City Approves 820-foot 10 South Van Ness Tower Plan

City planning officials approved a revised development plan for 10 South Van Ness in mid‑December 2025, clearing the way for a tower roughly 820 feet tall and about 67 stories with 1,019 residential units. The project, led by Crescent Heights, would mix rental apartments and condominiums and includes an affordability component that helped secure regulatory incentives. If built as approved, the tower would rank behind Salesforce Tower and the Transamerica Pyramid as the city’s third‑tallest structure.

The decision came under the influence of recent state measures that accelerate approvals for projects sited near transit and linked to affordable housing commitments. State Senate Bill 423 and California’s density bonus provisions played a role in streamlining discretionary review for this proposal by rewarding added height and density in exchange for affordability measures and transit‑orientation. As part of its affordable‑housing obligation, the developer donated an offsite parcel near the 16th Street BART station to be used for an affordable housing project.

The site at 10 South Van Ness has a long history of proposals and community debate that delayed development for years. Local advocates and neighborhood groups have raised recurrent concerns about scale, shadows, traffic, and displacement as plans evolved; supporters have countered that delivering more units near major transit hubs is essential to meeting the city’s housing needs and climate goals. City planners approved the current design after navigating those tensions within the constraints of state law and local planning rules.

Construction timing remains tentative; current estimates project ground‑breaking could begin in 2027, subject to final permits, financing and market conditions. When completed, the project would add over a thousand homes to San Francisco’s housing stock at a location well served by BART and surface transit, an outcome planners argue will concentrate growth where transit can absorb it.

The approval highlights a broader institutional shift: state policy increasingly incentivizes denser development near transit, at times narrowing the scope of local discretionary review. That shift promises faster project delivery and more units but reduces the range of changes San Francisco agencies and residents can negotiate at the project level. Neighborhood impacts, on transit capacity, streets, public services and neighborhood character, will be central in forthcoming permit reviews and in the rollout of the donated parcel’s affordable housing program.

Residents, neighborhood organizations and elected officials will play a decisive role in monitoring implementation, mitigation measures and the sequencing of construction, as the city balances urgent housing objectives with community concerns about growth and livability.