Last year, District Eight Supervisor Scott Wiener told the Marina Times that his legislation that allowed limited expansion of in-law units in the Castro was a first step; if it worked there, then it could be tried elsewhere. Today, San Francisco has already given the green light to new in-law units in the Castro neighborhood and citywide to buildings that are doing seismic retrofits. Now Wiener and his District 3 colleague Julie Christensen want to expand that experiment to additional neighborhoods in their districts.
Wiener’s plan, which was introduced in mid-April, seeks to expand in-law housing in a sustainable, neighborhood-focused way. Christensen announced that she is drafting legislation to include District 3 in a similar expansion of these units. Both sup-
ervisors note that such housing is one of the best ways to create affordable housing in this dense city. This could result in many hundreds of new units of housing in the affected neighborhoods, and they would be created within the buildings’ existing “envelope,” which means the buildings wouldn’t be expanded up or out to create the space for the units.
