What does RH-2 zoning mean in San Francisco?

RH-2 is a Residential House district capped at two dwelling units per lot in house-form (not apartment-block) buildings, common in the city's outer neighborhoods. State ADU and SB 9 laws now allow additional units on many RH-2 lots on top of the base Planning Code limit.

How do I find the zoning for an address in San Francisco?

The Planning Department's Property Information Map (PIM) looks up zoning district, height/bulk limits, and any overlay (like a Historic District or NCT) for a parcel by address. It's the standard first stop before pulling the relevant Planning Code sections.

What is a PDR district in San Francisco zoning?

PDR stands for Production, Distribution and Repair — districts set aside to protect industrial, maker-space, and logistics uses from being outbid by residential redevelopment, mainly in the eastern neighborhoods. Housing is generally not permitted outright in PDR districts, unlike the adjacent UMU (Urban Mixed Use) zones.

San Francisco, California · city zoning districts · 12 districts

San Francisco, CA zoning map & districts

San Francisco is a consolidated city-county, and its zoning rules live directly in the Planning Code rather than a separate zoning ordinance, administered by the Planning Department and Planning Commission. Residential districts (RH for house-form, RM for mixed-density) are paired with Neighborhood Commercial districts (NC-1 through NC-3, and transit-oriented NCT) along commercial streets, while downtown is governed by the C-3 family of sub-districts with the city's tallest height limits.

The code San Francisco Planning Code

San Francisco zoning map

The SF Planning Department's online Property Information Map (PIM) returns zoning, height/bulk district, and overlay data by address; Planning Code text is maintained by the Planning Department with the City Attorney's Office.

There is no link to the official map here yet — confirm current district boundaries directly with the San Francisco planning or zoning department.

A published summary is never the authority. The adopted ordinance and the city's official zoning map govern, and both change — verify the district and every standard on your parcel before you rely on it.

How zoning works in San Francisco

Production, Distribution, and Repair (PDR) districts protect industrial and maker-space land from residential conversion in the eastern neighborhoods, and Urban Mixed Use (UMU) districts allow a blend of housing and light industrial nearby. San Francisco's housing element compliance status has been legally contentious, exposing parts of the city to state Builder's Remedy applications, and the HOME-SF density bonus program is a frequently used local incentive for adding units above what base zoning allows.

San Francisco zoning districts by family

The 12 district codes below are the ones that decide most projects in San Francisco, grouped by what they are for rather than by the order the ordinance prints them.

Key districts in the San Francisco Planning Code — a curated reference, not the exhaustive list. Confirm against the current adopted code.
Code	District	What it is for
Residential 6 districts
RH-1	Residential House, One-Family	Detached single-family house form.
RH-2	Residential House, Two-Family	Duplex-scale house-form residential.
RH-3	Residential House, Three-Family	Small multi-unit house-form residential.
RM-1	Residential Mixed, Low Density	Lower-density apartment zone.
RM-2	Residential Mixed, Moderate Density	Moderate-density apartment zone.
RM-3	Residential Mixed, Medium Density	Mid-density apartment zone.
Mixed-use 4 districts
NC-2	Neighborhood Commercial, Small-Scale	Neighborhood retail with housing above, moderate scale.
NC-3	Neighborhood Commercial, Moderate-Scale	Larger neighborhood commercial corridors.
NCT	Neighborhood Commercial Transit	Transit-oriented commercial corridor with reduced/no parking minimums.
UMU	Urban Mixed Use	Blends housing with light industrial/PDR uses, common in eastern neighborhoods.
Downtown / core 1 district
C-3-G	Downtown General Commercial	Core downtown commercial district.
Industrial 1 district
PDR-1-G	Production, Distribution & Repair	Protected industrial/maker-space land, general subdistrict.

San Francisco zoning — common questions

What does RH-2 zoning mean in San Francisco?: RH-2 is a Residential House district capped at two dwelling units per lot in house-form (not apartment-block) buildings, common in the city's outer neighborhoods. State ADU and SB 9 laws now allow additional units on many RH-2 lots on top of the base Planning Code limit.
How do I find the zoning for an address in San Francisco?: The Planning Department's Property Information Map (PIM) looks up zoning district, height/bulk limits, and any overlay (like a Historic District or NCT) for a parcel by address. It's the standard first stop before pulling the relevant Planning Code sections.
What is a PDR district in San Francisco zoning?: PDR stands for Production, Distribution and Repair — districts set aside to protect industrial, maker-space, and logistics uses from being outbid by residential redevelopment, mainly in the eastern neighborhoods. Housing is generally not permitted outright in PDR districts, unlike the adjacent UMU (Urban Mixed Use) zones.

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The parcel layer lands in the order demand does. Illinois went first because that's where the deals were; the next state is decided by who tells us what they're trying to underwrite. Tell us where you're building and what you wanted to run — you'll hear from us when California opens, and sooner if we need a test parcel.

Keep reading

← California zoning — who holds the zoning power in California, under which enabling statute, and the reforms that override local rules.

Other California cities

The zoning reference → — every state, plus city-level district guides like this one.

San Francisco zoning summaries on this page are provided for information, not legal advice. Confirm every project against the current adopted code for the jurisdiction.