-- things that are assessable and that are not asssessable. there will be addressed for tax purposes. for every edition or every major permit, most permits we send to the assessor reporter's office. they have a staff who looks at building permits. they do not use the value that is on the building permit. that is our the dow elation purposes for charging fees. they have a whole mechanism for praising and assessing valuation. a horizontal addition and a vertical addition certainly will result in additional assessment. by the way,? are interesting because the rules change. if you are on the ground and it is a patio, it has different rules. if you lay a flagstone patio,

you're not getting a permit for a deck. but if you build -- let us say you build a deck that is less than 30 inches off the ground. no permit is required. it does not go to the assessor reporter's office. between 30 and 36 inches off the ground, you need a permit. you can expand the entire size of your rear yard. if you are more than 36 inches off the ground, you have to meet the planning department open space requirements and encroachment requirements. there is a whole range. another thing would be converting an unfinished basement or adding living area, which is happening very often. people are taking the back of their grosz and turning it into their room, or an attic. that is happening in lot. you have to be assessed for

that. i think that is a very green thing to do because you do not have to add building. do you have anything to say about general improvement? >> it is a big additional we are talking about attic space. when you are retrofitting for earthquakes two stories up in an edwardian, the expense involved, i think, would be hard to justify in most neighborhoods. >> it is hard to get enough windows with dormers, etc. >> how about converting the attic into storage? >> you said you recently did that, alice. >> that is fairly simple. i would get a permit. and you are allowed a certain amount of space. you have to have ventilation. i do not remember all the rules.

>> will the property tax increase? >> i do not think so. >> to convert an existing empty attic into a storage attic? that does not sound like you are converting it into the living area. the a sensible addition would be converting it into a living area. >> it is usually by a letter that pulls down. a staircase would have to be deliverable area with a valid staircase. >> thank you. >> adding a bathroom, adding a ron shipp is a sensible. we see a lot of people putting elevators as our population, including us, ages. >> or houses are getting more vertical. >> that is right. no permit is required for a tool shed that is less than 100

square feet of area looking down, bird's eye view. less than 100 square feet, no permit is required. without a permit, there is no trigger for an assessment. >> you could go up two stories? >> no, actually. the planning department has a height limit of i think 10 feet in the required the rear yard area. eight or 10 feet. [laughter] keep your hot tub in your toolshed. >> in this market, if you bought your house recently and you are thinking about doing one of these that you think is going to make your assessment go up, you can always apply and have your assessed value go down. >> we have some information here about that. we will get to that in a second.

having a swimming pool or a sauna will change the assessed value of your property. i would get approval. it is the least improvement value that gets passed on. >> it is so extraordinarily expensive. >> increasing the square footage of your home and to assess the value. demolition of an existing structure in order to construct a new building -- i am not sure how that plays out. do they reassess it when you demolish it? i do not know, but it is on their list. new additions that are non- assessible. if you put new solar energy systems until january 1, 2010, like solar hot water heating, that does not trigger additional taxes.

bathroom renovations, which include structural changes or plumbing changes, kitchen structural changes and upgrades of the system, taking the entire house or a portion of the house down to the studs, or a change in use from one to another -- residential to commercial or whatever -- they will consider the new assessed bellevue. repair, replacement of fixtures with similar quality is not assessible. plumbing to copper is not. replacement of circuit breakers. dry rot or termite repair is a non-assessible maintenance. replacing windows, doors,

roofing, and ventilating and air-conditioning repairs. >> i could have a kitchen remodel. a home owner may get their permits and have their permits signed off and eventually the department of building inspection notifies the assessor's office that the homeowner did a kitchen remodel and they have a formula. the up their property tax a little bit. the home owner, depending on the type of remote -- i do not know where in the process i just described it is described clearly to the tax assessor the similar quality material issue brought up. for example, if somebody took out a kitchen from the 1950's, which might be pretty good materials, and your place something with cabinets you bought today off the rack somewhere, it is it a similar

quality? should the kitchen remodel be reassessed? you might get that tax bill, but if i were you would consider what that meant. i do not know. >> next year we should have the tax assessor reporter's office here to answer those questions. >> that is a tricky thing. i read the fine print and it says similar quality materials, so i do not know exactly what that means. >> along the same lines, the next section are repair and maintenance base say are assessible, but under state law you can file a claim exempting this. >> i did not know this. >> these are possible exemptions. i had not heard this either. disability improvements -- they will assess it unless you file. disability improvements, seismic

