action of the department and in closing these. and so, i would suggest looking at that option, with the director and in many cases, go ahead and do these inspections so that we have adequate information about whether to act or not. if there are no more questions, thank you very much. this is helpful. >> and i look forward for the next one and we are not asking for it any time soon, we want to acknowledge mr. love for all of these working charts here. yeah. >> is there any public comment on item six? >> item 8, discuss and possible action regarding proposed changes to administrative

bulletin ab, 107. >> good morning, commissioners and director hui and i will be presenting items 8 and 9. we could do them together. >> we are going to call 8 and the together. >> item nine isdiscussion and possible action regarding a proposed revision to existing administrative bulletin ab-004, priority permit processing guidelines to include voluntary or mandatory seismic upgrades to private schools to improve performance in an earthquake. >> mike hales and working on the implementation program. and so, number nine permit and processing guidelines to include, the mandatory retrofit wheres they called out the

voluntary retrofits because they had the ab zero program, until the mandatory program, passed recently and we also added in a section that will allow the private schools that in response to those evaluations decide to undergo the upgrade and we got a recommendation from the bac and everything for that. and as for 107, those are the engineering and that is the engineering criteria for the mandatory program. and during the process of seeing some permits, and having discussions with the engineers, and there were a few items that they wanted to provide a little bit of clarification on. and i am not a structural engineer, and so i am not exactly sure what those issues are. but they provided some clarification, and that is the update to ab107. >> commissioner clinch?

>> yeah. >> i think that these are well written and it has to be economical at the similar time as effective and so good job on these whoever you could pass that along to whoever put it together. >> i will do that. >> could you tell us specifics? >> they have identified frame systems for using steel to resist lateral loads. and they have acknowledged the fact that you don't have to comply, because the frames are put in for the supplements, and... >> and yeah, and the columns are supplemental and so they

don't have to are there any other questions? >> thank you. >> congratulations to your old department and what is going with the soft story. >> >> actually one more thing, i actually conducted an analysis on the preliminary returns from the soft story program. just to kind of place everything in context, it was before the board of supervisor buzz i think that it might be of interest, i have one copy, but i can send it to you. >> if you would sented it to the packet form. >> thank you. >> thanks again for your time. >> and these for discussion and item. >> is there a public comment first on items 8 and 9?

>> is there a motion to approve the items? >> move to approve items 8 and 9,. >> second. >> there is a motion to approve 8 and 9. >> correct. >> and there was no public comment. we will do a roll call vote. president mccarthy? >> aye. >> commissioner lee? >> yes. >> commissioner mccray? >> yes. >> commissioner melgar >> yes. >> commissioner walker. >> yes flt >> and commissioner clinch. >> yes. >> both carry unanimously. okay, item ten?discussion on the issuance of night noise permits in the rincon hill residential area, including any dbi policy changes >> if i may, and i kind of asked for an update on this from the director, and i believe that it is still a bit of a moving

discussion. i thought that it would be good to let the commissioners where we stand and how we are addressing the policies and a better understanding of what the issues might be on this and i also, i noticed that obviously, inspector is here, and also, mr. duffy who has been involved in the years, and i would be interested to hearing from them for anything that they might have to add as well. >> okay. >> director (inaudible) department of building and inspect tom hui and we did do, you know, a little bit more of the draw up and it is on this, and on the permit and then, i and you will see in the package, on october, we have 38 requests. and on the permit. and for the noise and then we

deny seven of them. but, this is a, and this is, and that particular area, no, in generally, in the policy and procedures is for the whole city. for that particular area, it is what we call the hot spot and we want to have more out reach and then to be understanding of the res residents and they want to put it in both sides and then, i think tomorrow, we will have the october 9, no, november 19th, that will be another meeting, in the afternoon to have the meeting and also the residents too. and most of the night noise permit to attend in those areas by our inspector joe duffy and also, is handling my, you know,

chief inspector and deputy director, and i think that the job is very comprehensive, and i think that it is... but we don't want to be too restrict $we want to be more, you know, more detail and on those areas. later on you don't want to restrict the whole city for this kind of a restriction, and you can look on the draft >> we are in a position right now where we are trying to fine tune it to make it more reflective on what is going on in the city and we have a lot of issues and i guess that the thing that bothered me, is that i really believed that we have had the strong policis in place, and so there is a little bit of movement as to why they

