Title
Report to discuss options to allow moderate density housing in residential districts that currently only allow single family dwellings. (Lisa Costa Sanders, Project Administrator and Billy Gross, Senior Planner)
label
RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
Staff recommends that the City Council provide direction on an option to modify single family zoning to allow more housing with the General Plan update.
Body
BACKGROUND/DISCUSSION
During the General Plan Update process to date, the City's approach has focused on developing new housing in areas near transit and jobs, while preserving existing residential neighborhoods that traditionally have been characterized by single-family homes.
Meanwhile, however, there has been a national policy discussion to address "missing middle" housing with approaches that allow moderate density housing in areas zoned solely for single family homes. Missing middle housing as a term typically refers to housing types including duplex, triplex, fourplex, cottage, townhouse and other smaller multi-unit attached and detached housing types ("multi-plexes") compatible in scale with single family homes. These housing types generally have small- to medium-sized footprints and are often two stories or less, allowing them to blend into existing neighborhoods. Missing middle housing also refers to housing that is affordable to those earning between 80-120% of the area median income, which is too much to qualify for subsidized housing and too little to afford to purchase high-income properties or rent at market rates.
These moderate-density housing types were commonly built in neighborhoods prior to the 1940s (thus the term "missing middle"). After this time period, the adoption of zoning ordinances that separated residential use types resulted in large areas where only single-family dwellings were allowed to be built. South San Francisco is in keeping with this general profile. The broader downtown area has many existing examples of mod...
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