The buildings most likely to be affected by San Francisco’s new upzoning plan are those where apartments and multi-family housing already sit, according to an analysis of the plan by Mission Local. Single-family homes, meanwhile, are likely to see very little change.

The newest, amended version of the plan to make the northern and western parts of the city taller and denser, which was announced by Supervisor Myrna Melgar and Mayor Daniel Lurie on Thursday, would no longer affect some 84,000 units of rent-controlled housing. 

Mission Local’s map of that proposal, which will go to the Board of Supervisors Land Use Committee on Monday, showed that 33 percent of multifamily units would see even higher and denser zoning. These are in buildings currently zoned for apartments, many of which have commercial storefronts on the ground floor. 

The low-lying areas of neighborhoods like West Portal, Forest Hill, the Sunset, and the Richmond, meanwhile, are unlikely to see drastic change outside of commercial and transit corridors.

See how the new upzoning plan affects your neighborhood. Switching tabs shows the kinds of parcels affected in the amended plan. 

Just 13 percent of single-family homes and condos in the plan would be upzoned. The large majority of those units would remain as-is: They were already allowed to be up to 40 feet tall before, and will remain at 40 feet if the plan passes. 

That’s by design: The upzoning plan has focused on increasing heights along commercial streets and transit lines, including Geary in the Richmond, Judah in the Sunset, and Van Ness in Nob Hill. 

If you don’t live in a single-family home or condo, your building is more likely to be impacted. Multifamily residences — a category that includes apartment buildings — are located along transit and commercial corridors far more frequently. They are more than twice as likely to receive height limit increases in the proposed changes.

That’s true even under the amendment that would exempt any rent-controlled buildings with three or more units, the majority of multifamily housing in the plan.

All buildings, regardless of type, will be subject to “density decontrol,” however. That lets developers build any number of units on a single lot, as long as height limits don’t exceed those in the plan and design standards are followed. Effectively, that means no more exclusively single-family zoning. 

And businesses? Since many exist on commercial corridors, 84 percent would be upzoned.

That has some business owners, like the owner of Joe’s Ice Cream on Geary Boulevard, worried. 

Sean Kim’s building was bought in 2022 by an architecture company. The firm then met with the Planning Department to discuss potentially redeveloping the site to add housing atop what is currently a single-story commercial building housing the ice cream shop. 

Kim fears that his lease won’t be renewed when it expires in three years, forcing him to either relocate or close the business. 

“Probably, once we’re displaced, we cannot come back,” Kim said with a sigh. 

Relocating is extremely costly. If Kim can find another building that already has the freezers and grills needed for ice cream and burgers, he thinks it would cost between $100,000 and $200,000 to move. If the building doesn’t already have that infrastructure in place, it’s more like $500,000. 

Kim and other business owners worry that building owners will have an extra incentive under the new upzoning to let commercial leases expire and then sell their properties for redevelopment. Taller buildings would let developers profit more. 

The Planning Department, for its part, said development tends to occur on vacant commercial buildings and lots, not ones with profitable businesses that pay rent. 

Planning staff explained that the upzoning focuses on commercial and transit corridors so that new housing is transit-oriented and more environmentally friendly. With housing near transit and businesses, residents can walk, bike, and bus more, and drive less. 

That will ultimately help small businesses, staff said. “Locating new housing on or near these corridors means more vibrancy, more foot traffic and more customers for our local small businesses, especially over the long term,” Planning Director Sarah Dennis Phillips wrote in an email to Mission Local.

District 7 Supervisor Melgar, who introduced the rent-control amendment, is also concerned. She introduced the “Small Business Rezoning Construction Relief Fund” to give funding for small businesses displaced and impacted by neighboring construction, though it’s unclear how much the city will be able to afford. 

Kim is worried it won’t be enough. A grant of around $10,000, for instance, “doesn’t even help one month,” of relocation, Kim said. 

Tenant advocates, meanwhile, are also worried about displacement. Though rent-controlled buildings with three or more units will now be removed from the plan, two-unit buildings, plus non-rent controlled apartment buildings, are still included. Advocates say building owners may displace tenants in order to redevelop their property.

“The stress that it causes is so extraordinary,” said Joseph Smooke, an organizer with the Race and Equity Coalition. “You get this feeling of hopelessness. Your whole life is built around how you commute to work and where you get your groceries.” 

