Planning commission hears UCSF Parnassus MOU with housing, transit and workforce commitments; no vote taken

UCSF and City of San Francisco staff presented a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Jan. 7, 2021 that would formalize voluntary commitments tied to UCSF's Parnassus Heights comprehensive plan, including up to 1,263 housing units across UC's portfolio, approximately 750–760 units on the Parnassus campus, about 200 additional hospital beds associated with the plan, and roughly $20,000,000 in transportation contributions over the buildout.

The presentation to the San Francisco Planning Commission was informational; the commission did not vote on the MOU. Jeff Buckley of the mayor's office said the agreement ‘‘goes beyond the vital public interest of adding 200 hospital beds in a pandemic’’ and emphasized workforce and housing as core impacts. Brian Newman of UCSF summarized the campus plan and said the hospital capacity increase would be a ‘‘modest but important’’ 42 percent increase in bed capacity in affected facilities.

Why it matters: UCSF's Parnassus campus is aging and contains seismically vulnerable clinical facilities. City staff said the MOU would bind UCSF to annual reporting and city briefings, increase the university's housing commitment to 1,263 units (with more than 1,000 designated affordable across UC's housing portfolio), and set a 30 percent local-hire good-faith goal for construction and operations. The MOU also calls for a Transportation Demand Management program, a 15 percent trip-reduction target included in EIR mitigations, and a transportation contribution that staff said ‘‘is equal to or just a hair above’’ what a private developer would pay into the city's Transportation Sustainability Fee.

Public comment: More than 100 callers weighed in during a…