SAN FRANCISCO

HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION

 

 

Meeting Minutes

 

 

Commission Chambers, Room 400

City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place

San Francisco, CA 94102-4689

 

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

12:30 p.m.

Regular Meeting

 

 

COMMISSIONERS PRESENT:   Hasz, Hyland, Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman, Wolfram

                                               

 

THE MEETING WAS CALLED TO ORDER BY PRESIDENT WOLFRAM AT 12:30 P.M.

 

STAFF IN ATTENDANCE:  John Rahaim - Planning Director, Pilar LaValley, Tim Frye - Preservation Coordinator, Jonas P. Ionin – Commission Secretary

 

SPEAKER KEY:

                                + indicates a speaker in support of an item;

-   indicates a speaker in opposition to an item; and

= indicates a neutral speaker or a speaker who did not indicate support or opposition.

 

 

A.   PUBLIC COMMENT - None

 

 

B.         DEPARTMENT MATTERS

 

1.             Director’s Announcements

 

Planning Director Rahaim: Good afternoon, Commissioners. I just wanted to call your attention to one of the items on the written Director’s Report, which is this Market Street Prototyping Festival.  It’s a very exciting, interesting project that we have convened with the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the James Knight Foundation who is funding it.  Next week, we will actually be seeing it in about 40 or 45 installations of various projects on Market Street.  Market Street to prototype, kind of a different way of thinking about the street, using artists and architects in the whole range of projects.  We are getting national, in fact, international attention on this project.  It actually is very interesting, very exciting.  We expect a lot of people in town taking a look at the street and looking at what we could do in the long run for Market.  These, of course will be temporary installations, but the idea is that they could be prototypes for future permanent installations.  So that again next week 9^th - 11^th on Market Street.  There are a number of events.  There’s a website that’s linked to our website, where you can see a number of events that’s happening in relationship to that as well. That does it for me. Thank you.

               

2.             Review of Past Events at the Planning Commission, Staff Report and Announcements

 

Preservation Coordinator Tim Frye:  Good afternoon commissioners, Tim Frye, Department staff.  A couple of items to share with you- this week, first of all, I don’t have a formal report from the Planning Commission but I do have a couple of other items for you.  One was last week, we held a Mills Act Workshop within the Uptown Tenderloin National Register District and it was well received. We had eleven property owners there, I think about thirty members of the public attended in general. The Assessor-Recorder’s Office was represented and answered a lot of questions about the valuation of properties under the Mills Act and there was definitely a lot of interest in pursuing applications for this year.  As I have mentioned, my previous report we targeted the uptown Tenderloin National Register District and the Lower Nob Hill Apartment Hotel National Register District, so we'll continue to work with those applicants that are interested in applying this year. We’re also scheduling a Miles Act Workshop in the next couple of weeks in the Dogpatch Local Landmarks District, so we'll keep you posted about the location and time for that event.  We also last week presented the draft survey findings for the Central SOMA Area Plan.  The survey findings were prepared by the survey team in our office.  There is a Google map that's posted online as well as the draft historic context statement. Some of our recommendations include new buildings to include on your Landmark Designation Work Program and also a number of buildings to list on, reclassified under the Article 11 of the Planning Code. Those recommendations will be incorporated into the plan and the survey and context statement we believe will reach you sometime late this year or early next year, but that information is available online. Certainly be happy to forward that to you again.  I know we did send it to you in the past. And lastly, as a follow up to our last hearing’s Cultural Heritage Assets hearing, Department staff did go to the Small Business Commission meeting last Monday to represent the HPC and the Department in their discussions about the Legacy Business Registry. They had agendized discussing criteria and administration around the registry. They had another item on their calendar that took quite a bit of time, so they didn't have as much time to discuss as they had hoped to, but we reiterate our willingness to assist and provide technical assistance to the commission in developing the registry and overseeing the registry, as well as the HPC’s interest in participating as part of that program.  We'll continue to attend their hearings and will keep you posted on their developments. That concludes my comments unless you have any questions.

 

C.         COMMISSION MATTERS

 

3.             President’s Report and Announcements - None

               

4.             Consideration of Adoption:

·        Draft Minutes for ARC March 4, 2015

·        Draft Minutes for CHA March 18, 2015

·        Draft Minutes for HPC March 18, 2015

 

SPEAKERS:           None

ACTION:                Adopted

AYES:                     Hasz, Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman, Hyland, Wolfram

 

5.             Commission Comments & Questions

·        Disclosures.

·        Inquiries/Announcements

·        Future Meetings/Agendas

 

Commissioner Pearlman:  I wanted to tell you all about a project I'm involved in which is connected to Market Street Prototype Festival. I’ve been working with a group that’s called detour.com. It’s a group that creates these very fascinating and wonderful walking tours that’s about an hour to an hour and a half and I'm the narrator of the Market Street Walk that’s going to be unveiled on April 9^th as part of the Market Street Prototyping Festival.  So, it's very cool and they're really interesting, so if you go to detour.com they have previews of all the ones they’ve done about six or seven they have done in San Francisco so far, and they are going to branch out to other cities. Thank you.

 

Commissioner Johnck:  I'm curious about if there’s been a resolution to the item that was brought to us about the sign, the Sherman Clay sign that was some question about it that was being taken down without a prior notice so didn't have a whole lot of information on that, but we got an e-mail from a neighbor, right, or tenant.

 

Mr. Frye:  Commissioners, Tim Frye, Department staff. The removal of that sign was approved through a Minor Permit to Alter as approved administratively through our office.  The sign while it was a neon sign was installed in the 1990’s. It is not a historic sign and Sherman Clay has moved out of the building quite some time ago, so under the revised signage program because that sign did not meet our current guidelines that sign was removed and a new sign was installed that meets our guidelines.

 

Commissioner Hyland:  I want to reiterate something that already in our packet from email and that is the closing of San Francisco Victoriana at the end of the month. I'm actually saddened, yet another legacy business that, you know, for me has been a huge resource.   So, sad to see them go.

 

D.         REGULAR CALENDAR 

 

6.             2014-001006COA                                                                                     (P. LaVALLEY: (415) 575-9084)

1088 SANSOME STREET, southeast corner of Green and Sansome Streets, Assessor’s Block 0135, Lot 009.  Request for a Certificate of Appropriateness for alterations to the four-story, concrete building. Proposed work includes: replacing non-historic aluminum slider windows with new metal windows, removing concrete panels and installing new windows, installing new storefront systems in existing openings and at new storefront openings at ground floor, removing infill and installing window openings and spandrel panels within one bay of Sansome Street façade, and replacing metal roll-up doors with new storefront systems. 1088 Sansome Street, formerly Bemis Bag Building constructed in 1906, is designated as a compatible building in the Northeast Waterfront Landmark District and is located within the C-2 (Community Business) District, Waterfront Special Use District, Subarea No. 3, 40-X Height and Bulk District, and Northeast Waterfront Special Sign District.

Recommendation: Approve with Conditions

 

PRESENTER:        Keith Turner, Huntsman Architectural Group - available for questions.

SPEAKERS:           None

ACTION:                Approved with Conditions as amended to include an interpretive plaque on the exterior of the building.

AYES:                     Hasz, Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman, Hyland, Wolfram

MOTION:               M-0253

                               

 

Adjournment:    12:51 PM

 

The minutes was proposed for adoption at the Regular Meeting of the Historic Preservation Commission on Wednesday, April 15, 2015.

ACTION:                Adopted

AYES:                     Hasz, Hyland Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman, Wolfram