Transcripts For SFGTV Board Of Appeals 20240711

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. Thank you all for joining us. As a friendly reminder please mute with your camera turned off to avoid distraction. Submit two questions by chat only. Submit questions and include name. We will do our best to take questions in the order received in the q a portion. We will have intake by emailing. Welcome, director colfax. Hi, good afternoon. Thank you so much for joining us today. As we head into thanksgiving holiday week, i want to acknowledge those lost to covid19. Although the deaths in San Francisco have been lower than other cities, each person who has passed away is one too many. My condolences to their families and loved ones. Across the nation we are seeing tens of thousands of lives lost to this virus. In the last two weeks alone, death in the United States increased by 64 . More than 257,000 people have died. Hospitalization rates are increasing dramatically. 50 in the last two weeks across the country, 55 in california. Consistent with these increases across the nation and state, we are seeing the local cases in hospitalizations continually decline. Many cases deaths and hospitalizations can be prevented if we follow the basic measures that we know prevent the virus. Now, lets look at some data. Slide one, please. This slide shows how the surge is in relation to prior increases in San Francisco. Today 14,600 people are diagnosed in San Francisco and resulting in 158 deaths since the onset of the pandemic. As you can see from this slide, we see an aggressive increase in cases week over week. For the weekending november 18, we averaged 118 new cases per day. Compare that to the prior week, november 11, when we averaged 95 cases per day. At the beginning of the month, the weekending november 4th, we averaged 73 new cases per day. As the slide shows, we are approaching the surge case rates will likely surpass the average cases per day per 100,000 in the coming weeks. Now we are just below 13 cases per 100,000 people per day. While this is still lower than the national and state average, we are at a critical moment. We cannot let the viwhere yous get so far virus get so far ahead we will never catch up. An increase in hospitalizations has followed this increase in cases as we saw in the spring surge shown on the far right in cases on the slide and the summer surge snowbound the middle. Indeed, for this third surge we have doubled the covid19 hospitalizations since the end of october. While our hospitalizations remain low compared to other jurisdictions, at just 54 people in the hospital today, this increasing trend remains of concern. Right now we still have enough room in our hospitals to care for patients with covid19, but as we have seen across the nation, in the state and as we saw in our earlier surges, this can change quickly. Systems could become overwhelmed with patients. If that happens more people will die. Lets do everything we can this winter, this Holiday Season to prevent this scenario. Today the state test San Francisco in the red tier of the reopening blueprint. We remain one tier down from the most restricted tier purple, which triggers roll back of additional activity and abiding by the state and requires abiding by the state limited stayathome order. As this slide shows, we are fast approaching the case count to be reassigned to the purple tier. Tier reassignments may occur more than once a week when the department of Public Health, California Department of Public Health determines immediate action is needed. We expect to be placed in that purple tier sometime soon, perhaps later this week. Now, i want to focus on testing. As we prepared for the ongoing surge. We have taken action to try to slow the spread of the virus. But we need everyone in San Francisco to recommit to protecting themselves, loved ones and our community. Part of that is our collective use of city resources to fight the spread of the virus. We have a robust testing system across the city, and, indeed, San Francisco is leading jurisdictions in the number of tests performed per day. For instance, just last week we hit a day where we did 9,000 covid19 tests across the city. We are averaging 6,000 tests each day. Unfortunately, the number of tests coming back positive in the last four weeks has increased by 265 . That means just last month our positivity case rate was. 81 . Today it is 2. 15 and going up. But testing at cityrun test sites must be reserved for people with covid19 symptoms or exposure or for essential workers and those without insurance. If you have insurance and need a covid19 test, please contact your healthcare provider. By law, if you have insurance or have symptoms, your provider must provide a test. Please do not use public testing resources in advance of engaging in behaviors that spread the virus. Namely, to travel or gather with people outside of your household. We must ensure that testing is available for those that need it most, those that are sick, have had a high risk exposure and those with no other testing options. Noremember captioning only captures the moment of the test. A negative test is not a ticket to freely socialize without precautions. A negative covid test is not a particular kid to mingle with extended family and friends outside your immediate household. The main reason is that the test gives information about the level of the virus at one point in time. A person could be infected but not have enough virus yet for it to register on the test or a person may become infected in the hours or days after taking the test. A test should be used to indicate that you need medical care, need to isolate. Not as a free ticket to act like covid does not exist this Holiday Season and let down our guard. This is a once in a century pandemic, not the time to throw caution to the wind. This Holiday Season indeed will be like no other. It is so attempting for us to see our loved ones and to gather with our friends. We simply must stay at home. Stay home and celebrate thanksgiving with the people that we already live with. Please do not gather with people from other households, especially indoors. The choices we make this week wilwill determine what the remainder of the Holiday Season will look like. It will determine whether the winter ahead will be filled with more hospitalizations, cases, deaths or if we are able to beat that surge. You know what to do, San Francisco. We know how to slow the spread of the virus. You know what i am going to say again. Wear those masks. Do outdoor activities, stay physically distanced. Practice good hygiene and do not travel or gather for the holidays. We can crush this virus for a third time. We need to have a bit more patience and a bit more perseverance as we go forward together. The best gift this season is the gift of good health. Thank you. Thank you, dr. Colfax. At this time we welcome the director of the office of workforce development. Thank you, dr. Colfax for your update. I am the director of the office of economic and Work Force Development for San Francisco. As you just heard from dr. Colfax. We are assigned to the red tier. We are carrying with activities same status, same capacity for the last week when we were assigned to that red tier. Based on the Health Indicators that dr. Colfax shared, we do expect to be reassigned to the more restrictive purple tier. When that happens the city will be required to roll back or reduce capacity of several activities within 24 hours. To roll back or reduce capacity of several activities within 24 hours. This will require us to stop indoor operations at houses of worship, movie theaters, museums, zoos and fitness centers. We need to reduce all retail except Grocery Stores from 50 to 25 capacity. We will need to close outdoor ferris wheels, amusement style trains. At the same time within our around 48 hours being assigned to purple tier we have to comply with the limited stayathome order to curtail gatherings and non essential Business Activities after 10 00 p. M. We expect this to go in effect two days after we are assigned to the purple tier. You are assigned on monday, San Francisco would be assigned on a monday to the purple tier. Those 10 00 p. M. Restrictions would become activity and enforceable on wednesday, the following wednesday. If we are assigned purple on monday, wednesday at 10 00 p. M. That is when the limited stayathome order would be in enforceable effect. Additionally, in practice this means that all nonessential businesses will have to shut down operations at 10 00 p. M. With some exceptions. Specifically related to restaurants and curb side pickup and deliveries. All nonessential businesses shut down at 10 00 p. M. People may not gather with anyone from other households indoors or outdoors after 10 00 p. M. People may leave their homes after 10 00 p. M. Alone or with members of their household to pursue individual activities or access essential to employment or other services. Like i mentioned, restaurants may continue to overtakeout and Delivery Services after 10 00 p. M. They may not have customers seated outdoors for Outdoor Dining. At the same time we anticipate that San Francisco will largely confine any roll backs to those that are required by the state. I know many restaurants have been reaching out and asking if Outdoor Dining was potentially something that was being considered as part of purple. The answer is no. We are focused on the limited stayathome order and the restrictions that are listed in the states purple tier. The department of Public Health will be monitoring the Health Indicators to track how we are doing and ensuring we are doing the best to flatteten the curve and protect public safety. I want to emphasize our behavior not just businesses or others, our individual behavior in support of our Small Businesses and support o businesses tryingo support your Holiday Cheer and how we do that over the next two weeks will dictate the next two months. I want to very much thank the Business Community for their cooperation, for