Good afternoon, everyone.

This meeting will come to order.

Welcome to the September 15, 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 Mahmoud.

The committee clerk today is Mr.

John Carroll.

I would also like to acknowledge uh James Kawana at SFGov TV for staffing us in this meeting.

Mr.

Clerk, do you have any announcements?

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair.

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

Documents to be included as part of any of today's files can be submitted to me.

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 public comment and writing in either of the following ways.

First, you may send your written public comment via email 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, it will be forwarded to the members of this committee and also included as part of the official file on which you are commenting.

And items acted upon today are expected to appear on the Board of Supervisors agenda of September 30th, 2025, unless otherwise stated.

Thank you, Mr.

Clerk.

Please call item number one.

Agenda item number one is an ordinance amending the public works code to authorize public works to perform graffiti abatement on private properties in commercial areas at no cost to property owners, solely a property owners' request and upon property owners' authorization and property owners' waiver of claims associated with the graffiti abatement.

The ordinance also affirms the planning department's secret determination.

Thank you, Mr.

Clerk.

Colleagues, we don't have a presentation on this item today, but we do have staff here on standby for questions.

I introduced this legislation to codify a pilot program that I also introduced during the pandemic in 2022 that allowed the city to remove graffiti on private properties along commercial corridors.

As many of you know, when a property owner gets tagged with graffiti, it is their responsibility to remove it or face the potential of violations from public works.

During the pandemic, graffiti got out of hand, and the city responded by pausing notices of violation on private property.

As the city reopened and the moratorium on violations was lifted, it kind of felt like an insult to injury to make our struggling businesses remove graffiti or potentially face a fine when they were barely surviving.

Or worse, we were finding property owners now facing vacancies because storefronts were hollowed out.

That is why we introduced a limited pilot program to provide some support on commercial corridors facing increased vandalism.

It allowed property owners to opt in to the city's program and public works would go out to abate the graffiti that they couldn't keep up with after they opted in.

The program uh was very successful, has been very successful and deemed necessary in supporting small businesses and the vibrancy of commercial corridors by ensuring that the burden of graffiti removal doesn't fall on property owners, who usually pass it along to the commercial tenant, and by ensuring that the graffiti gets abated in a timely manner.

That's what's most important, so that you know it doesn't spread.

What we have learned about the graffiti is that it attracts others.

And the longer it takes to abate or remove a tag, the more likely it will invite other tags in the vicinity, leaving an impact on the entire corridor.

I want to extend my gratitude to the public works team for taking this program on and for supporting our small business merchant corridors.

We do have representative here from uh public works if there are any questions.

Um I see one from uh Supervisor Chen.

If you could have somebody from Public Works come up, that I would appreciate it.

First of all, I would like to thank Chair Melga, and I would like to also add myself as a co-sponsor for this.

Um, this is, you know, this is um we all care about our neighborhood and that we want to all make sure they are clean and they're welcoming.

Uh small businesses are still struggling uh to keep out with their enterprise as strong as resilience, especially in neighborhood like I would say uh in in the Excelsior.

But on top of that, like we often also have to deal with other challenges, also as like vandalism and uh and also unwanted graffiti is another one that is also happening quite a lot.

Um my question, I'm very supportive, and I really appreciate uh DPW, it's in putting out this program and I understand that's also we account with a limited number of funds, so first come first until the fund is gone.

Um I was very uh carefully looking at the map of like what area to actually cover in district eleven.

I had a very interesting uh discovery on San Jose Avenue.

So we have a portion.

So San Jose Avenue is not a major business corridor, but we do have uh, you know, uh uh a neighborhood uh shop named Roxy that is over maybe more than half of a century.

So there it's not covered it, but like just a one block away on San Jose Avenue.

So there's a little a block like Red C.

If I don't know if you know what I'm talking about, tasty coffee, and there are a couple shops in that uh block, it's covered.

So I also would like to know uh how can we make sure uh small business in neighborhood like District 11 on San Jose Avenue, uh, for an example, just an example, right?

It's it's all cover.

Um from my understanding, the you know, the commercial corridors are covered or you know, they're based off of um planning code, um planning code designations, and that's usually if you know of course we have businesses all along a block.

