Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

to the San Francisco Planning Commission hearing for Thursday, April 23rd, 2026. When 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. Each speaker will be allowed up to three minutes, and when you have 30 seconds remaining, you will hear a chime indicating your time is almost up. When your allotted time is reached, there will be a second chime, and I will announce that your time is up and take the next person queued to speak. There is a very convenient timer on the podium where you can see how much time you have left and watch your time tick down. Please speak clearly and slowly, and if you care to, state your name for the record. I ask that we silence any mobile devices that may sound off during these proceedings. And finally, I will remind members of the public that the Commission does not tolerate any disruption or outbursts of any kind. At this time, I'll take roll. Commission President Campbell.

Here.

Commission Vice President Moore. Here. Commissioner Braun. Here. Commissioner Imperial.

Here.

Commissioner McGarry. Commissioner So.

Present.

Commissioner Williams. Here. Thank you, Commissioners. First on your agenda is consideration of items proposed for continuance at the time of issuance. There were no items proposed for continuance, and there still aren't any, although under the regular calendar on item 7 for case number 2024-008383CUA for 394 Naples Street Conditional Use Authorization, the applicant has withdrawn their application. So that will not be considered today. Moving on, commissioners, under your consent calendar, item one listed here under constitutes your consent calendar is considered to be routine by the Planning Commission. There 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. Item one, case number 2025-010376, CUA at 4620 Mission Street, conditional use authorization. Members 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. You need to come forward. Last call. Seeing none, public comment is closed. And your consent calendar is now before you, commissioners.

Commissioner So. Motion to approve.

Second.

Thank you, commissioners, on that motion to approve. Approve item 1 on consent Commissioner McGarry Commissioner so I wish in Williams. I should have brawn I missionary peri al I mission or more I in Commission President Campbell I so move commissioners that motion passes unanimously 7 to 0 Ida placing us under Commission matters for item to the land acknowledgement. I

The commission acknowledges that we are on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Ramaytush Ohlone, who are the original inhabitants of the San Francisco Peninsula. As the indigenous stewards of this land and in accordance with their traditions, the Ramaytush Ohlone have never ceded, lost, or forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory. As guests, we recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homelands. We wish to pay our respects by acknowledging their ancestors, elders, and relatives of the Ramatushaloni community, and by affirming their sovereign rights as first people.

Thank you. Item 3, Commission Comments and Questions. If there are no comments or questions from members of the commission, we can move on to department matters for item four, director's announcements.

I just have a series of updates for the commission to tell you about the great work of our staff. First off, we completed the first of what will probably be several updates to our department website. As you might be aware, much of the city and the state and the country is working to meet federal accessibility standards for websites. So we started a portion of that today. I think what I did want to highlight is while we are working to update our digital outreach portals to the community, we're working to make sure that we're also optimizing site performance. So 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. 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. Another update that we did just as of last night. Hang on. I want to make sure I read it right, is we were updating our land use database. I 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. So our staff has really been doing some yeoman's detective work, crossing other agencies' database and actually doing field work. There were a couple of issues that were addressed by the update to the database that we put up an online for staff and the public last night. It addressed what was an undercount of roughly 40,000 units, residential units citywide that our database wasn't capturing. So we now have that information correct. 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. 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. And then the announcements I'm most excited about, that's great work that our team does every day, are a couple of awards that our team is winning. So tomorrow, the Ocean Beach Climate Change Adaptation EIR will receive an award from the Association of Environmental Planners. There's a conference tomorrow in San Diego, and that document is receiving the Award of Merit from that department. So we're proud of that. Additionally, let me get this right, the Northern California section of the American Planning Association, APA, awarded the Family Zoning Plan its award for planning excellence and an award of merit. Our design standards, which you all have looked at a couple times and are continuing to adopt, We're also awarded the Urban Design Award of Merit. And this is really exciting, our very own Lisa Chen was selected for a Special Recognition Award for Mid-Career Planner. So probably all of our staff should be getting awards, but those are some that just happened that I wanted to make sure you were aware of. Thank you. Commissioner Braun?

It's great to hear that staff's work is being recognized, and those awards are really exciting. So I appreciate the update on that. Regarding the additional housing units that were identified in our database, you said there was 40,000 additional housing units that were not in there? Is that correct?

That's what my data team tells us, yes.

I see. Do you have a sense of how those additional units were identified?

Yes. I'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. But from Reza, who's our lead of our data analysis group at planning, had his team look through the assessor's tax rolls, COSTAR data, DBI and planning permitting data, and cross-referenced all of those sources, and then did some manual review on top of that. So there's a whole lot of synthesizing of different sources.

That's exciting. Was there awareness that we probably had an undercount of housing units just through comparison to census data or other sources?

You know, that I can't speak to. I can get back to you on that one. I know that the team had a sense that our numbers weren't quite right. But if we had a sense of that magnitude or that direction, I'm not sure.

OK, thank you.

Commissioner Imperial. Thank you for all the updates and also congratulations to the staff. It's really good that the planning departments are being recognized in their work. Following up with Commissioner Braun in terms of the database, I'm wondering if that can be something presented in the commission in the future. Just to also explain how to navigate in the planning department's website, I think also with all of these updates, it seems like the public may need to know about the updates on this. And so that can also clarify all of the information, you know, where to find this and that. Just a thought that, you know, for the public to be updated on.

