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Planning Commission backs ordinance to allow game arcades in SLI areas with limits
Summary
The commission recommended approval of a code change to permit amusement game arcades ("barcades") in targeted districts, limiting the new use to service light industrial (SLI) zoning with conditional use authorization to preserve neighborhood review. The vote was unanimous.
The San Francisco Planning Commission recommended approval on Sept. 29 of a planning code amendment that would permit amusement‑game arcades — often called "barcades" — in some South of Market and Eastern Neighborhood mixed‑use districts, with key geographic limitations.
Staff said the ordinance originally aims to correct an omission that left two parcels out of a prior rezoning; Aaron Starr explained the change would reclassify selected parcels into the Upper Market NCT or the appropriate neighborhood commercial transit district. The immediate driver was a business seeking to operate an "arcade game" component at 501 Fourth Street, a use that current zoning could prohibit.
April Veneracion, representing Supervisor Jane Kim, told commissioners she supported allowing the use for the specific business but advised a narrower geographic approach. "I would suggest as an amendment is to limit this permitted use in service light industrial, which would allow the business that is interested in moving forward," she said during testimony. Several commissioners and neighborhood speakers pressed staff for a site‑limited or conditional‑use approach rather than a broad allowance across multiple neighborhoods.
Planning staff advised that allowing arcade uses in the SLI district with a conditional use authorization (CU) would enable formal neighborhood notice and review of future projects; a site‑only rezoning would have required a different noticing process. Commissioners amended and approved the recommendation to restrict the permitted arcade use to SLI zoning districts and to consider CU requirements for future cases. The commission voted unanimously to send the recommendation forward to the Board with that limitation.
Supporters included local business representatives and the South of Market Business Association, who said the change would enable a small‑business tenant to add arcade games as an accessory entertainment feature. Opponents and some commissioners urged caution about changing uses across wide zones without further community outreach.
The Board of Supervisors will consider the ordinance next; if enacted, future arcade projects in SLI zones may still be subject to conditional use processes that require neighborhood notice and discretionary review.
