Good afternoon, everyone.

This meeting will come to order.

Welcome to the April 14th, 2025 regular meeting of the Land Use and Transportation Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

I'm Supervisor Mirna Melgar, Chair of the Committee, joined by Vice Chair Supervisor Cheyenne Chen and Supervisor Bilal Mahmood.

The committee clerk today is John Carroll.

Mr.

Clark, do you have any announcements?

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair.

Please ensure that you've silenced your cell phones and other electronic devices you've brought with you into the chamber today.

If you have any documents to be included as part of a legislative file assigned to land use, you can submit that to me and I'll meet you at the rail to pick it up.

Public comment will be taken on each item on today's agenda.

When your item of interest comes up and public comment is called, please line up to speak along your right hand side of this room.

Alternatively, you may submit your written public comment in either of the following ways.

First, you may email your comments to me at J-O-H-N, period C A R R O L L at SFGOV.org.

Or you may send your written comments via U.S.

Postal Service to our office in City Hall.

The address is one Dr.

Carlton B.

Goodlit Place.

Room 244, San Francisco, California, 94102.

If you submit public comment in writing, I will forward your comment to the members of this panel and also include your comments as part of the official file on which you are commenting.

And finally, Madam Chair, items acted upon today are expected to appear on the Board of Supervisors' agenda of April 22nd, 2025, unless otherwise stated.

Thank you.

Mr.

Clerk, please call item number one.

Agenda item number one is an ordinance amending the planning code to remove the conditional use authorization for formula retail uses in the residential commercial zoning district along Van Ness Avenue between Broadway and Redwood for properties fronting Van Ness Avenue.

The ordinance affirms the planning department's secret determination and makes findings of public necessity, convenience, and welfare under planning code section 302 and findings of consistency with the general plan and eight priority policies of Planning Code Section 101.

Thank you so much, uh Mr.

Clerk.

We are joined by uh District 2 supervisor Stephen Sherrill.

Welcome to the committee.

Um would like to give you a chance to give a few remarks, and then we'll turn it over to Audrey Merlone to have the stack presentations.

Well, Chair Melgar, thank you very much for scheduling this item today.

Um, as mentioned by the clerk, this ordinance principally permits formula retail along Van Ness between Redwood Street and Broadway.

Well, why are we doing this?

Frankly, Van Ness is facing a crisis of persistent commercial vacancies.

Planning department surveys found 53% ground floor commercial vacancy rate on Van Ness.

And when you compare it to a citywide retail vacancy rate of about 7.7%, and even the shockingly higher 22.1% vacancy rate in Union Square, the Van Ness commercial vacancy rate is simply put, absurdly high.

Since taking office, I have heard from many building owners on Van Ness, all of whom have faced significant challenges in filling these spaces under the existing conditional use requirements.

They're replete with stories of potential tenants deterred by the on average 7.5 month-long permitting timeline.

And lo and behold, some of these prop properties have remained vacant for longer than five years.

This is bad for Van Ness, and it's bad for the city as a whole.

Van Ness is part of Highway 101.

It is a major north-south arterial through this city.

This street has an outsized impact on the public perception of the city's economic health.

And with a challenge like this, we should be helping fill these vacancies, not standing in the way, especially when this change is in line with the history of Van Ness's commercial identity.

Now, following the devastation of the 1906 earthquake, Van Ness emerged as temporary downtown with new department stores, trade shops, and banks filling the corridor.

When downtown was rebuilt, Van Ness kept its commercial identity, becoming a home to many automobile showrooms, restaurants, and more in the 1920s.

However, since the 1970s, more and more of these showrooms have left Van Ness, leaving exorbitantly large retail spaces empty and difficult to occupy.

Now, despite this history of large retailers and chain stores on the street, and despite a decline in tenants that now is reached over three uh into its third decade, our planning code restricts formula retail from filling these large spaces, requiring prospective stores to navigate multi months-long conditional youth processes.

If we know these spaces are hard to fill, why are we making it harder?

Why are we saying yes, we want you here?

But by the way, please go through this seventh month process.

In a time when new business formation remains far below pre-pandemic rates, City Hall should be making it easy to open stores, not be another obstacle in the way.

That's why I'm co-sponsoring Mayor Lurie's first-year free extension for small businesses, and why I'm spearing this Van Ness change as well, spearheading this Van Ness change as well.

The fact of the matter is that Van Ness is in crisis.

And by increasing flexibility in our code, we make it easier to activate these spaces to breathe new life into this corridor at the heart of our city.

I'm grateful to have the support of Supervisor Sauter and Mahmoud, whose district share Van Ness with District 2, and the support of the small the San Francisco Democratic Party, small business associations in the surrounding neighborhoods, and many more.

I'm grateful that this ordinance was unanimously recommended for approval with some modifications by the Planning Commission.

And for those modifications, I have circulated some code changes that I'm asking to be amended into the file today.