Committee holds Potrero Power Station zoning changes for a week

The Land Use and Transportation Committee voted on September 21 to hold the Potrero Power Station Special Use District zoning changes for a week, after accepting amendments and hearing divided public comment on what the project would be allowed to build.

The item was a set of Planning Code and Zoning Map amendments. They would raise height limits inside the special use district and change its rules for land use, parking, rooftops, building design and building approvals. A special use district is an area carved out of the city's standard zoning and given rules of its own, in this case for the redevelopment of the former power station site. Planning staff described the amendments as targeted flexibility and feasibility measures for the project. As amended, the package would drop a previously proposed conditional use requirement for data centers and fold in modifications recommended by the Planning Commission.

Public comment ran both ways. Supporters pointed to the housing, parks, child care, jobs and other community benefits the project is expected to deliver, and asked the committee to keep it moving. Opponents objected to the exemptions the amendments would grant, among them relief from intermediate length occupancy caps and from reporting requirements, which they called unnecessary and a precedent for other large developments.

The committee accepted the amendments and continued the item to September 28, 2026. Members said one element of the package was substantive enough that it needed to sit for a week before the committee finished with it. The vote to continue carried, leaving the zoning changes without a recommendation to the full board until the committee takes them up again.

The same project produced a second item on the agenda, taken up first: an ordinance approving an amended and restated development agreement between the city and California Barrel Company LLC for the Potrero Power Station Mixed-Use Development Project. A development agreement is a contract between the city and a developer that sets the terms of a project. This one covers changes to the project's housing plan, transportation plan and phasing. The committee took the item up and the clerk read it into the record. The notes for that part of the meeting end with the reading and record no presentation, public comment or vote.

Earlier in the meeting, the committee voted unanimously to send the full Board of Supervisors an ordinance amending the landmark designation for Sylvester House, Landmark No. 61, to add the name of a former owner and recognize her restoration and stewardship of the building. The house is an 1860s Italianate villa in the Bayview, and the amendment changes an existing designation rather than creating a new one. The change follows a restoration that planning staff described as spanning decades. Staff said the Historic Preservation Commission heard support for the amendment and recommended approval unanimously. No one spoke in public comment. Members made brief supportive remarks before the vote.

The committee also sent the full board an ordinance for the Transbay Under Ramp Park Project at Oscar Alley, forwarding it as a committee report, which puts it before the supervisors the next day. The ordinance covers a street vacation and conveyance, sidewalk width changes, and the acceptance of a public sidewalk easement and of traffic signals. A street vacation removes a street from the city's official street map. The item returned to the committee after an earlier continuance with four substantive amendments already written into it, and staff did not present it again. No committee member asked a question. Public comment opened and closed with no speakers, and the vote carried.

The Land Use and Transportation Committee is one of the Board of Supervisors' policy committees. It hears planning, land use and transportation legislation first and forwards recommendations to the full board, which takes the final vote. Items the committee acted on are set to appear before the full Board of Supervisors on September 29, 2026.