construction debris. recycling construction debris is not enough. words from the web site, we need to look beyond recycling and composting to get to the waist. we need to be accountable for the environmental impact that we all produce and use. our existing buildings are one of the most important budgets we have. we are all consumers of these existing buildings. policies should reflect this. [chime] >> i am the land storage program manager at the same for it is parks trust. and these differences go parks trust is the nonprofit organization the partners with the recreation and park department to protect our parks and open space. he said francisco parks trust fully understands the value of

preserving historical icons. we have led the way in the conservation efforts to preserve and restore the conservatory of flowers. we're concerned with -- if we make all of golden gate park historic district, this will impact responsible stewardship of the park. you can't put the entire park under glass. i worked out a habitat restoration project in golden gate park. [chime] supervisor wiener: a queue. -- thank youy. -- you. [reading names]

>> i lived in the mission neighborhood, and this neighborhood is a proposed historic district. we are hoping to have that happen. what we need is to have that

balance. i think they are doing a quite amazing job with that balance. only eight reviews and 99% in the projects. i feel like you are worried about things or overstating historic preservation control than what is needed. i hope you look at this carefully, where the projects, and make good decisions about historic preservation. >> i would like to make a protest that the historic preservation commission was not given equal time with the other city departments to address the significance of the historic preservation issues in san francisco. i agree with the piece of john king this morning that there is nothing systematically wrong with a san francisco's policies

for protecting its historic and architectural heritage. if you go back to 1967 when the article was inaccurate and you look at a picture of the skyline 5 or 10 years after that and compare it today, he will see that preservation has not awarded or trump development. in fact, the exact opposite is true. if you look at south of market today, large parts of it looked like a ball about city. in short, there is nothing systematically the matter with the policies that we have in place. >> i will cut to the quick. perhaps allowing them to function by a improving the

revisions to articles 10 and 11 might simplify and shorten the process and might avoid some of the reviews that everyone is complaining about. there is a dynamic balance between historic preservation and development. this is good for both historic preservation. it does not prevent or inhibit change. it just defines what needs protection by identifying how and where change to occur. and when it must be discreet. you talked about the sustainability of historic preservation, but it does encourage new developments to be aware of context and hence the quality of the city. these are goals that in the city should have and should be a part of any project. in short, i don't think there is any conflict between direct preservation.

>> good afternoon, supervisors. i am a resident of san francisco, a real-estate consultant to developers and corporations with requirements here. my first development project is the conversion of st. joseph's hospital by buena vista park to condominiums, a conversion that was awarded landmark status. i believe this city risks losing a balanced approach, aside from historic preservation, other things must be weighed in developing this, especially affordable housing and economic development. the problem is apparent in historic districts were non- historic buildings can potentially trigger eir's. we need a balanced approach. supervisor wiener: thank you very much. next speaker. >> i made a documentary film

producer for the san francisco non-profit citizen film. we have made films about housing policy, so when my wife, public- school teacher at my parents, retired public schoolteachers, i was excited to repair the victorian we bought. our advice looking to prepare structures is not to do it. our family as 40% in the way into our budget when the next- door neighbor began piling appeal after appeal of our building permits. after losing all of their claims before the board of appeals, they ask the board of supervisors to grant a costly historical review of our project. that appeal was denied, yet to date, because of delays in the appeal process and the costly nature of preparing for hearings, we have spent $65,000, a teachers' salaries for a year, a quarter of our construction budget. [tone]

thank you for your consideration. supervisor wiener: thank you very much. >> i'm here on behalf of the san francisco housing coalition. we would say historic preservation does not come cheaply. it has a cost and has to be accounted for. if it does not implement carefully, it could hurt new housing production and sharply reduce the affordability of housing, which is one of the biggest challenges. none balance preservation policy has a inherent balance toward high-end market housing, something you should think about in this. some of the unnerving proposals we have heard recently, particularly the rewrite of articles 10 and 11, some of this seems like a solution and search of a problem. we get it, but that was 40 or 50 years ago. what has been a wholesale

destruction of our historic resources? we would say the long debate over the north beach public library and the -- [tone] the debate on 55 laguna street would prove historic preservation is not at risk in this town. >> i am with the small property owners of san francisco. two items -- on small items, i would recommend strongly that we get the planning department staff more discretion. the news like windows -- to give permits through the department easily can mostly be done with more discretion on part of the staff, they're very effective. in the future, historic districts should reach out to the people in that district. the homeowners signed off on the

