significant achievement. most of what i have seen in the 10 years i have participated in land use policy is the district's that have been coming out do not really rise to that level. i box at the third street boxing gym. to claim that eight rail yard of the slaughterhouses qualifies as a historic district because there are acute victorians their stretches the bounds of credulity for may. as an organization like fact -- [tone] we do not want to see a legitimate goals of historic preservation get in the way. supervisor wiener: next speaker. >> i am here to speak on behalf of the sierra club. the sierra club supports

historic preservation not only as a means to keep history alive but to keep the things from being torn down and being built from scratch. i would encourage people interested in historic preservation and members of the board of supervisors to weigh in on the desires of homeowners of victorian buildings when they want to convert the a ground floor and to a garage, you are altering a potential historical building. i would like to take you to low, mass. where all of the old factory buildings have been converted into housing and boutiques stores. it's the most beautiful historic district in that part of massachusetts. [tone] supervisor wiener: you talked

about adding garages, but how about a summit was to convert an old automotive use into a new use which is not auto-related? sometimes historic issues can come up in terms of the evaluation. how do you or the sierra club view that kind of process? >> i cannot speak for the sierra club, but i would say some of the old -- what they called they are handsome buildings. they're very attractive and there are some in my neighborhood there is one that is a fairly attractive building and if it can be preserved, and the interior turned into an

expanded dance studio, i personally -- it sounds like a nice idea, but i'm not on the commission. i'm a student of history and i'm not an expert. i would like the experts to weigh in on that kind of thing. >> thank you. >> i represent the san francisco green party and i want to speak to the historical preservation issues to golden gate park and other parks in the city. we are facing a situation where activists are being forced to resort to historic preservation to defend the parks from a rampant wave of privatization, bringing in private businesses, ramping up fees on public spaces and putting industrial facilities in public spaces so

that the park department can make money for itself and its operations. if you want us to not have to resort to the very real possibility to landmark these places, you need to crack down on recreation and park and put a stop to the privatization nonsense. i've spoken to many activists to agree with this, and that includes removing director and replacing him. [tone] [applause] supervisor wiener: i want to remind the audience of the board's rule against applause, billing, etc. let me read from the speaker cards to get more people up. [reading names]

>> i am a resident of the historic district and liddy hill and i happen to live in a historic victorian. the biggest challenge around historical preservation policies currently in place is a broad brush attempt at precluding any

reasonable development within the city. for example, within the historic district, if you happen to live outside the historic district or a potentially historic district, the standards are also imposed in a broad brush manner. the time delays, the actual costs, the evaluation of consultants all apply even if there is a possibility that any work being done on a property could effect either the historic nature of the property or the historic nature of properties around it. there's no judicious approach and how it is being used in balance with other priorities such as the housing element, the transportation element -- [tone] that is the biggest challenge, there is no balance. supervisor wiener: thank you.

>> supervisors, chamber of commerce -- [tone] [laughter] that must mean i get three minutes. this is an important and sensitive issue. san francisco needs to tread carefully on this issue. every neighborhood, downtown, all the way out to the sense that is an area of historic importance. but we cannot block the city into one generation's vision of what it is. if the 1950's had blocked the produce market at the foot of sacramento, we would have no embarcadero center. if another generation had locked in what ever than ness ave look like 1914, this would not exist today. we have to have a balanced approach. with our parks as well. with so much testimony about the golden gate park, a polo field

now used for soccer, soccer fields that were once a sewer plant, changing it uses -- [tone] we want to urge you to develop rules and regulation of balance. supervisor wiener: thank you. >> hello, supervisors and department heads. i'm the president of the mission dolores neighbor association and the money new steering commission for the renovation of mission dolores park. i want to also tell you that what we did as a neighborhood group, for the last five and half years, we raised over $80,000 to complete the survey work in our neighborhood. we hired carry and company to do the work and of march 17th, 2010, our survey and historic

district was unanimously adopted by the hpc. a proposed historic district was outlined that includes mission dolores park and the mission dolores median. we consider as a group those two elements, the spine and the heart of our proposed historic district. i must say -- [tone] supervisor wiener: could you complete your thought? >> as being part of the steering committee, i want to commend rec and park for putting together a good design team. supervisor wiener: thank you. >> i'm a commissioner at the san francisco human-rights commission as well as a member of the san francisco coalition for responsible growth.

