place by organizing charitable projects, a long history dating back to the 18 hundreds. they are known to stop the spread of the 1906 fire and the use of the building as a hub for artists and arts organizations such as the alonso king lions ballet. over 600,000 members worldwide, appreciate their investment in the city, in particular on the 600 block of stevenson, a very challenging alleyway in san francisco. i want to acknowledge their continued stewardship of the street and their work to improve the south and market neighborhood. i want to recognize richard perry, peter sellers, the san francisco oddfellows hall association and the dozens of letters and people who came out to our land use committee meetings on this matter and also thank bobby lopez from my office. street name changes seem simple but often take over a year, on her work on this ordinance. >> president breen: thank you, supervisor kim. colleagues, take this item, same house, same call. without objection, resolution is adopted unanimously. go to -- [applause] committee reports. >> items 27 and 28, considered by the land use and transportation committee at a regular meeting january 8, 2018, and forwarded as committee reports. item 27 is an ordinance to amend the general plan for the western shoreline area plan of the general plan, the san francisco local coastal program land use plan and add an objective to preserve, enhance and restore the ocean beach shoreline, protecting public access, natural resource, critical public infrastructure and existing development from coastal hazards and affirm the determination and make the appropriate findings. >> president breen: colleagues, same house, same call. without objection, passes unanimously on the first reading. >> clerk: item 28, resolution to impose interim zoning controls for 15 months, the conditional use authorization is required for proposed restaurant use and for a commercial store front merger resulting in a nonresidential use size of 2,000 square feet or larger in the area generally defined by the following boundaries. 13th, division streets, mission street to the west, cesar chavez to the south, and to the east and affirm the determination and make the appropriate findings. >> president breen: supervisor ronen. >> supervisor ronen: colleagues, i'm going to ask your support today to approve a set of interim zoning controls. the mission is san francisco's ground 0 for displaced and gentrification, we talk about this a lot, and we are facing the oh blit ration of the culture and diversity that has made the mission a safe and welcoming place for immigrants, and low income families and workers, and newcomers and tourists. my office is working with community advocates and the staff on the mission area plan 2020. with the goal of ensuring a thriving mission, a place for families, arts and culture and non-profit community organizations. as part of the map 2020 work, the team has gathered data showing the challenges for small businesses along the mission corridor. these shops are facing lease renewals at double or triple rent, essentially putting them out of business. my office hears from merchants worried about their future or desperate to find an affordable play to relocate. without immediate protections, mission street will go the way of valencia, working class corridor erased by the speculation and rising rents. interim controls respond to the community's cry for immediate action and will allow time for the map 2020 collaborative team to fully analyze the data, get input and prepare longer term business and economic development strategies for small businesses in the mission. specifically the resolution includes two interim controls. the first extends the existing control implemented by the planning commission in 2017, which requires conditional use authorization for any change to permit a restaurant. second creates a new control to create a conditional use for mergers of store front spaces of 2,000 square feet or more. together, these will allow us to use the process for analysis and input, counter the very real threat of overconcentration of restaurants, and retain the diversity of scale that allows for affordable rents and a healthy mix of commercial spaces. thank you to everyone who has committed time and energy to the map 2020 process, planning and staff, facilitating and forming the initiative, to the community leaders who have been persevering for years to think of creative and thoughtful ways to hold on to the heart and the soul of the mission, and finally, a very special thanks to amy binard in my office, working very hard on these pieces of legislation. thank you so much. >> president breen: thank you, colleagues. take this item, same house, same call, without objection, the resolution is adopted unanimously. madam clerk, roll call for introductions. supervisor fewer, the first up. supervisor kim. >> supervisor kim: thank you. i would like to see if supervisor yee can speak after me. i'm proud with supervisor yee to be introducing $100 million plus measure to make a humongous investment in early childhood education and child care. the reality around child care in our city today is that 60% of households with children do not have a stay at home parent. center-based child care for infant and 30 out of 50 states costs more than its public university tuition and fees. women and in particular women of color make up the vast majority of the work force but the wages are poverty wages, many early care educators using some form of public benefits to take care of their own families. 