Committee advances CEQA changes and Potrero Power Station development deals

The Land Use and Transportation Committee voted 3-0 on Sept. 28 to recommend an ordinance that rewrites how San Francisco carries out its environmental reviews under the California Environmental Quality Act.

The ordinance would remove shadow analysis as a specific type of environmental impact, shorten the appeal period for certain determinations, and drop procedures the city is not required by state law to follow. Planning staff and the ordinance's sponsor told the committee the changes align local practice with state law and would shave months off housing approvals. They said projects had been held up by appeals over shadows.

Public comment was divided. Opponents, including neighborhood and environmental groups, said a shorter appeal window and the removal of appeals of preliminary determinations would shut out residents who lack the money or the staff to act quickly. Supporters pointed to the city's rent burden and to years of procedural delay.

A committee member pressed staff on how many appeals had actually turned on shadow impacts and was told roughly a dozen out of many. The member also asked whether open space outside the city's shadow protections had been analyzed. Staff pointed to shadow analysis done as part of the environmental review for the city's housing plan, and said shadow review of Recreation and Park property would stay in place. The member asked for more analysis and had the file duplicated. The committee voted 3-0 to recommend the ordinance to the full Board of Supervisors, then voted separately to continue the duplicated file to the call of the chair.

The committee also advanced two items for the Potrero Power Station project, both on 3-0 votes and both routed as committee reports so the full Board could take them up at its Sept. 29 meeting.

The first was an amended and restated development agreement with California Barrel Company LLC for the Potrero Power Station Mixed-Use Development Project. Staff described the refinements: language making explicit that no data centers are permitted on any block of the project, technical changes implementing the district water system required by the city's non-potable water rules, and clarifications about privately owned community improvements.

Public comment was mostly supportive. Speakers cited commitments to parks, shoreline access, transit and affordable housing that they said the amendments preserve. One speaker objected that the site's legacy contamination, its exposure to liquefaction and projected flooding call for far more extensive environmental review.

The companion ordinance amends the Planning Code and the zoning map for the Potrero Power Station Special Use District, raising height limits and revising land use, parking, rooftop, building design and building approval requirements, with findings on general plan consistency, priority policy and public necessity. The committee amended the ordinance as presented and recommended it as amended.

A member praised the project's affordable housing levels and the community benefits negotiated with it, welcomed the removal of language bearing on data center eligibility, and endorsed intermediate-stay housing tied to a hospital facility that serves families of long-term patients. Objections raised in public comment again concerned contamination, seismic and flooding risk rather than the zoning changes.

Earlier in the meeting, the committee sent the full Board a transfer of three former redevelopment parcels at the Fillmore Heritage Center. State law requires the transfer from the Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure to the City and County of San Francisco under the Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development. The garage parcel must stay public parking, the commercial parcel is being kept for future development, and the driveway parcel would be conveyed at fair market value through a service credit rather than cash. Officials described temporary community activation, a market study and a community action plan to shape long-term uses. No one objected.

The committee continued an ordinance that would line the Planning Code up with the Building Code so larger mezzanines are not counted as separate stories where building code exceptions allow them. The Planning Commission had recommended approval with modifications, and the committee adopted amendments tying the threshold more directly to building code provisions and changing the long title. Because the amendments were substantive, the item returns Oct. 5. No objections were raised.

Two other items moved with no public comment. An ordinance updating the Environment Code chapter that sets green building requirements for city buildings went to the full Board on a unanimous vote. The Department of the Environment described the changes as largely streamlining and housekeeping, including simpler reporting for limited-scope projects, an updated green building rating reference and removal of references to a task force that has gone out of existence. Members questioned the scope of the city's natural gas equipment inventory and asked how planned building decarbonization pilot projects would be funded, evaluated and staffed, and how one department would help the others make the transition. Staff pointed to a prioritization matrix based on readiness, equity and equipment age and said they would report back on early lessons.

A resolution authorizing the Director of Public Works to approve a commemorative street plaque for Mark Bittner, remembered for championing the wild parrots of Telegraph Hill, also went to the Board with a positive recommendation. The plaque would go on the retaining wall of the Greenwich Steps, subject to design review before installation. No one spoke on it. Members described Bittner's writing, music and advocacy, and noted that the wild parrots had been chosen as the city's official animal; one member added himself as a co-sponsor.