>> good evening and welcome to the october 23rd, 2013, meeting of the san francisco board appeals and the presiding counsel equilibrium is lazarus

and joined by fung, and honda and hurtado. >> and to my left is deputy city attorney, robert brian and he will provide the board with legal advice tonight and at the controls is the board legal assistant. the board's executive director, and we are joined tonight by representatives from the departments that have matters before the board. and corey tea ge is here and the acting administrator and the planning department and planning commission. and here, senior building inspector, representing the department of building inspection, and john hwang here, with the street use and mapping and will be joined by arez, building inspector. >> if you could please go over the meeting guidelines and conduct the swearing in process.

>> turn off all phones and pagers so that they will not disturb the proceedings and carry on conversations in the hallway, the rules of presentation representatives each has 7 minutes to present their cases and three minutes for rebuttal. the people affiliated with these parties must include their comments in the seven or three minute periods, members not affiliated with the parties have up to three minutes but no rebuttals. to assist the board in the preparation of minutes, the members of the public who wish to speak on an item are asked but not required to submit a card or business card when you come up to the podium. the speaker cards and pens are available on the side of the podium. the board well comes your comments and suggestions there are forms, on the left side of the podium. and if you have questions, about requesting the hearing, and the board rules or hearing

schedules and speak to the staff during the break or after the meeting or call the board office tomorrow morning, the board of appeals office is located at 1650 mission street, 304 room. >> and this meeting is broadcast live on san francisco government television, sfgtv cable channel 78 and dvds of this meeting are available for purchase directly from sfgov, tv and thank you for your attention, we will conduct the swearing in process, if you intend to testify in any of tonight's hearing and wish to have the board give your testimony evidentiary weight, stand and raise your right-hand and say i do after you have been sworn in or affirmed. members of the public may speak without taking this oath, purchase pursuit ant to the

sunshine ordinance. >> thank you. commissioners, at this time, we have two housekeeping items, the first has to do with item 8, 13-108 which is protesting a building permit at 1980 golden gate avenue, the parties have requested a continuance to november 20th, 2013 and with a motion we can move it to that date. >> so moved. >> thank you >> is there any public comment on this rescheduling? >> seeing none, if you could call the roll please? >> on that motion, from commissioner fung to reschedule it to november 20th, president hwang is absent. >> hurtado? >> aye.

>> lazarus. >> aye. >> honda. >> aye. >> the vote is 4-0, that matter is reschedule to november 20th. >> actually commissions there are three housekeeping items i was just reminded by commissioner fung that he was a conflict with respect to item five which is appeal number 1 3-102, the stockton street case, and i understand from the brief and from the parties that they have requested that the board, act to revise the permits here, and i think that you recall that you continued this case, and my understanding is that the parties are in agreement and although we can hear from them. but without, four members available to vote, to revise this permit, the board really cannot act on it this evening. so i think we should consider rescheduling this to another hearing date. are the parties in this room at

this time? okay. is there anyone here representing the appellant? i think that the appellant was saying that they might not attend. are is there someone here? >> i saw mr. leavitt earlier. >> maybe we should wait until he is in the room if he is not here now. but i am sorry to have brought you here for this, but, i don't think that the board can act on this case tonight without four voting members available. >> do you know mr. leavitt? can you see if he is in..., there he is. >> super. >> mr. leavitt, thank you for stepping back in the room. i was just explaining that with one commissioner who needs to recuse himself and one absent we do not have the four members available to vote to condition the permit with revised plans and i was suggesting that the board consider a rescheduling

as a housekeeping item at this time. so, if either of the parties disagree with my assessment of the situation, i would ask you to step forward now, otherwise, we will suggest the new hearing date for this. okay, mr. leavitt? >> thank you, michael leavitt. so, i will be traveling in the upcoming weeks, and i am just wondering if the plans which were submitted which essentially calls for a replacement in-kind of the existing stair, i have no issue with that. as a proposal. can i go on record for a future hearing, as giving my agreement or approval or whatever may be needed? if that is the case, and there is nothing else, you know, involved. >> okay. >> yes.