2,400 san francisco families are on the wait list for early childhood education and early child care. eligible based on income but not enough resources to help them access the care that these babies and toddlers need. with these stark realities, we know that we must do better, and if we truly believe families are the backbone of san francisco, then we have to do all that we can to hold on to them, and make the city a family-friendly city, and we have to do better and we can. the babies and families fund will be created through legislation that supervisor yee, ronen, fewer, peskin and i are introducing today. serve as the financial vessel to hold new revenue generated by the commercial rent tax into line with the rest of the country, but still below cities like new york. san francisco currently has one of the lowest rent taxes in the country, and legislation will increase that tax by 3.5% for most commercial uses such as office, chain store formula retail and 1% for warehouses. we will continue to exempt property owners who earn under a million dollars in gross receipts from rent. and we will also exempt nonprofits, government use, manufacturing and our arts. many people may not realize this, but as a country, we did once make child care universally affordable. 1940, congress passed the act which provided all families regardless of income child care up to six days a week, including summer and holidays. parents were paid equivalent of 9 to $10 a day in today's dollars. we can do that again in san francisco. the council of economic advisors reports that early childhood investments highlights that affordable child care, increases employment opportunities as well as the educational chances for women, especially. because let's be real. even in a city like san francisco, with progressive values, we put men and women on the same pedestal. largely women that lack the access to affordable care and women often make the choice in their life, whether it is seeking more training to up skill, to pursue a meaningful career, or perhaps even stay in an abusive situation. the benefits do not stop there. having high quality child care can make a difference in labor force in adults and earnings as adults. children who benefitted from the lanham act in 1940 did far better in school and far better employed into their adult life, into their adult life. we can act now to protect and advance these opportunities for the rising, for those rising into the middle class and those fighting to stay there in san francisco. our current families and our next generation are looking to us as local policy makers to take bold steps in their best interests, and ultimately to move us forward. i want to recognize the office of early childhood education, office of early childhood education, september jaret, the city attorney, carol roar, the controllers office, and most of all, i want to recognize supervisor norman yee. he has spent his career fighting for early childhood education and child care, when it wasn't something that any elected officials talked about decades ago and the funding that we have one to allow universal preschool in the city in large part due to his leadership and advocacy, proud to be partnering with the supervisor to make the single largest investment san francisco has ever made for families and for our children. so, if -- >> president breen: thank you, supervisor kim. supervisor yee. >> thank you for the introduction for the major legislation for keeping families in san francisco. there are so many reasons why we need to do this. we have been the leader in providing preschool opportunities for the 4-year-olds since 2004 when i was able to help develop the preschool for all program in san francisco. we started, when we looked at the stats in 2005, the number of, percentage that had preschool exposure was 57%, and today, the 4-year-olds, we actually have 92% of 4-year-olds receiving either preschool or prekindergarten services. the fact that so many of our mainly mothers miss the opportunity to be part of the work force, needed to diversify and we have proof from studies that when the work force is diversified, the companies do better and yet we don't support the parents that really need the help. number 1, 1 of the things that really trigger this movement since the early 2000, people started realizing that children actually learn a lot by the time they are five years old. in fact, 90% of their cognitive development would have been developed by the age of five. and so we have done well with 4-year-olds and not so well with 0 to, through 3-year-old. and this initiative will make up for the difference. we can't afford to leave children behind. we already know, i mean -- you talk to any preschool teacher, as we are taking care of 4-year-olds, or kindergarten teachers, kindergarten teachers will say i can tell when a kid didn't have any preschool experience, and actually are already behind. you can talk to preschool teachers and they'll say the same thing. you know, something -- that child did not get any exposure when they were three, and they are already behind, over a lot of elements. verbal skills and so forth. so, we are doing this -- we will try to accomplish a few things with this initiative. number one, we have to put the money where, you know, where we talk, and in terms of supporting our families and keeping them here when we know that san francisco is very expensive place to stay, and as supervisor