STATUS: Filed Petition on 2/12/2026

We, along with California Housing Defense Fund and Californians for Homeownership, have filed a lawsuit against San Francisco over its recently adopted Family Zoning Plan, which violates California housing law, contradicts the city’s own adopted Housing Element, and fails to deliver the housing capacity the city promised to allow.

In 2023, the City of San Francisco adopted a new housing element, which promised that the City would enact new policies to facilitate the production of more housing as a way to address the “state of affordability crisis… felt by low-, moderate-, and, more recently, middle-income households.” San Francisco promised to rezone large areas of the city to allow for greater residential development and that the rezoning would provide enough new capacity to accommodate more than 36,000 new housing units by 2031.

When the deadline to enact this rezoning arrived, the City reneged on its promise and instead enacted the Family Zoning Plan, which violates state law in several key ways:

  1. It fails to deliver required housing capacity: San Francisco’s Housing Element required the city to base rezoning on an analytical model that accounts for whether sites are likely to actually be developed. The city instead used a model that abandoned that approach and relied on unsupported assumptions, resulting in zoning that falls far short of the required 36,000 new homes.

  2. It creates new, illegal constraints on housing: State Housing Element law explicitly prohibits adding new governmental constraints that would reduce housing feasibility. The Family Zoning Plan introduces new restrictions—including limits on unit size, parking, and curb cuts—that could directly undermine housing production.

  3. It fails to properly rezone for lower-income housing: State law requires sites designated for lower-income housing to meet minimum density standards and limit non-residential uses. The Family Zoning Plan allows zoning that does not meet those requirements, violating both state law and the city’s own commitments.

  4. It attempts to override state housing laws: The city’s “Housing Choice – San Francisco” program will bar projects from using state housing laws such as the State Density Bonus, SB 9, and AB 2011. Local governments cannot opt out of state housing law, and the lawsuit seeks to invalidate those provisions of the “Housing Choice – San Francisco” program.

San Francisco must bring its zoning code into compliance with state housing law and its adopted Housing Element, and to invalidate provisions that illegally attempt to preempt state housing statutes.