Transcripts For SFGTV Board Of Appeals 20240711

For rebuttal. They are affiliated and seven to three minutes. Members of the public have up to three minutes each to address the board. For jurisdiction there is no rebuttal. Given that the board has a vacancy three votes are required to grant an appeal or jurisdiction request. If you have a question send us an email. Public access and participation is paramount to the board and makes the hearing process. To enable participation its it broadcasting and streaming live. To watch the hearing on tv go to sf. Gov. It will be rebroadcast on channel 26. A link to the live stream is found on our webpage. Public comment can be provided in two ways. Join the zoom meeting by computer. Head to our website sf. Gov. Org or callin by telephone. Call 16698900. Again, sf. Gov is broadcasting the phone number and access instructions across the bottom of the screen dial star nine which is similar to raising your hands. You will have three minutes and our legal clerk will provide you with a warning. There is a delay between the live proceedings to what is broadcast. Its very import tan that people calling in reduce or turn off the volume of their computers otherwise there is an interference. If you need a disability accommodation or Technical Assistance make a request in the chat or send an email to the board of appeals. Chat cannot be used for Public Comment. We will swear in all those that would like to testify. If you intend to testify and wish to have the board give your testimony evidencey weight raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth . Okay, thank you. If you are a participant and not speaking put your zoom speaker on mute. Commissioners, we have a few housekeeping items for item 5a and 5b. 20 dash 6 and 207 at 2647 chestnut street. They would like this to be continued until january 13th 2021. We would need a motion and vote to continue. Ill make that motion. Okay, is there any Public Comment on the motion . Let me look over here. No one is raising their hand. We have a motion from commissioner honda to continue. Roll roll [roll call]. That motion carries 40. Those items are continued. Our second housekeeping item is item number seven appeal number 20070. The parties would also like the matter continued to january 13, 2021. Ill also make that motion. Okay. Any Public Comment on that motion raise your hand . Okay, i dont see anybody raising their hand on that motion commissioner. I. President lazarus. That matter is also continued. We are moving onto Public Comment. Thats not on tonights calendar. Is there any member that wish to speak on tonights agenda. If so raise your hand. If you called in you can press star nine. Okay, i dont see hands raised. We will move over. Commissioners. Okay, well move onto item number three. Commissioners adoption of the minutes for november 4, toss 20 4, 2020 board meeting. Is there any Public Comment please raise your hand. I dont see any Public Comment. President lazarus and Vice President honda. Aye. So, that motion carries 40 and the minutes are adopted. We are moving onto item numb bier four jurisdiction request 208. 2891. The appeal period ended on october 15th. Lindsey and john its a revision to 20161026. This is for the first level. They service the basement on the first floor. So, well here from the requester first. Welcome. Thank you. You have three minutes mr. Paul. Thank you director rosinburg. Good evening commissioner this is a new experience for me and nice to see you all. I look forward to being back in the same room. This is a really amazing situation thats happened here. The property in question we had a proposal and this is the dr that went to the Planning Commission. They limited the scope of the project. They have proceeded. Work began and then the project sponsor exceeded the scope of the permit. Not just by a little bit but a lot. They ellegally exask a serrated the backyard undermining the foundations of both properties. The Apartment Building to the east, who im speaking on behalf of us undermined the dr requester. They felt they had they are entitled to note it legalized the illegal exask a invasion. They had a right to know. Comments were made about the notation and the extend of the Planning Department to not inform. I understand his reasoning and feels the obligation is limited only to the original permit. At some point, they think the bbm requester and dr requester is no longer interested and doesnt need to know. That doesnt make a lot of sense but id like to share the screen now and show a few pictures. Lets see if we have it. Do we have it . Yes. Sorry, we see, yes. 30 seconds. My time is up. Okay section 3307 stop screen sharing. Section 33. 7 of the Building Code requires a notification to be provided by the project sponsor. Without that, this is not a validly issued permit. They are used in a case back in may and familiar with them. This excavation was done. Time. Okay, thank you, mr. Paul. We will hear from representatives from to permit holder mr. Gladstone. Welcome. Can you hear me . Yes, we can hear you once work began there was more usable space existing under the building than previously thought. We filed a separate permit to create Additional Space downstairs that doesnt involve any building expansion and cannot be seen by any neighbor. It involves a new lower level where Additional Space will be created. Bbm noticed the Second Review of the permit. A dbn provides notice when the permit is initially reviewed. They approved this before the bbn was filed on december 2, 2019. It should be been sent after the bbfn filing. They reviewed the permit once it was filed. They usually ask for a rereview so the plans are consistent with what decision was made by planning earlier. That was decided much earlier in the process when they determined if it meets the planning code. Put mr. Sanchezs east side email on the screen. Around the time the bby request was filed they aformed the aappealent they would need to track this on dbis website. This is when it occurs. You forgive the mistake and not track the permit as advised to do so. The implications would menu set the precedent of allowing future precedents to track issuance of permits through the dbi website to make a later filing. If you were to set this your board with the request of jurisdiction. A final word. 30 seconds. They give independent notifications. You can see in my brief it says, quote, only when dbi issued alterations, unquote. Does a notification get sent to the owners of the adjacent properties and of course the permit before you involves no structural additions. Thank you very much. Thank you. Well hear from the Planning Department. Mr. Sanchez. Thank you, good evening, Scott Sanchez Planning Department. The matter before you is the property at 2622 greenwich street. The subject property was the subject of a previous request where the Planning Committee took view. The permit is a revision to the permit. It doesen require section 311 notice. After the original permit was issued it exceeded the scope of the work by the requester and may have been issues related to the buildings and their foundation. Ill refer it to disaccuse those matters. The permit before you was filed on september 27, 2019. It has additional on october 19 around or after that time. The jurisdiction contacted and made a complaint regarding additional excavation. We had conversations with the planner. They could file a bbr or requirement for future permits a and track the status online when it was issued and available. There are other agencies that require prevision. There are a final set of plans because they have been updated there is a policy and not a code requirement. It doesnt livein the planning code. We could establish a fee. This predates our current requirements and loss of notice of permits by the Planning Department. 30 seconds. Its not subject in the bbm. We performed this on our first review and not subsequent reviews. It will require a separate notice. We dont notice every time a permit ingredients brought back to us. Im available for any questions the board might have. The bbn was properly followed. Time. Thank you. Thank you; we do have a question from commissioner swig. Scott, this really bothered me. I looked at it if i was the neighbor next door how would i feel. My reaction, i cant use the word but id feel pretty bad. The other thing mr. Gladstone used the word significant change. I dont know, but this wasnt moving, you know, a light socket. This wasnt moving a wall two or three feet or something internally that wouldnt have had a Significant Impact on the neighbor. This was the removal of a lot of dirt. This was the removal of this also exposed, it seemed two neighbors foundations. I would term this as significant and should have involved some level of notice to a neighbor for their review and appropriate feedback. Why am i feeling this was overlooked a Significant Impact and notice for the first time so a neighbor could have provided that feedback in the appeal. Under section 311 it doesnt require notice for this scope of work. Excavations in basements dont requirement it under section 311. Its for the expansion and changes of use. The scope of work here doesnt require notice under the planning code. These permitments are permit are reviewed routinely. As far as our understanding of this. Staff told them about the scope of work. There was communication after planning approved the permit. They were aware of the permit. Its my understanding they had knowledge of the permit. If they have concerns and would like to appeal it to the board. The on mechanism for that is the bbn wont get you notice of permit issuance. Its just when they first review it. The question of where was the notice when the permit was issued. They dont address that. The Building Code has certain is there triggers. They informed the jurisdiction requesters. We can track it and when issued they could file an appeal to the board of appeals. Thats the process we have for these types of permits. There is no city or code requirements for notice of the scope of work. So, my point is if they were informed to lookout for the permit. They werent dell diligent about the permit. Is there tough luck and werent diligent. Is that your understanding. We dont have, i think what happened here is covid19 happened between. Staff approved this last october. It wasnt until september when the permit was issued. There is no other process they could be notified. They have to track on the tracking system to see if it is issued. There is no other legal method for this im thinking of a case and it might be apples and bananas. We all think its endless. It was a case in which the permit holder continued to dig and dig and exposed a foundation on at least one side of the project and we heard from that that appellant that was upset with the scope that seemed to change in a neverending fashion. More explanation was done. What was the difference between that case and this case. In terms of, i think whatever it was decades of construction. This is work over the last few years and in this case, you know, none of the work required notice. In terms of the case in sacramento i cant speak to the Building Code be the scope of work doesnt require notice. Ultimately, in this case there might be harm caused to a neighbor who he is foundation was exposed there was harm caused to the neighbor in the sacramento. How do you deal with that harm. Thats within the department of building. The chief inspector has been working. Thank you. Thank you. We will now here im sorry. I saw your hand before. Did you have a question . Let me just confirm that the president is with us. I lowered my hand. Ill wait for inspector jesse. Inspector jesse, welcome. Dbi and its on our radar for a year. I got involved for a month ago. For a brief introduction to it i have been to a meeting and encouraged people to work together. Ill give you a brief overview and noticed we contacted on october 19th. We issued notices. We also issued the violation. They undermined and exposed it. Its not the engineer and come up with a solution. At that time and this is something i learned a month ago. The engineer from the project due