Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Planning Code Prop X Exemption topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Historic-exemption amendment recommended for landmark buildings, commission rejects staffsquare-foot limit
Summary
The Historic Preservation Commission recommended a Planning Code amendment to exempt certain landmark buildings from specific Prop X conditional-use and replacement requirements but removed staff's proposed 49,999-square-foot cap, voting unanimously to forward the ordinance recommendation without that modification.
Diego Sanchez, planning department staff, presented an ordinance proposing to exempt individually listed landmark buildings from aspects of Proposition X that otherwise require conditional-use authorization and on-site replacement when converting or demolishing production, distribution and repair (PDR), arts or institutional community spaces. Sanchez told the commission the ordinance would allow limited conversions of up to 50% (or up to a square-foot limit recommended by staff) for landmarked sites while preserving replacement requirements and limiting eligibility to buildings landmarked by July 1, 2016.
Owners and neighborhood groups sharply disagreed on the ordinance's likely effects. Peter Aquit, owner of the San Francisco Armory, said maintaining the Armory requires substantial capital work and flexibility in allowable uses: “Operating a building like the historic armory is a very expensive undertaking. It costs about $2,000,000 a year just to own it… In order to make it usable for PDR and non-PDR tenants, this significant amount of work needs to be done to the tune of some $16,000,000 minimum.” Aquit argued the proposed exemption would help make preservation economically viable.
Opposing the exemption, Peter Papadopoulos of the Mission Economic Development Agency and Mission community groups warned the proposed language risks accelerating displacement and gentrification. He said the Armory conversion could bring large numbers of office workers into a cultural corridor and urged the city and owner to work with the community to find an outcome that retains PDR and community character.
Commission discussion focused on two technical choices: a staff-proposed numeric ceiling (49,999 square feet) meant to align with existing planning-code thresholds, and a landmark cut-off date (landmarks as of 07/01/2016). Commissioners pressed staff about whether an on-site replacement would still be required (Sanchez confirmed replacement is required on-site under the current ordinance language) and whether projects would need to appear before the Planning Commission for allocations such as Prop M office allocations.
After debate, a motion carried to adopt a recommendation supporting the ordinance as revised but to exclude staff modification number 3 (the specific 49,999-square-foot limitation). The commission then conducted a roll-call vote; all six present commissioners voted yes, and the motion passed unanimously, 6to0.
What happens next: The commission's recommendation, excluding the staff'proposed square-foot cap, will be forwarded to the Planning Department and the Board of Supervisors as part of the legislative process on the proposed Planning Code amendment. The Planning Commission will hear related allocations and conditional-use requests as individual projects come forward.