The worry about the zoning changes comes after the state weakened cities’ ability to control demolitions in 2019. While the city used to be able to unilaterally decide whether to issue a demolition permit, now a series of objective criteria have to be laid out for developers to meet. 

The criteria are written in Supervisor Chyanne Chen’s separate ordinance, and include the building being free of inspection violations and the landlord having no history of tenant harassment or wrongful eviction. 

Once demolition permits are acquired, developers must notify tenants about their rights, hire a relocation specialist, pay the difference between the tenant’s old and new rent for 42 months, and, once the new building is complete, offer any low income tenants a unit in the new building for at least the same rent as before (or a condo at a below market rate price). 

The Planning Department emphasizes that demolition of existing housing has been extremely rare. Since 2012, the department said, an average of just 18 units a year have been demolished, 11 of them single-family homes. This is 0.00004 percent of the city’s 420,000 units. 

Or, as one market-rate developer put it: “If you’re a developer and you can have two buildings, one is vacant and one you’re going to have a fight with tenants that’s going to drag out for years and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, which one would you do?”

Methodology

The San Francisco Planning Department provided the latest zoning files, from Sept. 30 2025. We joined this dataset with another one on property assessments from the Assessor Recorder’s office. This allowed us to gather more information about the properties on each parcel affected by the zoning changes. When we joined both datasets, a very small portion of the rows did not match (0.37 percent). 

We isolated parcels eligible for rent control by including the following: Buildings built before or during 1979, with more than one unit, from selected class codes (that include apartments, dwellings, flats and exclude condos and TICs). This does not necessarily mean those parcels are currently tenant occupied – there is limited data on how many buildings have rental units that are rent controlled. For the amended plan, the same parameters apply but for buildings built before 1979 that have at least three units. 

To run calculations about change in existing height limit compared to the proposed ones, we excluded parcels that fall under several zoning classifications (representing 0.3 percent  of parcels — 310 of 92,744). On the map, these parcels are shaded light gray. 

Denver’s budget crisis has caused layoffs for city workers and has begun affecting services for residents. Now Mayor Mike Johnston and the City Council are negotiating over just how much city services should be cut.

Johnston outlined his budget proposal for 2026 in September, including savings of about $77 million from cuts to contracts, services and supplies.

The need for savings comes from an estimated $200 million budget shortfall for next year caused by slowed revenues and higher costs. In August, the city laid off 169 workers and slashed hundreds of vacant positions to make up for part of that shortfall.

Late last week, the council sent Johnston a letter outlining requested adjustments to that proposal. Under the city’s budget process, he has until Monday to respond.

Here are several budget impacts that Denverites might notice — some of which the council has asked the mayor to change in his proposal.

Parking ticket dispute changes

Denver County Court officials laid off all of its parking magistrates and closed that office in August after Johnston asked the office to reduce its 2026 budget. That means that the only way to dispute parking tickets now is to set an in-person hearing in the Denver County Court.

Previously, residents could dispute parking citations through an online portal or by visiting an office. Residents were able to file online appeals through mid-September until that option was eliminated.

Eleven of the 12 council members who were present during last week’s deliberations about recommended budget changes voted to request that Johnston restore funding for the magistrate positions.

Fewer ballot boxes, polling centers

Clerk and Recorder Paul López has criticized the mayor for proposing a 1.5% cut to his office, representing about a $210,000 decrease, for 2026 compared to its budget this year. He points out that next year’s midterm election and primaries will cost much more to conduct than this fall’s off-year election.

The amount proposed for 2026 would mark a reduction of nearly $4.5 million, or 24%, from the 2024 budget, when there was a presidential election. But the proposed amount is also 3% higher than the clerk’s budget was in 2022, the year of the last midterm election.

Lopez has said that if Johnston’s proposal stands, he will have to close one polling center and eight ballot drop boxes for the 2026 general election. He also said the hiring of fewer staff members would result in slower ballot processing, longer lines and delayed election results.

Ten council members voted to support asking the mayor to add $2.5 million to López’s budget, which would be in addition to $1 million in unspent money from this year’s budget that could roll over.

Reduction in 311 hours

The city’s 311 call center will be available only from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, instead of until 7 p.m., under a proposed cut. The city recently deployed an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, called “Sunny,” to take residents’ questions or reports, and Johnston says Sunny can fill the gap for 311 during other hours.