to the excavation that was done. Both neighbors hired a sip separate engineer and worked with a way to come up with a Building Permit that would provide a common wall to address the foundation. You will hear me talking about the under pinning the proper process. They didnt do an permit. They did do the retaining wall permit. They build it in front of the neighbors wall thats not acting for the foundation of this permit. It addressed the immediate yacht concerns. Maybe the engineers need to speak to this. Was there under pinning required on the neighbor side as well. The neighbors seem to indicate that. The owner of to property didnt seem to be imposed to that. They got the Insurance Company involved. These people need to get together and cooperate. This is a separate request. They issued the permit that got reviewed. I checked them out with the bureau. It doesnt fall under the notification process for dbi. 30 seconds. It didnt fall under that. There is notification required. This is before they do the excavation. That was pretty impossible because they didnt without a permit. It wasnt lack of notification. There are a lot of moving parts here but my takeaway time. Sorry guys. We have a question from president lazarus. Inspector, jesse, id like to clarify is the permit in question the one to respond to the nov regarding the excavation . Thats a good question. No. They did takeout a permit on their own property. Its a common area to address this. That was issue on the 28th of october. They report these retaining walls. That was the permit to address the nov this is a revision thats a bigger permit. What this is for is when we did this they would go on another level. They would have to apply for that. They serviced the basement on the lower level. So, because of the excavation that was done without a permit. Does that make sense. I think so, they took advantage of the situation and now they are taking farther advantage because they created this extra space and plan to use it and thats the permit we are talking about. There is no farther excavation in the permit in question. No, no, no. Basically, with the fixed permit to address our novs thats the foundation for this new lowered area. It didnt put any concrete or foundation under the neighbors side. We have two different opinions on that and i know i believe the engineer knows apparently some discussion with the time there was no need for under pinning. Now hes saying i believe there is. Thats in the background there are so many. The question i have with the neighbors if we open up to an appeal and where will we get to that at that point. There is that end of it as well. Thats just me thinking like that. Well be six weeks talking about this and if we are, thats fine. Im not sure what they expect. To clarify, the parties have some coordination that happened between engineers but not enough. It seemed like there was a lot of cooperation a year ago. With the permit issued for the provision we were contacted again. What can we do about it. Not much was happening for a year im not clear how that all broke down. The neighbor, i left them there and we had a discussion among themselves. We will figure out what they will do and these buildings on either side. Under pinning installed. Okay, just to end my questions. In your view no department has contributed to a delay in appealing the permit. Not from dbi. We do notification and thats not one of them. Its not a notification. Its not as part of the department bureau. I knew it was an issue tonight. This is not one of them. Its not part of it. Okay, thank you very much. Thank you. Commissioner swig has a county then Vice President honda. Sure, mr. Duffie, you left me hanging there as you were forced to end your time. Would you like to finish your thought please on that so i could get a full range of understanding of this or did you just handle it properly with commissioner lazarus. Well, if you would like to let me word it. I know i was appreciated for time. Its a typical situation where you have someone who did something they shouldnt have done. The remedy, we are not 100 sure everybody is happy with the remedy we are wondering if work was done with our department but they got a permit for that. It seems like they took care of it quickly but what needs to be done with them. Its usually to do it but the importance for the under pinning work would have to be done from inside the neighboring property. It could be done but there might be a different opinion from the engineers. I think, the engineer said the under pinning is required. I think that shows everything. Maybe the people dont like this. Lets go in and there are some issues. All right, i dont know where to ask this of yourself of ask this of mr. Russie. Is the issue here really that is the issue here that the permit is a bad permit and should have been subject to an appeal or is the issue here that the permit was issued appropriately but the, simply the time ran out on the jurisdiction request even though the situation is flawed it just tough luck because thats the way the cookie crumbles. From a legal standpoint or making sense. I can, mr. Russie you want to speak to your part . Can i jump in for a second, greg. Sure. I think as it madam president remind us we are gone off into no mans land. What is before us is the jurisdiction request if the city caused the apellet to not have a case or file. Thats what im asking. So, where this is a bad permit or good permit thats before us. Exactly. Before is the jurisdiction request and where we could appeal on the project or not and if the city caused them not to be able to file in a timely manner. Right. Would you still like mr. Russie to respond. I think i need mr. Russies opinion to if there was a flawed nature with the citys ability in issuing the permit. Just like darrell was trying to get me back on track. All right, good evening, commissioners. I havent heard anything from planning or dbi that would indicate they made error to the neighbor of issuance of the permit. There was no notice to be given. Im not aware of anything in city codes that would have required notice. Okay, thank you. Thank you. We have auto have a question volume Vice President honda. Vice president , honda, did you have a question or no. Im muted. Sorry, im talking to myself. Ill reiterate what is before is a jurisdictional request. If we feel its permitted for the work that was done, the illegal work that was done is good or bad. Thats not before us. We are moving onto Public Comment. If you could race your hand to speak. Mr. Wagner, well let you into the meeting. Can you Say Something. Yes, thank you. Can you hear me . Yes, welcome. Thank you very much. This is all we just lost the sound. Mr. Wagner. Yes, did you lose the sound. We can hear you now. You have three minutes. Thank you very much. This is my first time. Im chris wagner and i live at the adjacent property at 2636 greenwich. I believe i have the right to be part of the massive excavation. Someone said it wasnt trivial. There was a lot of dirt being moved out. I feel like we are the victim here. We werent informed of the project. Inspector said we should have received information and alteration from the department of building inspect. Neither of these things happened and the exinvasion that was done over a year ago under found our foundation. I expect the Billing Department and dont understand the code discussed here. To protect the property there is illegal excavation of 300 courgette and undermined of of my property i would hope the City Government and code wouldnt enforce this type of thing. The permit was given inner error. I should have been notified of the permit and have a right to be heard. We are a few weeks beyond the deadline but we should be able to be heard. I ask the board to give us an opportunity. We are are the victim of the gross negligence by our neighbor. We would like the opportunity to be heard. Thank you very much. Thank you. We have a question from Vice President honda. Sir, so looking at the brief what interaction did you have when you saw the work being performed. The first notification was in october 20, 2019. We received a notice of violation that our foundation was exposed and undermined. Who happened when that happened . A meeting with the engineers, structure allen get your nears. It was in the beginning of rainy season so, we felt an immediate yacht threat to our foundation and their building that wasnt very secure as far as structure ally sound through all of the excavation. There wasnt a time crunch. It wasnt intended to be a permanent solution. It was what is a quick fix for our building and their building. Sorry to interrupt you and sorry you had to go through that. That easterble to have your foundation exposed during the winter months. When this was happening did you contact the planning or Building Department. What was the interaction with those agencies . That was a year ago. They were onsite during one of the conversations with the structure al engineer. What is before us is i know this is your first interaction. Ill explain it easier. When a permit is filed you have 15 days to file an appeal on that permit. Once the 15 days has expired your right to appeal is lost. You can file for what is called jurisdiction where the body will take control of the permit. What im trying to determine here is if you had interaction with the city as in the brief indicationed the other party is notified they needed to look at the city website. Unfortunately. Its not the citys responsibility. I know that sounds bad it wasnt the citys responsibility to notify you. Where you aware . No, not at all. When you found out they did illegal work you thought your only remedy was to lit let the city inspectors come to the property. Work stopped for a good year and we had no knowledge of a new permit being issued or what the status of it was. Many times in the neighborhood you see permit signs on buildings giving some kind of notification work started up this week and this week they went below our foundation and under it. So when your foundation was exposed did you contact a structure al engineer yourself. Yes. Were they in contact with the permit holder in the building. There should be some communication. If there wasnt one there should be a problem. Did you let them know they were doing work . Our structure allen begin near worked with shares you said they were working. They had no communication with your structure allen begin near . No. Thank you. I actually have a question for the permit holder or representative. We are still in Public Comment. Do you want to finish that out. Is there anyone else here for Public Comment. We have to phone number epidemicking 7807. Go ahead. Can you hear me, we cant here here hear you. This is lorie brook. Im the next door neighbor. We have a two unit building. The wagners are the subject property. There are a few things id like to mention. One is when the excavation was done last year and pile of dirt formed in the backyard. Neighbors im not a construction person by trade. I didnt look, hum, that looks like a lot of dirt to be removing maybe this should trigger a report. As i as i now know it was over 50 cubic feet of dirt and that from what i understand that would have required a review. I was also told from mr. Sanchez the code has changed. We were calling in the window between greater for a review. The point being that should have triggered some kind of eir for the reason we are here today. When someone moves that much dirt you not only risk the slippage but undermining the adjacent properties. My second one i wanted to reiterate that chris mentioned they are digging again under our property. We have a picture of, the dirt has been torn up to slush with our building and now underneath it. After all we talked about it still hasnt stopped the work being done i believe they asked us what would good done. Wed like our Building Back to where it started. The retaining wall wont solve this longterm. Should someday someone move in and take them away our buildings are exposed. I agree, we need someone to give us the final word. Right now, we are stick with they can keep covering up the damage until we get resolutions. We would like something stopped right now. We need proper decisions made here. Thank you, we have a question from commissioner swig. As a courtesy to the caller and also to satisfy my curiosity. Mr. Sanchez, could you address that issue with regard to a change of stature of the review when certain amount of dirt is removed from a location. Im not the chief inspector duffy thats involved with the project. The scope of the work doesnt trigger the Environmental Review. It could be categoric done. Separately, a conversation about the thresholds for under which the Environmental Review into thats the question for our Environmental Review folks. I had a question with their staff and there is a variety of thresholds. 