Befored board this evening. We have in the front, scott sanchez, acting deputy zoning administrator, also representing the Planning Department and planning commission. We have chief building inspector, mauriceo hernandez and sen erin respec inspector be kernin and we have the Environmental Health branch of department of publichealth. The Board Meeting guidelines are as follows, the board request you turn off or silence all phones and other Electronic Devices so they will not disturb the proceedings. Carry on conversations in the hallway. Appellants. Permit holders and Department Respondents are given seven minutes to present and three minutes for rebuttal. People must include their comments within the three or sevenminute periods. Members not affiliated have up to three minutes each to address the board and no rebuttal. Please speak into the microphone. To assist board in the accurate preparation of minutes, you are asked but not required to submit a speaker card or Business Card to board staff when you come up to speak. Speaker cards are available on the left side of the podium. Four votes are required to grants and appeal. If you have questions about requesting a rehearing speak to board staff during a break or after the meeting or call or visit the board office. Were located at 1650 Mission Street room 304. This meeting is broadcast live on sfgov tv and will be row broadcast on channel 26 on friday. The video can be downloaded. Now, we will swear in or affirm all those who intend to testify. Any member of the public may speak without taking the oath. If you intend to testify at any of tonights proceedings and wish to have the board give your testimony weight, please stand if you are able, raise your right hand and say i do after you have been sworn in or affirmed. Do you swear or affirm the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth . I do. Thank you. Please be seated. So, commissioners, we have four housekeeping items. The first item is number 7. This is appeal number 19 064 concerning the subject property at 1072filber street and its been withdrawn by the appellant. Next, we have a reordering of the agenda. Item number 11. This is 19016. The parties have reached an agreement so they will address the board after item number 5 is heard. Next item number eight, this is appeal number 19082. The parties would like to continue this matter to novembe. Since it is on the publishe pubd agenda, you would need to vote to continue it. Ill make that motion. So we have a motion from commissioner honda to continue this matter to november 6th. Is there any Public Comment on this motion . Seeing none. On that motion, commissioner santacana. Aye. President swig. Aye. So that motion carries. 30 and that matter is continued to november 6th. Next we have item number 9. This is appeal number 19074. The parties would like to continue this matter to novembed a vote. I make that motion. We have a motion from commissioner honda to continue that to november 11th. Is there any Public Comment on that item . Seeing none. On that motion, commissioner santacana. Aye. President swig. Aye. That motion carries 30. So, we will now move on to item number 1 which is general Public Comment. This is an opportunity for anyone who would like to speak on a matter but its not on tonighttonights calender. Is there anybody here for general Public Comment . Seeing none. Theres no Public Comment. Well move on to item number 2, commissioner comments and questions. Commissioners . Id like to congratulate our secretary for retiring. He is not here right now. We can do that on item number 4. Sorry. Didnt mean to go out of line. Is there any Public Comment on commissioner hondas comments . So well move on on t onto the n of the minutes. The minutes of the august 7th, 2019 Board Meeting. Commissioners . Motion. So we have a motion is there any Public Comment on that motion to adopt the minutes . We have a motion. On that motion, commissioner santacana . Aye. President swig. Aye. Ok, so that motion carries 30. Well move on to item number 4. This is recognition of the boards legal assistant, gary can atra and gary was not feeling well so he was unable to attend. I want to say briefly its been a pleasure. I know he will watch the video later so i want to say its been a pleasure working with gary. He is a Hardworking Team player and he really taught me a lot when i started this position. He is a person of integrity and provides excellent customer service. Is were really going to miss him. Additionally, i received comments from the former executive director, cynthia goldstein, she indicated she wanted to add her congratulations and that she feels very fortunate to have worked with gary. She found him to be a wonderful colleague who provided Excellent Service to the public on behalf of the board. At this point, is there any Public Comment on this item . Thank you, Planning Department. I want to reiterate i had enjoyed working with gary. The board staff is excellent and i think the public. He brings out the best and shows the best attributes of a public servant. He is fair, knowledgeable, diligent, responsive and going to miss him but congratulate him and hope his days are retirement are better than his first day. Thank you, mr. Sanchez. Sarah hoffman, im an attorney who appears every now and then i would love to echo the thoughts from julie and scott that gary is very much going to be missed. What i was starting in this area he was a wealth of knowledge to me and for any of my colleagues. We do wish him all the best. We thank him for his years of service. Thank you. Paul britain. I worked with gary for over a decade and were going to miss him. Every step of every appeal before the board. He has been a tremendous a help inperson and over the phone and with documents of my staff all a dooadore him. We wish him well and appreciate all he has done to help the city and help the process move forward over the last decade plus. