WEBVTT 1 00:00:07.190 --> 00:00:20.710 On this week's episode: the Planning Commission approves a seven-story, thirteen-home building on Shipley Street in South of Market after neighbors raised safety concerns. And it takes a first step toward more housing on Treasure Island. 2 00:00:24.054 --> 00:00:29.894 Eleven supervisors, forty-seven square miles. Here's your weekly debrief. 3 00:00:30.574 --> 00:00:40.814 Just one meeting this week: the Planning Commission, Thursday at City Hall. A good part of it took us out into the bay, to Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island. 4 00:00:40.814 --> 00:00:44.409 Yerba Buena. That's a name with some history here, right? 5 00:00:44.409 --> 00:00:53.289 It is. Until 1847 this town was called Yerba Buena, which is Spanish for good herb. That was the year it was renamed San Francisco. 6 00:00:53.289 --> 00:00:57.129 And on Thursday the old name was back on the commission's agenda. 7 00:00:57.129 --> 00:01:04.314 It was. If you follow this commission, one more thing: it might not meet again for a couple of weeks. More on that later in the show. 8 00:01:04.314 --> 00:01:10.294 This episode was produced with AI from the public recording of the meeting. Links to the source are in the show notes. 9 00:01:13.637 --> 00:01:22.437 Our top story this week: a new building on a narrow South of Market street, and the neighbors who asked the Planning Commission to step in. 10 00:01:22.437 --> 00:01:24.437 Step in how, exactly? 11 00:01:24.437 --> 00:01:38.532 Through what's called discretionary review. Normally city staff approve a project like this on their own. Discretionary review means the commission takes it up instead. A member of the public can ask for that, and the commission can require changes. 12 00:01:38.532 --> 00:01:40.227 So what's the project? 13 00:01:40.227 --> 00:02:09.787 It's at 173 Shipley Street. City staff described it as a seventy-five-foot, seven-story building with thirteen homes, on a vacant lot, under the state density bonus program. Six one-bedrooms, five two-bedrooms and two three-bedrooms, with up to seven parking spaces. Staff recommended against discretionary review. They said the project meets the code, and that structural, soil and fire questions are for the Department of Building Inspection when it reviews the building permit. 14 00:02:09.787 --> 00:02:11.867 Were the neighbors trying to stop it? 15 00:02:11.867 --> 00:02:42.877 No. The people who asked for the review wanted conditions put on it. One resident pointed to a soil report on the site, which puts the site in a liquefaction zone over compressible bay mud, and asked for binding conditions on the foundation work and on monitoring. The same resident also raised fire access during construction. Shipley is only thirty-five feet wide, and it's the only street the site faces. That resident also noted that a warehouse that once stood on the lot had a three-alarm fire in 2020. 16 00:02:42.877 --> 00:02:45.102 What about the homes right next door? 17 00:02:45.102 --> 00:03:16.222 Those are townhomes on Jennifer Place, and some of their windows sit right on the property line the new building will go up against. One of the requesters said his home has six of those windows, including bedroom windows, and asked that the developer be responsible for closing them safely. The resident who raised the soil concerns also asked for light-colored finishes that don't cause glare. In public comment, a neighbor asked for a shadow study. Since the hearing packet went out, staff said, twenty-three letters had come in against the project and two for it. 18 00:03:16.222 --> 00:03:17.822 And the developer's side? 19 00:03:17.822 --> 00:03:46.102 The project's architect said digging for the parking had been dropped from the project, and that the team had met with the fire department about access for emergency vehicles. The sponsor's attorney said the sponsor had committed early to pay for filling in the neighbors' property-line windows, more than the law requires. And she argued that state housing laws bar the city from redesigning or conditioning the project in ways that would reduce its density, without findings she said don't apply here. 20 00:03:46.102 --> 00:03:48.182 What did the commissioners want to know? 21 00:03:48.182 --> 00:04:14.592 One commissioner asked whether the windows would cause glare. The architect said the building would use standard low-E glass, that no glare study had been done, and that he'd be willing to look at products that cut glare. Another commissioner was concerned that the neighbors have lived in their homes for years and now face these changes. City staff said the Planning Code doesn't protect windows on a property line, and that owners who build them sign an affidavit acknowledging they could be filled in. 22 00:04:14.592 --> 00:04:16.272 So how did it end? 23 00:04:16.272 --> 00:05:01.317 Commissioner Mike Chen argued that the fire and safety concerns belong to building inspection, not to the commission. Chen noted that the project's affordable unit is set at fifty percent of area median income, roughly sixty-five thousand dollars for a two-person household, which is the trade-off for the density bonus. Chen also recalled that in 2018, when the commission tried to redesign a density bonus project, the state sent San Francisco a warning letter. Another commissioner agreed, saying many of the concerns were about how it gets built. The commission voted seven to nothing not to take discretionary review, and approved the project as proposed. Staff said the structural, soil and fire review happens when the permit goes to building inspection. 