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 18, 2015

12:30 p.m.

Regular Meeting

 

 

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

THE MEETING WAS CALLED TO ORDER BY PRESIDENT WOLFRAM AT 12:34 PM

STAFF IN ATTENDANCE:  Jeff Joslin – Current Planning Director, Rich Sucre, Marcelle Boudreaux, Shelley Caltagirone, Susan Parks, 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                         

Tim Frye, Preservation Coordinator:
Good afternoon commissioners. The Director's report was included in your packets. 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:
Good afternoon commissioners. There’s one item to share with you. No formal report from the Planning Commission, however, I’m happy to report that as of last week we were notified by the National Parks Service that the department was awarded an under-represented community’s grant in the amount of $55,000. It’s a two year grant cycle. There are several objectives under the grant. The first objective is to prepare three national registered nominations for buildings that represent the Civil Rights Movement within San Francisco at a national scale. The three buildings are the Women’s Building located in the Mission Neighborhood, constructed in 1906; Glide Memorial Church, which you’ll probably hear about more later this afternoon, constructed in 1930; and, the Japantown YWCA constructed in 1932 and you’re familiar with through the Japantown Survey.  The three nominations will be prepared by an outside consultant with department review. But the second component, which I am really excited about, is a long range plan for this commission to develop a landmark designation work program based on sites and properties associated with Civil Rights or social and cultural heritage. So the second objective will be partially an intern project but also staff working to build upon the recommendations that you will see in the LGBTQ Context Statement, the African-American Context Statement, the Japantown Historic Context Statement, the Filipino Context, within the SOMA Historic Context Statement, and there’s one other that’s escaping me, but there are a large number of recommendations in each of these context statements and we know you haven’t had an opportunity to really look at those, analyze them and prioritize them as part of your work program, so we’re hoping this grant will allow us to do that and provide some real recommendations on what you would like staff to work on in the future.  The last component of the grant will be a web-based mobile application where visitors or general members of the public can prepare their own walking tours of these sites that have been identified in context statements but also sites that are already designated and associated with the National Advancement of Civil Rights. Our hope is that we can also include an oral history component to the website portion and as you know, Shannon Ferguson, from our staff is working hard on the interpretation portion of the department’s plaque program so you should hear more about that in conjunction with her work.  So that’s all I have to share with you today, but happy to answer any questions and certainly we will be engaging you and keeping you updated on the grants as it continues to move forward.

Commissioner Matsuda:
I have a quick question. So when you talk about Civil Rights, I’m assuming that’s going to be defined very broadly so you’re going to talk about events leading up to specific events or activities that have happened here and then relating it to particular sites or…?

Tim Frye, Preservation Coordinator:
Exactly, one of the components of the second objective where developing the range plan will also be to look at the evaluated framework in each of the context and how are they defining criteria to justify significance of these sites, so that’s something we’ll be bringing to you as well; is what sort of criteria should we be using in determining which properties are added to the work program.

Commissioner Matsuda:
So that would be good to have public comment on, so maybe we can have initial meeting or discussion through the CHA and then bring it back to the full commission.

Tim Frye, Preservation Coordinator:
Sure, absolutely.

C.         COMMISSION MATTERS

3.            President’s Report and Announcements

None

4.            Consideration of Adoption:

• Draft Minutes for HPC November 4, 2015
• Draft Minutes for ARC November 4, 2015

SPEAKERS:          None
ACTION:                Adopted HPC; ARC Continued to December 2, 2015
AYES:                    Hyland, Hasz, Johnck, Johns, Pearlman, Matsuda
ABSENT:              Wolfram

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 Johnck:
I would like to report on an important event that I attended this morning. This was the opening event announcing the campaign for San Francisco Heritage in the Haas-Lilienthal House. The campaign is to raise a little over $4 million, about $4.3 I think, Desiree is here for San Francisco Heritage, she can correct any information that might be a little off but it’s about little over $4 million and $3 million of which is dedicated to restoration of the Haas-Lilienthal House and the balance will go to build the endowment for San Francisco Heritage and their programs. I was pleased to meet several of the descendants of the Haas-Lilienthal family and see the house again, and it was very exciting campaign. They have raised about 75% of what they’re aiming for thus far and so today was the actual public campaign and announcement to the public probably hear more about it from the press etcetera but it’s a very exciting campaign, very worthwhile goal.

Commissioner Hyland:
So I have two. One is a report, Commissioner Johnck and I are on the Waterfront Long Range Plan Update and we’ve had two hearings. Yesterday was the kick off of the working group and it was pretty much just an overview of the process and what we’re tasked to do so there’s really nothing to update the commission on it at this point but there’ll be another hearing in January, I believe is the next one, middle of January. And then I have a disclosure. As far as the LGBTQ Context Statement, my former firm, Architectural Resources Group, provided some in-kind services for the development and some review of that document and I also provided some financial support of the effort. I've reviewed it with the City Attorney and I can, I do not need to recuse myself, I just need to make the disclosure.