retrofitting of an existing building has an assessment exclusion. fire escapes and so on. this is very interesting. i think we do need to get someone from the assessor's office one of these days. >> it is unfortunate you are going to be assessed or punished for putting in new york electrical and plumbing in some instances. >> i think replacing it you are not, but if you of credit. it is an improvement, and i guess that is how they do it. the next few pages are general information of the assessor recorder's office, including the appeal someone mentioned, the appeals process where you can dispute evaluation assessment. there are other contact numbers,

so i encourage you to call them and ask questions. anything you would like to add? >> i appreciate being on the panel here and on your program. i think it is important to look at goals carefully. i think that is important to help round out your vision process. >> i am going to keep the green thing in mind. >> thank you for coming. see you next month for "building

>> from our new headquarters building.

the sfpuc is used to doing things. we build and maintain dams, treatment plants, transmission lines, water and sewer mains. at the same time, our staff has always been in rented headquarters. we thought it was time to own that, too. this is the time and place, 525 golden gate. this is a milestone in the project for building. in about 30 years, we will have paid off the building, and then it will be free to our ratepayers. it makes sense for them and also makes sense for green purposes. this will be one of the most sustainable buildings anywhere around. it is going to generate power and also used 55% less power than and regular building. ed will send off more non-

potable water for more uses in the area. it will be a wonderful thing to live around and be involved in. we are celebrating this topping off. we have done some research. topping off ceremonies started back in roman times. people would have a ceremony when they finished building the roof of a house. as they finished, it was traditional to put an evergreen tree on the final game, signaling the finish of the infrastructure and construction. that is what we're doing today. you will notice of a lot of signatures on a banner that was attached to them being, because we have a lot of excited employees who could not be here today. hopefully, all of you have a chance to sign that beam and see that evergreen tree that symbolizes the sustainability of our building and the good

fortune of having completed the building. the first person i want to introduce is a person who has been involved in this building probably longer than any of us. at one time, this was not even going to be a pc building. dpw was going to do a lot of things for the city. back then, as director of dpw, mr. lee was responsible for doing that. now as mayor, he gets to sign the top off. [applause] >> thank you and good morning to this topping off. when ever you get three eds and an andy to gather you are going to have fun. i want to thank the pc for its leadership. they are leading the way in this building and in so many other things. -- the puc for its leadership.

they have a tremendous amount of jobs on the street right now keeping the city alive, moving forward with labor unions. i want to thank webcor, dpw, department of the environment, working together under the puc commission to make this building come together. i just signed my name on that last iron been going up. i wanted to make sure that i was recognized at this moment because it was one of the few times that a former public works director can actually have permission to do graffiti. but it is for a good cause. i know it represents so much of a great energy that has been poured in. it is lede platinum. that is a standard for the future. it is one of the few buildings we will see in our immediate lifetime -- but to get it

started on this -- and to have it contribute to a sustainable area called the civic center, to have this corner of our civic center be an example and model, i want to congratulate everyone who has been associated with making this happen. i know public works people have been working closely with staff at the puc, department of environment making sure that everything from energy use to the water is at a high standard. it is my pleasure to be here. we are so enthusiastic about this being the new standard and also a great building that our employees will be proud to work in. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, mayor lee. our puc commissioners are the

ones that actually make the decision about this building. all of them are here with us. the president of the department. [applause] >> thank you. it is an honor to be here for this topping ceremony. i want to thank my fellow commissioners who are here and also it knowledge a former commissioner, f.x. crowley, who was formally on the commission, who has helped. this will be one of the greatest municipal buildings in the country, if not the greatest. i have to refer to my notes because some of these stats are pretty incredible. this building will design 55% less energy than most office buildings anywhere. that is one-third less energy than most buildings consume. over the next seven to five

years, it will save an estimated $180 million in energy costs. that is a lot of money that will be saved by our ratepayers. we also talked about the reclaimed water. all of the sewage will be treated on site, as well as the gray water. that means all of the demand for the low flow toilets and your girls -- urinals will be met, and over 700,000 gallons of water will be saved annually. it will also save an additional 900,000 gallons that we are using at the sustainability district. it is a significant water savings that we need to pursue throughout the city. i also want to thank the mayor for his leadership on this. beginning in his early dpw days. dpw, p u c, department of environment staff, everyone who has worked so hard on this -- i remember, it must have been 12

