immigrants and refugees. she understood the need to build power. in the 2012 election, she somehow commandeered a school bus and would drive around to housing projects to, to the jail, registering people to vote and called it the freedom bus. she loved san francisco. she once said we have to raise the bar here everyday because as the richest city, state in the world, san francisco should be littled in its capacity to serve. she had many grandkids. i was one of hers. many people served were considered her grandkid and she knew that she had to impart her wisdom during her time on earth to all of us so that her work would continue. i can say i would not be here as

a supervisor if it wasn't for her mentorship, friendship and support. the last thing i want to say is that she believed in diversity and the power of diversity as much as anybody as i ever met. i look here and see incredible full support from the community and some people who speak a different language, but were able to connect with sharon because she knew that -- they knew she cared. she loved the tenderloin neighborhood because she believed it represented the best of who we are and our greatest possibility. possibilities. i want to end by reading an email from sharon herself. she would often demand things from people in power and people on the elevator, people in her building. and i often go back and read texts that she sent me an e-mails and she sent an email that myself and supervisor jane

kim were cced on but is addressed to president obama and hillary clinton. this is from sharon. i hope this message finds you well. there is something going on in san francisco. , a unique challenge an opportunity to maintain as community residents. invite you to join us soon. as a long time sf resident in the community, please accept my invitation to visit current house, a tenderloin neighborhood, development, corporation, residential building two blocks from glibe. next time either of you is in town, please take a tour of the strong and most neighborhood would be energized by your presence. give the base a reason to engage and continue hope. while i understand both are tremendously busy with national and international affairs, i would gently remind you to show

love and tendererness to a group of supporters that exists here in need of genuine concern and authentic leadership. together we hold a special responsibility and bold opportunity to realize our collective dream of diversity and includ inclusion. we strive to be a part of a society of privilege for all. in community, sharon hewitt, co-share. i want to thank you, grandmother, sharon. we miss you but know you aren't gone. we're doing what we can. although i'm sure we're not doing enough, to continue your work. so if her daughter has made it up, i don't see her yet, this award will be presented to her when she comes in. she has a baby with her and had to leave work. but i want to also present this commendation to the many people

whose lives she's touched, the folks who, especially hear from the tenderloin and i think i see dee-de coming in now. and i want to thank you dee-dee foefor sharing your mother with. this is a roomful of people whose lives she had touched. (applause). (applause. >> i wouldn't be standing here if it weren't for her and your family so i want to say thank you. >> i'm sorry, i couldn't hear if you were finished. >> supervisor walton. >> thank you, president. i want to say, you know, i want to thank supervisor hain earthquakes for doiney fordoing. very few people have the

capacity to provide leadership in several communities here in san francisco and sharon goes back to her days when she was working hard in sunnydale. i had the opportunity and i did not know she moved to the tenderloin and i started work wig tndc on a nondevelopment project and we would meet in current house. as soon as she saw me there, my life began to change again, because she does not allow you and did not allow you to be passive in your leadership and so, although most of my work was in the southeast sector of san francisco, she immediately made it clear to me that now i would be working on behalf of the tinderloin community as well and consistently stayed in contact with me through phone calls, text messages, through meetings, through walks through the tl so as we worked and campaigned and got prepared to certainly on the board of supervisors that i

understood what was needed across san francisco and if the communities like the tinderloin. she will be remembered for her amazing work and worked and fought hard for the community until the very day she left this earth and i want to thank everyone for coming out. i look out in the consequenc tho see people she worked with and thank you for being here to honour miss hewitt and i want to say to the supervisor, this is a reflection of understanding what true leadership is and the people who have come before us and laid the path because i know i would not be sitting hear i if it was not for sharon. the work we did together on that freedom bus, two years later and run for board of supervisors, she was there, not just to support you but to hold you accountable and to let you know

