.com/plan-lindenville/

South Airport Boulevard Corridor

As a part of the General Plan update and Housing Element, there is opportunity to introduce residential uses to East of 101 to create more complete neighborhoods with options for living, working, and recreation. The General Plan creates these new mixed-use neighborhoods along South Airport Boulevard with densities up to 200 du/ac. Providing opportunities for living in East of 101 supports a long-term vision for more housing near jobs and high-quality transit and creates opportunity for a range of new housing for different income levels.

El Camino Real- North Corridor

The General Plan update and Housing Element identifies strategic locations to support increased housing density and mixed uses along El Camino Real. These activity centers are the South San Francisco BART station, the El Camino Real/Chestnut Avenue area, and the South Spruce Avenue area. The activity centers are imagined as complete neighborhoods and will include spaces for social gathering, shopping, and entertainment to meet the daily needs of residents, employees, and visitors.

El Camino Real- South Corridor

CONSTRAINTS TO HOUSING PRODUCTION IN OUR CITY

The City of South San Francisco has been reasonably successful at promoting housing development and has led the push to build more market rate and affordable housing by reducing review times and entitlement hurdles. Given the patterns of land use and development in the City, and the remarkable challenge of preserving land for residential housing in lieu of office development, this Housing Element continues the approach of its predecessor by promoting high-density housing development on infill sites, adjacent to transit wherever possible.

01Our ongoing conversation with the community through our public engagement highlighted California’s housing crisis and the need to reduce constraints to housing production.

Government regulations affect housing costs, standards and allowable densities for development, and exacting fees impact the use of land or the construction of homes.

02High land and construction costs make housing development difficult.

For the Bay Area, market-related conditions such as land and construction costs are significant factors influencing housing production. Unless building housing for the upper end of the market, it is difficult if not impossible to build more affordable housing without some form of subsidy, which may include increases in density, public land, and/or financial support. Additionally, the competition for scarce land favors the office/life sciences sector that is well-capitalized with high office rental rates compared with residential development.

03Mixed Use Zoning only works if Residential is required.

The competition for land between residential developers and the office/life sciences sector will favor the strongest market. In this case, office/life science developers can pay much higher land costs and still profit relative to market and affordable rate housing producers. Zoning that allows both but does not require housing have only developed with office/life sciences buildings.

04Displacement pressures require continued attention.

As land values have increased and market-rate housing developments are constructed, there are concerns that lower income residents and naturally occurring affordable housing (i.e., non-subsidized housing) are being displaced. The General Plan update paid particular attention to this equity and displacement issue and has informed the updated Housing Element programs and policies.

05Areas adjacent to the airport remain challenging.

Due to land use and height restrictions under the SFO Airport Land Use Compatibility Plan, parts of the City adjacent to mass transit are prohibited from constructing new housing. Market dynamics are shifting attitudes and local override procedures may unlock critical opportunity sites for new housing development.

OUR HOUSING RESOURCES AND TOOLS

01Implementing “Form Based Code” as a tool.

Form Based Codes can help articulate community expectations for new development so that new proposals have a better sense of how to design their building. They help support a faster review and approval process because decisions about building size, setbacks and other factors have already been made. The updated General Plan includes new transect form-based code districts as part of the overall companion zoning that will streamline reviews and reduce uncertainty for housing developments.

02Creating objective design standards.

These are standards that anyone could read and know how to interpret and apply. So instead of “design a beautiful building” (which people might interpret in different ways) the standards will provide clear, measurable guidance. The City has refined and adopted further objective design standards as part of the overall General Plan update and companion zoning.

03Clarifying “community benefit” expectations.

Commercial office and life science projects will pay a community benefit fee to reach maximum floor area ratios. Residential projects will not – maximum density and floor area ratio are now permitted by right. This approach is formalized in the recent companion zoning as part of the General Plan.

04Creating housing in new locations.

With a comprehensive look at future growth of our community through the General Plan, we can create new housing opportunities in areas such as East of 101, in the transitioning Lindenville industrial area, and in the El Camino Real corridor between the South San Francisco BART Station to the north and the San Bruno BART station to the south. The City kicked off a Lindenville Specific Plan process to help guide this transition in May 2022.

