San Francisco Land Use

A. SUMMARY This data demonstrates a snapshot of existing land uses as of the last update date – as shown on this page - for every parcel in the City and County of San Francisco. In some cases - such as in major multiphase projects , or when a building spans multiple parcels (e.g. Ferry Building) - land use are represented for a group of parcels. B. HOW THE DATASET IS CREATED This version of the land use dataset is a more self-consistent and verifiable approach designed to replace previous versions. The foundation of the dataset is constructed with Assessor Historical Secured Property Tax Roll - 2007 and gap-filled using other research into the history of a site using CoStar, Google Streetview, and other real estate records, to create a land use baseline as of 7/1/2008. From 7/1/2008 onwards, the database reads in completed housing production and commercial projects to update units and commercial areas (including unit losses, and changes of use). Simultaneously, the database applies DPW parcel changes to keep the parcel base of the dataset up to date with the land use changes. Since projects, permits, and parcel changes are incorporated with the exact date of the record, the land use database serves as a continuous, temporal record of land use changes. From this database, land use conditions for any date from 7/1/2008 to the present could be determined. The dataset provided here is a snapshot of current land use as of the last updated date. The temporal land use database is accessible upon request. C. UPDATE PROCESS Current land use will be updated here at the end of every quarter. D. HOW TO USE THIS DATASET Some rows represent groups of parcels and therefore have a one-to-many relationship with other parcel-based datasets (e.g., assessor secured roll and active/retired parcel data). We recommend validating joins with these datasets to avoid geometry-based mismatches that could result in duplicate or missing records. Limitations: Although every attempt is made to provide accurate data, the volume of data and parcels does not allow the Department to guarantee accuracy. Should errors be found, or questions arise, please email support@datasf.org or click the "Contact us" button at the top of this page. This dataset only includes a snapshot of land use at a given time, for historical or longitudinal land use data, please email support@datasf.org or click "Contact us."
Organization: City of San Francisco
Organization URL: https://catalog.data.gov/organization/san-francisco-ca
Last updated: 2026-04-15
Tags: gis, land use, planning