you work for the people. thank you. >> supervisor brown. >> thank you, supervisor hainey for honouring her. i knew sharon years ago and she was very involved in the western edition. when i was an aide and there was a lot of violence, ten, 12 years ago, sharon would give me that call and i actually learned to take it because if you didn't, she would call you over and over and the next morning, she would be really pissed at you. i don't care if it was 10:30, 11, i had a hard day, i would take her call and listen to her. and there was no excuse. you had to step up and do what you needed to do. if you made excuses, that would make her mad. so i learned very quickly never to make excuses, say yes, miss hewitt and she kept you

accountable, as supervisor had said but she was with you when you were going through the hard times, especially when it was so sad with families and the community that was experiencing violence and all kinds of things making the community to move forward. so thank you very much for honouring her. i'm happy the board of supervisors is houring her because she is truly a gem in san francisco. thank you. >> supervisor safayi. >> thank you, supervisor hainey. i spoke before when we honoured sharon's life commitment but i wanted to say a few more words today. i couldn't pass on the opportunity. shay ron was onsharon was one ot

people i met in san francisco at the housing authority on my first day of work. she zeroed in on me and said, you're going to be my mentee. laugh. [ laughter ] >> and she was right and she took me around for two years talking to me about the housing authority, about the politics of the city, about how you get elected as mayor. she told me about her work that she did in public housing, getting people registered to vote and helping to elect mayor willie brown and for awhile, i would think that sharon was an exaggerator. i did. i really did. but i came to realize she wasn't expert rating abouexaggerating . she was involved in so many aspects of so many people's lives and she was telling the truth and used that truth in such a way to make positive change. the work that i was able to do with her was we built the first

recording studio in sunnydale. we worked to turn around and name that centre after mayor willie brown. it's a little tiny safehaven. she went on to do so many things and left the clear project and went to the tinderloin and she brought me and sharon as others have said, she would call you up and ask you things, she would tell you what you were going to do. she called me and said, i started this programme where you'll sponsor someone for christmas. this is a family who doesn't have the money to buy their child a charges present. christmas present. i said, ok, tell me where to show up and that's what i did and that's what i did for a few years working for him. i have come to see what an impact it's made just having a

present on christmas day. sharon was involved in so many things, you could go on and on for hours but the fact she dedicated herself and truly gave her life. she gave her life to this city and to the people that she was committed to. so it was a blessing. it was a true blessing to know sharon hewitt and i'm just honoured and i want to say that to her daughter and all of the people that came out to support her today. she was a true san francisco warrior. she really what's. was. may she rest in peace. >> thank you, supervisor hainey. i want to share something brief. i've known sharon for a long time, whe. i approached her one year and said, hey, i want to serve on the sunnydale residence, because i just received a gran grant fre

federal government to do a early head start and i have enough slots to go beyond what we're serving. there's a centre there. no, but there's an empty lot. i said, great, i need a centre. i said find the money and build it. i think she was just joking but about three or four months later, it's said ok, i have the money, you're going to help me build it. it only took a year to build a centre there and every time we got bogged down, the reason why it was built so quickly was every time i got bogged down one i would go to sharon and say, sharon, it's slowing down again and the next day, all of a sudden, things got done again. so within a year, we were able to build a centre and it was really her effort that made it happen. i'm so ga glad i had the

opportunity to work so closely with sharon on that project and make it happen for residents in sunnydale. ok, all yours, supervisor. >> thank you, president and thank you, colleagues for your comments. i want to ask dee-dee, if you want to say a few words and i want to thank everybody who is here for this. i know we were connected from grandmother sharon and i see joe wilson and del seymour and so many leaders in our community are here and all of us really have been connected through sharon and so her work absolutely lives on in all of us and you, as well. so thank you for being here. >> hi, than thank you, board of supervisors, members, members of the police department, activists and all of you have come out to support my mother. it's hard not to be teary eyed

right now. i am dee-dee hewitt, i am her daughter and i watched my mother pour her blood, sweat and tears in this city and telling me not to cry and insisting we carry on her legacy because there's no much work to be done. thank you for those who came out, but my mother her blood, sweat and tears in every community in this city, from voting rights and getting voting machines out to education. some of you may not know she was adjunct staff and many students landed there that didn't know they would be students. everybody from healthcare, from new york city in 1980, she worked with the health department and she worked doing all kinds of things in the community regarding health,

