president goh: good evening and welcome to the january 18, 2012 meeting of the board of appeals. the presiding officer is president can no go. joining her is vice-president garcia, commissioner fong, and commissioner wind. i won a seat on the board is vacant. the board may hold a meeting where there is a vacancy. in such instances, the board may overrule the action of a department by a vote of three members. we are joined tonight by deputy city attorney barnes, who will

provide the board with any needed legal advice. we are also joined by representatives from some of the city departments that have cases before the board this evening. scott sanchez is here. also represented the planning department and planning commission. the senior building inspector is here. a representative from the bureau of urban forestry and a representative of the public works division of st. use and mapping is also here. at this time, if you could go over the board's meeting guidelines. >> the board requests that you turn off all phones or pagers so they will not disturb the procedures. carry on conversations in the hallway. the board's rules of presentation are as follows, appellants, permit holders, and department representatives have three minutes to present their

cases and three minutes for rebuttals. people affiliated with these parties must include their comments in these periods. members or not affiliated have up to 3 minutes to address the board with no rebuttal. to assist the board in the actor preparation of minutes, members of the public who wish to speak on an item are asked, but not required, to submit a speaker or business card when you come to the podium. speaker cards and hence are available on the left side of the podium. the board welcomes your comments and suggestions. there are customer satisfaction or on the left side of the podium as well. if you have questions about requesting a rehearing, please speak to staff during the break. or call the office tomorrow morning. the office is located at 1650 mission street. this meeting is broadcast live on san francisco government in

television, cable channel 78, and a dvd of this meeting is available for purchase directly from asset dtb. had you for your attention. at this point in time, we will conduct our swearing in processing. if you intend to testify in any of our hearings, he's stand, raise your right hand, and say "i do have" after you have been sworn in or offered. any member of the public may speed without taking this both pursuant to the sunshine ordinance in the administrative code. thank you. if you intend to speak, please stand and raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear and affirm the testimony you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? >> thank you.

president goh and commissioners, we have one housekeeping item. item number 10, the parties have requested a rescheduling to february 8 and i believe that the attorney for the permit holder would like to address the board briefly. president goh: sure. >> members of the board, my client reluctantly agreed to a two-week continuance. essentially, the dispute has nothing to do with this board. the process of wheat -- we are in the process of negotiating a construction access agreement and we have been told that if we do not agree to the continuance, they will seek negotiations. my client has agreed to it. it is only going to be for two weeks. we will not agree to any further continuance. president goh: ok.

thank you. vice president garcia: do we meet in two weeks? president goh: the next board meeting is february 8. vice president garcia: so that would be three weeks? >> three weeks, yes. president goh: is there any public comment on this item? seeing none, commissioners, if you are inclined, we need a motion. >> so moved. president goh: call the roll please. >> we have a motion to rescheduled to february 8. on that motion -- commissioner fung: aye. vice president garcia: aye. commissioner hwang: aye. >> this matter is rescheduled to

february 8. president goh: we will move now to item number one, general public comment. is there anyone who would like to speak on an item that is not on our calendar? seeing none -- oh, please step forward. >> good evening. this is indirectly related to an item on the agenda tonight. president goh: we should wait and speak during the item. thank you. any public comment under item number one? we will move to item number two. that is the election of officers. the rules state that the president and vice president shall be elected at the first regular meeting of the board held after the 15th day of january each year. tonight is the board's first

meeting after january 15 for it as such, the election of officers is on our calendar. before we proceed, i want to take the opportunity to thank president goh and vice president garcia for your service. you have been helpful and supportive to me and the department. i truly appreciate it. president goh: thank you grid i did have a couple of, or make a nomination. i announce that tonight is my last hearing. i have accepted a job in beijing, china. i am moving next week. i wanted to thank the board of supervisors for my appointment. and say that i have found the four years i have been up here to be quite interesting and hopefully productive. i was involved with commissioner fung and vice president garcia in this election and hiring of our director gold skin. -- goldstein.

i think that is my greatest accomplishment in my time here. i hope that the parties and especially the parties who are not represented, the neighbors and the people who maybe could not afford to hire an attorney or expensive experts, i hope that those people have felt heard and respected and understand and see how much this commission values due process and fairness. i also want to say in that since we do here quite a lot of land use cases, it is the vast majority of the cases we year, that i have so much respect for the people who practice in that field and. that is the construction and design of our built in varmint. -- our built environment.

i live in a house was built in 1900. when you look at the 100-year- old beams that one of my house, i think of the people who actually put them in place and hammered the old nails into the walls. those people are long dead, but this house is still standing. hopefully it will still be span -- still be standing long after i am dead. those of us to push paper around, we cannot say that about our work. i'm just going to throw that out there. with that, i would like to nominate commissioner wang -- hwang to be vice president of the commission. she is also an attorney, always

prepared, a very level-headed and thoughtful. >> commissioner hwang to accept that nomination? commissioner hwang: i accept with great privilege and honor. >> is there any other nomination? vice president garcia: no. when president goh says she is level-headed, that is not a physical description. i hope that he passes his nomination with flying colors, which i suspect she will. >> is there any public comment on the nomination for the office of vice president? seeing none, please call the roll on that. >> we have a motion from president goh to elevate commissioner hwang to the vice presidency of the board. on that motion -- commissioner fung: aye. vice president garcia: aye.

commissioner hwang: aye. >> commissioner hwang is elevated to vice president of the board. >> moving on to the office of president, are there any nominations for the office? commissioner fung: i would like to nominate commissioner garcia to a role that he has had before. i hope that he will accept it. vice president garcia: i do accept and thank you commissioner fong. >> are there any other nominations for this office? seeing none, is their public comment. seeing no public comment, please call the roll. >> we have a motion from commissioner fong to elevate michael garcia to the presidency of the border. on that motion -- vice president garcia: aye. commissioner hwang: aye.

president goh: aye. >> the boat -- the vote is 4-0 and michael garcia is the new president of the border. -- of the board. vice president garcia: i want to call the meeting off. [laughter] >> item #3 is comments and questions. commissioner fung: i have a comment and question for people in the audience. i would like to congratulate commissioner goh for taking an exciting set in her life. when she told me he was going to do this, i related to her a story of doing -- wanting to do something similar but was not able to take advantage of the

opportunity. throughout the year she has been here she and i talked about the changing world and the place that china has formed within the school will circle. the fact that both her child and my child are studying chinese on an emerging basis. we have had a lot of very common thoughts related to it. i congratulate her on taking this step in her life. she and i have not always agree with our roles, but she has always been very articulate and very consistent in her roles. this course is always good on this particular commission. congratulations. president goh: thank you. i'm going to be brief, but i also want to congratulate you. i have been in all of your

decision to serve on this board, giving your other obligations and commitments that you have already had. i have also found you to be extremely well-prepared, extremely thoughtful, and i've learned a lot from the way that you analyze the matters that have come before us. i will miss you. >> thank you carry it -- thank you. vice president garcia: commissioner goh, i want to wish you great luck on your new adventure in china. may you live in interesting times. maybe we will say now you not live in interesting times i

would echo the comments that other people have made great you are conscientious, scrupulous, you pay great attention to detail, whether it is the language, the brief, the designs and plans that come before us. i will always admire that. you could talk about the fact that it is not just people who have come before us. we spend all our time concerned with the codes and those kinds of things these are real situations that we wisely deal with. i think you always wisely dealt with it. good luck to you. president goh: thank you so much. >> is there any public comment on item number three? seeing none, we will move to item number four. that is the adoption of minutes before you