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‘Magic Mushroom Church’ Is Closing Down Its SoMa Location, Claiming Harassment From SF City Hall

The Church of Ambrosia’s Zide Door in SF has been providing magic mushrooms and other legally questionable delights for over a year now at Howard and Seventh streets, but says they’re shutting down the SF location because of “harassment” from the SF Planning Department.

This Winter and Spring Could Be a Chaotic Free-for-All For Developers If SF Can't Get Its Housing Element Approved

A local housing activist just called San Francisco out on a rather alarming error — city officials and planners thought they had until May 31 to get the all-important revision to the general plan's Housing Element approved by the state, but the deadline is actually January 31.

Appeals Filed Against SFMTA and SF Planning Department Put Roadblocks in Front of City's Slow Streets Program

Among the few good things to come out of shelter-in-place — which we can collectively say that improved air quality is now no longer on that shortlist — SF's Slow Streets Program is a celebrated nicety. But the initiative is currently facing criticisms for not undergoing environmental review.

Leading Architect Says SF Planning 'Doesn't Understand Architecture'

Stanley Saitowitz, an architect whose significant star power extends beyond his Bay Area home, is not mincing words when it comes to our city's culture of what he might but didn't quite call

7-Unit Elbo Room Development Challenged By Discretionary Review Request

A redevelopment plan for the Elbo Room space at the corner of Valencia and Sycamore that would add three stories to the existing two-story building to create seven units of housing could be

Planning Hits 'Millennial Commune' Chateau Ubuntu With Violation Notice

Chateau Ubuntu, an intentional living community at 860 Fell Street, has been informed by the Planning Department that it's operating illegally, as the space is considered a three-family dwelling by the city, and

City Suing Academy Of Art Over Their Problematic Real Estate Empire

Perhaps spurred to action by last summer's exhaustive reporting by Forbes on the for-profit school's allegedly shady real estate dealings, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera today filed a lawsuit against the Academy

Visualizing The Hub, A Proposed Home For Tall Buildings Around Market

While one nook of Market Street, basically an area from Market to Mission between Valencia and 11th Streets, has been included in 2008's Market and Octavia Area Plan, now the Planning Department is

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

Sunset Fro-Yo Shop Owner Decries Insane City Bureaucracy Over Trying To Install One Bench

Ariel Ford, the owner of Inner Sunset frozen yogurt shop Easy Breezy which began with a shop in Noe Valley and also has a location on 18th Street in the Castro took to

Report Reveals How Quickly SF Is Gaining (And Losing) Affordable Housing

For the last decade — more specifically, January 2006 through December 2015— take the number of affordable homes in San Francisco: Those that already existed, those that were rehabbed or acquired, and those that

For SF's Only Frank Lloyd Wright Building, Planning Seeks Expanded Landmark Status

There are only a few landmarked interior spaces in San Francisco — the New Mission Theater, Twin Peaks Tavern — but if the Planning Department has its way, a small shop at 140 Maiden Lane

SF May Limit Chain-Store Subsidiaries, Too

San Francisco's formula retail rules, est. 2004, don't themselves adhere to any one strict formula. For example, while Hayes Valley, Chinatown's tourist corridor, and North Beach ban chains entirely, other parts of town

Hayes Valley To Get Three New Parklets Late Next Year

The San Francisco Planning Department recently approved three new parklets for Hayes Valley, but due to a planned city construction project in the area, residents and shoppers will likely have to wait until

Sunnyside Homeowner Digs Himself A Parking Spot, Permits Be Damned

Permits pose a problem? Just start digging. What could go wrong? https://t.co/YLI0E7tP6l pic.twitter.com/FY0LBHDpZp— SocketSite (@SocketSite) October 27, 2015 Sick of the never-ending nightmare that is street parking,

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

Munchery Forced to Close Richmond Outpost After Code Violation

Food delivery startup Munchery has been forced to cease operations at a Richmond District location after a citation from the Planning Department called the company out for using the building to store food

Planning Department Confirms 75 Percent Of Academy Of Art Buildings Are Illegal

Following on Forbes Magazine's recent takedown of the Academy of Art University and their fast-and-looseness with real estate zoning, and in anticipation of their long-delayed Environmental Impact Report, the Planning Department has issued

Will The Sunset Finally Get Housing Density?

The Board of Supervisors is set to debate and potentially pass some new legislation this fall that would allow for so-called "density bonuses" in neighborhoods where not a lot of housing density currently

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

Seven-Story Condo Building Could Destroy Late-Night Staple The Grubstake

A preliminary proposal for a new seven-story mixed-use building at 1525 Pine Street could mean the end of a longstanding eatery: The Grubstake, known to SFist for its fine patty melt and selection

Planning Study: SF Is Losing Affordable Housing Almost As Fast As We're Building It

Last week the San Francisco Planning department gave us what the Business Times called a "report card" on affordable housing in its "Housing Balance Report," and if it was indeed that, it was

Airbnb Law Impossible To Enforce, Says Agency Tasked With Enforcement

Less than two months after the controversial Airbnb-legalization ordinance took effect, the city agency that has been dealing with the registration nightmare of the city's many thousands of Airbnb hosts, the Planning Department,

The Castro's Busy Sidewalks May Get Wider

If you've walked in the Castro on any given evening around rush hour, or on any given weekend at all, you'll know the sidewalks can get pretty crowded with assorted drunks, almost-drunks, perturbed

Arts & Entertainment

John King Critiques S.F.'s Downtown Plan, Written in 1985

On the cover of yesterday's Chron, architecture critic John King had a piece critiquing the San Francisco Downtown Plan, following on a recently released report detailing the plan's successes and failures over its

NIMBY Watch: Ike's May Be Forced to Close, Café Du Soleil Wins Music Permit

Some of you may have heard the news, via the Chron's Inside Scoop yesterday, that Ike Shehadeh, owner of the ever-popular Ike's Place, has been served with an eviction notice. The owner of

Four Jobs Opening Up in Planning Dept. Following Porn Probe

Matier and Ross share some juicy gossip today about the possible firing of veteran zoning administrator Larry Badiner and three other higher-ups in the planning department over the circulating of porn in inter-office

Gas and Bike Lanes Planned at Fell St. ARCO Station

Good news for motorists and cyclists alike: Bike NOPA reports that a plan has been hashed out for a designated curbside queue lane for the ever-popular and cheap ARCO station at Fell and