05Exploring the City’s ability to develop social housing.

The City Council has requested the consideration of a ballot measure under Article 34 of the California Constitution to allow the City the ability to construct and operate low-income housing.

06Maximize available funding and resources.

Consistent with the City’s long-term commitment to supporting high-quality, affordable residential development, South San Francisco continues to make resources available for housing production.

HOUSING PLAN- GOALS, POLICIES AND PROGRAMS

The Housing Plan is structured as a series of goals and related implementing policies and programs. Accompanying each implementing policy are one or more programs that the City will implement over the 2023 to 2031 planning period. These programs are presented together with implementing agencies, funding sources and time frames for implementation.

City of South San Francisco Housing Program Goals

Goal 1	EQUITY Create equitable opportunity for people of all ages, races/ethnicities, abilities, socio-economic status, genders, and family types regardless of income level.
Goal 2	CREATION/FACILITATION Promote the provision and/or access of housing by both the private and public sectors for all income groups in the community.
Goal 3	REMOVE CONSTRAINTS Support housing development by eliminating unnecessary and/or costly barriers in the housing development process and facilitating collaboration with private and public partners to develop housing options affordable to everyone.
Goal 4	PRESERVE Strive to maintain and preserve existing housing resources, including both affordable and market-rate units.
Goal 5	QUALITY OF LIFE Promote residential neighborhoods designed for a high quality of life for neighborhood residents and visitors.
Goal 6	SPECIAL NEEDS POPULATIONS Enhance the quality of existing affordable housing and expand housing opportunities and services for special needs populations and residents experiencing housing insecurity.
Goal 7	CLIMATE RESILIENCY Green buildings are the standard for new construction and major renovations and the performance of existing buildings is improved.

Goal-1 Goal-2 Goal-3 Goal-4 Goal-5 Goal-6 Goal-7

Goal-1

People attending Community Advisory Committee meeting

GOAL ONE - EQUITY KEY PROGRAMS

The housing element prioritizes capital improvement programs for vulnerable populations and involves approaches that are focused on conserving and improving assets in areas of lower opportunity and concentrated poverty.
This Housing Element proposes policies to help provide housing for the City’s workforce, including developing a workforce housing program, facilitating live/work housing, and programs to make it easier for the City’s workforce to buy and maintain their home such as participation in a regional down payment assistance program.
The Housing Element also sets numerical goals for achieving affordable housing milestones for lower income households that make less than $75,000 annually.
Preventing displacement of existing residents is an important equity goal in this housing element and the City will conserve and improve assets in areas of lower opportunity and concentrated poverty and support residents who are at-risk of being displaced.

Some programs include:

Creating an anti-displacement plan,
Creating a rental task force that will make recommendations about a rental registry,
Mediation programs and rental assistance, and
The consideration of a local just cause for eviction ordinance.
A Workforce Development Strategy that aims to support and strengthen the local workforce, encourage local hiring and prevent the displacement of existing residents.

Goal-2

GOAL TWO - CREATION/FACILITATION KEY PROGRAMS

The City’s housing element has strong policies to encourage new housing development. Some examples are:
- maintaining a vacant land inventory and acquiring sites that are vacant, underutilized, blighted, and/or nonconforming uses for the development of affordable housing.
- Policies include incentivizing development through direct subsidies (I.e. commercial linkage fee, state grants and tax credits),
- improving and implementing the inclusionary housing program, and
- creating affordable housing overlay zone permitting increased heights and densities for affordable housing developments.
- This element also encourages small-scale residential infill development in existing residential neighborhoods by going beyond State Law related to Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) and small subdivisions (SB9)

The City will continue to use and strengthen its programs governing the use of commercial linkage fee and in-lieu fees to fund affordable housing developments.
This Housing Element creates a program to create an Affordable Housing Fund Policy to help target and prioritize funding towards projects that provide deeply affordable units for low and extremely low-income residents.
The Housing Element also sets numerical goals for achieving affordable housing milestones for very low and extremely low-income households.

