Land use committee backs update to San Francisco general plan safety element

San Francisco's Land Use and Transportation Committee on Nov. 28 voted unanimously to recommend a General Plan amendment that would repeal the city's 2012 Community Safety Element and adopt a new Safety and Resilience Element intended to bring environmental justice, racial and social equity and climate resilience into the city's primary policy document.

Ann Marie Rogers, director of citywide policy for the Planning Department, told the committee, “We're here today to seek your recommendation of approval for this amendment to the safety element, to be called the safety and resilience element,” and said the update would incorporate state and local plans and set policies for hazards, preparedness, response and recovery.

The presentation noted two state laws driving the change, SB 379 and SB 1000, and explained that the updated element would serve as a high-level policy container for the city's hazard mitigation, climate action and resilience plans. Planning staff described a targeted universalism approach to embed equity into policy and showed a draft Environmental Justice map that layers CalEnviroScreen indicators with local air-pollution and vulnerability data.

Committee members asked technical questions about the map and visitation data cited by staff. Planning staff confirmed the EJ mapping is based on census-tract layers augmented with local data and that the map is a draft to be refined in later hearings. The department said its visitation numbers come from anonymized cellphone data and counters used together to estimate trends.

Tom Radulovich of Livable City and other public commenters urged support. After public comment, Chair Supervisor Mirna Melgar made the motion to forward the item to the full Board with a positive recommendation. The clerk recorded votes as Peskin aye, Preston aye and Melgar aye; the motion carried.

Next steps: the committee was told the Board could first-read the ordinance as early as Dec. 6 and, if proceeding on that schedule, could act within about 90 days of submittal. The Planning Department and staff said they expect to return with refined maps and supporting materials in subsequent hearings as part of the city's broader General Plan updates.