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Planning staff, ULI and equity council outline downtown recovery plan; stakeholders urge equity and small‑business support

San Francisco Planning Commission · November 9, 2023
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

City and outside advisors presented a multi‑pronged downtown recovery plan focused on safety, business incentives, adaptive reuse, and cultural activation. Equity Council and community groups pressed for transparent, targeted funding for BIPOC and small businesses and clearer measures of accountability.

Planning Department staff, the Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD) and an Urban Land Institute (ULI) advisory panel presented a coordinated strategy on Nov. 9 to revitalize Downtown San Francisco through a combination of public‑realm improvements, incentives for conversions, and targeted programming.

Jacob Bentliff of OEWD highlighted current downtown metrics and city programs: office attendance remains about 42% of pre‑pandemic levels, hotel occupancy trends around 80%, and international visitation has largely returned. City efforts include the Vacant to Vibrant program (pop‑ups and activations), Storefront Opportunity Grants ($25K–$50K), a proposed transfer‑tax ballot measure to waive transfer tax for certain conversion projects, and…

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