The proposed Navigation Center on the Embarcadero could be up and running in much less time than it normally takes to open a homeless shelter in San Francisco, thanks to a pair of ordinances unanimously approved by the Board of Supervisors Tuesday.

The legislation, sponsored by Mayor London Breed, exempts shelters and Navigation Centers from the building permit process and expedites the hiring of contractors to manage the facilities. The changes could shave as much as nine months off the process for opening new homeless shelters.

“We need to cut the bureaucracy that delays new shelters from being created in order to get our unhoused residents the care and services they need to help them exit homelessness,” Breed said in a statement.

If the Port of San Francisco allows the city to build a proposed 200-bed Navigation Center at Seawall Lot 330 across from Piers 30-32, the city will not have to go through the normal building and permit process. Instead, directors from relevant departments — such as the Fire Department, Department of Building Inspection and Public Works — will just have to sign memos authorizing construction after a set of inspections.

That’s because one of the ordinances declared a “shelter crisis” in San Francisco, which triggered provisions of a state bill that allows city officials to skirt a number of building code requirements when setting up a homeless shelter.

Public appeals will now have less impact on shelters approved by the city, as there will be no building permits to take issue with. The Board of Supervisors, however, could still vote to veto proposed shelter locations with a supermajority vote.

To ensure accountability in the process, the ordinance requires the Department of Homelessness and Humans Services and the Department of Public Works to submit detailed annual reports on all contracts awarded under the expedited procedure.

The ordinances were “critical” for the timely opening of the proposed Navigation Center in South Beach, said Emily Cohen, a policy adviser to the mayor on homelessness.

“This will allow us to do both a robust community process and the contracting to open the facility in a streamlined way that could otherwise take much longer,” Cohen said at last week’s Land Use and Transportation Committee.

The proposed shelter on the Embarcadero would be the city’s first SAFE Navigation Center, which offers similar services to Navigation Centers but would be bigger and stay open longer. It hit major resistance last week, when residents of Rincon Hill, South Beach, South Park and Mission Bay jammed two community meetings in overwhelming opposition.

A Port Commission vote is expected in April, following more community outreach by the homelessness department and other agencies.

Also at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, Supervisor Matt Haney proposed a resolution to rename Gilbert Street in honor of late Public Defender Jeff Adachi, who died last month. Gilbert Street runs parallel to Sixth and Seventh Streets next to the public defender’s office.

“For decades, Jeff Adachi walked from the public defender’s office back entrance door out to Gilbert Street to get to the criminal courthouse at 850 Bryant,” Haney said. “Jeff would use Gilbert Street not just as his daily thoroughfare, but also as a place to connect with, mentor, and support fellow attorneys on their way to and from the court.”

If the resolution is approved, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency would have to create a new street sign that says “Jeff Adachi Way” in a larger font, with Gilbert Street in smaller font below it for five years.

After five years, SFMTA can create a new sign that includes only the new name.

Trisha Thadani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tthadani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TrishaThadani