district and know what is going on and they know what the future is. i appreciate you holding this hearing. supervisor wiener: thank you. kines beacon to the microphone? >> i am among the unlucky 8 mentioned earlier. just to give a snapshot of what a citizen experiences, this is to demolish a church, a dry rot, and sound church sitting on an and reinforced masonry foundation that is vacant. applications were filed in 2004 and two lawsuits against the city wanted to landmark the church. we prevailed in both lawsuits

and in the court of appeals. it cost about $500,000 to take something like this through the process except with seven years under our belt, we are not through the process and is still going forward. one of the unfortunate things that occurs is that they act as magnets -- [tone] for all the worst elements of the city. supervisor wiener: thank you very much. >> i will confine myself to the question of the work being produced by historic preservation. some advocates will say it produces more work than new construction. while that may be true in certain instances, as a general assertion, it fails. in all has to be taken in terms of specific instances and there are a variety of factors like

square footage, building types and ultimate use of influence. i actually discussed this last week. i wanted to run my comments by him. both of us have done considerable amounts of both types of this work. he is in accord with me on my comments. not as clear a picture as they would like you to believe. things have to be taken one at a time. thank you. >> i'm the president of the beaux triangle neighborhood association. i am a founding member of the friends of 1800, a gay preservation association. we landmark harvey milk camera store and it's a attraction to many people come to the castro. my market spans seven years.

i'm still on the advisory committee. neighborhood and area plants were sold as a rational development tool. my neighborhood welcomed additional housing and we increased height limits on non historic structures and reduced some of historic structures. why are we changing this now? thank you. supervisor wiener: thank you. next speaker. >> i get permits in san francisco very frequently. most of my clients are developers. i have plenty of single-family homeowners as well, but developers often try to make additions on to the buildings to offset the carrying costs while under construction. it takes about six to eight months to get a permit for a residential real model in san francisco. that means developers are getting to where they just don't

want to do it anymore. if that happens, it means that developers are the only ones that will go into these buildings and get them to the degree that we can fully seismic retrofit them and make them energy-efficient and firebreak them, which benefits the entire city. i don't have any problem with preservation planning. i have restored these buildings and that my problem is it takes so long to get the permits. [tone] i wish there was a way to speed up the process of the permitting. supervisor wiener: thank you very much. >> i come today to ask a few questions specifically around the parks themselves. our biggest point is at as our city grows, demographics are going to change it will see a huge influx in the diversity of new reds. we need to preserve our ability

to change passive to active recreation as needed by the communities. we need to look at the cost with historical landmarking of parks. we have a lot of neighborhood store to put a lot of sweat equity into renovating and up keeping their lands. we want to make sure it is not cost prohibitive and the costs are not passed on to community members. lastly, our parks are outdated. we must balance our need to be ecologically conservative with our ability to preserve our open spaces. supervisor wiener: thank you very much. next speaker. >> i'm a homeowner and to my understanding, we could be slated to be the next designated historic neighborhood. my concern is i believe

homeowners are already inundated with some new rules and regulations we have to all the apparatus from doing necessary remodeling to our homes that it becomes almost impossible bind and chile and politically to get through the process. i'm wondering what it for the homeowner to be designated a historic neighborhood other than that we have to go through a stricter review process when we want to remodeler homes. is the city willing to take over the printing of our trees and repairing of the sidewalks to make up for the cost for meeting the requirements? will there be a tax reduction for homeowners? i hear nothing for the homeowner. [tone] just more power to the county and the city. >>supervisor wiener: one of the

challenges in the survey area is making sure everyone is engaged and knows what is going on. we're looking at more effective ways to do that. >> my comments are a cautionary tale regarding the southern pacific hospital in san francisco. we joint venture with mercy housing everybody was on the same page. but the problem in these deals is they involve bonds, section 8, historic tax credits and low- income housing tax credits. there is an ally is the rub. low-income tax credits have a drop dead to year in service date. if you do not meet the date, you lose everything. the process needs to be demystified and clear. uncertainty is the enemy of the

developer. the defined protocol needs to put in place and you also have to get out and identify what is historically significant and what is not. [tone] supervisor wiener: thank you very much. next speaker. >> i came today to put my support behind the historic preservation committee. i was very happy when the city voted. i think they do a fantastic job of reviewing particular cases. because of their backgrounds, they have to have particular backgrounds and architectural history which did not necessarily happen before this committee evolved. but i was interested listening to the department's today and some of the issues that came up.

