Supervisors advance tenant disclosure and eviction limits, split on environmental review changes

The Board of Supervisors gave first-round approval to a tenant disclosure ordinance that would require San Francisco landlords to state the full monthly cost of a rental unit in online listings and lease agreements, including rent and every required fee.

The ordinance, which passed on first reading without objection, also lets a tenant end a lease early without a penalty if the required disclosures were not provided, and it restricts late charges and eviction filings over fees that were never disclosed. It needs a second vote before it takes effect.

Two more housing measures cleared their first readings in the same uncontested stretch. One bars landlords from evicting tenants over unpaid rent that falls below the fair-market-rent standard for a unit of the same size, as set by the federal housing agency, and removes obsolete language from the administrative code. The other lowers the minimum ceiling height for habitable rooms in existing buildings, with a separate and lower minimum for other rooms. A planning code change approved alongside them revises when a mezzanine counts as an additional story, which lets projects build the larger mezzanines the building code already allows.

The only divided vote of the meeting came on an ordinance that carries out the California Environmental Quality Act at the local level. It passed 8-1. The ordinance rewrites the administrative code to drop shadow analysis as a specific category of environmental impact, shortens the time allowed to appeal certain determinations, and adopts timing changes made in state law. It also affirms the environmental determination for the ordinance itself.

Shadow analysis is the part of environmental review that studies how a new building would block sunlight on parks, plazas and open space. Removing it as a named impact category means those studies are no longer triggered on their own. The shorter appeal window gives opponents less time to challenge a determination. No debate was recorded before the roll call.

Six ordinances amending the city's labor agreements with employee unions also passed first reading. The amendments extend the agreements beyond their current term, provide wage increases in each year of the extension, and bar layoff notices and layoffs of permanent civil-service employees for several years. Five of the six keep a citywide labor-management committee for the later years of the term; one was amended to strike that provision. The units covered include workers represented by Service Employees International Union Local 1021 and by the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry, Local 38. The items reached the board as committee reports from the Government Audit and Oversight Committee.

Supervisors authorized the Public Utilities Commission to issue and sell revenue bonds to prepay the city's share of base rent on its headquarters lease at 525 Golden Gate Avenue. The not-to-exceed amounts in the ordinance are $492,820,000 for the water enterprise, $24,570,000 for wastewater and $12,610,000 for power. The city charter requires at least eight votes for the issuance, and the ordinance passed without objection.

In the 2 p.m. special order, the mayor addressed the board on federal immigration enforcement, changes to how the city handles sexual assault investigations, overdose and homelessness trends, expansion of treatment programs, and the economic effect of major events. No questions were submitted in advance, and the board filed the appearance without a vote.

Members introduced legislation that will return for hearings. One ordinance would streamline permitting for chain grocery stores and pharmacies under the city's formula retail rules, which otherwise send chain stores through a discretionary conditional-use process. Another would establish a development agreement and a special use district for a housing cooperative in the Fillmore. A third would widen the city's program for converting commercial buildings into housing. Members also introduced a street-renaming resolution and a supplemental appropriation for immigrant legal defense, and announced a future hearing on traffic enforcement.

Public comment brought complaints about police conduct and due process, a dispute over maintenance of a sewer easement and access to public records, and calls for the board to declare an emergency over artificial intelligence development. Speakers also asked supervisors to support legal services for detained immigrants and raised district-level concerns about transportation, contracting, open space and surveillance.

Among the items adopted without discussion, the board approved a retroactive gross receipts tax credit for small hardware retailers, surveillance technology policies covering elections department security cameras and Fire Department social media monitoring software, and a one-year extension of the Treasure Island land and structures master lease with the U.S. Navy.

The tenant, environmental and labor ordinances approved on first reading return to the board for a final vote at a later meeting.