24 00:05:04.661 --> 00:05:12.021 Our second story heads out into the bay, where the city wants to make room for more homes on Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island. 25 00:05:12.021 --> 00:05:13.861 Remind me what's planned out there. 26 00:05:13.861 --> 00:05:37.421 City staff said the 2011 approvals allowed eight thousand homes. About a thousand have been built so far. That includes two hundred forty-three affordable units and another fifty-four inclusionary units, along with about a billion dollars of infrastructure. Staff said that changing some of the development standards could make room for about twenty-eight hundred more homes, within the height limits that are already in place. 27 00:05:37.421 --> 00:05:40.461 So, more homes without taller buildings. 28 00:05:40.461 --> 00:05:49.346 Right. The package would also update parking standards on Yerba Buena Island, rules on bulk and massing, and rules on setbacks and street walls. 29 00:05:49.346 --> 00:05:51.906 What did the commission actually do on Thursday? 30 00:05:51.906 --> 00:06:18.286 A narrow first step. It voted to start, not adopt, changes to the islands' area plan in the city's General Plan. The changes would take out two detailed maps, one of setbacks and one showing an example street wall calculation, and keep those details in the islands' design rules instead. One commissioner called the request straightforward and said it should move ahead, since it will come back for comment. It passed seven to nothing. 31 00:06:18.286 --> 00:06:20.046 When does it come back? 32 00:06:20.046 --> 00:06:43.186 The hearing to adopt it can be scheduled on or after November nineteenth, along with changes to the design rules and the islands' special use district. Before that, staff plan an addendum to the environmental impact report, an ordinance at the Board of Supervisors, and changes to the disposition and development agreement at the Treasure Island Development Authority board. The Board of Supervisors gets the final say. 33 00:06:43.186 --> 00:06:50.181 And the Board has had Treasure Island in front of it lately. At its last two meetings, it passed Treasure Island financing measures. 34 00:06:53.765 --> 00:06:58.165 Now for some shorter items from Thursday's hearing. 35 00:06:58.165 --> 00:07:34.385 Bay FC, the Bay Area's National Women's Soccer League team, is building a practice facility on Treasure Island. It was approved last December, and the team said it's scheduled to be finished in January. On Thursday the commission approved signs that go beyond the islands' rules: a bigger identifying sign, a wall sign with team and sponsor logos, thirteen signs on the fence, and a freestanding sculpture sign. Staff said no letters came in on either side. One public commenter, from a Treasure Island nonprofit, spoke in support, and a commissioner suggested adding public art to the sculpture sign, ideally by local artists. It passed seven to nothing. 36 00:07:34.385 --> 00:07:57.655 The commission also heard a presentation on a plan to replace a single-family home on 25th Street near Rhode Island Street with three homes, each about twelve to fourteen hundred square feet. As Commissioner Mike Chen noted, the commission has no authority over the project. It was presented only because a state law, S B four twenty-three, requires it. The sponsor said a formal application would follow. 37 00:07:57.655 --> 00:08:21.195 A commissioner asked staff for an update at the next hearing on single-stair building reform, citing press coverage and a code advisory committee meeting the day before. That next hearing could be a while off. The clerk said nothing is on the calendar for October twenty-second, so that hearing will likely be canceled. October twenty-ninth is already a scheduled cancellation, because it's a fifth Thursday. 38 00:08:21.195 --> 00:08:40.405 And two cases were postponed, both seven to nothing. The first is a request to remove an unauthorized ground-floor unit at 85 Liberty Street, which moves to November twelfth. The second is a discretionary review over a third-floor addition at 3837 18th Street, which moves to November fifth. 39 00:08:43.988 --> 00:08:51.028 If you hear something we got wrong, there's a link on this episode's page to report it, and we read corrections on air. 40 00:08:51.028 --> 00:08:54.708 That's the news from City Hall. See you after the next meeting.