Board disapproves Planning Commission on 249 Texas Street, citing misrepresentation and loss of rent‑controlled housing

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Oct. 19, 2021 voted unanimously to conditionally disapprove the Planning Commission’s approval of a conditional use authorization for a proposed demolition and rebuild at 249 Texas Street in Potrero Hill, after residents and tenant advocates argued the project would remove rent‑controlled units and failed to comply with state and local demolition rules.

Appellants and tenants told the board that the house at 249 Texas had long functioned as two rent‑controlled units and that the project sponsor and their consultants repeatedly mischaracterized the property as a single‑family home during early hearings. “A 2‑unit naturally affordable rent‑controlled building that housed two working‑class families for decades will be replaced with a large single‑family luxury home over a studio basement,” appellant Seisha Gala said in her opening remarks, arguing the Planning Department and sponsor concealed the existence of the second unit.

The board’s motion to conditionally disapprove the Planning Commission decision (mover: President Walton; second: Supervisor Preston) tabled the motion to affirm the Commission (item 48) and approved the motions to disapprove and to direct the preparation of written findings (items 49 and 50). The vote on the motion to disapprove was…