Committee duplicates file, advances technical fixes for planning-code changes on retail, LCCUs and formula retail

The Land Use and Transportation Committee on Nov. 27 considered a package of Planning Code amendments intended to expand allowable commercial uses, add limited corner commercial uses (LCCUs), refine formula‑retail and priority‑processing rules, and correct technical errors in zoning control tables.

Katie Tang of the Office of Small Business summarized the bulk of the revisions: allowance for certain corner commercial uses in residential areas under tightly circumscribed circumstances, limits on conversions that would displace housing, clarifications to zoning control tables for RH/RM/RTO districts, and removal of priority review eligibility for any formula retail. Tang said staff had checked many of the changes with the City Attorney's Office and would duplicate the file so more substantive amendments could be worked on in Land Use while a clean version moves forward to the Board.

President Peskin and other supervisors pressed staff on transparent drafting and the public interest in fee-exemption language; Peskin asked that a problematic long‑title phrase about fee waivers be reworked to make it clear where the five‑year fee exemption applies (in practice staff said it targets conversions from PDR to non‑PDR, not an across‑the‑board waiver). Deputy City Attorney Anne Pearson cautioned that several proposed edits needed as‑to‑form review before final adoption.

Public comment included requests for clearer abbreviations and testimony from entrepreneurs and a live‑music venue operator urging changes to permit processes, liquor‑license treatment and caps in the Haight Ashbury to ease reopening of cultural venues.

Rather than attempt on‑the‑fly substantive fixes, the committee agreed to a two‑file approach: adopt non‑substantive/city‑attorney‑approved amendments and forward a committee report to the Board, while keeping a duplicated version in Land Use to receive additional substantive edits and return next week for action.

Director Tang said staff would vet remaining changes with the city attorney and return the duplicated file with agreed edits for committee consideration.