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Committee adopts amendments and continues legacy‑business conditional‑use measure
Summary
An ordinance to require conditional‑use authorization before replacing legacy businesses in some commercial districts drew debate over implementation and verification; the committee adopted amendments (including exemptions) and continued the item to the call of the chair for further review and coordination with planning.
Supervisor Connie Chan introduced an ordinance to make permanent interim controls that require conditional‑use authorization before replacing a legacy business with a new nonresidential use in certain neighborhood commercial and Chinatown districts.
Chan said the measure seeks to protect long‑standing small businesses that she described as cultural assets and noted proposed amendments to exempt storefronts vacant more than three years and to exempt small businesses under $5,000,000 in gross receipts. "Conditional use authorization has been a long standing legislative tool for a public discussion about land use," Chan said, arguing the process gives communities leverage when a legacy business faces displacement.
Planning staff and the Planning Commission disagreed on approach: the commission recommended disapproval and staff warned of implementation challenges — notably that planning has no mechanism to verify a business's gross receipts, which is tax information. Deputy City Attorney Bridal Ressy said she needed to confirm whether the proposed gross‑receipts amendment would require re‑referral to planning.
The committee adopted Supervisor Chen's amendments by voice vote and then voted to continue the ordinance to the call of the chair to allow time to reconcile the amendments with planning and city‑attorney review. Vice Chair Cheyenne Chen, Supervisor Bilal Mahmood and Chair Mirna Melgar recorded aye votes on the continuance.
