Board adopts 45-day interim moratorium on conversions of PDR uses in proposed Central SoMa plan area

San Francisco'14The Board of Supervisors adopted an urgency ordinance imposing a 45-day interim moratorium on converting production, distribution and repair (PDR) uses to non-PDR uses in the proposed Central South of Market (Central SoMa) area while the city completes its planning and environmental review.

Supervisor Kim, sponsor of the measure, said the moratorium is intended to protect PDR spaces and the living-wage jobs they support while the Central SoMa area plan undergoes a draft environmental impact review. She said the controls are meant to prevent speculative conversions while comprehensive land-use rules and an affordable-housing target (33 percent in the draft plan, according to staff) are finalized.

The ordinance exempts C-3 zoning districts, projects that meet a percent-affordable threshold as defined in Planning Code section 415.1, properties with certain PDR uses (gas stations, parking lots, self-storage), projects subject to a development agreement under Administrative Code chapter 56 and California Government Code section 65864, and projects that submitted environmental evaluation cases to the Planning Department on or before Sept. 1.

Because the measure is an interim moratorium it automatically lasts 45 days by law; Supervisor Kim said the intent is to renew and extend the controls until the Central SoMa plan is adopted. The city also committed $3 million to a neighborhood stabilization trust to buy and preserve rent-controlled units as part of a larger compromise to increase affordable housing, Kim said.

Clerk actions recorded that, because this was an urgency ordinance, the board finally passed the moratorium without objection.

Supporters and community organizations were acknowledged during the remarks; Supervisor Kim thanked city staff and neighborhood groups for contributing to the policy language.