In these here parts, if someone's not happy about a renovation or building going up in their neighborhood, they can fork over $300 to the city and get the Planning Commission to exercise their authority to review all building permits (and spike them, if the case warrants)— even if the project is code-compliant and everything. What results, as one commissioner said back in December, is often "political theater." Now the commission wants to reform the process, known as discretionary review, so that they don't spend quite so much time listening to neighbors kvetch about who's being mean to whose baby and why so and so's building should be 10 feet farther from the curb because of it. According to the Examiner, reforms would place more restrictions on appealing commission rulings, and require neighbors do have more dialogue before telling on each other. Good luck with all that, guys.
· Renovations in S.F. may become easier [SF Examiner]
· Writing's on the Wall: End of Planning Shitshows [Curbed SF]
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