>> clerk: wednesday february 5, 2020. i remind members of the public to silence your mobile devices. and when speaking before the commission if you care to, state your name for the record. i would hike to take roll. president hyland and commissioner johns, commissioner foley, commissioner pearlman. first is public comment. i have no speaker cards. >> president hyland: anyone from the public want to address

us? seeing none, closing. >> clerk: announcements. item 2, the planning staff report in announcements. i'll mention that commissioner melgard's last day was january 30th. she's resigned her post as a planning commissioner. and board president norman yee has nominated a replacement. she went before rules on monday or tuesday and was forwarded unanimously to the full board for their consideration. that's all i have. >> anything? okay, great. >> clerk: president's reports and announcements.

>> none. >> clerk: item 4, consideration of adaption of draft minutes from january 15, 2020. >> president hyland: back to the commission. >> clerk: on that motion to adopt minutes for january 15, 2020, commissioner black, commissioner foley. commissioner johns, commissioner pearlman and commissioner so and commissioner mcspadden. that passes 7-0. and item 5, comments and questions. >> president hyland: any comments, okay, none. >> clerk: commissioners, consideration of items proposed for continuous. you have one item number 6, 2019-022536des. at 4767-4773 for miss street, and it's to march 18, 2020.

i have no speaker cards. >> president hyland: any member wish to speak on this? closing public comment. commissioners? >> continue on the calendar. >> clerk: on that motion to continue, commissioner black. commissioner foley, commissioner johns, commissioner pearlman, commissioner so and commissioner mcspadden and president hyland. that passes 7-0. and under your consent calendar for item 7 at 972 mission street. this is a permit to alter. again, i have no speaker cards. >> president hyland: any member of the public that would wish to remove this item from the consent calendar? commissioners wish to remove this from the consent calendar? okay, a motion. >> vote to approve the consent calendar. >> second. >> clerk: on that motion to approve item 7 under consent,

commissioner black. commissioner foley, commissioner johns. commissioner pearlman and commissioner so. and commissioner matsuda and president hyland that. passes 7-0. and place it is for item 8, 2019-023608crv for the fiscal years, 2019-2021, proposed department budget and work program. this is for your consideration to adopt a recommendation of approval. >> good afternoon, commissioners, john ram, department staff. i'm here to briefly introduce the budget item. we have talked to you a couple weeks ago about this and in short nothing has changed in the last couple weeks except some of the numbers and we have more certainty around the consumer price indexing fee, which deborah will go over in a minute. so if i may i will ask deborah to go over the budget materials and we ask for your recommendation to the planning commission today. they'll take this up next week to forward the budget to the mayor.

and then after deborah's presentation, through the chair, i'd like to come back and take a few comments because this will be my last time before you as director. so i'll have deborah do the presentation first. thank you. >> (indiscernible). >> in a minute. [laughter]. >> good afternoon, commissioners, deputy director of administration at the planning department. i didn't realize that i was following a celebrity. it's exciting. so we're here today for the second presentation of our draft budget. and i'm going to go through a lot of the same slides that we reviewed last time and, of course, if there's any questions i'll be happy to take questions during or after the presentati presentation. okay, so just as we discussed the last presentation here, we have instructions from the mayor's office. we have a new piece of legislation around budget transparency that i'll review

again. and we construct our budget by looking at first volume and then based off of that projecting our revenue and figuring our expenses to match within the revenue that we're projecting. and i will also briefly review the calendar at the end of the presentation. okay, so the budget instructions from the mayor's office are similar to the last few years. no new positions is a really important one. and then the financial joint report that came out earlier this year showed about $420 million projected deficit. so based on that, all departments have been asked to reduce their general fund support by 3.5% in each year. so we have been able to do that. and it's about -- what is it -- $272,000 for each budget year. and so the budget transparency legislation means that we need

to present to the public at least once before february 14th. we are holding public budget hearings here twice and at the planning commission twice so we definitely have that covered. any written feedback is also something that is welcome and so i'm sharing my email address again on slides here. it's deborah.landis@sfgov.org if any member of the public or the commission would like to share feedback. i'm happy to receive it. and another key point is that the controllers office will have a website for budget documents so the entire city budget documents will be available in one place. and looking at the last 10 years, you can see that we had several years of large, large growth and then in the last few years have plateaued. so given that, we are projecting to adjust our revenue by the consumer price index, the