5,000 cubic yards is one of them but there are others such as the height of a cot or slope of a lot that would trigger it. Its not just the 5,000 cubic yards but there are other thresholds and this didnt trigger additional review. Did you have a question for the caller. Did you want to ask a question. No, ill wait. We are still on Public Comment and phone number ending in 6187. Welcome. Im christian. Im the party we are representing. Maam, this is Public Comment. Your time has been allotted to build gladstone. Mr. Paul. Right, im sorry. Mr. Paul. Im sorry. Is there anyone for Public Comment, please raise your hand . Okay. I dont see anyone else. We have commissioners from the commissioners. President las angeles arduous has a question. Yes, thank you. Im not sure whom to address this. Does the jurisdiction request automatically extend the permit. There is exinvasions exinvasion ask excavations going on. Vice president honda. My question is to the permit council. Why is there continued work going on at this point . What communications does your engineers have with the neighboring engineers . Can you hear me . Yes. Well, first of all i requested jurisdiction doesnt us suspend work. Thats why work is going on. We are interested in having our engineers work with their interagain engineer. Mr. Duffy im asking the questions right now mr. Gladstone. If you are so interested working with the neighbors, why are they concern work is being done and they are not aware of it. If you are working with them shouldnt they have told them . Yes, our engineers have been in continual contact with their engineers. The reason our engineers havent been in contact is because its technical. Mr. Gladstone, the person not the appellate. The person that owns the building that just spoke under Public Comment there is continued work being done and they were not notified or aware. If your people are talking to their people. I cant image their people are not talking to them. Thats what im asking here. If i could repeat the question . Why is the work being done on the property and the People Living at the next door property unaware of it . Ill have the architect answer the this question. Its beyond me. Gary, the architect respond. Yes. This is gary. The architect. Hi. The neighbors engineer did meet about two weeks ago with mr. Duffy and everybody onsite. Our engineer has been in communication with their engineer and forwarded all of the communication from about a year ago for the foundation permit stop. The question is there is work being done as of last week. Correct. What council representing the permit holder indicated that your representatives have been in direct contact with their representatives. Thats correct. How come the people that live next door dont know this . Im not asking about a year ago. Im asking what happened a week ago. Why is there work being done they are not aware of. Thats impossible. They were at the meeting. When was that meeting . Two weeks ago, i think it was. Duffy was there as well . At which point they said you will do continual work from that point on . Yeah, they saw the work happening. Everybody was there. Both neighbors, representative, sales engineer. Joe duffy was there. Since you are the architect, are there gio markers on the property before and after. There was a survey taken and zero movement has been shown. There was markers prior to the excavation. Yes, prior to any work being done and surveys were forwarded to the neighbors about to two weeks ago. Thank you, id like to announce i see a few hands raised from the people who provided Public Comment but the Public Comment portion is over unless the commissioners have a question. Commissioner this matter is submitted. This is a very narrow issue. We feel that has been work thats been harmful in a different forum. Again, if i was a neighbor id be extremely upset. According to the parameter we are offered which is if they were properly processed and if the city is at fault, thats our parameters, i think as upset as i would be as a neighbor the permits went through the proper processing according to city statues and there for seems that our hands are tied on this one no matter how much fault we feel has been offered to the neighbors. Verisimilar thought and different prospective if we had the ability. I dont think, i believe it would harm the process by taking the appeal at this point i trust in the building and planning this is on everybodies radar right now and that the proper inspects will be done. Im very sympathetic to the Neighboring Properties and project holders. Shame on you. Where its worth 50,000 or 50 million. This is someones home i sure hope it gets resolved for everyone going forward. So, you know, without anything else ill make a motion to deny the jurisdiction request that the city didnt invertly cause the filer to not be able to file. Okay. Can i ask commissioner to weighin with his thoughts, please. The attorney. Id like to ask our other attorney what his feelings are on this. Sorry commissioner for calling you out. You are very good at what you do. Thank you, commissioner. I dont have any different feelings. Can you raise your volume a little bit. Is this better. Yes. Im sorry. I had the wrong microphone selected. My feelings are no different from those of Vice President honda. I believe its an unfortunately situation but the law is clear. I hope that the department would all do what it needs to do in the case regardless of what we do. My motion stands. Okay. So, we have a motion from. Vice president honda to deny the request. As a required rear yard of 21 feet and 10 and a half inches and the minimum of 25 required. The existing deck extends 18 feet and 10 inches into the require rear yard and three and and rear yard experiences are required. And we will hear from the appeal appellant. Can you hear me . You have seven minutes. Well wait until you get on. Thank you. Can you hear me . Please reverse the decision in order to enforce and its 2016 notice of the enforcement and dnf adjacent neighbors and south and private see should be projected and mr. Walker is building two planning and its fully built and and and exhibit a, and and without and to door and let the letter and and and and in the 2004 notice violation and letters and new decks and confirming that in the first floor. This is exhibit c. The enf and 174, 176 and and we require to remove for legalize and subject to planning code 311 and its a cp2 and they were built within rear yard setback requirement in violation of the code 134 and dbi complaints that is regarding 2004 clients and they workers representative and he has to file for a new deck. Case no permits to legalize debt and et cetera unquote thats the exhibit d. Mr. Walker now claims the 2018 permit is a 2004 and injob description is the four other icons that you enter and excluding that and come from the stairs and thats exhibit e and it did not obey the enf and at all and nor the debtor confirming stairs in nov and i filed sunshine request for public records and they did not produce any records and showing that an inspector waved the Building Code that required each step of stairs to be 350 in width and allowed the confirm to stay without correction and planning help mr. Walker the defending 311 and 1134. Planning did not provide the requirement in the enf when permit to legalize and it has been filed and notify and this variances for at lower deck and 26666 high street only. Planning is we have the rit to know based on which code the planning it give the be joke exception and this decision did not meet any of the five requirement and they decided mrl construction become exceptional and extraordinary. Every owner is required to obey the violations and to obey them are not exceptional and nor extraordinary. They also decided that to obey the violation first of all the violation is not for obey the violation mr. Walker besides the violation and the other report and indicated that without permission he can to office that he is in the wise and he admits he could inaudible no more that be 10 feet of the adjacent sidewalks and no variance and he chose not to do that and they decided that it was necessary processed by other property in the same district and we are the only adjacent neighbors his lower large deck, 20 feet high and railing are less than 350 from our property and windows and and they are on the debt looking at our privacy and the new solid taller blocking much more light. They extending on the deck. Theyre not standing on the railing. So it does not resolve the privacy issues. Our window was security and other windows are much lower than this railing. He should not be allowed to build new inaudible . Less than three feet from Property Line. Totally disregarding our concerns for more light being blocked. Planning enf, pending violation must be responsible and prior to any priest of the operation and it will not be held and exhibit f. You should all the Planning Team forces its own requirements and the decision is not meet any of the five mandates of requirements and please revers the decision. Thank you. O. Than we will hear from the determination older, mr. Walker. I saw you earlier. He needs to unmute himself. He is working on it. Can you hear me now. Yes, we can. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you for your service on this board. 1966, bruce moody and i bought this building and in 1970 we applied for a Building Permit to repair the existing deck, which had been there since the 1930s. In the course of getting this permit the inspector asked us to get permission to have our architect Actual Office in the building that was zoned residential at the time. In which we did. With a ruling from you people, in 1970. We havent been back since than time. Recently there was a notice of violation and it will be filed by a neighbor. One of the violations required that the para pit on this deck be 30 inches high rather than 2. Because this para pit was in the rear yard, this required a variance because for safety, it should now be 42 inches high and we applied for variant for 42inch high para pit which we did, we did apply for this and that is why were here today is we applied for that variance. My associate dean will fill you in with the rest of the story. Hello board members, can you hear me . Yes, we can. Good evening. Thank you. If you can bring up that first image number one a the opening image. This variance is necessary to comply with the specific life safety directive from the Building Department better roads of permit number 201806181445. That permit was for compliance with a Plan Department enforcement action and we believe those rose from complaints made by the appellant. First, this is a unique building and lot. The height street front age that have a cable car in front of them and please note theres a steep set of steps leading up to the front entry door in that previous photo. This is the unique rear yard condition at the corner lot you can go ahead and the next image and its particularly relevant to this variance and the rear yard continue is consistent with the over 100yearold and the properties to the south and similar year yard number 6a sanborn these were all developed around 1904 and Eye Department l and and this corner lot is unique among the four its the lowest of the four at the bottom of the hill and a steep grade drops and 14 feet vertically in 22 and a half feet south the north and a longstanding near if deck 5a aerial is at the rear yard and this is