kim mentioned, the average cost of a child, child care is about 20,000. and you compare that to u.c., the university of berkeley, it's 13,000. so, something is wrong with this picture here. and with -- without our help we will lose the families. we are going to help the families, children exposed to early childhood education. the other thing we are trying to accomplish with the initiative, like the teaching force in the k-12, where they are finding it very difficult to have teachers come into the classroom, it's even -- almost double the issues are two-fold for people working in the early care and education field. the people cannot find replacements as there is a high turnover rate, up to 40% in many centers. and studies have shown that without having a stable educated work force, teaching in these programs, you are not going to have a high quality program. so, we are going to go after high quality program, we need to make sure that the teachers and providers are going to be stable in the programs. so, i'm really happy to be able to do this with not only supervisor kim, but also as she mentioned, supervisor fewer, ronen and peskin. we are going to move forward with this and come june we are going to celebrate and say to people that we do care about you with families and young children, we want to keep you in san francisco, and hopefully others on, who have not signed on will sign on to this piece of legislation. thank you very much. >> president breen: thank you, supervisor yee. supervisor peskin. >> supervisor peski >> supervisor peskin: thank you, madam clerk. quite a number of folks passed away over the holidays, i have a number of in memorial, but i want to start with mayor lee's passing, which happened at our last board meeting, which seems like a year ago. but was actually just on december 12th, and many of us spoke about his tenure as mayor and our personal relationships with him on that day, and this is the first board meeting since that meeting, the first one of the new year. this is a very rare and extremely sad circumstance and it puts the board in the position that it has been in a handful of times over history of having to wrestle with those provisions in the charter, in and around interim mayor, the charter gives us the authority to appoint an interim mayor. i am one member of this body who has said that while the charter allows the president of the board to also serve as the mayor in both capacities, that i don't think we should have a mixing of the two branches of government for a prolonged period of time. i don't know where the votes are on this body, and only time will tell, but i think that it is our duty to have that conversation and most importantly, to hear from the public. there has really been no opportunity other than emails for this body to hear from the public in this rare and unique and tragic circumstance. and to that end, and i want to thank president and acting mayor breed for her willingness and openness to schedule that for a discussion, i want to thank the clerk who has done a poll by email of members of the board to see if indeed we can meet next week where we do not have a regularly scheduled meeting to consider that one item, which i will be introducing today and look forward honestly and genuinely in hearing from all segments of san francisco and they can weigh in in person, in public comment as well of course by email in our offices and by telephone and what have you. i was also struck by, i was on the board of supervisors a decade ago when the issue of question time went before the voters not once, but twice. i was off the board when ultimately the rules for question time were adopted. and i think they have really led to a very stilted, not real conversation question time that was originally contemplated, and to that end, i would like to have a discussion at the board, requires an eight-vote super majority to amend the board rules to have a real and meaningful question time rather than what we have had now for the last 7 or 8 years. finally, colleagues, i would like to adjourn this meeting and if you are willing, for the entire board, for jim moore, a well-known democratic party pollster who polled for the likes of former senate leader john burton, our governor, former speaker willie brown, as well as for many of us, he died all too early at the age of 66. our condolences to his family. he ran, of course, moore methods, which was that polling firm. i would also like to adjourn the board meeting in the memory of millie fishman gardner, who i think many of you whoever went into any restaurant in north beach knew she was that woman who had the polaroid camera, living in the hotel, made her living by taking polaroid pictures of people at their dinner tables, was beloved by the community, and well taken care of at laguna honda in her later years, and the communities of north beach, russian hill and telegraph hill, as well as visitors from around san francisco and beyond miss her, condolences to her niece, and then finally, i would like to adjourn the meeting for two other friends from district three, jeffrey chen and dean dirkus carlisle. >> and supervisor kim, did you want to complete your roll call for introduction? i moved away too quickly. >> and the first one from mr. moore for the board. >> without objection, entire board of supervisors. supervisor kim. >> supervisor kim: colleagues, i'm also introducing a request that the controller and city attorney prepare a supplemental appropriation