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Committee narrows bill to remove some nonresidential use‑size caps but excludes Castro
Summary
The Land Use and Transportation Committee advanced an ordinance July 28 that would eliminate certain use‑size limits in several neighborhood commercial districts but agreed to exclude the Castro after merchant concerns and a supervisor amendment.
The Land Use and Transportation Committee on July 28 considered an ordinance that would remove limits on nonresidential use sizes in a set of neighborhood commercial districts (NCDs) and allow certain large nonresidential uses to subdivide into smaller spaces more easily.
Sponsor Supervisor Mirna Melgar said the change is intended to give property owners flexibility to adapt to changing retail patterns — for example, enabling owners of large vacant storefronts to subdivide or allowing successful small businesses to expand without a lengthy spot‑zoning process. Melgar described examples on West Portal where the current 4,000 square‑foot cap constrained expansions.
Planning Department staff and the Planning Commission recommended approval and advised outreach to merchant associations. Planning staff said the measure would allow large preexisting nonconforming uses to be subdivided toward conformity; it would not automatically permit uses that remain otherwise disallowed in a zoning district.
Several supervisors and merchant groups raised concerns. Supervisor Connie Chan said the change must be assessed in combination with other city actions — notably the flexible retail rules and parcel‑delivery-related provisions — which interact differently by district. President Rafael Mandelmann proposed an amendment to exclude the Castro NCD from the part of the ordinance that removes size caps; Vice Chair Cheyenne Chen moved to adopt that amendment.
Public comment included a written request from the North Beach Business Association asking that North Beach be excluded and suggesting a tailored approach for that corridor. Committee members debated whether the measure should be a citywide change or tailored district by district.
The committee adopted President Mandelmann’s amendment (excluding the Castro from the size‑cap removal), duplicated the file for additional local work, and forwarded the amended ordinance to the full Board as a committee report "without recommendation." Votes on the motions were recorded as three ayes from Chen, Mahmood and Melgar.