We know that it's a commercial corridor, um, where 50% of the um properties on that ground floor are uh commercial businesses, then it's designated as a commercial corridor.

Uh similar to when we do how uh holiday moratorium, um we know that these are the areas that cur uh you know construction activity ceases during that time between Nov Thanksgiving and uh New Year's Eve because you know, not to impact our local businesses and whatnot.

Um as far as adding, you know, I believe we can make exceptions.

So if it is, we do know that certain businesses have been continuously um getting hit with graffiti over and over.

Um we can look into that and probably we've had we've made certain exceptions, and you know, we do work within the confines of our regulations and what our code dictates.

Um, you know, as you mentioned, um thank you, supervisors for um going ahead and moving this forward as a permanent program.

Uh it is a great boon to the public and especially to our business partners here in the city of San Francisco.

Um, but um we're here too, we're it's a learning process for us as well, too.

Um nothing set in stone.

We're we we are kind of moving into new territory.

Um we are familiar with the program as it being a pilot, but as a permanent program, we'll adjust and pivot as necessary to um just kind of make the most impact.

And thank you so much for the answer, and I look forward to continue what we uh you and your colleagues in DPW to continue to make sure that our small business who actually you know are impacted and want to sign up for the program uh can have access to the program.

Thank you so much.

Of course, absolutely.

Supervisor, I'd be happy to work with you uh because I wrote the original legislation and we did uh make it for NCDs for neighborhood commercial districts.

Uh and this issue uh came up about you know, what about if uh, you know, it's like a block away, or you know, because the idea the premise behind it is once you have graffiti, it spreads to the rest of the commercial.

And if it's the only commercial in a you know block of residential, it's you know it's not not as much a purpose.

But um I'd be happy to revisit that.

Let's do it.

Um, but it's a two-step thing, right?

First you have to be on an NCD, and then the um business has to opt in.

So they have to fill out that form.

I I would love to continue to work with you.

Uh thank you.

And and I think this is just when I was studying it uh and I really looked at the map and looked at all the business in distrial 11 and and just curious to know like what was the original intent, and then but more than happy to continue to work uh with Supervisor Melgar and also the department to to make it more comprehensive.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Thanks for answering the questions.

Uh Mr.

Clerk, let's go to public comment on this item, please.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Before we hear public comment, just quick question if the respondent from public works could identify himself for the record.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you so much.

Land use and transportation will now hear public comment on agenda item number one related to this public works graffiti abatement program.

If you have public comment for this item, please come forward to the lectern at this time.

And Madam Chair, it appears we have no speakers.

Okay, public comment on this item is now closed.

Um I would like to make a motion that we send this item out of committee to the full board with a positive recommendation.

On the motion offered by the chair that the ordinance be recommended to the Board of Supervisors, Vice Chair Chen.

Chen I, Member Machmud, Machmud I, Chair Melgar.

Madam Chair, there are three eyes.

Thank you so much.

Let's please go to item number two.

Agenda item number two is a resolution expressing interest in forming an enhanced infrastructure financing district to support funding affordable housing in well-resourced neighborhoods, and requesting the controller's office, office of economic and workforce development, and mayor's office of housing and community development to explore options for establishing the EIFD and other innovative financing options.

Thank you, Mr.

Clerk.

Uh, colleagues, I introduce this resolution because we currently do not have a strategy for affordable housing financing on the west side of town.

Uh, we know that there is a dearth of affordable housing, and which is why we're uh we're in this crisis on the west side and other neighborhoods in uh that are defined as well-resourced neighborhoods that are under consideration for rezoning.

It is imperative for us to plan ahead to ensure that we have affordable housing projects in the pipeline.

Affordable housing funding has always been relied on uh market reconstruction, means that it's been dependent on how well the economy is doing.

People pay fees into the affordable housing fund uh in lieu of fees.

When the economy is doing well, land and everything else becomes that much more expensive.

So when the economy is not doing so well, projects cannot get the financing to be built.

We have to develop funding mechanisms uh that uh are sustainable even through deconomic downturns that act as counter-cyclical um mechanisms to be able to build affordable housing when uh times are not as flush.

