Dear GPA Blog Readers,
We are working toward a weekly post that includes neighborhood-specific hearing information at city agencies. Right now we are looking at the agendas for the Planning Dept, the SFMTA Board of Directors, and the SFMTA Engineering Dept, which considers parking, stop signs, red zones, and that sort of thing.
Please comment on this post or contact us at editor (at) glenparkassociation (dot) org if you can think of other agency agendas we should try to include.
For our inaugural post, we have:
SFMTA Engineering hearing on May 5, 10 a.m., City Hall, Room 416 (See full agenda here).
- SPEED HUMP Natick Street, between Wilder Street and Chenery Street (1 speed hump)*
Items denoted with an asterisk (*) can be approved by the City Traffic Engineer after the public hearing and such approval constitutes the CEQA Approval Action under S.F. Administrative Code Section 31.04(h). Otherwise, the SFMTA Board will make the final approval at a later date based on the outcome at the public hearing.
SFMTA Board of Directors meeting on May 2, 1 p.m., City Hall, Room 400 (see full agenda here).
[Editor’s Note: you’ll have to check back for the actual agenda because it was not live when I published this blog post. But in the supporting documents I saw the director’s report, which had this information about changes to permitting requirements for remodeling.]
- UPCOMING EVENTS: Residential Expansion Threshold Community Conversation In 2005, the Planning Department began to look at project applications that weren’t proposing to demolish entire residential properties, but were proposing to remove a significant portion of the building. As they were not classified as “demolitions” as defined by the Department of Building Inspection (DBI), these projects were not subject to Planning Commission review.
To address this, legislation was finalized in 2007 to create regulations on demolitions of existing housing and what is currently known as Tantamount to Demolition.* As a result, any project application that is considered Tantamount to Demolition is reviewed no differently than a formal demolition project and will typically receive additional scrutiny from the Planning Commission.
However, we have found that the current controls have led to project sponsors designing just short of the threshold, resulting in inferior design and/or significantly expanded projects.
In keeping with the ongoing effort of changing practices to better meet the needs of the City, the Department is proposing to remove the Tantamount to Demolition calculations from the Planning Code and replace them with a Residential Expansion Threshold, or a standard that would limit the size of the finished project to be more consistent with neighborhood character.
The Department previously considered requiring Planning Commission review for projects that result in a unit that is more than 3,000 GSF. After receiving feedback at community meetings and presentations to the Planning Commission on the proposed standards, the Department decided to re-evaluate its approach. We’re now considering thresholds for RH-1(D), RH-1, RH-2, and RH-3 Zoning Districts that would determine when a project can proceed as-of-right or when a project requires approval by the Planning Commission.
We will be hosting a community conversation to discuss the revised proposal before an informational presentation at Planning Commission on June 1, 2017. Please note that no decisions will be made at this time.
Date: Monday, May 8, 2017
Time: 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Location: San Francisco Planning, 1650 Mission Street
Accessibility: San Francisco Planning is ADA accessible. For other disability accommodations or language interpretation services at the community event, please contact Candace SooHoo at candace.soohoo@sfgov.org at least 72 hours in advance of the event.
RSVP by visiting https://www.eventbrite.com/e/residential-expansion-threshold-community-conversation-tickets-33827926238