Board approves bond issuance, grants and multiple contracts; cannabis relocation ordinance passes 8-2

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on March 3 took a series of routine and non-routine actions: appropriating refunding general obligation bond proceeds, authorizing grants, approving contracts and leases, and passing an ordinance to permit medical cannabis dispensary relocations under an amended health code.

Key actions and outcomes

- Item 12: Ordinance to amend the health code to authorize the director of the Department of Public Health to allow an existing medical cannabis dispensary permittee to operate at a new location under that permit and to affirm the CEQA determination. Vote: 8 ayes, 2 no (Supervisor Stephanie and President Yee recorded as no). Outcome: ordinance finally passed 8-2.

- Item 13: Ordinance to appropriate $255,000,000 from the issuance of one or more series of refunding general obligation bonds and place that amount on Controller's reserve, subject to closing of refunding transactions for FY2019–20. Vote: 10 ayes (first reading passed unanimously).

- Items 14–24: A series of resolutions and ordinances were adopted on consent, including authorization for the Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development to accept a $100,000 gift to the citywide affordable housing fund (Item 14); retroactive acceptance of a $388,000 grant for the West Portal Playground Project (Item 15); authorization for the Police Department to accept an approximately $298,000 DHS/FEMA grant to purchase an underwater remotely operated vehicle (Item 16); lease approval for 33 Goff Street for a navigation center (Item 17); contract modifications and bond-authorizing resolutions (Items 18, 19, 20); and procurement or disposition actions involving SFMTA security-guard contract, tax-defaulted property sales, and a lease for the U.S. Old Mint at 88 Fifth Street (Items 21, 22, 23). Most were adopted unanimously as part of consent.

- Item 24: Planning code amendments to allow certain architectural projections and related zoning waivers; ordinance passed on first reading unanimously.

- Items 26–28: Multiple board appointments were approved unanimously, including an appointment to the street-level drug dealing task force (Item 26) and members of the Veterans Affairs Commission and community advisory committees (Items 27, 28).

- Items 29–30 (Millennium Tower/301 Mission): The Board convened as a committee of the whole for a conditional street vacation to allow structural upgrades at 301 Mission Street. Staff from Public Works explained the vacation would sever certain below-grade parcels while keeping above-street public right-of-way intact, grant easements to building owners, and return the public right-of-way subject to recorded easements. Item 30 passed on first reading by recorded vote; that first-reading vote was recorded as 9-0 and later rescinded and re-taken with an 11-0 vote after procedural action (see separate article).

- Items 31–34: A public hearing and associated motions relating to a CEQA exemption for a proposed project at 1531–1581 Howard Street and 118–134 Kissling Street were continued to April 14 by the Board at Supervisor Haney's request; roll call on the continuance recorded 11 ayes.

Why it matters: The Board completed multiple finance, facilities, and contract decisions that affect the city's capital program, housing funding, public safety equipment, and land use. The cannabis relocation ordinance drew the only recorded dissent on a non-procedural item, signaling a split among members on that specific health-code change.

What comes next: Several ordinances passed on first reading (including the bond appropriations and planning code amendments) will return for second reading and final adoption as required; the introduced and adopted resolutions will proceed to implementation by the named departments.