c.p.i., and we're not proposing to make any other adjustments to the revenue in the coming year. and so as always, the charges for services, which are our fees, they are the bulk of what funds the department. we're a cost recovery department and in the state of california no agency is allowed to make a profit basically. we can recover our costs but we are legally required to cap it at cost recovery. so we are looking at about $45 million for next year for our fees. the grants and special revenues, we are looking at a variety of different grants. the largest one is ab-101, which could be up to $1.5 million. so it's a pretty exciting opportunity there. and the development impact fees are both -- for -- sorry -- the interagency plan implementation

committee or ipic. because they administer that group and we're also a passthrough agency for administration costs for other departments within the city. and, finally, a passthrough for project funding that goes to agencies outside of the city. so, for example, bart will get some ipic money next year. and the -- where are we -- expendissure recovery is services provided to other departments that they then pay us for. and then general fund support, that is 7.8 does meet the mayor's target. so, again, the reason that it's gone up from the current year to next year and next year to the out year is because of the increased staff costs. we're all more expensive every year. and also because of the increased costs relating to our new home, probably starting at the beginning of august.

and so on the expenditure side, again, the staff is the most -- is the most expensive and the largest portion of our budget. the overhead number, this is one that is cen centrally assigned y the comptroller's office and it's a placeholder to match the current year. it will almost certainly change when the comptroller's office makes that entry. and there's an increase from the current year to the budget year and that's mostly related to e.i.r.s. and the civic center, bart alternative -- or to canopy, i think is what we're looking at. what's that? >> (indiscernible). >> public realm plan, sorry. it's civic center public realm. and the other is transportation elements. the materials and supplies, we're bumping up a little bit

next year because of the move and we anticipate that we'll have unknown costs and so we want to be covered for that. and the capital and equipment is one that we expect to purchase in the next year. it's a small dollar amount but anything over $5,000 with a useful life of three years or more gets its own category in the budget. and then looking at the project line, that is where we budget anything that is grant funded or impact fee funded. that's a line where -- because we don't know exactly what the grant will fund, it gives us flexibility to then later spend it and either contracts or materials and supplies or really any of the different budget lines, depending what the award looks like. and finally, the services of other departments is what we pay to the other city departments. things like rent -- a very big one. the city attorney, that is almost a third of all of our services of other department

costs. and the department of technology is also one that has a bit of a price tag to it. and so that is our budget in a nutshell. and as you remember, we were here on the 15th of january, and we presented the planning commission on january 23rd. we're back today to request your recommendation of the budget to the planning commission. i would like to actually make a request to you, if you would be okay with it, i have more updated numbers. and if i could adjust the numbers. there's no significant change. it's a lot of cleaning up around the edges that i've been doing in the last week. and then i could update the resolution to have today's numbers. and so that's a request to the commission. and then we will be a week from tomorrow at the planning commission. and then the week after that, the budget officially goes to

the mayor's office. the mayor's office has it until june 1st, and then it's published and the board of supervisors takes over their turn at that point. and the budget is finalized in july. so it is about eight months out of our year that we're working on budget. so it's definitely a hefty, lengthy cycle. but we're happy to be able to be here today for this portion of that cycle. so with that, is there any questions? >> president hyland: questions or public comment? >> i have a quick question. you mentioned the different numbers that you want to have us look at. is that something that just gets entered into the record that we'd approve it based on your change of numbers, your updated numbers? >> she is simply requesting that you recognize that the resolution before you does not

reflect the most up-to-date and accurate numbers and that you would be adopting -- if you so choose -- you would be adopting a resolution with amendments authorizing the staff to update those numbers. >> okay. thank you. >> president hyland: commissioner so? >> commissioner so: i know how much hard work it is so i'm not going to create more work. but i wanted to have -- one thing that i'd like to ask. for the fiscal 2021-022 budget, under grants and special revenues, i see a dip of -- you know, like a million -- $1 $1.2 million lower budget. where do they go? >> so there are some grants that we get on a recurring basis that we anticipate every year to receive. and so we budget those in the out year. we don't know about other grant opportunities until we get closer. so the out year number will

increase when we come back next year and it's the budget year number. but we're not sure what those opportunities will be yet. >> commissioner so: and there will be some opportunities, right? >> yes, we find out about grants every year. you know, depending on the funding cycle and who are interested in supporting, they may be more less suited to the planning department. and historic preservation activities. so we can't anticipate exactly what they're going to want to fund yet. >> commissioner so: thank you. >> of course. >> president hyland: commissioner matsuda. >> vice-president matsuda: the question that i had was not about the budget but about this memo that accompanied the -- i guess the resolution about the cultural district. and so it's my understanding that there will probably be

