"Easier" is a relative term.
Concerned neighborhood groups, who exist in a perpetual state of concern, are concerned about who, exactly, will have it "easier." A consortium raised red flags and marched into last week's Planning Commission meeting with grave concerns over a specific clause within the 468 pages of arcana.
The nightmare of every member of every concerned neighborhood group is to peer out the kitchen window one morning and notice a preponderance of gaunt young people with sideways haircuts toting around longboards and chain-smoking American Spirits. The ever-expanding Academy of Art University has, for decades, redefined the term "art colony," buying up dozens of buildings throughout San Francisco and converting them into student housing — without the city's permission or even its knowledge.
Stoking neighborhood groups' fears was language they interpreted to shift conversion of a structure into student housing from a feat requiring a "conditional use" hearing to an activity that was "principally permitted." The pernicious specter of sweeping up ever more American Spirit butts from one's stoop sent a shudder through the neighborhood activists' collective spine.
How surprised they were to learn, on the cusp of last week's Planning Commission meeting, that the language in question regarding student housing wasn't new at all — but codified via city ordinance all the way back in 2012. "It slipped through," bemoans neighborhood activist Doug Engmann, a former Planning Commission president.
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