Historic Preservation Commission - February 17, 2016 - Minutes
SAN FRANCISCO
HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION
Meeting Minutes
Commission Chambers Room 400,
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, CA 94102-4689
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
12:30 p.m.
Regular Hearing
COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Wolfram, Hyland, Hasz, Johnck, Matsuda, Pearlman, Johns
THE MEETING WAS CALLED TO ORDER BY PRESIDENT WOLFRAM AT 12:36 PM
STAFF IN ATTENDANCE: Jeff Joslin - Director of Current Planning, Shannon Ferguson, 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.
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Hearing Materials are available at: Commission Hearing Broadcasts: |
A. GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT
At this time, members of the public may address the Commission on items of interest to the public that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Commission except agenda items. With respect to agenda items, your opportunity to address the Commission will be afforded when the item is reached in the meeting. Each member of the public may address the Commission for up to three minutes.
SPEAKERS:
Georgia Schuttish – There are two issues occurring now with the issue of “facadism.” It is also concerning when a building is basically demolished and a whole new, very modern, often stark façade with lots of glass takes its place. This is happening in Noe Valley and probably throughout the City, in neighborhoods like Bernal Heights or Glen Park. These are some of our oldest neighborhoods and the City is losing “B” rated buildings which are often some of the texture, the vernacular architecture for which the City is known. When you study this issue of facadism, you should also examine the issue of this sort of perverse facadism where a building is downgraded from a “B” to a “C”, yet is still listed as built in the early part of the 20th century on City records. Meanwhile window replacement receives great scrutiny and these façade changes do not.
Ada Chan – Filipino Cultural Heritage District
Desiree Smith – Intern introduction
B. DEPARTMENT MATTERS
Tim Frye, Preservation Coordinator:
The Director’s report was included in your packet, happy to answer any questions should you have them.2 Review of Past Events at the Planning Commission, Staff Report and Announcements
Tim Frye, Preservation Coordinator:
One item to share with you; no formal report from the Planning Commission, however, as many of you saw there was an article by John King in today's paper regarding 140 Maiden Lane, the Frank Lloyd Wright Building within the Kearney-Market-Mason-Sutter Conservation District. The building is also Landmark No. 72, designated very early in the City’s Historic Preservation Program; as you saw the interior is up for consideration to expand the existing landmark designation and that is something you'll be seeing in the near future. We are currently in the owner outreach part of the project right now; we're discussing the interior character defining features with the property owner and their ideas for prospective tenants. So, as more information comes to us we'll be happy to share that with you and it will certainly be before you, I would say, before this summer. Happy to answer any questions should you have them.
C. COMMISSION MATTERS
3. President’s Report and Announcements
None
4. Consideration of Adoption:
SPEAKERS: None
ACTION: Adopted
AYES: Wolfram, Hyland, Hasz, Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman5. Commission Comments & Questions
Commissioner Johnck:
I was interested in the speaker that spoke at the open time for public expression regarding the cultural heritage discussion for the Filipino community and maybe, could you give a little update on that, Tim, or we could schedule this at another meeting. But I was interested in fact that the point being made the date has been changed twice and whether we need to bring the attention of our efforts for cultural heritage in the city of San Francisco to the mayor and that kind of a conflict whether there’s a letter or some kind of communication could be made since we’re all appointed by the mayor.
Tim Frye, Preservation Coordinator:
Sure if the Commission is amenable to us providing an update in our staff report and at that time you can decide if a formal memo’s required; we do or--we have been making some progress on the Cultural Heritage District with the supervisor’s office and stakeholders within the community. So we could give you an update on that, our work to date.
Commissioner Johnck:
Folks will be amenable to that, great, thank you.
Commissioner Hyland:
I have a few things, as an add on to Commissioner Johnck’s comments; it would be good if our commission was made aware that some of these significant cultural events dates had changed, at a minimum we could provide a letter to the Board of Supervisors, you know, expressing whatever our concerns are and suggestions for that because that is—moving an event like the Folsom Street Fair is probably major for those who come every year. Couple things, so Commissioner Johnck and I are on the Waterfront Plan Update Working Group and we had another meeting last week and the topic was all they were presenting and giving us context of all the maritime activities that occurred along the waterfront. That was very fascinating. Also, an explanation of the difference between the port of San Francisco, the port of--the other ports within the Bay Area as well as other ports up and down the West Coast and so it was quite fascinating. I think they recorded it so if you're interested you could at least scan through that. The last thing is that—we just had the Cultural Heritage Assets Committee prior to the hearing and we had Susan Goldstein who is the archivist with the San Francisco public library. It was a fascinating conversation, they're digitizing and continuing to digitize just tombs of information and the efforts that they're going through to make that digital information accessible is something that we think the full commission might be interested in hearing more about. There are several things that came out of that discussion, but one I’d like to bring up is the notion of our plaque program and how we do a still, you know, bronze plaque and we have been having discussions on about how to capture significant information about the history so that can be shared and there might be an opportunity to a digital plaque or digital mobile; either on a building, in a development, in the community space that a lot of the developments negotiate to provide in the cultural districts. The cultural-- we have the physical cultural centers in the city and then we also have the rec and park properties that you know we could provide access to this amazing digital information so, just thought you'd be interested in that.
President Wolfram:
Thank you. I had a couple of questions; one was I saw in the paper that the El Ray Theater was closed and was wondering maybe for the next hearing we could have a report on the status of that building. I know there are some neighborhood groups interested in pursuing landmark designation and so any information about that that would be helpful. Then can you just remind me, because I forgotten completely, where we left off our facadism discussion? We had that whole hearing and I can’t quite remember what the next steps were.