Commissioner Imperial, thank you for that. I think that's a great idea. We'd be happy to come and present you just an update on what we're doing out in the public. And the land use database isn't a thing to peruse in and of itself. It's what backs up the other data portals that we have, whether it's our dashboards or planning information, the PIMS website. One of the things that we've found really successful in recent months, both through some of our survey workshops and through some of the district-wide workshops that supervisors have been holding, District 2, District 4 recently hold district-wide workshops, is 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 in real time, in person, at those tables. It's been really fascinating to be able to show people, oh, this is what you do, and they get it right away. And I think it would be great to do that with you all as well.

Commissioner McGarry?

Congrats to staff for all the great work they do. My question is the 40,000 additional units, will that help us with our arena goals?

Unfortunately not.

I will ask.

Vice President Moore?

Congratulations to staff. If 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 onto your computer. I think it would help. It would help everybody. And there's a basic training and then the advanced training when it comes to specific projects, et cetera. But I think the basic training would benefit everybody since we are now pretty much going digital everywhere.

Okay, Commissioners, if there's nothing further, we can move on to Item 5 for review of past events at the Board of Supervisors. There is no report from the Board of Appeals, and the Historic Preservation Commission did not meet yesterday. However, 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. It also considered the SB 79 legislation and amended the file to incorporate the Planning Commission recommendations. The committee then forwarded the item to the full board with positive recommendation. At the full board, the 14 landmark designations in District 8 passed second read. And finally, the one Oak ordinance passed in its first read. Commissioners, that will now place us under general public comment. At 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, except agenda items. With respect to agenda items, your opportunity to address the Commission will be afforded when the item is reached in the meeting. Members of the public, you need to come forward. Last call. Seeing none, public comment is closed. And we can now go under your regular calendar for the one item on your agenda left. It's number six, case number 2026-000-475-CUA for the property at 284 Noe Street, conditional use authorization.

Good afternoon, commissioners. John Dase for planning department staff. That and 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. 280-284 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. The product site's located within the Upper Market Neighborhood Commercial Transit District and a 60-120R4 Height and Bulk District in the Castro Upper Market neighborhood. The proposed business is a romance bookstore and tea room called Love Potion Library, which will offer ancillary wine service. A Type 42 license for on-sale beer and wine sales has been applied for with the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. This service would require establishing a bar use at the site, which is a conditionally permitted use within the upper market NCT zone district. No exterior alterations are proposed with the project. The interior improvements will include new lounge seating, new bookshelves and lighting within the library portion of the store, and a new back of the house area. The department has received two letters in support of the project, including one from the DuBose Triangle Neighborhood Association. The 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, and recommended the inclusion of three conditions to ameliorate these concerns. The conditions would limit the hours of alcohol service from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday to Thursday, and 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, not allow for alcohol consumption outside of the building, and limit access to the backyard to employees only. The project sponsor has confirmed that they agreed to the inclusion of these conditions, and to reflect that agreement, a memo from staff was sent to the Commission earlier this week recommending the addition of the three conditions into the final motion. The department finds the product to be consistent with the controls of the upper market and city 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. Conditional use authorization for a new bar use would support and complement the proposed bookstore in filling the vacant bookstore and creating a unique community amenity for the neighborhood. Therefore, the department supports the proposed project and recommends approval with conditions, including the three additional conditions that were recommended by the DTNA. This concludes my presentation, and I'm available to answer any questions. Veena Patel, the project sponsor, is in attendance as well. Thank you. Project sponsor, you have five minutes.

Don't believe the project sponsor has a presentation prepared very good Well, maybe the commissioners might call them up for questions if if they have any members of the public This is your opportunity to address the Commission on this matter. You need to come forward Last call seeing none Public comment is closed and this matter is now before you commissioners vice president more

I'd like to call out Planner Dacey, who did diligently pursue the request from the Du Bois Triangle Neighborhood Association. I talked with him, and I very much appreciate it. that he took it over the goal line and found a common ground for what really meets all of the concerns that we as commissioners over the years have expressed about similar projects. So thank you very much. And I'm in full support because it has really gone through the critical examination by the neighborhood, but also by staff. So I make a move to approve risk conditions.

Second.

Commissioner Braun.

I also want to say thanks both to department staff and also the project sponsor for agreeing to the additional conditions on the approval. I'm really excited about enlivening this block in the Castro. And at the same time, as somebody who has spent a very long time living above commercial uses in the Castro, I know how the noise can also be disruptive. And so it feels like this is a good assurance and balance for future potential business owners at this location but this has my full support the project sounds very exciting and i can't wait to check it out so thank you

Okay, Commissioners, if there's no further deliberation, there is a motion that has been seconded to approve with conditions on that motion. Commissioner McGarry? Aye. Commissioner So?

Aye.

Commissioner Williams? Aye. Commissioner Braun? Aye. Commissioner Imperial?

Aye.

Commissioner Moore? Aye. And Commissioner President Campbell?

Aye.

So moved, Commissioners. That motion passes unanimously 7-0 and ends your hearing today close to a record.

I wanted to talk about Maple Street. 19 minutes.