The concept of an EIFT, which is an enhanced infrastructure financing district is not new.

Uh we have done it for specific project, it allows us to take the growth uh in the tax evaluation uh and put some of it aside for a specific infrastructure purpose, and the state of California gives us the right to uh consider how affordable housing as infrastructure.

The city is already doing this uh with uh uh Petrero Yard and 3333 California.

Soon we're gonna consider the Balboa Reservoir and Stonestown in my district, but we have never explored doing an EIFD for an entire geographic area that I know of.

Only uh it has only been proposed once by former mayor Shang Tao in uh Oakland and then you know she left, so and that never came to fruition.

But I think that developing an EIFD in the newly rezoned areas could help us alleviate the pressure of projects competing for the existing product funding, like the housing bond from priority equity neighborhoods.

Instead, a small portion of the property tax growth for the West side could be dedicating for affordable housing there.

Historically, for the past 20 years, only 10 percent of new affordable housing has been built in well-resourced areas.

Without any growth, we need to ensure that families, seniors, and workers of all income can live there.

This resolution to request a study does not preclude us as a city from exploring any other ideas for affordable housing financing.

It is simply to express interest in the formation of an EIFD and to request that the controller, the Office of Economic Workforce Development, the Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development, provide their analysis and recommendations on potential scenarios, revenue calculations, feasibility, and other considerations, in addition to providing other ideas for financing tools to support affordable housing specific to the well-resourced neighborhood.

By voting on this resolution, it doesn't bind us from any particular EIFD formation, but simply urges the departments to put their thinking forward so we can evaluate our options in the future.

I hope I can count on your support and at the very least being open-minded about the possibility of having this and to have subject matter experts provide some thoughtful analysis and recommendations to steer the policy conversation.

As a Westside supervisor, you know, I can tell you there are many reasons why we should be building affordable housing on the West Side.

The West Side has a you know better public schools, we have more open space, every social determinant of health on the west side is better.

And I think it is time that we provide access to folks to those resources to have the equity that we aspire to and to support uh affirmatively furthering fair housing, as we have always maintained that we would.

So with that, I will turn it over to Supervisor Chen.

Thank you, Chair Malga.

I really again appreciate uh Chair Malga for bringing this conversation forward.

We do need to make structural changes in our system of how we fund and finance affordable housing.

I know that there was an effort to put forward an affordable housing funding and financing plan over two years ago, but few of the items on that list have come to fruition.

Without a dedicated local commitment to fund affordable housing at the scale needed, then all the promises actually in the mayor's rezoning proposal are only promises.

There are few major local buckets that how we currently fund affordable housing.

One is we have a housing trust fund, but that fund was kept in 2024 and has a sunset date.

Second, is we have development impact fees and inclusionary fees, but those fees have been rolled back time and again.

We have general obligation bonds, which have been very successful at the mailbox, but they are one-time investments, and our last bond has already been fully allocated.

The next affordable housing bond is not scheduled until 2032.

Our board and our mayor need to initiate a conversation about what our long-term funding strategies are and to take the steps to implement them now.

And I'm thinking about how can we grow and extend the affordable housing trust fund?

And I also really appreciate how can we collectively identify new sources of local revenues, and also how can we move forward with a San Francisco public bank maybe, or even more frequent cycle of affordable housing months, both local, regional, and state.

This resolution before us today does not raise some concerns and questions by recapturing the increase in property tax receipts toward wild resources the community.

Thus this drawdown resources from the general fund that we could then otherwise go towards meeting the other needs of our community citywide.

I also want to make sure that we are not creating a public funding source that replaces the contribution of developers.

Any increase of public funding should enable development projects to achieve more affordability, not pay for the obligations that developers must already provide.

There are there has been such a vacuum in the conversation around affordable housing funding overall.

Where does this leave the priority equity geographies?

With that said, aside had the, you know, as I said, the resolution is really just the beginning of the conversation.

This is also another tool that we can look into as a strategy to how can we generate more funding for affordable housing.

So I would not keep the conversation from moving forward, but I also hope that I can continue to work with my colleagues on the board for a more border strategy to expand affordable housing's funding citywide, including this District 11, my very own district, which we also haven't had many affordable housing opportunities.

