SF proposal would curb neighborhood review of hospital, university expansion plans

San Francisco’s long-running system for tracking hospital and university expansion is headed for a sharp rewrite, one that would give many institutions more room to grow before neighbors hear what is coming.

Under current city rules, medical and post-secondary educational institutions must file an Institutional Master Plan that lays out existing and anticipated development. New plans are typically required every 10 years, with updates every two years. City planners say the process is meant to give the public and other agencies notice and information so they can get involved early, before an institution makes major investments. Institutions that fall out of compliance generally cannot win building permits or Conditional Use authorizations.

Mayor Daniel Lurie is backing a change carried by Supervisor Matt Dorsey as Board File No. 260239. The proposal would exempt post-secondary institutions outside residential districts from the master-plan requirement, end the requirement for institutions planning to expand by less than 10,000 square feet, and remove student housing from master-plan review altogether. The Planning Department notice for the amendment says schools inside residential districts would still have to file master plans with a development application, but updates would only be required when an institution grows by 10,000 square feet or 25 percent of its total square footage, whichever is less.

That shift has reopened an old San Francisco argument over neighborhood accountability. Supporters of the current system say the plans help the city and residents understand what large-footprint institutions are planning so San Francisco can prepare for transit, housing, water, sewer and construction impacts before projects are far along. Dianne Feinstein supported the concept decades ago, and Calvin Welch, who helped devise it, warned that the proposal would reduce notice to neighborhoods.

Planning Commissioner Kathrin Moore also opposed the change, saying she saw no reason for it and describing the Academy of Art University’s impact as devastating and unacceptable.

That school’s history is likely to loom over the debate. Planning materials say the Academy of Art University occupied as many as 40 properties in San Francisco, and that most of those properties were occupied or altered without required permits. The university converted about 22 residential buildings into student housing without permits or a master plan, a fight that led to lawsuits and a city settlement worth about $60 million.

The current proposal lands as another major institutional shift takes shape in Showplace Square, where Vanderbilt University is set to take over the former California College of the Arts campus in an area zoned for light industry. Critics say changes like that make advance disclosure even more important, especially when schools are moving into neighborhoods where new housing demand, traffic and construction can ripple far beyond campus walls.

The Planning Commission meets weekly, and agendas are posted six calendar days ahead, putting the master-plan fight in a public forum built for scrutiny. The question now is blunt: who gains speed, and who loses a voice, if Lurie gets his way.