Supervisors, planning staff unveil Excelsior and Outer Mission neighborhood strategy after yearlong outreach

Planning Department staff and the Office of Economic and Workforce Development presented the Excelsior and Outer Mission neighborhood strategy to the San Francisco Planning Commission on Dec. 13, 2018, an informational report that officials described as a community‑driven “living document.”

Supervisor (appearing) thanked staff and community partners for a year‑long process that produced a strategy focused on commercial‑corridor stabilization, housing preservation and family‑friendly policies. “We put those folks in a room and then put out a call for community members to participate,” the supervisor said, describing outreach that selected about 30 residents from roughly 80 applicants and ran more than 30 meetings and nearly 1,000 surveys.

Planning staff said the strategy organizes work under four themes—land use and housing, public realm, mobility and business services—and lays out goals, strategies and actions with an implementation framework. Staff highlighted neighborhood features: high homeownership (about 64 percent in the study area), a large foreign‑born population, and a commercial corridor with roughly 542 storefronts and significant vacant space. “Throughout this process the project team met regularly to discuss what we have heard and reflect on what we have heard,” staff said in the presentation.

Community partners and residents who worked on the plan told the commission they welcome the collaborative process but urged stronger anti‑displacement measures. Jesse Fernandez, a district resident and community organizer, said the process risked underrepresenting immigrant, monolingual and low‑income residents and called for “a do no harm approach” that centers multilingual and intergenerational leadership.

The Excelsior Action Group, which served as a project partner, defended the process as deliberately extended to include hard‑to‑reach populations and said the resulting document provides a practical starting point for façade improvements, targeted lending, and business attraction efforts.

Commissioners commended the outreach and praised specific items in the strategy, including proposed streetscape work and a $15 million funding allocation cited by the supervisor for safe‑streets improvements. Several commissioners asked staff to follow up with more detail on enforcement gaps—especially tenant protections—and to return with a hearing to delve into the strategy’s implications for displacement risk and neighborhood stability.

A series of public commenters representing neighborhood associations, working‑group members and residents urged the commission to ensure future implementation centers rental protections and enforcement of existing tenant rights. Several speakers asked the city to analyze the potential impacts of state‑level bills on the neighborhood and recommended closer attention to seniors’ mobility and the preservation of family‑sized housing.

Staff said next steps include continued coordination across city agencies, a streetscape planning effort and ongoing community engagement to prioritize actions from the strategy. The commission did not take an action on the informational presentation; staff said they will return for further hearings as the implementation work advances.