Committee amends mayor's housing streamlining bill, forwards amended file to Board and duplicates for further changes

The Land Use & Transportation Committee grappled with a sweeping package of planning-code changes intended to accelerate housing production on Dec. 4, 2023, and adopted a complex sequence of amendments and procedural steps.

The ordinance covers a broad range of reforms: exemptions from notice and review (Section 3.11) and conditional-use procedures (Section 3.17) in areas outside priority equity geographies; removing conditional-use requirements for many housing projects (including projects building to height limits or adding units in lower-density districts); changes to setbacks, frontage, minimum lot sizes and open-space requirements; expanded eligibility for density exceptions and housing-opportunity programs; fee exemptions for certain affordable projects; a mechanism for the planning director to approve state density-bonus projects; and sunsetting some special-use-district requirements with unit-size limits.

Supervisors Sieved (Mandelmann) and Peskin proposed and negotiated amendments to address community concerns. Amendments included limits intended to discourage "monster homes" in some districts (Corona Heights SUD adjustments), posted notice and mailed notice clarifications for Section 3.17, ownership requirements for certain fourplexes to preserve rent-controlled units, and direction to develop objective design standards for large-lot development with community input. The Planning Department and Planning Commission offered recommended modifications (e.g., unit-size thresholds and a 5-year look-back for counting expansions toward percentage caps).

Public testimony was sharply divided. Neighborhood and equity coalitions (REP, Mission-based groups, Telegraph Hill Dwellers, and tenants associations) urged rejection or substantive changes, arguing the streamlining could incentivize market-rate development at the expense of affordable housing and community input. Advocacy groups warned of displacement risks and urged stronger equity protections. Proponents such as SPUR supported the non-substantive changes and some of the amendments, while also flagging compliance questions with HCD.

Committee action was procedural and layered: the committee adopted a package of amendments, voted to strip from the version being sent to the Board any sections not amended in committee (to avoid unintended substantive changes), forwarded that amended original to the Board as a committee report without recommendation, and duplicated the amended file to allow additional substantive amendments to be made and considered next week. The duplicated file was continued to the Dec. 12, 2023 meeting for further consideration.

What to watch: The duplicated file and whether remaining concerns about priority equity geographies, cultural-district protections, and HCD compliance are resolved before Board action. The committee's process left substantial questions about how the ordinance will balance market-rate streamlining with protections for vulnerable neighborhoods and affordable housing goals.