regarding political organizing, community organizing, you name it, she did it. i remember thinking, gosh, mom, when are you going to rest? she said when i die. so now she's finally at rest and i will be doing work to carry on her legacy and i encourage all of you to reach out to me, because i want to continue her body of work. it's really important in this city. we have a very valuable city she loved. she was endeared to. she called all of us all hours of the night, by the way. [ laughter ] >> so her heart and soul is in the city. i implore you and thank you, supervisors and carry that torch and please feel free to call on me and i may be calling on you all hours as well. thank you so pitch. we love and appreciate you from the hewitt family and thank you again. (applause).

>> ok, madam clerk, let's go to our 3:00 p.m. sperm order. items 27 to 30. >> items 27 through 30 comprise the public hearing of persons ised in the determination of review under the california act

issued as a categorical exemption for the amendment to the city's youth permit with another planet entertainment for the three-day festival in golden gate park, known as outside lands to extend the term for an additional ten years and to update certain provisions related to rents and costs of reimbursements on cost ofl costd other increases. item 28 is the motion to affirm the department's determination that the proposed outside land's festival use permit is ca categorically exempt and item 29 reverses the exemption for further review, written findings and item 30 is the motion to direct the preparation of findings. >> colleagues, we will have before us an appeal on the determination of exemption for

the outside land's festival used permit. for this hearing, we will be considering the adequacy and sufficiency of the planning departments environmental review, determination for the outside land's festival. we will proceed as follows. up to ten minutes for a presentation by the appellants or appellant's representative. up to two minutes per speaker in support of the pews, up to ten minutes for a presentation from the planning department and up to ten minutes from the project sponsor and in two minutes in opposition to the appeal, and finally, up to three minutes for a rebuttal by the appellants or appellant's representative. colleagues, any objection to proceeding in this way?

the hearing is now open. >> i would like to thank all of the parties for meeting with me in my office over the past week and for the parties coming together to discuss the matter at hand. this is an important and comly kateecomplicated issue and i'm d to hear from all parties today, thank you. >> we're supported by the coalition for san francisco neighborhoods. first, i want to make it clear, we are not opposed to outside lands. we think outside lands is freight.

great. we just think it's too damn loud and so there ought to be a numericanumerical decible noise recipient. there'limit.they have held greas like now and then, and there, in seer rosharon meadows, there's 96 decibelses or 10 102 decibel. another planet measures its own noise and then they have to adjust the noise, quote, as

required. that's not a limit. imagine if there were a speed limit that you have to adjust your speed as required. it's not enforceable. it's not workable and it's not working. in fact, in 2018, there was a 400% spike in noise complaints from an average, prior average of about 40 to 50 noise complaints per year to -- trying to get here, to over 200 noise complaints. that's from over 190 individuals. so repeat complainers, but from 50 complaints to over 200. so there was a massive spike, but outside lands didn't violate anything because there's nothing to violate. so all we're saying is, there has to be a number. now maybe the sharon meadows number is too low and maybe it should be something higher.

for example, the shoreline amphitheater has a limit at shoreline and that was a result of a sequel lawsuit. but there has to be a number. at 165decibels your eardrums explode. so we are augusterring the the o analyze the concert's noise, hire a respected noise consultant and develop a noise plan that will handle the noise and have a numerical noise limit measured either at the fence line or soundboard for instantaneous and five-minute average, just like at sharon meadows. despite ourests for the last

three months, i've been asking city staff, why do we have noise numerical limits at sharon meadow and not outside lands. it's the same park. the sharon meadows seems to have worked, it's gotten them down under control. a few people complained but not a lot. outside lands, there's none and no one can explain why is it appropriate to do it at sharon meadow and not at the polo fields. it's the same park. it's just the other end. getting to the sequel exemption, they issued a categorical exemption under class 4. and the city calls this the temporary exemption. i urge you to read class 4. it's not the temporary exemption. it's the exemption for quote, minor alterations of land. outside lands is not a minor

