Historic Preservation Commission - April 15, 2015 - Minutes
SAN FRANCISCO
HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION
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Meeting Minutes
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Commission Chambers, Room 400
City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, CA 94102-4689
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Wednesday, April 15, 2015
12:30 p.m.
Regular Meeting
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COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Â Hasz, Hyland, Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman, Wolfram
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THE MEETING WAS CALLED TO ORDER BY PRESIDENT WOLFRAM AT 12:30 P.M.
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STAFF IN ATTENDANCE: Jeff Joslin- Current Planning Director, Alexandra Kirby, Rich Sucre, Jonathan Lammers, Susan Parks, Tim Frye - Preservation Coordinator, Jonas P. Ionin – Commission Secretary
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SPEAKER KEY:
                               + indicates a speaker in support of an item;
-Â Â 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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John Loomis, FAIA - gave reasons why Sun Tung Yang (aka New Eastern Sun Building), a brick building at 815 Tennessee Street within the Dog Patch Historic District should be preserved for adaptive reuse, and pointed out some missing information in the Historic Resource Evaluation.
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B.        DEPARTMENT MATTERS
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1.            Director’s Announcements
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Preservation Coordination Tim Frye: Good afternoon, Tim Frye Department staff. The Director’s bulletin was included in your packets. Happy to answer any questions on the items outlined in that report.
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2.            Review of Past Events at the Planning Commission, Staff Report and Announcements
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Mr. Frye: Commissioners: Tim Frye again, Department staff, just a couple very short quick announcements. As you know, we have several pending designations held up at the Land Use Committee and we’ve been working closely to coordinate with the clerk to move those forward so we do have some dates that I want to give you an update. On Swedish American Hall, will be heard at Land Use Monday, April 20th; Rube Goldberg will also be heard on April 20th; and 149 9th Street, which is a reclassification to an Article 11 property will be heard by Land Use on April 27th. Preservation planning staff will be in attendance and will give a short presentation on this Commission’s recommendation and I will let you know how those hearings turn out. That concludes my report. Thank you.
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C.        COMMISSION MATTERS
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3.            President’s Report and Announcements - None
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4.            Consideration of Adoption:
·       Draft Minutes for ARC April 1, 2015
·       Draft Minutes for HPC April 1, 2015
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SPEAKERS:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â None
ACTION:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Adopted as corrected on the ARC minutes- Commissioner Hasz was not in attendance; Commission Hyland was.
AYES:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Hasz, Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman, Hyland, Wolfram
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5.            Commission Comments & Questions
·       Disclosures
·       Inquiries/Announcements
·       Future Meetings/Agendas
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Commissioner Pearlman: I wanted to disclose that the architect for the 901 Tennessee project that we are going to hear today gave me a call and we had a discussion about the design of the building. I also wanted to say that I don't know how many people walked the Market Street Prototyping Festival, but it was fantastic. It was a lot of fun. There were some fantastic projects and there were some terrible projects, but all in all I think it was a very engaging event. I went Friday and the streets were packed and people were using all the different places and I thought it was a very interesting way that we are going to see what can happen along Market Street in the future. Thanks to the Department and Yerba Buena Center.
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Commissioner Johnck: I’d like to call the commissioners attention to the Port of San Francisco’s update of their waterfront plan which was adopted back in 1997. It is out for public review now and there is some important issues that are being brought up regarding the stability particularly of the very important historic resource and that’s the sea wall that supports the entire historic assets of the waterfront and port. For our future consideration as we look at the inventory and how we are incentivsing protection and preservation, I just like the commissioner to look at that. I will send the report to the staff and it can be circulated and we may want a presentation at some point from Port of San Francisco planning staff.
