SAN FRANCISCO
HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION

 

Meeting Minutes
 

Commission Chambers Room 400,
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, CA 94102-4689
 

Wednesday, February 3, 2016
12:30 p.m.
Regular Hearing

 

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

THE MEETING WAS CALLED TO ORDER BY PRESIDENT WOLFRAM AT 12:30PM

STAFF IN ATTENDANCE: John Rahaim - Director of Planning,Tom DiSantos - Chief Administrative Officer, Tim Frye - Historic Preservation Coordinator, Christine L Silva – Acting 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.

Hearing Materials are available at: Website: http://www.sfplanning.org Planning Department, 1650 Mission Street, 4th Floor, Suite 400 Planning Information Center, 1660 Mission Street, 1st Floor Voice recorded Agenda, only: (415) 558-6320 Commission Hearing Broadcasts: Live stream: http://www.sfgovtv.org Ordinances and Accessibility Hearing Procedures

 

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.

SPEAKER: Georgia Schuttish - Demolitions

B. DEPARTMENT MATTERS

1. Director’s Announcements

Tim Frye, Preservation Coordinator:
Director's report was included in your packets, director is also right there, so if you have any questions, happy to answer them.  

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

Tim Frye, Preservation Coordinator:
One item to share with you, an item from last week’s Planning Commission; the Planning Commission had a hearing on the Affordable Housing Bonus Program, staff gave a short presentation on the key issues of the program, Supervisor Breed’s office as well as the Mayor's Office was in attendance and provided some comments regarding the proposed ordinance to clarify that rent-controlled properties would not be subject to the program. In addition, the Commission had some historic preservation questions which I answered. In particular, they had a question about how we would evaluate properties, especially Category B properties, which are those unknown properties for the purposes of CEQA. There was some concern over what that decision making process would be because under the program a Category A, a known-historic resource, would not be eligible for the program. So if someone came and applied with a Category B, we determined through historic resources evaluation that it’s actually Category A then all that work that they had done up to that point would be moot because the site would not be eligible for the program. The Commission had a couple of other questions and concerns; one was whether or not legacy businesses would be displaced as part of this program and asked us to look into whether or not legacy sites for legacy businesses should also be exempted from the program. The Commission also asked us to look into creating a map like a layover of the map showing what sites would be eligible for the program versus known historic resources so we have a real sense of where there may be some overlap. Just to clarify under the program historic resources are not eligible for the program. There could be a vacant lot within let say the Uptown Tenderloin National Register District or an Article 10 District where that site would be eligible, however, all the current procedures for this Commission would still apply, meaning a Certificate of Appropriateness or Major Permit to Alter would still be necessary so you would still have review under that project and you'll have to make findings of compliance with the Secretary of Interior Standards. We, the Commission, decided to continue the item until February 25th, we’re going to put together some more information for them to answer some of the outstanding questions they have, including the historic preservation questions. I'll give you an update, likely at your first hearing in March on the outcome of that hearing. That concludes my comments unless you have questions. Thanks.

Commissioner Pearlman: 
I do have one question: until we do a citywide survey, aren’t there a huge number of Category B’s because, you know it’s only been done to date at this point? Doesn’t that problem seems like a big problem because then you know either encouraging someone to do the historic report very early on before - I mean the problem someone buys a property and then they have certain exceptions so I don't know what the answer is but seem like until we have a citywide survey that’s going to be a dicey problem.

Tim Frye, Preservation Coordinator:
I think it's a good point and a valid issue that we're looking into; the good news or the positive part of that is that we are going to be doing a citywide survey soon. The other nice thing is you will be seeing, I think by June, we, the Department conducted a neighborhood commercial district survey which is likely the area where most of projects or the program will qualify. So we've looked at over 80 neighborhood commercial districts, either current or former, surveyed almost 6,000 buildings so we feel like for the areas that will likely be priority areas, we have a good sense of what is a resource and what isn’t. We’ll be bringing that to you with the historic context statement for adoption in June and that will certainly give us or put us in a much better position than we would have been without the survey and the CLG grant. 

C. COMMISSION MATTERS

3. President’s Report and Announcements

None

4. Consideration of Adoption:

• Draft Minutes for January 20, 2016

                             
SPEAKERS: None
ACTION: Adopted
AYES: Wolfram, Hyland, Hasz, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman
ABSENT: Johnck

5. Commission Comments & Questions

None

D. REGULAR CALENDAR 

6. 2016-000613CRV                                                     (T. DISANTO: (415) 575-9113)
FY 2016-2018 PROPOSED DEPARTMENT BUDGET and WORK PROGRAM FINAL – Review and consideration of a recommendation for approval of a balanced Fiscal Year 2016-2018 Department Budget and Work Program for submission to the Planning Commission. Preliminary Recommendation: Adopt a Recommendation for Approval

SPEAKERS: = John Rahaim – Staff presentation
= Tom DiSanto – Staff presentation
ACTION: Adopt a Recommendation for Approval
AYES: Wolfram, Hyland, Hasz, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman
ABSENT: Johnck
LETTER: 0056

ADJOURNMENT – 1:10 PM
ADOPTED FEBRUARY 17, 2016