Recreation center child care

Denver Parks and Recreation decided recently to discontinue child care services offered at the Carla Madison and Central Park recreation centers.

Stephanie Figueroa, a spokeswoman for the department, said the decision was made independent from the city’s budget situation, but she said the program provided “limited community benefit relative to the costs incurred.”

“The decision aligns with the broader goal to ensure resources are directed toward services and initiatives that deliver the greatest value to our residents,” she wrote in an email.

Rental assistance pauses this year

Johnston’s administration opted to halt the Temporary Rental and Utility Assistance program for the rest of the year as part of his cost-savings proposals, shifting more money to next year. The program provides money to help residents avoid eviction.

SEATTLE — Since Paige Monaghan was drafted with the No. 10 overall pick by then-Sky Blue FC in the 2019 NWSL college draft, she wasn’t asked to be any of her team’s primary goal scorers.

But she’s shown she can be in her second season with Utah Royals FC.

Ainsley McCammon scored the first goal of her NWSL career, and Sofia Huerta added the 38th of her own as the Seattle Reign clinched a berth in the NWSL playoffs with a 2-1 win Friday night over Utah at Lumen Field.

In between them, Monaghan set a career mark of her own.

Monaghan’s fourth goal of the season is a career-high for a single campaign in her six seasons in the NWSL. The 28-year-old winger came to Utah with limited goal-scoring options, but has found her footing in manager Jimmy Coenraets’ system with the second-most goals on the team behind striker Mina Tanaka’a six.

“I think for me, it’s just been about repetition,” Monaghan said after the match. “I’ve always been the player that repetition helps me be the best I can be.”I really credit the staff taking the time, and then my teammates every time I get the ball and their faith in me.”

Monaghan and her club agreed prior to the season to a contract extension through the 2027 season. Her leadership was the most important role she played on the team, donning the captain’s armband.

The goal production? That’s all bonus — and a welcome one for the team with the fewest goals scored with one match left in the 2025 regular season.

“I think she was upset to miss out on 4-5 months to help her team,” Coenraets said of his captain, a versatile left and right winger who has also played wingback in 2025. “She came back with a mission, and she’s doing an amazing job.”

The Royals (5-13-7, 22 points) were eliminated from playoff contention following last week’s 3-2 home loss to San Diego, a loss that snapped the team’s franchise-record run of eight consecutive matches without a loss.

The Reign, meanwhile, were still in the thick of playoff contention. A win could clinch a berth, even, and had everything to play for a week after club mainstay Lauren Barnes announced her retirement earlier this week after 13 seasons.

But it was Utah that controlled much of the game early, out-shooting the Reign 9-2 and holding Seattle without a shot on goal. That is, up until the second minute of first-half stoppage time — when McCammon broke free to give the hosts a 1-0 halftime lead.

The teenager who captained the United States at last year’s FIFA U-17 World Cup rose up in the penalty box to finish a cross from Maddie Dahlien to score her first career goal with her header.

Monaghan scored a goal from distance in the 60th minute, finishing her fourth goal of the year on a breakaway to equalize just after the hour mark.

Surprising? Ambitious? Maybe for somebody who hasn’t watched Monaghan, who has foul goal contributions in her last six matches. But not for her teammates.

“I see her work every day,” explained Ana Tejada, who moved back to center back for the second straight match in the absence of starter Kaleigh Riehl (hamstring). “She’s really an example for all of us, because she’s our captain. I have so much respect for her.”

For Monaghan, there are no boring goals. Every one of them is to be appreciated after she started 13 of her 15 matches this season.

“I think for me, it’s just been repetition,” Monaghan said. “I’ve always been the player that repetition helps me be the best I can be.”I really credit the staff taking the time, and then my teammates every time I get the ball and their faith in me.”

Huerta helped the Reign (10-7-8, 38 points) re-take the lead just five minutes later, converting from the penalty spot after video review for a foul in the box just after the 65th minute to put Seattle back in front.

Utah out-shot the Reign 13-8, including four shots on target, and maintained 54% of possession in the loss.

The Royals close the seasons Sunday, Nov. 2 against the Washington Spirit. Kickoff at America First Field in Sandy will be announced at a later date.