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Commission Hyland: I would like to update the commission on the Cultural Heritage Asset Committee meeting we just had prior to our- before now. It was Lisa Hasenbalg from San Francisco Travel made a very informative presentation so I encourage any or all of you to listen to the recording because I am not going to be able to summarize everything that she talked about, but I think a couple high points, she presented a long list of what they defined as cultural assets and even that list she said wasn't comprehensive. Maybe when we get the PowerPoint we can share that with the commissioners. When people ask me what are intangible cultural assets, we now have a list that we can actually use and it is more than just street fairs and events. They have the ballet, the symphony and went into some fine grain to distinguish ballet and dance, and that was really good. The other thing I thought, was new information for me, was they have a program called, Destination 101, to get the lesser known neighborhood commercial districts or neighborhoods tourist-ready so that would dovetail pretty well with the Mayor’s Office effort in the invest in neighborhoods. I thought that was pretty enlightening. She went on probably for about 10 minutes just on some very detailed data they have collected on some surveys they have done on cultural tourists that visited San Francisco and I thought that was good. One of the points of that was if we can measure economic impact, we can get more attention to the efforts that are necessary. One event that she pointed out was carnival in San Francisco in the Mission was one of the only carnival in the country in the world that celebrates multiple carnival throughout the world and it is been around for 35 years, so something I didn't know. There is a lot more to say, but that is enough for now.
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President Wolfram: I have a question about this 815 Tennessee project. Maybe we could have a presentation at the next hearing to give more information. We obviously haven't had time to read this or digest it, but I'm curious is this project within the Dogpatch Historic District?  I am referring to …well this packet says 812-825 Tennessee the one Mr. Loomis presented, not the one we are going to see later.
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Mr. Frye: Tim Frye, Department staff. It appears based on the map the speaker is indicating it is in the Dogpatch area, but I'm not familiar with the building so we'll look into it and report to you at the next hearing.
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President Wolfram: Because if it is in that district then we would see any project before the Planning Commission saw it anyway.
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Mr. Frye: That is correct.
D.        Consent Calendar
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Note:Â Item 6 was pull off the Consent Calendar and heard under the Regular Calendar.
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6.            2014.0847A                                                                                                        (A.KIRBY: (415) 575-9133)
881 FULTON STREET, located on the south side of Fulton Street between Fillmore and Webster streets, Assessor’s Block 0797, Lot 024. Request for a Certificate of Appropriateness to insert a garage entrance at the primary facade. The subject property is a contributor to the Alamo Square Landmark District, and is located within a RH-3 (Residential - House, Three Family) Zoning District and 50-X Height and Bulk Limit.
Preliminary Recommendation:Â Approve with Conditions
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SPEAKERS:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â None
ACTION:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â After being pulled off of Consent; Approved with Conditions as amended to require a flat or flush garage door with no panels.
AYES:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Hasz, Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman, Hyland, Wolfram
MOTION:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â M-0254
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E.        REGULAR CALENDARÂ
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7.            2014.0665A                                                                                                      (R. SUCRE: (415) 575-9108)
3751 20TH STREET, located on the south side of 20th Street between Dolores and Guerrero Streets, Assessor’s 3607, Lot 066.  Request for a Certificate of Appropriateness for façade alterations, construction of a new three-car garage, and a three-story rear addition and roof deck. The project would increase the two-family residence’s square footage from approximately 2,347 to 7,111. The subject property is a contributing resource to the Liberty-Hill Landmark District, and is located within a RH-2 (Residential, House, Two-Family) Zoning District and 40-X Height and Bulk District.
Preliminary Recommendation:Â Approve with Conditions
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PRESENTERS:     Justin McBane, Owner - neighborhood outreach and preservation efforts;
Shane Curnyn - Matarozzi Pelsinger, Design presentation on revisions, context of the project, shoring and drainage;
Eileen Deck, Martel - Council for the Project Sponsor, Sponsor presentation with conclusion to the HPC to approve the COA.
SPEAKERS:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â - Dr. Lisa Fromer, President of the Liberty Hill Neighborhood Association, speaking as a resident - commented on the size of the project;
- Lindsay Kefauver, Founder of the Liberty Hill District - the huge size of the project would set a precedent in the historic district;
- Henry Hewitt, Owner of a house nearby the project - remained concern about the size and scope of the project; a smaller project would fit the neighborhood better;
- Daniel Conrad, Adjacent Neighbor - concerned the impact of the project’s excavation would have on his foundation, water run-off and drainage, and extension at the back of the project;
- Christian Raisner - the over reach in size project is precedent setting;
- Ingrid Eggers, Adjacent Neighbor - construction nuisance that the old and new architecture should fit well together, but not in this case because of its size.
