SF Approves Rules to Help Turn Vacant Offices Into Homes

The fix is in for ailing Downtown San Francisco and Union Square.

The city’s Board of Supervisors has unanimously approved a set of laws that aim to revitalize Downtown San Francisco and Union Square after the pandemic, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

The legislation simplifies approvals and requirements for office-to-home conversions in an area where one in three offices stand empty. It also upgrades zoning to allow more types of businesses and events in Union Square, the city’s premier shopping district.

The zoning reform, launched in March by Mayor London Breed and Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, was approved by the city’s Planning Commission last month. If passed by a vote of the supervisors on a second reading this month, it would take effect July 30.

“Working together with President Peskin and the board, we are creating more opportunities to fill empty storefronts and underutilized buildings, whether that’s by creating much needed housing or trying out new ideas for businesses and event spaces that will invite people back Downtown,” Breed said in a statement.

“We need to make the process easier for getting our buildings active and full.”

The city now has an office vacancy rate of 29.5 percent – or nearly 33 percent, according to one estimate – and more than 26 million square feet of unused offices in mostly older buildings.

The legislation would provide flexibility for the re-use of older office buildings by relaxing Planning Code requirements pertaining to rear yards, which its proponents have said do not “make sense for conversions of existing buildings in our dense, downtown core.”

It also directs the city’s building and fire departments to develop guidelines for adaptive reuse projects that wouldn’t meet requirements meant for ground-up construction projects.

Planning Director Rich Hillis called it the “first significant change” to the city’s Downtown zoning rules since the 1980s.

The new laws include zoning changes to allow greater real estate uses in Union Square, battered by the pandemic and e-commerce competition.

It allows additional office, service, design and retail uses on upper floors and permits indoor and outdoor entertainment, flexible retail workspaces, and larger retailers on ground floors in the area.

The Planning Department and the city’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development will soon release a request for interest for property owners and developers exploring adaptive reuse projects, according to the Business Times.

— Dana Bartholomew