Thank you.

Thank you, uh, Supervisor Chen.

I feel like I must uh respond to a couple of the points that you made.

Um the most important one being that um this uh effort, if it is ultimately approved, would in no way take resources from communities and the general fund.

And that is because an infrastructure financing district by definition captures only the increase in the value, and uh according to our city policy, it's only 50% of that increase.

So uh by definition, the general fund ends up with more resources than we would otherwise have if we weren't rezoning.

Um, and you know, it doesn't have it doesn't take away from resources whatsoever from the existing uh, you know, uh sources that are in the community.

That's the first point.

The second point I'd like to make is that in terms of I I am the West Side supervisor, so I'm only looking at this tool as you know a response to the upzoning proposal that we are making for the well-resourced neighborhoods.

It would not be appropriate for me to introduce something for the priority equity areas, although I would definitely support if you would or anybody else would who represent those areas.

But I will say that under the current climate in uh the state, uh, well-resourced areas do get uh point advantage for California affordable housing money uh that puts them puts West neighborhoods, you know, uh in uh at an advantage over the well the not well-resourced neighborhood.

So I do think it is appropriate for us as a policy to reserve the scarce funds that we have already in the you know, housing trust fund, in the affordable housing fund, and uh in any future bonds to the neighborhoods that already have both capacity and need.

So part of my goal in introducing this is to not cannibalize the funds that are already being used by communities that desperately need the affordable housing, uh, you know, because uh, you know, I think that we can have both.

We can have uh, you know, existing pipeline in well-res in um uh priority equity geographies and maintain the affordable housing there.

And I think that it is also really um it has many, many um uh benefits to have affordable housing in well-resourced areas that provide access to families to working class people to the amenities that exist in well-resourced areas.

Okay, with that.

Thank you, and uh we can go to public comment on this item.

Thank you.

Thank you, madam chair, land use and transportation.

We'll now hear public comment on agenda item number two related to a resolution expressing interest in the formation of an enhanced infrastructure financing district to support affordable housing and well-resourced neighborhoods.

If you have public comment for this item, please come forward to the lecture and at this time.

And if you're waiting for your chance to speak, you can line up to speak along that western wall.

Please begin.

Good afternoon, Supervisors Whit Turner, on behalf of the Housing Action Coalition.

Uh, we strongly support this resolution to explore any IFD.

Um, our members who include industry professionals from both market rate uh and uh below market rate builders, affordable builders consistently remind us that financing is the key piece to getting housing built, especially affordable housing right now.

I think we need stronger funding commitments at every level of government and real tools to bring down construction costs.

Um for decades, a lot of we well resourced neighborhoods have avoided building their fair share of affordable housing, and I think this tool helps to change that.

Um current funding tools like bonds, fees, tax credits are certainly helpful, but a little too unreliable to stand alone, the EIFD definitely provides the potential of stability and something that outlasts the market cycles.

At HAC, you know, we consistently push for clearer rules, revenue models, and timelines so housing can be built predictably.

You mentioned that uh the EIFD should definitely be paired with innovative financing tools and other tools to uh create a durable pipeline for affordable housing that serves residents of all income levels.

Uh we look forward to seeing analysis from the planning department, mayor's office, and other department offices.

Um, and thank you for your time.

Thank you for your comments.

Do we have anyone else who has public comment for agenda item number two?

Madam Chair.

Okay, public comment on this item is now closed.

Um, sorry, give me a second here.

Uh I would like to make a motion that we send this uh item out of uh committee with to the full board with a positive recommendation.

On the motion by the chair that the resolution be recommended to the board of supervisors, vice chair Chen.

Chen I, member Machmood I, Chair Melgar.

Aye.

Melgar, I, Madam Chair, there are three eyes.

Thank you so much.

Uh that motion passes.

Um before we go to the next item, which is adjournment.

I just want to um remind everyone that uh our meeting next week uh will not happen in observance of Rosh Hashanah.

The next uh land use and transportation committee meeting is scheduled for Monday, September 29th of 2025.

Please check at WWSFBOS.org for meeting updates.

Thank you.

Uh let's go to the next item.

There is no further business, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

We're adjourned.

Thank you.