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Board declines zoning-map challenge for Harrison & Alameda lot; advises legislative remedy
Summary
The board denied an appeal seeking correction of a zoning-map P designation for a small lot at Harrison & Alameda, finding the zoning map and 1978/2008 rezoning records control and noting the Board lacks power to rezone. Vote: 3-0.
The Board of Appeals on Jan. 15, 2020 denied an appeal from Del Mar SF LLC challenging a zoning administrator letter of determination that a small parcel at the southeast corner of Harrison and Alameda is zoned P (public). The board voted 3-0 that the zoning map and the planning records govern and that changing zoning is a legislative action reserved for the Board of Supervisors.
Appellant counsel Ashley Brakefield argued the 1978 rezoning that created P zoning applied to larger publicly used properties, not the small Lot 1 at issue, and presented historical maps and a Sanborn map suggesting Lot 2, not Lot 1, was used for municipal storage. Planning Department staff (Scott Sanchez) produced the zoning map and recounted that the 1978 ordinance and the 2008 Eastern Neighborhoods rezoning reaffirmed the P designation; he said the zoning map is definitive for administrative action and that a correction would require a legislative rezoning.
The board concluded the zoning administrator had not abused discretion in relying on the zoning map and that the Board of Appeals lacks authority to change the zoning map; it therefore denied the appeal. Staff and commissioners recommended the owner pursue a legislative rezoning through the district supervisor and Board of Supervisors if it seeks a permanent change to the property's zoning.
Motion: Commissioner Rachel Tanner moved to deny the appeal and sustain the letter of determination; the board voted 3-0 to deny.
The decision leaves open the route of legislative rezoning or recorded-survey review to correct map anomalies, but does not change the map itself through the appeals process.
