San Francisco’s Planning GridlockRandy Shawbyline‚ Jul. 24‚ 2007According to a recently issued report from Mayor Newsom’s “SF Stat” project, in the last six months of 2006 it took 287 days for an application for a construction project in San Francisco to even be assigned to a planner. It took over 500 days for initial environmental studies to be completed, a period that precedes the often lengthy public hearing process. Since these figures include small 2-3 unit projects, the larger for- profit and nonprofit projects can take two years just to receive the basic environmental review. Mayor Newsom vowed to bring efficiency to the Planning Department when he ran for mayor in 2003, but his own statistics show the problem has worsened despite the overall construction slowdown. It’s no wonder San Francisco is reaching the point where only luxury housing developers can afford to build, and where nonprofit groups get less bang for the housing dollar due to costly procedural delays. |