ordinance to fund, enhance street cleaning services with the specific focus on sidewalk cleaning and areas with the highest 311 calls and where the data shows the need. funding will be city-wide, although i believe it will immediately benefit the districts of 6, 9 and 10, the highest concentration of needles and trash. last year, a hepatitis outbreak left 15 homeless people dead and hospitalized nearly 300 others over ten months. spurned our sister city in the south into action and came up with a plan in days to address "fecally contaminated environments." we also must do the same. two years ago with many of you i fought for the pit stop program. now a nationally recognized model of providing toilets, doggy bags and needle disposal in the district. while this has help, and they collected 10,000 needles in march of 2017, compared to 3,000 just one year earlier. we also know there is a higher production of trash and refuse. i have seen firsthand how hard our workers at public works try to keep our streets clean, but the reality is the city needs to make stronger financial investment into street cleaning if we expect our first class city to have first class streets. in reviewing our budget carefully from the fiscal year, our office has identified funding with the controllers office that we can immediately redirect street cleaning and will be working to push this forward. and prepared by january 23rd, and in advance, i want to acknowledge supervisor's ronen and peskin for working on the matter. the rest i submit. >> supervisor ronen: colleagues today i have two items. the first is an accept ab expand i'm introducing with acting mayor breed, accept grant of $10 million, mission and neighboring areas. since a year ago today, my top priority has been the encampment crisis in the district. we worked very hard to open a temporary navigation center, which was very successful in reducing the number of tents in my district from a high before we began of over 200 tents, we got down at 1 point to 30, and now are slightly up again because of the need for additional navigation center space. seven months ago i sat down with assembly member phil tang and asked for his help in addressing the tenting encampment in the mission. i told him we need more resources for navigation centers since two were closing this year. i am incredibly grateful to him that he was able to secure $10 million as his, you know, role of the chair of the california chair of assembly committee. without his leadership we may not have been able to open the additional navigation center in and near my district, which will include 250 beds together. these beds will go a long way towards addressing the mission's homeless and public health crisis that exists because of the tent encampments but it's not going to go the full way. in order to truly, truly address the crisis, we need about 1,000 additional beds in san francisco. that's what we need to make a difference in the street. that's what we need in order for the public to say wow, something is finally working. there is a shift in this crisis in our streets and i will continue to be working to push the funds and the space throughout the city to make that a reality and finally put a dent in this health crisis that we have and watch every day on our streets. second i am introducing a hearing request on the 16 street bart station and ask that this hearing go to the public safety and neighborhood services committee. for more than two months, i have joined former supervisor and bart director duffty for weekly wednesday brush-ups as we sweep and clean and work to connect individuals to crisis counseling at the 16 street bart plaza and adjacent city sidewalks and bus shelters. initially bart director began sweeping to draw attention to the fact that bart's executive management did not have a dedicated full-time custodian system service worker at the 16th street station and only will one hour of late night power washing each day. let me tell you that is not enough. it is one of the most disgusting sites in the city, and it's absolutely unacceptable. i don't understand how in a world class city one of the most important transportation hubs can be filled with human waste every day, used needles, heaps of wet clothing, reeking of urine, trash, chicken bones, absolutely disgusting and unacceptable and i have no idea how we have allowed it to continue so long in san francisco. i have known how disgusting the bart station is, i've used it for 15 years but when you walk past trying to get through it and not touch anything quickly, it's one thing. when you get down on your knees and you put on the gloves and you throw the, you know, sand over the feces and the urine to seep it up so that you can clean it up and you pick up the used needles, it is a whole other ball game. something has got to change. people are outraged and sick of the state of our city. and the good news is that this, you know, it's somewhat of a stunt that director duffty and i are pulling. we are trying to -- we are doing our part and cleaning temporarily that station every wednesday and we are also learning the deep problems that are there. but we have had success with bart of getting a full-time, eight-hour a day, monday through friday, custodian and amazing man named byron hudson, who is now cleaning up bart station monday through friday. what we have demanded, we need it on saturday and sunday as well and we have not been granted that from the bart board. in addition, there was only one