Designated Child Care Units

 
 

  North Beach Neighbors

P.O. Box 330115

San Francisco, CA 94133

northbeachneighbors.org

 

 

November 29, 2018

TO: San Francisco Planning Department

RE: Support Letter: Designated Child Care Units (DCCU). Case Number: 2017-012001PCA

Dear Planning Commissioners,

North Beach Neighbors (NBN) is a San Francisco non-profit organization comprised of North Beach residents, local businesses, and civic leaders. Since 1981, we have advocated on behalf of neighbors to create a vibrant and inclusive neighborhood.

With these goals in mind, we write to you today in support of Designated Child Care Units, case number  2017-012001PCA. We believe this legislation gets to the heart of three pressing issues that impact North Beach: excessive housing prices, lack of child care availability, and an increase in commercial vacancies. Specifically:

  • Excessive housing prices - The average home or rental price is simply out of reach out of most of those in our city. All too often, families are the ones impacted most. This legislation can pave the way to creation of new housing units, and it does so at below market rates.

 

  • Lack of child care availability - A gap in spots available for infants of almost 20,000 is a clear cry that there is a problem with our current supply of child care. This creates undue stress in the application process and is an extra burden of already over-stretched families.  

 

  • Increase in commercial vacancies - In the North Beach Commercial District, the vacancy rate has more than doubled since 2015 (Source - https://northbeachneighbors.squarespace.com/2018-north-beach-vacancy-survey/). We should explore new flexible ways to utilize vacant properties in our commercial districts.

 

We do ask for modifications to make this legislation more clear so that it can be utilized more easily, and also more rigid on safety standards so that is done in accordance with health concerns. Specifically:

  • Some parts of the legislation refer to use of 10 years as a DCCU, while others mention the life of the building. We believe requiring this designated use for the entire life of the building will make this significantly less attractive.

  • We encourage further incentives to spur the creation of newly built DCCUs and utilization of existing space to be converted into DCCUs. We believe the current incentives are aimed towards large property owners, and more needs to be done to attract small building owners.

  • These DCCUs should not be next to a restaurant and/or bar.

  • The language states that the small family care serves at least four child “not a parent or guardian”   - we suggest also adding “or family member.”

  • These DCCUs cannot be subcontracted during the course of the ten year agreement.


Thank you for taking action to make our city one that is more welcoming to families.

Danny Sauter

Daniel J. Sauter Signature.png
 

President, North Beach Neighbors