Political Notes: Planning body backs zoning fix for SF gay bathhouses
San Francisco planners have thrown their support behind a proposed zoning change that will allow gay bathhouses and other adult sex venues to open in the city's historic LGBTQ neighborhoods.
The aim by city leaders is to finalize the code update by Pride Month in June.Following the recommendation of city planners, the planning commission voted 7-0 at its April 7 meeting to endorse the sex venues zoning update.
It is to be taken up by the city's Small Business Commission at its meeting Monday, April 11, then will be heard by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors' Land Use and Transportation Committee a week later on April 18."We need to do everything we can to give these business owners the tools they need to stay in business," said planning commissioner Joel Koppel.A prohibition against such businesses having locked rooms, enacted in the 1980s during the height of the AIDS epidemic, was officially lifted in early 2021.
Yet zoning restrictions remain in place preventing adult sex businesses from operating in most of the city.Zoning Administrator Corey Teague in December 2020 determined that adult sex venues as defined by the city's health code were considered a type of adult business under the planning code.