ACTION:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Approved with Conditions as amended by staff
AYES:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Hasz, Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman, Hyland, Wolfram
MOTION:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â M-0255
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8.            2013.0321A                                                                                                      (R. SUCRE: (415) 575-9108)
901 TENNESSEE STREET, located on the southeast corner of 20th and Tennessee Streets, Assessor’s 4108, Lot 017. Request for a Certificate of Appropriateness to demolish the existing non-contributing one-story warehouse and construct a new four-story (40-ft) residential building (approximately 42,431 gsf) with 44 dwelling units and 33 off-street parking spaces. The subject property is a non-contributing resource to the Dogpatch Landmark District, and is located within the UMU (Urban Mixed-Use) Zoning District and 40-X Height and Bulk District.
Preliminary Recommendation:Â Approve with Conditions
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PRESENTERS:Â Â Â Â Â Mike Pitler, Workshop 1 - Project presentation
SPEAKERS:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â + John Loomis - in support of the project
ACTION:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Approved with Conditions specifying painted siding and fenestration as proposed.
AYES:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Hasz, Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman, Hyland, Wolfram
MOTION:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â M-0256
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9a.         2015-004228DES                                                                                       (J. LAMMERS (415) 575-9093)
235 Valencia Street - Consideration for inclusion on the Historic Preservation Commission’s Landmark Designation Work Program, the former Hap Jones motorcycle dealership, located on the southeast corner of Valencia Street and Clinton Park, Assessor's Block 3532, Lot 019B, as an individual Article 10 Landmark pursuant to Section 1004.1 of the Planning Code. This item was calendared at the HPC’s request following public comment at the Commission's regularly scheduled hearing on February 18, 2015, when a member of the public presented new historic information regarding the building’s use as a motorcycle dealership. The building is located in a NCT-3 (Moderate Sale Neighborhood Commercial Transit) Zoning District and 50-X Height and Bulk District.
Preliminary Recommendation: Further Study
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SPEAKERS:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â None
ACTION:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Directed staff to evaluate further study conducted by the community.
AYES:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Hasz, Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman, Hyland, Wolfram
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9b.         2015-003877DES                                                                                      (J. LAMMERS: (415) 575-9093)
45 Onondaga Avenue - Consideration for inclusion on the Historic Preservation Commission’s Landmark Designation Work Program, the interior frescoes painted by Bernard Zakheim at the former Alemany Health Center, located on the southeast corner of Onandaga Avenue and Alemany Boulevard, Assessor's Block 6959, Lot 016, as an individual Article 10 Landmark pursuant to Section 1004.1 of the Planning Code. This item has been calendared following receipt of a community-generated Landmark Designation Application. The building is located in a NC-3 (Neighborhood Commercial, Moderate Scale) Zoning District and 40-X Height and Bulk District.
Preliminary Recommendation:Â Further Study
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SPEAKERS:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â None
ACTION:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Continued to May 20, 2015
AYES:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Hasz, Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman, Hyland, Wolfram
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10.                                                                                                                                      (S. PARKS: (415) 575-9101)
LANDMARK DESIGNATION WORK PROGRAM, Discussion of the HPC’s Landmark Designation Work Program, prioritization and status of pipeline projects.
Preliminary Recommendation: Review and Comment
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SPEAKERS:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â None
ACTION:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Reviewed and Commented
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Adjournment:Â Â Â 2:47 PM
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The minutes was proposed for adoption at the Regular Meeting of the Historic Preservation Commission on Wednesday, May 20, 2015 .
ACTION:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Adopted
AYES:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Johnck, Johns, Pearlman, Wolfram
ABSENT:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Hasz, Hyland, Matsuda