Goal-3

GOAL THREE - REMOVE CONSTRAINTS KEY PROGRAMS

To facilitate housing development and remove constraints to housing, this housing element includes:

The continued funding and operation of a centralized “Permit Center” to provide assistance from all divisions, departments, and levels of City government.
Updated General Plan and companion zoning to allow most multi-family projects to be reviewed against objective standards only and approved by Planning Commission only.
Implementation of Objective Design Standards for single-family and multi-family residential development.
Reduced or no parking minimums for affordable housing, special needs housing, and housing adjacent to transit corridors.

Goal-4

GOAL FOUR - PRESERVATION KEY PROGRAMS

While the majority of the City’s affordable units are at low risk of converting to market rate, this Housing Element recognizes the important of planning for future conversions well in advance. This Housing Element includes:

a program to develop a Preservation Plan which will address how to preserve the City's deed restricted affordable units.
Annual monitoring of City’s supply of subsidized affordable housing to know of possible conversions to market rate

Goal-5

GOAL FIVE - QUALITY OF LIFE KEY PROGRAMS

This housing element includes several policies and programs to improve quality of life throughout the City:
- Requires all new development to conform with the requirements of the updated Zoning Ordinance and objective standards.
- Implements the Active SouthCity Pedestrian and Bicycle Plan for all new private development.
- Improve pedestrian and bicycle connectivity in residential neighborhoods especially to nearby destinations, such as parks, public facilities, and shopping centers.
- Other examples include administering minimum building security standards to ensure that security measures are considered during the design process for housing projects

Goal-6

GOAL SIX - SPECIAL NEEDS POPULATIONS KEY PROGRAMS

The Housing Element targets the housing needs of residents with special housing needs. This Housing Element includes programs that:
- connect people with special housing needs with resources such as providing fair housing information and referrals,
- resident housing rights education,
- landlord housing rights education,
- renter education and assistance,
- legal counsel and advocacy assistance.

There is a limited supply of handicap accessible, affordable housing generally, and the supply is especially tight near transit. People with disabilities are also often extremely low income due to the challenge of securing long-term employment, and due to higher medical bills. To address these housing needs, this Housing Element incorporates almost all the recommendations and best practices received by local advocates.

Goal-7

GOAL SEVEN - CLIMATE RESILIENCY KEY PROGRAMS

Enhance Sustainability requirements through the Building Code for new and major renovations such as requiring non-residential all-electric new construction,
Retrofit all-electric in existing non-residential buildings during major renovations, and
requiring installation of photovoltaic panels on multifamily and nonresidential new construction at a certain threshold.
Include the development of a Building Electrification Plan to retrofit existing homes and businesses to all electric,
Require electric panel upgrade at point of sale, and
Consider adoption of a Burnout Ordinance that requires a gas appliance (e.g., stove or furnace) be replaced with an electric version when it stops working.

Project Documents

Documents related to the Lindenvile Specific Plan will be posted here as they are available.

Draft Housing Element; July 2022: https://shapessf.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/SSF-Housing-Element-RHNA-6-Public-Draft-August-Update-for-HCD_FORMATTED_reduced-1.pdf

Revised Draft Housing Element; January 2023: http://shapessf.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/SSF-Housing-Element-RHNA-6-Public-Draft-Jan-2023-Redlined-Appendices-reduced.pdf

City Council Adopted Housing Element for 2023-2031; January 25, 2023: http://shapessf.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SSF-Housing-Element-Jan-2023-Redlined-013123.pdf

Cover Letter - Addendum Edits to the Adopted Housing Element for HCD Certification - Posted 10/5/23: https://shapessf.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Addendum-to-the-Adopted-SSF-Housing-Element-for-HCD-Certification.pdf

Redlined Edits to the Adopted Housing Element for HCD Certification with Appendices - Posted 10/5/23: https://shapessf.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/SSF-Housing-Element-RHNA-6-Adopted-Draft-Sept-2023-Redlined-for-Certification_red-1.pdf

Electronic Inventory of Sites: https://shapessf.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/HCD-Sites-Inventory-Template-SSF-013123.xlsx

Adopted Housing Element and Adopted First Addendum with Appendices - Certified by HCD on 11/20/23: SSF Housing Element - RHNA 6 Adopted with First Addendum_Appendix_Reduced

HCD Certification Letter, Dated 11/20/23: https://shapessf.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/smasouthsanfrancisco-adopted-in-112023.pdf