hour of power washing a night. let me tell you that the first night we won and we got a four-time, i went to clean the bart station and the smell of urine was so intense, more so than ever before and i went up to duffty and said what happened, we got four hours of power washing and he had talked to the power washer and what had happened is because it had not been adequately cleaned for so long, and the urine had so thoroughly seeped into the ground, that beginning to unearth it created that situation. that's what we are asking our constituents, our transit riders to deal with on a daily basis. and i -- i can't say enough how outraged i am that we are living in these conditions in the city. in addition, every single week when we do there, there are people in acute mental health crisis. there was a woman, named alice gonzales, living in a part station, 63-year-old filipino woman who had been living in the bart station in front of the burger king for three years. with all of her stuff in a chair, in the rain, that's how she slept every single day. and it was not until we started drawing attention and calling barbara garcia and deb and getting every city's department involved until an intern in my office, anne gallagher, befriended her and works with her that we have got her inside. there are people who are half naked talking to themselves in crisis every single day. and we have just got to do more. and so the reason that i am calling this hearing is because i want the bart management, i want the department of public health, i want the department of public works, i want the crisis management, i want the environmental house and the department of homelessness and supportive housing to come and say how they are going to make a difference and a change, not just in the bart plaza, because we know it's not limited to this bart plaza. we need this type of attention all over the city. but let me tell you that 16th street bart plaza is one of the worst -- one of the locations with the worst conditions that i have seen in the city. and i want to end by saying that my focus here is not meant to displace people who are hanging out at this bart station. everyone has a right to hang out in public spaces. it's not to arrest anyone, it's to deal with people's mental health and substance abuse needs and to deal with basic cleanliness that all people in san francisco and transit ride deserve. enough is enough. it's time to have a clean functioning subway system like they have managed to do in almost every other major city in the world. and i don't know what is going so terribly wrong here in san francisco, but something has to give, and something has to change. and i'm looking extremely forward to this hearing to start figuring out how we are going to do something, at least at this transit hub in our city. the rest i submit. >> president breen: thank you, supervisor ronen. supervisor safai. >> supervisor safai: we have a 2:30 commendation and i would like to turn it over to supervisor peskin for the 2:30 commendation we have at this time. >> clerk: thank you. >> supervisor ronen: thank you, today my honor and privilege to commend ms. rebecca evans for her decades to the city and county of san francisco and the environmental health of the planet. lived in the days since harvey milk and others were members of the board of supervisors and advocacy goes back further. becky joined the sierra club in 1969, during the save the bay campaign, created the bay conservation commission, and echoes reemerge over the next many decades, including my first term on the board of supervisors 17 years ago. she was hired in 1972 as one of the sierra club bay chapters first full-time employees and moved on to serve with the national sierra club in 1974, she opened and managed the sierra club information center and served there until 1987. in 1974, she joined the citizens committee, working on the special area plan for san francisco's waterfront, in 1976, served on a planning advisory committee on the plan for the northeastern waterfront, which of course ultimately led to her advocacy around proposition b a couple of years ago. and of course, today is the day that that lawsuit is finally being heard in our superior court. since the end of her term with the sierra club, becky served on san francisco environment commission from 1996 to 2003, vice chair, mayor brown's p.u.c. infrastructure task force. served on public works, wastewater advisory committee for astonishing two decades and the list goes on and on. becky, for your service to the city and service to the environment, there are few parallels and impersonally grateful to you and honored to be your supervisor and have you as a constituent, and look forward to working with you in the years to come and if you would like to come forward and say a few words, thank you becky evans. [applause] >> before you speak, miss evans, supervisor kim would like to say a few words. >> supervisor kim: supervisor peskin talked about all of your accomplishments and accolades, but becky, i want to thank you so much for being such a leader and persistent and relentless advocate on issues that impact strong neighborhoods and of course our environment. and a number of issues that our office has tackled on. i appreciate you always being there for guidance and advice. just most importantly, for remaining in the work and continuing it. >> thank you, supervisors and members of the board. i've been fortunate in my activities over the last 40 some years to