their diligence and initiative this Holiday Season. Also, i appreciate the questions you have been providing we have been doing our best to answer as the city to serve you to operate safely in San Francisco. I know we have been very encouraged by the health and Safety Measures of the businesses. Now we need everyone in the Business Community to keep it up, behind full, follow rules, we want all residents to follow those rules of Public Health guidance, take it seriously, keep on your mask, wash hands, stay socially distant to bring the case count down and minimize the restrictions in place. Thank you so much. Together we will get through this. Thank you, director colfax and torres for your time. We will begin the q a portion. Starting with director colfax, please. First question. From aaron with the San Francisco chronicle. It sounded like the city is certain last week San Francisco would be placed in the purple tier by today. Are things starting to improve or not looks as bad as a few days ago . Might we not end up in the purple tier at all . I think we should take comfort in the fact we have not yet been assigned the purple tier. If you look at the first slide, you can see the shrin the line t up. We expect to be assigned the purple tier. Getting the exact day right is beyond the science, data and fact. We project to go in the purple tier. If you look at the regional map, we are surrounded by purple. The fact we are in red should give nobody reasons for not taking precautions around the holidays with regard to gatherings and outside of people in the immediate household. We are hopeful to crush this third curve. We expect to be in purple relatively soon. Thank you. What is the city doing now to prepare for Vaccine Distribution in near and longterm. Could you repeat the question. From aaron as well. What is San Francisco doing now to prepare for Vaccine Distribution in the near and longterm . Thank you. It is some of the good news with regard to the vaccine trials in the last few weeks. Very promising. It will be months before widespread vaccine is available, according to our federal and state partners. We are preparing for Vaccine Distribution in the city. We have at our command center an extensive Planning Team looking at the opportunities working with key partners across the city, community partners, other stakeholders to ensure that we are as ready as possible. Much of the guidance around the vaccine will come from the feds and the state. Again, we are doing everything we can to be as prepared as possible locally. An example of that, we are Building Infrastructure with regard to vaccine preparedness. For instance, thanks to city administrator kelly, we purchased three ultracold freezers to store the vaccine. It can store hundreds of thousands of doses of vaccine. A lot of work to do there both locally, statewide and federally. I am confident we will be ready to start Vaccine Distribution when that time comes. Thank you, dr. Colfax. Director torres this is for you. If we move to the purple tier in San Francisco, which would mean closing museums. Will we only have 24 hours to close operations . Yes, thats correct. We know that is a burden. We are glad you are asking that. Plan effectively. Yes, you will only have 24 hours. For example if we were notified on monday within 24 hours on tuesday those activity would no longer be permitted under the purple tier. Thank you. At this time that concludes the q and a portion for today. Thank you both for your time. Any remaining questions, please feel free to respond to dem press at sfgovtv. That concludes todays press conference. Thank you. Thank you. 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 this is the regular meeting of the abatement appeals board. Please turn off all electronic devices. The first item on the agenda is roll call. President alexandertut. A present. Vice president tam. Present. Commissioner clinch. Here. Commissioner jacobo. Here. Commissioner mccarthy. Here. Commissioner moss. Here. We have a quorum. And the next item is item b. , the oath. Will all parties giving testimony to raising your right hand. Do you swear the testimony you are about to give is the truth to best of your knowledge . And alt for the record state the time allowed regarding the appeal. For new appeals, the department will present the case first and then the appellant. Each side has 7 minutes and next there will be Public Comment and members have three minutes each to speak. Lastly, there is rebuttal time of 3 minutes for the department and then the appellant. And that thereby will be Public Comment time for 3 minutes as well. If you could please mute yourself if you are not speaking, please. And for every one in attendance, we are meeting remotely as the abatement and appeals board for Public Comment to call in. You would please dial 14156550001. And the access code is 1463507228. To raise your hand for Public Comment on a specific agenda item, press star 3 when prompted be i the meeting moderator. So when you hear the Public Comment is called, please press star 3 if you would like to speak. Thank you. Our next item is item c. Request for rehearing. Rehearing request case 6875, 24555 jackson street, heard and decided on october 21, 2020. At the october 21, 2020 hearing, the aab denied the appeal, upheld the order of abatement and imposed the assessment of costs on the basis that the order of abatement was properly issue and the department of building inspection did not err or abuse its discretion. The action requested by the appellant to grant the request for rehearing if appellant may speak now and you have three minutes. Mr. Kinon. Thank you very much for your courtesy. Is mr. Korman in the meeting . Can you tell if he is, or could you add him in . He is most likely one of the Public Comment callers. We wont be able to check until afterwards. He will be allowed to speak as well after you do your three minutes. We wont be able to unless are you going to present and use that time or is he going to . I will do it. I just want to make sure that hes present because previously he called me and indicated that he was having difficulties logging in. We see him would you like to check that, john . Sure. I will give you the host duties. Madam secretary, through the chair, the point of order. In regards to this appeal were hearing, is it three minutes, madam secretary, to make the case why we should have a rehearing, is that correct . I dont believe any Public Comment can be made outside of that. And maybe its a City Attorney clarification. Clerk i believe that brad can clarify that, but i believe that mr. Corman might speak during the Public Comment for three minutes. I dont know. City attorney, can you clarify that . Good morning, commissioners. Brad rusty from the City Attorneys office. The procedure as i understand it would be 3 minutes per side and then 3 minutes for anyone who is going to give Public Comment. A party to the case is not a member of the public. They would have to use their time under the 3 minutes allocated to the party that speaks. Of course, commissioners can ask questions if they like. Through the chair, what were hearing this morning is evidence to show to be given in regard to why we would allow a rehearing, is that correct . So rehearing the whole case again is not what we are doing. It is information directly associated as to why we should have a rehearing, is that correct . It is really new information, is that correct . Clerk yes. The board the standard here is whether the the standard here is whether the appellant who is seeking a rehearing can present legal error or new evidence to justify whether a rehearing will be granted. If the board determines after hearing it from the parties that a rehearing is warranted in this matter, you take action to grant the rehearing and on the agenda the next item is the rehearing itself. And so you hear the case again. Sorry, madam, through the chair, so the new information is what needs to be discussed now. Not the actual information thats been presented just before, correct . A yes. We have to let the appellant speak and the commissioner cans make their determination after that. Mr. Kinon. And the 3 minutes will be the total time for you and mr. Corman has unraised his hand, and i havent been able to unmute him, just an fyi. Is are you authorized to speak for mr. Corman . Yes, i am authorized to speak for mr. Corman. I just want to make sure that he is listening and can hear what is going on. Okay. An i believe that he may be on the call. I provided that information. But we cant tell at the moment because we have several members in our queue. Right . Can i mute myself for 30 second and see if i can determine whether he can hear . Okay. Weve got one more person the caller raised their hand and i am going to unmute them and confirm whether or not they are mr. Corman. Callin user, is there many corman . Can you hear me . An im bob, yes, good morning. Thank you, everybody, for appearing. Can you give me the names of people who we are talking to or who is talking to us . Thank you. So he is on. He is on. So i think we can start the hearing now. And first hear from the appellant. Thank you very much. I will try to be very brief and not restate everything that we stated in our november 2 request for rehearing. We would ask that the order of abatement be withdrawn because mr. Corman have done all they can to comply with the notice of violation. They have provided plans and planning has simply refused to act upon those plans. There has not been sufficient evidence to show they were in violation of anything that was alleged in the notice of violation with that and to submit this matter based upon our appeal to the abatement board filed i believe on november 2 and supported by the letter also dated by november 2 and all the material that is really submitted in this matter before specifically including the appeal provided by the law firm. Mr. Corman, if you have something to say, you can say it at this time. You have two minutes left. Thank you. Can you hear me . Yes, we can. I just heard a gentleman there who was talking before who was not the attorney from the city. It was some other gentleman. From dbi. Could you give me that name of that party . I dont know who i am talking to. You are wasting your time at the moment, but the only person that spoke and maybe you are referring to the City Attorney. And someone else from dbi perhaps. Otherwise the City Attorney is brad rusty. I know. Not born in this country, with greatest respect, and i dont know who that is. This is your opportunity to make your case. And to present new information. I will. Can i just say a couple words . I presented a number of sunshine requests and per the protests and arguments and support of withdrawal of the aab findings of fact on issue, and i just submitted something on monday as well. Monday night through email from office depot and by Certified Mail and was received yesterday by confirmation from u. S. Postal office, postal service. So i believe that you have a number of protests that i have lodged and also what mr. Kinon has stated today and in writing. Everything i have done so far to date is submitted including what i submitted monday or tuesday this week. And you have it. They have it. Im done. