WEBVTT 1 00:00:06.300 --> 00:00:26.260 On this week's episode: the Board of Supervisors suspends a member of the Sheriff's Department Oversight Board and approves misconduct charges; a proposal that could bring housing towers up to six hundred feet tall to the Flower Mart site; and the Planning Commission recommends dropping some fees on new housing, with no end date. 2 00:00:29.499 --> 00:00:35.339 Eleven supervisors, forty-seven square miles. Here's your weekly debrief. 3 00:00:35.939 --> 00:00:47.621 Theo, it's October, and as of Tuesday that means Walktober. The Board of Supervisors unanimously proclaimed this month the city's first one, inviting people to explore San Francisco's stairways, trails and parks on foot. 4 00:00:47.621 --> 00:00:59.990 The chair told the board the city has more than nine hundred public stairways and more than a hundred and fifty miles of trails. Not bad for a place people describe as seven miles by seven. 5 00:00:59.990 --> 00:01:16.826 More than thirty events are planned through the month. And walking came up once more on Tuesday. Supervisor Alan Wong of District Four commended a doula, an ambulance crew and Fire Department members who delivered a baby at the roadside, in stalled traffic on Crossover Drive, on September nineteenth. 6 00:01:16.826 --> 00:01:21.980 The doula credited the bystanders and first responders who ran to the scene on foot. 7 00:01:21.980 --> 00:01:29.539 This episode was produced with AI from the public recording of the meeting. Links to the source are in the show notes. 8 00:01:32.778 --> 00:01:44.178 Our top story comes from Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting. The board voted to suspend Commissioner William Palmer from the Sheriff's Department Oversight Board, and to approve charges of official misconduct against him. 9 00:01:44.178 --> 00:01:45.560 What are the charges? 10 00:01:45.560 --> 00:01:56.959 They weren't described at the meeting. The motion was read as acting under a section of the city charter, and it reached the full board a day after the Rules Committee heard it. 11 00:01:56.959 --> 00:01:59.377 What did the board hear before voting? 12 00:01:59.377 --> 00:02:22.867 A speaker called the situation unusual and said the action was not taken lightly. A speaker said the inspector general's office had provided what the speaker called clear evidence of multiple incidents of official misconduct, and argued the board has a duty to suspend the commissioner while an ethics investigation proceeds. The chair thanked Supervisor Stephen Sherrill of District Two and that office for leading on the matter. 13 00:02:22.867 --> 00:02:25.285 And the board ended up voting twice. 14 00:02:25.285 --> 00:02:38.757 It did. The first roll call was ten to nothing, with Supervisor Chyanne Chen of District Eleven recorded absent. After public comment, the board rescinded that vote at Chen's request, and the second roll call was eleven to nothing. 15 00:02:38.757 --> 00:02:39.793 What happens next? 16 00:02:39.793 --> 00:02:47.738 Under the motion, the clerk transmits it and the charges to the Ethics Commission, and the city attorney serves them on the commissioner. 17 00:02:50.978 --> 00:02:57.561 Our second story is from Thursday's Planning Commission: a new direction for the Flower Mart site in Central SoMa. 18 00:02:57.561 --> 00:03:14.884 That's about six and a half acres on Brannan Street between Fifth and Sixth. City staff said the plan approved in twenty nineteen was mainly office with ground-floor retail. The wholesale flower market itself has already moved, to a new building that opened in January of twenty twenty-five. 19 00:03:14.884 --> 00:03:35.673 Now there's a proposed amendment to the development agreement. The project sponsor is Kilroy Realty. The amendment would let the site be built as housing, commercial, institutional, or a mix. Staff said that could mean up to three thousand five hundred thirty-two homes if it were all residential, or about two point six million square feet of commercial space. 20 00:03:35.673 --> 00:03:41.563 And taller buildings: up to six hundred feet for residential, three hundred for commercial. Why six hundred? 21 00:03:41.563 --> 00:04:02.698 Commissioner Elizabeth Macdonald asked that. A presenter said it matches what the project could have reached under the state density bonus program, which the sponsor agreed to waive in exchange for the city changing the height limit. A presenter for Kilroy also argued that development isn't feasible in Central SoMa today, given construction costs, city requirements and the real estate market. 22 00:04:02.698 --> 00:04:04.430 What else did commissioners raise? 23 00:04:04.430 --> 00:04:32.495 Macdonald voiced concern about allowing parking above ground, calling it a major change, and about fences around the open spaces with no limit on how long they could be up. Commissioner Lydia So said the heights are consistent with the city's vision for that part of South of Market, and asked that the towers vary in height. Commissioner Mike Chen said that if developers can choose between office and housing, policymakers should consider how to make housing as competitive to build. 