or we will also be joined by representatives from the city departments that will be presenting before the board this evening. tina tam, the deputy zoning administrator representing the planning department, and kevin birmingham, acting chief building inspector with dbi. both are sitting up front. the board meeting guidelines are as follows. the board requests that you turn off or silence all phones and other electronic devices so they will not disturb the proceedings. no eating or drinking in the hearing room. the rules of presentation are as follows. appellant's permit holders and department respondents each are given seven minutes to present their case, and three minutes for rebuttal. people affiliated with these parties must include their comments within the 7 or 3 minute periods. members of the public who are not affiliated with the parties have up to three minutes each to address the board and no rebuttal. mr. longway, our legal assistant, will give you a verbal warning 30s before your time is up. since the board has a vacancy, only three votes are required to grant an appeal or to modify a permit or determination. if you have questions about requesting a rehearing, the board rules or hearing schedules, please email

board staff at board of appeals at sfgov. org. now, public access and participation are of paramount importance to the board, as sfgovtv is broadcasting and streaming this hearing live and we will have the ability to receive public comment for each item on today's agenda. sfgovtv is also providing closed captioning for this meeting. to watch the hearing on tv, go to sfgovtv cable channel 78. please note that it will be rebroadcast on fridays at 4 p.m. on channel 26. a link to the live stream is found on the home page of our website at sfgov. org slash voa. now public comment can be provided in three ways one in person, two via zoom. go to our website at sfgovtv, forward slash voa and click on the zoom link under hearings or three by telephone. call 1669 968 33 and enter webinar id 884 8273 2543 and again sfgovtv is broadcasting and streaming the phone number and access instructions across the bottom of the screen. if you're

watching the live stream or broadcast to block your phone number when calling in. first all star six seven, then the phone number. listen for the public comment portion for your item to be called, and dial star nine, which is the equivalent of raising your hand so that we know you want to speak. you will be brought into the hearing when it is your turn. you may have to dial star six to unmute yourself. you will have three minutes, and our legal assistant will provide you with a verbal warning 30s before your time is up. please note that there is a delay between the live proceedings and what is broadcast and live streamed on tv and the internet. therefore, it is very important that people calling in reduce or turn off the volume on their tvs or computers, otherwise there is interference with the meeting. if any of the participants or attendees on zoom need a disability accommodation or technical assistance, you can make a request in the chat function to the board's legal assistant or send an email to board of appeals at sfgov. org. now the chat function cannot be used to provide public comment or opinions. please note that we will take public comment first from those members of the public who are physically present in the hearing room. now, we will swear in or affirm all those who

intend to testify. please note that any member of the public may speak without taking an oath, pursuant to their rights under the sunshine ordinance. if you intend to testify at any of tonight's proceedings and wish to have the board give your testimony evidentiary weight, raise your right hand and say, i do. after you've been sworn in or affirmed. do you swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? okay. thank you. if you are a participant and you're not speaking, please put your zoom speaker on mute. so item number one is general public comment. this is an opportunity for anyone who would like to speak on a matter within the board's jurisdiction. but that is not on tonight's calendar. is there any member of the public who wishes to speak on an item that is not on tonight's agenda? welcome. hello. good evening, president lopez. commissioners corey teague with the planning department. i am a colleague and coworker of tina tam. and i just wanted to thank her for all of

her work that she's done here at the board of appeals, she takes very seriously and performs very professionally, and has obviously been a massive help to the department, and just want to, again, publicly thank her for her work. not that it's never going to happen again. but i definitely just wanted to take this opportunity in public to let her know how appreciated she is at the department. and for me, personally and professionally, and the work she does here, not only overall, but representing the department here at the board of appeals. thank you. thank you. is there any further general public comment? i still see another hand raised here on zoom. i don't see any hearing room. so on zoom, mr. nolte, please go ahead, good

evening, commissioners. my name is john nolte. we had a hearing on 188 198 mcalester appeal number 20-081 on january sixth, 2021. part of the motion was to do a plan for replacement of trees around uc hastings at 198 mcalester. mr. swift swig was at that hearing. so part so 1010 trees are supposed to be planted. three years, seven months later now. no, none. no trees have been planted as the plan had had put was put together as part of the motion. so i'm calling for an as an update and also to advise the board of appeals that the plan was part of the motion has not has failed to materialize. the ten trees were the tenderloin. thank you very much. okay. thank you. is there any further public comment? do we want do we want

to reserve commissioner comments for or okay. okay. yes please, thank you, mr. nolte, for your comment. since i was at the meeting and i support following through and holding departments accountable. for the things that we asked them to do, i'm going to make a request to the executive director that she make a formal request to dpw about your fine follow through on this subject. thank you very much. okay. thank you. i don't see any further general public comments. so we're moving on to commissioner comments and questions. thank you. i would like to, echo the comments of mr. teague made during public comment, i was saddened to learn that tonight is our last meeting with miss tam at the helm of the planning department chair. and i

just want to say that your service has been exemplary. your preparation for this, these meetings has has always been, personally impressive to me. and i've always valued not just your your cogent kind of, summary. and presentation of, of the materials, but then also your ability to quickly respond to our questions, which can sometimes be tough, and you always do so in a very professional and well reasoned way that has been of great service to me personally, as i assess, you know, reaching decisions on the matters before us and i think is just an example for, for, for others, not just within planning, but throughout the city, and so thank you very much for that service. i am happy to learn that while we will miss you, the

planning department still will have the benefit of your service. and so it's not a complete goodbye. but i did want to publicly thank you for your assistance and for your service. commissioner swig, thank you, commissioner. thank you, mr. president. miss tam, thank you very much for putting yourself on the firing line for the last several years, it mr. teague has been on the firing line that we had a predecessor prior to that who was pretty good at being on the firing line, too, we rely on you for, details. not only everything around planning, but how we should implement and where the legislation lies and where the guidelines are. and you've always been one to give us the best information on every project. down to the last nail. i think. and, and how it applies in the context of city planning.

