them within the coming weeks. >> so, now a little bit of details within the planning department that were first is the currency planning condition staff is relatively stable and most of the staff in this twifgs a dedicated to application review more than 56 percent and there's been a conditioned use of applications over the past years with noble increases in building permits as well as condo with the recent change of legislation. there's been an there in volume and backlog because how quickly the volume has been coming in. the division has adequate staffing and reflects the current staffing where they've increased the staffing to provide better service to the

public. staff will be working on continued changes to the planning code and the ongoing processes updating various plagues and implicitly documents we magician available to the public. now the historic preservation will be presented by tim fry >> good afternoon i'll briefly walk you through this slow down per. in particular let's look at listens two or three and 6 and 7. there's been a significant increase in preservation most notably the historic review with sequa review and minor permits to alternate under article 11.

the two most active conservatism district. and as was mentioned the pace a of planners keeping up with that workload has been a challenge and during the currency fiscal year we've included additional staff and consider additional resources for the next fiscal year and beyond. i want to point out an important piece is enter departmental cooperation through the recreation and parks and it's steadily increased over the past year. in regards to line 4 this is the

historic preservation commission work program and then lines 1, 5 and 8 and in particular line 5 is in reference to commissioner johncks previous question about the staff time allocated for and landmark designations. this is remaining consistent and that's about one hundred and 60 hours per jerry year we've looked 40 those designations. that's the community if you wanted through the historic preservation fund committee. sometimes that work is fund to the fund committee to the planning department and if we have additional you hours remaining we'll provide technical assistance to the fund community as well.

finally, in regards to lines 1 what we 8 we are going to continue our outreach through a certified government grant. we're conducting a commercial district statement this coming year and we'll continue to provide the support to communities nichtd work and several other projects. if you have any questions, i'll be happy to answer them about this slide at this time >> specifically. >> i had a question about item 3 given you were saying there's so much backlog why is this going down the ftes. the the c of a and is

preservation >> the primary increase in workload has been with sequa like workforce elevations we've seen a slight decrease to minor permits to alternate under article lifting. i view those and the two gentlemen may want to clarify but i see that as a shift between the two lines 9 line above and below its still the amount of work their allocating that to a different type of application >> thank you. >> i have a general overall comment. we don't have as much traffic as the planning commission does we're on the same level as the planning commission. we have quite a bit of the

annual look back but we didn't participate in the violation of the department, you know. >> well there's no mention. >> no mention. >> even of the word history. >> i don't remember the mission statement being part of this commission and we went through that a number of times both and the way that the phrase preserving the in the course heritage is grown out p of that. they're technically in charge of the department they're technically my boss. that was a way to get our participation. i believe i came to you with this discussion by you might be

mistaken. the word historical should be mentioned >> i'd love to adapt it as well a we're in unison. >> thanks any other questions or comments. >> is your presentation over. >> no, i have 5. >> shall i continue with the presentation? >> okay. so now moving on the city division the divisions are relatively stable and the parent apparent various lines it's a function of reorganizing the representation of the commission it's a reporting of the consistency issue.

the major themes underlying is implementing public improvements to support existing neighborhoods and growth. the gooidz of the neighborhood to reach citywide goals and by seeking solutions related to land use for the street design and he mroement policies and programs to maintain a difference environment >> of the division stroifz to be a national lowered in best practices of all urban practices. there's more information in the packet. next moving on to the environmental planning division. we have are will have the same staffing measures.

