State Seeks to Curb Appeals of Residential Constructing Permits in San Francisco | Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass
The land use permit process in California is notoriously complicated, lengthy and fraught with uncertainty. Less attention is paid to the process of obtaining building permits and subsequent approval. Generally, this process is simpler because local authority verification is limited to ensuring compliance with state and local building codes. Accordingly, the granting of building permits is usually a ministerial act, not subject to the discretion of city or county officials and not subject to appeal. However, in San Francisco, post-planning permits are barred from appeal to the Board of Appeal only if the project has received a conditional occupancy permit from the Planning Commission under Section 4.106(b) of the Charter. AB 1114, introduced by Rep. and former San Francisco Supervisor Matt Haney, would extend these protections to other housing projects that, for example, have only received a downtown project permit or a major project permit.
AB 1114 provides that building permits for projects that are “at least two-thirds residential” cannot be contested. It builds on previous legislation AB 2234, which sets strict timelines for local authorities to respond to and issue subsequent building permits for housing projects that meet existing application requirements. If passed, the bill would apply these deadlines to qualifying San Francisco housing projects and protect them from objections to building permits, regardless of the underlying eligibility.
In the Assembly Committee reports, Rep. Haney explained that the legislation was necessary because it could take almost two years to get back-to-back planning permission in San Francisco, due in part to the possibility of planning permission appeals, and that as a result, Die City “is struggling to build housing and is falling behind the rest of the state on its affordable housing goals.” The committee’s reports cite data from the California Department of Housing and Community Development, which shows that it’s an average of 450 days can take to get claims in San Francisco and an average of 524 days to get permits to start construction on a qualifying project — the longest time of any jurisdiction that allowed more than 10 projects.
The bill was recently passed by the Assembly and will now go to the Senate. We will continue to monitor progress and provide status updates.
