In the rear yard. On march 9, i sought a permit and it was not mentioned the size or level. And later it was mentioned for the deck to be built on the second floor and would protrude 16 feet from the wall and it would be creating a massive deck of 250 square foot and stairs of 150 square feet. The whole project would be 18 feet from the rear wall from where my lot line begins. The project will be on my rear lot line and thus creating massive intrusion in my living space. To give you context this massive deck is larger than some newly constructed condos. Though the planning code allows the project for the setback and 9 feet high. I am appealing the permit because its not consistent with open space and doesnt respect adjacent neighbors. In fact the project disregards the neighbors. And the adjacent neighbor and quote. The neighbor that designed this phase is incorrect. And the neighbors were only aware after the permit was approved. End quote. Notice there is no second floors in the adjacent properties of 8222 geary boulevard. We are putting a 3d rendering of the project, and you can see that it adversely affects the interior space. And the project disrupts the pattern of the rear open space more than the other buildings on the same side of the block. And per the planning code to continue continuation of open space and maintenance and scale appropriate to each district consistent with the location of adjacent buildings. And also according to the guidelines of planning department. The guidelines for rear yard open space is to minimize impact on lives. The project will greatly impede the Natural Light on my property. Due to its massive size the back of my property will be covered in shadows when the sun is setting and rising. And it will block the air flow as it rises above my fence. And furthermore the project invades the privacy of my family and i in our interior living space. Because the project dominates 72 feet of the property rear lot line, and my family and i worry about people looking into our living area. Especially our bedrooms. We will have to close the windows and blinds and turn on the lights to maintain our privacy. This will restrict the Natural Light and consume more energy to light our homes. Even permitted by the planning code the project is not appropriate because its way out of scale and leaves the adjacent neighbors cut off from the open space. If built as permitted, it will be to the detriment of the east and west side adjacent neighbors, as it impedes to our light and view. This could set a prescedence to the neighborhood to allow this intrusion. And according to a neighbor the project spoils the way that the design is without and to blend in with open space. Unquote. And like me, robert has lived in the neighborhood for 28 years and states quote. I almost never see anyone having a party outside, from my bedroom i can see several houses with unused barqueue grills before they learned about the weather in this area. And this project will receive the wind why not ask the occupant to put the deck at ground level, he will be happy after considering the winds in the neighborhood. Unquote and the permit holder says that he will have parties. What i want, number 1 the deck to protrude six feet of the deck can be seen from my property. Please note that six feet is 24 of my 25rear lot line. 2, the stairs to be a part of the deck and to face south direction and the stair to be located away from the east; 3, the deck to be on the east side because of the strong wind in the area. Thank you for your time and consideration and please consider my appeal. Sorry. If any questions, shes here. Okay. Thank you. Hear from the permit holder or his agent. Commissioners good evening Rodriguez Sanchez for the project, massive, we are talking 240 square feet. Quite modest. How high . Nine feet from the ground. How far from the Property Lines . Three feet away. Do we meet the rear yard requirements, of course, we exceed that. We could have extended the deck we chose not to. My client is not building this to upset anyone. Hes building a very modest sized deck. As he is entitled. This deck is designed so that he can enjoy his backyard. He reached out to the neighbors. He bought this house a couple of years ago. His intent is to be a Good Neighbor. Talking about high winds, i happen to be a Structural Engineer, this deck is designed to withstand it. We are not asking for variances. We are not asking for anything other than what my client is entitled by right. In fact it is more than he did an outreach and talked to the neighbors. And was a little confused and wouldnt use the word annoyed but surprised. When i let my client say a few words about the neighbors and how excited to get your support and get this permit reactivated to start the work. Hi i am evan housel i am the owner of the subject property. I was originally contacted by patrick white, the neighbor of the appellant on march 16. And he politely reached out and introduced himself as a new neighbor and expressed some concerns about the permit issued for the subject we are all talking about tonight. So i met with everybody, the appellant included in the backyard and even marked out the parameters what have is proposed. It didnt go to plan. I didnt think i would be met with as much opposition as i have been. And i would love to see the 94 neighbors who are appealing or not appealing but have given support for the appellants decision. You know the Structural Engineer gave me an opportunity to build this thing a heck of a lot bigger than what we are doing. I didnt think that it fit with the scope of the home. Thats why i am not building as much as we could have. And i reached out to susan wong on the day they found out that she had filed an appeal. And to ask politely if there is a way to work out this like adults and find the resolution. She told me it wasnt a good time to talk, and i said is there a good time to talk, and said no and hung up on me. And thats the opposition i have met with. And let me back up when i met with the neighbors and curtail the scope four feet with the understanding that i did that as a Good Neighbor and no one appeal and drag this out and be here tonight. That didnt work and