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any other Public Comment . Any commissioner comments . Sure. Id like to lead off, you know i have something from the mayor. Ill upstage the mayor. We get weekly basis, this is only half of it, all the people work though comes in from the public. We as commissioners, we serve the public and the city. We serve the appellants and we serve the permit holder and anybody else that needs assistance in pushing their agenda forward. The person who actually pushes the agenda forward is the staff. Gary has been amazing because he has to sort through all the stuff and theres a ton of it. Literally, this will go about 2. And its really hard work and gary has made my life tremendo tremendously more easy, helping me get through my work and therefore he has made the publics work easier and we appreciate his support. I would like to read a certificate of honor august 28th, 2019 whereas behalf of the city and county of San Francisco im pleased to recognize and honor gary for more than 13 years of service to the city and county of San Francisco. Your dedication to the operations and success of the San Francisco boar board of apps is commendable. Your support has been integral to the efficiency, equity and development of the San Francisco board of appeals and our city therefore i have set my hand and caused the seal of the city and the county of San Francisco to be affixed london breed, mayor of San Francisco. Congratulations, gary. Thank you for all your service to all of us. Commissioners yes, i also would like to reiterate the same. Gary has been great over the years that ive been here. He has been the second person had that seat since ive been here for seven years and he will be missed. Thank you. Were going to move on to item number 5. This is appeal number 19070 ron ratner versus San Francisco public works, street use and mapping subject property 2620 la laguna street and a personal Wireless Service facility site permit. Construction of a personal Wireless Service facility in a zoningprotected location. This is number 17wr 0252. Thank you, very much. I think this will be fine. My vision is such that ill be able to read my paper but i mean, i would be able to read the names of the commissioners. I see that Vice President lazarus isnt here. Maybe we can raise her from the absence. I have her name written down in my presentation. You can go ahead and begin, sir. Good evening. Welcome. Thank you, very much. Commissioners honda and San Francisco has thousands of microwave antennas and south hours and until now, guidelines preempted of all state and local u. S. Heath and safety regulations. This appeal is filed on unprecedented grounds that contrary to alleged 1996 federal pre exception San Francisco has retained local health and safety jurisdiction over potentially dangerous wireless inflation pursuit to its precautionary principal ordinance as well as under the recent California Supreme Court team oval decision which upheld San Franciscos local regulation of lines or equipment on public rights of way that might cause negative Health Consequences or create safety concerns. Its a universal law of morality like a golden rule which pertains to every adult everywhere. If you dont harm others in ways we dont want to be harmed ourselves, we dont harm our precious planets environment because what we do to it we do to ourselves. Surprisingly, despite International Recognition of the precautionary principle, the city and county of San Francisco is the only world metropolis and the only large u. S. Political entity which has legislated the precautionary principle as its official environmental policy. San franciscos environmental code applies to precautionary principle to all San Francisco officers, boards, commission and departments including public works, health and Planning Departments. Theyre also advised to this boards consideration of Environmental Health and safety issues. And approving a cell tour site permitted 2620 laguna street, the article 25 city departments violated the clear language and intent of the precautionary principle ordinance in numerous respects. For example, their decisionmaking process for approvalling the cell tower was not made in an open and transparent manner with public participation. Instead, it was decided during an 18month private communications between city departments and verizon attorneys and engineers which completely excluded any required citizen participation or notification. Before deciding to grant the permit, they failed to inform the public about potential human health and environmental dangers of the proposed cell tower. Instead, they accepted biased health and safety opinions of verizon engineers and attorneys without consulting independent emf experts to evaluate dangers or needs for the proposed cell tower or possible alternatives like fiber optics which can provide Fastest Internet in the u. S. A. Instead of proving health and safety of the cell tower project, on verizon, they improper hoisted upon vulnerable a joining residents and owners the unfair burden of Challenging Health and safety of the agencys pre determined, private approval decision. They failed to acknowledge or inform the