Proposition D

Before March of 2002, the San Francisco Planning Commission and Board of Permit Appeals were appointed by the mayor. During the dot-com boom, these boards repeatedly gave the green light to developers to build high-end projects that displaced many low-income people and caused gentrification in many San Francisco neighborhoods. In early 2002, tenants groups banded together to put an initiative on the ballot that would give the Board of Supervisors a majority of appointments to the Planning Commission and Board of Permit Appeals. The Central City S.R.O. Collaborative worked with these tenant groups to pass the initiative, Proposition D, which reformed the planning process by making planning officers more accountable to the people of San Francisco. As a result, planning decisions will no longer be made entirely by one politician exclusively in the interests of big business.