Hello, good afternoon everyone.

A meeting will come to order.

Welcome to the January 12, 2025 regular meeting of the Land Use and Transportation Committee of the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco.

I am Supervisor Myrna Melgar, Chair of the Committee, joined by Vice Chair Supervisor Cheyenne Chen and Supervisor Bilal Mahmood.

The committee clerk today is John Carroll.

I would also like to acknowledge Suis Enos from SFGovTV for staffing 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 you may have brought with you into the chamber today.

If you have any documents to be included as part of any of today's files, you can submit them directly 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 in writing in either

of the following ways. First, you may email your comments to me at john.carroll at sfgov.org,

or you may send your written public comment to our office in City Hall, that is the Clerk's Office,

room 244 in City Hall's address is 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, San Francisco,

California 94102 if you submit public comment in writing I will forward your

comments to the members of this committee and also include your comments

as part of the official file on which you are commenting items on today's

agenda are expected to appear on the Board of Supervisors agenda of January

27th 2026 unless otherwise stated thank you mr. clerk please call item number one

agenda item number one is an ordinance amending the planning code to permit

parking of up to two operable vehicles not including boats trailers recreational

vehicles mobile homes or buses in driveways located in required front

setbacks side yards or rear yards the ordinance affirms the Planning

Department's secret determination and makes findings of consistency with the

general plan and they had priority policies of Planning Code section 101

point one as well as Planning Code section three zero two okay thank you so

So the mayor, who is the sponsor of this legislation, is still working out some amendments to the legislation and has requested that we continue this item.

So I will make a motion to continue this item to our next meeting of Monday, January 26, after we take public comment.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Land use and transportation will now hear public comment related to agenda item number one,

planning code changes permitting parking in driveways.

If you have public comment for this item,

please line up to speak and come forward to the lectern now.

Good morning, Supervisors.

Tom Adulovich with Livable City.

As we've discussed before, this ordinance kind of presented itself

as just like a little bit of car populism, right?

If you've got a driveway, you can park in it.

It's a deeply flawed piece of legislation

because it does a whole lot more than that.

It would allow the creation of driveways to garages that don't exist,

neither the garage nor the driveway in front yards, rear yards, etc. all over the city. So basically

would lead to large-scale paving of people's yards. It would also absolve developments. Right

now if you convert living or car space, car storage space off street to a storefront or to

living space, you're supposed to seal up the driveway, you're supposed to put the curb back,

you're supposed to put in street trees, you're supposed to heal the city, you're supposed to put

in a better sidewalk and green the place, it would absolve developers of that responsibility.

Now, I think there's a few problems with this.

I mean, it will induce a lot of automobile congestion.

It will make our city less safe, less walkable than current law.

It will actually break a principle that we've had in past plans, which is that as the city

grows denser, it should become greener.

It should become more walkable.

We should have a good public realm.

Now, abundance is kind of a buzzword that we'll hear.

This is not an abundance approach, right?

It's saying that the city will get denser, but we will no longer have an improved public realm.

Let me plant an idea.

Let me give you an abundance approach.

Where I come from, Los Angeles, the water department will give you money to remove your lawn and put in droppers-tolerant landscaping.

What if we said to folks developing property, hey, we want you to build housing.

We love housing.

It's more important than parking.

But we also want you to improve the streetscape, and we will give you grants.

We will rebate fees.

We will make it worth your while to do this.

So we get the improved public realm, and we get the housing that we need.

There's a better way forward, a smart way forward, just not this way.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

So the next speaker, please.

Good afternoon, Supervisors.

My name is Paul Wormer.

There are some acts that are very hard to follow.

But endorsing everything that was said, I want to say that with respect to maintaining space.

When we first moved into the neighborhood we live in now, there were three Victorians, all with a front garden.

It turns out they were all one structure that was subdivided into three lots in the 50s.

We ended up buying the middle one.

We kept the garden.

The other two are now driveways.

I've discovered we can get around without a car in San Francisco.

So doing things to encourage people to maintain permeable surfaces,

planted surfaces, is incredibly important for many, many reasons.

Our sewage system is overtaxed.

That absolutely helps.

The health impacts of greenery are studied

and validated everything from removing particulate matter.

and have you seen the latest stuff on PM 2.5

and various diseases and impacts on youth and seniors?

I'm a senior, so it concerns me.

I have grandnephews and nieces, so it concerns me.

I think, though, we are dealing with a very real problem.

And if the amendment that I believe the Planning Commission suggested,

which is you don't get to put in a blind driveway.

You don't get to put in a driveway to the backyard

that if you have a garage,

then you can use that driveway as parking space.

If that garage became an ADU,

then you're not required to surrender your parking space.

That is, I think, one incentive.

New construction that says, oh, you can do a blind driveway

because you're putting in a second unit?

I'm not sure that's fair, that's right, or that's productive.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

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

Madam Chair.

Okay, public comment on this item is now closed.