why we are here. I tried to reach a good resolution and be a Good Neighbor. But it wasnt a concession she was willing to work with. And as far as i know i dont know any other neighbors are here to appeal the decision. Meanwhile i am held up seven weeks for renovations on the first home i ever owned. I am not a tech millionaire but a hardworking guy and worked my butt off to live in the best city in the world. And i am paying rent on an apartment and paying a Structural Engineer on a permit that was issued after i reached hat and hand to be a Good Neighbor. Thats where i am at and i ask that you uphold the permit as issued. Since it was issued within the scope of what is allowed. Thats all i got. Thank you. I got a question when you met with the neighbors. Yes. How many neighbors at that meeting . Four. There was mr. Strongberg patrick white, neighbors two doors down that i only know as chung, and the neighbor directly to the west of me. So five in total. Four or five. Five. And was there any support at any time from any neighbors . Or all opposed . I would say yes. As evidenced by the email that i followed up with. I will paraphrase this, but i said that i would be willing to curtail the extent of the deck four feet off the plans, eight in the western half and the stairs three feet from there. This is two feet i was willing to concede, however in the hopes of being a Good Neighbor i will willing to do it, and i feel it will be far more aesthetically appeasing to the eye than what was here. And i plan to make the backyard a very nice space and hope others plan to do so. And patrick whites response same day, that evening, hello, evan thank you for meeting with us this morning, and for your careful considerations of our concerns. I appreciate your willingness to compromise on the deck and scale off four feet in the interest of being a Good Neighbor. I am satisfied with this plan and would not appeal if filed. And i left a message for susan, and to chung, describe the message, and may reach out to you separately. Which they never did. And spoke to 1800 geary though i understand their reluctance to show up and the owner of the property that got a permit to add an entire second deck. Sorry, thats the appellants home. Thats the gentleman who thinks its a fribulous claim and wasnt here to support either side. And the followup question was, so the plans that are presented here tonight, do they reflect that fourfoot modification . No, they dont. Okay, thank you. Mr. Sanchez. Thank you, Scott Sanchez planning permit the subject property is located in the r1 Zoning District the enclosed deck does not encroach in the rear yard and the deck is 10 feet above grade and does not require a fire wall, and no notice was required and the notice was that done is by dbi. We understand the concerns for block open space and privacy. In regards to midblock open space, this encroaches further than other buildings, but its a deck that we dont see having the same impact on midblock open space. And provides access to the main living level and access to the rear yard. And regards to privacy concerns we generally do not protect privacy of someone elses yard or outdoor space. Thats impossible to provide in the city we strive to protect privacy of interior spaces. We look at the settings and setbacks. The appellants property has their rear yard that is code complying and 25 feet until you get to the rear Property Line and that is adequate to protect privacy. Certainly it is a large deck and this comes before the board ever so often. We stated in the past we do not sign guidelines related to decks. We have the residential Design Guidelines that are intended to deal with building mass and how to address that. And i we dont have a specific guidelines for the deck and understand the concerns addressed. The appellant spoke of having to close windows and not having light in. I couldnt figure out looking at the drawing how that would occur. I didnt see permit drawings in the set. I didnt see that but i believe that the plans in there are the ones provided by the appellant. I dont see how or why the appellant would be required to close windows. Their property is not impacted in any way that would require closing windows. Thank you. I think the issue is that the appellants property is a key lot and this permit extends past her key lot. And this deck extends across her rear Property Line and she indicated that 72 of that rear Property Line. So people could be standing on the deck looking at the rear of her house. I see, thank you. Mr. Sanchez, i did have a question. Do the residential Design Guidelines deal with any situations where there is a perpendicular key lot . Generally what we find there is enough distance when you have these, and these are more challenging situations to deal with. When you have these situations typically there is enough space between the rear building wall and the appellants property and the permit holder property there is no additional measures to be taken, setbacks and notching. And in this case the deck is setback for potentially more impact. Thank you. Mr. Duffy. Commissioners, joe duffy, dbi. Just from the dbi point of view the Building Permit was form 8 on the original approval that came through on february 3 and through planning on the same day and went through central permit on the ninth of march. So it sat a while with the applicant, they didnt pick it up until march 9. It doesnt seem to have any Building Code issues that i can see. There is one concern i would have, but i dont have plans. When we see decks from the back of a house going back out into the yard. If there is [inaudible] space on the ground floor, and not sure if there is or not, it can block light to rooms. And quite possibly there is no space down there that is a bedroom or family room or Something Like that. I am sure that issue has been addressed. Apart from that, everything looked good to me. Thank you. Is there Public Comment on this item . Please step forward. Hello. My name is lindsey fifer, and i met julian in college in 2003. So i spent a lot of time with her and in her childhood family home. When i heard about this deck build out, basically the sheer size of it i wanted to help