Planning Commission hears final informational briefing on Western SoMa plan as property owners press for grandfathering

Corey Teague, senior planner with the San Francisco Planning Department, told the Planning Commission on Nov. 29 that this session was the final scheduled informational hearing on the Western SoMa area plan before the adoption hearing next week and that no new plan materials were available for review. Teague outlined a short list of unresolved topics staff wanted the commission to revisit, including zoning options for the Eleventh Street corridor, the treatment of historic‑use controls for Article 10/11 buildings, and overlap issues with the separate Central Corridor planning process.

Property owners and project representatives used the public comment period to press for protections they say are necessary to keep existing tenants and allow pipeline projects to proceed. "Article 11 is a security for us to keep some of these tenants in there," said Luke Seiferlein, who described owning a historic Article 11 building along Ninth Street and hiring security and cleaning services to stabilize the property. Lawyer John Kevlin of Rubin & Genius told the commission that current draft plan language would narrow the classes of historic buildings eligible for flexible uses and urged the commission not to further restrict those controls so West SoMa does not fall out of line with eastern neighborhoods’ rules.

Architect John Goldman, who said his client filed a building permit in February 2005 for a 24‑unit project on Eleventh Street, told commissioners the proposed zoning options — several of which would prohibit new housing on that block — put long‑waiting projects at risk. "Two years ago, we elected not to pay for our own EIR because we were told the area EIR would provide a community exemption; to be told a month before approval that the entire project type might be banned is very troubling," Goldman said, asking the commission to consider a grandfathering or pipeline provision to protect projects in that circumstance.

Planning staff explained that Western SoMa has not included a pipeline or grandfathering provision to date and that, unless the commission expressly directs otherwise in its approval motion, projects will be judged under the law in effect at the time of approval. Teague said staff can draft a pipeline option, but it would have to specify eligibility thresholds and dates for entitlement, similar to the treatment used in the Eastern Neighborhoods process.

Commissioners asked for more information before making any changes. Several said they were receptive to a narrow, case‑by‑case grandfathering approach for the 11th‑Street project if staff can show it is limited in scope and justified by a discrete pipeline of projects. Commissioners also asked staff to return with counts and inventory data to quantify how many properties would be affected by any change to historic‑use thresholds.

The commission closed the informational record and directed staff to prepare final adoption materials for next week’s hearing. Any change to the draft zoning as proposed would require an explicit commission vote at that adoption hearing.