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, November 4, 2015

12:30 p.m.

Regular Meeting

 

 

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

THE MEETING WAS CALLED TO ORDER BY PRESIDENT WOLFRAM AT 12:36 PM

STAFF IN ATTENDANCE:  John Rahim – Planning Director, Shannon Ferguson, Johnathan Lammers, 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.         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.
The Brown Act forbids a commission from taking action or discussing any item not appearing on the posted agenda, including those items raised at public comment.  In response to public comment, the commission is limited to:

(1)  responding to statements made or questions posed by members of the public; or
(2)  requesting staff to report back on a matter at a subsequent meeting; or
(3)  directing staff to place the item on a future agenda.  (Government Code Section 54954.2(a))

None

B.         DEPARTMENT MATTERS

1.  Director’s Announcements                         

John Rahaim, Planning Director:
Good afternoon Commissioners, good to see you today. I just wanted to mention two items today. One, in light of yesterday’s election, of course there are a number of propositions that you’ll likely be interested in and know the results of but the one I wanted to mention was the Mission Moratorium which of course did not move forward yesterday. What I wanted to let you know is that we are continuing and will continue and I made this commitment on behalf of the department that we will continue to do our work in the Mission, the Mission 2020 Plan which we have been working for quite some time with a series of neighborhood groups to really work towards stabilizing the demographics of that neighborhood while the neighborhood is growing. It's something that we have committed to and the mayor has committed to and committed the staff over the next year or so to make that plan a reality. It's -- a land use plan and not a zoning plan per se but a plan that tries to stabilize the mission through items such as tenant, counseling, eviction control, acquisition of sites for affordable housing, acquisition of existing buildings for rent control buildings that the city would control in its portfolio to maintain existing housing stock. So it is kind of new ground for us in many ways but we are working directly with the neighborhood organizations to make that happen and for your benefit and the benefit of the public, I just wanted to re-commit the fact that, in spite of the moratorium not passing yesterday we'll continue to move forward with that work. The second thing is Tim reminds me that you will probably be interested in a major piece of work we are doing on affordable housing which is the Affordable Housing Bonus Program. The mayor and Supervisor Tang introduced legislation at the end of September which is a program to both, No. 1 reflect the requirement under state law that we have to allow developers additional density if they provide affordable housing on site; something the city has not done even though that law has been in the books since the late 70s and there was a recent court case that pushed us in that direction as well. Secondly, provides additional incentive for moderate and middle income housing by providing further incentives for development that provides up to 30% on-site affordable and middle income housing. So that program is moving forward. There is a third hearing at the Planning Commission tomorrow on this item, informational hearing, and it goes back to the Planning Commission in early December for tentative action but then would have to go to the board as well. We've also made an offer to all the supervisors that we would go out to their districts and make further presentations on this program as well. We'll be happy to come here as well if you are interested in hearing about that program. It has the potential of producing anywhere in the range of 3,000 to 5,000 units of affordable housing across the city. So it’s actually a very significant program and a very exciting one that we’re really, really optimistic about and we hope it gets to the board in the first quarter of next year. Thank you. That’s my report.

Commissioner Johns:
I would really be interested in such a presentation.

