The Framework For Developing San Francisco’s Publicly-Owned Sites

The framework for a new inter-agency strategy to coordinate the potential development of underutilized publicly-owned sites across San Francisco will be presented to the Planning Commission this week. The Commission will be responsible for providing direction on the program and approving any proposed rezoning, development entitlements and public benefits package for individual sites.

In the high-cost and dense urban environment of San Francisco, certain underutilized publicly-owned sites throughout the city could help contribute towards the City’s needs for housing, jobs, transportation and other services. These sites provide a valuable resource that could often be better utilized, repurposed or redeveloped to maximize opportunities.

In order to support land-owning agencies in their efforts for more productive use of their real estate assets, the City is launching an effort to holistically evaluate use of such underutilized sites. This effort parallels the work by the City’s Real Estate Division to address the findings of a recent report by the Civil Grand Jury on surplus and underutilized properties, which called for revisions to the Surplus City Property Ordinance.

The scope of the program will be refined over the next month with the priority sites set to be identified, and site-specific community meetings slated to be initiated, in March.