SF passes new tenant demolition rules (+ 5-year ban for harassment)

San Fransisco
Board of Supervisors Meeting
January 6, 2026

TL;DR

• New tenant protections passed: 1-for-1 unit replacement on demolitions, plus a 5-year demolition ban if a tenant was pushed out by harassment or an improper buyout.
• Reproductive health clinics ordinance finally passed, implementing Prop O from November 2024.
• 1236 Carroll Avenue cleared a major step toward becoming SFFD's new training campus, with a zoning change and street vacation passed on first reading.
• Planning Code redefined "family" as "household". No more numeric caps on unrelated roommates.
• Surcharge increase on Planning Department appeal fees was finally passed.

What happened

1. Tenant protections on residential demolitions and renovations finally passed (10-0)
   1. Property owners now have to replace every residential unit they demolish, one-for-one. If a tenant vacated due to harassment or an improper buyout, the owner can't get a demolition permit for five years. The ordinance also expands relocation assistance for displaced tenants, with additional protections for lower-income renters, and adds new disclosures to buyout agreements and Ellis Act notices. Every supervisor present signed on as a co-sponsor.
   2. What this means for you: If you rent in SF, your building is harder to tear down, and if your landlord pressures you out, that conduct can block redevelopment for years. If you own property, demolition projects now carry stricter replacement and disclosure requirements.
2. Reproductive Health Clinics ordinance finally passed (10-0)
   1. This implements Proposition O, which voters approved in November 2024. It updates the Planning Code to clarify where reproductive health clinics are primarily permitted across the city.
   2. What this means for you: Voter-approved zoning protections for reproductive health clinics are now codified in the Planning Code.
3. 1236 Carroll Avenue Fire Training Facility cleared a big step (10-0)
   1. The Board approved the street vacation (portions of Hawes, Griffith, and Bancroft) and a zoning change for the site, from PDR-2 to Public, with the height limit going from 40 feet to 90 feet. The plan consolidates SFFD's existing training facilities on Treasure Island and at 19th and Folsom into a new Bayview campus on roughly eight acres. The Bayview Hunters Point Citizens Advisory Committee voted unanimously to recommend the zoning change in August.
   2. What this means for you: SFFD is on track to replace two outdated training sites with one modern campus. The taller buildings on the new site are training towers, placed away from the residential side of the parcel.
4. Planning Code redefined "family" as "household" (10-0)
   1. The ordinance eliminates numeric limits on unrelated household members and the requirement that family members share meals. It also reclassifies Residential Care Facilities serving six or fewer people as residential uses.
   2. What this means for you: Roommate arrangements that previously bumped against unrelated-occupant limits are now allowed under the code. Small care facilities (six or fewer residents) are treated like regular homes, not commercial uses.
5. Surcharge increase on Planning Department appeal fees finally passed (10-0)
   1. The ordinance imposes surcharges on certain Planning Department fees to offset the City's costs of handling appeals to the Board of Supervisors.
   2. What this means for you: Filing or triggering certain Planning Department appeals to the Board will cost more.

What residents brought up

1. The PG&E outage dominated public comment. A government affairs representative for PG&E told the Board that on December 20, a piece of equipment at the Mission substation failed, causing a fire and an outage affecting roughly 130,000 customers. PG&E has hired an independent firm called Exponent to do a root-cause investigation, with preliminary results expected in February. The representative asked the Board to wait on its hearing until those results are out.
2. An employee of a local solar installer urged the Board to consider resilience as it reviews the 2025 Fire Code. He said hundreds of his company's customers only experienced the outage for a fraction of a second because their solar-and-battery systems flipped to backup. He said current SF Fire Code interpretations make home battery installations more expensive than elsewhere, for example, by requiring a separate inverter for each battery rather than allowing a single inverter to serve multiple batteries.
3. A District 4 parent asked the Board not to reverse Sunset Dunes. Speaking for a parents' group, she said her family uses the park daily and that opening the Great Highway to weekday car traffic would effectively destroy the play structures, art, and skate ramps that make the space work.

Also happened

• Three liquor license transfer determinations: the Board recommended denial for Unimart at 1201 Howard Street (D6) and approval with conditions for Club 895 at 895 O'Farrell Street (D5) and Caldero at 2149 Union Street (D2).
• The Board urged Rec & Park to commemoratively name a Golden Gate Park street "Claude the Alligator Way." Supervisor Melgar said her office partnered with Mission Local to crowdsource the name and thousands of San Franciscans voted.
• The Board passed a resolution supporting California AB 762, which would prohibit the sale of disposable, battery-embedded vape devices.
• Outgoing Interim Police Chief Paul Yep was honored with a commendation. Chief Derek Lew is now leading SFPD.
• Seven members of the Community Partner Network Advisory Committee, Ildiko Polony, Rasheq Zarif, Irma Lewis, Jolene Yee, Kath Sokoloff, Matthew Blain, and Michaela Dudley, were honored for organizing after the Parks Alliance collapse. Supervisor Mandelman said roughly 50 donors raised more than $2 million to make the affected community groups whole.
• Supervisor Wong asked SFPUC to brief the Board on what it would take to acquire and operate a publicly-owned electric grid. Supervisor Chan introduced two PG&E-accountability resolutions. Supervisor Mahmood requested a hearing on Waymo's response to the December outage. All were referred to the committee.

For any updates or corrections, please email steven@polisdesk.com