[panarky]

"meant to protect the value of current homeowners' properties"

It's probably not that direct. Sure, you could build up and achieve the population density of Hong Kong, but then SF would lose the "little big city" charm that makes it a great place to be.

And as we see in Hong Kong, simply adding housing units doesn't necessarily reduce the price of housing.

So I'd argue the primary purpose of the zoning regs is to retain what makes SF what it is, not just to maximize price per square foot.

[emblaegh]

> And as we see in Hong Kong, simply adding housing units doesn't necessarily reduce the price of housing.

Do you have more info on that? I'd be particularly curious if the per capta price of housing increased with population at the same rate as places like SF.