shown on this 1938 Aerial Survey of the city you can scroll to the next image in that document and one can see it indicated by the shadow patterns and shown here and and in that theres one more in tha. One can see it is indicated in those shadow patterns. This is andy sign solution to provide useable open space as directed by the San Francisco planning code and you can go to the next one number four rear elevation. The primary occupied floor of 2666 hide is 20 feet above the north point street sidewalk at the rear Northeast Corner of the lot which is the term of the secondary means of egress at the building at the rear deck. The deck is the same level of the main occupy able floor of the building and this current configuration allows for this space to be sensible from that there were of the building to be out of shadow much of the day and allows for the existing refer actively straight forward exit path out of the building which is in place for decades. The work of the variance itself involves a rebuilding and infilling of the existing wood para pit at one side of the deck and you can go to 2a. The next image. Its solid for 24 inches in height with an open wood balance as to 42 inches in height and that detail mimics the one at the historic front facade of the building and it was to make it a proposal to make it a solid 42inch high fire rated para pit. It seems to be two main points to the appellants claims. Weve addressed those in detail and ill comment in brief here and one is that theres not been a pro view variance and mer might and the San Francisco building and Planning Departments is reyo reviewed ths case for four years. I wouldnt get into the details of it but in short an extraordinary amount of hours have been devoted by the city of San Francisco and walker and moody to this permit and variance. The second point argues the work of the variance and light that enters the windows and constitution privacy and create a hardship for her and her tenants. Our response brief clearly demonstrates that these contentions are unfounded and go to the next image 3a windows for one, there are no windows adjacent to the length of this proposed para pit. The windows the appellant mentions and you go to the next image, down 3b, are not that near to the para pit and are in fact south of the southern end of the parapit. These windows are operable and appear to not are and and you can scroll to 3c. Its other existing and sites that have a greater and the if anything, the new solid para pit who increase privacy. Its been modified without permits to add fences and windows that not non confirming. The code should be followed and we should all be neighborly. Walker and moody has worked in food faith from the start, we both planning and building to get the permits to resolve this nov and enf. Were very eager to complete the work necessary to resolve these cases. We respectfully and whole fatheredly request the board to deny this appeal. Thank you. We have a question from Vice President honda. So, in your brief, besides the Property Line windows and they appear to open up in someone elses property but you mentioned theres a set of stairs that is either straddling the Property Line or not on the Property Line and i connect seeing that in the brief . Yes, i can jump in here. The stairs are on the 2666 hyde street side of the rear Property Line and essentially you have throw foot easement that goes along the rear of all the the properties and on hyde street and provides and and theres a set of stairs that and is i believe that is the briefly indicated and im having a hard time to understand that correctly. Behind our property, theres a fence that is built above our steps and the walker moody side of the property and and reiterate this and we did not build on working that fence. We have something to contribute to that because i didnt understand that portion. And it was built on our property we think and without a permit, and my do its hard to believe that ellen was not the person that built it. And that is what you are describing between the appellants property and yours . Yes. Thats it, thank you. Ok. Thank you. We will now hear from the Planning Department. Mr. Sanchez. Thank you, Scott Sanchez Planning Department. What is before you now is an appeal of a variance decision letter that was issued for the property at 2666 hyde street located within rh3 Zoning District. Its a very discrete variance, a rear yard variance and it was articulated by the variance holder to fill in a small portion of of an existing rail to make it up to 42 inches tall. And while a complaint has been made about other work without permits, there has been a permit that has been received to address those other outstanding issues that were identified by the department of Building Inspections and i think an initial Planning Department materials, theyre responding to an allegation about the deck not being legal but through sub san shall research that involved the historic area photos but also the Historic Records of both the of the board of appeals and building the inspection on these permits its found, the maps show that the deck there at the rear is in fact legal and that is not in question and it doesnt legalize and that is not required and what is the subject now of this variances through the course of the complaint and the department been inspection and their code check says it made to be made up to current code as a result of this complaint, and the subsequent review by the department of billing inspection that led to this need to have this variance and to have this infill, and have that not been the case no variance would have been required to do any of this and its not legalizing any of the existing elements of that deck and the deck is legal and its just to fill in that portion of the railing. While the appellant has argued with others confusion about this and with the addresses of the property and it does have two addresses to 2664 and 26666 hyde steed the concerns of those confusion may step from the conversion of the building from residential building to an Architect Office and the late 60s and noted by the variance holder and the Planning Department denied a permit at that time and that permit, the scope was working on this deck and so we have records here and it goes back a long time just to the aerial photos and it is permit and they denied it saying we believe it wasnt an appropriate or a change of use in the Residential District and at that time, this was before the current rh3 Zoning District and the planning code at the time it allowed for what was known as transitional uses and underred code, the board of appeals found the building could be con visited to office and so the board of peels your predecessors 50 years ago, allowed this to be an office building, effectively and on that permit, the scope of that permit in addition to identifying the use office and it does dealt with the deck in question and its not legal and we have found the records to be legal and because through the course and its been many years in the making and they are required to convert this to a solid railing and its within about throw feet of the Property Line so with that im available for any questions and request the board hold the decision. Who let the dog out . [laughter] thank you. We have a question from president lazarus. Who let the dog out . Thank you. Can you hear me now . Putting aside ultimately whether we think the variance meets the requirement, if it was denied would the practical consequence of that be that the deck would have had to be removed . That would be really question from the building inspection because this is upgrading it to the current requirements and so, as far as i will with hold my question. Department of building inspection has stated the deck is hell. They havent required legalization of the deck. You look like you are under the weather, scott. Our heater doesnt work anymore. While just trying to be warm. Thank you. Thank you. We dont have further questions so were moving on to the department of building inspection. Inspectors. Hello, commissioners. Joe duffy dbi. I am available for any questions. I really its a variance case and typically dbi dont present on these but im available for questions. President lazarus has a question. Ill ask you the question that i just asked mr. Sanchez and he punted. Did you hear my question . Go ahead, again if the variance had been denied, would the deck have been beebeenallowed to stay because e wouldnt be a parapet. It would have to be demolished, yes, it would have to be removed. Our language typically im not sure what happens in this case because im not familiar with this case so its normally legalized and theyll remove it so if you cant legalize you would remove it. That would be my advice in this case. We are now moving on to Public Comments and is there anyone here to provide Public Comment raise your hand and. Please, go ahead. You have three minutes. 20 years ago, and up through a lot more recently, when it was the board of permit appeals, i got to know this a pel apartmen. The appellant at one time excavated rock in their rear yard and did a large excavation and installed a metal shed she had People Living in. And the neighbors let the city know and the city properly enforced the codes and that had to be removed. Since that time, this appellant made a Cottage Industry and has thousands of hours of board of appeals time complaining about everything that the neighbors have ever done. And most of them are very frivolous. Im amazed to see she has the energy to do this and that entire block of hyde street are extraordinarily beautiful and well maintained properties and i feel sorry for them all for having to deal with that neighbor. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any further Public Comment on this item . Please raise your hand. Ok. So were going to move on to rebuttal. Ms. Sang, you have three minutes. Ill make sure you join the meeting. Can you Say Something . Shes still muted. Can you please try i believe tristar 6 possibly. If you can hear me . Try star 6. Should i try to call her. Maybe we can try to call her. Give me a second. Time is paused, ill give her a call. Well have to restart the time. We heard you very briefly . Were talking about two different decks. The deck on the third floor is the 2654 hyde street. The upper deck. We at our property watching them to build that and why all of a sudden its legal is in the we are watching them to build those decks up and i ask for proper records and they have not given them to me when they say this and i cannot see because they never give to me and that i myself and other people are building have been watching them build a second on the up top deck and if they sense the railing is a fire and the wall and the deck everything is and it should be fire rate too for the safety reasons but it wasnt a requirement and also, i wanted to say that the deck were talking about and its a violation that the city dbi inspectors and the issue the violation and we personally are watching them on the upper deck, not talking about the lower deck and its built without permit and also they changed the window of those in exhibit you can see it and exhibit a2. And we have to have People Living there and that is absolutely and he has been done that for many his project and he to 650 high street and with permits and duty shakeing and then now she says it has been explaining about our window and about fence and the fence we have. They already explained many times and the inspector has come to you and. I thought you finished. Oh, no. I mean by asking for it and sunshine requests but no one produce it. Before you i hope that when they talk to you, before you, they still have some kinds of documents to prove and then also they find thank you. We will now hear from mr. Walker. You have three minutes. Ill wait until he gets on. I dont have that much to say. It was just heard and we want to be Good Neighbors and we want to live with everybody and weve been there a long time and its a wonderful neighborhood and were all for it and weve done work for two of our fares neigh, one up the street and we want to be there for another 50 years and maybe every 50 years we have to come to your board of per nant field and so i dont know what else to say. Thank you for your time. As long as were not here come you come the next time. That would be a good thing if you were still here. So, we will now hear from the Planning Department, mr. Sanch mr. Sanchez. The Planning Department, i think nothing further to add and in terms of the upper deck, we dont have any evidence that that is illegal and if the appellant has if they said they witnesses a deck being constructed and if they have additional materials to send they can always do that but im not aware of any information that would lead us permitted to 2002 having a higher resolution and they show that there is what is just above the board is the variance to do this minor work work on the railing to make it from partly open to solid and that is all. Do you have anything further. No, this matter is submitted. I dont see any merit from the appeal whatsoever and move to deny the a deal on the variance and the permits were all properly issued. Vice president honda. Madam president and i were the only ones on the board for the last time it has been before us and look forward to seeing you guys in 50 years. Ill second that. A variance would be properly issued if it meets the five findings required unplanning code section 305c . Yes, it does. Thank you. So, we have a motion from commissioner swig to deny the appeal and uphold the variance that it needs the 305c on that motion commissioners [roll call vote] the appeal is denied. And that concludes the hearing. Happy thanksgiving. Happy thanksgiving. At this. You as well, everyone, be safe. All right. Stay socially distanced. Happy thanksgiving. