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Planning Commission backs interim controls on intermediate-length occupancy units
Summary
The Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve interim controls and staff-recommended modifications to an ordinance aimed at regulating ‘intermediate-length occupancy’ units (ILO), adding nonprofit exemptions and directing data collection before permanent rules are adopted.
The San Francisco Planning Commission voted unanimously Jan. 30 to approve an ordinance placing interim controls on so-called intermediate-length occupancy (ILO) units and to send a set of staff modifications forward to the Board of Supervisors. The motion, introduced by Commissioner Melgar, included language to extend exemptions for certain nonprofit operators and to require data collection and a controller's report before permanent controls are adopted.
Sunny Angulo, representing Supervisor Aaron Peskin, told commissioners the legislation is intended as interim controls and emphasized a two-year amortization period for non price-controlled units built after 1979, plus a broader controller's report to study market and fiscal data. Staff recommended the commission enact interim controls — including neighborhood notice, discretionary review, or a moratorium — to allow time to gather data on the scale and location of ILO activity before moving to permanent regulation.
Public testimony was mixed. Tenant advocates and affordable-housing groups welcomed the measure as a way to protect housing stock and clarify tenants' rights when stays exceed 30 days; they urged a moratorium and community oversight. Landlord speakers warned the measure could penalize property owners and argued it might not address tenant-occupied short-term listings. Commissioners pressed staff and the sponsor's representative on geographic distribution, the length of allowable temporary designations, and carve-outs for mission-based housing such as family patient housing at hospitals.
Commissioners asked staff to ensure the ordinance explicitly connects administrative indexing of caps to data as it becomes available, and to tighten language around nonprofit exemptions so they apply only to clearly mission-driven, non-market housing (examples raised included Ronald McDonald Houses and nonprofits that provide direct shelter services). The final motion approved the ordinance with those clarifications and the addition of 501(c)(3)/(4)-type nonprofit language in the planning code amendment.
The commission recorded the vote as unanimous among commissioners present (Fung, Melgar, Moore and President Koppel). The ordinance as modified will be forwarded to the Board of Supervisors for further legislative action and the staff-directed interim controls will guide enforcement and data collection while the city evaluates permanent regulations.
