Committee advances amended housing-streamlining ordinance to full Board without recommendation, duplicates file for further edits

A broad Planning Code package designed to streamline housing approvals and to implement elements of San Francisco’s housing element was the central and most contested item at the Nov. 27 Land Use hearing. The Department of Planning, the mayor's office and the Board have been working with the State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) after HCD’s Policy & Practice Review (PPR) letter prompted a 30‑day response window.

Planning staff and supervisors described iterations of the ordinance intended to remove certain discretionary reviews for specified housing types (including some state density bonus delegations), adjust setback/open‑space rules, expand eligibility for certain programs and exemptions, and to allow additional ground‑floor uses in residential buildings — all calibrated to meet HCD’s recommendations while preserving local policy priorities. Supervisors pressed for safeguards: removal of any explicit streamlining for demolition of rent‑controlled units, mailed notice provisions, a holding‑period or ownership limit to reduce speculation, and protections for historic and potentially historic buildings.

Aaron Starr and other planning staff proposed amendments that would standardize code language across districts, replace subjective review criteria with objective design guidelines in places, and ensure that projects proposing demolition of rent‑controlled units are subject to conditional‑use review. Supervisor Mandelmann circulated an amendment to protect historic and potentially historic buildings; President Peskin and others asked that the protections be non‑substantive for today's actions so they could be adopted pending as‑to‑form review.

Public comment drew a large, polarized turnout. Housing proponents, neighborhood groups and business voices urged the committee to move quickly to avoid loss of state funding and to accelerate housing production; opponents — including the Race & Equity in All Planning (REP) coalition and tenant advocates — argued the bill still privileges market‑rate development over the housing element's equity and affordability commitments, and said HCD's letter should be the starting point for negotiation rather than a mandate to deregulate.

After extensive debate, the committee adopted several amendments (including removal of a provision that would have allowed the demolition of up to two rent‑controlled units without conditional use), added historic‑resource language, and voted to duplicate the file for additional amendments. The committee then voted to send the amended ordinance to the full Board as a committee report 'without recommendation' to allow continued work with HCD and other stakeholders; the duplicate file was continued to Dec. 4.