have managers both in the sierra club and the city family and also members of the community. i notice dr. moses is here today, we worked together on clean water issues in the 1970s and 1980s and other people here activists in their community and i think one of the things that drives us is that the city is composed of villages, and many of us are active in our own villages doing whatever we are asked to do, if someone says speak up, we speak up. we step up, and we try to mentor others. so, i think it's really important for all of us to be aware that we need to work together on whatever issues there are to work on. and i was in san diego over the christmas holiday and i noticed a very difference of the community there, people don't know the baker, they don't know the grocery store owner, so, i think it's really important for us to work together as a community, and villages, to support the projects that serve us all. thank you. [applause] >> thank you for your service, miss evans, congratulations. that was our only commendation for the day. madam clerk, let's return to roll call for introductions and at 3:00, we'll interrupt for our 3:00 p.m. special order. >> clerk: supervisor safai will submit, and sheehy is next. >> supervisor sheehy: i have one item. when we pass article 16 of the police code, the regulatory structure for cannabis activity, the ordinance outlined a registration period that was meant to serve as a de facto amnesty process for existing operators to come forward and make their activity known to the city. again, it was meant to serve as amnesty, this board and the mayor determined that it was in our best interest to ensure that cannabis activity comes out of the shadows, and moves into a regulated system. however, during the course of inspections of these operations, the department of building inspection has been issuing penalties for work without a permit because they are bound by law to do so. so, this ordinance makes clear that d.b.i. penalties will be waived for those who register with the office of cannabis and paid fees, directs d.b.i. to reimburse them. the possibilities of receiving thousands in penalties is not in the spirit of the registration process or the intent to move them towards compliance and serve as a disincentive for cannabis operators to work with the city. we must continue to build trust with the cannabis community to ensure the efficacy of article 16 and the ordinance is meant to do just that. the rest i submit. >> supervisor tang: today i just have one memorial for aniam pillpal, his father passed away at the age of 82, december 22nd. he was born in poland, then vienna, and escaped for england. remained there to 1947 until he emigrated to america and settled to san francisco with his parents. owned and operated crest pharmacy and then sir pharmacy over 30 years. upon retirements, volunteered for mental health program, drug chart reviews and worked as a fill-in pharmacist. he was a long time member and former officer of congregation israel, past president of the pharmaceutical society of san francisco and has been involved in many, many other organizations. his actions and outlook on life were shaped by the extreme circumstances in europe early on. he was very honest in business. developed and maintained friends and contributed quietly to jewish and nonjewish causes here and elsewhere that he believed in. i want to send condolences to david pillpal, his mother heady, and hope that his family can have some peace during this difficult time. so, i would like to request we adjourn our meeting in his honor. >> and if i could be listed on that, too. >> thank you, supervisors. madam president, just a moment before 3:00 p.m. supervisor yee, thank you. we'll return to you, madam president after the 3:00 p.m. special orders. >> president breen: so i will actually since it's not 3:00 p.m., i'll finish my roll call for introductions and then go to the 3:00 p.m. special order. [please stand b without trying to address this problem in a different way, we're risking lives, health and safety of our residents and losing opportunities to help those who are grappling with drug abuse. we're risking the opportunity to get them access to other services that we provide. we simply can't afford to stand idly by and thanks to the efforts of community members, we've moved forward in a healthy way we have existing providers and funders who are willing to help us implement this sites and what i was hoping from this memo is a deeper analysis of how we can do the right thing within the confines of the law. the city may need to take steps against criminal prosecution and other risks identified in this memorand memorandum. and i'm asking the city attorney gauge the risk of prosecution and other things identified in the best and most responsible result. so this conversation will continue. the other time i have today, colleagues, is an in memoriam for the daughter of reverend arnold townsend, his only doubter, rachel townsend. rachel was a committed member of the african-american community here in san francisco and was a behind-the-scenes champion in leading a festival every single year. despite how challenging it was to organize this event, rachel continues to push herself and push community members to show up every sippingle ye-- single year. she was always there for the community and she was also always there to support and help her dad. she was really the light of reverend townsend's life. it's sad that we lost her. she was only 