alteration of land. it's a concert. it does include in subsection e, temporary events such as christmas tree lots. well, outside lands is a far cry from a christmas tree lot. a quarter million people come to the event and certainly not minor. so it doesn't fall into the category for exemption. the cat for exemption says it doesn't apply if the event, quote, may impact the coastal zone. well, here is a map from the city's own staff. the highlighted line is the coastal zone. part of outside lands is within the coastal zone. therefore the cat 4 exemption doesn't apply for the matter of law, according to the city's own map. just last week despite having posted a notice of exemption

claiming cat 4, months ago, last week, the city says, oh, it's really category 23, another planet's lawyer suggested 23, which is for normal operations for facilities of public gatherings. that's a better thing but the city has not invoked it. so at the very least, the city should go back to the drawing board, do a notice of exemption for cat 23 and give the public a chance to comment on that. assuming they don't do that, cat 23 doesn't apply either because class 23 exemptions like all exemptions are subject to the exemption if there's an environment impact. very recently, the supreme court held environment circumstances include when the project will undisputably have impacts.

there can be no dispute, this has significant noise impacts, traffic impacts, litter impacts and it has exhibit impacts on historic resources within the park. so it does have significant impacts. therefore, it cannot be exempted from sequa. another planet's lawyer argues now because it's subject to a cat exemption, even if it has significant impacts, it's exempt. that's just wrong on the law. i think they're conflating categorical exemptions, but it's just wrong. now, we have submitted comments from derick watry of wilson irig, and he is a certified noise engineer with 35 years of experience, saying the concert does have noise impact on the surrounding neighbors, in the resources the park. we've submitted chens from traffic engineer daniel t.

smith, a certified traffic engineer, 30 years of experience, master's degree, yale university and concludes the project has significant traffic impact. and the city admits in their own report, under the highlighted section here that the noise from the festival, quote, creates an annoyance throughout the three-day annual event but not within the range that would cause hearing loss. i mean, is that really the standard you will have, you have to cause people to lose their hearing before you do sequel review? that's an absurd standard and not the standard under seqa. ambient noise is a significant effect. there are countless cases that have held that noise from events like this, for instance in the

keep our mountains quiet, a 150 person wedding requiring the review and we cite other cases. the city argues because the noise is temporary, it can't be significant. that's a circular argument. it's exempt under the temporary exemption but any impact cannot be significant because they're temporary. no impact could ever be exhibit for a temporary project. (please stand by).

they'd make a measurement, say it's fine. that's an hour or two later. that's not really a good program to manage it. i just want to emphasize, and again, mr. drury said this. appellants are not asking you to shut this down. they are asking you to turn it down, and to turn it down you need to manage it and to manage

it i think you should use the ceqa process to establish a reasonable mitigation monitoring method with some limits with a well thought out monitoring plan and use that to feedback and hopefully cut down on the 192 people or households that complained last year. thank you. >> president yee: okay, thank you. next speaker. come on up. >> good afternoon, president yee and members of the board of supervisors. thank you for letting me speak today. my name is jean parrish, a long-time resident of the richmond district. i live at 27th avenue near balboa, less than a mile from the outside lands concert. during the past few years during a warm summer weekend i've been a victim of a home invasion. no, men with ski masks didn't

break down my door and terrorize me. it was an invasion from another planet. from friday through sunday, i was assaulted by unbearable, endless loud noise, including a ceaselessly thumping bass that made it difficult to do anything inside my home. in a word, it was awful. even more frustrating, when i called another planet's hotline pleading to lower the volume, i got no relief. that was because there was no permitted noise festival. at outside lands, anything goes. article 29 of the city's code states that there is scientific evidence accepted by the world health organization that persistent exposure to elevated levels of community noise is responsible for public health problems such as stress, sleep disturbances and feelings of helplessness. imagine if our city was exposed to a noxious gas for three days. i don't think it would be

tolerated. noise pollution should get the same attention. please grant the appeal so the noise from outside lands will no longer batter our neighborhoods. there are ways to mitigate the noise and reduce the impact without disturbing the quality of the concert. the city belongs to all of us, not just those that attend this event. thank you for your consideration. >> president yee: thank you. next -- next speaker. >> i put something down here, but nothing happened. well, i could do it with a flash drive, but it's going to take a while. let's just give a little speech. my name is andrew solo. i have been employed as a california private investigator for 19 years, and i've been living on the back side of mt.

