Neighborhoods United SF

Protect Our Legacy Businesses

Interactive Map of Legacy Businesses in San Francisco

Supervisor Peskin's Legacy Business Protections

Land Use Committee Hearing

Attend: Mon, 10/21 at 1:30pm -- City Hall, rm 250

Watch: SFGovTV.org

A legacy business is a for-profit or non-profit that’s been active in San Francisco for 30+ years. It must contribute to a neighborhood's history or identity and commit to preserving its defining physical traits or traditions, like craft, culinary, or art forms (short video from SF Heritage on legacy businesses).

Board President Peskin has led efforts to protect these small businesses, including taxing vacant storefronts, giving grants to legacy businesses, and proposing Prop M to cut their taxes.

Many are concerned that the Mayor’s upzoning plan, which aims to significantly increase height limits on commercial corridors, will fuel speculation and disrupt vibrant, historic, and cherished neighborhoods, without adequate protections in place to prevent the displacement of small businesses.

After two legacy businesses were put under threat of closure on Upper Fillmore, by a billionaire venture capitalist, on parcels that were previously identified as candidates for upzoning, Supervisor Peskin drafted this legislation because these legacy businesses were calling for the program to have more teeth, and it became clear that there is nothing to stop a wave of real estate speculation in neighborhood corridors across the city. 

This legislation requires a planning commission hearing to approve the demolition or replacement of a legacy business in a neighborhood corridor. This sends a message to developers and the planning department: Legacy businesses must be considered before destabilizing neighborhoods.

S.F. developer proposes 26-story, thin tower at the site of former French restaurant

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This project is on a 35' x 100' lot. This could happen almost anywhere in the city!

Notable Excerpt:

"A developer proposing to build a 26-story, pencil-thin tower at the tiny Sutter Street site of the former Fleur de Lys restaurant received a strong message from San Francisco’s Lower Nob Hill residents at a Planning Commission hearing on Thursday: Take the eraser end of the pencil and start again.

But, under state laws meant to streamline housing approvals and take away neighbors’ ability to block or delay projects, none among the city planners, commissioners and members of the Board of Supervisors have any power to reject the project or force the developer to change it."

The Little-Known Factor Driving Up Housing Costs: Dirty Money

-New York Times

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Notable Excerpts:

"The truth is that there are a lot of people buying luxury real estate who have a lot of money. Dirty money. And that money is distorting the market for ordinary homebuyers."

"There are tools to address the problem, but we are not using them effectively. In 2001, barely one month after 9/11, Congress passed Title III of the Patriot Act to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. It mandated banks to report suspicious money transfers from abroad. But lobbyists persuaded the Treasury Department to grant the real estate industry a “temporary” exemption from the law’s requirement to report dubious transactions. The loophole remains in place, fueling what has been termed “an extraordinary growth opportunity for high-end real estate.”

For decades we’ve been trying (and failing) to get builders to build affordable housing. There’s a better, simpler way

-Toronto Star

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Notable Excerpts:

"The short answer is that governments don’t prioritize non-market housing.

For decades, the prevailing mantra in housing has been that governments must focus on propping up private development and asking developers for something in return, like parks, libraries, and below-market rental units, which many (mistakenly) call affordable housing.



There is a better, simpler way: Governments could just build non-market housing themselves."

ABOUT NEIGHBORHOODS UNITED SF

Neighborhoods United SF (NUSF) has rapidly mobilized over 

60 neighborhoods across San Francisco to resist extreme state-mandated, 

locally-implemented height and density increases.

NUSF champions community-led planning to protect vulnerable residents 

and small businesses from gentrification while ensuring 

the livability of San Francisco's neighborhoods.