about 10 to 11 total cultural districts that will come about by the end of this year and i think that's great. what i'm interested in is just knowing the h.p.c.'s role in kind of the overall -- on the last paragraph of this page it talks about what the program requires, the san francisco planning and other departments and coordinated by mochd. but what is required in these reports has a lot to do with historic preservation or cultural preservation and i just don't see the mention of h.p.c. within this process. and i just want to make sure that's kind of further codified so it's very clear to the cultural district as well as everybody else that the h.p.c. would like to have a specific role in this. so i know that it doesn't specifically deal with the budget, i'm sure, but it was attached to the budget. so -- >> it was something that the

planning commission had asked about and we thought that would be of interest to the historic preservation committee as well. and the director will speak more to that. >> president hyland: commissioner, yeah, the cultural districts have really taken off, right? >> it's great. >> i was reminded when we invented the first one in japan town and trying to figure out what it would be. >> still trying to figure it out. >> one of the concerns -- yes, your point is well taken. i think that the legislation that was then put forward i think two years ago now does specifically identify a role for the commission. so we just didn't capture it, but i think that is certainly part of the process that the districts will come to you through the process of designation and so on. so that it's definitely embedded in there. we just didn't capture. >> i just don't want people to forget. >> no, no worries. >> president hyland: why don't we open up for public comment. any members of the public that wishes to comment on this

presentation of the budget? >> i got 10 minutes on this. >> president hyland: you get three. >> i see, i see. well, we're talking about a budget for san francisco and specifically certain things that we are discussing today. and i would say that we don't need to worry about such little things like budgets because what's coming down the pike is a 40-day strike where all of us in california realize who we really are. and knowing that i am the voice from the goddess temple in the depth of the kingdom of heaven that is lodged in each of your hearts i command forth a 40-day strike that commences on this full moon while we pay no mortgages, pay no rent. and after two or three months when it's set free with the u.s. constitution in accordance to the 40-day strike prophesy that sets leonard pelletier free and

the u.s. constitution, the law enforcement works for the first time ever. and we may decide at that time that we'll pay maybe 25% of what a mortgage is and rents were before. and that just opened up 00,000 new jobs in california because we won't go to a 20-hour work week since we're not paying bankers and their lawyerly minions with all of their unlawful opinions because they got wealthy urinating on the u.s. constitution, which is unacceptable for me and i hope for you as well. because we're still under a cracked liberty bell. so we're talking about always worrying about money for this and raising money for that when the system itself and these bankers they fabricated out of thin air, out of now where and that's how they print it but they call it minted. we have been delusionallized long enough. the power is in the command. the command is in your heart. it's time to release what is in our heart that the world has sought to the highest. it's time for the true warriors that are hearing my voice to

stand up, shut down the system, thereby releasing the power of christ. because most religions cater to pigeons. to be sheep you've got to go deep and it's the lion's roar that sets it down. i am a leo and i'm tired of the children and the animals crying and dying. especially you women and you students you're the pride of the lion's pride and it's time to take this corrupt system on a last and final ride. because the promised land is beneath my feet, and as my nickname is cactus pete. the mystical walk that shuts down every facet and every asset of man and the one that maintains the backgammon and opens up the promised land and it's a most biefl place, so i hope that i leave you with a smile on your face. how much time do i got on my 10 minutes? >> president hyland: you have 20 seconds. >> 20 seconds to bring this home and to shut down the corruption of this old most eternal

religion that comes out of rome. the ones that maintain the soar to jesus good lord almighty i'm here to lay down the sword in the name of the living lord. and i am doing so, i have done so as we speak. have a beautiful, beautiful day. >> president hyland: thank you. any other public comment? closing public comment. and back to the commission. any comments? discussion? okay. a motion to -- a motion -- >> i make the motion. >> president hyland: do i hear a second? >> second. >> president hyland: on that motion to adopt the recommendation for approval, authorizing the staff to amend numbers as appropriate. >> clerk: commissioner black, commissioner foley. commissioner johns.