are not issued and so on but we got past that. and i don't know, if mr. duffy, and if one of you would like to talk to, because i know that over the years, that between the two of you guys who have been primarily want to be approved and they are primarily and kind of goat to people for these permits it was traumatic in the fact that you had large projects downtown not being able to issue the permits and it caused a lot of heart burn, i am sure and i just want to be sure that because, from where i am sitting, and from what i understand, we have been working very hard in dealing with these noise issues and we have over the years, and i only learned this through the hearing, actually hearing you speak that you had done and implemented changes, and talked to the issues and i would not mind hearing the story on that and the direct is going to

update us and the changes that have you implemented on top of the changes that have you been done over the years. so, the chief inspector? >> good morning, and again, commissioners i think that it is still morning. as someone said, this is a balance, a lot of the new buildings are being built downtown. and around recently finished buildings that are residential buildings. and there is an impact on the residents of those buildings and we do know that the activity that goes on the construction sites around the newer buildings and some of that work just has to be done at night for different reasons and some of it has to do with the large concrete foundation pours that spill over beyond the 8:00 pm time frame, but

generally they are trying to work around commutes. i don't know wants it to sit in traffic, because usually the truck is turned around and they will not let them put the concrete in the ground, it has to be placed within a specific amount of time and it is a limited amount of time. nobody wants that impact on the commute and the mta may have the restrictions on that kind of traffic impacting and thn we have the large loads, and the mta has restrictions on the nine ax sell trucks that come

into the city and they can only come in the city after 1 a.m., and then they have to, vacate the city again by 5:00 in the morning. they are receiving beams and they have to be delivered in the nighttime hours and usually to do with the mta or dpw restrictions. someone is doing something with the crane and it is 100 feet long and we don't want that work being done while the people are walking on the sidewalk, or you know, and the vehicular traffic is, down below and we also have to consider the impact on things like muni

and someone is putting up something as simple as a billboard sign in union square you know to do that they might have to get a crane in there and we don't want that to happen in the course of all of the business days and so we allow that kind of work to happen at night. we adhere to the restrict guidelines and the work at nighttime is better conducted at nighttime. because, during the day, we don't want to see a structural impact on the building, someone said, for example, okay, well if there is a problem with the concrete delivery, you know you can go back and fix it. well, the response to that is yeah, you can and it probably will take a month of 100

jackhammers to take out the old concrete to pour the new concrete to replace what was poured and did not meet the spec. but having said that, there is an impact on the residents around that construction site and we understand that. some of the work that we have, and we recognize that there is more impact. and we bring these developers in, why do you need to do this at night and you are next to a building, with 300 residents and they are going to be impacted by what you are doing. and tell us why, you think that it is justifiable that we give you a permit. >> to work at night. now, typically, they want to start, maybe at 3, and we,

don't approve that. we usually say, no. you get to start at 5:30, you can do your work starting at 5:30. less impact on the neighbors. you guys are all familiar with the back up alarm and no one wants to hear that at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning and that is a requirement by osha that the equipment needs to have that back up alarm but there are better ways, technology being what it is, there is a broadband, a white noise back up alarm that complies with the requirement, and it is far less intrusive, and you know, and it meets the requirements and so we are, and we are talking to people, subtle arm twisting to

have them change out for these alarms. we can't make people do that, but we try, and we try in an effort to lessen the impact on the neighbors regarding the work that is justifiable for night work, simple things like train your staff, eliminate the silly things, don't drop a trench plate and a big large metal plate on a dumpster at 3:00 in the morning that is just no good and so we have these conversations all of the time. train your staff and take the generator, and you don't have to have the generator next to the neighbor's building put that on the other side of the building, that is impact and these are the good things that i think that we do that nobody knows about but i am more than happy to tell you because it is an ongoing thing

we do this every day and joe is part of a noise group and i let them speak to that a little bit. a lot of them have to do with noise and, joe was part of that and i think that it was commissioned by supervisor yee's office, and so, that has led to a lot of interesting ideas, about how we can hopefully mitigate the impact of some of this noise. so, again, we are consider engaged with the process. we attend meetings on a monthly basis at one of the most impacted buildings, and the new buildings downtown. and that is an ongoing meeting that we do attend. and i am going to let bill strong speak to the draft that is being put together a little bit he is working on that and he has more knowledge in regard to the elements within that draft than i do, and but i can