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Selfplanning works to preserve and enhance the city what kind hispanic the environment in a variety of ways overhead plans to fwied other departments to open space and land use an urban design and a variety of other matters related to the physical urban Environment Planning projects include implementing code change or designing plaza or parks projects can be broad as proipd on overhead neighborhood planning effort typically include public involvement depending on the subject a new lot or effect or be active in the final process lots of people are troubled by theyre moving loss of theyre of what we preserve to be theyre moving mid block or rear yard open space. One way to be involved attend a meeting to go it gives us and the neighbors to learn and participate dribble in future improvements meetings often take the form of open houses or focus groups or other stinks that allows you or your neighbors to provide feedback and ask questions the best way to insure youll be alerted the Community Meetings sign up for the notification on the website by signing up using youll receive the notifications of existing request the specific neighborhood or project type if youre language is a disability accomodation please call us 72 hours before the event over the events staff will receive the input and publish the results on the website the notifications bans feedback from the public for example, the feedback you provide may change how a street corridors looks at or the web policy the get started in planning for our neighborhood or learner more mr. The upcoming visit the plans and programs package of our we are talking about with our feedback and participation that is important to us not everyone takes this so be proud of taking ann my background is in engineering. I am a Civil Engineer by training. My career has really been around government service. When the opportunity came up to serve the city of San Francisco, that was just an opportunity i really needed to explore. [ ] [ ] i think it was in junior high and really started to do well in math but i faced some really interesting challenges. Many young ladies were not in math and i was the only one in some of these classes. It was tough, it was difficult to succeed when a teacher didnt have confidence in you, but i was determined and i realized that engineering really is what i was interested in. As i moved into college and took engineering, preengineering classes, once again i hit some of those same stereotypes that women are not in this field. That just challenged me more. Because i was enjoying it, i was determined to be successful. Now i took that drive that i have and a couple it with public service. Often we are the Unsung Heroes of technology in the city whether it is delivering Network Services internally, or for our Broadband Services to low income housing. Free wifi for all of the residents here so that folks have access to do job searches, housing searches, or anything else that anyone else could do in our great city. We are putting the plant in the ground to make all of the City Services available to our residents. It is difficult work, but it is also very exciting and rewarding our team is exceptional. They are very talented engineers and analysts who work to deliver the data and the services and the Technology Every day. I love working with linda because she is fun. You can tell her anything under the sun and she will listen and give you solutions or advice. She is very generous and thoughtful and remembers all the special days that you are celebrating. I have seen recent employee safety and cyber security. It is always a top priority. I am always feeling proud working with her. What is interesting about my work and my family is my experience is not unique, but it is different. I am a single parent. So having a career that is demanding and also having a child to raise has been a challenge. I think for parents that are working and trying to balance a career that takes a lot of time, we may have some interruptions. If there is an emergency or that sort of thing then you have to be able to still take care of your family and then also do your service to your job. That is probably my take away and a lot of lessons learned. A lot of parents have the concern of how to do the balance i like to think i did a good job for me, watching my son go through school and now enter the job market, and he is in the medical field and starting his career, he was always an intern. One of the things that we try to do here and one of my takeaways from raising him is how important internships are. And here in the department of technology, we pride ourselves on our interns. We have 20 to 25 each year. They do a terrific job contributing to our outside plant five or work or our Network Engineering or our finance team. This last time they took to programming our reception robot, pepper, and they added videos to it and all of these sort of things. It was fun to see their creativity and their innovation come out. Amazing. Intriguing. The way i unwind is with my photography and taking pictures around the city. When i drive around california, i enjoy taking a lot of landscapes. The weather here changes very often, so you get a beautiful sunset or you get a big bunch of clouds. Especially along the waterfront. It is spectacular. I just took some photos of big server and had a wonderful time, not only with the water photos, but also the rocks and the bushes and the landscapes. They are phenomenal. [ ] my advice to young ladies and women who would like to move into stem fields is to really look at why you are there. If you are if you are a problem solver, if you like to analyse information, if you like to discover new things, if you like to come up with alternatives and invent new practice, it is such a fabulous opportunity. Whether it is Computer Science or engineering or biology or medicine, oh, my goodness, there are so many opportunities. If you have that kind of mindset i have enjoyed working in San Francisco so much because of the diversity. The diversity of the people, of this city, of the values, of the talent that is here in the city. It is stimulating and motivating and inspiring and i cannot imagine working anywhere else but in san [ ] i just dont know that you can find a neighborhood in the city where you can hear music stands and take a ride on the low rider down the street. It is an experience that you cant have anywhere else in San Francisco. [ ] [ ] district nine is a in the southeast portion of the city. We have four neighborhoods that i represent. St. Marys park has a completely unique architecture. Very distinct feel, and it is a very close to holly park which is another beautiful park in San Francisco. The Bernal Heights district is unique in that we have the hell which has one of the best views in all of San Francisco. There is a swinging hanging from a tree at the top. It is as if you are swinging over the entire city. There are two unique aspects. It is considered the fourth chinatown in San Francisco. Sixty of the residents are of chinese ancestry. The second unique, and fun aspect about this area is it is the garden district. There is a lot of urban agriculture and it was where the city grew the majority of the flowers. Not only for San Francisco but for the region. And of course, it is the location in mclaren park which is the citys second biggest park after golden gate. Many people dont know the neighborhood in the first place if they havent been there. We call it the best neighborhood nobody has ever heard our. Every neighborhood in district nine has a very special aspect. Where we are right now is the Mission District. The Mission District is a very special part of our city. You smell the tacos at the [speaking spanish] and they have the best latin pastries. They have these shortbread cookies with caramel in the middle. And then you walk further down and you have sunrise cafe. It is a place that you come for the incredible food, but also to learn about what is happening in the neighborhood and how you can help and support your community. Twentyfourth street is the birthplace of the movement. We have over 620 murals. It is the largest outdoor Public Gallery in the country and possibly the world. You can find so much Political Engagement park next to so much incredible art. Its another reason why we think this is a cultural district that we must preserve. [ ] it was formed in 2014. We had been an organization that had been around for over 20 years. We worked a lot in the neighborhood around life issues. Most recently, in 2012, there were issues around gentrification in the neighborhood. So the idea of forming the cultural district was to help preserve the history and the culture that is in this neighborhood for the future of families and generations. In the past decade, 8,000 latino residents in the Mission District have been displaced from their community. We all know that the rising cost of living in San Francisco has led to many people being displaced. Lower and middle income all over the city. Because it there is richness in this neighborhood that i also mentioned the fact it is flat and so accessible by trip public transportation, has, has made it very popular. Its a struggle for us right now, you know, when you get a lot of development coming to an area, a lot of new people coming to the area with different sets of values and different culture. There is a lot of struggle between the existing community and the newness coming in. There are some things that we do to try to slow it down so it doesnt completely erase the communities. We try to have developments that is more in tune with the community and more Equitable Development in the area. You need to meet with and gain the support and find out the needs of the neighborhoods. The people on the businesses that came before you. You need to dialogue and show respect. And then figure out how to bring in the new, without displacing the old. [ ] i hope we can reset a lot of the mission that we have lost in the last 20 years. So we will be bringing in a lot of folks into the neighborhoods pick when we do that, there is a demand or, you know, certain types of services that pertain more to the local community and workingclass. Back in the day, we looked at mission street, and now it does not look and feel anything like mission street. This is the last stand of the latino concentrated arts, culture and cuisine and people. We created a cultural district to do our best to conserve that feeling. That is what makes our city so cosmopolitan and diverse and makes us the envy of the world. We have these unique neighborhoods with so much cultural presence and learnings, that we want to preserve. [ ] good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us. Last week when we announced some rollbacks around the restaurants and a number of other businesses, we did make it clear that we are sadly seeing an increase in the number of covid cases and in fact, last week our reproductive rate was at 1. 