commissioner pearlman. commissioner so. and commissioner matsuda and commissioner president hyland. that passes unanimously 7-0. >> president hyland: director? >> i arranged that, by the way. that was quite articulate. poetic. [laughter] so, thank you for indulging me for five minutes and this is -- maybe i won't take five minutes, so bear with me. put the timer on. so thank you. this was likely to be my last time before you as director. although i will be in my position to the end of the month. just so that you know. i wanted to take a moment to publicly to thank you on s so mh for your work. and i have enjoyed the interactions that we have had and enjoyed seeing this commission grow in its role and i was here when it was created. from what was the landmark advisory board. and i just want to say that i think that it has been an honor

to work with you and to have you kind of set the stage for the city's preservation program. it's been great to see your commitment to it. and i also have to say that i really appreciate the kind of tenor and character of these hearings. they've been positive. i really appreciated your attention to our work. and how much interest you express in our work, whether it's related to preservation or not. and it's really important to me and the staff. so i do appreciate that. and as you can imagine as i prepare to step down, looking back a lot i'm kind of -- my time with the department -- and one of the things that struck me about the preservation program -- and this is kind of obvious to say this -- not only has it grown in size. you know, meaning with the numbers that you saw in the budget proposal and how much additional -- how many additional projects that we have, but there's been an exponential increase in the number of projects that affect historic resources at the same time. but there's been a huge dramatically enlarged increase in scope, right?

so we're dealing with so many things that we didn't think about 10 years ago. the legacy business program. the cultural districts. the city-wide survey which i must very much thank you for your support which took a while to get support in this building for. nonetheless, it's long overdue. but all of those things have added to the scope of the program and have added to the program. and i think that have really helped to contextualize the department and the city in a much more healthy way. we're not just -- the program isn't just seen as putting people through hoops on historical buildings. it's about the city's heritage, it's about looking broadly at the city's heritage and looking at cultural districts and what they mean to the city and so on. so i really -- i think that it's a very healthy kind of expansion of scope if you will that the preservation program has taken on these additional roles. so i appreciate your support of that. i am very proud of where the preservation program stands. a lot of work to do, no question. there's a lot of thing coming our way from both the state and

city hall that will affect how we do preservation. and we have to keep a close eye on that as we move forward. but i just, again, i wanted to thank you and thank the best staff in the country, hands down, i think that we have the best planning staff in the country. and i'd go up against any city in the country when i say that. and just say, again, thank you. and i hope to see you in the future. so many thanks. >> thank you. [applause] >> president hyland: it's been great working with you. >> thank you, thank you, commissioner. likewise. >> president hyland: if there's nothing further, case item nine. >> clerk: the 209-016220 oth mural projects. >> i want to introduce you to one of the staff, greta gungter. known as g.g. g.g. is a graduate in 2017 and

we're fortunate to have her this past summer as a summer intern. and we extended her internship to help us on murals. so i'll turn that over to g.g. at this time. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i'm g.g. gunthering and i have been an intern at the planning department since june on the historic resource survey and the mural project since then. the item before you today is a mural project public information happenehandout. can i get the overhead, please. i thought that i'd show it to you quickly while we start. if we could switch back to the

presentation, actually. thank you. from the depression to the contemporary murals, murals in san francisco reflect the history and stories and struggles of this city, region and state and nation. murals are a powerful public medium that bring attention to local industries and harness creative efforts and facilitate positive place making. my internship project this fall and into winter was to create a document. the cover sheet of which is before you today. that one. called the murals public informational handout. this document was created to help to inform the public about any steps and approvals required to paint murals on private property in san francisco. its purpose is to ensure consistency with san francisco's general plan, planning department guidelines and the planning code and to recommend best practices for painting murals. and another document is also created to complement the

handout and it's designed to help the staff to answer the public's questions regarding murals and to provide guidance and historic resources. we'll return to the content in a minute. first, why this project. there are currently no readily available or digestible sources for the public regarding murals. when members of the public or applicants have questions in general or about planning or requirements for murals, there's not a quick reference to look for for answers. there's a need for easily accessible information about the requirements for new murals on historic buildings as specified in the planning code. second, although this is not new, it's that there have been past instances of disagreement between muralists and property owners. though there's mediation, the handout has basic recommended practices for paifnting murals which provides guidance and consideration for anyone of any

artistic skill painting murals and for the property owners who wish to commission a mural on their property. third, there's no directive or policy or review flow for projects with murals. projects are addressed on a case-by-case basis and it's to provide direction and tools for staff for projects involving murals. so what exactly is in the public informational handout and what is its purpose? its primary purpose is to help to inform the public about the steps and approvals required to paint murals on private property in san francisco. its purpose is to ensure consistency with various local regulations. specifically the informational handout contains basic definitions of a mural and definitions for other things similar to a mural but that are regulated differently such as signs. there's not an official definition of a mural in any city code. the definition in the handout is not meant to be exclusive, but rather a foundation upon which