years now when we were first identifying different pilot projects through the city that could be brain model the. this was one of the building that they identified. -- green modeled. it is so rewarding to see this be realized as one of the greatest buildings in the country. thank you for coming and we look forward to moving in next year. -- greenest buildings in the country. >> other members of the commission, andy moran, art kane is here, various members of the puc, the general manager for water, power, waste water, business services, and juliet ellis, external affairs. one of our stars is shelly

campbell, our product manager. thank you. [applause] we're also joined by the department of the environment had. -- hea. d. we are going to wait for the fire trucks to go by. this started with the dpw project and we are a client now representing the dpw is ed riskin. >> thank you. as the general manager and commission president referred to, dpw has been with this project for over a decade it has really become a labor of love for the department. it is an extraordinarily complex building project, unlike our typical library or fire station that we work on. and it is not because of the

exceedingly high environmental performance, but exceedingly high seismic performance, business continuity performance. this will be one of the most advanced office buildings in the country. it is really a great partnership that we have working with the puc to make this happen, but also with our private sector partners, kmd stevens, webcor and their construction team. it has been a collaborative effort. we are proud of the fact that we are not only getting this great building built that will serve the city for generations to come, but in doing it, we are putting a lot of local businesses and residents to work in the process. it is really a win win. i want to commend the general manager and commission for their bitter ship and foresight in seeing after this project had been stalled for many years,

seeing this was a great investment for the repairs and people of san francisco. it was the smart thing to do. we are righproud to be part of . i want to thank the work of the rest of the pc team to get this done. starting with a man who is living and breathing this, has been for years, our project manager brooke. [applause] he is working closely with edgar lopez, who manages all of our major projects, but was here pretty much from day one. they are being supported by our city engineers and the rest of the department coming together to deliver a great project to the ratepayers of san francisco.

we're so happy to be a part of this. congratulations to the puc on getting to this point, the topping off ceremony. [applause] >> as the owners, we are certainly willing to move in, but we are not building the building. representing the builders is andy of webcor. [applause] >> it is great to be here. most people do not realize this building almost did not happen. i was at a green building conference and i ran into mayor gavin newsom. he said, we are not going to build that building. we cannot afford to. i said, mayor, you cannot afford not to. this building will be an example of what all cities should build. with the energy savings that were mentioned, this building will be like no others. when the city starts to operate, they will say, why did we not do this before?

it is a wonderful thing for the environment, the city, a wonderful thing for us being chosen as a builder. i am wearing a hard hat because i am a contractor, that is what we do. i want to thank my team. they are doing a wonderful job. [applause] recognize that this is not an easy building. it is a innovative and complex structure. the first time it has been done here. there is a very sophisticated mechanical system. we have some great consultants here. it is always a pleasure to work with a team at the department of public works. you are wonderful to be with. edgar, we have done this before. brooke, you as well.

ed harrington, when he came into this position, he said this building would be too much. we brought it down to $140 million, kept it as lede platinum. everyone on this team is absolutely first class. it is a pleasure partner with the city. we are in good hands with mayor lee. he recognizes the importance of this kind of structure and it is always great to work with the city of san francisco and the mayor's office. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. just in time, the son has come out. mayor lee will lead us in having the crane operator bring a the beam up. >> everybody, on three, we are

going to have frankie bring it up. we are going to say frankie, bring it up! >> frankie, bring it up! [applause]

>> about four years ago, [inaudible] look at how beautiful this was. there is our relationship to the

planet. these regions are the wealthiest, the most powerful. that really has impacted the planet. it is almost impossible now to go anywhere and had it really be completely dark. there are very few locations that you can find. that means our relationship to the sky, there is a way where we dominate the sky. we cannot see anything really. we are blinding ourselves in a way. >> you can look at the images, they are beautiful.

when i started four years ago, there was a conversation about environmental issues that was very different. this is not being talked about in the way it is now. . this has just been like an amazing growth. i anticipate the project to be something that opens a dialogue to public interest in these ideas. so the work is really made to be seen in this environment. it's been show in museum, in gallery, but never in a public setting. and it's kind of ideal for both