SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) — A San Francisco Superior Court judge is allowing a lawsuit to

proceed that could invalidate a 2014 voter-approved ballot measure, known as

Proposition B, which requires developers to seek approval from voters prior

to construction of any project that exceeds height limits on port property.

The lawsuit, filed by the California State Lands Commission

against the City and County of San Francisco, after the measure was approved

in the June 2014 election, aims to invalidate the voter-approved measure that

gives San Franciscans a right to vote on height increases for new development

on waterfront property managed by the Port of San Francisco.

On Wednesday, Judge Suzanne R. Bolanos dismissed portions of the

suit, but allowed the parts dealing with state interests to proceed,

according to the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office.

The ruling upholds the power of San Franciscans to determine

building heights on the city’s waterfront, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis

Herrera said in a statement Wednesday.

Herrera said he is pleased that the judge dismissed the

commission’s claim that the measure conflicts with the city’s charter and

that judge acknowledged that the measure is consistent with the Burton Act.

“This ruling upholds the power of San Francisco and its voters

over building heights on the City’s waterfront, and is in keeping with over

45 years of land use regulation in San Francisco,” Herrera said.

However, Bolanos denied the City Attorney’s motion to dismiss the

entire case and she granted the State Lands Commission an opportunity to

prove that the passage of Proposition B harms state interests on San

Francisco’s waterfront.

Herrera said his office is prepared to show the court that

Proposition B is currently not so burdensome to the Port of San Francisco as

to be preempted by state law.

Jon Golinger, an activist with the group No Wall on the

Waterfront, which supported Proposition B and maintains that San Franciscans

deserve the right to weigh in on what gets built on their waterfront,

expressed his pleasure with the judge’s ruling.

“Now the burden will be on the State Lands Commission and

developers to provide the judge with facts that prove their claim that the

state’s interests have been somehow undermined by reasonable height limits,”

Golinger said.

“Since San Francisco voters just overwhelmingly approved the Pier

70 project’s height limit increase in November, how the state will prove its

case is a mystery, but we will see,” Golinger said.

In November 2014, voters approved Proposition F, the Pier 70

Redevelopment Initiative, which allowed the developer to increase the height

limits on Pier 70 from 40 feet to 90 feet.

Golinger said the developers did exactly what his group had hoped.

He said the developers had a much taller proposal, they scaled it down and

added affordable housing, and voters approved it.

Sheri Pemberton, a spokeswoman for the California State Lands

Commission declined to comment on the judge’s motion, explaining that the

Commission is unable to comment on pending litigation.

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