A vacant lot on Newcomb Avenue in Bayview is on track to become a compact, two-story modular home after plans were filed for the 2,495-square-foot parcel between Lane Street and Third Street. The project would add a single residence, with two bedrooms, a front porch, and a single-car garage, to a lot that has sat empty just steps from the landmarked Bayview Opera House.
The proposal, first reported by San Francisco YIMBY, comes from Roof and Realm, the property owner and designer behind the design. The Concord-based firm plans to construct the house from eight prefabricated modular pieces, clad in a mix of metal cladding and smooth stucco, with vertical-board metal panels wrapping the second floor above a stucco ground level and a flat horizontal roof capping the structure. No estimated cost or construction timeline for the project has been established, according to the outlet's reporting.
The roughly 0.06-acre lot itself was listed for sale earlier this year. It was listed in May for $300,000 before going under contract in July, according to a Zillow listing. A separate property description identifies the roughly 2,495-square-foot parcel as vacant and sold as-is, without plans or entitlements.
Zoning Rules Shape a Modest Design
The parcel carries San Francisco's RH-1 (Residential House, Single-Family) zoning designation, which caps standard base density at one primary dwelling unit per lot while enforcing a 25-foot rear yard setback and a 35-foot maximum building height, per PropertyZoned. RH-1 is the city's most restrictive single-family zone, historically covering roughly 27 percent of San Francisco's private residential land, the site notes.
Those rules haven't stopped the city from pushing for more housing on lots like this one. Under California Senate Bill 9, qualifying single-family RH-1 lots in San Francisco can receive ministerial approval for duplexes. State housing statutes provide these ministerial pathways.
A separate 2023 San Francisco Board of Supervisors ordinance goes even further, allowing property owners to build up to four residential units on standard single-family lots citywide, and up to six on corner lots, according to GoCodebook. The city is working under a state mandate to accommodate more than 82,000 new housing units by 2031, the code database notes. Despite the room to add density, the Roof and Realm proposal opts for a single two-bedroom residence rather than maximizing unit count on the lot.
A Builder With Local Modular Roots
Roof and Realm, established in 2019 and headquartered in Concord, specializes in steel-framed, fire-retardant modular structures and was named a finalist for the 2024 East Bay Innovation Awards, according to the East Bay Economic Development Alliance. The company has a location in Concord and is one of Contra Costa County's largest purchasers of structural steel for modular housing, per the same profile.
A Corridor Already in Transition
The lot sits near the end of the 1500 block of Newcomb Avenue, close to the Bayview Opera House, a theater built in 1888 that was designated San Francisco Landmark No. 8 in 1968 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011, according to background compiled on Wikipedia. City leaders held a ribbon-cutting for a renovated Opera House campus back in 2016, adding an outdoor theater, accessible plaza, and children's garden at Third Street and Newcomb Avenue, Hoodline reported at the time.
Future residents would also be close to Hilltop Park and a station on the Muni Metro T Third line. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency opened the $1.57 billion Central Subway extension of the T Third Line in January 2023, linking Bayview directly with SoMa, Union Square, and Chinatown, per the SFMTA. Hilltop Park itself is another nearby amenity.
Newcomb Avenue has also been the subject of recent reporting. The modest modular home proposed a few blocks away is one example of development on the same street.