Tim Frye, Preservation Coordinator:
Justin Greving from our office is preparing the second installment and we were hoping to bring that to you this month, but we believe it will now occur in March. So, based on the conversation this commission wanted to see more examples of projects, already completed projects, over the last decade or so and have an opportunity to look at the pros and cons of each of those projects and maybe there is one in particular that stand out or maybe it’s a combination of attributes that could end up providing a solid policy on how the commission or city views these types of facade projects. So he's preparing that information and we hope to bring to you in March.
Commissioner Hyland:
I don't know if this is disclosure or not but might as well make it; we received a series of e-mails in support of various landmarking over the last week and then there was one e-mail in particular, which we could talk about in the agenda items about a missed piece of information missing on the murals at the whatever the agenda item.D. CONSIDERATION OF ITEMS PROPOSED FOR CONTINUANCE
The Commission will consider a request for continuance to a later date. The Commission may choose to continue the item to the date proposed below, to continue the item to another date, or to hear the item on this calendar.
6. 2011.1356E (S. PARKS: (415) 575-9101)
CENTRAL SOMA HISTORIC CONTEXT STATEMENT AND HISTORIC RESOURCES SURVEY – The historic context statement and historic resource survey were conducted as part of the Central SoMa Plan, which is comprised of approximately 28 blocks bound by Market Street to the north, Townsend Street to the south, Second Street to the east, and Sixth Street to the west. The Central SoMa Historic Context Statement builds upon the research of other adjacent area plans, including the South of Market and Transbay. The Central SoMa Historic Resource Survey examined a total of 134 parcels within the plan area that had not been previously surveyed, or for which prior survey information was incomplete. Consideration to adopt, modify or disapprove a Motion to adopt the Central SoMa Historic Context Statement and Historic Resources Survey.
Preliminary Recommendation: Adopt a motion to approve the Historic Context Statement and Historic Resource Survey
(Proposed Continuance to March 16, 2016)SPEAKERS: None
ACTION: Continued to March 16, 2016
AYES: Wolfram, Hyland, Hasz, Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, PearlmanE. CONSENT CALENDAR
All matters listed hereunder constitute a Consent Calendar, are considered to be routine by the Historic Preservation Commission, and will be acted upon by a single roll call vote of the Commission. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a member of the Commission, the public, or staff so requests, in which event the matter shall be removed from the Consent Calendar and considered as a separate item at this or a future hearing.
7. 2015-006085COA (R. SUCRE: (415) 575-9108)
101 TOWNSEND STREET – located at the southwest corner of Townsend and 2nd Streets, Assessor’s 3794, Lot 015. Request for a Certificate of Appropriateness for the construction of a side yard outdoor deck and patio within the alleyway (accessible from 2nd Street) along the south façade. The subject property is a contributing resource to the South End Landmark District, and is located within the MUO (Mixed-Use Office) Zoning District and a 105-F Height and Bulk Limit.
Preliminary Recommendation: Approve with ConditionsSPEAKERS: None
ACTION: Approved with Conditions
AYES: Wolfram, Hyland, Hasz, Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman
MOTION: 0275F. REGULAR CALENDAR
8. 2013.0384U (S. PARKS: (415) 575-9101)
AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORIC CONTEXT STATEMENT – Consideration to adopt, modify, or disapprove the African American Citywide Historic Context Statement. Partially funded by the Historic Preservation Fund Committee, the context statement documents the history of African Americans in San Francisco from the City’s earliest development to the present day. It outlines significance, integrity considerations, registration requirements, and further recommendations.
Preliminary Recommendation: Adopt the Historic Context StatementSPEAKERS: None
ACTION: Continued to April 6, 2016
AYES: Wolfram, Hyland, Hasz, Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman9. 2015-003877DES (S. FERGUSON: (415) 575-9074)
34-45 ONONDOGA AVENUE – Consideration of a Community-Sponsored Article 10 Landmark Application and Consideration to Initiate Landmark Designation of the former Alemany Emergency Hospital and Health Center, Assessor's Block 6956, Lots 016 and 017, as an Article 10 Landmark pursuant to Section 1004.1 of the Planning Code. The subject property was constructed in 1933 as an extension of the City’s emergency hospital and healthcare system. Designed by City Architect Charles H. Sawyer, the subject property is architecturally significant as examples of a type and period and conveys high artistic values and the interior contains frescoes painted by noted artist, Bernard Zakheim. The property at 35 Onondaga is located within the NCD (Excelsior Outer Mission Street Neighborhood Commercial) Zoning District and 40-X Height and Bulk District, while 45 Onondaga Avenue is located within a P (Public) Zoning District and a 40-X Height and Bulk District.
Preliminary Recommendation: ApproveSPEAKERS: Shannon Ferguson – Staff presentation
+ David Hooper – Hospital services
+ Lisa Dunseth – History Expo at the Old Mint
+ Richard Rothman – Murals, Bernard Zakheim
+ Beth Rubenstein, Aide to Sup. Avalos – Community asset
+ Desiree Smith – Support
ACTION: Approved with Conditions as amended to include the skylight and its relationship to the space below as a character defining feature.
AYES: Wolfram, Hyland, Hasz, Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman
RESOLUTION: 758ADJOURNMENT – 1:16 PM
ADOPTED MARCH 2, 2016