Project Highlights FY 2021/22

Portsmouth Square Fourplex Legislation

Portsmouth Square, widely known as "the heart of Chinatown," is one of San Francisco’s most significant historic, cultural, and civic spaces. However, portions of the space no longer meet the needs of the surrounding neighborhood and City. A joint effort of San Francisco Planning and the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, the goal of the Portsmouth Square Improvement Project is to create an enhanced public space that is dynamic, adaptable to diverse users and events, and reflective of local culture and history. The project includes a new children’s playground, exercise equipment, shade structures, seating areas, wayfinding signage, sidewalks, landscaping, terraces, ramps, the removal of the Kearny Street pedestrian bridge, and a new 8,300 square foot clubhouse. SF Planning completed the Final Environmental Impact Report in January 2022, and the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department is proposing to begin construction 2023.

Signed in October 2022 following extensive discussions with staff and at the Planning Commission, Supervisor Rafael Mandelman’s “fourplex” legislation amends the Planning Code to allow up to four units of housing on every residentially zoned lot in the City and up to six units of housing on corner lots. This ordinance was among several others that proposed additional and different methods to maximize density in high opportunity areas and was the only one to be signed into law. This legislation an important step toward helping the City meet its housing goals by allowing small and medium-sized apartment buildings in every San Francisco neighborhood.