Planning Department unveils budget equity pilot as it outlines steep COVID-era cuts

The San Francisco Planning Commission on Jan. 21 heard a presentation of the Planning Department’s proposed two‑year budget and a pilot budget‑equity assessment that staff say is intended to shift resources toward communities hit hardest by the pandemic.

Director Tom Hillis told commissioners that regional planning work on Plan Bay Area 2050 — and an apparent reallocation of regional household growth to San Francisco — has sharpened the department’s focus on equity. The office presented a new Community Equity division and a pilot equity tool designed to identify work‑program areas and contracts that serve priority issue areas, geographies and populations.

Deputy Director Deborah Landis walked the commission through fiscal numbers and proposed changes. She said the city projects a roughly $653 million two‑year deficit, and the department will work from a base budget of roughly $64.5 million. As part of the department’s proposal, operating‑fund fees are recommended to drop by about $2 million; grants are forecast optimistically at about $3.4 million next year with roughly $820,000 of recurring grant revenue identified as reasonably likely. The packet also budgets approximately $1 million for a housing‑element environmental‑impact report.

Staff emphasized they used the pilot equity assessment to reallocate staff time and to fully fund the community equity division while avoiding layoffs by focusing cuts on vacant positions. Megan Kalpin, who presented the assessment, said the tool is an early iteration and will be refined with more baseline data and Office of Racial Equity guidance.

Commissioners pressed staff on how FTEs and program resources map to geographic recovery priorities — for example shared‑spaces and retail‑recovery work in neighborhoods shown as highly vulnerable on the Department of Public Health vulnerability map — and requested clearer tables tying staff FTEs to policy goals. Staff acknowledged the need for greater clarity and offered to return with more detailed breakdowns.

Members of the public urged the commission to fund planning for neighborhood commercial corridors, including Geary and Third Street, citing the new Geary transit project’s high capital cost and the need for proactive up‑zoning study in corridors slated for transit investment.

The presentation was informational; adoption of the budget will return to the commission for action in February. Staff said they will take further direction from the commission and will return with revised materials and additional detail on the equity tool.