davidson west of twin peaks since 2002. the use permit extension you are considering today does not include quantitative numerical noise limits, so if you approved as written, no matter how loud the music is, the affected residents will have no right to object. during the three-day august 2018 outside lands festival, 190 different residents called in 249 noise complaints. some of the complaints came from residents who live more than three miles from golden gate park. unfortunately, the map doesn't look very good here, but that's life. even though i live on mt. davidson, more than two miles from the golden gate park polo fields, the noise inside my home office was frequently overwhelming, and i had all of my windows and doors shut. though i support the annual outside lands festival, the proposed outside lands use permit has no noise limit and it does not specify what acoustical standards must be met or what testing protocols must be used

to control noise levels at the festival and in the surrounding neighborhoods. it only requires outside lands to monitor noise levels and adjust them as required. and as required is not defined. it's a meaningless standard. san francisco previously adopted numerical noise standards with decibel limits for events at sharon meadow and golden gate park, and there are numerous other examples that have adopted numerical noise limits, including shoreline amphitheater in mountain view and st. james park in san jose. before approving the outside lands use permit, i request that the board and staff take the following actions, establish quantitative noise limits for the outside lands festival using standard acoustical measurement metrics that may be readily monitored, independently checked, and unambiguously used to -- >> president yee: thank you.

thank you for your comments. next speaker, please. >> my name is steve summerstein. i live a block away from golden gate park at 33rd avenue. the good of the people of san francisco, the city's government has in recent times turned its attention to plastic bags and the affect on fish and sea life in the ocean, as well as health effects of the ingestion of sugary drinks. now it's time to address the hearing health of young people attending outside lands concerts. in the majestic feat of inverted logic, the san francisco parks department claims that the federal government's national institute for occupational safety and health, niosh, safety standards does not apply to outdoor concerts in the park with their enormously powerful

amplified music, because the parks department says outdoor concerts are not a workplace. obviously, millions of dollars are being spent on concert tickets and hundreds of paid employees and paid musicians does constitute a true workplace. the city's contract with outside lands must contain some audio health regulations on maximum momentary and average sound levels. the present effort by the parks department to remove all audio safety regulations is a blatant and irresponsible failure to protect the hearing of our residents and the young people who attend these concerts. the safety regulations we ask for are already exist for concerts in sharon meadow and the other end of golden gate park. the city of mountain view has sound requirements for rock concerts at shoreline amphitheater. why can't san francisco equally promote healthy audio safety standards? why does this contract

conspicuously not have any hearing safety guidelines? thank you. >> president yee: thank you. next speaker, please. >> martin mcintyre, founder of the san francisco neighborhoods and second founder of par. all laws should be obeyed. that indicates no sound 250 feet from the event. you forbid phone rings from disturbing this hearing, so how could you possibly consider allowing incessant boom, boom, boom from outside lands' gigantic speakers heard four miles away inside cal mart and laurel village and homes all over districts 1, 2, 4, 5, and 7? for over 20 years, rec and park has allowed money to trump the

laws and sold our right to peace and quiet in our homes. rec and park sold the authority for loud speaker permits from the entertainment commission to avoid the board of appeals. loud amplified sounds, events, make a mockery of golden gate park's mission to be a peaceful refuge in a noisy city. rec and park permitted profitable amplified events at sharon meadow that force the nonprofit shakespeare in the park to leave the quiet glen next to the quite conservatory of flowers. under duress, rec and park moved the loudest events to the polo field, but then let the events like outside lands get even larger and louder to make more money. today's hearing is rec and park's unkindest of all, selling ten years of unlimited and unappealable "boom, boom, boom" for three days, noon to night. residents don't have $3 million to buy our right to peace and quiet inside our home.

