A development team that earlier this year proposed the largest housing development ever in San Francisco’s West Portal neighborhood is more than doubling the number of homes it’s planning at the site and adding three stories to the project.

The dramatic supersizing of the plan — from 64 to 172 units and from 9 to 12 stories— for the shuttered Empire Theater at 85 West Portal Ave. was made possible by Mayor Daniel Lurie’s recent “Family Zoning” changes as well as the acquisition of an adjacent property.

Local merchants and residents had already complained that the smaller project was out of character in the low-slung commercial strip. The much bigger revision is likely to spark greater pushback.

Supervisor Myrna Melgar, who backed the rezoning, said she supports the project in her District 7, though she predicted outcry over the bigger proposal would be comparable to the opposition to a proposed 848-unit complex on the site of the Marina District Safeway.

“People are going to lose their minds,” she said. “This is going to be my Marina Safeway.”

The project shows how an array of local and state laws have reshaped housing approvals in San Francisco, stripping power from neighborhood groups and lawmakers who have historically slowed or blocked development. In addition to the “Family Zoning” plan, the developer is taking advantage of two state laws that streamline the approval process. Once deemed complete, the project would move ahead without any public hearings or votes. In addition, the project is using a state density bonus program to double the building’s height.

The new proposal calls for 26 affordable units, half targeting “very low income” households and half moderate-income families. There will be 7,000 square feet of retail space in two storefronts and 89 parking spaces, up from 28 in the original plan. There will be a community lounge and rooftop fitness centers. More than half of the units will be two- and three-bedrooms.

The project will raze the Empire Theater and a building next door at 61 West Portal Ave. that’s currently home to a Goodwill store and a Supercuts.

DM Development co-founder Mark MacDonald, who is developing the project with Empire West Portal LLC, said the firm wanted to take advantage of looser restrictions from the rezoning. He added that the project would “bring a very high level of quality and finishes to this very important and prominent West Portal location.”

Still, the project will stick out in a neighborhood where 60% of the units are single-family homes, and some neighborhood merchants have threatened to recall Melgar over her support for the rezoning that allows taller and denser structures on commercial corridors in her west-side district.

Melgar said she is pleased that the new plan uses the rezoning, which requires that 15% of units be affordable, compared to the city’s current 5% requirement.

“We are getting 26 units of affordable housing on West Portal. I know some people are not going to be happy with that, but I am,” she said.

Given the flurry of state and local laws passed in recent years to make it easier and faster to build infill housing, there is little the city or neighbors can do to force the developer to scale it back, Melgar said. San Francisco’s state approved housing element requires that the city permit 82,000 units between 2023 and 2031. Only about 6,500 homes have been built three years into the cycle. The lack of production has contributed to a shortage that has driven median rents up to $3,844, a 25.6% increase from a year ago, according to Apartment List.

“What I am not in a position to do is to ask them to make it smaller,” Melgar said. “It is right next to the West Portal station. It is a prime opportunity. Twelve stories in the grand scheme of things is not that tall, but it’s going to be too much for a lot of people.”

The facade will include metal and bronze panels, terra cotta and precast concrete. The new building will include architectural elements, including a marquee, that evokes the Empire Theater.

MacDonald, who got his start building four condo complexes in Hayes Valley before the pandemic, said residents in the new building “would be able to walk out of their doorstep onto one of the most vibrant retail corridors in all of San Francisco.”

“We often say the neighborhood is the amenity,” he said. “That was certainly our mantra in Hayes Valley, and that will also be the case with this building in West Portal.”

The proposal comes as San Francisco housing development, fueled by double-digit rent growth, is poised to break out of a six-year slump. In the last two weeks, builders have announced plans to break ground on more than 1,000 units around the city, with major projects slated to start construction in the Mission, SoMa and the Lower Haight. If the Marina Safeway project breaks ground next year, that number would grow significantly.

Melgar said that the loss of the Goodwill — an upscale “boutique” version of the thrift store — is painful but that the nonprofit had already said that it would close the shop. In the long run, adding hundreds of residents to West Portal’s main drag would help shopkeepers, she said.

“Having that many new residents on that block is going to be great for the merchants someday,” she said. “But there will be a couple of years of construction and noise and things that they won’t like.”

Empire West Portal LLC was founded by Jesse Appleton, a fifth-generation owner of the property, along with longtime family friend Alex Vartan. The operator of the theater closed abruptly in 2021, leaving a shell of a building in bad shape.

“As a family, we are excited to take the project to the next stage and excited to be part of the community and continue that legacy,” said Appleton.

The development team said it submitted the application on Sunday night, but the planning department’s Chief of Staff Dan Sider said he could not comment because he had yet to see the revised proposal.

“What’s clear is that we need more housing in every neighborhood,” he said. “Aside from the January application, nothing has been submitted for the Empire Theater site, so we can’t offer a comment.”