In a bold move aimed at tackling San Francisco's dire housing shortage, State Senator Scott Wiener introduced a bill Thursday to cut the city's red tape on coastal development. Wiener's SB 951 seeks to carve out developed areas of the city from the Coastal Zone, a swath of land regulated for environmental protection, which currently hobbles urban housing projects with extra layers of permitting.
Wiener's office announced that the proposed legislation would not only expedite the approval process for new housing but also maintain the Coastal Commission's guard over natural resources. "The Commission should not be in the business of second-guessing — and frequently delaying or undermining — local housing decisions in urbanized areas that are not natural resources," Wiener said in a statement obtained by his Senate page. The senator highlighted the need for swift and unfettered local and state housing agency control over housing permitting in a city desperately chasing its housing goals.
This legislative move, sponsored by the City and County of San Francisco, has also garnered the support of San Francisco's Mayor London Breed. "SB 951 addresses a key issue impacting urbanized areas in coastal cities like San Francisco, while still protecting important coastal resources across the state," Breed stated, endorsing the senator's push for smarter housing policies that keep eco-consciousness at the forefront.
Evidence of the Coastal Zone's impact on demographic composition is clear, with the Stanford Environmental Law Journal reporting a stark racial and economic divide. Proximity to coastal access sees a 25 percent rise in white populations while Hispanic and Latino populations decrease by 52 percent, and Black populations fall by 60 percent. Furthermore, the housing scarcity has made the workers' commutes in these localities 10 percent longer than those inland, contributing to higher carbon emissions due to increased transportation.
Since its establishment in 1972, and subsequent entrenchment by the Coastal Act of 1976, the Coastal Commission has wielded extensive powers over zoning in the coastal regions, often leading to friction with city governments over housing development in already urbanized areas. SB 951, if passed, would realign the coastal zone boundaries, particularly impacting certain San Francisco neighborhoods and potentially easing the path for some of the 82,000 homes the city plans to build over the next eight years.
The bill also aims to clarify the jurisdiction of the Coastal Commission by stating it should not appeal projects conforming to permitted uses in areas with an approved local coastal program (LCP). With such updates, Wiener and supporters of the bill believe it could make significant strides in making affordable housing more attainable, especially for communities that have historically been marginalized by the affordability crisis on California's coasts.