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

Tim Frye, Preservation Coordinator:
No formal report from the Planning Commission, however, a number of items to give you an update on or make you aware of from the last few weeks. One is you probably know, Prop J passed which is a fund to provide financial support to legacy businesses and there is a role for the Historic Preservation Commission in that ordinance. We are working with Supervisor Campos' office and we will have an overview of the program before you shortly so we can start figuring out how that program is going to operate, most importantly here at the commission, and as you know there is some overlap with the Legacy Business Registry that is being managed currently by the Office of Small Business so we’ll be coordinating with them as well, again, to have a better understanding of how people would apply and how they would become eligible and what sort of criteria this commission would like to use in providing recommendations to the Board of Supervisors on which, which businesses are eligible to use the fund and that fund will still be a budget line item every year for the Board of Supervisors to vote upon; so the amount in the pool would likely change from year to year, but there is additional information about that, that we'll have Supervisor Campos present at a future hearing. Also, wanted to mention the Planning Department Preservation Staff had another great annual retreat, last week, at Swedish American Hall. Thanks again to Swedes and Enrique Landa for providing a space for the all-day retreat where we could meet and really talk about, one, looking back at Preservation over the last year, the types of work we've been doing and looking forward on planning for the future and what sort of staffing issues or process related issues that we would like to improve upon or expand upon. We did have a really interesting presentation by a window contractor from the Peninsula who talked to us about everything from very low end to very high end windows, how they’re manufactured, how they are installed and the pros and cons of each and that was very helpful for the staff in understanding sort of the needs of homeowners and the types of recommendations that we give based on preservation requirements under the Secretary of Interior Standards. We talked a lot about core values and core values meaning the core values of the Preservation Team and sort of the first steps in putting together our own mission statement about how we want to approach preservation given the amount of development happening in the city over the last few years and that our Preservation Team has grown from only 10 years ago being handful of people around 4-5 to now we’re almost 20. So there has been a lot of growing there and a lot of great policies that has come out of that team. But we were looking at really how we interact with the department internally and also how we interact with outside members on preservation and how we communicate the importance of our city's shared preservation goals, so more on that as we continue to develop and discuss the team’s core values. One thing I did want to point out from the retreat that I always find helpful is sharing with the team how many permits or entitlements are received on an annual basis and the big story that came out of that, aside from what we all know is, that there is more permit activity, but surprisingly, downtown especially, the numbers have almost quadrupled and there were just as many Minor Permits to Alter issued for downtown as there were all preservations entitlements for the rest of the city and that we have just two preservation planners working to get through that backlog and responding to people in a meaningful way. So, it did show there is still a huge need for more support and the Preservation teams work, especially downtown. So we'll be working on our next year's budgeting efforts to find ways to alleviate some of that backlog there. Also, I wanted to mention that the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the University Mound Ladies Home, Article 10 Designation, at yesterday’s Board of Supervisors hearing. There is one more read at the next hearing but this legislation was an ordinance sponsored by Supervisor Campos and we don't see any reason why that won't move forward so that will likely be our newest individual landmark. There is additional legislation that will be sponsored by Supervisor Kim’s office. It's a Filipino Cultural Heritage District, very similar to the lower 24th District in the Mission. This, as you recall, is a policy outlined in the West SOMA Area Plan and along with an LGBT Social and Cultural Heritage District. It’s also -- both districts are picked up in the Central SOMA Draft Area Plan which will be coming to you in the beginning of next year. The supervisor wants to get a head start on this particularly because there are a number of folks in the community that wanted to see some momentum behind developing a district. So we’re working closely with Supervisor Kim’s office. I just wanted to make you aware of it in case you hear any murmurings about it. I know San Francisco Architectural Heritage is working very closely with the supervisor’s office and representatives from the community and they are using 24th Street as a model, which as we know in the past couple years has worked very well. So as we look at ways to put little more teeth into that legislation, we will be checking in with you once it's formally introduced and it’s referred back to the department. That concludes my comments and my report. Thanks.

Commissioner Johns:
Was that presentation on windows recorded or filmed or preserved in any way?

Tim Frye, Preservation Coordinator:
It was not, unfortunately, but I would be happy to talk to the fellow and see if he would be willing to present before this body.

Commissioner Johns:
Well, if you would, I think that would be a great idea particularly, not only could we have the advantage of it, but if it was as good as you indicate, then, shouldn't that be available on our website or someway so that people who are involved in this as part of their business or because they are a homeowner that wants to spruce up the place could have the advantage of that. I think that would be wonderful.

Tim Frye, Preservation Coordinator:
That’s a great comment Commissioner and our communication manager is working on a final script for our next YouTube video for the Planning Department and it will be on the window replacement standards for this city. There is certainly more information we can add to that script based on this presentation we had last week.

Commissioner Johnck:
I wanted to comment on the retreat, but your mention about the Filipino evaluation just occurred to me. Saw two wonderful plays put on by American Conservatory Theatre at The Strand called Monstress; there were two one-act and there’s quite a significant camaraderie and collaboration among the arts community in San Francisco a crossover between symphony, opera and theatre in an effort to encourage holistic participation. It was quite an insight into Filipino history. My street in San Francisco, they were the first people there when it was built, when the homes were built in the early 1900s or late 19th century. Marvelous insight, I encourage, I haven't checked to see whether it's still on, but I encourage staff to look into that particular playwright; the author. But the retreat I thought was really ennobling and inspirational. I really enjoyed the opportunity to hear individually from each staff members about their values and the look back was really good to see what stood out. I just got a lot out of it and learned a lot and enjoyed meeting a lot of folks who don't always appear at the commission meetings. I thought it was very well done. Thank you.

