0:00To the San Francisco Planning Commission hearing for Thursday, April 23rd, 2026.
0:08When an item is called that you would like to submit testimony for, we ask that you line up on the screen side of the room or to your right.
0:15Each speaker will be allowed up to three minutes.
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0:35Please speak clearly and slowly, and if you care to state your name for the record.
0:39I ask that we silence any mobile devices that may sound off during these proceedings.
0:43And finally, I will remind members of the public that the Commission does not tolerate any disruption or outbursts of any kind.
0:49At this time, I'll take role, Commission President Campbell here.
0:52Commission Vice President Moore, Commissioner Braun.
0:55Here Commissioner Imperial.
0:57Commissioner McGarry, Commissioner So.
1:00And Commissioner Williams.
1:02Thank you, Commissioners.
1:03First, on your agenda is consideration of items proposed for continuance at the time of issuance.
1:08There were no items proposed for continuance, and there still aren't any, although under the regular calendar on item 7 for case number 2024, hyphen 008383 CUA for 394 Naples Street conditional use authorization.
1:24The applicant has withdrawn their application.
1:28So that will not be considered today.
1:30Moving on, Commissioners, under your consent calendar, item one listed here under constitutes your consent calendar is considered to be routine by the Planning Commission.
1:42There will be no separate discussion of this item unless a member of the Commission, the public or staff so requests, in which event the matter shall be removed and considered as a separate item at this or a future hearing.
1:53Item one, case number 2025, Hyphen 010376, CUA at 4620 Mission Street conditional use authorization.
2:01Members of the public, this is your opportunity to request that this matter be removed from the consent calendar and considered today under the regular calendar.
2:09You need to come forward.
2:10Last call, seeing none, public comment is closed, and your consent calendar is now before you, Commissioners.
2:23Thank you, Commissioners, on that motion to approve item one on consent.
2:29Commissioner McGarry.
2:32Commissioner Williams.
2:34Commissioner Imperial.
2:37And Commissioner President Campbell.
2:39So move Commissioners.
2:40That motion passes unanimously 7 to 0.
2:43Ida placing us under Commission Matters for Item 2, the land acknowledgement.
2:52The Commission acknowledges that we are on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Ramatushlone, who are the original inhabitants of the San Francisco Peninsula Peninsula, as the indigenous stewards of this land and in accordance with their traditions.
3:06The Ramatushaloni have never ceded, lost, or forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as for all people who reside in their uh traditional territory.
3:17As guests, we recognize that we benefit from living and working on the tradition on their traditional homelands.
3:23We wish to pay our respects by acknowledging their ancestors, elders, and relatives of the Ramatushalone community, and by affirming their sovereign rights as first people.
3:38Item three, Commission comments and questions.
3:46If there are no comments or questions from members of the Commission, we can move on to Department Matters for item four, Director's Announcements.
3:54I just have a series of updates for the Commission to tell you about the great work of our staff.
4:00First off, we are we completed the first of what will probably be several updates to our department website.
4:07As uh you might be aware, much of the city and the state and the country is um working to meet federal accessibility standards for websites.
4:16So we we started a portion of that uh today.
4:20I think what I did want to highlight is while we are working to update our digital outreach portals to the community.
4:27Um we're working to make sure that we're also optimizing site performance.
4:31So the work that staff did last night gives us faster page load times, a more visible home page carousel control so people don't get lost in the spinning, um, and a really clear link to the find my zoning or property info tab so that people go there and can immediately find information that we're putting online and can get in easily.
4:52Um another update that we did uh just as of last night.
5:00Is we were updating our land use database.
5:04I think you often hear items here where there's a lot of confusion as to the property's history and what has been there and what should have been there.
5:13So our staff has really been doing some yeoman's detective work, um, crossing other agencies' database and actually doing field work.
5:23Um there were a couple of issues that were addressed by the update to the database that we uh put up an online for staff and the public last night.
5:30Um it addressed what was an undercount of roughly 40,000 units, residential units citywide that our database wasn't capturing.
5:38So we now have that information correct.
5:40Um it now counts home-based businesses or on paper businesses, those with no physical footprint as well as commercial land use, so we can know what's up there.
5:49Um it and it also did a whole bunch of data cleanup and validation so that our development pipeline, our housing production dashboards are all synced up so that we're giving the correct source of truth to everyone.
