The idea of banning new corporate cafeterias to bolster surrounding neighborhood businesses was unanimously shot down Thursday by the San Francisco Planning Commission after kitchen staff from several of the private dining operations said the office chow crackdown would hurt them.

The commission voted 5-0 to recommend against the proposed ordinance, which would amend the San Francisco Planning Code to prohibit new “employee cafeterias within office space.” The legislation would exempt cafeterias already in operation or those that were approved by July 24.

Supervisor Ahsha Safaí introduced the legislation in July, with Supervisor Aaron Peskin signing on as a co-sponsor. It will next move to the Board of Supervisors Land Use and Transportation Committee, with a negative recommendation from the Planning Commission.

The proposed cafeteria ban comes at a time when at least 44 San Francisco companies, including many high-profile tech firms such as Airbnb and Twitter, treat their employees to often-lavish lunchtime spreads.

The free food is an effective recruiting tool and, some companies say, enhances productivity by keeping workers from wandering off at lunchtime. But critics say the cafeterias hurt local restaurants and exacerbate the gap between ordinary and well-paid tech workers, who can take advantage of office perks such as all-you-can-eat sushi, in-house laundry service and yoga.

The cafeterias have been blamed for the high retail turnover on central Market Street, where multiple restaurants have failed in recent years, despite rapid growth of neighborhood companies such as Square, Uber and Twitter.

City Planning Department staff had recommended approval of the proposed ordinance, but with major changes. They included allowing corporate cafeterias on the first floor of buildings, which would be open to the public — who would have to pay — and giving employees meal vouchers to use at local restaurants, something some firms already do.

The Planning Department report also said some cafeteria workers earn 30 percent higher wages than restaurant workers and that the 9-to-5 corporate jobs often have more predictable hours and better benefits than those in restaurants.

Multiple employees who work in the cafeteria at Airbnb, where the food service is outsourced to Bon Appétit Management Co., said that the ban would mean that a planned new cafeteria at the company could not open. Kitchen workers at Airbnb, who start at $19.50 an hour, recently organized a union.

The cafeterias at Airbnb employ 135 unionized kitchen staff and 21 managers, who earn a starting salary of $55,000. A plan for a second Airbnb cafeteria with 110 kitchen workers is in the works, but would not go forward if the legislation were to pass. The company spends $7 million a year buying food from Bay Area businesses, Matt Middlebrook, Airbnb’s chief of public policy, told the commissioners.

“We’ve got some of the highest-paid kitchen workers in California,” line cook Marcus Mack told the planning commissioners. The legislation “would be harmful and detrimental to local San Franciscans — people who grew up out here, like myself.”

Other speakers said the cafeterias support local businesses by ordering large amounts of food.

Todd Rubin, owner of the Republic of Tea, said the legislation “threatens the livelihood of vendors like my company that provides teas to people around the Bay Area.”

“Supporting restaurants is important, but there are smarter ways to do it and it should not be done at the cost of small businesses like mine,” he said.

Jennifer Stojkovic, executive director of the tech industry group sf.citi, said the legislation would cost the industry 350 future jobs.

Despite the Planning Commission vote, Safaí said he would continue to work on the legislation and continue to meet with a working group that includes some of the big tech firms that have cafeterias.

“We have no intention to rush this. We want to get it right,” Safaí said after the vote. “We are the epicenter for the type of business that houses these kinds of cafeterias. They are isolated and not paying sales tax and not open to the public.”

While Safaí said that only a handful of corporate cafeterias are unionized, research director Ian Clark of SEIU Local 2, which represents hotel and some restaurant workers, said workers in company cafeterias are increasingly organizing.

“There are many corporate cafeterias where working conditions are terrible, but workers have a better shot of organizing into a union there than in restaurants or catering companies,” he said.

Planning Commissioner Millie Johnson said the legislation has sparked an important “community conversation” but that the legislation was too narrow and its impact not well enough understood.

“This whole thing needs more time to bake,” she said.

Commissioner Dennis Richards called the legislation “well intentioned” and said “it is a sobering fact” that there are empty storefronts and failed restaurants on Mid-Market blocks where thousands of well-paid tech employees go every day.

“Thought we would have a vibrant street scene, and that hasn’t happened,” he said of the area, where many tech firms moved to take advantage of a city benefit called the “Twitter tax break” several years ago.

J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jdineen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfjkdineen