San Francisco General Plan

The plan document

Read San Francisco's official General Plan: San Francisco General Plan → · Originally adopted by the Planning Commission December 1945; maintained as a living document through ongoing amendments · Housing Element adopted January 31, 2023; Safety & Resilience Element adopted December 13, 2022

Elements · 6 Verifier-checked summaries

• Land Use Index (San Francisco has no standalone Land Use Element) → Land Use
• Housing Element (2022 Update) → Housing Adopted by the Board of Supervisors January 31, 2023

  The 2022 Housing Element is San Francisco's plan for meeting housing needs for January 31, 2023 to January 31, 2031 and is described as the city's first housing plan centered on racial and social equity. It accommodates the 2023-2031 Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) set by ABAG and approved by HCD of more than 82,000 units broken into targets by income group. It is organized into goals, objectives, policies, and implementing programs. Goal 1 recognizes the right to housing as a foundation for health and well-being, with objectives to ensure housing stability and healthy homes (Objective 1.A), advance equitable housing access (1.B), and eliminate homelessness (1.C). Subsequent goals address repairing harms of racial and ethnic discrimination, fostering inclusive neighborhoods through equitable distribution of investment, providing sufficient housing including permanently affordable housing and small and mid-rise multifamily housing, and promoting well-connected healthy neighborhoods. It complies with AB 686 Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing.

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• Transportation Element → Circulation & Mobility

  The Transportation Element is composed of nine plan sections: General, Regional Transportation, Congestion Management, Vehicle Circulation, Transit, Pedestrians, Bicycles, Citywide Parking, and Goods Movement, each with objectives and policies. Objective 1 directs the city to meet the needs of all residents and visitors for safe, convenient and inexpensive travel within San Francisco and between the city and other parts of the region while maintaining the Bay Area's high quality living environment. The element is built on a balanced, multi-modal system of public transit, ridesharing, automobiles, bicycles and pedestrians, and on the 1973 Transit First Policy adopted by the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors, which gives top priority to public transit investments and adopts street capacity and parking policies to discourage increases in automobile traffic. Policies call for involving citizens in planning transportation facilities (Policy 1.1) and ensuring the safety and comfort of pedestrians throughout the city (Policy 1.2). A separate Implementation Program links objectives and policies to project funding.

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• Environmental Protection Element - Conservation section → Conservation

  The Environmental Protection Element combines the state-mandated Conservation and Transportation Noise elements with an Energy management plan and a hazardous waste section. The Conservation section addresses natural resources relevant to San Francisco: plants and animals, land, fresh water, air, the shoreline, fish and marine animals, and the waters of the Bay and Ocean. Objective 1 is to achieve a proper balance among the conservation, utilization, and development of San Francisco's natural resources, with policies to conserve and protect natural resources, improve their quality, restore and replenish supply, and require new development to meet strict environmental quality standards. Objective 2 calls for broad, effective management of natural resources through regional coordination, citizen action, and environmental education. Further objectives address maintaining and improving the Bay, Ocean and shoreline (Obj 3); clean ambient air meeting standards (Obj 4); a permanent adequate fresh water supply (Obj 5); land resources (Obj 7); and protection of plant and animal life, including rare and endangered species (Obj 8).

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• Recreation and Open Space Element → Open Space

  The Recreation and Open Space Element aims to continue the city's legacy of parks and recreational opportunities and guide future decisions to improve the open space system. It defines a recreation and open space system that includes recreation centers (25 multi-use centers), playgrounds, playing fields, unprogrammed open areas, trails and natural areas (including 1,100 acres of natural lands), cultural arts centers, sports facilities, community gardens, living streets and parklets, Privately-owned Public Open Spaces (POPOS), and piers and wharves. It notes more than 3,400 acres managed by the Recreation and Park Department, with publicly-owned open space making up almost 20% of the city's land area. Seven guiding principles structure the element: Integrated and Multifunctional, Sense of Place, Equity and Accessibility, Connectivity, Health and Safety, Ecological Function and Integrity, and Sustaining Stewardship. Objective 1 is to ensure a well-maintained, highly utilized, and integrated open space system, with Policy 1.1 encouraging dynamic, flexible use of existing open spaces and a variety of recreation uses, and Policy 1.2 prioritizing renovation in highly-utilized spaces and high-needs areas.

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• Environmental Protection Element - Transportation Noise section → Noise
• Safety & Resilience Element (2022 Update) → Safety Adopted by the Board of Supervisors December 13, 2022

  The 2022 Safety & Resilience Element replaces the previous 2012 Community Safety Element. Its purpose is to facilitate safety from hazards, achieve racial and social equity, and strengthen community resilience, providing policies to minimize San Francisco's contribution to the climate crisis and ensure local resilience to multiple hazards including natural and human-made hazards. It maintains a strong foundation on seismic hazards from the San Andreas and Hayward Faults and addresses flooding, poor air quality, pandemic, and hazardous materials. It names Environmental Justice Communities as areas disproportionately experiencing environmental burdens and directs that work begin with those communities. The element is organized into six goals: All People Live in Safe and Healthy Communities; Multi-Benefit Climate and Hazard Resilience (including becoming a net-zero emissions city by 2040); Hazard Mitigation; Emergency Preparedness; Response; and Recovery and Reconstruction. Implementation is coordinated through ClimateSF and three principal plans incorporated by reference: the Hazards and Climate Resilience Plan, the Climate Action Plan, and the Emergency Response Plan.

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• Environmental Justice Framework → Environmental Justice

  San Francisco addresses environmental justice not as a standalone element but through an Environmental Justice Framework that is part of the Introduction to the General Plan and is incorporated into the General Plan by reference, responding to California Senate Bill 1000 (2016), the Planning for Healthy Communities Act, which requires cities to either adopt an Environmental Justice element or integrate EJ policies throughout the General Plan. The Framework provides guidance to City agencies and describes policy priorities to advance health in Environmental Justice Communities, defined as communities of color and lower-income communities that face higher pollution and other health risks. For each topic it sets a vision statement and priorities. The visions and priorities are organized into six policy topics adapted from SB 1000: Healthy and Resilient Environments; Physical Activity and Healthy Public Facilities; Healthy Food Access; Safe, Healthy, and Affordable Homes; Equitable and Green Jobs; and Empowered Neighborhoods. The Framework states the first EJ policies are incorporated in the Safety and Resilience Element (2022) and the Housing Element (2023), with the Transportation Element update anticipated in 2025.

  ✓ Verifier-checked · grounded in the official document

Element summaries are generated from the official document text and held unless every fact is grounded in the source. Links open the jurisdiction's own published documents.