so i hope this actually works. it's on my iphone. we have four children. our oldest son is right now attending city college and taking courses from there. we have two daughters going to city public elementary school. and we have a little boy who is 4 years old going to preschool and if we stay in the city, he will be going to the same school as our daughters. so we have been renting in the city for ten years. last year, around this time of year we bought 27-29 sutro with the hope that we can build a home for ourselves and to raise a family in the city. as property owners we understand the requirement when we purchased the two units that we have to maintain the number of units and cannot combine them and cannot reduce footage.

so we worked with the architects to meet the city requirements. we are the new family on the block and don't want to be in conflict with our neighbors and we're putting in tremendous time and effort and money to address neighbors' requests to the point that nothing we can do to make the project viable. if you can see the plans is not to build a luxury home, to indulge ourselves, but simply to be the family of two parents and four children, so we can grow as a family and raise our children in the family and maybe we can finally give our children the dog they wanted for so many years because as a renter, you cannot even have a pet. this has been an emotionally and financially draining process for us. i just hope and i trust the

commissioners can judge our case by the facts, and assure us when we followed the requirements, followed the rules, followed the process, did everything that we could, that there is an end to this and there is a justice to the end. and the process is not being abused. thank you is all for me. thank you. i really appreciate you staying so late and taking this case. we have been waiting this for days. >> thank you. any other speakers in favor of the project sponsor? okay, dr requester you have a two-minute rebuttal. >> thank you. i think what we need to look at here are the decks. and the staircase. the staircase that walks right up and looks into the ramblin's back patio.

the decks that have nothing to do with living space. and nothing to do with whether or not the proponent will have space for their family. they want to put decks with glass railings. what they want -- what they are doing is early creating a nice little spa-like environment that allows them to peer into the privacy of their windows. they look into bathroom windows and bedroom windows and have a facade around the top of the building that is not necessary and shades an area that now has saxon saxon solar panels. assume threat of of the -- assume that the rest of the neighbors want do the same thing, what happens to that mid-block space? it goes away.

if everybody starts doing this and suddenly as i say the open space goes away, if everyone decides that they need to have decks on their back, with glass railings, then there is going to be no privacy for anyone whatsoever. thank you >> thank you. project sponsor you have a 2-minute rebuttal. >> >> thank you. president fong and commissioners, i will be very brief. objective third party planning department has looked into this and they don't see anyway extraordinary privacy issues. they spent their time looking at the drawings and they did

not see those privacy issues that the dr requester is mentioning. with regarding to the solar panels, they weren't there -- they added them after we proposed the project. and didn't take into consideration the project regardless at our own expense, at the request of the dr requester, we did a solar study. the reason why you are not hearing mention of the solar study because it clearly shows that it doesn't shade their panels, regardless of the fact that they used them as leverage against us to say we don't want this. and finally with regards to the stairs looking in, it would be remarkable to be able to look into a slanted bay window with

the stairs. these are issues being brought up now. there was six months of silence from the dr requester where we continually asked them to talk to us and they didn't. thank you. >> thank you. >> okay. the public hearing is closed. and opening up to commissioners, with comments and questions, commissioner sugaya? >> just on the privacy issue, i don't think people stand around on decks to look into bedroom windows. i'm sorry. i live in a condo, across the street from me, there are bedroom windows. you know, i don't think people in my condo building stand there and try to look in other people's windows. i suppose if you are having coffee or having a drink or something, you know, you might glance around and there is that

kind of thing, but i don't think that most people on these kinds of decks. this is a family. it's like -- it's just not going to happen. i don't consider that to be an extraordinary circumstance. >> commissioner antonini? >> i would agree with commissioner sugaya. i know in "rear window," there this was a lot of that activity in that building being a hitchcock movie. this is different, because the people on the decks would have to turn, instead of looking at the garden and green space, actually look back to their east and to the east windows and again, we're in a city that people are always going to have windows. i don't see any other impacts. the dr request's home is the

one that goes furthest into the open space as far as this project is concerned. so i don't see anything unusual or extraordinary in this project. >> commissioner moore? >> move to approve. >> second. >> i'm sorry, the proper wording is not take dr and approve >> commissioners on that motion to not take dr and approve the project as proposed. (roll call ) so moved commissioners. that motion passes unanimously, 7-0. and puts you on your final item on your calendar, public comment -- have i have no speaker cards. >> is there any general public comment? if not, it's been a good year. >> thank you. >> it's been very productive. thank you everyone. and we'll see you next year.

>> thank you. meeting adjourned. [ gavel ]

>> good afternoon. i'm the chief building inspector with the department building

inspection. welcome to our brown bag lunch series. this is the regular third thursday of every month event. we are finishing up with a talk about the outside lambs, an area that was previously considered uninhabitable. uninhabitable due to fog. [inaudible] but we have with us a couple of real experts in outside plans. -- i am outside -- in outside lands. woody has devoted a lot of his time and effort to the outside lands. >> we are a nonprofit in our 10th year, and we are dedicated to preserving and sharing the history of san francisco.