oppose the plans. Some people couldnt be here because of work or other obligations. So it is extremely out of place to put a deck this large in a neighborhood like that. A deck that large in the Outer Richmond its not needed. I dont understand what you would try to do on a deck that large when that cold and windy. I can only understand the down size and the downgrade it would be for the entire open lot space to have a deck that large. It is a blantant invasion. So if you are on the deck you can look into the bedrooms. Thats what they mean by closing curtains. Its a blatant invision of privacy and i had a neighborhood that built a security fence and directly affected how i lived in my own home. So with that said i hope that the permit holder who plans to build this largescaled deck would put all 18 of his immediate neighbors in consideration. Especially since its covering over 70 of one neighbors lotline space. Taking four feet away is over 50 , i dont believe that is a Good Neighbor to take 50 of somebodys lotline space to build your own deck. And based on this design its not considering the impact that the deck has on the entire neighborhood. More so because its a secondstory build out and its just massive. I think its in poor taste to move into a neighborhood and take away from the existing residents what they already have. I ask the permit holder to cut back the size of his deck to show respect to his neighbors. Thank you. Any other Public Comment . Seeing none then we will have our rebuttal starting with mrs. Wong. So i i just want to say that first time that pat told me about the size of that deck, thats when i realized how big it is. And thats when we met him on our own free will. He never sent any information to us. And was very upset at the meeting, along with his westside adjacent neighbor who is a widow and was going to appeal with me. But she is concerned and nervous, and wants to be a Good Neighbor and because shes by herself, her inlaw persuaded her not to do so. And i want to speak up for myself and its a total invasion of my privacy for a deck to extend that far out. And even if he cut four feet he says he is being a Good Neighbor. That is still 56 of my rear lot. And i will be lookinga he will be looking at my interior living space. I want to address his concern about supporters our supporters consist of direct neighbors and a personal community of friends and friends of friends who heard of this build out wanted to support our appeal. Its my opinion that these types of build outs that set president cedent of building is happening all over the city and because of that we had overwhelming support in our favor. And i want to say the two neighbor, the one on corner and pat, the two neighbor the house right now they look straight into the back of the house. My other the other adjacent neighbor alex he is right next to me. And hes a strong he supports me strongly. And except for those two neighbor everyone supports me in my appeals. And i could only say that its not so much because of the view but its the privacy and the thought that there is that deck right there and invasion of privacy. And he will be enjoying oh, my neighbor asked him, think yourself if you were in susans place, he said oh, it will be a nice deck. A nice deck for him to enjoy, and it will be at our expense, i think at the expense of both me and the east side neighbor and the west side neighbor. I feel that i have to speak up and here we are. I never would have thought i would be in this type of situation. But i think its for the right reason. I have a question. Mrs. Wong the permit holder has stated hes tried to make contact with you. Is that true . He called me after i submitted appeal. So he was saying and when we were at the meeting, in his yard. He was saying i am willing to cut back four feet and thats being a Good Neighbor. I had a right to go all the way and i didnt. This is just being a Good Neighbor. But four feet is still 14 feet out of my 25 foot lot that is still 56 . Is there a reason why you didnt want to have communication or dialogue with him . I was very upset and so was his westside neighbor chung, and both of us upset. And he expressed he would not reduce more than four feet. I said i have my right and i will have the full thing. Thank you very much. We can take rebuttal from the permit holder. Commissioners, sanchez, the Structural Engineer let me first address an issue brought up by joe duffy from the department of building inspection. He said that in some locations the deck will cast a shadow on the lower level. We have a garage on the lower level, so no impact at all. Privacy, privacy. Stated a number of times. This is san francisco. Urban living. We are not extending it to the full projection that we are entitled to. We are not going to the Property Line. Which would require a one[inaudible] wall. We are not creating a full habitable space. We are not doing that. This is a modest sized deck. Nine feet off the ground. Nothing else. Nothing more. Keep talking about its windy and cold. Well its better for them. What privacy, no one will be there then. Commissioners, this is a simple case. We are not asking for anything other than than what my client is entitled to. I will let him have a few words. Yeah i dont know change happens and i can understand her concern. But i know who i am and know all the neighbors i have had in the past and look forward to the neighbors i will have in the future. And i there will be a deck there, there it will be something to look at. But i dont think it will block her view. Complains about impeding the light are farfetched and excessive. If you notice if you will notice the orientation of the house, you will see that so you are looking just east of south. Right there. The back of my home faces pretty much due north. So the sun sets in a fashion sorry, rises in a fashion like this. There is literally no effect on the Natural Light. And as far as the enjoyment of it, i personally think it would be great everyone would have a deck and we could pass off a cup of sugar to each other. And i guess thats not the environment i am moving into with my neighbors. I ask that it be
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