Airport Planners Have Ruled Against Tanforan Housing Three Times. San Bruno Keeps Moving Ahead.

"This noise exposure is not mitigable for residential uses due to the nature of that development type, which is characterized by operable windows, access to open space, and other design elements which preclude effective mitigation."

San Francisco International Airport wrote that sentence in an August 11, 2025 letter to the City of San Bruno about the plan to replace The Shops at Tanforan. The letter, which refers back to three earlier airport letters taking the same position, is now part of the project's Final Environmental Impact Report, which the City posted on October 5, 2026. The airport's view is clear. The 44-acre site bounded by Sneath Lane, Huntington Avenue, Interstate 380 and El Camino Real lies inside SFO's 70-decibel noise contour, and the airport says homes there are incompatible.

San Bruno is still planning 1,014 homes on that site. The approval process explains why. Under state law, the airport's objection becomes a bar the City Council can clear by a two-thirds vote, and the Council has cleared it before.

Every seller in the county already deals with this airport

Here's something many buyers find out partway through a deal. SFO's land use plan puts all of San Mateo County in what it calls Area A, the Real Estate Disclosure Area. As SFO's letter in the Final EIR summarizes the state rule, a property owner offering a home for sale or lease there must disclose planned or existing airports within two miles. The Tanforan site also sits in Area B, a smaller zone in the northern part of the county. In Area B, the City/County Association of Governments of San Mateo County, known as C/CAG, acts as the Airport Land Use Commission and reviews proposed general plans, zoning changes and development projects.

So whether you're buying a condo near BART or a single-family home off Sneath Lane, the airport shows up in your paperwork either way. What Tanforan adds is a public record of what happens when a city wants housing in a spot the airport's own plan rules out.

Three findings, two overrides, one pending

C/CAG, acting as the Airport Land Use Commission, has looked at housing on this site three times and found it inconsistent with SFO's noise policies each time. Its July 30, 2025 staff report lays out the history.

The Final EIR treats the third override as still ahead. It says the project "requires an override of an Airport Land Use Commission inconsistency determination for residential uses." It also says the San Bruno City Council "would need to adopt a Local Agency Override" because the proposed zoning would allow residential uses "throughout the project site."

The project's own zoning text expects this. It says future development must follow the airport plan "with the exception of projects deemed appropriate by the City Council, and to the extent necessary, approved through the Local Agency Override process."

Why the City keeps choosing the override

The reason is state housing law. According to the Final EIR, San Bruno's Housing Element assumed at least 1,002 homes on the Tanforan site. The City's July 2024 draft of that Housing Element splits the site into 176 lower-income units and 826 above-moderate-income units.

The Final EIR calls it housing opportunity Site 20, "the largest opportunity site identified to provide the housing necessary to meet the City's [RHNA] obligations." It also says no other vacant or underused site in the city could handle redevelopment at this size. Commenters suggested other places, such as the Bayhill Specific Plan area and the El Camino Real and San Mateo Avenue corridor. The EIR rejected them because they wouldn't redevelop the mall site or meet the project's basic purpose.

That's the trade-off. The City's state-required housing math depends on one parcel, and that parcel is in the noise zone where the airport plan says homes don't belong. Cutting Tanforan's housing would leave a hole in San Bruno's housing target with no obvious place to fill it. So the City overrode the first two findings and has signaled it may override the third.

What an override actually takes

The override process is set out in California Public Utilities Code section 21676. For general plan, specific plan and zoning actions, a local agency can overrule the commission's finding, but only if it does three things:

1. Hold a public hearing.
2. Adopt specific findings.
3. Pass the override by a two-thirds vote of the governing body.

That's a real hurdle, but the City Council decides whether to clear it, and San Bruno has cleared it twice for this same site. In practice, the airport's objection turns the Tanforan housing decision into a supermajority vote. It doesn't settle whether the homes get built.

The real argument is over 45 decibels

The disagreement that still matters is about what living inside those buildings will sound like.

The airport says noise at 70 dBA can't be mitigated for homes, because people open windows and spend time outdoors. The Final EIR answers with a different measure: 45 dB CNEL inside the home, measured with the windows closed.

