Overview
- Supervisor Bilal Mahmood unveiled the Affordable Groceries Act on June 16, a package that pairs a new vacancy tax on large grocery and pharmacy chains with a city fund to expand access to affordable fresh food.
- The vacancy tax targets chains with 100 or more U.S. locations and is graduated by empty square footage at $3 per square foot the first year, $5 the second year, and $10 thereafter while exempting properties slated for housing or reopening.
- Revenue from the tax could feed an Affordable Grocery Fund that would pay for corner‑store conversions, grants or forgivable loans, rent subsidies, and potential city purchases of vacant buildings to lease to lower‑priced grocers; the fund would start empty and could accept private donations.
- The package includes 'carrots' such as streamlined permitting, tax credits or exemptions and reduced conditional use rules to speed new grocers into empty sites, and it has early co‑sponsors and backing from unions and food‑justice groups.
- A city controller revenue estimate is pending and the Board of Supervisors will consider the measures in the coming weeks with the vacancy tax and the fund likely to appear as two separate ballot measures in November; critics say the plan may not raise enough money or address underlying reasons chains leave.