Overview
- Supervisor Bilal Mahmood has abandoned his proposed tax on vacant chain grocery locations and is advancing an ordinance to create an Affordable Grocery Fund focused on incentives and zoning reforms to bring more supermarkets and fresh food to neighborhoods.
- The ordinance would steer money and support toward helping corner and convenience stores stock fresh produce, expand fee waivers and grants for new grocery openings, and offer zoning incentives for developments that include ground-floor grocery space.
- The vacancy-tax plan collapsed after opposition from Mayor Daniel Lurie, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, Align Real Estate, and other supervisors, and Mahmood said large owners including Amazon lobbied against the tax.
- Board procedure and timing setbacks undercut the ballot route for the tax because the measure was not placed on the budget committee agenda, and Mahmood’s new approach will be advanced as an ordinance with a rules-committee hearing scheduled.
- San Francisco has lost several neighborhood supermarkets in recent years, leaving residents with fewer affordable fresh-food options, and the new ordinance aims to help families by making small stores and new grocers cheaper to open and stock while political and economic questions about effectiveness remain.