The Facts

Supervisors Mahmood, Sauter, Sherrill, and Dorsey voted down Supervisor Connie Chan’s ordinance to require a special “conditional use authorization” before any new business could lease a storefront previously occupied by a legacy business, according to Alyce McFadden at the San Francisco Chronicle. The measure also would have shortened eligibility for the Legacy Business Registry from 30 to just 15 years in operation.

Because the Planning Commission had already recommended disapproval, the ordinance needed a two‑thirds supermajority to pass.

City planners, the Planning Commission, and several small business organizations argued the proposal would increase bureaucratic hurdles, risk more vacant storefronts, and mainly benefit well‑lawyered operators rather than truly vulnerable mom‑and‑pop shops.

The Context

San Francisco’s Legacy Business Program already gives long‑standing businesses (typically 30+ years) access to marketing help, rent stabilization grants, and other support through the Office of Small Business’s Legacy Business Program. Meanwhile, Mayor Daniel Lurie’s PermitSF and initialize has been cutting permitting delays and costs. Chan's ordinance was in direct opposition to a pro-small-business agenda.

An October staff analysis presented to the Planning Commission warned that Chan’s ordinance would "create the appearance of protecting Legacy Businesses without delivering meaningful benefits."

The GrowSF Take

Requiring yet another conditional‑use hearing any time a legacy business closes is the wrong tool. Making it harder for a new business to fill a vacant space, just because that space used to hold an old business, simply makes zero sense.

San Francisco should absolutely support long‑standing businesses, but with predictable taxes, lower fees, and fast, low‑cost permits, and not with legal hoops that favor insiders and lawyers over actual shopkeepers. Killing this ordinance was the right call; now the Board should pair Family Zoning with targeted, by‑right support programs that keep beloved institutions thriving while making it easier, not harder, for the next generation of small businesses to open.