Wiener urges supes to scotch pause on pot
State Sen. Scott Wiener criticized a San Francisco Board of Supervisors proposal to temporarily halt permits of new cannabis dispensaries, saying it would “send a terrible message statewide.”
Wiener, a former supervisor who is among the city’s most prominent moderate politicians, generally avoids taking stances on city issues. But this one is particularly pressing, he said.
On Tuesday, he sent a letter to the board with sharp criticism of the idea that Supervisor Malia Cohen presented right before summer recess: to impose a 45day cannabis dispensary moratorium in the fall.
“San Francisco has long been a leader on medical cannabis, and enactment of a San Francisco moratorium on cannabis dispensaries would be an abdication of this leadership,” Wiener wrote in the letter. He said the proposed shutdown would undermine a state effort to legalize and regulate the industry and that it seemed out of character for a city that had led the movement to protect medical cannabis patients — including those with HIV.
Wiener also raised concerns that the city’s Planning Commission might stop ruling on cannabis-related decisions until after the board votes on its moratorium.
“This, too, would be a mistake,” Wiener wrote.
Cohen introduced the moratorium idea on the same day the supervisors approved a new Office of Cannabis to set rules and manage the pot trade in San Francisco. The specter of a booming, legal cannabis sector has created stark divisions, as some supervisors embrace the industry, while others rush to keep it out of their districts.
She said her moratorium would help achieve Wiener’s goal of having a functional regulatory system, not hurt it, because it would give the supervisors a chance to fix the city’s zoning laws so that dispensaries aren’t clustered in certain districts. It would also allow time to create new entrepreneurship programs for low-income residents and people of color, who otherwise might be left out of the industry.
Wiener acknowledged that there are problems with San Francisco’s current regulations. But he called the moratorium “an overreaction.”
“We have communities around the state that are trying to shut down cannabis entirely,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “So if San Francisco enacts a moratorium, it will send a powerful negative message that even a progressive city is willing to shut down cannabis permitting.”
Supervisor Ahsha Safai, who successfully pushed an ordinance limiting the number of dispensaries in his district to three, said that Wiener’s concerns about the moratorium are unwarranted.
“I think his concern is that it will drag on for more than 45 days,” Safai said, adding that he doubts the pause will go any longer than proposed.
“And I don’t know if there’s (political) will for a pause at all,” Safai said. — Rachel Swan Bag check: The city’s long-standing trash and recycling hauler, Recology, is testing a method to recycle soft plastics, including bubble wrap, newspaper bags and plastic food pouches.
The company began its test run earlier this week along a route in the Sunset that serves 56 homes. Recology is asking those customers to ball the bags together and tie them into a knot before throwing them in the blue bin.
— Rachel Swan Not so affordable: City Attorney Dennis Herrera on Wednesday sued a licensed real estate broker, accusing him of defrauding San Francisco’s affordable housing program.
The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, alleges that Gregory Garver spent more than four years illegally renting out the belowmarket-rate condominium he purchased at 1160 Mission St. and at one point attempted to sell it on the open market.
Garver allegedly rented the unit to the same tenant between November 2012 and July 2016 for $2,400 per month. The city claims Garver moved back into the condo last August after informing his tenant the rent would be raised to $18,000 per month.
“Designated affordable units like this one are a key part of the city’s efforts to keep longtime residents and workingclass people in San Francisco,” Herrera said in a statement. “Those who game the system are taking away housing from people who desperately need it. We will not tolerate that.”
The rules governing the below-market-rate program require developers to set aside units that can be sold to qualifying buyers at belowmarket-rate prices as a way to provide housing options for low- and moderate-income residents. The rules also mandate that owners must occupy the units, and that they’re never used as investments or rental properties.
Would-be below-market-rate buyers are selected by lottery and must meet income requirements.
The lawsuit against Garver, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday, marks the third legal action Herrera’s office has taken since May to crack down on alleged fraud within the below-market-rate program.
The city is seeking a court order that would require Garver to sell the unit to a qualifying low-income household, as well as financial penalties that could total hundreds of thousands of dollars.