D.         REGULAR CALENDAR 

6.         2014.1315COA                                                                      (R. SUCRE:  (415)575-9108)
135 TOWNSEND STREET, located on the south side of Townsend Street between 2nd and 3rd Streets, Assessor’s 3794, Lot 022.  Request for a Certificate of Appropriateness for front and rear façade alterations and construction of a new roof deck, stair penthouse and elevator penthouse.  The façade alterations consist of: replacement of the existing windows on the second through fifth floors with new steel-sash windows; replacement of the non-historic storefront and garage doors along Townsend Street with a new storefront; and replacement of the doors on the rear façade with a new aluminum-sash storefront system. These alterations are associated with a proposed project to change the use of 49,995 square feet at the subject property from self-storage (retail) to office use, which require an Office Development Authorization from the Planning Commission. 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 105-F Height and Bulk Limit.
Preliminary Recommendation: Approve with Conditions
(Continued from October 21, 2015)

SPEAKERS:          + Charles Bloszies – Project Presentation
ACTION:                Approved with Conditions as amended to include:

• Include a repair option for the steel sash windows;
• Allow the removal of the bulkhead, keeping the rhythm of bays at the ground floor storefront; and
• Include vertical muntins in the transom windows on the Townsend Street frontage.

AYES:                   Hyland, Hasz, Johnck, Johns, Pearlman, Matsuda
ABSENT:              Wolfram
MOTION:              0266

7.            2012.0262COA                                                      (M. BOUDREAUX: (415)575-9140)
500 GENEVA (AKA 2301 SAN JOSE AVE) – located on the southeastern side of the intersection of San Jose and Geneva Avenues, Assessor’s Block 6972, Lot 036. Request for a Certificate of Appropriateness at the Office Building for site. The site alteration consists of introduction of a new trash enclosure and transformer pad at the east elevation of the Office Building in an area currently used for parking. These alterations are associated with a proposed project to rehabilitate the two vacant structures in the Geneva Car Barn Complex and adaptively reuse the Office Building (12,916sf) and Powerhouse (3,735sf) as a community-serving facility for youth arts education and a community arts/events center, including a restaurant space. No building envelope expansion is proposed. The entire project will be presented for input, although work is proposed in two phases. Phase 1 is under consideration for a Certificate of Appropriateness for work at the Office Building. Change of use to community facility requires Planning Commission approval.  The subject property is located within a P (Public) Zoning District and 40-X Height and Bulk Limit.
Preliminary Recommendation: Approve with Conditions

SPEAKERS:          + Beth Rubenstein, Aide to Sup. Avalos – Support
                              + Nicole Abram, Rec & Park – Project Presentation
                              + Roselyn Cole – Design Presentation
                              + Desiree Smith – Support
                              + Dan Weaver – Support
ACTION:                Approved with Conditions
AYES:                    Hyland, Hasz, Johnck, Johns, Pearlman, Matsuda
ABSENT:               Wolfram
MOTION:               0267

8.            2009.0634COA                                                                              (S. Caltagirone: (415)558-6625)
VAN NESS BRT PROJECT - Request for Certificate of Appropriateness for the segment of the Van Ness Avenue Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Project located within the Civic Center Landmark District between Golden Gate Avenue and Fell Street. The BRT Project would convert two center traffic lanes of Van Ness Avenue to dedicated transit lanes. Proposed new features along the avenue within the district include: a bus station at McAllister Street; street lighting; paving; street trees and sidewalk planting; and, traffic medians. The Project would include the removal of the historic trolley poles with light fixtures that currently line Van Ness Avenue and replacement of most of the trees in the median.
Preliminary Recommendation: Approve with Conditions

SPEAKERS:          + Peter Garbaccio – Project Presentation
                              + Jane Edwards – Lightpole repair, trees along Van Ness
                              + Pete Gualette – Tree scape in the Civic Center
                              - MaryAnne Kayiatos – Curbside alternative negative impacts
                              - Lara DeCaro – Impact to trees
                              - Chris Parkes – Trees and historic street lamps
                              - Jeff Sinko – Trees, project efficiencies
                             = Patrick Carney – Light poles, trees
                             + Robert Macys – Trolley poles
                             + Donald Savoie – Use of median for a bus lane, construction phasing
                             - Javier Bautista – Lane reduction, trees
ACTION:               Approved with Conditions, amending Condition No. 3, such that, the Sponsor shall remove the trolley poles from this authorization and seek a separate CoA within six months.
AYES:                   Hyland, Hasz, Johnck, Johns, Pearlman, Matsuda
ABSENT:              Wolfram
MOTION:              0268

9.            2014.0266U                                                                                    (S. PARKS (415) 575-9101)
HISTORIC CONTEXT STATEMENT FOR LGBTQ HISTORY IN SAN FRANCISCO  - The LGBTQ Historic Context Statement documents the history of the community in San Francisco from the City’s earliest development to the present day. It outlines significance, integrity considerations, registration requirements, and further recommendations. Consideration to adopt, modify, or disapprove the Historic Context Statement for LGBTQ History in San Francisco.
Preliminary Recommendation:Adopt the Historic Context Statement

SPEAKERS:          + Shane Watson – Project Presentation
                              + Donna Graves – Presentation continued
                              + Anthony Veerkamp – Support, legacy businesses
                              + Desiree Smith – Support
                              + K. Lee Callahan – Support
                              = Randy T Burns – American Indian LGBT history
                             + Beth Lemke – Support, Great Aunt Mona Sargent
ACTION:                Adopted
AYES:                    Hyland, Hasz, Johnck, Johns, Pearlman, Matsuda
ABSENT:              Wolfram
MOTION:              0269

ADJOURNMENT – 3:40 PM – ADOPTED AS CORRECTED DECEMBER 2, 2015