>> okay. >> so, is there anything from the permit holder? no, yes? >> no. >> permit holder and co-owner of the building and it sounds like we are all in agreement that we want to do a replace in-kind. so, i see no issue. so commissioners, our next hearing date is november 13th, and it is a very full calendar, but this matter should have to take very little time, so if you would like we can consider a motion to move it to that date. >> so moved. >> thank you. >> is there any public comment? >> okay, if you could call the roll please? >> that from hurtado to continue appeal 13-102, to

november 13th. on that motion commissioner... are you going to vote on the rescheduling? >> no. >> the recusal and hurtado is ab accident. >> lazarus? >> aye. >> and commissioner honda. >> aye. >> thank you. >> the vote is 3-0. and this matter is continued to november 13th, thank you. >> and again, my apologize for the delay. okay, third housekeeping item, is item 9 a and 9 b appeal number 1s 3-109 and 13-111, the appellants have requested that a hearing be reschedule and the motion holder has disagreed. and with the vice president's consent, we can allow the parties three minutes time to address the board on this question of whether the matter should be reschedule. and i believe that there say question here about a conflict and i think that commissioner honda would like to make a statement.

>> commissioners, the advice from the city attorney, i am recusing due to financial issues on this matter. >> we can start with the appellant who will have three minutes to talk about the issue of a continuance. >> good afternoon, commissioners, my name is warren high, and i am a press on utah street and a member of the neighborhood district, and we filed our appeal on and we filed our papers with the commission three thursdays before this hearing as required by the rules. one of our other members jean (inaudible) actually just drove to the respond ant's place of business and delivered our briefs and papers to them. and they were required under article five, section 4, of your rules, to serve their reply brief as of last thursday, the 17th of october.

we received nothing on the 17th of october. and we received nothing until the executive officer of this commission contacted the attorney for the proponent and asked him, where the brief was and so on monday, about 3:00 in the afternoon, is the first time we saw the brief from the respond ants that gives since we have day jobs and we are doing it for the neighborhood, a volunteer basis, two evening to try to review the reply which contained a lot of shadow study and photographs to get ready for this hearing. and i contacted john (inaudible) of rubens and the law firm that the respondent has hired for this matter. they specialize in this kind of work. i have to assume that the lawyers they knew the rules and knew that they were required to

provide us with the briefs. and i asked him, to agree to continue this for until the next meeting, which i believe in is in two weeks because of the prejudice of not having the papers until a day before the hearing. he refused. we are asking you and this commission to continue this to the next hearing date, to allow nuna an opportunity to even share their brief with our board and to be able to prepare adequately for this hearing. >> you represented by counsel? >> are we? >> yes. >> no. >> thank you. >> okay, thank you, we can hear from the appellant on the other appeal. >> my make is michael (inaudible) and i am the other appellant, number two, and on friday, about 5:30 after having expected to areceived the brief to thursday evening by 4:30, i emailed the board, and i asked to let them know that i had not received the brief i thought it

was some what unusual, on monday, i received an e-mail and i replied it is great that i am getting the brief, delivered to my home finally on monday, but i am at school until 9:30 p.m. and did not make it home until ten, so i did not get to look at the brief until tuesday and i tried to explain that 48 hours was not going to be enough time. on sunday evening, several concerned neighbors met to discuss the upcoming board hearing and the opportunity as a community to review the material was effectively circumvent. >> the attorney said that we will be asking the board to not continue the case and make a decision on the merits on wednesday. can we do that without hearing our briefs? our appeals? , there is not significant new information in our brief that was not provided at earlier hearings and let me know if there is anything else to provide you before the hearing.