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Did you have anything else to add, mr. Kinnon . No, thank you very much. Thank you. Is chief hernandez on the call . Does staff have anything to state . No. Okay. Thank you. So is there any Public Comment on this item . Are there any callers . Im sorry, i was muted. There are no callers. President alexandertut, i will leave it to the commissioners. Thank you. So everyone has received the commissioners the appeal and the november 2. I have not heard an argument around presenting that there was a legal error. And i have not received any information that there was new evidence to provide that was not provided in the previous hearing. But i will so i dont have any further questions. I will go down the list to ask if all commissioners do and any questions or comments . I am in line with what you just said. The opportunity was given for new evidence to be presented. I didnt hear anything new unless they can show us otherwise. Thats all i have to say. Commissioner mccarthy . No. Commissioner jacobo . No. A commissioner clinch . I dont have any questions and i agree with your assessment, president tut. And commissioner moss. No. City attorney, do we need to take a proactive motion to uphold or deny the rehearing request . Yes. The commission should take commissioners should make a motion to grant or deny the rehearing request and state a basis perhaps that the appellant has presented or not presented new evidence or legal error. Awe president okay. I would like to make that motion that to deny the rehearing request based on the assessment that the appellant has not presented evidence that there was a legal error or new information that would require a rehearing. Is there a second . Second by Vice President tam. Clerk there is a motion and a second to deny the request were rehearing. I will do a roll call vote on that motion. [roll call vote] that motion carries unanimously. The next item then would be item d. , new appeal, order of abatement. Case number 6878, 1600 clement street. Owners of record and appellant, sophie lau, 1945 ocean avenue, San Francisco. Action requested by appellant, reverse the order of abatement and related cost of 1,497. 80. So the department will present their case first. And have 7 minutes. We have chief matsu. Good morning, commissioners. We have an opportunity today to write a new chapter. The purpose of the San Francisco housing code is to insure a minimum standard of culpability and we have a situation on clement street. The owner of this property is simply that repeats repeatedly violates the housing code over and over and over again. The owner will present themselves as a victim of so and so didnt call me back. This isnt about who called who back. Its about real violations of the housing code. So i would like to introduce Housing Inspector mccarthy who has been with the department for many years. Are you unmuted on here . I believe i am now. Great. So tell them what you have done with the department. Seven years. And what is your assignment right now . I am a Housing Inspector. And what part of the city . I work all the way out in richmond, inner and outer richmond. All right. District seven and district eight and Housing Inspection Division to be specific. Have you been out to 1600 clement . Yes, i have. More than once . Yes. [inaudible] about how many times . In total, over a dozen i would estimate. A dozen visits. So from your packet, holding up the picture of the can you describe this picture for us . That is a picture of the shower pan in the unit in question, unit 105, after a little bit of demolition had taken place. All right. What about this picture . That is the wall outside of the shower pan which would be adjacent to the sink. What else can you describe in this picture for us . Well, if you see that the broken wall where the electrical outlet is, thats the outside of the shower pan. If you look a little, you see some framing has been patched in and if you look beyond that, you will see the tile of the shower pan you showed earlier. All right. What about this photo . That is the same bathroom. The floor had been removed and the toilet was just perched on the floor joists and then you see the garage down below. Is this the only time that is this the only complaint that you have had to respond to at this building . No. What other kinds of complaints have you had to respond to there . Ive responded to complaints of the elevator being out. Individual units being nonworking, no hot water. [inaudible] leaks from the top units, among others. What kind of work quality do you normally encounter when you try to get the violations abated . When i had violations written on the property, the repairs tend to be bandaid repairs for the property owner, meaning that a patch for the problem would be temporarily taken care of in order to hopefully abate the complaint, but i continue to go out for the same issues due to the fact that the underlying issue leads to housing violations, not necessarily repairs and patches put in place to abate the complaint. When somebody does that, would you say they are acting in good faith . And is that just going to cause a problem again . I would say that the actions were taken in order to abate the complaint but not necessarily make the understood lying issue go away. Therefore, i have return for the same issues several times out of the particular building. I appreciate that. We had a directors hearing with a similar issue and the owner had an attorney at the hearing that was hired the day before. The attorney said i would like to request an extension because i have only been hired yesterday, so i need some more time. But meanwhile, we have some people who are really suffering because they dont have access to the bathroom in their unit. They have to go to a different bathroom somewhere else. And is john marion around . Is he there . Yes, i am. And i was wondering if other people in the queue for Public Comment. There is one caller in the queue for Public Comment. And there are three, four caller, and now more than about four callers in the queue for Public Comment. Okay. I will try to keep this brief because there are other people that want to get on here. And you have sued the landmark twice and the shower is still not working for the people here. You have 100 complaints and not to interrupt you, but if you could wrap up the comments and is almost the end of the 7 minutes for the department. You can go ahead. So just going to say that i had a mentor when i first started working here who said sometimes you have to take off the inspector hat or whatever hat you are wearing and step into the shoes of the people that live in it. I know i wouldnt like it if i had to go on some other unit to use their shower and even for a week much less six months. That is something to consider when you think about the issues in this case. Thank you. Clerk thank you. The appellant, ms. Lau, i believe, she is calling in. I dont know how we would determine how did we do that last time, john, to determine that was her. Well, there is i will go through the callers that have their hands raised. Well try that. Clerk let me give you the host duties back. Call 831524, are you ms. Lau . I am not. Are you ms. Lau. I am on behalf of the tenants. One moment. Thank you. Caller 628800, are you ms. Lau . No, im not. Thank you. Caller 415694, are you ms. Lau . I am not. None of the callers who have their hands raised are ms. Lau. If ms. Lau is listening, please dial star 3. Okay. Should we give a oneminute grace period . Or moving on . Clerk sure. I was thinking she was going to be on the call because she also called this morning to say she was calling in. President she called in last month. Clerk i was assuming she called in this time. There is one more caller that hasnt raised their hand and i can try them. Okay. Hello . Are you ms. Lau . Hello . Hello . Is this ms. Lau . Yes. I am here for the appeal case 6878. Here we go. Ms. Lau, you have seven minutes. I will begin the time now. Thank you, maam. Good morning, commissioners. Good morning, everybody. I appreciated the opportunity to bring forward my case. This is a three citation all initial by inspector Liam Mccarthy originally start out with the shower was leaking. And then actually we went through the first citation. I got the extension, but now i appeal the second citation and the third, but for some reason one citation is not on the agenda today. So i guess well deal with that later even though i filed the appeal paper, and i paid the fee. But it is not on the agenda. So well deal with that one later, but the one on the agenda today is the citation 202047031. And due to multiple hardship after the covid, the procedure was changed. We had a hard time trying to get the plumbing permit. We waited for quite a bit. We finally got it. And