24 00:04:32.495 --> 00:04:35.613 Six people spoke in public comment, all in support. 25 00:04:35.613 --> 00:04:51.898 There was no vote; this was informational. The commissioner who had been chairing recused herself as an employee of Gensler, the project's designer. Joel Koppel, elected vice president seven to nothing earlier in the hearing, chaired instead. Staff said the project returns for approvals after environmental review. 26 00:04:55.137 --> 00:05:01.556 Our third story is also from Thursday's Planning Commission, and it's about the cost of building housing. 27 00:05:01.556 --> 00:05:23.080 A supervisor presented a Planning Code amendment. As introduced, it would exempt housing projects on corner lots in the Family Zoning Plan area from development impact fees for childcare, transit and area plans. It applies to projects using a program referred to at the hearing by its initials, H-C-S-F. Inclusionary housing requirements would stay. 28 00:05:23.080 --> 00:05:35.163 For context, the Family Zoning Plan became law last December. It changes zoning to allow new homes in more neighborhoods, and it's aimed at the western and northern parts of the city. 29 00:05:35.163 --> 00:05:37.807 How much would this save a project? 30 00:05:37.807 --> 00:06:02.729 The figures differed. The supervisor said the fees can cost developers an extra twenty-seven thousand dollars per unit in some cases. Planning staff estimated savings of six to seven thousand dollars per unit for larger projects, and about five hundred thirty dollars for smaller ones. Staff acknowledged the exemption reduces revenue for infrastructure, transit and childcare, but said collections from these parcels have been low. 31 00:06:02.729 --> 00:06:15.568 Staff recommended two changes: extend the exemption to all eligible parcels, not just corner lots, and add a twenty thirty-two sunset date so it could be reassessed. The sunset drew a long debate. 32 00:06:15.568 --> 00:06:40.112 Commissioner Malea Chavez favored it, voicing concern about transportation funding and wanting a chance to check for unintended consequences. Commissioner Lydia So argued a sunset would undermine the confidence of people deciding whether to invest in housing. Commissioner Mike Chen argued the fees should stay off unless the city acts to restore them. The sponsoring supervisor said he leaned toward the commissioners who opposed it. 33 00:06:40.112 --> 00:06:41.245 And the result? 34 00:06:41.245 --> 00:06:55.217 Seven to nothing, recommending approval with the exemption extended to all eligible parcels and no sunset. The commission's vote is a recommendation. Staff said to expect a broad discussion of impact fees in early twenty twenty-seven. 35 00:06:58.456 --> 00:07:16.754 Now some shorter items from around City Hall. At the airport, which the city owns: the board unanimously passed two ordinances on first reading. One revises the Healthy Airport Ordinance, modifying contractors' obligations for minimum health care spending on certain airport workers. The clerk's reading didn't say how. 36 00:07:16.754 --> 00:07:28.953 The other settles a lawsuit over that law brought by Airlines for America, for zero dollars. Under the settlement, the group dismisses the suit if specific amendments to the law are enacted. 37 00:07:28.953 --> 00:07:46.489 The board also gave final approval, unanimously, to letting the City Attorney's Office settle claims and lawsuits of up to a hundred thousand dollars without a board vote. The limit had been twenty-five thousand. An annual report on settlements between those two amounts is required. 38 00:07:46.489 --> 00:08:05.168 An ordinance that would eliminate disclosure and reporting requirements for candidates for the Retirement Board, the Health Service Board and the Retiree Health Care Trust Fund Board was put off one week, without debate. Three public commenters tied to a retiree group raised concerns about legislation on those elections. 39 00:08:05.168 --> 00:08:21.179 Passed unanimously on first reading: a new Office of Food Security Coordination within the Human Services Agency, and two ordinances for the Potrero Power Station development, one of them raising height limits. The clerk's reading gave no figures for the new heights. 40 00:08:21.179 --> 00:08:41.384 Introduced but not voted on: Board President Rafael Mandelman proposed a ban on selling locking butane lighters with plastic components, citing Fire Department figures of thirty-one butane-related fires from twenty twenty to twenty twenty-five. And Supervisor Jackie Fielder of District Nine requested a hearing on street conditions around public schools. 41 00:08:41.384 --> 00:08:57.776 And back at the Planning Commission, a seven to nothing vote to recommend exempting restrooms required for common rooftop spaces from building height limits. A supervisor's aide said the Department of Building Inspection stepped up enforcement of that restroom rule earlier this year. 42 00:09:01.015 --> 00:09:08.802 Before we go: if we got something wrong, there's a link on the episode's page to report it, and corrections are read on air. 43 00:09:08.802 --> 00:09:09.775 Thanks for listening. 44 00:09:09.775 --> 00:09:13.455 That's the news from City Hall. See you after the next meeting.