several months after i said as pointed have an edition. months later, they tried to block my plan by saying that they had solar trains. they claimed that my addition would impede their ability to ever put solar panels on their home. within a few months, they put more panels on the house. i asked them if they were aware of the approved plan. zine around this and put to the others in the house. when they talk to you about the equitable issues, this was about what happens when a neighbor has

a solar panel already on their home or what happens when the timing is different? what would you do? what are the equitable considerations. this had nothing to do with access to sunlight and those comments are taken out of context. in this case, we have the east- facing facades. you know what incredible sunlight you get. all morning, this is directly in the winter side. this time of year, this is casting shadows during the day to my house and not the other way around. this goes all the way to go west and sets. my house will not affect the light she is getting. for some parts of the year, it might move towards oakland

rather than san leandro but this will go right over our homes, this will not have a significant impact on the light that she received and we are grateful for it. as for the question about the shade steady, there has been some misinterpretation about some conversations that were had. instead of telling an extensive and unnecessary chatter a steady, the story did not reveal any problems with the shading for the very reasons that i described. this is facing directly east and west and this does not create a problem. miss von has said some things about the addition of fact in the neighborhood character and i will tell you that my home is the shortest home and what my addition would do would be 5

feet taller than her home. you can see that where i stand is actually smaller than the difference in my home. this was also set back 15 feet from the front and quite a bit more from the back. this will not be a monster home, this is quite a modest addition. there has been alternate plans submitted. i would respectfully request that you reject that. she is asking the board to come up with a new set of regulations to govern our home and the city. if my plan can be blocked than any business owner does not have a prayer of doing anything with their property and that is not the way the public policy works in this town. >> there was mention made of a

project in 2004 in your letter, could you talk about that for a second? >> with great sadness, yes. i bought his home in 2000. i believe there were a key homeowners that had the home. they did virtually nothing to the home. i had several outlets that were extra wide. you could run a hair dryer and a microwave. you needed a new roof, new plumbing. it took me years to save the money to come in into a renovation. part of that plan was to also do a deck at the same time so i'd planned to do a deck. i would say that we had a quite nice relationship. i invited her frequently for get together is and this was a good relationship. as soon as i wanted to put a

deck in the back of my house, that -- dramatically. she represented that i was building this without a permit which was erroneous. she called the planning commission to make a complaint. i was there the investigate -- today the investigator came. she took the note off of the building and then came to the hearing and said, i have proof that they were worried that it was a without a permit. this was a cascading said of misrepresentations that really started their relationship. what you are seeing is a hangover from 2004. >> thank you.

>> i don't have much to say. this is an extremely modest addition and this is set back substantially from the front property line and from the rear building walls. this was approved unanimously by the planning commission. the department fully supported it and this is fully code compliant. the residential design team supported the project. we would like to put plans on the overhead that will answer some of the questions. >> this is the subject property, this is a very modest addition that they are doing at the top level. >> can you tell us what page? >> this is the planned said middle. -- submission. looking at the property, this is

two weeks out and this is set back substantially from the front building wall and this extends further to the rear them the proposed addition will although there might be some shadow cast upon the rear from the house of the appellant. i see no reason why this board should deny the permit. >> the mind but in that picture back up again? -- do you mind putting that picture back up again? >> this is the top floor setback? >> that is correct. >> where is the rear of the project? >> that is right here. i believe that is the building wall. >> i was going to ask why you would not have them pulled this

all the way back to match the appellant set back but it looks like it be in the garden? >> this would have an adverse impact on the rear yard. >> that is not a requirement. the project sponsor agreed to do this. >> that is often a good idea. >> that is not required. they don't see any need to have a shadow steady. >> is there a need for this study? >> i was interested to see that this would not be needed because of the size and location of the edition and the location of the appellants property. i don't see how there would be much of an impact on the property. going further and doing a steady does not seem necessary.