then later we were told we also need a Building Permit. And we went ahead and applied the Building Permit. Submit the plans. But for some reason over the counter the clerk for some reason did not take in the plans. So last week actually more than a week ago i was under instruction to resubmit the plan again. Currently it is under submission for the approval of the plan. We went ahead and we did the unit where they complained. The tenant did not complain but the inspector give us a citation for unit 205 due to the unit above and the tenant did not put the shower within the tub, so therefore some leaking water stain on the ceiling of 205, which thats already been taken care of. And that citation number is 202053341 which is not on the agenda today. The one on the agenda today is regarding the shower room we need to pull the tile back. Again, we have multiple problem due to hard to find workers and also the tenant, it was not cooperative in the beginning. Later since theyre okay. They are more cooperative now, but of which they did not before. So were requesting since we are having the hardship and the procedure problem and the plans refused by the d. B. A. Clerk did not take in and we encounter many, many problems that i call the inspector and try to work with him, raise questions, try to follow up with him. And send email, making calls, inspector mccarthy did not respond. I finally had to call the different inspector, matt luten, who is very, very helpful. And he helped me even arrange the final inspection that the citation which is not on today. So i mean, when we encounter all these problems, it is beyond our control. So we feel that it is not fair that we should be charged, penalized, and i am requesting is to waive the assessment charges and fines and interest. Bottom line is all along we tried to comply the citation, tried to take care of the problem, and work with inspector but we encounter so many snags and problems and one after the other, delays, and so its really beyond our control. Does anybody have any question, i would be happy to answer. Clerk so at this time is this the completion of your testimony . Because the next step will be Public Comment and rebuttal. But you still have some time, ms. Lau, if you would like to use the rest of your time. We have the extension on the first citation. By the way, i also had people look at the shower because the shower room. The shower pan was already replaced. Because its right above the dry rot where is into the area that we need to repair, so we were told the bathroom floor cannot be put on the tile first before replace the drywall. If you put the tile in the bathroom floor, then whoever is going to work to replace the dry rot and they have to most likely going to have to put another support beam. So it just is not in orderly where its supposed to. I was told there hah v to put the re repair the drywall and taud additional beam before they can do the bathroom floor tile. But we can definitely try to work into the shower room and put the wall back. Again, if the shower room tile is back but the floor tile is not back, i dont know. So overall they have another bathroom to use from day one, which is right above the unit. It is unit 204. So i understand there is a little convenience, but again, it is beyond control and this covid is causing miserable for everybody. So i have inspector not returning the call, not responding to email. I have to go through another sources. And then the plans was not taken in due to the clerical error by the d. B. A. , although the other inspector and mr. Matt luten was very helpful, but i am not getting any cooperation from the tenant. I was not getting cooperation from building inspector mccarthy. So with all these issues, i feel that as a property owner, we have done everything we can and we certainly deserve a little leeway that we like to request not to be charged those assessments. Does that conclude your statement . Sorry . Is this the conclusion of your statement . Yeah. All the delay is beyond our control. We try to work with everybody w the tenant w the inspector. And like i said, one snag after the other. Three citations and actually, it is all pretty much related to one issue is from the original shower leak. And we need to replace and add Additional Support to the drywall area in the garage. Sorry to interrupt, but your time is up now. We will go to Public Comment. Thank you. There are four callers in the queue. I will start with the first. Caller 831524. Please go ahead. Caller hi, everyone. Thank you for listening to my comments today. I am a member of the west side Tenant Association and Housing Committee of San Francisco. I wanted to speak today so everyone knows the practice of good and are horrendous and unacceptable. The experiences in regard to moi neighbor are not unique and that should be appalling to everyone. I wanted to use the time to share some experiences from other tenants. My First Experience the first San Francisco apartment was owned and managed by the horrible slum lords. The worst rental experience i ever had. Of course, this is back in 2000 and 2001 when the market was such that people could get away with charging crazy amounts of run to rundown crap holes. I am not exaggerating about the ridiculousness of these folks. The roommate called to mote notify them water flooding into the bedroom and mold problems and they couldnt bother to send someone over that day. It was not a leak but flooding. And the building had rats in the building. We had to move out for our health and sanity and safety, but this was breaking the lease. And we lost our deposit to the incompetent, evil people. Another tenant said stay away from 1600 clement street owned by the laus. I am a current tenant and today is 34 degrees in San Francisco and we have no heat, which we have not had in many months. The owners treat people horribly. Repairs are done after multiple phone calls and confusion and with the utterly incompetent or extremely rude. Dont get fooled by the Hardwood Floors and great location. This is a hell hole. Run this, woman used white out on the contract to change the dates and alter it. Electrical, sewer, and mice, go to a hotel. Do not go near this dump and devil and will devour the kind and inexperienced tenant. This place is a fire trap. We are filing our small claims case with the attorney tomorrow. She has gone too far with fraud and altering the contract. Another tenant stated if i can give the lau family a negative score, i would. We ended up renting the apartment and desperate and naive. While Walking Around the apartment, it was dirty and food left in the freezer. I asked if the unit would be cleaned before move in and it was cleaned already but the food would be taken out of the freezer. That should have been a red flag. At this viewing we were told if we wanted the apartment, we would need a 500 cash dpoz sits and immediately went to the bank and were told that the apartment was being given to someone else. We confronted mrs. Lau and whe she saw the money in the hand, we won the contest of who would get the apartment. We found the apartment to be filthy. And marijuana left by previous tenants. This did not seem like a place cleaned for new tenants since we are charged a 300 cleaning fee. Upon calling mrs. Lau, we were told everyone has different standards of cleaning and ours were too high. Caller, please wrap up the comments. Your time is almost up. I will wrap up now. Thank you for listening. Clerk thank you. Thank you, caller. The next caller is 415296. Please go ahead. Thank you. Good morning, commissioners. This is jamie zeal on behalf of tenants bill and emily william. We strongly oppose the order to reverse the abatement and related costs of 1497. 80. For no good reason my clients have been without a working shower and the bathroom has been in disrepair in the unit for over five months. This is not a little inconvenience. Egregious and unacceptable and violates multiple provisions of civil code section 1940, 1. 1 and other laws that require landlords to provide plumbing facilities that confirm to applicable law, maintained in working order, and legally efficient water supply to appropriate fixtures and floors maintained in good repair. The landlords have been diligent and taken the clients legal rights seriously and they would have obtained all necessary permits before tearing up the clients bathroom. They failed to do so in violation of the habitability laws and other laws which is completely unacceptable. They obviously dont take my clients rights seriously and are not acting in good faith. You heard earlier mrs. Laus excuses and deflections, and litany of blaming other people. For the delays and inadequate bandaid repairs that have resulted in my clients being without a working shower and and are always cooperative and never denied access and were not offered the that is completely unsafe for use and they are afraid to use it. The landlord should no longer be given the benefit of the duet and they are repeat offenders and repeat violators and the behavior should not be tolerated. And heard from others and what you will hear from my client and the order of abatement and cost assessment should be upheld. Thank you. A next caller is 628800. Thank you. Good morning. My name is joy and i am calling in support of a tenant in this case which served over 10,000 units and this is one of the worst cases we have seen. And during the pandemic, when everyone is required to shelter in place, our home is supposed to be the safety net that is protecting us from any Public Health threat. Not having working or bathroom during a time like this is not only a health risk for the tenant, but also a health risk for the public. It is unacceptable that tenants and building officials have to repeatedly request the landlord to repair the bathroom for over five months. And this issue is still to the resolved currently. Housing should not just be a commodity that generates revenue for owners. This is peoples homes and tenants deserve to have dignified housing and landlords