> The City’s failure to implement the Required Actions will result in HCD initiating the process to revoke housing element compliance. Various consequences may apply if the City does not have a housing element in compliance with Housing Element Law, including ineligibility or delay in receiving certain state funds, referral to the California Office of the Attorney General, court-imposed financial penalties, the loss of local land use authority to a court-appointed agent, and the application of the “builder’s remedy.”
https://www.hcd.ca.gov/sites/default/files/docs/policy-and-r...
Additionally, density is good for the environment because it lowers emissions and lowers utility overhead. People being more spread out means more emissions resulting from transit, because everything they need to get to is farther apart. I don't know why you'd think otherwise (and you don't say).
Finally, the decisions made by San Francisco affect people other than those who live in the city. Since the foundational principle of democracy is the ability to have a say in decisions that affect you, those people deserve (and have) power over land-use decisions in San Francisco.
What an appropriate typo.