i would like to thank the supervisor cohen for comments regarding diversity. and i hope she continues to ask them and pursue this issue. i would also like to think supervisor winner for calling this hearing. it's -- sank a supervisor weaner for calling this hearing. it is very important. an official told me a 20 foot tall building on valencia street was surveyed according to the hpc guidelines and could not receive a vertical addition if it was going to be seen from the street and it would preclude any vertical addition to it. this is for a building zoned in a 50 foot height and bulk district. [tone] this will impact affordable housing, the transit quarter and a potential liability for the

city for reducing its impact on taxability here in san francisco. supervisor wiener: thank you very much. >> i will just give you a visual to look at. i do not think there is a problem with historic preservation. there are details to work out when you have to balance competing interests. you just work on them. if balance does not occur and is fixed, balance is a balancing act that goes on all the time. what i think is one of the problems that may be existing is we don't have a commitment to historic preservation in this city and i think it is time for the city to make an unequivocal, bent to historic preservation so that everybody understands -- and unequivocal commitment to

historic preservation so that everybody understands there are consequences. when you are a resident of the city of san francisco, your personal interest has to be balanced with that of the city's priorities call one of which should be historic preservation. [tone] supervisor wiener: thank you very much. next speaker. >> i retired about three years ago and was on the staff for heritage for 21 years. i have three answers to much of what has gone on today -- survey, survey, survey. the downtown plan has proven the worth of at has mitigated conflict and the downtown area, clearly identifying what can be done and what new construction can be built. i wanted to comment on the

question -- transforming auto- related buildings, whole foods did a great job transforming an auto-related use. real food on fillmore did a good job doing the same thing. the other matter of a survey -- [tone] not to turn the city into a historic district but mitigate conflicts by giving people the impression they need. supervisor wiener: next speaker. >> i'm with the russian hill community association. thank you very much for opening up the idea of the century old parking and auto repair facilities that were built after

the earthquake because the homes that were built did not have a good rush. -- did not have a grudge. -- did not have a garage. before we start converting them into six story, $2.5 million condominiums, let's consider using them as sustainable, neighborhood transportation centers for car share, like cher, electric charging and transportation areas. thank you very much. supervisor wiener: thank you very much. next speaker. >> i live at 1742 jones street. about four years ago, we

repainted our house and had these medallions. about one year later, we tried to put an addition on top which would have liked one of them out. $20,000.12 months later, we withdrew the application. it has been said the historic commission has approved 99% of the things submitted to them. i think that's because of 99% are withdrawn before they ever reach the historic mission, such as ours was. we got a notice we had to remove the cartouche is. they said they were not with the code. now i am probably $10,000 into this one already and will

probably have to give in if we do not get some action on it. thank you. supervisor wiener: thank you. >> i am his wife. we have been told we have to take down our cartouche is. i love my home and i would like any and all of the to drive by. the house is spilling over with flowers. every time i walked out of the garage, and told how beautiful our home as. tourists stop and take a picture of our home all the time. i devote my life, five days a week, to trying to make this city a better place to live in. our home is a big part of that because our home is open to everyone for any charity event they want to give.

i'm involved with st. anthony's, where events are starting at our house to fund-raisers and get the homeless off the streets and the hungry fed. i started fence -- [tone] oh, mt god. supervisor wiener: just to be clear, you placed these decorative medallions on your home in the planning department sent a letter saying they would have to do a historic evaluation? >> they said we had to remove them with a certain time or pay $250 a day until they are removed. >>supervisor wiener: that is because your home is a historic? >> i would just like to say,

this is heartbreaking when i work five days a week to make this city a better place to live and some wants to come and destroy the front of my home. i don't know why. thank you. supervisor wiener: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. i am a 32-year resident. in san francisco. in 2005, i got involved with a group of historians, teachers, business people and other residents in an effort to save and reuse 55 lacuna, san francisco's oldest public college. the campus had been zoned for educational and public use and was the largest parcel of public land outside of golden gate park. my question for you is i think

the historic preservation commission should retain its authority and that's all i need to say. thank you. supervisor wiener: let me call some more names. [reading names] >> good afternoon, supervisors.

i am an architect and i have extensive experience working in san francisco, especially in residential areas. one thing in terms of the language in these districts, how it affects permitting one of the districts that was recently adopted, you run into a problem very quickly. $20,000, you hit a threshold pretty quickly when you are doing a window project. with the language of this district, it requires a certificate of appropriateness when you are doing window replacement. it requires a hearing, a very simple hearing, but a hearing just the same. the planning fee for the certificate of appropriateness on a $20,000 job is --