>> what about these from the park? >> i don't see how this is negatively impacting any views of the public open space. this is a very modest addition. >> thank you. i have won public comment card here. >> this project is in deeper tora neighborhood. i have attached the neighborhood to show the eastern neighborhood

planning area and all of the blue area is in deep in that part of the general plan. this is attached with the showcase area plan. the subject property is in deep in that area and subject to its requirements. i understand this was not required but it was offered and agreed to buy a key architect. >> the letter has said that they would provide the steady and this is also included in the discretionary review. >> this is wonderful to see. they don't show everything that the shattered study shows because they show this at least two times of the year and usually the equinox or the

solstice. this would show things that the story could not show unless there were left out for an entire year. the last item that i want to address is the issue of the size and scale of the edition. the simple reality is that it was built up to the lot line. the two adjacent houses were not. there is no averaging of this possible that is the averaging of the setbacks and this approach is the second story addition. >> i think that the other point, this is about civility and --

they wanted me to read a letter to clarify one of the points. there are claims that this would be derailed by the proposed addition. the truth is that the original system would be inoperable in the shadow of the edition. this is a matter of record. we chose to move ahead despite the shadow. this is an abbreviated system. this will work and deliver something in the summer. the loss of available solar energy will be considerable and in retrospect we should have demanded compensation. instead of some kind of relationship going sour, this is on the public record of just to the data that this was not issued. i did not want a contentious relationship at all.

>> we have two minutes for the permit holder. you cannot speak under public comment but if there mr. moody went to give some time, you could speak. >> you are probably wondering why i'm spending so much of my life savings building on a lot like this. i love petro hill, we generally have fantastic neighbors. this is a wonderfully supportive community and i plan to spend as much of the rest of my life on this property. i don't want to build down the property. there is a circular stair that goes down from my kitchen down to the room below. i have parents did come visit me

and i don't want them to stay in downtown -- downstairs bedroom. i would like them to stay as long as they need to. i appreciate your time. thank you. parts anything further from the department? >> commissioners, the matter is submitted? >> would you clear up what implications if any paris as to what is and what is not showplace square. >> there is no provisions which would prevent the project. this must be viewed as a whole, not in pieces. it anyone could find it policy

that supports his or her position in the general plan so we need to look at this in total and in total this project complies with the general plan. >> thank you. >> there are two issues. one is the issue of the shadow steady and therefore what impact this has on the home. as far as i can see, the permit holders property is due north. if there is any impact from that, this is probably a

relatively small sliver. i don't even think that would be the case. this would be the reverse situation where the appellant really has some kind of shadow on the project therefore the question of a shadow steady is really a moot because there is no shadow. secondly, in terms of sustainability, the home faces south. how she chooses to balance her heating and cooling is up to her. this is really not impacted by the addition. lastly, i find that the position is very modest, as mr. sanchez has said. i think that this is sensitive and sent back on both the front and rear of this small-scale and i am prepared to uphold this permit.

>> my comments would have been exactly the same. it seems as though the same issues, i agree with this. the shadow has been dealt with, the orientation is that there was never a need for a steady and there is very little need for an impact given the orientation of the houses and therefore on the sustainability issue, this is a modest addition. this complies with the planning code and with the general plan and is consistent with the residential design guidelines and i intent to uphold the permit.

>> i think that this is pretty straightforward. i would echo the other comments of my fellow commissioners. there is not here -- enough here to work with for the appeal and i would uphold the permit. >> i would tend to agree. i've suggested and i would have liked to have seen maybe some averaging of the setbacks. that was not done public has the appellants property seems to extend further in the rear. i agree with what has been said. >> i have nothing further to add. i hope that you all get along in the future and i understand that this has been tough for all parties but this is a

relatively small edition. the shatters study would be moot. -- shadow study would be moved. i move to deny the appeal. >> on the motion to deny the appeal and uphold the permit for the reasons stated -- >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> there's no further business. >> we are returned -- adjourned.

>> there has been an acknowledgement of the special places around san francisco bay. well, there is something sort of innate in human beings, i think, that tend to recognize a good spot when you see it, a spot that takes your breath away. this is one of them. >> an icon of the new deal. >> we stood here a week ago and we heard all of these dignitaries talk about the symbol that coit tower is for san francisco. it's interesting for those of us in the pioneer park project is trying to make the point that not only the tower, not

only this man-built edifice here is a symbol of the city but also the green space on which it sits and the hill to which is rests. to understand them, you have to understand the topography of san francisco. early days of the city, the city grows up in what is the financial district on the edge of chinatown. everything they rely on for existence is the golden gate. it's of massive importance to the people what comes in and out of san francisco bay. they can't see it where they are. they get the idea to build a giant wooden structure. the years that it was up here, it gave the name telegraph hill. it survived although the structure is long gone. come to the 1870's and the city has growed up remarkably. it's fueled with money from the nevada silver mines and the gold rush. it's trying to be the paris of