there was information in the brief that was submitted and i need more than 48 hours to review it. thank you. >> okay. thank you. >> we can hear from the motion holder now. >> good afternoon, prize ves lazarus and members of the board and we represent the sponsor. and yes, we do oppose the continuance and we would like to go ahead tonight. first, i have the number of things to say, first, by charter, this is a devono hearing, mirroring the two hearings that took place at the planning commission, ultimately resulting in an approval of the project, because it is precisely the same hearing, there is no new issue and the appellants will take every opportunity to delay and oppose the project are more than familiar with all of the planning code provision and arguments. indeed our brief about which they complained contains nothing new that was not arguinged despite the

representation that there was anything new. and those planning commission hearings are part of your record because this is a denovo hearing and the commission records are a part of what you will be considering. and in addition, there have been two hearings at the board of supervisors on the sequa appeal, and finally resolved with an 11 to nothing vote in favor of the project and against the appeal. it is hard to believe that there could really be genuine prejudice at this, the fifth public hearing. and there could be no claim of prejudice in truncating the time to respond because the board rules do not provide for a response. i understand this is the way that things work, but in this case does not to be sauce for the goose does not appear toing the gander, the brief was due on the third, and he called to ask if he could get tra time, it was a thursday and he asked if he could submit it on monday and we said of course, in fact,

his brief arrived on tuesday, four days late, about which we made no fuss at all. so, that brief arriving late, truncated our time to provide our reply brief and we should have said, of course, you can submit late, but we would like the same courtesy. had we not made the request at the time and we are making it now and rather than asking them, whose answers is, asking you the board to accord us the same cursecy that we provided to the pell ant and in fact if you measure the time that we took to respond, it is the same time that they took to submit their brief which was late. and so the time is the same. and this will not be the last hearing, there will be another one at some point and we will be posting a building permit and it will be appealed and we will be back here again. so we are hear and ready to

proceed. thank you. >> counselor you do not despite that your brief went to them late. >> yeah. our brief, the button got pushed to come here, so it was at the board but not to them. >> and why is that? >> oversight. >> yes. okay. >> yeah. >> we are not done yet. >> good evening, the planning department staff and the planning department does not have a position on the proposed continuance and we will leave that to the wisdom of the board, thank you. >> thank you. >> and now is there a public comment on this item? on the issue of the rescheduling?

okay. seeing none, then commissioners? and as per usual, if there is a motion made. we will obviously take a vote on it and if not, then we will just hear this matter as schedule. >> i am inclined to grant the continuance. i mean i am troubled by the fact that the brief was submitted to the board but not to the appellant, i think that is problematic, and as an attorney, i think that it is common practice to serve at the same time, and i think that everyone knows that. and so in my opinion there is good cause to continue it for two weeks. >> and i have a similar opinion. and for the slightly different reason, i think that we need to have consistency to our rules and regulations >> are you going to make a motion? >> matter director, i think

that the 13th is extremely difficult day. i would move to continue this to november 20th. of course, to the both parties, if that is an impossible day, please let us know now. >> yes? >> okay. >> okay. >> and okay. so, we have a motion then? >> we have a motion from commissioner fung, to reschedule items 9 a and b, 13 dfp 109 and 111 to november 12th and no additional briefing is allowed, correct in >> i think that there is plenty of briefing there. >> on that motion to

reschedule, president hwang is absent. and lazarus, aye. >> honda. >> and aye. >> and both matters are reschedule, to the november 20th. thank you. >> thank you. >> commissioners, we are done with the housekeeping items and we will move on to item one, which is public comment, for anything that is not on tonight's calendar. i believe not. >> item two, commissioner comments and questions.

absolutely. thank you my apologize. >> i could say something, but i guess that i won't. >> >> the deputy city attorney... so we are on item number 2. which is commissioner comments and questions. okay, seeing none, then we will move on to item 3, which is the consideration of the minutes for the board's meeting of october 9th, 2013. >> i move to approve the minutes. >> and is there any public comment on the minutes? >> seeing none, if you could call the roll on the minutes? >> on that motion from commissioner hurtado to adopt

the october 9, 2013 minutes, commissioner fung? >> aye. >> president hwang is absent. >> lazarus, aye. >> and commissioner honda. >> aye. >> the vote is 4-0 and the minutes are adopted. >> now on to item four, appeal number 1 3-085.shasha lewis dba "ola's exotic coffee & tea & oak & bbq", appellant(s) vs. dept. of public works bureau of street-use & mapping, responden nand the address is2801 leavenworth street. appealing the denial on june 27, 2013, of a mobile food facility permit (sale of coffee, tea, and sweets). application no. 13mff-0082 >> this matter was heard and it