The EIR says it took that number from the airport plan itself. SFO's plan calls homes in the 65 to 70 dBA range conditionally acceptable, provided sound insulation brings indoor noise down to CNEL 45 dB or lower and an avigation easement is granted to the City and County of San Francisco as operator of SFO. For the windows-closed part, the EIR points to FAA guidance on sound insulation. It also notes that SFO's own Noise Insulation Program installs windows that open.

"A conflict with the ALUCP in and of itself is not a significant environmental impact under CEQA."

That line from the Final EIR explains how the City is approaching this. The EIR openly admits the project conflicts with the airport plan's Policy NP-4. It then judges the environmental effect by indoor noise instead of by the conflict itself.

SFO also raised durability, saying some of its insulation retrofits have needed replacing. The EIR answers that new multifamily buildings designed around the whole building envelope, with prehung door assemblies and sound-rated windows that have built-in frames and seals, should hold up better than retrofits on older single-family homes. It adds that SFO is quieter than it has been since 1975, and that an international agreement will require future aircraft to be at least 6 decibels quieter than 2025 models starting in 2029. The Final EIR also revised Mitigation Measure NOI-3 to spell out the 45 dB threshold and require measures that keep the noise-reducing features working over time.

For future buyers or renters in these buildings, this is where the airport argument becomes practical. Homes at Tanforan would be designed to meet a quiet standard with the windows shut. How well that works, and keeps working, depends on the windows, doors, ventilation and upkeep, not on any Council vote.

What it means if you're weighing San Bruno right now

If the plan moves forward, here's what the record shows about its size and timing.

• What stays: Target remains, and the Century at Tanforan theater would be remodeled and folded into the new development. Their parking garages stay too. Everything else on the site would be demolished.
• What's planned: 1,014 homes, about 112,000 square feet of new and relocated retail, about 724,000 square feet of life-science lab and office space, and a 35,000-square-foot amenity building.
• What could be added: Two flex zones were studied under two scenarios. One adds 1,000,000 more square feet of lab and office space. The other adds 500 homes, 100,000 square feet of retail, 450,000 square feet of lab and office space, and a 170-room hotel.
• Who: Alexandria Real Estate Equities listed its Tanforan campus at 100% ownership in its first-quarter 2026 supplement, current as of March 31, 2026. SF YIMBY reported on October 12, 2026 that Alexandria and Strada Investment Group are leading the redevelopment together.
• When: The same SF YIMBY report says demolition and site preparation are expected to start next year, meaning 2027, with the first construction phases in 2028 or 2029.

The lab space is the less certain piece. The Real Deal reported in March 2025 on weakness in the Bay Area life-sciences market and called that part of the plan "more of a gamble." The housing has a different kind of risk. Demand for homes near the San Bruno BART station isn't the question, since the City's housing plan depends on them.

For homeowners around El Camino Real and Sneath Lane, that points to years of demolition and construction next door, starting with site work in 2027 if the schedule holds. For buyers comparing San Bruno with other Peninsula cities, it points to roughly a thousand new homes going up next to BART, most of them market-rate, every one of them built to a sealed-window acoustic standard. The rest of the city doesn't have that kind of housing. It also adds to what's already changing downtown, where San Mateo Avenue's restaurants have been drawing activity away from the mall.

Quick answers

When is the next decision? The Planning Commission scheduled its public hearing on the project for Tuesday, October 20, 2026, at 7 p.m. in the Community Room on the second floor of the San Bruno Recreation and Aquatic Center. The Final EIR says the City expected the City Council to consider certifying the EIR on November 10, 2026. Approving the project itself would be a separate decision.

Does posting the Final EIR mean the project is approved? No. The City says the Final EIR's release "does not constitute approval of the proposed project."

Where can I read the documents myself? The City posted the Final EIR and the Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program. Agenda packets go up on the City's Agenda Center.

This post is general information about how these rules and approvals work. It isn't legal, tax or financial advice, so check how airport disclosure or any other requirement applies to your property with a real estate attorney or other qualified professional.

If you own near Tanforan and want to know how the plan and its timeline might affect your home's value, we're glad to go through the local numbers with you. In English, Tagalog or Ilocano, Bryan Cruz and Rey Ancheta can start you with a free instant home valuation, and we'll explain what it means for your street.