Historic Preservation Commission - March 1, 2017 - Minutes
SAN FRANCISCO
HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION
Meeting Minutes
Commission Chambers Room 400,
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, CA 94102-4689
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
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 12:33 PM
STAFF IN ATTENDANCE: John Rahaim – Director of Planning Department, Stephanie Cisneros, Tim Frye – Historic Preservation Officer, 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.
None
B. DEPARTMENT MATTERS
1. Director’s Announcements
Director John Rahaim:
Just a couple of things I might mention maybe, preferably related to your work, but I think important nonetheless, one is that we are--the Planning Commission has asked us to work on a kind of redo of Section 317 of the Planning Code which deals with demolitions and how we-- the definition of the demolition which is a very complicated definition in the Planning Code and we’ve had at least one hearing on it; we’ll be having more hearings on it coming forward but staff is working on an alternative way of dealing with that whole kind of approach to how we govern demolition. I think our current thinking is that we’ll probably eliminate the Planning Code definition and rely solely on DBI’s definition; the two were not in sync, which was part of the problem. Anyway, just want to give you a heads-up on that in the next couples of months I think it might be a good idea to bring that discussion to you as well. The second thing is, I think you’ve heard there’s been legislation introduced to change the inclusionary housing requirements. I bring this to your attention only because this is sort of major milestone in how we think about inclusionary housing and how developers are required to provide affordable housing. As you may know, Prop C from last year upped the amount of housing to 25 percent, the amount of inclusionary housing. Since that time the controller did a study to look at what the range of inclusionary requirements might be and has concluded that that range should be in the range of 16-18 percent for rentals and I think 18-20 percent for condos, and had also suggested that amount increase by half a percentage a year starting in 2019. That is the basis for the legislation that was introduced yesterday by Supervisor Safai and Supervisor Breed. Something in that range, I'm not sure those are the exact numbers and we will be having hearings at the Planning Commission on both March 9th, next week, as well as March 23rd to kind of look over those and the Planning Commission is tentatively scheduled to make a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors on March 23rd. I bring this up not because its directly related to your work but it is a fairly substantial and important piece of work that we've spending an awful lot of time with, that there’s been huge amount of discussions on, and is clearly has implications for the city development community and affordable housing community, so just thought you'd be interested in that thank you.2. Review of Past Events at the Planning Commission, Staff Report and Announcements
Tim Frye, Preservation Officer:
No formal report from the Planning Commission, however, two items to share with you. Last week, we, along with the mayor's office, hosted the second LGBTQ Cultural Heritage Strategy meeting here at City Hall. We had a very good meeting, there were about 35 participants, from what we heard everybody left really energized and excited to work on several community activities that we gave them or tool kits that we gave them to go out into in their communities, find representatives that were willing to share ideas on how they vision how LGBTQ history can be memorialized and program in the future so our next meeting is on March 22nd, you'll likely see an invite for that, it’s again in room 278 here in City Hall from 6:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. I’ll have more information on that as we progress to the Board of Supervisors hearing which ideally will be in April, likely towards the end of April, where the department and the community will present a progress report on the community meetings to date and lay out a road map for future work that will occur throughout the rest of the year. The second item I wanted to share with you is something I brought up in December regarding the old Potrero Police Station which is a contributing structure to the Dogpatch Landmark District and as you know has been vacant for some time subjected to a good deal of vandalism. We have been working closely with the Department of Real Estate and the Police Department and we acquired the services of ARG to provide not only an analysis of character defining features but also a mothballing plan for the building to deter future vandalism and also to stabilize the building for its hopeful rehabilitation in the near future. We received the mothballing plan this afternoon and Real Estate and the Police Department are look over it right now and we hopefully have some positive information to share with you at a future hearing but I'll keep you up to date on that and also I think it is worthy to note that the Dogpatch Neighborhood Association has been very active in pressuring the Department of Real Estate to move on this and we certainly appreciate their efforts to bringing this to our light so we could help get ARG on board. That concludes my comments unless you have any questions.Commissioner Pearlman:
I do have a question on the police station, when you say move on this is that, you know, I used to be in the neighborhood, I know the DNA people and I’m just wondering, is there are any idea of what the Department of Real Estate, would they put it up to auction, is that how--that path?Tim Frye, Preservation Officer:
That is my understanding, is it will eventually been declared surplus and then moved to auction but with the caveats there, the restrictions to the new owner knowing it has to be preserved and rehabilitated as part of a landmark district.Commissioner Pearlman:
Yeah it’s a real lynch pin for what is happening right on that corner.Commissioner Matsuda:
Just two comments the first one about the LGBTQ Cultural Heritage Strategy working group. I don't know if they would be interested, but there have been cultural preservation community development groups who have gone through kind of similar iterations of what they want to highlight and what they feel is important, so I think that if they would be interested I’m sure that Japantown task force would be happy to talk to them and to give them some lessons learned to maybe expedite the process to really start to focus in on, you know, you now have elders who can probably give you some information. The thing about the definition of demolition, I’m sure that, well legal counsel is here, there must have been some kind of legal challenges between using the definition that DBI has and the definition that Planning has, I think we would be interested to know, you know, any kind of cases that may have come out of that and to make that an agendized item for us so we can make formal comments to the Planning Commission.