what the gentleman just said before me talked about the importance of information for affordable housing, the surveys are very important. if the surveys are done, we understand where their resources are. it doesn't mean they're all going to be historic districts just because a survey is done but it is important to identify them. [tone] supervisor wiener: thank you. >> i'm a homeowner in dog patch. i hear this resounding fear of what is going to happen if we become a historic district. the survey is very important to do. it lays out what is historic and what is not. it does not create a historic district. if you look at the boundaries of what our survey was for dog patch compared to what the actual area is, it is like

checkerboards. there are so many things that are not historic. i really appreciate the fact that you do have the ability to preserve but also build. a historic brick and timber building, the real use of a warehouse that was turned into housing and achieved completely from the start to finish -- [tone] supervisor wiener: thank you very much. >> i am here today as my capacity of the east share citizens advisory committee. we are 19 members appointed by the mayor and board of supervisors and our charter is to be the keeper of the eastern neighborhood plan and provide guidance on things like this. we have been undertaking legislatively mandated surveys

of the neighborhood and we remain concerned we do not see a process that balances the results of those surveys being performed with other priorities of the plan which include housing, transportation, balancing jobs, having a policy line item -- that does not mean balance. we see potential districting coming out of those surveys. we feel they are overused and we have examples of surveyed areas that are small portions of the south mission with 13 potential districts being proposed. [tone] supervisor wiener: thank you very much. >> i have a tale of two owners. early 1980's, it was the worst of times. a group of investors bought two lots intending to build high- rise.

after they spent time, money and energy on the process -- of the projects, they discovered there was an old historic building on of the lot. the development failed and if they had known, they would have known it was an appropriate investment for them. fast forward to the late 90's, it was the best of times. article 11 had passed and the historic building was designated. i bought the building knowing it was historic, so i knew i could take advantage of the historical building code to save the integrity. i did not have to get the building to do my seismic upgrade and i knew i could sell by transferable development rights to pay for the project and could get tax credits to pay for the project and [tone] i successfully rehabilitated buildings. supervisor wiener: was thank you. >> i'm a student and i had quick

question -- i was wondering how we could preserve historic landmarks like the many stations while considering sustainability and striving for more efficient means of public transit. supervisor wiener: next speaker. actually -- before you start, let me call some more names. [reading names]

>> thank you. i value the legacy of the past, the artisans, the architect visions they have for society. thank you for having this hearing so it can remind elected officials and the city's, the department said service, the public that our history is worth preserving. when history is no longer taught as a freshman course at the high-school, we are put on notice that respecting the past is becoming optional. this is not exceptional -- this is not acceptable. this kind of thinking does not benefit our city or ourselves. historical preservation of

historic reactor representations' of the past need merit to have the extra measure of caution so that we can hang on to things. let us not expedite the loss of history. thank you. >> i'm speaking for the baby opera house. -- the bayview opera house. but believe we are the most recent landmark announced. i want to tell you how being a landmark has helped us secure funding to actually improve the facility so tremendously that everybody says what does a look like now. it is a respectable building were the of the historic designation it has had for some

time. furthermore, we were able to get a grant to replace the building on the national register and the reaction to that actually happening in the community has been overwhelming. it has become a source of community pride and it can be the center is has been trying to be for a long time. i want to piggyback on something supervisor: raised at the beginning. [tone] the bay view has very few -- there is a lot of city money going into that which needs to be distributed throughout the city. thank you. supervisor wiener: next speaker. >> good afternoon.

history is a memory of nations. in 1948, after a war between the united states and mexico, -- in 1848, but after the war between mexico and the united states, the treaty of guadalupe hidalgo was signed. shortly afterward, news of gold discovered spread all over the world. by that time, [unintelligible] in 1850, a young priest are arrived in california.

[tone] i was given less than a minute. [unintelligible] supervisor wiener: thank you. >> because this was built by human beings. supervisor wiener: thank you. next speaker. >> i want to do think the supervisor winner for having the courage to bring up this discussion of historical preservation for anyone going to

the process, i can tell you going through the historical preservation process is probably as painful as a proposed new circumcision law that has been on the ballot in november. it is incredibly complex. let me just put it into perspective. under the current guidelines, we would not be able to approved the conversion of the ferry billy -- the ferry building. we would have created to centers for homeless encampments, but we proved as. now we have a great example of urban renewal and growth. let us not be caught up in this hall perception. most of the people against construction and growth -- [tone] simply to derail projects. supervisor wiener: thank you. >>