Crazy SF Architecture Facts
So here’s an interesting bit of trivia I learned today during my San Francisco architecture walking tour…
If you own a spot of land downtown, not only do you own that land, but you own the entire volume of space above that land, up until the limit that you’re allowed to build to. (So if I own a plot of land that’s zoned to allow a 120-foot building on top, I own the space that goes up 120 feet above that land.) So far, not all that surprising, right? But get this…
You can sell that space above your building to another developer so that they can increase their building’s height. In other words, consider the following example…
- You and I own plots of land downtown that are zoned to allow 100-foot buildings on them.
- You have a 100′ building, and I only have a 50′ building.
- You decide you want to make your building higher, but you’ve already reached the 100′ limit. So what can you do?
- I can sell you the 50 extra feet above my building that I haven’t built up into. You’re then allowed to build up to 150 feet — the 100 that were part of the original building, and the 50 you bought from me.
- At that point, though, I can’t build any higher than 50′, because I’ve sold off the rights to build in that extra space to you. If I wanted to expand, I’d need to buy that extra vertical space from somebody else.
It’s a crazy system, but I guess it makes sense in its own strange way. It’s almost like a cap-and-trade system on building height. A developer doesn’t necessarily feel compelled to build as high as they possibly can, because they can make a profit simply by selling that space to somebody else. But I can’t imagine the paperwork involved in trying to keep track of who owns the right to what vertical space.
Ya learn something new everyday…