(a) Project Authorization Required. During the approval period, every site or building permit application for an office development must, before final action on the permit, include a copy of a project authorization for such office development, certified as accurate by the Planning Department. No such application shall be considered complete and the Department of Building Inspection shall not issue any such site or building permit unless such a certified copy is submitted. No site or building permit shall be issued for an office development except in accordance with the terms of the project authorization for such office development. Any such site or building permit which is inconsistent with the project authorization shall be invalid.
(b) Application for Project Authorization. During the approval period, an applicant for approval of an office development shall file an application for a project authorization with the Planning Department contemporaneously with the filing of an application for environmental evaluation for such development. Such application shall state such information as the Planning Department shall require; provided, however, that an application for a project authorization for each office development for which an environmental evaluation application has been filed prior to the effective date of this Section, shall be deemed to have been filed effective as of the date such environmental evaluation application was filed.
(c) Processing of Applications.
(1) The approval period shall be divided into such review periods as the Planning Commission shall provide by rule. The first review period shall commence on the effective date.
(2) Applications for project authorizations shall be considered by the Planning Commission during a specific review period in accordance with the following procedures:
(A) During a specific review period the Planning Commission shall consider all project authorization applications for which, prior to the first day of such review period, a final Environmental Impact Report has been certified, or a final Negative Declaration has been issued, or other appropriate environmental review has been completed; provided, however, that during the first review period, the Planning Commission shall consider only those office developments for which (i) an environmental evaluation application and a site or building permit application were submitted prior to June 1, 1985, or (ii) a draft environmental impact report or a preliminary negative declaration was published prior to the effective date.
(B) The Planning Commission may hold hearings on all project authorization applications assigned to a specific review period before acting on any such application.
(C) In reviewing project authorization applications, the Planning Commission shall apply the criteria set forth in Section 321, and shall, prior to the end of such a review period, approve, deny, or, with the consent of the applicant, continue to the next subsequent review period each such application based on said criteria.
(D) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this Section or Section 321, the Planning Commission may at any time, after a noticed hearing, deny or take other appropriate action with respect to any application for a project authorization as to which environmental review, in the judgment of the Commission, has not been or will not be completed in sufficient time to allow timely action under applicable law.
(E) Any project authorization application which is denied by the Planning Commission, unless such denial is reversed by the Board of Appeals or Board of Supervisors, shall not be resubmitted for a period of one year after denial.
(d) Appeal of Project Authorization. The Planning Commission’s determination to approve or deny the issuance of a project authorization may be appealed to the Board of Appeals within 15 days of the Commission’s issuance of a dated written decision pursuant to the procedural provisions of Section 308.2 of this Code, except in those cases where either (i) a conditional use application was filed, or (ii) the project would proceed under terms of a development agreement authorized by Government Code Section 65865 or any successor section. In such case, the decision of the Planning Commission may be appealed only to the Board of Supervisors pursuant to Section 308.1 of this Code. The decision on the project authorization by the Board of Appeals or Board of Supervisors shall be the final administrative determination as to all matters relating to the approval of the office development that is the subject of the project authorization, except for matters, not considered in connection with the project authorization, which arise in connection with a subsequent building or site permit application for the development in question.
(e) Modification of Project Authorization. The Planning Commission may approve a modified project authorization, after a noticed hearing, during the review period in which the initial project authorization was approved or a subsequent review period. Approval or denial of a modified project authorization shall be subject to appeal in accord with Subsection (d).
(f) No Right to Construct Conveyed. Neither approval nor issuance of a project authorization shall convey any right to proceed with construction of an office development, nor any right to approval or issuance of a site or building permit or any other license, permit, approval or authorization which may be required in connection with said office development.
(Added by Ord. 414-85, App. 9/17/85; amended by Ord. 255-88, App. 6/22/88; Ord. 188-15
, File No. 150871, App. 11/4/2015, Eff. 12/4/2015; Proposition E, 3/3/2020, Eff. 4/17/2020)
AMENDMENT HISTORY
Division (a) amended; other nonsubstantive changes; Ord. 188-15
, Eff. 12/4/2015. Division (d) amended; Proposition E, 3/3/2020, Eff. 4/17/2020.