Supes act to increase affordable housing

In an effort to entice developers to build more affordable units quickly, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday passed a number of changes to a local inclusionary housing program.

The Housing Opportunities Mean Equity-San Francisco (HOME-SF) program is an option for developers building mixed-income housing in certain areas of the city. Under the program, if 30 percent of the units in a new housing project are affordable units, the developer receives bonuses, such as zoning modifications or the ability to build more units.

A motivation behind the changes approved Tuesday, dubbed HOMESF 2.0, is to persuade developers to choose the local HOME-SF program over a state density program. These changes will offer them new tiers in the incentive program. For example, if a developer promises to make 30 percent of a 25-unit building affordable, he would receive bonuses, such as adding two additional stories and increasing the height of the ground floor by 5 feet.

Under the revised program, Planning Commission approvals will now expire in 36 months. The reasoning behind this is to force developers to build in a timely manner.

This ordinance was sponsored by Supervisor Katy Tang, and co-sponsored by Supervisor Ahsha Safaí.

Also on Tuesday, the supervisors voted to place on the November ballot a $425 million bond measure to make vital repairs to the city’s crumbling Embarcadero seawall. Trisha Thadani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tthadani@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TrishaThadani