A San Francisco supervisor says he wants to “shine a light on the shadows” in hopes of creating more places to live in the city.
Supervisor Bilal Mahmood says data shows just how much housing has been delayed or stalled by “shade” over the past 10 years, and believes if his newly proposed legislation had been in effect, many of those units could have been built faster.
Mahmood rolled out a new proposal Thursday that could quicken housing approvals, in part, by eliminating so-called shadow analysis rules.
Those rules, included in the California Environmental Quality Act, allow people to appeal new construction.
San Francisco Supervisor Bilal Mahmood joined NBC Bay Area’s Raj Mathai to talk about Mahmood’s proposed SHADE Act.
The supervisor says the name of his legislation spells it out; the Slashing Housing Appeals of Delays Everywhere, or SHADE Act.
“The SHADE Act is addressing this unique to San Francisco issue where we require shadow to be used in our environmental review process here in San Francisco. We’re the only major city in the entire state that has this strict of a requirement,” Mahmood said.
The supervisor plans to formally introduce the legislation next week, and says it would force a new look at environmental reviews that exceeds the state mandate and has slowed housing projects.