have the responsibility to insthur units are habitability. I would like to urge the landlord to resolve the repair issues within the time frame provided. Thank you. Thank you. Final caller is 415694. Please go ahead. Good morning. This is Bill Williams the tenant at 1600 clement street. Thank you. In the five months since we have been without a shower and since the bathroom was torn up, workers have come here four times to do work. The last one was on august 29. Contrary to what mrs. Lau says, the workers have not been refused entry in the any time. We have alwaysed a mitted them, but the last time anybody came was on august 29. The permits were not the todo list work were not obtained until very recently if, as we learned from chief inspector hernandez at the last hearing on october 21. We have been given use of the shower in 205. However, the ceiling fell in as you have already heard and we could have been injured. And this has been repaired, however, the floor of the shower seems unsafe. It dips a lot. And so we are not happy about that situation. And over the fivemonth perspective, and workers or tilers to do the whole job have come, but none have been engaged. Recently i understand that mrs. Lau has hired or called on november 8 to say that somebody had been hired to come and do the work. And then on november 9, we were called again to say a relative of his has got the covid and he will not be able to come. And so he has been quarantining. So we have heard that is what they said. But i contacted this person myself. And by phone to find to ask for the doctors statement that will release him and say it is safe. And so far i have not seen that. So we hope this will be the case, but there is a terrible track record. So we dont think the landlord has demonstrated good faith and there are recent similar sentiments of complaints in the last few years and which have illustrated and we are were out of the hot water for months. No action was taken until compelled to do so. And with the experts say examine the boiler and there is nothing wrong with it. On the day that the plumber was compelled to come wrap up your comments, caller. You have a phi seconds left. And this is not the first time that we have been out of commission and for several months. And get to the email with the apologies. This email is from a person named emily and with 146 days ago, day 84 of the coronavirus, on saturday, and june 6, 2020. And the landlord can allow working in the garage and directly below the apartment. From the to go away and the workman in the garage and leaving the damaged bathroom floor for seven hours to see into the garage and the workmen who were unsure what to do about the whole in the bathroom floor and covered up the hole and that is with the bathroom until this day. And up until 6 29 and ken lau made the shower unusable which is how it remains to this date. And to date we have no bathroom floor and we are unable to use the shower with the the bathroom and the 2020 shower and it collapsed with the ceiling. The ceiling has been remared. That is the end of that statement. I think we do rebuttals, right . Yes. They will have three minute rebuttal time. So that is end of the statement. And next is the rebuttal and the chief now has three minutes rebuttal time. Sophie had her hand up. Does she want to go first . Its up to you if you would like to let her go first, burr procedurally the department goes first and then the appellant, but if you want to let her go first, you can do that. So unmute ms. Lau. You are unmuted. Sorry . You are unmuted. I can you hear me . You can hear me and the 3 minutes rebuttal time starts now. Im sorry . You have 3 minutes for your rebuttal time. Yes. Well, i respectfully disagree with some of those comments. As a landlord, we are not happy with the problem when tenants complaining so wherever there is something wrong, we always like to take care of it as soon as we can, but again, sometimes you have the problems getting people and setting up appointments, so i dont understand why the tenant, on the one hand, that i complain, and on the other hand, they delay and find excuses or i am not free today and i am going away monday. Out of town. So with this kind of situation, sometimes as a landlord, our hands are tied. We want to have a tenant to be happy and we want to keep the citations away and work with the building inspector. And sometimes we are going through a lot of hardship. Especially during this covid. A lot of things is not happening the way we would like to see. So with all due respect, i think through all the emails and the phone calls and i went down to 49 south van ness about six, seven times and i talked to matt luten and emails back and forth. And there are over 100 for these three citations. [please stand by] that took care of it. What were dealing now is with the second citation which is related to the first. And we are definitely working on the first, even though the plan has submitted, were still waiting to have approved, so we can start we already have worker lined up to do the dry run repair in the garage area and same time, they can also take care of the bathroom floor. The tile. Now, we can certainly go ahead and do the tile in the bathroom. Im sorry, in the shower room if thats okay. So basically, we just try to do everything possible. Find a way to work with trying to comply. If you could wrap up your comments, ms. Lau. Thank you. Thank you. You have three minutes for rebuttal for the department. Thank you. Think about the shower in your house. How would you like to not have hot water for four months . How would you like to have to go to somebody elses house for five months, six months . This is the risk list of 25 complaints that were filed with the city and county of San Francisco and heres 25 more. And heres 25 more. And heres 25 more. There is a pattern and practice here that is not in good faith. Youve sued this landlord twice. When extensions are given, sometimes that is taken to be an accommodation. And sometimes when you keep accommodating bad behavior, youre enabling it. And most landlords do the right thing, they follow the rules. Of the good landlords that follow the rules, by taking a firm stand against this problem landlord we have on our hands today. With some people you give them an inch, theyll take a mile. Thank you. Thank you. That is the completion of your okay. Well move on to commissioner questions. Comments . I have a few more both ms. Lau as well as the department. Ill start with ms. Lau. Ms. Lau, you testified that you are waiting to do the youre waiting to do the repairs because of dry rot . This is the same thing you testified in october 28 days ago. How long does the dry rot need to dry out . We already took out the over counter Building Permit. The same day we brought in the drawing, the architect drawing, but for some reason the clerk did not want to take that. So i even ask him, i say you sure, we were told we were supposed to submit the plan together to get the Building Permit. My question is specific. Its about how much longer does the dry rot need to dry out . You testified that some of the work could not be done because you were waiting for the dry rot to dry. Im asking how much longer you testified the same a month ago when we had the building, so im asking is it still not dry . Because we heard last month it wasnt dry . And how much longer are you going to need for the dry rot to dry . Maam, the dry rot the dry rot, its long gone, its dry. Its been gone, removed. Its not wet, no, no, no. Its not wet. Dry rot. Its got some of the molding. You know, the molding, so we want to replace that. I see. Thank you. And then can you tell us, what is the current stats of the work . Status of the work . Well, like i said, the first citation we got 90 days. But by the time i get the decision, its already after 10 days of that decision, so even though i had question, but i called in and i was told that, well, you had your 10 days, but, unfortunately, see that last the very first citation, the appeal date was october 21st. By the time i got the decision, it was november 2nd. So i mean that just to show you know there is a delay a lot of delay beyond our control. But even though the plans, the drawing has been submitted, but im waiting for them in fact my architect called yesterday and getting no phone call, no return back, callback. So were trying to rush the department, the Planning Department to approve the drawing so we can go ahead, because we already lined up the general contractor who will perform the work. And have you completed have you completed the work you do have a permit for . Im sorry, i didnt hear that . My understanding is that you have a plumbing permit . Yeah, we had that initially. Have you completed that work . Yes, in the beginning. And the plumbing work has been completed . The plumbing work, the rough inspection has already passed, yes. And thats related to the shower pan. Okay. And do you have all the permits you need . Yes, yes, maam. And you testified in october that you had offered the unit 205 for full use to the tenant, however, the tenant spoke in october and again this month, this hearing, said that was not true. Oh, my god. Can you [indiscernible] tenants from 105 had the use from day one. Five months ago they were using 205. Were they allowed to fully move into the unit . Well, we gave them the key. And we told them they can have full use of the unit, 205. Theyve the right to move in, yes. I think we went through this same question last hearing, but theyre the ones that choose not to move in, but they only want to use the bathroom. They have full usage of the full unit. We intentionally keep that open for their convenience and meanwhile, were losing all the income for that 205 unit, which you know, thats thats what the owner thats what were suffering the rental loss. Its not fair for them to say, they only got to use recently. Thats shocking. Not use. I think everyone agrees it was available, but the question about moving in. Well, they chose not to move in, yes, but it was there for their use, for their full use. You did have in writing they have the option of changing units fully 205 . Im sorry . You did inform them in writing that they have the option of moving to unit 205 . We gave them the key. [laughter]. Of course, there is no writing, but we gave them the key. