Planning Commission reviews Eastern Neighborhoods EIR, debates Mission Street setbacks, fees and PDR protections

The San Francisco Planning Commission on Aug. 7 took up certification of the final environmental impact report (EIR) for the Eastern Neighborhoods Rezoning and Area Plans (case no. 2004-0160E) and a linked package of rezonings, interim controls and fees, receiving extended public comment and debating several unresolved technical and policy choices.

Planning staff urged the commission to certify the EIR as adequate and to forward zoning and policy recommendations to the Board of Supervisors. "With the certification motion, in essence, the commission certifies the EIR as adequate, accurate, and complete," Planning environmental staff Michael Jacinto told commissioners, summarizing the DEIR release on June 30, 2007, the 76-day public comment period that closed Sept. 14, 2007, and the department39s response-to-comments document published May 29, 2008.

The EIR, Jacinto said, identifies several impacts that staff could not reduce to less-than-significant, including a potential loss of production, distribution and repair (PDR) uses, significant unavoidable transit impacts on seven Muni bus lines, service degradation at nine intersections and possible significant effects to historic architectural…