Check whether your San Francisco TDR file contains an application or a dated record issued in response to it. Transferable Development Rights eligibility and transfer are separate questions. An application heading documents a request; a completed transfer has its own issued record.
San Francisco TDR Statement of Eligibility versus Certificate of Transfer
San Francisco Planning’s Statement of Eligibility resource describes an application to the Zoning Administrator to determine whether a lot qualifies as a Transfer Lot and what amount is available. The Certificate of Transfer resource describes a separate application for transferring rights from a Transfer Lot.
These pages explain application purposes. Issued determinations and certificates for a property are separate documents. A saved application, even one bearing an applicant’s signature, answers what was requested; seek the dated response before describing what the agency decided.
Read a document’s contents as well as its filename. A folder named transfer records may hold preliminary material. Conversely, a later document may refer to an earlier item without enclosing it. Treat that reference as a specific missing-copy clue.
| Paper in hand | What to check next |
|---|---|
| An application | Keep its requested action and reference; identify the separate response, if one exists. |
| An eligibility response | Preserve what it actually determines and the lot reference shown; availability and a later transaction are different events. |
| A certificate or other transfer record | Match its issuer, date and references to the requested transfer. Read the event documented rather than inferring the entire subsequent history. |
A fictional TDR packet labeled complete
Consider a fictional due-diligence packet whose cover summary says the TDR matter is complete. Inside is a dated agency response addressing eligibility, followed by an application seeking a transfer. The later request lacks an issued response. The packet is invented.
The cover summary compresses two questions into one status. The eligibility response may answer the first, but the later application still states a request. Keep those descriptions separate. The useful gap is the dated result of the transfer request.
Suppose an attachment list also names a certificate that is absent from the packet. Record the title and reference exactly, identify which document mentions it, and ask for that missing item. An attachment list can tell you what to seek without demonstrating that the enclosed set is complete.
If a copy later arrives, compare its references with the application rather than accepting it because the address looks familiar. Preserve any source-lot or recipient reference only where the document actually supplies one. If the references conflict or the connection is unstated, leave the match unresolved and ask Planning to identify the correct existing record.
Leave rights remaining, recipient identity and legal effect to the documents and Planning. A record establishes what it says happened at a particular stage. Likewise, a missing certificate leaves the occurrence of a transfer unresolved.
Ask the Planning Counter for the named TDR record
The official resource pages give the Planning Counter questions route: 628.652.7300 or pic@sfgov.org. Ask staff to identify the existing application, determination or certificate and the appropriate copy custodian.
Prepare a short inquiry from the records already held:
- Identify the exact missing document and where it is referenced.
- Preserve known lot, project or record identifiers exactly, with the document title beside each number.
- Give the approximate date and explain whether the gap is an absent response, missing enclosure or inconsistent reference.
- Ask which office holds that existing record and what retrieval route applies.
If a number has been copied without its label, the permit-number lookup guide explains the broader identity principle: retain the issuer and record type with the complete identifier. A project number and a certificate number stay distinct.
TDR records and construction completion
Building-permit issuance, inspection approval and occupancy approval each have their own records. If a packet also claims that construction was completed, use the separate final-inspection status guide for that permit-specific question.
For eligibility, transferable quantity, title or legal effect, rely on the issued documents and Planning staff.
San Francisco Planning TDR resource pages checked October 6, 2026.