Committee advances office-to-housing conversion and sign rules, holds Transbay park project

The Land Use and Transportation Committee advanced two changes to the Planning Code on September 14, recommending that the full Board of Supervisors approve an ordinance that eases office-to-housing conversions and another that loosens sign limits on large parcels. The committee also took up a park project under the Transbay bus ramp and continued it to its next meeting without a recommendation. Both ordinances went forward on unanimous votes, and neither drew opposition from the public.

The committee reviews land use and transportation legislation before it reaches the full Board, so its votes on September 14 were recommendations rather than final decisions. The conversion ordinance would exempt commercial-to-residential adaptive reuse projects from certain parking limits, car share obligations, loading requirements and other development controls. The sponsoring supervisor described it as building on three years of adaptive reuse incentives and said the barriers left in place were physical and operational, the kind that can decide whether a conversion pencils out. Parking and loading are the practical constraints in an older office building, where the structure was designed around desks rather than apartments.

Planning staff said the Planning Commission recommended approval unanimously, with modifications, and that all of the modifications were already folded into the substitute ordinance before the committee, so the members voted on the amended text. One developer spoke in support and said the changes would let at least one project move forward. No one spoke against the ordinance and no member raised an objection. The committee voted to recommend it to the Board.

If the Board adopts the ordinance, the exemptions would apply to qualifying conversion projects rather than to one building, so the parking, car share and loading rules for that kind of work change across the city. The ordinance does not require any building to be converted, and it adds no money or staff to the programs the city runs to support conversions. What it removes are requirements that project sponsors say keep conversions from working at all.

The sign ordinance would increase the number and size of signs allowed in Mixed Use Districts on large lots, and in one mixed-use office district. Mixed Use Districts are zoning districts that allow housing and commercial uses on the same lot, and their sign rules limit how many signs a business may install and how large they may be. The sponsor called the measure a narrow fix for a large multi-tenant site in Mission Bay that is governed by signage controls written without large parcels in mind. The sponsor said fewer and smaller signs make it harder to fill ground-floor space with several tenants, and that the change is meant to keep commercial tenants and support the neighborhood's recovery after the pandemic.

Planning staff said the Planning Commission recommended approval of the sign ordinance unanimously on July 30, 2026. No one from the public commented on the item, and the committee voted unanimously to send it to the Board with a positive recommendation. Both ordinances now go to the full Board for a vote.

The committee spent the most time on the Transbay Under Ramp Park Project and did not finish it. The ordinance bundled a set of property actions needed for a public park under and around the elevated bus ramp: vacating and conveying Oscar Alley to the joint powers authority, changing sidewalk widths to create a passenger loading zone and a bike turn pocket, accepting a public sidewalk easement, and accepting new traffic signal infrastructure. The Board has to approve each of those actions for the park to move.

The sponsor described a park with multi-sport courts, a dog park, a pavilion and an amphitheater, operated by the community benefit district that serves the area, and said the legislation needed amendments that were minor in substance but legally necessary before it could move. Public works staff walked the committee through the requests in turn, including the alley conveyance and the sidewalk changes on the two streets near the ramp that would make room for the loading zone and the bike turn. A community benefit district is a property-based district that pays for services in its area and would run the park once it opens.

The committee adopted the amendments and then continued the item to its September 21 meeting rather than recommend it to the Board. Because of the continuation, the street vacation and the other property actions do not take effect yet. The item returns to the same committee, which can recommend it to the Board or continue it again. No one from the public commented on the park, and no member opposed it. The committee adjourned after that vote with no further business.