Planning commission clears CPMC rebuild plan after adding stronger monitoring, delay payments and community notice

The San Francisco Planning Commission voted unanimously to advance California Pacific Medical Center—s revised long-range development plan and development agreement with a package of amendments intended to strengthen oversight, preserve community benefits and mitigate timing risks.

The commission approved the set of approvals (items A through N) that together allow CPMC to build five new hospital and medical office buildings, including a larger St. Luke—s campus and a reconfigured Cathedral Hill campus. Commissioners voted to add tighter monitoring and public-notice procedures, to insert new —delay payments— if St. Luke—s opens late, to require conforming language committing to 40% local hire for entry-level permanent positions for 10 years, and to direct staff to request that the Board of Supervisors consider maintaining or replacing 18 psychiatric beds that community groups said are at risk. The motion passed 7-0 and the projects now move to the Board for final action.

Why it matters: CPMC—s program promises two seismically safe hospitals and, staff said, would add about 400 earthquake-safe beds across campuses while providing community benefits and funding for affordable housing, transit and neighborhood improvements. The development agreement also creates an accountability framework that city staff argued is stronger than in many recent development agreements.

What the commission added

City staff and OEWD urged more robust, transparent enforcement. Under the amended agreement, CPMC will file annual healthcare compliance reports and an independent…