Portola
Neighborhood Intelligence

Portola (SF Planning's Portola Analysis Neighborhood) sits in southeastern San Francisco between Silver Avenue and Interstate 280 to the north, McLaren Park to the south, US 101 to the east, and the Excelsior to the west around Cambridge Street. It includes Portola proper, centered on the San Bruno Avenue commercial strip, and the University Mound area, whose streets are named after colleges such as Yale, Harvard, Oxford, and Princeton. The district was historically home to many of the city's commercial greenhouse nurseries. About 15,000 people live here.

Housing is mainly single-family homes built in the early and mid-twentieth century on hillside lots, with some two-unit buildings and small apartment buildings. RH-1 covers most of the residential area, with RH-1(D), RH-2, and RM-1 parcels, and San Bruno Avenue is zoned as the San Bruno Avenue Neighborhood Commercial District (NCD). Parks and public facilities are zoned P. Notable places include the Palega Recreation Center, the Portola Branch Library, and Philip and Sala Burton Academic High School.