SF Approves 22-Story Marina Safeway Tower as Equity Housing Stalls

San Francisco's Planning Department issued final ministerial approval in a November 6, 2026 letter to developer Align Real Estate for a 22-story, 848-unit residential and grocery redevelopment at the Marina Safeway site, capping nearly a year of neighborhood debate over state housing mandates along the city's northern waterfront. Approved without discretionary design changes or California Environmental Quality Act review under 2022's Assembly Bill 2011 and a 49.3% state density bonus, the waterfront tower will include 86 units reserved for low-income households and a 63,000-square-foot ground-floor Safeway—more than 20,000 square feet larger than the existing supermarket.

The 1950s Marina Boulevard store sits on a parcel locally zoned for a 40-foot height limit, a cap that Mayor Daniel Lurie preserved when he signed his Family Zoning plan on December 2 after Supervisor Stephen Sherrill argued that raising waterfront heights could impede public views. Because AB 2011 allows streamlined ministerial approval for commercial-corridor projects that meet labor and affordability thresholds, Align bypassed the local 40-foot limit after hosting a summer town hall at Fort Mason that drew roughly 250 attendees. Opponents filed a federal lawsuit in September under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act alleging soil and groundwater contamination; after plaintiffs twice sought to transfer the case to U.S. District Judge William H. Orrick, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín—nominated in 2022 and confirmed in 2023—is scheduled to hear Align's motion to dismiss in February.

While state streamlining cleared the Marina high-rise, the San Francisco Planning Commission voted 5-2 on Thursday against District 11 Supervisor Chyanne Chen's affordable-housing replacement ordinance aimed at protecting tenants in Priority Equity Geographies, where 69% of residents are low-income and 40% earn very-low incomes. Under Mayor Lurie's rezoning framework, state demolition rules require developers tearing down existing apartments to replace rent-controlled units occupied by low-income tenants, whereas units occupied by moderate- or above-moderate-income households only follow standard city inclusionary percentages.

As illustrated during Thursday's hearing, a developer who demolishes a 5-unit building in Chinatown to construct a 25-unit project would be required under current rules to provide only 3 affordable units if only 1 of the original 5 apartments housed a documented low-income family. Chen's legislation would require all 5 demolished units to be replaced at the same rent levels. Planning staff member Veronica Flores recommended against the mandate, telling commissioners that strict replacement rules could make 20- to 30-unit "missing middle" buildings financially infeasible. Commissioner Lydia So voted with the 5-member majority against the ordinance after citing meetings with the Chinatown Community Development Center, Young Community Developers in the Bayview, and the Mission Economic Development Agency, while Commissioners Malea Chavez and Elizabeth Macdonald cast the 2 votes in favor before the measure advances to the Board of Supervisors.