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Planning Commission finds Mission Bay South amendments consistent with general plan, clearing path for Warriors hotel approvals
Summary
The San Francisco Planning Commission voted to adopt general-plan consistency findings for amendments enabling a Golden State Warriors hotel/residential project at the Chase Center site after a staff presentation and OCII-led CEQA addendum analysis. Commissioners concluded the addendum did not disclose new significant impacts and adopted findings unanimously.
The San Francisco Planning Commission on June 18 adopted findings that proposed amendments to the Mission Bay South redevelopment plan are consistent with the city’s General Plan, clearing a procedural hurdle for a hotel and residential project proposed by the Golden State Warriors near the Chase Center.
Planning staff said the commission’s role was limited to general-plan conformity; the Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure (OCII) is the CEQA lead agency and the body responsible for project approvals. Staff briefed commissioners on the proposed amendments, which would allow a mixed-use hotel/residential project on the Chase Center site that the sponsor described as including 129 hotel rooms, 21 dwelling units, and roughly 65,000 square feet allocated to retail and restaurant uses. The project sponsor has committed to paying fees to OCII intended to fund affordable housing and pledged $175,000 a year for park maintenance.
Commissioners pressed staff and OCII officials about whether an EIR addendum was appropriate for the project given its size and the pandemic. Jose Campos of OCII and planning-department environmental staff explained the addendum tiers from the certified environmental impact report (the Chase Center FSEIR) and that staff conducted technical analyses (transportation, wind, shadow and other topics) that found no new or substantially more severe impacts than previously disclosed. Planning staff cited CEQA guideline 15162 as the basis for using an addendum where a prior certified EIR remains valid.
Commissioner Diamond asked specifically whether the project’s retail component required more than an addendum; environmental staff said the amendment mainly recategorizes retail without increasing net retail in Mission Bay South and that the technical review did not identify new impacts requiring a supplemental EIR. After questions and brief deliberation, the commission voted unanimously to adopt the staff-recommended general-plan findings.
Because OCII is the lead agency for project approvals, the Planning Commission’s adoption of consistency findings does not itself authorize construction; it is one step in a multi-agency approval process. OCII had already taken related actions earlier in May. The project sponsor must still satisfy OCII approvals, planning-department land-use clearances required for downstream permits, and any other regulatory steps before construction can begin.