2 and today it is at 1. 3. Just this past friday we have seen an increase in over 20 o cases. Our case as of today are 13,756 with 38 people who are hospitalized, 156 people who have lost their lives since the beginning of this pandemic in San Francisco in particular and the Positivity Rate is at 1. 87. Dr. Grant colfax is joining me to talk more specifically about the numbers and what they mean and where we are, the same way he did so last week. What were seeing here and what weve seen all over the country is what looks like to be a significant uptick, one that we have to pay i a tension to. And more importantly, one that has put San Francisco which has been really a leader on fighting against this pandemic, it has put all of the incredible gains that we have made at jeopardy. Effective tomorrow, we have been informed by the state of california, and we will be going from the yellow tier which we were so proud to be at to the red tier. And what that means is, sadly, a number of things will need to come off the table. One of the things that i have made clear from the very beginning is we are going to proceed with caution so that we can do everything we can to avoid a complete shutdown. And as of tomorrow, we will need to unfortunately roll back nonessential office space, making sure that people who are nonessential, that have opened their Office Spaces will need to close them at this time. And unfortunately, the gyms will need to go from 25 down to 10 . These particular things were mostly chosen because under state law in red we have to follow those guidelines, but also we understand that there are certain things that put us more at risk of increasing the virus than other activities. And again, dr. Grant colfax is joining me today and will explain some of the specifics around what this means for our city, especially in light of what we see happening. And we want to continue to make sure that we dont go backwards. And how do we do that . We dont go backwards by not getting comfortable, not getting complacent. The weather has been pretty nice even though its been cold. But the sun has been shining. People have been enjoying San Francisco. I had an opportunity to walk around the city this weekend, and i saw so many people out and about enjoying the parks, doing walking, jogging, hanging out at the restaurants and other things. A lot of people were outdoors. And what we have to continue to do is not get comfortable because the fact is the virus is still out there. And we are still going to have to adjust to this so that we dont continue to see a significant spike in San Francisco. Whats happening next week, of course, is one of our favorite holidays, and thats thanksgiving. And so we know that so many people want to travel and then theres other family members that want to come visit. The department of Public Health has put out a travel advisory asking residents to avoid nonessential travel, but more importantly, we need to think about the folks that come to visit us as well, especially in places where we are seeing higher case numbers. This year were asking people to sacrifice because of thanksgiving when we get together and we see large family gathering, especially indoors, when those happen, we could be dealing with the impacts of those decisions by christmas with a significant increase in hospitalizations. So what were asking people to do is sacrifice. Sacrifice and put off the things that we all know and love especially during the Holiday Season. For the sole purpose of trying to get to a better place and for the sole purpose of making sure that people dont continue to catch this virus and so that folks arent continuing to be hospitalized and that we dont see increased number of deaths as a result of wanting to come together for the holidays. This is where we are now. This is me sounding the alarm. This is me asking san franciscans to do exactly what i have been asking this entire time, to make adjustments, to make sacrifices, and to do everything you can to remember that this virus exists and make sure that our behavior and what we do helps to avoid circulating the virus in the first place. We remember not too long ago the when we finally made the announcement that we would be opening gyms and hair salons and nail salons. Just think about how good it felt to feel normal. To go and get your hair done or your nails done or to go and workout at the gym and enjoy your time there, but just think about how much more important it was to the people who were finally able to open their business, who were finally able to get a paycheck, who finally had some level of certainty in their lives that they would be able to take care of themselves. Now, think about whats happening now. Im sure that so many of those people are scared. Last week we told the restaurants that they would no longer be able to operate indoors. What that meant was not only layoffs, but it also meant that there was a lot of lost revenue because of the food that they no longer were able to use. When you think about some of the things and the sacrifices that people are making, thats what makes me continue as much as i want to be around people and i want to be around friends and family, its why i choose to make sure that i am doing my part by keeping my distance and by avoiding large crowds and by not getting complacent. Its not just because im the mayor of the city and i am asking you to do, but its because i want to get our kids back in school. It pains me every time we have to make an announcement to close a business because i know what that means financially for that business. And it has been very, very difficult for so many people. We know that since the pandemic began, almost 300,000 san franciscans have filed for unemployment. And we know that people continue to suffer financially. And we also know that people are still in the hospital and people are nervous and concerned about their own personal health. We know that we disproportionately have seen a lot of infections in our latino community, and we made significant investments and we are seeing a real difference. Im really proud of that work, but theres more that needs to be done because when we look at the data, which has been the driving force behind every decision that we have made, we make good decisions. We make adjustments as it relates to the data. One of those such adjustments is moving soma location, a testing location, to the alamany Farmers Market because we know in this community which touches the o. M. I. , touches the bayview hunters point, and it touches that whole region, we know there is a need for more access, more consistent testing. This location was doing over 500 tests a day, and in San Francisco, were going close to 5,000 tests a day. When i think about how far weve come, being able to provide people their test results anywhere between 24 and 48 hours, it is significant. When i look at the maps of what shows us specifically where the areas which carry the higher infection rates and where the areas are that have testing both public and private, we have to make an adjustment. We had no choice. So tomorrow that location will be at the Farmers Market. And i am really grateful to the department of Public Health and the work that was done in order to make the adjustment and to move the site to this specific location as well as the work that has been done to get us to this point where we are adjusting to the needs of the people of San Francisco. This will continue to be a challenge, and its hard to get up here and tell people that youre going to have to close your business. Youre going to have to make some adjustments. Cant see your grandmother who is in a nursing facility. You cant hang out with your friends. Children cant spend time with one another like they used to. It pains me. And so because of that, we need everyones cooperation so that peoples lives arent impacted as a result of our decisions. Weve come a long way, San Francisco. We have been a leader on combatting this virus. We should be so proud that weve done an incredible job. And now im asking for more. And i know its hard. I know its hard every single day that you have to make that decision. I know its hard, but im asking for more. As we come upon the Holiday Season with different kind of flu and hopefully you got your flu shot, we know that this is going to be a next tough couple of months. So lets continue to do our part. Lets continue to be creative and keep our distance. Lets minimize the number of households and the people that we interact with. Lets cutback on those holiday dinners with large families gathering on the inside. Lets do what we can so that we can see the change. And as we see the change, that will put us in a better situation to begin to reopen our city and to put our economy back on track and to put our kids back in school and to look behind us and say because of everything we did, we are in a better place and we are so grateful for the sacrifices that we all made to get there. Thank you, all, so much for your cooperation, and at this time, i want to introduce dr. Grant colfax to talk specifically about the data, where we are, what we need to continue to do, and information from the department of Public Health. Dr. Grant colfax. Good afternoon and thank you mayor breed. We are now experiencing on the national, state, and regional level. So let me be clear that San Francisco is in the midst of the major surge of covid19 cases. It is sobering that we have reached this point again. As you know, this is the third surge we have experienced and unfortunately, the virus is moving aggressively in our community. Unlike the previous two surges, this surge is impacting every state in the nation. In the last two weeks, deaths have increased and the c. D. C. Cited a new record and as you can see on this slide, San Francisco is trending behind the National Average of cases per 100,000. And that is no reason for us to believe that we couldnt catch up to the average and catch up quickly. And in california, we are seeing the fastest growth in daily cases since the pandemic began. The rate of increase that we are seeing in california is faster and steeper than the summer surge. And here in San Francisco we are seeing an explosion of new cases throughout is city becoming more widespread. We are now averaging 10 dayses per 100,000 people in the red zone and you can see represented in the blue bars the sharp increases in cases we have had since october. And the black line represents the sevenday rolling average of new cases in our city. From october 10 to november 10, daily new covid cases jumped from an average of 29 cases a day with the additional perspective, let me share additional numbers. It took us 29 days to go from 11,000 to 12,000 total cases in San Francisco. It took us 18 days to go from 12,000 to 13,000. And now we anticipate that it will take us just 12 days to go from 13,000 to 14,000 cases. Lets go to the next slide. This slide shows the increase in cases in San Francisco per 100,000. You see the rapid rise. This rate of rise is higher than ever before. Right now the other Health Indicators remain stable. The hospitalizations remain stable at the green level. However, and unfortunately, we do expect to see an increase in hospitalizations. We currently have sufficient hospital beds in i. C. U. And intensive care unit capacity, but if the surge continues, we could exceed that capacity as, unfortunately, we are seeing in certain regions and states across the country. And we continue to test more than 5800 people a day with the testing rate and Contact Tracing over 85 of cases. So let me take a moment to talk about the state tier changes. Today