Budget and Legislative Analyst report on retrofit mandate released
On August 3, 2026 the Budget and Legislative analyst for the City and County of San Francisco released a Policy Analysis Report requested by Supervisor Stephen Sherrill reviewing the sprinkler retrofit mandate.
This might be considered a revisit by the Analyst to the subject of a previous report it made that recommended against the adoption of a retrofit mandate. This earlier report was ignored by the Supervisors when they adopted the current mandate in 2022.
The report determined that there were 129 buildings in San Francisco affected by the mandate. It evaluated three scenarios where the mandate’s requirements might be implemented, “Baseline”, “Midrange”, and “High Cost”. Each scenario contemplated a hypothetical 50 unit building.
In the Baseline scenario, which envisioned minimal difficulties for retrofitting sprinklers, the report estimated per-unit retrofit costs in the range of $15,000 to $17,350.
The Midrange scenario envisioned a higher level of challenges to implement the retrofit and estimated per-unit costs of $27,300 to
$29,550.
The High Cost scenario contemplated maximal difficulties, such as “asbestos abatement required. upgrades to electrical systems needed, along with significant upgrades to the pump and water distribution system throughout building”, and estimated the per-unit cost of implementation at $208,250 to $224,900.
The report did not attempt to determine how many of the affected buildings fell into each of the described scenarios.
Also included in the report was an overview of cities and other jurisdictions that had adopted similar sprinkler retrofit mandates but repealed or otherwise backed away from them.
The report concluded with a list of recommended policy options the Board of Supervisors should consider. First among these was “repealing the sprinkler retrofit ordinance entirely.” Other options included modifying the sprinkler retrofit requirements, a building-by-building investigation of ways to reduce the impact of the mandate, and creating financial assistance solutions for those needing to do retrofits.