Speaking of Neighborhood Commercial District controls, yesterday San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a simplification of San Francisco’s Planning Code and permitting process which currently defines 13 different eating and drinking uses.
As parodied in the animation above:
Having definitions that attempt to differentiate between how restaurants operate and what types of food they sell is problematic for restaurant owners, and it’s also confusing for members of the public. Further, overly specific definitions are difficult for the Planning Department to enforce.
For instance, the current controls prohibit retail coffee stores from toasting bagels due to a prohibition on food preparation, and small self-service restaurants are required to serve their food in disposable wrappers. Not being in compliance with these rules could result in an enforcement action by the Planning Department.
In the works for over a year having been prompted by a bit of legislation proposed by then Supervisor Mirkarimi, the newly approved legislation for which Supervisor Wiener gets credit will go into effect in May and reduces the 13 categories of restaurants to three (3).
Eating/drinking establishments without on-site alcohol sales will be Limited Restaurants; restaurants with wine and beer will be Restaurants; and establishments with a full liquor license will be classified as Bars.
∙ Formulating Controls To Chase Financial Services Away [SocketSite]
∙ Rationalizing Restaurant & Bar Controls [sf-planning.org]
So any place where you can order a martini along with your steak would be classified as a “bar” ? It is a little confusing to think of House of Prime Rib as a bar though I’d expect that this distinction is only relevant to restaurant owners applying for permits. And far less confusing than thirteen categories.
I like how Planning is getting so much mileage out of that xtranormal video.
The video shows so eloquently the complete insanity of the Planning Code.
… and in case it is not clear the video was produced by the Planning Dept. to make a case to simplify this part of the code. In other words the “planning insanity” isn’t entirely the doing of the Planning Dept. They’re just enforcing the laws that were put in place by BoS and experiencing pain from the other side of the counter.
Nice to see city staff having a positive influence on the BoS.
It’s definitely nice to see a regulation getting simpler, rather than more complicated. Here’s to hoping this is the beginning of a trend towards simpler regulations in SF.
This would be funny if it wasn’t 100% true. I’m sure the planners don’t like having to enforce the ridiculous (and ever more complicated) planning code. Godspeed.
It’s amazing that anyone has the patience and the desire to open any type of restaurant in the city given the current requirements. Thank goodness change is coming.
While it’s true that the existing controls were ridiculously complex, the extreme simplification will result in a lot of unforeseen consequences all over the city. I think this was poorly thought out.
Neighborhoods which don’t allow new bars will also be disallowing new alcohol-serving restaurants, with no means to differentiate between the two. All size and capacity limits are removed. Wanna knock out three storefronts to create your burger joint? Go right ahead!
Neighborhoods which might have banned something like “large fast-food restaurants” – or fast food restaurants in general – will also lose those protections. In fact, this seems like a big win for national chain stores and the like.
Formula retail (chain) establishments will still require conditional use authorization, but this requires neighborhoods to fight every battle individually at the Planning Commission, and most of the time, formula retail CUs are approved.
This legislation was developed behind the scenes and without any community input. The rules it replaces, complex as they were, evolved over decades in response to real situations and problems. We’ve now thrown all that out without any serious look at how our neighborhoods will be affected.
Funny video … at first.
Followed by disgust.