is on for further consideration today it was consider continued to allow them, and allow time to submit the exhibits related to revenue and sales, dpw is also allowed additional written response. and so, vice president lazarus, i would suggest three minutes, per side, and we can start with the appellant. >> thank you for this process, i appreciate the opportunity to say i love san francisco. and i love you. and i love this opportunity. three years ago, i tried to participate in a new program for mobile food vendors and i was excited and i paid out all of my life savings and i developed my cart and mobile business. and i met wonderful people

including other mobile vendors and other owners and innovators and artists and i enjoyed the opportunities to bring them a unique experience that they cannot get anywhere else. and they responded with the appreciation and i tried to bring the best that i could, but i was stopped and bullied but those who are used to smashing the small business out of business and it is no matter who gives them permission, whether it is the city or the state or whoever, i hope to squash that effort and bring the best coffee and tea to san francisco where the people will appreciate the best of everything and where the coffee industry was born and, many here have only traveled to starbucks, or peats or what the local costco has to offer and many have yet to try jamacan coffee and all of which will pass the tastes and you will use less and unless until you try it, you will not know the quality of the coffee that you are trying our buying. and what is not to deny the

good citizens of san francisco, the great coffee, and which is including my personal special, authentic extra premium african coffee and tea blend. >> we submitted a declaration giving information as to all of the certificates that are necessary, and also, the sales data, that the board requested. and so we can take any questions on the declaration. thank you. >> there was no date on the sales data. >> are you saying that there is no dates as to when they saw me operating? >> yes. and as you know i was only operating for less than six

months, and i was approved. >> and so, it will have to be within the six months, because the day, the sixth month to the day is when they did the whole process of denying and one of the things that i said was that, i was only able to accumulate of a month and i had not gotten my sales data put together in any kind of a format and i was just starting and it was, and so, that i was operating was after i received the permit, >> and roughly what period of time. >> that was like, july. >> and 19. >> and 2012, june, and july all the way up to about november, is when it started to rain and things like that and but these are the people that basically are across from me and there are other people who abused my business, and because, if you, as i tried to in the coffee

business, we don't collect information on our customers, they just come pay and leave and so there is no way to track that, especially if you have only been in business a couple of weeks. >> okay. >> we can hear from the department now? >> john from the department of public works. >> the department did review the initial information provided and what we can identify on, the document that was provided, the document itself, was signature and information, collected on october of this year from all indications and which suggests that you are asking, individuals to valueate and

remember points of sales and someone who was operating up to maybe nine months ago which still does not appear to the department, if this was provided to the department and the department hearing, it was suggested, that there was, some operations of the sales transfer for this in this case. based upon the information provided, had this been provided during the director's hearing i do not believe that the department would have done anything else other than to (inaudible) and we are here to answer any questions that you may have. >> refresh my memory and i am sure that this question was asked and answered before, but the department in reviewing ongoing operations handles that

in kind of the time frame. >> the code as it relates is specific, in that there must be operation, there can be not be a gap of no more than six months, if you are operating and for whatever reason you go six months, without operating and then continue operations, or in certain situations, for example, i believe that they can have the truck burned out and then contacted the department immediately of the situation and then at that point, we suspended the permit until we get fixed the vehicle and they go back into the operation and so these are the kind of situations that we do recognize that there are extending circumstances that will create the circumstances where the individual cannot operate and in this case we are never contacted by the appellant and that for whatever reason she was not able to operate. >> do you have the staff that go out and see whether anybody is in operation?

>> the program is such that because of the fees that are collected it is more of a complaint-driven situation whereupon complaint we will investigate. okay. >> is your compatriot... >> i have the health department here to provide... >> okay. >> good evening, ladies and gentlemen and i am from the san francisco department of public health. and i am the person handling the inspection program and i am here to respond to your questions, and certainly did my events that transpired and you know, that surrounded this coffee and tea operation.