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate you answering my questions. Chief inspector, my understanding of the housing code is that the housing code exists im reading from the code it is declared there exists in the city and county San Francisco substandard buildings and dwelling units whose physical conditions render them unfit for human occupancy and habitation and which characteristics are to be determined to jeopardize the health, safety and welfare of their occupants and of the public. Can you address how the housing code specifically addresses the kinds of concerns that the tenants brought up today, which is a little different than how the housing code operates . Yeah, sure. Its for habitability. If there is somebody in the unit, it has to function. If you find people that repeatedly violate the code, its illegal to be in violation of the code constantly. So thats why were all here is to make sure this bad behavior doesnt continue. And year after year after year of problems with this particular owner, its just kind of overwhelming when i think about it. We think its important that the Commission Send a firm message today. So the housing is focused on the habitability requirements of the unit. Absolutely, yes. Thats all my questions for now. Thank you for that clarification. Im going to call on Vice President tam. Vice president tam thank you, madame chair. Ms. Lau, i had a couple of questions for you. One, you mentioned you submitted your architect submitted drawings to planning and youre waiting results from planning . On october 9, i went in under maryseios instruction. He told me to go ahead and register on the lobby in the first floor, then go to second floor and pay. So i did exactly is ththat. After i went to the second floor, one of the clerk was filling out the job card. I was preparing to pay. In the meanwhile, i show him the two sets of plans. He says, no, no, we dont need this. I said no, yeah, yes you do. No, not on this you dont need it. So i did not want to argue with him. So i came back and called mauriceio right away and i called the architect right away. They said, no, no, no, thats not right, thats improper procedure. The clerk is supposed to take in the plan. Vice president tam from my understanding, you have permits to finish these dry rot repair, everything is within the scope of what it is now and youre able to finish the work, tile everything back up and put everything back together, right . Thats only sir, thats only the shower room, but without the plan, we cannot do the, you know, repair the dry rot because there is according to the plan there is were supposed to add Additional Support. So you know without the plan being approved, i dont think the general contractor, they want to start the work. Vice president tam you said you already have bids. Have you secured a licensed contractor to perform the work already . Yes. Vice president tam when is this work able to commence and when is it expected to complete . Well, i got a 90day extension from october 21st, the appeal hearing on the first citation. And that is the dry rot repair with Additional Support. And unexpectedly we did not know going to run into, you know, the clerical error. The plan was not approved. So to this day, were still waiting for the plan to be approved and i got the worker lined up, but as soon as we get the plan the worker already lined up, i certainly expect within the 90 days we should complete, but again, the bathroom floor i was told that it has to be finishing the well, again, maybe the guy will look again. The contractor will look again. So what we want to do, if they rather to have us to finish the ceramic tile in the shower room, we can do that. In fact, you know, we definitely ready to do that work, but the floor, its something we got to wait. So i mean thats the tenants choice, and the department of course. If were allowed to go ahead also do the tile work in the bathroom, which is a small area. Its a very small area. But im going to talk to the contractor again. See if there is any way we finish the bathroom, the floor and the shower room tile. In the meanwhile, they can work on the dry rot repair in the garage level. Does that sound reasonable . Vice president tam well, thank you for the information. Well digest that as we go. And then lastly, you said that, again, youve already agreed to provide the whole unit and youre suffering a rental loss, but at the same time, as a comme comment, these people are paying rent for a habitable unit and there should be urgency here to provide them that habitable unit as well as a good landlord. Yes. Vice president tam thats it for me. Thanks. Yes. We have done that from day one. We understand Everybody Needs bathroom, of course. Yes. So we provided that convenience the whole unit for them to use from day one. Vice president tam thank you. President alexandertut and i want to go commissioner jacobo. Commissioner jacobo i appreciate the original line of questions by both madame president and Vice President. Unfortunate to hear what weve been hearing from the tenants that have experienced this both personally and indirectly. I can tell you i couldnt imagine not having hot water for four months as its been labelled thats not true. Continue, commissioner. Commissioner jacobo i actually wanted to ask if there is any additional context that you can add kind of to the background of this . I got cut off originally and i just want to see if there is anything else youd like to add, and through the chair if thats okay. Ill allow it. Thank you, commissioner. Sophie lau owns 1340 larkin street which is subject of a lawsuit. Larkin street, we have another 100 complaints at 1430 larkin street. And my predecessor described sophie lau as somebody who incorporates violating the housing code into her business plan. And thats exactly the kind of predatory behavior that were here to stop. Thats the mission of our department. So you commissioners are in a unique position to send a message today about what is going on here. Thank you. President alexandertut my apologies, commissioner jacobo. Commissioner jacobo ive heard enough, but thank you for that. Commissioner, i apologize, on my cheat sheet, i spelled your name with a k, not a c. So. Commissioner clinch thats okay. I have a question for sonya or deputy attorney. We heard this case last month. We reached a conclusion. And why are we hearing this again . What is new . This is this is actually this is a Housing Inspection Services abatement. The first was for Code Enforcement services. Its the same property, but a different case. Commissioner clinch thank you. In that case, is it not germane, im not sure who im addressing this question to, is it not germane to be discussing things like the difficulties and such . Should we have hernandez helping us out with that, or is that a different issue . I would think the issue is a little different because the original notice of violation, our case is about a particular notice of violation. And the language requires a permit, but doesnt require plans. We told ms. Lau in the beginning it was an overthecounter permit she needed for this. Commissioner clinch okay. So im a little confused about jurisdictional or department jurisdiction here, but we heard new testimony today i think if i recall, about leaking in the ceiling of the shower above. And i have to say as a structural engineer, there is leaking. How do we know there is not dry rot . How do we know there is not dry rot in the tenants unit . So is it possible im sort of waiting for the deputy City Attorney, are we allowed to request that the landlord remove drywall in the ceiling to inspect the framing given there is already some damage to the units floor framing . Can we not inspect the framing above at the same time . Is that within the departments purview . Just before the City Attorney chimes in on this one, thats one of the most important questions that we have in this situation. And its related to the appeal that we didnt calendar for today because we dont have the information on that one. So ill keep your comments in mind going forward. Commissioner clinch very good. That concludes my comments and questions. Commissioner mccarthy i have heard the line of questioning. It does help. Just one question. The reason we dont have mauriceo here today, hes not hes at the meeting, but this particular case is a housing inspection. Thats what this appeal is for. The case last month was for code which was his case. Commissioner mccarthy thank you. I thought i heard that and i wanted to be clear. Yes, this is a different notice of violation. Commissioner mccarthy but the appeal in front of us, what is strictly in front of us is to reverse the order of abatement . Yes, believe so, yes. Commissioner mccarthy but basically it kind of comes off to me as pretty much the same case as we had before, all the same issues were discussed. And you know, the inconveniences and the time delays and the reasoning for why we made the decision last week. Its still the same to me were asking to reverse the order of abatement. The City Attorney can weigh in. Deputy City Attorney, could you meant . Good morning. The state attorney office. Yes, it does appear to be the same issues that were discussed last time. Just a different code violation that is being asserted here. Commissioner mccarthy all right. To madame president , to your comments there, and i was following your line of questioning. The problem is coverup. You can pull a inspections. But the coverup is the issue. To get the authorization to cover up. So in this particular case, inspector, id like to ask you a few questions on the inspection. Inspector mccarthy . Yes. Inspector on the call still . Yes. Liam, make sure you unmute yourself. This