the west. now the beach is the suburbs, the we will their people lived on the bottom and the poorest people lived on the top because it was very hard getting to the top of telegraph hill. it was mostly lean-to sharks and bits of pieces of houses up here in the beginning. and a group of 20 businessmen decided that it would be better if the top of the hill remained for the public. so they put their money down and they bought four lots at the top of the hill and they gave them to the city. lily hitchcock coit died without leaving a specific use for her bequest. she left a third of her estate for the beautify indication of the city. arthur brown, noted architect in the city, wanted for a while to build a tower. he had become very interested in persian towers. it was the 1930's. it was all about machinery and sort of this amazing architecture, very powerful architecture. he convinced the rec park

commission that building a tower in her memory would be the thing to do with her money. >> it was going to be a wonderful observation place because it was one of the highest hills in the city anywhere and that that was the whole reason why it was built that high and had the elevator access immediately from the beginning as part of its features. >> my fear's studio was just down the street steps. we were in a very small apartment and that was our backyard. when they were preparing the site for the coit tower, there was always a lot of harping and griping about how awful progress was and why they would choose this beautiful pristine area to do them in was a big question. as soon as the coit tower was getting finished and someone put in the idea that it should

be used for art, then, all of a sudden, he was excited about the coit tower. it became almost like a daily destination for him to enjoy the atmosphere no matter what the politics, that wasn't the point. as long as they fit in and did their work and did their own creative expression, that was all that was required. they turned in their drawings. the drawings were accepted. if they snuck something in, well, there weren't going to be any stoolies around. they made such careful little diagrams of every possible little thing about it as though that was just so important and that they were just the big frog. and, actually, no one ever felt

that way about them and they weren't considered something like that. in later life when people would approach me and say, well, what did you know about it? we were with him almost every day and his children, we grew up together and we didn't think of him as a commie and also the same with the other. he was just a family man doing normal things. no one thought anything of what he was doing. some of them were much more highly trained. it shows, in my estimation, in the murals. this was one of the masterpieces. families at home was a lot more close to the life that i can remember that we lived. murals on the upper floors like

the children playing on the swings and i think the little deer in the forest where you could come and see them in the woods and the sports that were always available, i think it did express the best part of our lives. things that weren't costing money to do, you would go to a picnic on the beach or you would do something in the woods. my favorite of all is in the staircase. it's almost a miracle masterpiece how he could manage to not only fit everyone, of course, a lot of them i recognized from my childhood -- it's how he juxtaposed and managed to kind of climb up that stairway on either side very much like you are walking down a street. it was incredible to do that and to me, that is what depicted the life of the times in san francisco.

i even like the ones that show the industrial areas, the once with the workers showing them in the cannery and i can remember going in there and seeing these women with the caps, with the nets shuffling these cans through. my parents had a ranch in santa rosa and we went there all summer. i could see these people leaning over and checking. it looked exactly like the beautiful things about the ranch. i think he was pretty much in the never look back philosophy about the coit. i don't think he ever went to visit again after we moved from telegraph hill, which was only five or six years later. i don't think he ever had to see it when the initials are scratched into everything and

people had literally destroyed the lower half of everything. >> well, in my view, the tower had been pretty much neglected from the 1930's up until the 1980's. it wasn't until then that really enough people began to be alarmed about the condition of the murals, the tower was leaking. some of the murals suffered wear damage. we really began to organize getting funding through the arts commission and various other sources to restore the murals. they don't have that connection or thread or maintain that connection to your history and your past, what do you have? that's one of the major elements of what makes quality of life in san francisco so incredible. when people ask me, and they ask me all the time, how do you get to coit tower, i say you walk. that's the best way to

experience the gradual elevation coming up above the hustle and bustle of the city and finding this sort of oasis, if you will, at the top of the hill. when i walk through this park, i look at these brick walls and this lawn, i look at the railings around the murals. i look at the restoration and i think, yeah, i had something to do with that. learning the lessons, thank you, landmarks meet landmarks. the current situation at pioneer park and coit tower is really based in public and private partnership. it was the citizens who came together to buy the land to keep it from being developed. it was lily hitchcock coit to give money to the city to beautify the city she loved of the park project worked to beautify the city she loved of the park project worked to