don't violate your sworn duty. don't let money trump the law. thank you. >> president yee: thank you. next speaker. thank you for your patience for standing in line and allowing the other three gentlemen to come before you. >> good afternoon, president yee, board of supervisors. currently, i'm the secretary and the chair of the government elections committee. when andrew and steven came to our committee last month, we heard their presentation and were moved by it, so that we forwarded our recommendation that it be heard to the general assembly, the whole coalition. they came, and as those of you that have had business with my committee and my association now, we always like to have opposing points of view, so as well as hear from steven and from andrew, we wanted to hear from rec and park.

i'm i'med dana kevin about this, we gave the rec and park a good buy on that. i was kind of annoyed when i got an email back from dana saying, well, i've been -- i have, personally, been misinformed by these people, that there was no problem and the whole thing was mute anyway because it was a done deal. so that kind of surprised me. so we heard from these gentlemen and i also informed the general assembly about rec and park's reply. therefore, unanimously approved the resolution you have in front of you.

we ask no more than you reconsider the ceqa exemption and if nothing else, apply to the noise level. thank you very much. >> president yee: thank you, next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i've been a san francisco resident for 50 years plus. in that time, i have never heard something as noisy and as invasive as what emanates from outside lands music festival. it was especially bad in 2017. for three nights, i could not get any sleep because my home, on the northwestern slope of mt. davidson, separated by heights and hills would resonate with this deep boomy base that was loud enough and intense enough to rattle the light fixtures on my home and pictures on my window. i'm not opposed to outside

concerts. great, do it. i just should not have to hear it late at night miles from the polo fields in my home and have it disrupt my sleep. thank you very much for letting me speak. have a great day, all. >> president yee: thank you. next speaker. >> mr. president, i'm too young a demographic to complain about outside lands, but i will say this, i was walking across golden gate bridge once a few years ago, and you couldn't really hear it on the bridge because of the traffic noise, but up in the headlands where it was quiet, you could hear it. i know it's not actually that many miles away from it, but it was pretty interesting. >> president yee: next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is linda miller. i live on 28th between anza and balboa, and i've been subjected to the outside lands concert for, i'd say, maybe 12 years. i've sent big letters, small letters, emails, i've made phone

calls. no one ever answers or gets back to me ever. about ten years ago i decided i couldn't take it anymore, and i now go out of town, because i cannot stand the boom, boom, boom that every one of these speakers has talked about. it's absolutely horrible, and it starts wednesday night when they tune up, and then thursday night when they tune up again, and i just -- i can't take it. i have to leave town, and i shouldn't have to. i've lived here for over 50 years, and i should not have to leave my house because of a bunch of idiots that won't turn it down. i'm asking you, please, turn it down. thank you. >> president yee: next speaker. >> yeah, this is wholly speculation, but i think it might be possible that repetitive percussion could possibly induce vertigo in some elderly who might be tinnitus also. some music is intentionally

engineered to be transinducing beats, which some people really like to listen to, yeah, not too healthy if there's a lot of noise pollution. >> everybody said, ace, what the hell you getting up and saying? you don't stay nowhere near there, but i got something to say, because it's public comment, right? well, most of these people got up here, i'm about in their age range. i just made 65. i know i don't look that old, but let me just say this here, y'all got to understand this is the city by the bay. you talk about the boom, boom, boom, we're talking about money. this city really don't care about you if you ain't making no money. that's why it's the boom, boom, boom. i understand they have a ten-year contract in advance already, so that's boom, boom, boom. somebody making some big, big money. and all these politics in here, they are playing politics full

of tricks, makes you turn to a lunatic. you going to get dicked, oh, excuse me. that's policy in the city by the bay. i'm ace on the case, i'm here for another issue, but i was just amused by these individuals that don't look like me, but we're in the same age range, but if they had something like that in my community going on, they'd be doing the same thing. just give a good example where they closed down a club in the fillmore because they had a shooting and a death there, but it goes to show you the inequity of what's happening in the city by the bay. but regardless black or white, rich or poor, it's about the boom, boom, boom, the money they are going to make here in the city by the bay. $13 billion budget. ain't got to do with no blacks, just billion with a "b," my name is ace, damnit and i'm on the case. might have to talk to queen b about that, may not know that, queen b, london breed, we come