the state announced they have seen an increase in cases and in most cases that increase has been dramatic. The state has placed them in the most restrictive purple tier. And we have moved from the least restrictive tier, yellow, to where virus transmission is minimal to this red tier where virus transmission is substantial. That means instead of moving back to just one tier to orange as was previously anticipated under is state system, we have unfortunately moved back two tiers. This is indicative of how fast and due to the red tier designation, we will have to have people return to return to remote work and reduce gyms and indoor climbing walls to 10 capacity. I do not want to continue to move backwards. Additional restrictions could be necessary if each of us does not take immediate action today to do our part to limit the spread of the virus. So lets take a moment and think about that. Lets think about how that relates to the upcoming holidays that i wish we could celebrate in the normal times. Next week is thanksgiving. So as hard as it is to say this, please do not travel. Please do not travel. Stay at home with the immediate household. As hard as it might be, we must exercise caution and do our part. And please do not use testing to determine whether you can travel or not. We have seen the repeated failure, the repeated failure of this type of testing strategy across the country including in washington, d. C. A negative test cannot be an excuse to put yourself or others at risk. Remember, please remember, that people who test negative can still harbor the virus if they are early in their infection. That is why when people are exposed to the virus, they must quarantine for 14 days regardless of their test results. San francisco, once again, we simply must double down or triple down and do everything we can to stop the spread of the virus. We cannot be reckless or complacent and take everything precaution to protect ourselves, our family and the community. The choices we, the choices you, the choices i make in the next two weeks will determine the remainder of the Holiday Season. We have the ability to bead back the third surge in other parts of the country. And we can choose by the actions we take this week and the upcoming week. The safest way to celebrate is to to not expose and i strongly recommend against it and strongly recommend against it keep it to no more than six people and keep the masks on, period. The best way is to give your friends and family the gift of good health. As we have learned, the past months is we have learned that together we can beat it back. So we have done it twice and we can do it again. I know that everyone is tired and fatigued. And i know i can sound like a broken record. But covid 19 is not resting. And neither can we. Remember, we know how to sol slow the spread of the virus. Limit gatherings and wear your mask and lets be cautious, diligent and safe. Lets make sure that we and our loved ones are here for that vaccine so that we can really celebrate big next year. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, dr. Colfax. And welcome, madam mayor, as we begin the q and a portion. The first question somes from should Public Schools continue to aim for a january 20 target date . Absolutely. It is essential to get our schools open as safely as possible and before the science makes it clear that the spread of covid amongst elementary and middle School Students and is not the same as amongst adults and kids who are in high school. So we know what the data is. We know that educators and others are involved and we know that its so critical that between now and january we do the work to prepare to safely open as quickly and possible. So we are hopeful to get to a better place. They have provided a significant amount of resources to continue the process so that we are prepared to open as quickly and safely as possible. We now have a few healthrelated questions for director colfax. In terms of testing, is there an increase in demand or are they providing better access . As the major mentioned, we are to go to where the virus is now averaging 5800 tests a day, higher than any other jurisdictions we are aware of. And from the beginning we focus on insuring that people have access to the testing to the essential workers who have symptoms and who have a high rf risk exposure and who do not have insurance. The city is also currently conducting 55 of the 5800 tests. With the probably testing and kaiser, for instance, has greatly eliminated many barriers in testing. Any explanation on this . This reflects the overall surge from across the city and is important to emphasize that the virus remains concentrated in the communities most impacted by the the the virus and it is important no matter where you are that everyone does their part to reduce the risk of the viral transmission. This is not a time to let up and not a time to socialize in close quarters with other people. Keep activities outdoors and wear the masks. Thank you, doctor. The last set of questions. Is there any plan to reduce ak pan si at retail store or personal services such as salons . To reduce occupancy. And if San Francisco were to drop to purple, what would that mean for businesss . We are focussing on trying to keep from moving further backward which is why it is so important as the Holiday Season that we see the surge that everyone do their part. If we do into purple, we will need to take the steps that the state requires and purple require. Right now we do not have any media plans to place further restrictions. As you know, Indoor Dining closed on saturday. This is with madam mayor for your time. There are no further questions and this concludes todays press conference. Thank you. Hi, im with building San Francisco. And we have a special program of stay safe today where were going to talk about what you can do to your home after an earthquake to make it waterproof and to be more comfortable. Were here at spur in San Francisco, this wonderful exhibit of safe enough to stay. And this is an example of what your home might be like after an earthquake. And we have today with us ben latimer from tvan. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. Well talk about things you can do you dont have to be a professional contractor to make your home more livable after an earthquake. I want to talk about things a homeowner can do. We have comfort and we have things like a little bit of maybe safety if your front door is ajar and waterproofing if you have a leak in your roof, or if you have broken glass on the window. So unr, one of the most important fib use is keeping outside out and inside in. Lets look at windows. Lets assume this window is broken in the earthquake. We have wind and rain blowing in. One of the most important things you need to do as a homeowner is secure the plastic properly. If you just take staples or nails and put them into the plastic, were going to get a strong wind and rip it right off. What im going to have somebody do is theyre going to have this is an old piece of shingle. You might have everybody has a piece of wood in their basement. It doesnt have to be fancy. They take out this rusty screw begun, and hopefully you have one of these. There is one at the neighborhood support center. At the neighborhood support center. Youre going to wrap this plastic around this board, take your screw. And then screw that in. You need a permit for this . You do need a permit for this. And you can contact the former head building inspector to get that permit. Thats it. Now when the wind blows, its tight and its not going to pull through, having a single point of contact. Great. What about this door . Take a look at this door. What can you do . Lets say it doesnt shut tight. What can you do . For the sake of argument, were on the inside. I cant lock my door at night. I have a very similar, very similar idea. Im going to take my 2 by 4. I can put it across the jamb in the door. One. Two. Maybe i want another one up here, maybe another one down there. But i can go to sleep. And that quickly, i can get it off in the morning. Terrific. What about the roof up here . We see people throw blue tarps over their roof after an earthquake. That seems reasonable. I think the blue tarp is reasonable. The things that people want to know that they need to know is if you have multiple tarps, how you overlap. Starting from the bottom and moving up so that youre overlapping this way. So, rain running down doesnt slide under your tarp. Right. And the same technique we did over here, as silly as it may sound, wrapping the end of that blue tarp with your board and then securing that if you can underneath, if you have to on top is fine. But making sure that you dont have an area where the wind is going to get under and bill owe that tarp. The wind can rip it right off. And then youre back up there again. Lets go inside and check out what we can do inside. Old fun. Here we go. So, ben, i see you have nails, universal tool right here. Mans best friend. Duct tape. Let me show you a couple things we can use this for after an earthquake. This window right here, because its off kilter, we have open seams all along. I have a lot of air coming through. I want to stay comfortable at night. I want to keep that air out. Its as simple as that, all the way around. Excellent. Now i dont have any air coming in. Lets say this one is one that would annoy me. Everything is a little off. My doors wont stay closed. I take a piece of my favorite duct tape here, close it up. And at least it will stay out of my way when im trying to live throughout my day. If were not talking about pressurized water, were talking about just the drain, sometimes theyre going to get a crack here. Right, sure. And youre going to get a leak. Duct tape around that is going to help us get through until we can get a plumber out and get that fixed as well. Lets say we only have electricity in one room, so were running extension cords across the house. If im going to run an extension cord from one room to the other, i dont want kids tripping on it. I dont want to trippon it. I take my trusty duct tape, tape it to the floor, and i dont have to worry about it getting kicked. Great, great. Look at this. Lets look at the duct tape here because we see a big yes. In the event of an earthquake, i dont think were going to have too many too much debris thats safe to put into a plastic bag, even as strong as it might be. These are called vice bags. This is what they use to put rice and things when they ship it. This is something where i take my glass, i can take broken pieces of wood, i can take anything sharp and fill it. And its not going to puncture and come out. Its not going to fall all over the floor. Ive not going to have it sticking out, maybe scratch myself, cut myself or anything like that. These are a great thing to have. You have a little goto box for emergencies. Thats great. Thanks very much for joining us, ben. Its really been interesting. And i want to thank you all for joining us here at the spur urban center. And well see you again youre watching quick bite, the show that has San Francisco. Were here at one of the many food centric districts of San Francisco, the 18th street corridor which locals have affectionately dubbed the castro. A cross between castro and gastronomic. The bakery, pizza, and dolores park cafe, there is no end in sight for the mouth watering food options here. Adding to the culinary delights is the family of business he which includes skylight creamery, skylight and the 18 raisin. Skylight market has been here since 1940. Its been in the family since 1964. His father and uncle bought the market and ran it through sam taking it over in 1998. At that point sam revamped the market. He installed a kitchen in the center of the market and really made it a place where chefs look forward to come. He created community through food. So, we designed our community as having three parts we like to draw as a triangle where its comprised of our producers that make the food, our staff, those who sell it, and our guests who come and buy and eat the food. And we really feel that we wouldnt exist if it werent for all three of those components who really support each other. And thats kind of what we work towards every day. Valley creamery was opened in 2006. The two pastry chefs who started it, chris hoover and walker who is sams wife, supplied all the pastries and bakeries for the market. They found a space on the block to do that and the ice cream kind of came as an afterthought. They realized the desire for ice cream and we now have lines around the corner. So, thats been a huge success. In 2008, sam started 18 reasons, which is our community and event space where we do five events a week all around the idea of bringling people closer to where the food comes from and closer to each other in that process. 