Land-use committee backs ADU tree in-lieu fee, urges fire-building planning coordination

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors Land Use Committee on July 30 advanced an amendment allowing homeowners to pay an in-lieu fee instead of planting a street tree when building an accessory dwelling unit (ADU), and spent substantial time pressing city departments for clearer, earlier coordination on life-safety requirements that can stall ADU projects.

Chair Katie Tang presided over a wide-ranging discussion that balanced the committee’s interest in preserving street trees against a stated goal of speeding ADU production. "Doing the in-lieu fee is more expensive than actually planting the tree," said Supervisor Asha Safai, who urged project sponsors to plant trees where feasible but signaled support for a pragmatic alternative when planting is infeasible.

Fire Marshal Dan DeCosio told the panel the city cannot waive state building- and fire-code requirements and described how code classifications affect sprinkler and egress obligations. "We do not have the authority to waive state requirements on building a fire code requirements," DeCosio said, adding that where literal compliance is not physically possible his office has been developing equivalencies such as localized sprinkling and one-hour separations.

Planning Department staff described a proposed system to invite Planning into DBI- and Fire-hosted pre-application meetings so the three agencies can resolve technical conflicts early. Marcel Boudreaux, who manages Planning's ADU program, said planning is discussing a screening process and invitations for joint pre-application meetings to streamline reviews.

The committee directed staff to continue work on cross-agency standards and accepted the item as a committee report to move to the full Board; the motion passed in committee by roll call 2–1 (Supervisor Kim dissented). The Committee record shows the committee intends to hold additional follow-up hearings after the full Board takes up the larger ADU package.