from the same community. my name is ace and i'm on the case, y'all. get ready for my new tv show, y'all. i'm going to tell you about that in a little bit. >> president yee: okay. are there any other members of the public that want to speak in support? seeing none, then public comment is now closed. now we will have up to ten minutes for representatives of the planning department to make their comments. >> good afternoon, president yee and members of the board. i'm chelsea fordham, principal environmental planner with the planning department. before you is an appeal of the categorical exemption issued for the use permit for the ten-year contract renewal of the outside lands music festival. the outside lands music festival use permit allows the annual three-day concert to be held at the western end of golden gate park. the use permit allows several

temporary facilities to be constructed for use during the concert, which are removed following the event. the use permit allows a maximum capacity of 75,000 attendees per day, and the permitted hours are 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. and 11:00 a.m. to 9:40 p.m. on sundays. amplified sound is allowed from noon to 10:00 p.m. and 9:40 on sundays. on january 17th, 2019, the planning department determined that the outside lands permit is categorically exempt from further environmental review under the california environmental quality act, or ceqa, because it meets the criteria of a class 4 exemption for minor temporary uses of land. the use permit has been approved by the recreation and parks department and will be heard by this board after this hearing if the board decides to uphold the department's determination. the decision before the board today is whether to uphold the

department's decision to issue this categorical exemption and deny the appeal or to return the project to the department for additional environmental review. in their appeal letter, the appellant stated they do not qualify for an exemption under ceqa. it's mentioned in the planning department's appeal response the project did, in fact, qualify for a class 4 exemption for a temporary use. subsequent to issuing the categorical exemption, the planning department determined that the proposed project also qualifies for a class 23 exemption, for which the facilities were designed and where there is a past history of the facility being used for that same or similar kind of purpose. determining if a project is exempt under ceqa does not mean that the department does not conduct an environmental

analysis. rather, the department first performs a screening to determine if the project fits within an exemption class. in this case, the project is -- the temporary use of land having n negligible use, because the festival uses temporary facilities set up and removed after the three-day period. restoration of the park to its pre-event conditions. the second step is for the department to determine if there are any exceptions that would disqualify the project from being categorically exempt. and one such exception is unusual circumstances associated with the project or its location that could result in a significant unavoidable impact on the environment. the analysis completed by the planning department shows that the project does not have any unusual circumstances that could

result in a significant environmental impact. thus the project qualifies for a categorical exemption and was, therefore, appropriately exempt from further review. the categorical exemption is consistent with their determinations for other events in san francisco with similar characteristics, events with amplified sound and large attendance are a common occurrence at the western end of golden gate park and such events have been held since at least 1968 in this location, such as hardly strictly bluegrass and l alice summer concert. sound near densely residential areas is not an unusual circumstance in a highly urbanized area such as san francisco. although the project would construct temporary small facilities within the coastal zone, these facilities would not result in any impacts to resources protected by the coastal zone. additionally, the use permit would not impact any of the historic resources within golden

gate park, because the event is temporary and fully reversible. in sum, the project meets the criteria of a class 4 and a class 23 categorical exemption and no exceptions applied to the proposed project. because the project -- because the department found no unusual circumstances associated with this project, ceqa does not require the department to consider whether the project would result in any significant impacts associated with unusual circumstances. nonetheless, the department reviewed the potential impacts from noise and transportation and we will describe why there is no significant noise and transportation impacts associated with this project. as discussed in our response letter, our evaluation of whether significant noise impacts would occur under ceqa is based upon several factors, including the existing ambient noise level, the noise level increased from the project, and the duration and intensity of