to expand and build. the public informational handout has sections on entitlements for new murals on historic buildings. the document refers readers to the san francisco art commission's required approval for any murals proposed on public property or that are publicly handled. and it has contact information for city agencies involved in murals and frequentlily asked questions and best practices for painting murals and other related resources. so what city agencies are primarily involved with murals? the planning department, the san francisco arts commission and public works are all involved with murals. specifically what is the planning department's role involving murals? planning department role is to assist in answering the public questions regarding murals. specifically for projects where a new mural is proposed on an historic building or where a mural could be impacted. the supplemental document has sections similar to the public informational handout, including resources for different city

agencies and definitions. and it also has suggested review work flows for different situations and other useful information about murals. it is designed to create consistency among staff for the review of murals and the situations in which they are most often presented to planning. finally, it's designed to increase the staff's general knowledge on murals and how they're treated in the code. article 10 of the planning code lays out the official procedure and entitlements required for new murals on article 10 landmarks and district contributors. procedure and entitlement requirements depend if it's owned by the city, or private property. the h.p.c. only reviewed murals in article 1 10 and 11 districts if it does not meet the requirements of the installation it. falls within the scopes of work delegated to planning staff. as long as they meet the specific requirements of the delegation. the h.p.c. must still provide advice to the arts commission before the arts commission can

approve the mural in situations where no certificate of appropriateness is needed. the arts commission must review any mural that is on public property or uses any type of public funds, regardless of the property's historic status. if it's determined that a full certificate of appropriateness is needed for a new mural, according to the planning code, the arts commission must give advice to the historic preservation committee before the h.p.c. can approve the mural. exchange of advice between agencies does not occur with article 11 buildings. that was a lot. so the bottom line is to always check what type of building that a new mural is proposed for and to have good communication between the city departments and property owners. the information map created by planning can be used to check the historic status of any property in san francisco. the only time planning or the historic preservation commission gets involved in murals is for any building in an article 10 or 11 district, including non-contributors.

the art commission oversees approving everything else that is on public property or publicly funded. so quickly what is the next step for this document? the public informational handout is in the process of being designed by our communications team. when it is complete, it will be published with the planning department's website and printed for distribution at the planning information center or p.i.c. and that concludes my presentation and before questions are proposed, i want to thank my supervisors and thank director ram for listening to a different presentation of this earlier in the year and others, my direct supervisors. thank you for your time this afternoon. i'm more than happy to answer any questions that you have. >> very good, thank you. >> president hyland: commissioner so? >> commissioner so: this is like one of my favorite topics. it's well known. coming from the arts commission, we always have been chasing

around the corners, hey, what do you think about -- i can just paint my whole building like this, right? and i appreciate you spending your internship in the san francisco planning department. it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience, i hope that you come back, right? this is great material. the beginning of the city of san francisco property owners can have something to latch on to, in addition to, you know, calling. but i would like to know the handout that you're going to develop or we're going to continue to develop, does it get down to actual code references and materials and listing the requirements and procedures of how to go about. if it's on an historic building or landmark, how do they know the procedures? or would this mural ever come to us for review? or is it only on the staff

level? >> as long as the proposed mural -- and very specifically article 10 and 11 buildings meets the requirements of the delegation by h.p.c., which is basically a list of all minor scopes of work, as long as it hits all of those requirements, you can file for administration certificate of appropriateness or administrative permit to alter. it doesn't get into the super high level detail for the public document but it makes references to the code, however. >> commissioner so: that's great because it's so subjective, right, a graphic imagry, or visually challenging a lot of times. i just wanted to get a better understanding, even myself being from the other side, i would like to know how -- continue to help to shape our city. >> so in the current version of the admin delegation agreement, we have murals as something that you delegated on to staff. obviously, as we kind of look

forward, the commission feels otherwise, you're welcome to bring it back as things that can require, you know, full public hearing. and the biggest thing that we look for is the impact of murals on specific building materials. in most cases we're not governing content. and so the department staff is very specific about not trying to influence or comments on the artist's work and the content of whatever is happening with the artist's work. >> president hyland: mr. johnson? >> officially we'd be looking at both impacts and interpreting features as was alluded to but also ensuring that it's sort of appropriate fit and placement. given the particular building context. >> so you would look into the technique -- the application is whether it would be least harmful to the building, right?

because -- >> correct. >> an installation could alter a bit of the historical elements of the building. >> that's correct. >> that's part of it, right? okay. sorry, i'm going to take another air time here. i'll buy you guys coffee later. but what about the one that is actually not part of an historic building, and, you know, it's not private private and it doesn't go to the arts commission and it doesn't go to us and it's just a 5-year-old building that someone decided to, you know, to give it like some nice-looking mardi gras paint. how will we deal with this? >> well, actually -- if i may, g.g. gunther. the packet does address situations where it's just painting the building as the code does not regulate painting your building, especially when it's on private property.