is his first go round. Okay. Hes listed. Hes still muted. Hes still muted. I can unmute him. Okay. Sorry, i minimized my screen for the meeting, and i cant pull it back up. Im glad you unmuted me. Go ahead with the question again. Inspector, you cant give complete coverup to the project out there, is that correct, at this point . Im the Housing Inspector, not the building inspector. Commissioner mccarthy okay. All right. So the reason you have an opening in the lower floor and the reason you might have tile still broken and so on, have you checked in with the inspector, the building inspector, why they havent given ms. Lau coverup . Well, they hadnt had a permit in place so there would be no inspections scheduled. Commissioner mccarthy outside the plumbing and the electrical and the permit, that has been inspected, but the coverup permit, the reason why she hasnt finished the complete project is due to one reason which i see is the permit that is in file with d. B. I. To be checked at this point, is that correct . The only permit that has been in place all these months was the original plumbing permit. There was some work done in regards to the plumbing, however, there had not been a building inspection obtained for this job as i had advised many, many times over the several months time frame that this has taken place. And recently, there was a Building Permit obtained, i believe a couple of weeks ago. And according to the situation, there has been no work done since that Building Permit was obtained. But prior to that, there was no Building Permit change, so that was, in essence, where they were at. There would be no inspection if there were no permits in place. Thank you, inspector. That leads back to my point im trying to make, that is the application that has been filed to be plan checked that allows her to give the coverup to complete the job, which is the same information we got in the appeal last week. And thats why we felt it was good faith led by mrs. Lau. Now, separately on the issue here, the related costs here, i really havent seen anything that would make me change my mind on the decision we made last month. But through the chair, i am concerned, though and i think we need to have a memorandum of understanding here, because to me, this hearing, you know, its important that were fair and partial platform and thats what we have been in the past. I felt this hearing had nothing to do, but more so to point out that ms. Lau is not a good landlord. Im not here to say whether she is or not. I understand shes had issues with the city, but what is before us to have the abatement released today and i havent seen any information on that. Staff needs to understand when they bring them in front of us, for me personally, you need to do a more fairer job in trying to make arguments. I really didnt see the meta and im disappointed to be honest. It was a tough hearing to sit through to hear the staff make comments that they did. And i do understand this is a difficult case, but this there is nothing here that would change my mind to reverse the order of abatement and related costs. This is joe duffy, can i speak . Fine, mr. Duffy. Im not familiar with your position. Oh, joe is acting secretary to the abatement appeals board. Go ahead. Just to also convey, the building, what i see here is, i think it might help you give you oversight on the file permit. It looks like there was a Building Permit issued. Reading between the lines, i would say the building inspector, i said youre pulling in, you need to get plans submitted, they did submit plans. I do see a file permit. I think the permit should be expedited through the department to get that permit, because when that permit is issued, that would get the work completed. In the bathroom, it may have been with the water damage. That would be something of the permit, that permit should get issued. That would help resolve the problem for everyone. Im hopeful those comments will help. And then on the our building inspector could check any damage to the ceiling or that when he did the inspection. Typically the building inspector will look for that stuff and if they do need to get it referred, they make that happen. But i thought the comments might help to make you understand. Ive gone through a couple stations. It needs to be reviewed, its an easy review on this, so i encourage [indiscernible] get some actionable plan to get that permit issued. Can i i would like to make a clarification on one of the statements that the commissioner made so were we are not rehearing the abeyance that we decided last month. That we order in abeyance and my understanding we gave them 30 days for all work to start. All work to start, including the structurele work and then 90 days to complete the work. So that was the order of abatement. It was not 90 days, it was 30 days to start all of the work, specifically the structural work and 90 days to complete the work. And if there is anyone who can give an update to that, it seems like that is part of the questions that are looming over this decision. Thank you. I would just like to say this is this is patrick here. If they have a set of drawings that is currently reviewed and if we need to get those issued, we will issue them right away. I suspect that mauriceo is working with the ms. Lau in this case, and as soon as the drawings are appropriate and they meet the requirements of the Building Code, that permit will be issued. And if there is any delay, id like to know about it because i want to see this permit going out the door as soon as we have the proper permit documents. Thank you. Commissioner mccarthy, any further questions . Commissioner mccarthy thank you for that clarification from Deputy Director duffy. I think it can be solved by getting these drawings plan checked. I thought thats where we left off in the last hearing, so im glad to hear theyre close and theyve gone through major stations. So if staff could see if we can get it out and get these people their bathroom and get them back in their home so there is no more issue. As i said in the last statement, this has gone on too long. But at the end of the day we have to comply with if she has submitted the drawings and covid has turned our world upside down and there is a lot of these situations out there, so we have to work through the situations. Covid wont be a problem here. I think as soon as we have the proper drawings well issue this permit the very same day. I think its more to do with making sure that we have appropriate permit documents so we can get this permit out of here and i think we can just turn that around like literally the same day as long as we have the proper materials. Thank you. We can go to commissioner moss. Commissioner moss hi. I dont have any more comments than have already been said and i do agree with what has been said so far, so like to keep moving forward. I had requested and i think it will be helpful for this committee that we hear an update when we put something abeyance. We havent met that 30 day, its 28 days. Because the abeyance has the two markers, the 30 days and then the 90 days. So when there is we do have a little bit of overlap, or what appears to be overlap. I do want to the reason i feel like this is a little bit different, i havent heard anything from ms. Lau that is different than 28 days ago when we gave a 30day extension on the Code Enforcement violation in order to start all the work to get the permits. I think weve shown a lot of deference. And i havent heard anything that is different, any that abeyance time in sure that getting im not sure that getting that 30 days has given the landlord the opportunity for you know, to really to come into compliance. And the housing code is different than the Building Code. They are obviously related. Plumbing code is related to housing code. All of our codes, because they all exist for the same fire code. Of course, there is overlap in relationship because theyre all the same building, but my understanding and reading of the purpose of the Building Code is that tenants are afforded habitable units. And there is somewhat of a distinction, which is why i do that we are were being asked to consider these differently, as there are two different hearings, two different violations. So i am not i am not in im not im not looking to put this in abeyance, or to relieve you know, uphold im not looking to uphold the appeal. I dont know if thats where the rest of the commissioners are going. So i guess the we need to a motion. I dont know if this will be a unanimous one. Ill put the motion up first. We can see how it goes. I would like to make a motion not to grant the appeal. Is there a second for the motion . Could i clarify the motion, just to make sure that the case passions, we have the passes, we have the correct language. Is your motion to deny the appeal and uphold the order of abatement and that the department did not err . President alexandertut yes, this is what i said. Thank you. Id like to second that. Okay. A point of clarification. So a yes vote is to up hold the appellant. A no vote is not to reverse the order of abatement related costs, is that correct . A yes vote would deny the appeal and uphold the order of abatement. So the reverse of order of abatement, that would keep that in place, is that correct . Right. The cost will be imposed. The costs will be imposed . Okay. Yes. Okay. So we have a motion and a second. So to up hold the order of abatement and assess costs. Ill do a roll call vote on the motion. President alexandertut yes. Vice president tam yes. Commissioner clinch yes. Commissioner jacobo yes. Commissioner mccarthy can we reverse this. Im confused here. A yes vote. I ask the City Attorney, please explain it to me. I know you explained it to me here. But what is in front of us to reverse the order of abatement and related costs, right . I do not want to okay, commissioner tut moved to not reverse the order of abatement. The motion on the table would keep the order of abatement in place and assess costs. Commissioner mccarthy