>> which district? >> i have run into that problem down there. but it just goes to the broader view that you need to make sure that the small homeowners are not adverse limb pacted, especially when most people really want to maintain their houses. >> thank you very much. mr. whitaker. >> i have -- my name is jamie whitaker. i'm the president of the rankin hill neighborhood association. i have an overhead. i think we have a transportation problem. i think we have a problem holding up development. right now we have a plan at treasure island, and the san francisco business times informed us the 2010 census -- informed us there's 30,000 that are not occupied, existing dwelling units, 30,000 in addition to residential housing, we will have a lot of commercial

building that's approved or in the process of being approved like the transit center district plan which would add another 13,000 jobs just in the northeast quad rant of the city. and pedestrian safety is my -- my main issue these days. we have bart that's full. high-speed rail that may or may not, and we hope high-speed rail comes to fruition to give folks in the valley to chance to work in san francisco. we can't take on all of it but we're glad to say the hill area has 45% for housing and development is starting to thaw out. we're going to see construction cranes in rankin hill in the first quarter of next year, god will. thank you. >> thank you very much. mr. butler. >> thank you, supervisor wiener,

chair maher and supervisor cohen. how to get to balance? supervisor wiener aunts the balance between the other pollingsies but if he wants state laws and enforcement, is it a suggestion to look the other way? as a certified local government, how does the city achieve that for taking grant funds for survey? how is it achieved as responsible to the state agency to the state for environmental reviews. the purpose for historic resources inventory are surveyed is to assemble information about buildings in the study area and local neighborhood plan and determine which of those buildings have specific and special historic culture oork tech churl significance. these planning tools facilitate permit applications. the determination of whether a property is historic, culture or architectural value is based tonight factual documentation in the public record, with or without a survey, california state regulations require the planning department to make a determination on the status when

almost any application is submitted. how do you propose the city do less than that? >> thank you very much, mr. butler. >> my name is francisco. all of the talk here today, i'm asking the planning department that they first have an inventory of fallout in unmarked buildings. we do not have detailed inventory. secondly, the planning department has failed to respect the first people, right before the strangers came here they were the first people, and failed to respect the over 200 sites that we have in san francisco. thirdly, we have the academy of art university that has taken thousands of units depriving us of affordable housing. and we do not need to encourage property manager like the john steuben company to come into the bay view and other poor communities and take affordable housing. thank you very much. >> thank you.

>> good afternoon. i'm john barbie. i'm part of the team that set up liberty hill 25 years ago. we did it because it's hard for us to get zigation. i hope you notice the map mr. frey presented. very tiny number of residents are designated. what was that, 2,000 out of 20,000 victorians alone and it's been a i mixed bag for us. we were facing wholesale demolitions throughout the neighborhoods. what would replace them were things for want a of a better description looked like little motels. and we believed in the worth and sustainability of our victorian houses, beauty of them. we hope that now if something is surveyed f. it's been altered in the front, it's just invisible. we were hoping that people would easily restorable fronts would do such a thing. you have to bear that in mind when you look at the surveys. they don't include the houses

and they are numerous. i think clear rules would help a lot. i think you have to recognize the historic preservation is the little guy and should be an important policy. >> thank you very much. mr. speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm the chairperson of the city that speaks, sunset action and committee. although the sunset is not known for historic buildings, there are several clusters of historical development in the larger sunset area and we have focused on the neighborhood in the outer sunset along the ocean beach, which used to be called the ocean side. we as a community group did our survey, professionally of 500 surviving buildings which were developed before 1925. we were recently invited to aid

preapplication meeting and saw what the results were. due to our survey work, which was conducted by professional historians, the applicants saved a lot of money as they did not have to hire a consultant. their architect and input of the planning department developed a very acceptable proposal -- >> thank you very much. >> and i hope you're not putting away with these ways of retaining our neighborhood character. >> thank you very much. >> honorable supervisors, i had the honor of directing the western office of the historical trust preservation, founded in san francisco in 1971. because people cared them about your city's incredible heritage and they care now. before i came here, i had the honor of surveying two city's

preservation planner, i would chair the city's preservation commission and i would governor gray davis' chairman of the status resources commission. i urged you to continue on your spirit of inquiry but to consider, too, preservation is about managing change, integrating your historic preservation and planning department along with your incredible activities here and having -- making sure san francisco takes its place not only with los angeles, new york, charleston, but pasadena, san diego, riverside, fresno, all incredible cities in california that strive to do preservation planning and i know you can too.s0 we're here to help. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker. >> good afternoon. my name is ryan turner. i'm a resident of the richmond district and practice environmental land use law. i'm strongly in fanger of the program. i see it as embodiment and

action of the precautionary principle which the board adopted in 2003, very simple motto, think before you act and choose the least environmentally harmful alternative. regarding sequa, i would highlight the prevention is getting the people we opportunity attract to our cities. the historic buildings are assets and not liabilities. the developer widely recognized value added qualities of historic and orlede buildings respect the history of our community and contributions of those who came before them. forbe those who choose to demolish historic buildings, sequa is intended to challenge those constructions. it is wasteful and requires trucking and new materials and supports an economy predicated on unlimited distraction. this is not the motto we should be promoting.