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Planning Department projects $5.7 million surplus, proposes 11 new positions
Summary
Planning Department staff told the commission it expects a $5.7 million surplus in the current year and proposed funding for 11 new positions and one-time funding to staff eight previously approved positions for 2.5 years; commissioners pressed for clarity on enforcement and accessibility.
The San Francisco Planning Department told the Planning Commission on Feb. 6 that it expects a $5.7 million surplus in the current fiscal year and is proposing new staff and one-time funding to address a growing backlog.
"The department is currently projecting a budget surplus of $5,700,000 due to higher fee revenue," Finance and IT Manager Keith DeMartini said, citing higher volumes of building permit and planning applications that drove fees above prior estimates. Staff proposed funding 11 additional positions for 2014–15 and a one-time appropriation of about $3,000,000 to pay for eight previously approved but unfunded positions for 2.5 years.
Planning Director Ram told commissioners the department is seeing rapid growth in permit applications, largely for rehabilitation and alterations of existing buildings, and that the additional staff would be targeted to reduce the backlog in environmental planning, current planning and historic preservation. Grant writer Sheila Nicolopoulos said the department manages roughly $3.9 million in grants, with about $1.3 million budgeted for the next year and plans to use state and regional grant funds for several area planning and feasibility studies.
Commissioners sought more detail on the budget projections and whether the longer-term reductions in general-fund support would require program cuts. "So it's not a year-over-year reduction, it's a reduction to our base budget," DeMartini said when asked to explain a projected drop in general-fund support in later years. Commissioners also pressed staff on code enforcement capacity and staffing counts: staff said the proposed increases represent roughly a 20 percent near-term increase in code enforcement staff but that further hiring would be incremental.
Members of the public raised procedural and policy questions. Advocate Sue Hester asked the commission to make organizational charts and contact information more publicly available so residents could navigate enforcement and planning processes. Commissioners noted the department's intern program and asked staff to return with more detail about grant outcomes and the department's proposed reallocation of positions.
Next steps: staff will return with a formal budget submittal in mid-February; final adoption is expected through the mayor’s budget calendar and Board of Supervisors review.
