San Francisco

SF BoS Land Use and Transportation held a hearing regarding the rezoning legislation. It was informational, so no decisions were made at this meeting

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The final tally was 21 Pro (supporting the rezoning), 52 Con, and 10 Unclear/Suggestions. I think one of the committee members announced her tally at the end and it was different by a couple votes. She probably classified some of the suggestions as con, but it's somewhere in this ballpark

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San Francisco is focusing efforts away from the east and south sides of the city for two reasons: 1. significant swaths of the city in those neighborhoods have already been upzoned by the Eastern Neighborhoods Plans: https://sfplanning.org/eastern-neighborhoods-plans. 2. To maintain AFFH concerns.

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This has not extended to Bernal Heights, Glen Park, and North Beach which have been excluded from the sites inventory. 

https://files.constantcontact.com/11e4ab2c001/6e4113a0-0bed-46c6-88c7-b844df442935.pdf?rdr=true

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Biggest topic, outside the usual business, was a hearing about Laguna Honda, a public nursing home that lost its federal CMS (Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services) funding last year (2022). The cessation of the funding was accompanied by a federal mandate to transfer all remaining residents at the hospital, which resulted in 57 deaths. Because of those deaths, the California Department of Public Health agreed to pause the transfers of patients out of the facility. 

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At the Board of Supervisors hearing, interim CEO Roland Pickens answered questions about the issues at Laguna Honda which caused the facility to lose its funding, as well as the hospital's current plans to reinstate its funding and continue treating its patients. On the day of the hearing, CMS had not issued a statement as to whether or not it would require Laguna Honda to continue transferring its patients, which prompted round criticism of the federal body from many of the Supervisors. 

SF Planning says City Attorney David Chiu has told them that the Builder's Remedy until 120 days after the deadline has passed. So SF Planning is getting a draft ready by end of next week (or soon after) to send to HCD after 7 days of public comment have passed. They expect to get a pre-certification letter from HCD. Then they'll have approval hearings at the Planning Commission in February, SFBOS hearings in March/April, and final HCD certification in May.

There has been thorough community outreach and feedback synthesis that they are applying to the Housing Element, with heavy emphasis on hearing from communities of color. There was a list of fairly specific policy goals laid out based on the feedback. Projected # of units across all economic graphics was shown compared to the past targets and far surpasses what we had before. They openly acknowledged not hitting close to target in the past. I unfortunately had to leave before they concluded.

Outreach efforts failed to capture priorities and interest from San Francisco's diverse community.  Most of the digital response predominantly came from white residents, with black residents especially underrepresented.  Closing the digital divide and investing in more in-person events with overlooked groups will require greater investment of time, energy, and funding.