38 years old. and rachel was so many things to so many people and an important part of our community, as i said. and because she was so young, there were no arrangements or any life insurance that could help to support her and pay for her funeral. so if anybody wants to make a contribution to donate, go to gofundme rachel townsend's funeral fund. the rest i submit. thank you. >> clerk: thank you, madam president. and i will give it right back to you. >> president breed: all right. here we good. madam clerk, we're going to call our first appeal. i think it's item 18-21. >> clerk: comprise public hearing of persons interested in the determination of exemption from environmental review under the california environmental quality act, issued as an exemption by the planning department for the project at 2417 green street, to make alterations to an existing 4-story over basement single-family resident with one vehicle parking space. excavate two parking spaces and facade and lower the existing building. 19 the determination that the green street project is exempt from environmental review. 20 will reverse that determination. and 21 is the motion to direct appropriation of findings. >> president breed: thank you, madam clerk. we have before us of a categorical exemption for this project at 2417 green street in district 2. for this hearing, we will be considering the adequacy, accuracy, sufficiency of the planning department's determination that the proposed project at 2417 green street is categorically exempt from review under ceqa. without objection, we will proceed as follows. 10 minutes for presentation by the appellant or representative. up to 2 minutes per speaker in support of the appeal. up to 10 minutes for a presentation by the planning department. up to 10 minutes for presentation by the project sponsor or the project representative. up to 2 minutes per speaker in opposition of the appeal. and, finally, up to 3 minutes for rebuttal by the appellant or appellant representative. colleagues, if there is no objection to proceeding in this way, we'll open up this hearing. supervisor farrell? >> supervisor farrell: before we get into the appeal presentations, i want to flag for everybody that we're hearing the ceqa appeal while there are three d.r.s pending. it's unusual and i don't think i've seen it. we're here because it was approved by the notices pending. >> president breed: seeing no other names on the roster, we'll start with the 10-minute presentation by the appellant or appellant representative. >> thank you, ma'am. i'm richard drury, representing phillip kauffman, owner of the directly adjacent property 2421 green street. i'd like to use the overheads here, so i -- thank you. this appeal concerns a proposal to expand the property of 2417 green street from the existing 4,100 square foot residence to a 6,000 square foot residence on a 2,500 square foot lot. this will be double 2.5 area ratio. this will not create an additional housing unit. it will take one large house and create a tremendously large house. the planning department issued a categorical exemption. the primary finding is that the project would not affect the historical resource, but the categorical exemption ignores the property of 2421 green street, which is immediately adjacent to the subject property and uphill. that house is perhaps one of the most significant historical residential properties in the entire city of san francisco, possibly one of the most historically significant properties in the country. it was built in 1893 by earnest coxhead, who was the fore father that used the shingles that came to be known as arts and crafts style. perhaps realizing that the planning department made an oversight, mr. christopher durkin, has racked up four separate notices of violation. he's been racing to build the property as quickly as possible, even in the face of inadequate permits. the notices of violation were issued for work beyond the scope of the permit. he was ordered to stop work. on one day, he removed the chimney from the roof, creating a giant, gaping hole. he proceeded on the very next day to remove a second chimney and create a second gaping hole in the roof that led to a third notice of violation. he pleaded then to tear out the foundation of the property. again, receiving a fourth notice of violation for work beyond the scope of the permit. this is clearly a scoff law developer that is willing to pay trivial penalties to destroy historical property. this past sunday, "the san francisco chronicle" ran an article about developers tearing down and harming historically significant properties, which is what is happening in this case. it should stop. it should stop here. it should stop now. what we're asking for is simply for the developer to comply with the law. california environmental quality act says, if a project may adversely affect an historical resource, it's in violation of ceqa. planning didn't realize that this house was directly adjacent. this is an article from the new fillmore newspaper. it shows -- this is phillip kauffman's house. this is the subject property at 2417 green. the exemption only looks at 2417 green and concludes that it is not historically significant. we submit it's not, but this house certainly is. this house is one of two homes featured in noted architectural treaties where earnest coxhead himself lived with his family. raised his children. and it is one of the most architecturally significant homes in the city. now the planning