>> it is great to have you here. and pat, who has a lot of knowledge and brought to be sure today a lot of [inaudible] , and she can share with that -- she can share that with us as well, and we only regret that harvey the wonder dog could not be here. we talked about [inaudible] what area, generally, are we talking about? >> the term came from what was called the pueblo land when the san francisco peninsula was switched over from mexican ownership to american ownership. certain tracts were preserved, so there was a more orderly, even though it took decades, transfer of ownership of those lands, but there were also what were called pueblo lands, which were sort of a poem by the town, and then, there was a whole lot of discussion about what should

happen to those -- which were sort of zero and -- sort of owned by the town. >> so was san francisco's bordered upon at the time, or did that happen later? >> san mateo county did not exist when they originally chartered it. i think there were 16 counties, and a few years later, they said they were too large, so they doubled back and created san mateo county. >> this is an early map of an area that might have been known as san francisco, but it did not have a defined southern boundary yet. >> the city i believe was up larkin street, and everything west was counties. i think larkin was here.

that is the original charter. then in 1850, van ness, who was the supervisor, did the addition. it was called the western addition, even though it was in the middle of the city, because it was west of larkin. >> i did not understand that when i was a child. it always seemed that it was east of where everything i knew was. >> all this down here was county of san francisco, so there was a point in time where you could be in the county of san francisco, but not in the city you live in these outside lands. >> lead problem is if you look at the orientation, no. is up. we are going to turn it the way we are normally accustomed to seeing it. here is where the golden gate

bridge is. here is where the bay bridge is. the county went all the way down here, and about a year later, they moved the county to write about here, so this was county land or outside land, and this was the city. this was 1861, so the city has grown by this much. these were added, and they are basically pasture lands. that is where petrero street is. >> and out here, the rancho -- what is a rancho? >> it is a mexican land grant that we agreed to respect when we still california from the mexicans. we agreed to respect the land grants that existed, and there was a commission set up.

regretfully, none of the land grants were legally bested, so most of them were taken away from the mexicans. the other portion were pureblo lands, which would be considered entitled to four square leaks -- leagues. so 30 square miles with the possession of the pueblo of san francisco for public use, and that is how we got golden gate. when they acquired it as publicly, part of the treaty said you had to all mexican law, which set a certain amount of outside plants must be used for schools, playgrounds, open space. the original chaldea san francisco -- the original county of san francisco came from san mateo county. they decided it was too large a county, said the card off

another county. at the time, the largest population in the state was in san francisco. l.a. barely made a presidio. they had, like, 50 or 60 people. 90% of the population was in san francisco, and everyone down the peninsula is saying if they are in the county, san francisco has this huge population, we are going to have to go along with them, so they can't get off -- they carved it off. >> it looks like it is the richmond district, but a kind of shows what was on the west side town. a great deal of it was sam, and for that reason, people thought that the weather and the san -- it was really not a place that people wanted to live, and it was going to be very typical for san francisco -- very difficult for san francisco to expand west. >> if you look at the early

maps, it was 3 miles wide by about 6 miles long, this huge sand dunes that just moved around. >> here is an 1875 map of the laguna. says along the side of the map, high sand hills between the pacific ocean and the like. by the way, this had actually opened directly into the ocean. >> lake merced had a high water level. since we paid over much of the city, the water levels have dropped, but at one time, the late actually trade out into the ocean approximately where the dog diner is that now. somewhere in the 1870's, they saw the damage at the water in the late so it did not exit out

uncontrolled, and for 10 years, people were drinking lake merced water as drinking water. it is much bigger, too. if you go to san francisco state, the practice will appeal this part of the lake. i do daily city, that was part of the lake. it was huge. >> the southern area [inaudible] but there is a different area. >> there was a creek that came down basically through west portal and said that particular lake. >> that was filled in when they develop west portal, and they had the brilliant idea when they dug but,, they needed a place to put it, so they build the creek in with the tunnel muck. >> you can see in 1910, we are talking about after the earthquake, but outer richmond

is still pretty sparsely settled. >> or anyone who ever wondered what richmond is named after, it was a guy by the name of marsh, who was from richmond, england. >> australia? >> australia? >> george turner marsh. >> no trees at all. people see trees in the city and think they may have been made. sand and scrub. at some point, these are the lives were used recreational -- these outer lands were used recreational lly. . >> there is. we hoave -- what, the third? >> depends on it you are coming

the addition. but they all burned down. that was around 1900, so if you are ever stuck in traffic in the six-lane boulevard in 19th avenue, imagine what it was like back then. >> [inaudible] i would say this is after they began to develop some homesteading entries. >> it was a large chicken ranch out there. lawson chicken ranch was along 19th ave. >> [inaudible] >> not exactly. he donated the land later to the city, though. sort of the farm house feeling of the richmond. >> there is a water tower with a windmill in the back. >> right, get your water from wells. that was the early boathouses. looking at that map, sporting men would come out in the horses, have little races with their horses and carriages and the sea horse races, maybe get

in a card game, have a drink of the way to the beach. >> but this was when there was county land, so there was no gambling. the move people out to county for the race track. >> they were away from intense public scrutiny out there. >> my of the state is there were four racetracks in the city. -- my understanding. can you name them? >> pioneer, union, in the side, and oceanside. >> there ago. maybe there are more. >> we have a big article on race tracks on our website. outsidelands.org. >> the ingleside, you can still see that. >> they developed where that race track was, just south of

ocean avenue, they kept the oval of the race track and created urbano drive. >> i think we have some progress of that. >> that is the inner sunset. that is where >> lawrence lives > i do. >> you can see the inner sandbank. it is a big old sand hill. they had to do a lot of grading. >> in the building department, when we go out and look to people to building development, as soon as they squared away the top 6 inches or whatever is there, it is all sand. forever. in my yard, and there is nothing you can do about it. it is what there is. it was generally developed in response to the 1890's for mid- winter there, which was held in golden gate park. would the first buildings that