Supervisor seeks to ease chain-store rules on Van Ness to fill large vacant storefronts

The Land Use and Transportation Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on April 14 took up an ordinance to remove conditional use authorization requirements for formula retail uses on Van Ness Avenue, aiming to make it easier for chain stores to occupy large, persistent commercial vacancies along the corridor.

District 2 Supervisor Steven Sherrill, sponsor of the ordinance, said Van Ness faces “a crisis of persistent commercial vacancies,” citing a planning department survey that found a 53% ground-floor commercial vacancy rate on Van Ness compared with a roughly 7.7% citywide retail vacancy rate and 22.1% in Union Square. “Some of these properties have remained vacant for longer than 5 years,” Sherrill said, and the existing conditional-use process, which he described as averaging “7.5 month long permitting timeline,” deters prospective tenants.

Sherrill asked the committee to adopt three amendments he circulated: extend the ordinance boundary north from Broadway to Chestnut Street; remove planning code section 178C.3.E so that a new formula retail operator would not need a conditional use authorization if the prior operator had not obtained one; and other Planning Commission-recommended changes (the commission suggested replacing “properties” with “lots” and requested a one-year post-implementation report). “If we want a grocery store to replace a grocery store, we should probably make it easier to open a grocery store,” Sherrill said, referring to the former Safeway site on Fillmore that opened before formula retail controls were in place.

Supervisor Bilal Mahmood said the change could help revitalize Van Ness by enabling large-format tenants such as grocery stores, pharmacies and banks to move in where small businesses cannot fill very large retail spaces. Vice Chair Chen expressed conditional support, saying she supports the “small change” for a high-vacancy corridor while also urging continued protection for neighborhood character and mom-and-pop businesses.

Audrey Marloney of the Planning Department summarized the Planning Commission’s April 3 hearing and the commission’s suggested modifications, including the one-year reporting requirement on how formula retail has changed the corridor since adoption.

Public commenters including neighborhood coalitions and local residents generally supported the amendment, urging protections for legacy businesses and careful breakup of very large spaces so smaller tenants can occupy portions where feasible.

Committee action: Member Mahmood moved the amendment offered by Supervisor Sherrill; the committee recorded three ayes (Vice Chair Chen; Member Mahmood; Chair Melgar) and approved the amendment. The committee then voted to continue the amended ordinance to the Land Use and Transportation Committee meeting of April 21, 2025 for further committee consideration.

The item remains before the committee; no final adoption or board vote occurred on April 14. The Planning Commission asked the department to produce a one-year report after the ordinance’s effective date documenting where formula retail has located since passage.