department at this point recognizes -- they admit it's a "category a1 historic resource." that's the highest possible category of historic value. yet the planning department still contends that the exemption should stand because they claim this project won't adversely affect the resource. we have submitted a lawyer from architect carol carp, who has opined that this project will, in fact, adversely affect the historic nature of the property. and i would like to give you a -- show some pictures of the story poles that have recently erected on the property. this project will expand the property back four stories tall, almost 20 feet, 17 feet, into the backyard. you can see that that expansion will essentially block major views from the rear of the house, blocking, by our count, 24 windows. these windows look out on expansive views of russian hill. here's another image showing that's poles and how the expansion would block the windows. here's a view from inside the home, showing how the expansion would block those views. clearly this would adversely affect the historic nature of the house, access to light, air and views. and we submit, residential neighbors in san francisco are not entitled to views, but ceqa expressly states that aesthetic impact to historic resources may not be exemption from ceqa. the planning department ignored that section entirely in that report. furthermore, we're submitting today. you will hear from dr. larry carp. he has submitted that this proposed project will undermine the foundation, the very foundations, of the coxhead house. this will excavate 15 feet deep, undermining the tall, brick foundations built in 1893, which survived the 1906 earthquake, undermining the foundations of the coxhead house. we also have submitted with our letters, an opinion from a geologist that concluded that it may cause flooding in the basement of the coxhead house. clearly all of these factors will affect the nature of that house and the project may not be exempted from ceqa review. secondly, the project is clearly on the city's map of potentially contaminated sites. the city's map shows it's within three locations of leaky underground storage tanks. this project will require 408 cubic yards of soil excavation. again, under ceqa, it may not be exempted if it's on a potentially contaminated site. finally, the third reason that it should not be exempted from ceqa is the project is inconsistent with guidelines that involve volume and mapping consistent with neighboring properties. this is nearly double. and it requires preservation of open space, terracing to protect views, and importantly, respect for historic resources. again, the staff says, those are aesthetic and don't apply in san francisco. however, under 21099, subsection d, ceqa says that provision does not apply to historic resources. and we keep coming back to the fact that this house is such an historic resource. we're asking that the board require an environmental impact report that will not prevent the developer from building the project -- we understand that the developer has the right to build, remodel, construct, to improve the property, but he must comply with the law. the e.i.r. will require the developer to analyze these resources and minimize impacts and minimize impacts to the extent feasible. he can then build the project, but within and consistent with the guidelines i would be happy to take any questions. >> president breed: thank you. seeing no names on the roster, i do have a question, before we move on to the planning department around the contaminated soil issue. can you explain that based on the presentation? when that information was provided to me, i was surprised that there was still the opportunity to -- that this project was still exempt under ceqa, when there's a possibility that there's a contaminated site. can you verify that, please? >> good afternoon, president breed. i'm lisa gibson, environmental review officer for the city. i can answer that question and refer it to staff for further information if you would like. the project site is on a list of sites that are ones where there have been prior contamination -- excuse me, the project site would involve excavation of 50 cubic yards or more and subject to review by department of public health, but they're able to waive the requirements of their review if they determine that a site has been in residential use in perpetuity. they made that case and there was a waiver of requirements. we have no concerns about the site's prior housing a and find there is no potential for any environmental issues related to hazardous materials contamination. >> president breed: we'll get into that a little more in the present asi presentation but i find that odd. seeing no other names on the roster, we'll open it up to public comment, to members of the public who are here to support this particular appeal. welcome, judge beya, to the chamber. >> it's wonderful to be back in city hall where i spent so many years. my wife and i live at 2727 pierce, which is perhaps the same historical -- has the same historical character. it was built in 1866, about 30 years before the coxhead house was built. and our property line is touching on 2417. so if i go out my back door, i see 2417. i see the flags. and i would like, principally, to address my remarks in support of the appeal to the question of the open space guidelines for -- for the area. our backyard is right next to where

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