Commission recommends Upper Market/NCT3 zoning changes aimed at easing storefront vacancies, with health‑services tweak

The Planning Commission voted to recommend changes to the Planning Code for Upper Market and the NCT3 neighborhood commercial transit district intended to make it easier for small businesses, arts organizations and nonprofits to occupy vacant storefronts.

Diego Sanchez of Planning Department staff outlined the proposal and its goals: ease vacancy pressures by reducing conditional use requirements for a range of ground‑floor uses, increase permissive arts and nonprofit activity, and adjust operating and conditional‑use criteria for liquor stores and other uses in the district. The presentation cited a recent Budget and Legislative Analyst report showing Upper Market vacancies rose from 8.5% to 12.9% between 2015–2017 and that conditional‑use processes can take an average of 332 days.

Tom Temprano from Supervisor Mandelman’s office described stakeholder outreach and said the ordinance is not a silver bullet but a practical attempt to help small businesses and nonprofits open more quickly. The proposed changes include keeping certain health services principally permitted on the first story but considering larger or formula‑type medical operations as conditional uses.

Planning staff proposed modifications (to align liquor‑store operating conditions, add quantitative CU measures, and clarify philanthropic administrative services), and the Commission voted to recommend the ordinance with the staff’s recommended modifications, including work to consider health services under formula‑retail rules and to eliminate the rarely used philanthropic administrative‑service use category from the code. The motion passed unanimously (5–0).