I would like to make a motion that we continue this item

to our meeting of Monday, January 26, 2026.

on the motion offered by the chair that this ordinance be continued to January

2026 vice-chair Chen sorry January 26 2026 Chen I remember Mahmoud Mahmoud

I chair Melgar I Melgar I madam chair there are three eyes that motion passes

thank you mr. clerk let's go to item number two please agenda item number two

is an ordinance amending the building code to create a permit and permitting

process for hydrogen fuel station equipment installation and affirming

the Planning Department's secret determination.

Okay, thank you so much.

We have Mr. Hanna here from the Department of Building Inspection for a presentation.

Welcome.

Thank you very much, Chairman Algar and Supervisors.

Tate Hanna, Legislative Affairs Manager at the Department of Building Inspection.

A very brief presentation for you today on file number 251024.

If we could get the slides up, please.

Perfect.

Thank you.

So this ordinance implements SB 1418, or Senate Bill 1418, I should say, which is a state law

passed in 2024.

SB 1418 requires local jurisdictions to adopt a local ordinance that would create an expedited

streamlined permitting process for hydrogen fueling stations and their associated infrastructure.

This process must also be accompanied by a checklist of all requirements for these stations

for plan review and other permitting review processes under SB 1418.

The ordinance before you seeks to implement that state law as it will establish a prioritized

pathway for review of hydrogen fueling stations.

Additionally, the department has worked on a checklist to guide applicants through the process and ensure that if they meet everything on the checklist, then they are going to be submitting a complete application and will be reviewed for that permit.

The department has requested no amendments and is recommending support of the ordinance.

It was reviewed by our Code Advisory Committee as well as the Building Inspection Commission on November 12th and 14th, respectively, both of which provided unanimous positive recommendations.

Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you.

Yes.

Supervisor Mahmood.

Thank you, Tate.

Do you know any companies that are looking to actually use this permit?

What's the demand for hydrogen fueling stations?

I can't speak to the specific companies.

I can say there are no hydrogen fueling stations in the city currently.

Previously, there were a few.

That's no longer the case.

The state tracking websites show there's one, I believe, in South San Francisco,

one or two in the East Bay, one in Marin County.

So the whole region has really seen a dip in these stations.

A few of them have been closed out.

We've not, at DBI, we've not received any applications for this,

so it's hard to gauge the interest,

potentially reestablishing the interest that was there.

But right now, it's pretty minimal.

So we had stations before that were closed up?

Correct.

What was the utilization at the time?

I'm sorry, what was that?

What was the level of utilization when they were in place?

That I can't speak to.

That's between the station owners and their customers.

But I think probably the closing down of those stations

speaks to the utilization, unfortunately.

Okay.

So if they closed down, why prioritize this?

I know it's state law, but amongst other priorities, why prioritize this given uncertain demand?

Sure, yeah.

I don't want to speak for the author of the state law.

Obviously, local jurisdictions are required to implement this, but I think intent-wise,

hydrogen fueling is one of many renewable options for certain vehicles.

I think there are some particular uses for hydrogen, perhaps long-haul trucking or other larger vehicles that the state is still funding and trying to prioritize some hydrogen fueling for.

in terms of recreational or sort of individual personal vehicles.

It might be a little bit less likely to really expand and grow again,

but there still is a clear through line with, I think,

some of the city's priorities around greening and renewable resources

that are aligned to the state law.

Okay, thank you.

MTA has a fleet.

It's a fleet.

That's an MTA support.

No, I'm just saying.

They could use it.

I don't know what their own fueling looks like.

I'm just saying there are vehicles that use hydrogen as fuel.

in San Francisco, some of them are ours.

Yeah, okay, Supervisor Chen.

Thank you, Chair Malga.

I just want to thank the Department of Building Inspection

for moving forward these legislations.

I know that hydrogen fueling stations

offer significant environmental benefits,

but they also face major challenges.

They can be very expensive, and they also are unreliable times,

and also there are very limited infrastructures in the city.

So significant technological innovation and government support

will be required to make hydrogen economically competitive

and also environmentally sound for us

to widespread use in passenger cars.

For San Francisco, the viability of hydrogen station

is really dependent on resolving some of these significant challenges.

And I know this is a legislation that's aimed at tackling one piece

of these very large questions.

It's the permitting of infrastructures.

And it's the obligation as a city,

given the state law that we require to streamlining the permitting process of

for new facilities so I appreciate you doing this and I'll be in support for

this thank you thank you supervisor okay thank you let's go to public comment on

this item mr. Clark thank you madam chair land use and transportation will

now hear public comment related to agenda item number two an ordinance making

changes to the building code for hydrogen fueling station equipment if you

have public comment for this item please come forward now and madam chair it

appears we have no speakers okay bubble comment on the sign name is now closed

I'd like to make a motion that we move this forward with a positive

recommendation the motion offered by the chair that this ordinance be

recommended to the Board of Supervisors vice-chair Chen Chen I remember

Mahmoud Mahmoud I chair Melgar I Melgar I met him to there are three eyes that

motion passes before we adjourn I just wanted to remind everyone that we're

not meeting next Monday because it is Martin Luther King jr. day so the next

regularly scheduled meeting of the Land Use and Transportation Committee will be

Monday January 26 and with that Mr. Clerk do we have anything else on the

agenda there's no further business we're adjourned

Thank you.