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Planning commission narrows SUD expansion, approves two staff modifications 4–3
Summary
The Planning Commission approved an expansion of the Central Neighborhoods large-residence Special Use District with two staff-recommended modifications—excluding accessory garages from gross floor area and excluding shared spaces from unit GFA—but rejected the staff incentive that would allow a unit up to 4,000 sq ft in exchange for adding an 800‑sq‑ft unit. The vote was 4–3.
The San Francisco Planning Commission on Aug. 1 narrowly adopted a recommendation to expand the Central Neighborhoods large-residence special use district (SUD) and implement two of the planning department’s three proposed changes, voting 4–3.
The ordinance before the commission would extend the SUD’s controls—originally crafted to curb so-called “monster homes”—to additional neighborhoods including Cole Valley and would delete the separate Corona Heights SUD so the Central Neighborhoods SUD uniformly covers the area. Calvin Ho, a legislative aide to Supervisor Mandelmann, told the commission: "This expansion will discourage the construction of new monster homes in Cole Valley." Planning staff said the expansion aims to protect neighborhood character and encourage infill housing at compatible scales.
Staff recommended three modifications: 1) do not include accessory garage space in gross floor area (GFA) calculations; 2) allow one dwelling unit up to 4,000 square feet only if the project adds a second dwelling unit of at least 800 square feet; and 3) exclude shared spaces in multiunit buildings from a unit’s GFA. Staff emphasized concerns about implementation and possible gaming of rules, but said the changes would make the SUD easier to administer.
Commissioners split over the second recommendation. Commissioners who supported only modifications 1 and 3 argued the changes improve administration and would still encourage the addition of meaningful accessory dwelling units (ADUs). Commissioner Soh, arguing for the two modifications, said staff’s proposal was a “really sound way to understand the situation and see if we can actually get more useful-sized infill housing.” Several neighborhood speakers urged a strict 3,000-square-foot cap and opposed raising any per-unit limit to 4,000 sq ft.
Opponents of recommendation 2 warned it would undercut the ordinance’s intent to limit very large single‑unit residences. Commissioner Imperial said the 4,000‑sq‑ft cap "seems to be very large" for a single-family unit and questioned whether it would serve the legislation’s purpose.
The motion on the table limited the commission’s recommendation to approval with staff modifications 1 and 3 only; it passed 4–3. The transcript records the final tally as 4 to 3. The commission’s action sends its recommendation to the sponsor and to subsequent review processes.
Next steps: the ordinance will continue through the legislative process at the Board of Supervisors; staff had noted the SUD’s conditional-use (CUA) review requirements under existing rules are set to sunset on 12/31/2024, which informed some of the urgency and the discussion about how objective standards under recent state law (SB 423) will interact with local controls.
