In a sane world, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors would do everything in its power to approve new grocery stores. The legislators would put up a huge fight against the closure of the Fillmore’s Safeway, which is expected this Friday and is the topic of a public hearing this afternoon. And they wouldn’t allow a new Whole Foods to be delayed and obstructed through the hijacking of an environmental appeal process.
But that’s exactly what happened to a Whole Foods in City Center Plaza, just over a mile from the Fillmore District’s Safeway, back in 2020. Now the lot has been sitting empty for more than seven years.
If you’re not paying close attention, it might seem like the Board of Supervisors is trying to keep grocery stores and other vital businesses in the city. Last year, then-Supervisor Dean Preston introduced legislation to require grocery stores to give notice and hold meetings before closing, and the board urged the Safeway to stay open. But this is mostly just performative politics; the truth of what’s going on is much uglier.
In 2020, the board, led by former Supervisor Catherine Stefani (now a member of the state Assembly), delayed the opening of the Whole Foods in City Center Plaza. They did this by upholding an appeal under the California Environmental Quality Act, which seeks to protect the state’s natural habitats from pollution and degradation through an extensive planning and review process.
The city’s planning commission initially approved a CEQA exemption for the Whole Foods, but two San Francisco residents and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union filed an appeal, citing concerns that car trips by shoppers and idling trucks would harm the environment. This was just the latest example of CEQA being weaponized by special interests; in this case, labor organizers who wanted to strike a blow against the anti-union owner of Whole Foods, Amazon.
CEQA sounds great in theory, but in practice, it’s far too easily abused. Instead of protecting sensitive wetlands or habitats — the intention of the law — it’s often used to fight proxy battles over issues not related to the environment, such as the rights of grocery store workers. Misuse of CEQA is depriving San Franciscans of basic things we desperately need, including retail services that in no way harm our environment.
In the case of the missing Whole Foods, complaints made during the public comment period argued that the store should not be opened because of Amazon’s poor labor practices. Though the Board of Supervisors noted that labor practices could not be used to uphold the CEQA appeal, they unanimously agreed to put the project on ice.
There was no good environmental reason to do this. Just like the Fillmore Safeway, the proposed Whole Foods was in a dense, walkable area, served by the same bus line. This suggests that the real motive was the labor issue, not any environmental concern.
The misuse of CEQA goes well beyond scuttling grocery stores, of course — it also limits our housing supply. A 495-unit project meant to replace a parking lot at 469 Stevenson St. was delayed by a CEQA appeal in 2021. More recently, a CEQA appeal was granted for an 11-unit housing project in Nob Hill over concerns about shadows on a neighboring basketball court. For a filing fee of $763, you, too, can file an appeal against any project you dislike, delaying it for months or years if your claim is granted.
This is not how a sane city operates.
Labor disputes and concerns about shadows aren’t environmental issues. If the city really wants to be “open for business,” as Mayor Daniel Lurie claims, this is the opposite of what we should be doing. To keep his promise of streamlining bureaucracy, Lurie must raise the threshold for appeals. He could require appellants to collect signatures from neighbors of proposed projects or make them post a bond that is forfeited if the appeal is denied unanimously. These sorts of disincentives could prevent drive-by appeals.
The state can exempt some projects from CEQA entirely, as Gov. Gavin Newsom recently did to expedite rebuilding after the Los Angeles fires. But Newsom’s executive order applies only to homes destroyed by recent wildfires. The state Legislature should exempt more types of projects, especially in areas not prone to wildfire.
Grocery, retail, and housing in developed urban environments must be approved and built faster. State Sen. Scott Wiener’s recent attempt to streamline environmental review in San Francisco’s downtown area died in committee, but this is just the sort of shift we need, especially if we want to meet our state requirement of building 82,000 units of housing by 2031.
San Franciscans are tired of delays, inaction, and obstructionism — especially when that obstructionism helps create a food desert in the heart of our city. To bring both housing and essential retail services to the city, we need to get out of our own way.
Chuong Vu is a software engineer living in San Francisco with his family. Chuong spends his free time volunteering for YIMBY Action.