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Supervisors’ proposal to require conditional-use review for legacy businesses draws split Small Business Commission response
Summary
Supervisor Connie Chan urged making conditional-use (CU) review permanent for legacy businesses; commissioners expressed concern CU can be burdensome for small operators and instead voted to make no recommendation while urging improvements to the CU process and further study of mitigation tools.
Supervisor Connie Chan asked the Small Business Commission on Aug. 25 to support legislation (Board of Supervisors file 250,808) to make permanent a conditional-use authorization process when a legacy business is replaced by a new nonresidential use in certain neighborhood commercial districts. The measure would restore or extend a review requirement that Supervisor Chan said was introduced earlier as an interim zoning control and was needed as San Francisco considers a separate upzoning package.
The proposal would apply the conditional-use requirement to ‘‘legacy businesses’’ — businesses that have operated 30 years or more — in specified neighborhood commercial and mixed-use districts. ‘‘The conditional use really…does not ban a new development. What it actually does is it require a conversation,’’ Supervisor Chan said, describing the requirement as a modest tool to trigger public review and discussion when a legacy business might be displaced.
Why it matters: Commissioners and public commenters framed the item as a narrow tool aimed at preserving long-running neighborhood…
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