>> and so you don't need a permit and you can paint like neon and -- >> yes. >> halloween all year kind of thing. >> um-hmm. >> people have. many people have. >> commissioner matsuda. >> vice-president matsuda: let's say that i wanted to create a mural and i wanted to look back on the kind of murals created in the city and county of san francisco. is there any kind of directory or resource that i could go to to see them? >> there's currently no completely comprehensive resource. we actually had an intern in the planning department four years ago named lyndee who put together an inventory for the mission specifically. she has a real resource bank that she created -- >> vice-president matsuda: of her own? >> yes, of her own. and it's now four years old. and many murals are temporary or

being changed constantly. there's no completely city-wide inventory that i know of. there are some websites that are user-based and users can upload images but at this moment there's no official inventory. >> vice-president matsuda: thank you. >> president hyland: any questions? open up for public comment. thank you so much. great presentation. any member of the public wish to comment on this? going back to the commission. any further comments, there is no action. it is informational. >> great work. >> thank you. >> president hyland: okay. >> clerk: case 10, case 2019-02253des at 4767-4773 mission street. a landmark designation initiation.

>> good afternoon, commissioners. francis mcmillion planning staff. and i'm before you today with the recommendation regarding the landmark of the royal baking company building. and note that the ordinance that was updated since distributed to you is changed to correct the date of today's hearing and a new version has been added to the file. on november 19th, 2019, the board of supervisors introduced a resolution to initiate the designation of the royal baking company building. the resolution was introduced but not adopted by the board or signed by the mayor. so today's hearing formally begins the landmark designation initiation process. the building has been identified in two previous studies, the 2016 draft neighborhood commercial corridor historic resources survey for confederation for individual landmark designation under article 10. and the 2017 draft excelsior

context statement, that report identified the property for its association with the excelsior italian-american community and the building's art deco design. and the draft landmark designation fact sheet before you today was prepared by s.f. heritage and the department staff. the royal baking company building is significant for its association with the history of the italian-american community of san francisco and that community's early 20s century suburban expansion to the excelsior district. and for the 20th century macaroni and bread-baking industries and for its facade which is a mix of storybook and art deco style architecture. a list of character defining features and exterior features can be found in the fact sheet and they include the pitched roof with three-crown, and the speed lines and the rounded corners and the recessed areas above the outer bays and the

painted royal baking company sign with its shallow ornamental arch, and the green and yellow ceramic tile cladding. and the period is 1935 period, the date encompasses the construction and the association with the italian-american community. and it establishes the macaroni company and the royal baking company and the excelsior and the businesses association with san francisco's 20th macaroni and bread-baking industries. designation of the building meets two of the historic commissionary four priorities for designation. including the buildings in geographically underrepresented areas. there's only one landmark in the excelsior and two in the outer mission neighborhood. and it meets the priority of designation of properties with strong cultural associations as the property is associated with the city's italian-american heritage. the department believes that the building meets the established

eligibility criteria and the landmark status is warranted. the department recommends h.p.c. recommend initiation and the dependent would return at a subsequent hearing with a resolution recommending article 10 landmark designation to the board of supervisors. the property owner has been notified of landmark initiation and there's no known owner, public or neighborhood opposition to the designation of the building as an article 10 landmark. this concludes my presentation and i'm happy to answer any questions and i would like s.f. heritage to provide a presentation on the history and significance of the property. and monica chinchilla is also here today and would like to say a few words. >> president hyland: thank you. >> oh. >> good afternoon, commissioners, i am here on behalf of supervisor safai and the district 11 community.

this royal baking company location represents just so much history. and it's a source of pride in our community. and we were happy to introduce legislation in november. and we're thankful for the partnership of s.f. heritage and the community members that have come out to speak in support of this. since we have introduced in november we have been going around and talking to community members and talking to the local businesses and they're very excited about this landmark designation. and as the planner spoke about before, we only have two -- two landmarks like this in district 11, so we're happy that this to earlily could be the third and we look forward to seeing what other jewels we can preserve in this community. >> president hyland: i was going to ask you if there were others on your radar screen that you could maybe forward to staff? >> well, now that -- as this has come out and we realized that there's only two, we definitely are, you know, looking and there are many jewels, hidden jewels within the district.