we've gotten e.r.s the mexican museum and the 5 ex-husband campus plan and the ground project for water and the service project. it includes the warriors arena or 5 m and the mucus expansion project and mathematics effective projects and many, many other projects. environmental planning transportation activities have been working on the high-speed rail for development around the various transportation infrastructure. moving on to the zoning and convalescence division that includes the enforcement functions and the general advertising program. we have minor staffing in the

recent years and there's been a minor amount of complaints but we're addressing those complaints and finally, the administration division. in the directors office they analysis the city municipal i municipal codes and to mania liaison with elected officials. some major projects are a reorganization and simplification of the article two of the article code and the regulation on medic-cal canneries. further ambassador programs and ambassador work. the department is excited to be implementing a new cashier

system we'll finally, be able to accept credit card and debit card so we'll provide better service and the department passing has been working with the dbi with the tracking system. we're scheduled to go live at the end of march we are excited about that as well. so a way that we access is to regularly track performances measures. most of our performances measures we report on a perspective basis help us to see how efficient we were on our projects. and we review those measures with the senior management team and the managers and it helps us to make decisions. f in the current planning

division it reviews planning permits as he due to the complexity the code it does at the end to take a little bit longer to review many of those applications. we've seen significant growth in permit alternatives and drs to name a few >> i wanted to ask a question about that one in particular. you go from 23 to 26 percent and have a target of 75 percent that's the only place in this entire report i saw something dramatically different. what in the department is going to help get there >> the staff not increasing only by 3 percent so is that an

unrealistic expectation. >> it's to be clear our comparing the actual to the targets. >> you're right and other categories that are out of change. the reason the staffing hadn't changed yet because we that haven't added any new positions. we'll likely to be able to add a few we're still getting the numbers in. so we'll be looking at this obviously that's important. that's out of change and some people go august u argue our target should be lower >> it didn't make sense to have a target that's 50 percent. area part of this is being driven by hoa because of the how

number of building permit plagues to alternate existing buildings. there's been a huge spike in the building permits who knows if that's going to keep up >> commissioner johnck. >> of course, that caught my eye on the target performance measures. but i wasn't thinking you need to add staff i was thinking what are the performances measures in the sense and what i'm familiar with in the state and federal process is every now and then we do the value jerry and look at the process how the staff is functioning. we found one agency there was a lot of hand-offs they check whether or not the error was there and send it on.

so we consolidated and went through a process to get a faster time speed. so you don't have to give a report on the standards but that's something i'm interested in. >> i want to comment on that because i see it at the time. there's some a discrepancy and then a staff member who's a historical planner is taking five or six months to do the same detail as one other employee. maybe a shifting of workload whose who's a person who is taking 6 weeks to someone who's

clearly overworked. i agree with ellen that may not be about staff but workload >> thank you. thanks. >> okay. so moving onto the citywide tracking position they're going with the design activity and a lot of those activities are quit challenging to track. however, we track those to referrals and the programming of impact foe revenue that comes in. we've been fairly successful in programming that revenue and to complete the referrals within the target number of days over the passing past two years >> moving on the the

environmental planning division again, it reviews hundreds of cases due to the complexities and the ers continue to take two years sometimes to complete as with various planning applications prongs are sometimes put on hold or revised while in the middle of the environmental reviews that causes the time to be increased for the time to get it done. there are exemptions in a timely manner that are done well above the target. the zoning motivation there's a backlog of complaints, however, this measure tracks to insure we're starting the enforcement proceedings on complaints that come in to do an assessment of them to understand the severity

of them and we've been successful with those that come in the door. and finally, in the administration division. staff are involved in many activities attorney that contribute to meeting the goals such as a the administrative code. we plan to implement the new tracking system by the end of the march of 9014 and we also report on various information technology group and how it group supports the network and managing the ticket. we report a number of issues and we review those measures on a frequent basis to help make departmental decisions that

concludes my presentation we'll be come back back with the proposed budget with the entrants and any new requests we have at that time. me and director ram and the division chiefs they're here today if you have any questions, we'll be happy to answer them thank you very much >> commissioners, comments or questions. commissioner matsuda. oh, commissioner johnck >> pardon me. >> first of all, great report and just a couple of questions. echo districts what's that the nature area districts plan it in the water department to look at the stormwater control

