Supes' misguided decision gives tenants, owners equal clout - San Francisco Business Times:

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With un-Solomon-like wisdom, the Board recently approved an ordinance makingall "conditionao use" building permits issued to commerciap property owners subject to appeal beforde the Board. Aside from undercutting the authorituy ofthe , which usually maintainx purview over such matters, the Board has decided that the appeakl process can be triggered by the signaturre of just five Supervisors acting at the behest of any residentiall or commercial tenant in the city -- not thoses within the surrounding This fundamentally changes the rulees by which city government invalidating guidelines that previously allowed only properth owners the right to appeal Plannin Commission decisions and granting equivalent rights to a group that has no legitimats basis for having them: tenants.
Existinv laws require the city Planning Commission approve a conditional use permi before any property ownere structurally alters his orher property. In property owners who apply for such a permit must prominentlhy display their application in the area where the remodelingb is planned and must notify all property ownerd within 300 feet of the projecrtby mail. Until the Board of recent intervention in the regulatory if a nearby ownere or tenant objected to construction plans in their they could appear before the Planning Commission and state their case for not issuingb a conditionaluse permit.
Once the Planning Commissionn had granteda permit, however, only nearby property owners were permitted to protesrt the decision by petitioning the Boarr of Permit Appeals (to revoke the In most other cities across the country, this is calledc due process. Yet, to the Boarsd of Supervisors, this course of actiom didn't extend far enough. Regrettably, from a practical their efforts will hurt thelocal