and we'll be proposing more in the near future. >> president hyland: while you look also look at the legacy businesses and i'm sure that you are. >> yes, will do. >> president hyland: we're very interested. >> and there's currently a process now of doing legacy business status for the current royal baking company within that building as well. thank you. >> thank you, commissioners. heritage is actually starting a heritage in the neighborhoods program this year. and our first neighborhood will be working is the excelsior, so we'll work very closely with the supervisor's office to identify other eligible historic resources to bring forward. and i'm very happy, my name is woody la bounty and i'm with addosadvocacy and programs withn francisco heritage. and i'm happy to be here to talk about the royal baking company building. this is a partnership with planning staff and san francisco

heritage. we thank the supervisors' office for bringing this forward. and today we're going to talk about a recognized icon, if not an unofficial landmark of the excelsior district. you may not be aware of where the excelsior district is. it's in the southern part of the city in the outer mission. and even though it's often off the radar of people's consciousness, if you're in a street that is named after a country or a world capital, you are probably in the excelsior district. it was plotted with the city with a homestead association map in 1869. so it's not a new neighborhood. however, it did develop slowly and it was mostly agricultural through the 19th century and even into the early 20s century. italian gardeners, you might say, tipped land out there and

had nurseries and provided produce to the city into the nonillion sync. as late as 1910. there were 1,200 italian truck farmers working 8,000 acres in the southern part of the city. so it was very much agriculture. and the 1906 earthquake and fire changed the character of the neighborhood in that it brought dispossessed people from more settled parts of the city. and that population was very highly italian-american. outside of north beach, this was a center of italian-american life in the city of san francisco. and italian national church, corpus christi, was established there in 1898. so it had an italian-american flavor. and ambrose beef frank was a real estate broker and a real estate speculator who worked in excelsior as early as 1907. he definitely built cottages on

speculation in the excelsior. and he's the man responsible for the royal baking company building. it occupies an entire lot which is 100-by 100.5 between persia and russian avenues. and his first idea was to have a number of storefronts across this building. even though it presents as two separate storefronts this is one building, split with two different and very striking facades. as francis said, one is art deco and one is storybook. and storybook is a pretty unusual style to be used in a commercial building. the first tenants that frank had for the building were italian-american, or affiliated with the italian-american businesses. the sarento macaroni building rented the back half of the building on the right, the three-pronged building. it wasn't the first macaroni company in the neighborhood.

this was actually a pretty large business in the early 20th century san francisco. bread-baking and baking and macaroni products were a very large industry. the gentleman who started the business was -- came from the golden grain macaroni company. which you might know as later the inventors of rice-a-roni. so he has a deep affiliation with the macaroni baking business. when he opened up in 1935, there was a whole list of contractors that had been involved in constructing the building and most of them were local. they were outer mission contractors working in concrete and plaster and the like. and the other main business that represented in the building after it opened was the royal baking company which was an italian-american bakery in north beach. and the partners, mostly following the italian-american

community exodus to the excelsior, and so they opened up a branch in this building. they used the storybook style bay as their storefront and the art deco building as the bakery. as francis said, a lot of the story boo bookstorefront is int. and there's an alley that has been changed in recent years but it still has the feeling of the storybook cottage that it had originally. so as i said, frank originally, ambrose frank originally imagined a number of storefronts in the front and there have been changes on the ground level, notably the glass brick that replaced some of the plate glass windows in there. bit this photo is only from about 10 years ago i'd say, and the garages have been slightly changed, but the top of the building still definitely has

that striking -- i would say unique style in this city. i don't know if you'll see another building that looks like the royal bakery fasaid, especially the art deco side. the murals on there now are not at this time considered significant. they were painted in 2008. there were some later ones add added. and i would just say that as francis said, this has a deep association with the excelsior. it has a definite association with italian-american culture. and with the important bread-baking industry in san francisco. this was a neighborhood in which people put italiano in the window saying they spoke italian and there were masses in churches in italian until the 1970s. this building still recalls back to that. the royal baking company is in there now is not affiliated with the italian culture anymore, but it still continues.

and if i may, put on a slightly different hat now, one of advocacy. heritage tried to bring this building forward in 1990, 30 years ago, as a potential landmark. and then 20 years ago the landmark advisory board, which was your group before its current organization, put it forward on the work program. so 30 years later, 20 years later, we're actually here. i think that it might be high time to make this thing a landmark. and i don't have to tell you why it qualifies, but it definitely is unusual architecture with a strong association and it's in an underrepresented neighborhood and it's an underrepresented building type. so in addition to the information that i have just provided i would like to just say as representative of heritage that we definitely advocate for this moving forward and as a city landmark. thank you. >> president hyland: great, thank you.

