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Neighborhoods press Planning Department to slow or rewrite Urban Design Guidelines and drop staff waiver plan
Summary
Neighborhood groups and residents urged the Planning Department to pause the citywide Urban Design Guidelines (UDG), demand parallel work on Residential Design Guidelines, and remove a proposed staff waiver process they say would undermine public review.
A steady stream of neighborhood groups and residents used the Sept. 22 Planning Commission meeting to press staff on the proposed Urban Design Guidelines (UDG) and related residential design updates.
Speakers representing Dolores Heights, Noe Valley, Russian Hill, and multiple neighborhood coalitions said the UDG as drafted is too broad, risks overriding local Residential Design Guidelines (RDG), and contains an opaque waiver process they called susceptible to abuse. Kathleen Courtney of the Russian Hill Community Association and others urged the commission to insist the UDG and RDG be developed in parallel so they “complement rather than contradict” each other and to remove the waiver provision.
Planning Department staff responded that outreach is ongoing and that changes — including clarifying the UDG’s applicability and enhancing community participation — were planned. Commissioners asked staff to prepare an informational briefing on how the UDG, RDG and existing design controls relate and to produce a table showing which guidelines apply in which districts.
The discussion underscored neighborhood concerns about design review transparency and the balance between citywide policy and local character.