C. COMMISSION MATTERS
3. President’s Report and Announcements
President Wolfram:
I have no formal report though I do want to report the tree that I nominated, that I was putting forth on Willard and McAllister, the owner is in support of that nomination so I think it’s going to come before the commission; I believe the next step is to schedule a hearing before the commission.Commissioner Matsuda:
This will be the first right?President Wolfram:
That’s right, the first that we've nominated.4. Consideration of Adoption:
SPEAKERS: None ACTION: Adopted AYES: Wolfram, Hyland, Hasz, Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman 5. Commission Comments & Questions
None
6. Election of Officers: In accordance with the Rules and Regulations of the San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission, the President and Vice President of the Commission shall be elected at the first Regular Meeting of the Historic Preservation Commission held after the first day of January each year; or at a subsequent Meeting, the date of which is fixed by the Historic Preservation Commission at the first Regular Meeting after the First day of January each year or at a subsequent meeting.
(Continued from Regular hearing of January 18, 2017)
SPEAKERS: None ACTION: Wolfram – President; Hyland – Vice AYES: Wolfram, Hyland, Hasz, Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman
D. REGULAR CALENDAR
7. 2017-001405LBR (S. CISNEROS: (415) 575-9186)
2958 24TH STREET – north side of 24th Street between Alabama Street and Harrison Street. Assessor’s Block 4206, Lot 015 (District 9). Consideration of adoption of a resolution recommending Small Business Commission approval of a Legacy Business application. Established in 1971 and incorporated in 1987, Acción Latina, is a non-profit organization advocating for the protection of Latino/a heritage in the Mission District. The Legacy Business Registry recognizes longstanding, community-serving businesses that are valuable cultural assets to the City. In addition, the City intends that the Registry be a tool for providing educational and promotional assistance to Legacy Businesses to encourage their continued viability and success. The subject business is within a NCT (24th Mission Neighborhood Commercial Transit) Zoning District and a 45-X Height and Bulk District.
Preliminary Recommendation: Adopt a Recommendation for Approval
SPEAKERS: = Stephanie Cisneros – Staff report
+ Gale DeBross – Boudin Bakery
+ Stephen Lauraz – Retrofit VintageACTION: Adopted a Recommendation for Approval AYES: Wolfram, Hyland, Hasz, Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman RESOLUTION: 850 8. 2017-001412LBR (S. CISNEROS: (415) 575-9186)
399 10TH AVENUE – west side of 10th Avenue at the corner of Geary Boulevard. Assessor’s Block 1442, Lot 020 (District 1). Consideration of adoption of a resolution recommending Small Business Commission approval of a Legacy Business application. Founded in 1849, Boudin Bakery is a locally and nationally renowned family-owned San Francisco bakery known for its “Original San Francisco Sourdough.” The Legacy Business Registry recognizes longstanding, community-serving businesses that are valuable cultural assets to the City. In addition, the City intends that the Registry be a tool for providing educational and promotional assistance to Legacy Businesses to encourage their continued viability and success. The subject business is within a NC-3 (Neighborhood Commercial, Moderate Scale) Zoning District and a 40-X Height and Bulk District.
Preliminary Recommendation: Adopt a Recommendation for Approval
SPEAKERS: Same as Item #7. ACTION: Adopted a Recommendation for Approval AYES: Wolfram, Hyland, Hasz, Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman RESOLUTION: 851 9. 2017-001414LBR (S. CISNEROS: (415) 575-9186)
545 FAXON AVENUE – west side of Faxon Avenue near the corner of Ocean Avenue. Assessor’s Block 6934, Lot 001A (District 7). Consideration of adoption of a resolution recommending Small Business Commission approval of a Legacy Business application. Founded in 1948, Faxon Garage is a local auto repair and service shop serving the Ocean View, Merced Heights, and Ingleside neighborhoods. The Legacy Business Registry recognizes longstanding, community-serving businesses that are valuable cultural assets to the City. In addition, the City intends that the Registry be a tool for providing educational and promotional assistance to Legacy Businesses to encourage their continued viability and success. The subject business is within a NCT (Ocean Avenue Neighborhood Commercial Transit) Zoning District and a 45-X Height and Bulk District.
Preliminary Recommendation: Adopt a Recommendation for Approval
SPEAKERS: Same as Item #7. ACTION: Adopted a Recommendation for Approval AYES: Wolfram, Hyland, Hasz, Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman RESOLUTION: 852 10. 2017-001420LBR (S. CISNEROS: (415) 575-9186)
910 VALENCIA STREET – west side of Valencia Street at the corner of 20th Street. Assessor’s Block 3608, Lot 075 (District 8). Consideration of adoption of a resolution recommending Small Business Commission approval of a Legacy Business application. Founded in 1996, Retro Fit Vintage is a retail vintage and costume shop located in the Mission District and, although less than 30 years old, faces a significant risk of displacement. The Legacy Business Registry recognizes longstanding, community-serving businesses that are valuable cultural assets to the City. In addition, the City intends that the Registry be a tool for providing educational and promotional assistance to Legacy Businesses to encourage their continued viability and success. The subject business is within a NCT (Valencia Street Neighborhood Commercial Transit) Zoning District and a 50-X Height and Bulk District.
Preliminary Recommendation: Adopt a Recommendation for Approval
SPEAKERS: Same as Item #7. ACTION: Adopted a Recommendation for Approval AYES: Wolfram, Hyland, Hasz, Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman RESOLUTION: 853
ADJOURNMENT – 1:03 PM
ADOPTED MARCH 15, 2017