>> commissioners, one other change to point out to the ordinance. we have noted the ceramic and the terazzo floor tile and entry as under the address for 44767 mission and we'll distribute a new ordinance with those updates that change the hearing date and the character defining features. >> president hyland: want to take public comment on this? any member of the public wish to comment on this initiation? closed public comment. commissioners? >> i have one. >> president hyland: commissioner matsuda. >> i recommend that we initiate the lan landmark. >> i would like to see if possible a little bit more about

the people affiliated with the royal baking company. i mean, there's a strong history of the italian-american community supported -- well, initiated the company. and then continued to support it until very recently. and it's always good to know a little bit about the people, the customers, the long-time families that were associated with this. and i only say that because we're losing so much of the -- i guess the fabric and the feel of neighborhoods that to have something documented like this and incorporated into something like a historic resources report, would be i think very beneficial. maybe not for us now, but for us in 20 to 30 years to come. >> okay. >> oral histories or maybe more photos or even examples of some of the things that were created during this period of significance would be great. >> okay, we can continue to work with heritage on doing research

on the history of the building and the people that you identified. >> president hyland: commissioner black? >> commissioner black: so this building was one of the slam on the brake buildings that i encountered living here. it's just so unique. it's so sensational in its expression. and, to be honest, i had no idea that the sweet little storybook component was the same structure. i think that is charming how they were both integrated together. hats off to heritage for bringing it forward 30 years ago and for hanging in there. and i agree with commissioner matsuda's request to include people and products in the historic resource report. these buildings contained lives and it's not just pure architecture and it's also the association with what they did and who they served.

and i think that's great. so i strongly support it and i'm very much in support of landmarking this structure. >> president hyland: okay. i have one question and one comment. thank you. i haven't asked this before any of these other landmarks or even historic district surveys, but do we ever present any of this information to the locals, to the community, and to the students, to the residents of excelsior. to really understand what resources they have? >> yes, we actually -- we are collaborating on an event coming up that is in the excelsior about this and other resources in the neighborhood. >> i don't know if you're on our email blast list, but march 25th we're going to have excelsior heritage night at the italian-american social club at

25 russia avenue right around the corner from the royal baking company. and we're inviting the neighborhood, and the community groups, and representatives from the supervisor's office and planning and the idea is to highlight resources that might be in the neighborhood to bring forward, perhaps have a great preservation project, but also to share the history of not only the royal baking company, and the italian-american community and the filipino community in the neighborhood, but just the deep history of excelsior and try to bring that to light and to let people speak about it who have lived there for a long time. >> president hyland: i remember when the bulger building came before us and it seemed that it was right there in front of everyone but it wasn't really understood how much of a resource it was. commissioner so? >> commissioner so: yes, thank you for this really thorough report and i really appreciate

the -- adding the storybook and also the art deco retail storefront design as part of, like, one landmark. and it really shows the capturing of how in that timeframe of the history of how that neighborhood evolved and the business. it's just very, very cute to put it that way. and thank you for all of the information, and i got that email invitation and i hopefully to be there and hopefully children are allowed, right, i would like to bring my daughter there. and thank you for all of the hard work. this is like a no-brainer. i don't understand why it takes 30 years. [laughter]. >> president hyland: i don't either. all righty, we have a motion and a second? >> actually -- very good. >> vice-president adams: commissioners to initiate the landmark degzination, commissioner black, commissioner foley, commissioner johns,

commissioner pearlman, commissioner so, and commissioner matsuda and commission president hyland. that passes unanimously, 7-0. >> president hyland: i think that is it. we're adjourned.

>> silence your mobile devices that may sound off and when speaking before the commission, state your name for the record. i would like to take role. (role call). >> we expect commissioner richards to be absent today. first on the evidence is consideration of items proposed for continuance. at 1750 street, authorization, item 2 -- excuse me, proposed for a continuance to march 5. item 2, case 2018 2018-2124cu8 54 fourth street.