okay thank you. All right. Yes. Okay . Commissioner moss yes. Okay. The motion carries unanimously. Thank you, City Attorney. Through the chair, i had my hand up on webex, i guess its not obvious. Im sorry. Was that germane to what we decided. I just want to second what commissioner said earlier. I think the staff could have helped us a bit more with the understanding of the situation and what was needed to resolve it rather than talking about other cases, other properties. Its not helpful. We had a case before us. We should be hearing specific information about that. As Commission President tut mentioned, if we want to have an update, we would like to have heard from the building inspection people, perhaps mauriceo to understand what was going on and for future hearings, lets keep that in mind. Thank you, brad, for holding my hand through it there. I find some of these votes can be difficult and i did eat my wheaties this morning. Thank you. I want to thank my fellow commissioners for your comments and requests and also your shared curiosity that even when we put things in abeyance, we want to know how this continues. And you know, what is the result of our actions, especially when you put them in abeyance, they just kind of disappear for a while, but you know, we still want to know what happened. Also hearing your comments on just kind of creating specifications. Thank you for those comments. I think thats a good idea. I think thats something we can explore possibly putting on future agendas. Ill work with City Attorney here, work with president alexandertut on how we can address that going forward. Thank you. Our next item is general Public Comment. Is there a general Public Comment for items that are not on the abatement appeals board agenda. There is one hand there are no hands raised. Okay. There is no Public Comment. Next item is adjournment. Is there a notion adjourn . Motion. Okay, is there a second . Second. Okay. All in favor . Okay. So we are now adjourned. It is 10 40 a. M. We will have approximately five to ten minute recess and then well reconvene on the building inspection commission. Thank you. [ ] i really believe that art should be available to people for free, and it should be part of our world, you shouldnt just be something in museums, and i love that the people can just go there and it is there for everyone. [ ] i would say i am a multidimensional artist. I came out of painting, but have also really enjoyed tactile properties of artwork and tile work. I always have an interest in public art. I really believe that art should be available to people for free, and it should be part of our world. You shouldnt just be something in museums. I love that people can just go there, and it is there for everyone. Public art is art with a job to do. It is a place where the architecture meets the public. Where the artist takes the meaning of the site, and gives a voice to its. We commission culture, murals, mosaics, black pieces, cut to mental, different types of material. It is not just downtown, or the big sculptures you see, we are in the neighborhood. Those are some of the most beloved kinds of projects that really give our libraries and Recreation Centers a sense of uniqueness, and being specific to that neighborhood. Colette test on a number of those projects for its. One of my favorites is the oceanview library, as well as several parks, and the steps. Mosaics are created with tile that is either broken or cut in some way, and rearranged to make a pattern. You need to use a tool, nippers, as they are called, to actually shape the tiles of it so you can get them to fit incorrectly. I glued them to mash, and then they are taken, now usually installed by someone who is not to me, and they put cement on the wall, and they pick up the mash with the tiles attached to it, and they stick it to the wall, and then they groped it afterwards. [ ] we had never really seen artwork done on a stairway of the kinds that we were thinking of because our idea was very just barely pictorial, and to have a picture broken up like that, we were not sure if it would visually work. So we just took paper that size and drew what our idea was, and cut it into strips, and took it down there and taped it to the steps, and stepped back and looked around, and walked up and down and figured out how it would really work visually. [ ] my theme was chinese heights because i find them very beautiful. And also because mosaic is such a heavy, dens, static medium, and i always like to try and incorporate movement into its, and i work with the theme of water a lot, with wind, with clouds, just because i like movements and lightness, so i liked the contrast of making kites out of very heavy, hard material. So one side is a dragon kite, and then there are several different kites in the sky with the clouds, and a little girl below flying it. [ ] there are pieces that are particularly meaningful to me. During the time that we were working on it, my son was a disaffected, unhappy high school student. There was a day where i was on the way to take them to school, and he was looking glum, as usual, and so halfway to school, i turned around and said, how about if i tell the school you are sick and you come make tiles with us, so there is a tile that he made to. It is a little bird. The relationship with a work of art is something that develops over time, and if you have memories connected with a place from when you are a child, and you come back and you see it again with the eyes of an adult, it is a different thing, and is just part of what makes the city an exciting place. [ ] clapping. the airport it where i know to mind visions of traffic romance and excitement and gourmet can you limousine were at San Francisco inspirational airport to discover the awardwinning concession that conspiracies us around the world. Sfo serves are more 40 million travelers a year and a lot of the them are hungry theres many restaurant and nearly all are restaurant and cafe thats right even the airport is a diane designation. So tell me a little bit the food program at sfo and what makes this so special well, we have a we have food and Beverage Program at sfo we trivia important the sustainable organic produce and our objective to be a nonterminal and bring in the best food of San Francisco for our passengers. I like this its is inaudible i thank my parents for bringing me here. This the definitely better than the la airport one thousand times better than. I have a double knees burger with bacon. I realize im on a diet but im hoping this will be good. It total is San Francisco experience because theres so many people and nationalities in this town to come to the airport especially everyone what have what they wanted. Are repioneering or is this a model. Were definitely pioneers and in airport commemoration at least nationally if not intvrl we have many folks asking our our process and how we select our great operators. The food option in San Francisco airport are phenomenal thats if it a lot of the airports yeah. You dont have the choice. Some airports are all about food this is not many and this particular airport are amazing especially at the tirnl indicating and corey is my favorite i come one or two hours before my flight this is the life. We definitely try to use as many local grirnts as we can we use the goat cheese and we also use local vendors we use greenly produce they summarize the local soured products and the last one had 97 percent open that. Wow. Have you taken up anything unique or odd here. Ive picked up a few things in napa valley i love checking chocolates theres a lot of types of chocolate and caramel corn. Now this is a given right there. Im curious about the customer externals and how people are richmond to this collection of cities youve put together not only of San Francisco food in San Francisco but food across the bay area. This type of market with the local savors the highend products is great. I know people cant believe theyre in an airport i really joy people picking up things for their friends and family and wait i dont have to be shopping now we want people take the opportunity at our location. How long has this been operating in San Francisco and the late 18 hours it is one of the best places to get it coffee. We have intrrnl consumers that know of this original outlet here and come here for the coffee. So lets talk sandwiches. Uhhuh. Can you tell me how you came about naming our sandwiches from the katrero hills or 27 years i thought okay neighborhood and how do you keep it fresh you can answer that mia anyway you want. Our broadened is were going not irving preserves or packaged goods we take the time to incubate our jogger art if scratch people appreciate our work here. So you feel like out of captured the airport atmosphere. This is its own the city the Airline Crews and the bag handlers and the frequent travels travelers and weve established relationships it feels good. When i get lunch or come to eat the food i feel like im not city. I was kind of under the assumption you want to be done with our gifts you are down one time not true we have a lot of regulars we didnt think wed find that here at the airport. People come in at least one a week for that the food and service and the atmosphere. The food is great in San Francisco its a coffee and i took an e calorie home every couple of weeks. Im impressed i might come here on my own without a trip, you know, we have kids we could get a babysitter and have diner at the airport. This is a little bit of things for everybody theres plenty of restaurant to grab something and go otherwise in you want to sit you can enjoy the experience of local food. Tell me about the future food. Were hoping to bring newer concepts out in San Francisco and what our passengers want. I look forward to see what your cooking up laughter today weve shown you the only restaurant in San Francisco from the comfortableing old stand but you dont have to be hungry sfo has changed what it is like to eat another an airport check out our oblige at tumbler dating. Com