public that thousands of highly credible independent worldwide scientific studies have overwhelmingly contradicted and invalue dated 1996, fcc thermal safety guidelines which have become completely outdated and extraordinarily dangerous. Independent studies have long shown that microwave cell towers cause cancer clusters and other diseases and may seriously threaten not just san franciscans but people in nature everywhere. For many years, not even the likes of london have issued Product Liability insurance on cellphones and wifi products. Too dangerous. And while its induce tremendous cooperations like verizon, confirm those dangers in mandatory s. E. C. Disclosure to their shareholders. So, improving this cell tower project the article 25 city departments violated the most fundamental precautionary principle. Threats of serious or irreversible damage to people or nature exist, lack of full scientific certainty of our cause and effect shall not be viewed as sufficient reason for the city to prevent the degradation of the environment or protect the health of its citizens. Closed quote. In San Francisco, this board of appeal is the last hope for most ordinary people. Hardly anyone can afford to litigate against giant corporations so tonight, you have an unprecedented opportunity of conscientiously reversing the cell tower permit on health and safety grounds. Such conscientious and groundbreaking board of appeals decisions can lead San Francisco and our nation in protecting against further and prude use of dangerous Wireless Technologies which seriously or i remember reversi rememberi rememberrebleo and nature. Thank you. Hearing from the attorney. Welcome back, councilor. Good evening. Mr. President , members of the board, paul, outside council for Verizon Wireless. Were sympathetic obviously to his concerns about the health and safety. I think you know article 25 is one of the most robust regulations really in the country for these types of facilities to be placed in urban environments. Article 25 was upheld by the California Supreme Court in t mobile verse San Francisco and it requires a rigorous review of the publichealth of the omissions from the Verizon Wireless facilities. For that reason, we submit Consulting Engineers report and we have a representative here if youd like to ask any questions that shows the emissions from this facility are less than half than what is allowed under the fcc standards at the nearest building. The department of publichealth took that report, which its anna proved engineer by the city of San Francisco and also represents other cities and confirmed in their report that this site will comply with the fcc standards, there by complying with article 25 and the federal law such that that issue is resolved with respect to the city, code and respect to the federal law. And testing which will be done in order to absolutely confirm the emissions comply with the f. C. C. Standards. The city included announcement from the f. C. C. Earlier this month that they are reconfirming the same levels of emissions that are in place for the last decade. We would argue in really has been a public and transparent process not a secret process. I think you are aware that there are notices that go out to allow for a protest hearing with the tentative approval. That includes the d. P. H. And information that is available from the department as well. Theres another notice that goes out with the final determination that allows two levels of protest before public hearing officer and then here again. We feel its a very transparent process. So we encourage you to approve this facility as approved by the department of publichealth and of course reviewed by the department of planning and the department of public works, three departments that have recommended approval of the site. I have a question, councilor and thank you. Can you explain the difference between this antenna and the antenna that is generally before us. Were hearing the ones on the pole top. This is a more robust system. Yes, so, as you heard me go on before, right now verizon is using three different types of radios in San Francisco. The site that will be coming up later is on a light standard and thats a fivewatt radio. On utilities polls were using 40watt radios. Thes the same were putting on every utility pole in 70 in north beach and elsewhere throughout the city. We have afourfoot antenna and the difference here is that were using only one of the directions. Because of that, the radio signal is then concentrated in that one antenna giving us a higher effective radiated power than you would have. I spoke to the engineer and she explained that this is a very cluttered environment. If you look at the photo, you will see theyre very Tall Buildings all around this pole. Were able to get up to nearly 640 feet with this pole. The antenna is focusing uphill to provide up laguna and get through this urban clutter and providing its signal. The site is not focused in three directions but one. So its really the same radios, same antenna but the fact that the energy from the radios is being focused in one direction rather than two or three directions. Was that in the a pa appellas grief they stated 7,000 watts . Thats right. Thats taking i can have the engineer better explain. You have two bands, p. C. S. And a. W. S. , the shorter bands but carry more information and you have that 40 watts times two times two and the a ten a which is 15 gets you to the 7,000 watts. Its 60 feet up in the air and off to the side of the building thats about 12 to 15 feet away. Th