6:04Um then the the announcements I'm most excited about.
6:10That's great work that our team does every day, um, are a couple of awards that our team is uh winning.
6:16So um tomorrow, the Ocean Beach Climate Change Adaptation EIR will receive an award from the Association of Environmental Planners.
6:27There's a conference tomorrow in San Diego, and uh that document is receiving the environment the award of merit from that department.
6:35So we're proud of that.
6:36Um additionally, uh let me get this right.
6:41Um the Northern California section of the American Planning Association, APA, uh awarded the Family Zoning Plan.
6:49It's award for planning excellence and an award of merit.
6:53Our design standards, which you all have looked at a couple times and are continuing to adopt, were also awarded the Urban Design Award of Merit.
7:02And this is really exciting.
7:04Um our very own Lisa Chen was selected for a special recognition award for mid-career planner.
7:11So probably all of our staff should be getting awards, but those are some that just happened that we I wanted to make sure you were aware of.
7:23It's great to hear that staff's work is being recognized and those awards are really exciting.
7:26So I appreciate the update on that.
7:29Regarding the additional housing units that are identified in our database.
7:36You said that was 40,000 additional housing units that were not in there.
7:41That's what my data team tells us, yes.
7:44Do you do you have a sense of how those additional units were identified?
7:51I'm going to explain this at a very high level that will probably not make full sense to you, and we can dig into it more offline.
7:58But um from uh Reza, who's our lead of our data analysis group at planning, um, had his team look through the um assessors' tax roles, co-star data, DBI and planning permitting data and cross-referenced all of those sources, and then did some manual review on top of that.
8:19So there's a whole lot of synthesizing of different sources.
8:24Is there awareness that we probably had an undercount of housing units just through comparison to census data or other sources?
8:34You know, that I can't speak to.
8:36I can get back to you on that one.
8:37Um I know that the team had a sense that our numbers weren't quite right, but if we we had a sense of that magnitude or that direction, I'm not sure.
8:48Commissioner Imperial.
8:50Yeah, thank you for all the updates and the um also congratulations to the staff.
8:55Um it's uh yeah, it's really good that the planning departments are being recognized in their work.
9:02And um following up with Commissioner Braun in terms of the database.
9:07Um I'm wondering, because um, I'm wondering if that can be something presented in the commission in the future, just to also explain how to navigate into planning department's website.
9:22Um I think also with all of these updates, it seems like the public may need to know about the updates on this.
9:31Um so that can also clarify all of the information, um, you know, where to find this and that.
9:37Um just a thought that you know um for public to to be updated on.
9:43Commissioner Pierrel, thank you for that.
9:45I I think that's a great idea.
9:46We'd be happy to come and present you just an update on what we're doing out in the public.
9:51And the land use database isn't a thing to peruse in and of itself.
9:54It's what backs up um the other data portals that we have, whether it's our dashboards or our uh planning information, uh, the PIMS website.
10:03Um, one of the things that we found um really successful in recent months, um, both through uh some of our survey workshops and through some of the district wide workshops that supervisors have been holding, district two, district four recently hold district wide workshops, is um going to as many community outreach places as we can with a computer so that we can show people how to navigate through our portal, like in real time in person at those tables.
10:32It's been really fascinating to be able to show people oh, this is what you do, and they get it right away.
10:38Um I think it would be great to do that with you all as well.
10:42Commissioner McGarry.
10:44Congrats to staff for all the great work they do.
10:47Um my question is the 40,000 additional units.
10:51Will that help us with our arena goals?
11:00Vice President Moore.
11:02Uh congratulations to staff.
11:04If I may suggest a training video, actually of how to use the site would also be very helpful because you probably have sometimes people just not knowing how to even get the proper name uh uh onto your computer.
11:17I think it would help.
11:18It would help everybody.
11:19Uh and there's a basic training and then the advanced training when it comes to specific projects, et cetera.
11:24But I think the basic training would would benefit everybody since we are now pretty much going digital everywhere.
11:35Okay, Commissioners.
11:36If there's nothing further, uh, we can move on to item five for review of past events at the Board of Supervisors.
11:42There is no report from the Board of Appeals and the Historic Preservation Commission did not meet yesterday.
11:48However, uh this week the land use and transportation committee initiated 15 landmark designations within District 3 that had been identified as part of the family zoning plan.
