Land Use Committee continues Central SoMa, Transit Center commercial-requirements ordinances pending amendments to preserve key-site benefits

The Land Use and Transportation Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on March 3 continued two related ordinances affecting Central SoMa and the Transit Center District to its next meeting on March 10, 2025, after sponsors and planning staff said they are finalizing amendments that would preserve previously negotiated community benefits on the city's largest development parcels.

The ordinances would remove requirements that large sites in the Central SoMa Special Use District and the Transit Center District provide a mandated portion of new floor area for nonresidential uses. Committee co-sponsor Supervisor Matt Dorsey said the change would "remove a requirement that large sites in Central SoMa and the entirety of the transit district provide 2 thirds of their square footage for nonresidential uses." He described the package as intended to "unlock more housing" on those parcels.

The committee's decision to continue followed presentations from Planning Department staff and the Office of Economic Analysis and more than a dozen public commenters representing neighborhood groups, developers, labor and affordable-housing organizations. Joshua Switzky, deputy director for citywide long-range planning in the Planning Department, reviewed the Central SoMa Plan's origins and explained that the rezoning adopted in 2018 anticipated substantial office development alongside housing. Audrey Marloney of the Planning Department said the Planning Commission recommended modifications to…