18 reasons was started almost four years ago as an educational arm of their work. And we would have dinners and a few classes and we understood there what momentum that people wanted this type of engagement and education in a way that allowed for a more indepth conversation. We grew and now we offer i think we had nine, we have a series where adults learned home cooking and we did a teacher Training Workshop where San Francisco unified Public School teachers came and learned to use cooking for the core standards. We range all over the place. We really want everyone to feel like they can be included in the conversation. A lot of organizations i think which say were going to teach cooking or were going to teach gardening, or were going to get in the policy side of the food from conversation. We say all of that is connected and we want to provide a place that feels really Community Oriented where you can be interested in multiple of those things or one of those things and have an entree point to meet people. We want to build community and were using food as a means to that end. We have a wonderful organization to be involved with obviously coming from buy right where really everyone is treated very much like family. Coming into 18 reasons which even more Community Focused is such a treat. We have these events in the evening and we really try and bring people together. People come in in groups, meet friends that they didnt even know they had before. Our whole set up is focused on communal table. You can sit across from someone and start a conversation. Were excited about that. I never worked in catering or food service before. Its been really fun learning about where things are coming from, where things are served from. It is getting really popular. Shes a wonderful teacher and i think it is a Perfect Match for us. It is not about home cooking. Its really about how to facilitate your ease in the kitchen so you can just cook. I have always loved eating food. For me, i love that it brings me into contact with so many wonderful people. Ultimately all of my work that i do intersects at the place where food and community is. Classes or cooking dinner for someone or writing about food. It always come down to empowering people and giving them a wonderful experience. Empower their want to be around people and all the values and reasons the commitment, community and places, were offering a whole spectrum of offerings and other really wide range of places to show that good food is not only for wealthy people and they are super committed to accessibility and to giving people a glimpse of the beauty that really is available to all of us that sometimes we forget in our day to day running around. We have such a philosophical mission around bringing people together around food. Its so natural for me to come here. We want them to walk away feeling like they have the tools to make change in their lives. Whether that change is voting on an issue in a way that they will really confident about, or that change is how to understand why it is important to support our small farmers. Each class has a different purpose, but what we hope is that when people leave here they understand how to achieve that goal and feel that they have the resources necessary to do that. Are you inspired . Maybe you want to learn how to have a patch in your backyard or cook better with fresh ingredients. Or grab a quick bite with organic goodies. Find out more about 18 reasons by going to 18 reasons. Org and learn about buy right market and creamery by going to buy right market. Com. And dont forget to check out our blog for more info on many of our episodes at sf quick bites. Com. Until next time, may the fork be with you. So chocolaty. Mm. Oh, this is awesome. Oh, sorry. I thought we were done rolling. Welcome to the San Francisco Historic Preservation remote hearing wednesday, november 18, 2020. On february 25, 2020 the mayor declared a local emergency related to covid19. On may 29, 2020 the Historic Preservation commission was authorized to conduct hearing remotely. If you are not speaking, please mute the microphone and turnoff your video to enable public participation. Sfgovtv is broadcasting and streaming this hearing live. We will receive Public Comment for each item on the agenda. Opportunities to speak are available by calling 4156550001 entering access code 146 8191287. When we reach your item press star to be added to the queue. You will be afforded to submit your comment. When you hear your line is unmuted, that is your cue to begin speaking. Each speaker is allowed up to three minutes. When you have 30 minutes remaining you will hear a chime. I will announce the time is up and take the next person to speak. Best practices call from a quiet location, speak clearly and slowly. Please mute the volume on your television or computer. Lets take roll at this time. Commission president hyland. Here. Vice president matsuda. Hear. Commissioner black. Here. Commissioner foley. Here. Commissioner johns. Here. Commissioner pearlman. Here. Commissioner so. Here. Thank you, commissioners. First is general Public Comment. At this time members of the public may address the commission within the subject matter jurisdiction of the commission except agenda items. Your opportunity will be afforded when the item is reached in the meeting. Each member may address the commission for up to three minutes. Members of the public this is your opportunity to press star three to be entered into the queue. I see no members of the public to speak at this time. General Public Comment is closed. Department matters. Directors announcements and review of the past events and the Planning Commission staff report announcements. I can offer the update. Great. Department staff. A few updates. You have an update on the u. C. S. F. [indiscernable] concerned about it will not be until after the certification of the fer for january of 2021. They anticipate the murals will be later in 2021. That is the subject we have for now he will update you as we learn more about the status on the murals. I also want to offer an update on the heritage methodology project. Commissioner matsuda mentioned this at the last meeting. We engaged with the local community engagement. We kicked off the effort shortly after that. It memorialized on racial and social equity. We recognize Historic Preservation is focused on. [indiscernable] artifacts and such. Locally and globally recognizing the recognition of the heritage oral expression and arts and special practices and festivals and crafts. The project is working to help the department and other see city agencies outline the development of what may be a comprehensive survey and how it interfaces with tangible heritage. A large part is engaging in discussion of stakeholders. We had a group at the Planning Department and a few weeks ago we are also having focus groups of representatives such as library, art commission, racial equity, cultural district. We are working with Cultural Affairs locally and statewide. This will benefit the efforts such as Cultural Heritage in the cultural district. These projects will be brought before you hopefully early next year. I have a legislative update. Should i offer that now. Yes, please. This week supervisor peskin introduced the initiation of landmark designation at 447. As we get more details we will share the initiation and significance statement. That designation of the history for that mural to pass the second read at the board of supervisors. It is at the Mayors Office. Thank you. Those are my updates. If i could add to the update from u. C. S. F. And the murals. I did have a conversation with the director and it appears that u. C. S. F. Is receptive and open, although the negotiations arent complete. They are receptive and open to including in the m. O. U. That the murals will below indicated to appropriate public location in the new development. It hasnt been finalized yet but they are receptive to our suggestions from the previous meeting. Great. That concludes department matters. We will move to commission matters. President s report announcements,. No report this week. Item 4. Consideration of adoption draftments from november 4, 2020. We should take Public Comment. Members of the public if you wish to comment on the minutes from november 4th this is your opportunity. Public comment is closed and the matter is now before you. Any comments or motion please. I move that we approve them. Second. Thank you. On that motion to adopt the minutes for november 4, 2020, commissioner black. Yes. Commissioner foley. I wasnt there. Doesnt matter. [ inaudible ] adopt. Thank you. [roll call] Commission President hyland. Yes. Thank you so moved. That passes unanimously 70. Placing us on item 5. Commission comments and questions. I dont see any. We can move on. That places us under consent calendar. There is one item on the consent calendar. That matter listed here constitutes the consent calendar. It is routine by the Historic Preservation commission and will be acted upon when a single vote. There will be no discussion unless requested. Then it will be removed and considered at future hearing. 2018000505 coa at 370 lexington street. Certificate of appropriateness. This is the opportunity to pulloff consent by pressing star three. No members requesting to speak, the matter is before you. Any commissioners wish to pull this off . If not a motion. I move to approve the consent calendar. Second. Thank you, commissioners. On that motion to adopt approve item 6 with conditions under your consent calendar commissioner black. Yes. Commissioner foley. Yes. Commissioner johns. Yes, commissioner pearlman. Yes. Commissioner so. Yes. Commissioner matsuda. Yes. Commissioner president hyland. Yes. So moved, commissioners that passes 70. Regular calendar for item 7 case 2020008490des at 1830 sutter street. This is landmark and i understand commissioner matsuda needs to be reached for this. I reside within 500 feet of this property. I request to be recused from this item. I move the commissioner be recused. Second. The thank you, commissioners. On that motion to recuse. Commissioner black. Yes. Commissioner foley. Yes. Commissioner johns. Yes. Commissioner pearlman. Yes. Commissioner so. Yes. Commissioner mat soda. Yes. Commissioner president hyland. Yes. So moved, commissioners that passes 70. Someone is requesting to speak. Commissioners, is staff prepared to make the presentation. Yes. Do you have a slide presentation . Yes, i do. Okay. I see a blank screen. Let me try again. If thank you. Good afternoon, commissioners. Before you today is consideration to recommend 1830 sutter street. The fact sheet and National Register nomination. The japanese ywca japanese american and Civil Rights Movement and the lgbtq Rights Movement and work of jamie morgan. The ywca was the first in the united states. At the time of the finding it was the citys main ywca building. It is an immigrant generation of women to establish the ywca to address the Community Women and children. Completed in 1932 it was designed by j. P. Morgan and through donations from the ywca. It appears to be the only building. [ inaudible ] [please stand by] clerk this is the remote hearing for the Planning Commission on november 19, 2020. On april 3, 2020, the Planning Commission received authorization from the Mayors Office to reconvene remotely through the end of the shelter in place. This will be our 29 remote hearing. Remote hearings require everyones attention and, most of all, your