San Francisco's city officials are moving towards streamlining the approval process for Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) in response to state legislation aimed at increasing housing availability. During a recent government meeting, discussions centered around the complexities of timelines for ADU applications, particularly in light of Assembly Bill 1114, which mandates specific review periods for housing projects.

The current local timeline for ADU approvals stands at 120 days, but the state law allows for a review period of just 30 business days for projects with 25 units or fewer. For larger projects, the review period extends to 60 business days. This discrepancy has led to confusion among city officials and stakeholders regarding the implementation of these timelines.

Nate Harel, aide to Board President Aaron Peskin, highlighted the need to align local ADU regulations with state mandates to avoid confusion. He noted that the local program, which includes rent control, has different pathways for approval compared to the state program, which does not require such controls. The intention was to incentivize applicants to choose the local program by proposing a uniform timeline, but further discussions revealed that maintaining two distinct timelines might be necessary to comply with state requirements.

Planning Department staff member Veronica Flores confirmed that the proposed amendment to reduce the local timeline to 60 days would actually complicate matters, as current practices already allow for faster approvals than that. The recommendation is to remove the new timeline from the building code to ensure consistency with AB 1114, thereby aligning local ADU approvals with other housing permits.

As the city prepares to present these recommendations to the Planning Commission next month, officials emphasize the importance of clarity in the approval process to facilitate housing development. The upcoming discussions will focus on ensuring that local ADUs do not face longer timelines than those set by state law, ultimately aiming to enhance the efficiency of housing production in San Francisco.