noise levels. the department acknowledges that the noise could be of an annoyance to the surrounding neighborhoods. nonetheless, this increase in noise would be a very limited duration of just three days annually. this increase is not considered a substantial noise increase under ceqa. the noise would generally not interfere with sleep, because the use permit requires amplified sound and by 10:00 p.m. the appellant also submitted a letter from the noise consultants stating the project does not comply with the regulations for noise. however, this was based on an incorrect interpretation of the noise ordinance, because the recreation and parks department are not subject to the police code. instead, the parks department has its own regulations regarding noise from events. regarding transportation impacts, the use permit requires that the temporary demand on transportation facilities are addressed by agency coordination

and a transportation management plan. therefore, significant transportation impacts would not occur. in conclusion, for the reason stated in our appeal response and the statements made at this hearing, the department continues to find that the ceqa determination complies with the requirements of ceqa, the categorical exemption is the appropriate environmental review determination, the appellant has not provided any substantial evidence that there is a reasonable possibility of a significant environmental impact due to unusual circumstances. therefore, the planning department requests that you please uphold the department's exemption and deny the appeal. this concludes my presentation. my colleagues, senior preservation planner and senior transportation available and i are available for any questions. thank you. >> president yee: okay, colleagues, are there any questions of the planning department?

supervisor fewer in. >> supervisor fewer: yes, thank you very much, president yee. i have a question. i wanted to know about other large events that we have in san francisco, such as the pride event at civic center. do they also have a ceqa categorical exemption? and do they have a numerical noise limit? >> we do analyze all temporary events if they have facilities associated with them, and we do issue several categorical exemptions. we issue categorical exemptions for events that occur on the port of san francisco land. we've also issued categorical exemptions for other temporary such uses throughout san francisco. >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much. and then also, we heard about a shoreline theater and that there is a numerical threshold for the shoreline theater. how is this different than that?

>> the examples provided by the appellant are for facilities that do have many events throughout the year. that's why in my response i'm describing the duration of such events, and for event facilities that have events multiple times per week, that is when the city will look at ceqa impacts from a substantial increase in noise levels. and that's also where the police code regulates the noise that is persistent and occurs either 24 hours a day or is occurring persistently throughout the city. >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much. i do have a question for rec and park, if you don't mind, president yee. >> president yee: sure. >> supervisor fewer: is there a representative from rec and park here? >> yes, supervisor fewer. >> supervisor fewer: yes, thank you very much. so much has been said about sharon meadows and the noise

policy at sharon meadows. can you tell me, and can you clarify how this outside lands is different? >> when the sharon meadows policy was adopted, it was meant to apply to an impact of sound that could occur every week on saturdays and sunday. we were having a great number of concerts in sharon meadows, and so our commission came forward and passed a policy that said to staff, you can continue to have these, if they meet this sound limitation. if you need to do something that exceeds it, you have to come back to us for a separate approval. and sharon meadows is a very small venue, relatively speaking, as well. >> supervisor fewer: so, are you actually saying to me, is it because that at sharon meadows it's a different venue, but also that these are events that happened almost every weekend or more frequently than once a

year? >> correct. the staff could do them every weekend under this limitation. >> supervisor fewer: and can you tell me now what is the procedure in place with regard to tracking responding to noise complaints? >> in general? >> supervisor fewer: for the outside lands concert, please. >> so for the outside lands concert, complaints are funneled in either if they come from 311 or elsewhere to the call center. they are immediately transcribed over to a dispatcher, and we have both park rangers and sound technicians out in the neighborhood who go to those locations and take measurements of the sound. the sound measurements are then relayed back to the sound board, so when we see trends that show a sign that sounds are higher, they make adjustments to the sound levels to try and get them down.

so this particular year, and when i do my presentation i'll talk about it a little bit, there was a blip up and we were working on finding out what was going down and to adjust things down. >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much. >> president yee: supervisor mar. >> supervisor mar: thank you, president yee. actually, i had a question for the staff. sound charts by the appellant and complaint data provided by the concert sponsor, even from some of the public testimony here today indicated that, you know, there are sound impacts from outside lands and the surrounding neighborhoods, including district 4, you know, so i just had a question, again, can you explain again the definition of a noise impact, where ceqa would apply for the outside lands? i'm sorry if you've already covered this, but i'm just trying tond