definitely speak to the day-to-day stuff. and if joe would like to add anything to... >> thank you. >> stay there. >> stay there. >> >> commissioners joe duffy senior building inspect and her thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak about this and it is something that i say that we have been hit with a lot more of these because of the boom and the people living down there like patrick said and i personally feel that we were doing good work with the meetings that we had with the metropolitan and the other building on mission street, and i think that it was, i think that is the mill len um tower and we preach out reach to the develop and her you have to have a point person and if it is a pr company they need to be able to get a hold of you and you need to be going to monthly meet ands that is happening to the land use hearing and maybe

it was not said and we don't have a policy or a procedure in place and i think that with the discussion, and the good thing that is going to come out of it is that the public are going to be able to see, now, where these night noise permits are issued and how they are issued to and who that person is and their phone number and if you want to call them and ask them about it, and then one other thing that is in my head, and the, and we do not want to be given the impression that the dbi that we are given and we need the night noise to keep so that the buildings can be built in record time so that the people can be kept away at night and there is a lot of talk that there were health issues brought up at meetings and the children not getting sleep and the families not getting sleep, and you are being kept awake at 3:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. and we do not want that but unfortunately and sometimes in these situations, as patrick said, we are forced to give the permits due to the deliveries across the bridge are not allowed to the transport permit said that you have to be able to go through

one 6 a.m. and if you have a 70 foot beam and so we have to justify the issuance of these and we are and we had been and we will be. and that is basically what i think that i will say that i am available for any questions, but that is what we do every day and we will continue to do t >> you were telling me the story that the contact person and that they actually and what do you the random calls when, and i thought that was very interesting. >> we do it but this does not. >> yeah, when we get that across the desk. what we normally get is the letter to dbi from the developer. and we also ask for a copy of the out reach letter. so occasionally i will take that phone number, and i will check on the out reach number to make sure that the guy is answering the phone and if they don't answer the phone that means that you called in the middle of the night that is not good and so that is obviously, demonstrate to patrick and myself and because your out

reach is really just on paper and it is not real. you know, that cell phone must be answered if that is your number for someone to complaint, whether it is 3 a.m. or 11 a.m. and just maintain as well, commissioners and you may not and the cold that, and that is the cold, and it is working in san francisco, and it is allowed between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m., seven days a week, and that is a lot of hours, like we know that. but, i will just say that a lot of and i just want to reiterate that we are forced sometimes to give these things and we do bring in, and like the discussion has been done where we have cut them down and i think that i gave one yesterday morning, where they wanted to start at 5:00 a.m. and they had a lot of concrete and they were going to be finished at 9:00 p.m. and i said why don't we go from 6:00 to ten that is kind of when the people like the waking hours or the working hours of peek in the big city and so we do work with them and try to talk them out of it and work with them, like that is an

ongoing thing. >> yeah. >> commissioner melgar? >> so, you guys, and i saw the hearing, and i guess that is touched a personal thing with me and what you guys, have just presented is totally reasonable, and when i was pregnant with my last kid i was induced because she was so late, and the day before, my procedure, i was awaken at 4:00 in the morning by a construction crew, sawing through a metal pipe outside of the window and you know it led to all sorts of mehem for me for that day it was terrible, but what happened was that someone had decided that this was not a residential area, when in fact it was a mixed use area. and the problem was that nobody got notified properly. what they told us was that the water was going to be cut off and not there was going to be all sorts of construction noise and you know to make the long story short, all of the

neighbors came out screaming at the construction crew like it was not their fault and no one was noticed properly, and so i am wondering, if there is a permit issued, that you know you guys know that it is going to cause a lot of noise, and i mean what is the requirements for just noticing the neighbors that this is going to happen n case someone like me is, you know, would otherwise go somewhere else that night. >> i am sorry that you had to deal with that situation. but, it really all goes back to what joe said, it is all about out reach, and communication. we do receive evidence of out reach, and if it is not good, we will say, you know, there is a problem here, it looks like people won't know what it is that you are going to be doing, based on this. and moving forward, we are encouraging especially the bigger contractors, and it should be everyone for that matter in my opinion, to generate a web page and let the people know what you are going to be doing. >> when you are going to be doing it. what you might need to do that