C.         COMMISSION MATTERS

3.  President’s Report and Announcements

President Wolfram:
The only report I had was that I, with Commissioner Johnck, did attend part of the retreat, which I thought was very well done and enlightening. The other item I wanted to bring up was the idea of a holiday gathering, a commission’s holiday gathering, potentially maybe after our hearing on the 16th of December. It's something we can think about and discuss. I won't be here for the subsequent hearing. Commissioner Hyland will chair the meeting, but something maybe we can start considering.

4.  Consideration of Adoption:

• Draft Minutes for HPC October 21, 2015
• Draft Minutes for ARC October 21, 2015

SPEAKERS:       None
ACTION:            Adopted as Amended for both minutes
AYES:                Wolfram, Hyland, Hasz, Johnck, Johns, Pearlman
ABSENT:           Matsuda

Adoption of Commission Minutes – Charter Section 4.104 requires all commissioners to vote yes or no on all matters unless that commissioner is excused by a vote of the Commission.  Commissioners may not be automatically excluded from a vote on the minutes because they did not attend the meeting.

5.  Commission Comments & Questions

• Disclosures.
• Inquiries/Announcements.  Without discussion, at this time Commissioners may make announcements or inquiries of staff regarding various matters of interest to the Commissioner(s).
• Future Meetings/Agendas.  At this time, the Commission may discuss and take action to set the date of a Special Meeting and/or determine those items that could be placed on the agenda of the next meeting and other future meetings of the Historic Preservation Commission.

Commissioner Pearlman:
I just wanted to disclose that I met with the project sponsor on 1200 17th Street that’s going to be in front of the ARC today.

Commissioner Hyland:
Two items, one is that I also had communications with the project owner and sponsors. I did not meet with them but they will be before us after this hearing. The other thing, I was at a presentation with a few of Director Rahaim's staff from the Pavement to Parks Group and they were presenting the Market Street Prototype Festival as well as some of the activity that, that group is doing out in the neighborhoods like the Persia Triangle at Mission, Ocean and Persia. I thought that presentation, or at least half of the presentation, about what's happening in the neighborhoods could be a good topic to bring before the Cultural Heritage Assets Committee.

Commissioner Johnck:
I’d like to mention the reason I was absent last time was because I was speaking at an international seaport conference in Savannah, Georgia. I actually chaired an archaeology session where I was looking at proactive tools for identifying historic resources and archaeology ahead of time in collaboration with port navigation improvements around the United States. It was quite general, but I did focus on the great seawall here in San Francisco and did a lot of advance work with the engineer over at the port and Mark Paez on that presentation and I have a Powerpoint at some point, I don’t know where would be appropriate. I will be sharing it with the working group, the Waterfront working group, and staff to see if it has some legs and some ideas. I talked more about the potential opportunities for looking at the seawall for historic tax credits; at least the piers head building on top of the piers et cetera. So we’ll see but has some ideas but it was quite well received and there was other project there. I was quite impressed with the Historic Preservation Program in Savannah related to ours; particularly the plaques were quite prolific and well done. I just wanted to bring that to the attention of the commission.

D.         REGULAR CALENDAR 

6.  2015-005887DES                                                                        (J. LAMMERS (415) 575-9093)
90-92 SECOND STREET – Consideration to Recommend to the Board of Supervisors the Landmark Designation of the Bourdette Building, northwest corner of  Second and Mission streets, Assessor’s Block 3707, Lot 012, as an individual Article 10 Landmark pursuant to Section 1004.1 of the Planning Code. Designed by master architects Bliss & Faville and constructed in 1903-1904, the subject property is significant as a unique survivor of the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. It is the only building within the burned district to survive the disaster intact with no one inside or outside the building fighting to save it. The building was added to the Landmark Designation Work Program on May 12, 2012. It is located within the C-3-0 (SD) Downtown-Office (Special Development) Zoning District and 150-S Height & Bulk District.
Preliminary Recommendation: Adopt a Recommendation for Approval

SPEAKERS:         None
ACTION:              Adopted a Recommendation for Approval
AYES:                  Wolfram, Hyland, Hasz, Johnck, Johns, Pearlman
ABSENT:             Matsuda
RESOLUTION:    757

7.  HISTORIC INTERPRETIVE PROGRAM                                             (S. FERGUSON: (415) 575-9074)
Informational Presentation from Department staff on potential Historic Interpretive Program, including update on historic plaques for individual landmarks.
Preliminary Recommendation: None - Informational

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

ADJORNMENT– 1:24 PM
ADOPTED – NOVEMBER 18, 2015