11:59It also considered the SB 79 legislation and amended the file to incorporate the Planning Commission recommendations.
12:07The committee then forwarded the item to the full board with positive recommendation.
12:11At the full board, uh the 14 landmark designations in District 8 passed second read, and finally the one oak ordinance passed in its first read.
12:23Commissioners, that will now place us under general public comment.
12:26At this time, members of the public may address the commission on items of interest to the public that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the commission.
12:33Except agenda items with respect to agenda items.
12:36Your opportunity to address the commission will be afforded when the item is reached in the meeting.
12:41Members of the public, you need to come forward.
12:47Seeing none, public comment is closed, and we can now go under your regular calendar for the one item on your agenda left, number six, case number 2026, 000 475 CUA for the property at 284 Noe Street, conditional use authorization.
13:10Good afternoon, Commissioners.
13:12John Dace for Pine Department staff.
13:14That in before you is a request for conditional use authorization pursuant to planning code sections 303 and 764 to allow for a bar use at 284 NOE Street.
13:23Uh Q80-284 NoE Street is a two-story multi-use building with a commercial space on the ground floor that previously was a pet food store and a residential dwelling unit located on the second floor.
13:33The product site is located within the upper market neighborhood commercial transit district and a 60 slash 120 R4 height and bulk district in the Castro upper market neighborhood.
13:43The proposed business is a romance bookstore and tea room called Love Potion Library, which will offer ancillary wine service.
13:50A type 42 license for on-sale beer and wine sales has been applied for with the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
13:57This service would require establishing a bar use at the site, which is a conditionally permitted use within the upper market NCT zone district.
14:04No exterior alterations are proposed with the project.
14:06The interior improvements would include new lounge seating, new bookshelves and lighting within the library portion of the store, and a new back of the house area.
14:14The department has received two letters in support of the project, including one from the DeBose Triangle Neighborhood Association.
14:20The neighborhood association's letter was generally supportive of the use, but had concerns regarding potential future users of the entitlement that could become nuisances to the nearby residential dwelling units.
14:30And recommended the inclusion of three conditions to ameliorate these condition uh concerns.
14:34The conditions would limit the hours of alcohol service from 9 a.m.
14:38Sunday through Thursday and 9 a.m.
14:41on Fridays and Saturdays.
14:42Not allow for alcohol consumption outside of the building and limit access to the backyard to employees only.
14:48The product sponsor has confirmed that they agreed to the inclusion of these conditions and reflect that agreement.
14:52A memo from staff was sent to the commission earlier this week recommending the addition of the three conditions into the final motion.
15:00The department finds the product to be consistent with the controls of the upper market and CD zoning district, and that the project, as conditioned, is necessary, desirable, compatible with the surrounding neighborhood, and consistent with the goals, objectives, and policies of the general plan.
15:12Conditional use authorization for a new bar use would support and complement the proposed bookstore in filling a vacant bookstore and creating a unique community amenity for the neighborhood.
15:21Therefore, the department supports the proposed project and recommends approval with conditions, including the three additional conditions that were recommended by the DTNA.
15:29This concludes my presentation, and I'm available to answer any questions.
15:51Members of the public, this is your opportunity to address the commission on this matter.
15:56You need to come forward.
16:32So thank you very much.
16:33And I am in full support because it has really gone through the critical examination by the neighborhood, but also by staff.
16:42So I make a um move to approve this conditions.
16:50I also want to uh say thanks both uh to Department of Staff and also the project sponsor for agreeing to the additional conditions on the approval.
16:58Uh I'm really excited about uh you know enlivening this block uh in the castro and uh at the same time um as somebody who has who spent a very long time living above commercial uses in the Castro, I know uh how the noise can also be disruptive, and so it feels like this is a good assurance and balance for future uh potential uh business owners at this location.
17:20But this has my full support.
17:22The project sounds very exciting, and I can't wait to check it out.
17:29Okay, Commissioners.
17:30If there's no further deliberation, there is a motion that has been seconded to approve with conditions on that motion, Commissioner McGarry.
17:38Commissioner Williams.
17:41Commissioner Imperial.
17:44And Commissioner President Campbell.
17:46So move Commissioners that motion passes unanimously seven to zero and close and ends your hearing today close to a record.
17:53I wonder if you talk about Naples Street.