will be outside of the normal working hours. because when you think about this, it may be very justifiable what they need to do, but the people deserve proper notice. and advanced notice so that they can plan ahead. so, you know, there are different ways after achieving that result, the web page and e-mail to a large building and find the manager of the building, and the hoa and then they can do an e-mail blast, you know, there are newsletters, and there is all of these different things that can be done any more. and a lot of it is, you know, because of web access and e-mail and everything else, it is all good stuff, but i think that people need to get appropriate and adequate notice and like joe says, we call, we call these people and sometimes like if we wake up in the middle of the night we might say let's give this guy a call and see if he is there and he is not, that is not good. it might not get there the next noise permit. >> commissioner lee?

>> in my mind i work over at public works and we get the complaints sometimes. the people will explain that he moved the instrument in front of the house and it makes a lot of noise. >> the contractor says that i was not working i was just moving something there, my question to you would be is there any activity that is allowed. >> yes, if it can be demonstrated that the construction activity is five decibels or less above ambient than that work is allowed to take place during the nighttime hours. >> so moving equipment and what... it would be considered not allowed. >> it depends on how much noise they are making. >> when i think about that i

think about equipment or dropping a dumpster we had a complaint that someone dropped a dumpster at 2:00 in the morning along mission street and so that generated 15 complaints. because they dropped a piece of metal on the street and wakes everyone up and they don't stop at that and they have back up alarms and light and pushing it along the street and we have 15 complaints. and we could tell from one in particular, that you know the people were not very happy about it. but then again, if is the building department, and that is might not even with us. because if a dumpster is being dropped on the street, then, we have control over the property line, and into the job site. if they are not doing anything inside of those property lines, it is not our jurisdiction. >> the sidewalk is dpw. the cars in the street on out, is mta as best as i understand it. and so that does not fall under

our jurisdiction and so we look at, the building and the property line, and into the site and the construction site. and if they are doing something in there, and that is us. and the dumpster thing, i mean that everyone things that it is, oh, it is dbi, the dumpster, but look it is something happening on the street. and we get complaints and it might have been someone picking up the garbage and an ambulance and the police cruiser and they just see the construction site and they see lights and they, you know, well think that is where the noise is coming from, let's call. >> when you are talking to the contractor, and the contractor says, yes i can bring in a dumpster tomorrow might at 3:00 in the morning what do we advice them. >> we say bring it before 8:00, or after 7:00 the next day, because that is stuff that they go do during the day, if it is a dumpster.

some of the other stuff that we are doing, is some of these jobs downtown, are impacted by complaints, in regard to working passed the hours. and some of them feel that it is not me, it is the other guy, so this finger pointing thing goes on a little bit. and so what some of them have done is they have installed the cctv cameras on the job sites and two or three of them have i think, have allowed us the web access to the cc tv cameras. and so, we can work in the middle of the night if we want to. >> that is great. >> in fact, one of our inspectors actually did and i don't know if he got up in the middle of the night to look at this but he did. i think that he was trying to figure out a complaint from the previous nights. regarding, you know, the time lines that are indicated on the complaint and just to see if he can verify this. >> yes, as the commission, and we have it, and the time line,

and it is 2 weeks minimum to, you know, to this, and also, it is you know, we also require 300 foot radius in the area, for you this is imposed to define the radius in the area and also, you heard a lot of complaints sometimes and you know the system and it would fit best for the residents, and some jobs they are very good to educate people and also how to educate them, and generally, the contractors do a good job and we need it and how do, and you know, how the job (inaudible) and how do you put, (inaudible) there to reduce the noise and you can have the five ambient noise can be magnified at night. and we want to send the

inspector to check it out and to reach the rest of them in case of anything, but we are not a noise expert and we will consult can the health department and everybody will go by that and how to notify the people with a draft letter, you know, how do. and all of this is more, you know, how to, out reach all of the public and on the contractor. >> yeah. >> and commissioner? >> now, that we know that there are or could be activity done without the night noise permit and how about that i ask if there is any reason why we don't require the permit for all types of activities? >> i mean, all types of activities beyond the yeah. why