Planning staff reports Board amendments to affordable-housing rules and updates major '5M' project

At the Nov. 12 meeting, Planning Department staff briefed commissioners on recent Board of Supervisors land use committee actions that affect the commission's work.

Anne Marie Rogers said the committee amended an ordinance dealing with affordable-housing preferences: it removed a displaced-tenant preference for separate legislation and increased the neighborhood preference to 40%, changes that reflect prior requests from the planning commission. Rogers said the legislation was expected to be heard by the full Board the following week.

Rogers also summarized committee action on the '5M' mixed-use project (generally described as around Fifth, Sixth, Mission and Howard Streets): the committee advanced the project to the full Board without recommendation because a CEQA appeal was pending. Key committee changes included increasing income-restricted units from 33% to 40% with emphasis on middle-income housing, reducing off-street parking from 463 to 331 spaces, and adding a $300,000 payment to fund a Filipino cultural heritage district. Rogers said the committee declined to incorporate certain commission requests, such as ongoing periodic reporting to the planning commission on displacement and a stabilization fund for small-site acquisitions.

Commissioners asked staff to quantify the monetary value of changing the affordability percentage and to report parking ratios; staff said they would look into the ledger and parking ratios and provide updated figures.