>> i'm with the city division. the etc., could districts a one an effort for the core sustainable program it was nichtd to pursue an effort to achieve the city's goals at a neighborhood state law scale and working with the public works and other agencies as well as private stakeholders and property owners to look at ways to achieve our goals for water and energy at the a local level in coordination with the retrofit of existing neighborhood but altercating other agencies like public works are looking at this on are still scale to tie it to our micro

efforts >> another way to think about the echo things they apply to a neighborhood there are efficiency when you look at the clupgz of buildings. it's a plan we're working on with the nature areas under their jurisdiction. that's been a very long environmental review. there's a plan they put in place and an expensive e extensive e.r. that's being conducted and there's a lot of heated positions. there are those who building we should cut down non-native trees and there are those who don't. that's been in the throws of a long series of meeting that's why it shows up. it is a bigger task than we

thought it would be >> okay. just as a response back to that two. i believe that many of our natural areas are historic this goes to a comment about golden gate park so there's kwooift quite a significant issue between this and ours good. thank you commissioner honda. >> i'd like to understand better how the mission envision was revised without our input. this is an important document and having diagonal is role important. last year and correct me if i am wrong i'm talking about staff head counts. labor not we but it was approved

for 4 new head counts before and after july 1st of last year if i remember correctly. how many of those have been filled >> we've got oh, you're happy to answer that. >> you mean department would i do. >> we went to the board in the middle of the year and they give us 8. >> 8. >> (multiple voices). >> it was during this current installation. >> how how many have those been filled. >> well, we've hired 37 since then. we went mid year for a

supplemental and got those filed and the budget included an additional 8 positions that were unfunded as a precursor to do a spill so we wouldn't have to do a supplemental and if we recognized an additional issue then the mayor approved we go through the filling of the 8 positions with the expose revenue we're realizing in the current year were >> there was one historic preservation and there was a compliance position. >> and commissioners tim fry i wanted to clarify that those additional adheres were focused primary on the sequa backlog and then the one enforcement planner

position that was mentioned we're hoping to fill that position within the next month or so. just again in response to commissioner pearlman question about the process improvement and commissioner johns. we're looking at efficiency we can make comboifrl to eliminate the more than that 60 day turn around we understand you are concerned about the delay >> it's about the matrix and tarlthsz. my initial reaction was that metric is pretty elongated or the time was one hundred and 20 days or 90 days yet the targets

weren't all that high. and i'm curious what other cities i know when i work in la and portland and sal lemon and chicago and virginia we don't deal about even a quarter of a time with getting through the approval process and the reviewed sequa >> well, not just sequa it's h.r. pr's. >> commissioners, i hate to interpreters what table. >> well, just in general. >> a general comment. yeah. >> but non-the percentage of all e all percentages of the buildings permits are approved in 90 days. >> 90 days is a long time. >> it's from all high-rises and

all permits. >> do we know what other cities are doing with a performance prospective and knowing how to achieve those performances. >> i don't know. why do we take so long. to be clear here san francisco building inspection has to review more than chicago and more than los angeles because the evaluate vast majority of what we do are discretionary. you read in the paper new york can approve one thousand to the buildings and theirs not review by the planning department. so new york reviews as a planning agency about 5 thousand a year we review 2 thousand and

new york has ten times the population of san francisco and la has about one thousand projects. the other factor is because of sequa if a an approval process is discretionary with you have some sequa applies. not only are we required to review it we're required to do a sequa process. new york and chicago they don't review it nor do a review on a thousand to the building you don't stop at the planning department. so the details are exclusively due to the volume. each of the case loads it's the

cross-examination of the issue >> commissioner matsuda >> thank you, my comments. see are regarding this report will the planning commission hear the same report tomorrow. >> they will hear the same exact presentation form tomorrow. >> i'm hoping your staff will clearly rally our concerns and to kind of look at us not as total and separate silos but commissions that can clearly work together. i didn't see that at all through the report. particularly in the area of - where is it? the community planning group.

that real encompassed various community and within communities there's a lot of discussion about cultural and history. i'm holy through this process we can figure out ways to work together and to incorporate more of historic language or historic presentation in this. i don't see it at all when it talks about the planning group. i just would liquor and i'm sure there are members of the planning commission that will appreciate and welcome us working together to become a stronger city with one voice rather than, you know, finding out information is