and we appreciate that detail. and you also put yourself, like i said, on the firing line, because we're here to ask you very direct questions. and also we have the public who asked you very direct questions and you handle it elegantly in your response, elegantly and intelligently. and i, for one, have appreciated that. thank you very much. thank you. vice president astrazeneca. thank you. i want to join our current president and our past president in expressing my appreciation to you, tina, for all of your hard work and dedicated work to the city, this is something where, by the nature of the board of appeals, we're dealing with disputes. we're dealing with problems. we're dealing with members of the public. we're dealing with people who feel sometimes both sides feel the city got it wrong, or we get it wrong and forgotten. in that are all the things that your

department, your colleagues and city employees, county employees in general get right. and the service and all the all the cases that don't come before us because the city is well served and the public is well served. and i, your consummate public servant. there are times when i agree with tina tam. there are times when i disagree with tina tam, but there's always a time when i respect tina tam and really express my appreciation for your hard work, your ethics, and your exemplary service to the city. so i wish you well in your in your next, in your next work for the city, if it was up to me, if there was a vote, i'd probably vote no. i said no, she needs to stay here. but, but good people need to go elsewhere and rotation. and, we appreciate all of your hard work and your and your dedication. thank you. thank you. commissioner epler. my fellow commissioners. say it. say it very, very well, so i'll

be very brief here. i've appreciated the clarity of your presentations. it's always directly to the point, directly to the issue, without anything, you know, extraneous. and that's certainly appreciated as we have to try and parse what can be very, very complicated issues. but i also want to thank you for the little bits of humor that get dropped in from time to time, just the little bits of levity to what we do. because, you know, sometimes we spend a lot of time on issues, and it's nice to be able to have a little bit of lightness mixed in with the heavy decisions that we make. and so i appreciate that and we'll miss that. thank you. okay. thank you. is there any public comment on this item? anyone in the room? anyone on zoom? please raise your hand. okay. i don't see any public comments. so we are going to move on to item number three, the adoption of the minutes. commissioners before you for discussion. possible adoption of the minutes of the september 11th, 2024 meeting, commissioners, any comments or emotion? i will move to adopt

then move to adopt the september 11th minutes. okay. is there any public comment on president lopez's motion to adopt the minutes? i don't see any hands raised on zoom. so on that motion, vice president i commissioner epler. i commissioner swag i so that motion carries 4 to 0 in the minutes are adopted. we are now moving on to item number four. this is appeal number 24. dash 046 peter hollow holiday versus department of building inspection. planning department approval. subject property 763 lakeview avenue appealing the issuance on august 6th, 2024, to carlos villicana of an alteration permit revision to permit application number 2022 06035607. adding a standing deck to attach accessory dwelling unit with spiral stair leading up to the deck. single family plus adu this is permit number 2023 0825 5349 and we will hear from the appellant first. mr.

holiday, you're you're welcome to approach the microphone. and you have seven minutes. first of all, i want to thank you all for dressing up for my birthday today. i really appreciate that. i wanted to have a chance and thank you for the opportunity to speak to you about this, as you know, neighbors have, been issued a permit to build a rooftop deck. i'm guessing that you've all reviewed the brief that i submitted. so i won't read it

again, but basically, it's a situation here where activity on that roof is five feet away from my front door, five feet away from my living room window. i know that, the contractor. contacted me about this activity last year in august, and when he did that, i actually had a review of the proposal that i sent to him, about the deck. and the bottom line is that i oppose the deck for the variety of reasons that are really in this document. that's been so lovely, residential roof deck guidelines that the city of san francisco planning has put out, i don't

know if you, have had the chance to look at it in any detail recently, but this is where we're at. where warring neighbors. now, it's very disharmonious. and it's not where i want to be. i'm not sure how else to get around it other than to speak to you about it. i would like to go through my exhibits, and i'm not sure if you have those in front of you, or i need to put those underneath the overhead here. we can put them on the overhead. okay. alec, can you give him a little assistance overhead, please? you would just turn it facing as if you're reading the document, alec can show you. okay. is that like that? yes. and then, alec, if you could

zoom out, that'd be great. and then it shows on the screen in front of the commissioners. and also over there. so and i paused time. so if you could move the microphone down, i just want to make sure everyone can hear you. thank you, an exhibit a here it shows the two two pictures. black and white. doesn't do it. very good justice. but, the picture on the left is at the back wall of my home. and this line here would represent where the deck would be. this picture on the right is at the very end of my lot. and this is where the proposed deck would be. when i had a chance to look at this in a little more detail and put some size to it, and i. sorry

for the cartoonish nature of my thing here, but that pretty much shows you, there's some confusion about what's to be here on the plan. the plan itself that is now in the building department shows no spiral staircase. but that's what this is here. that's what this is representing. and this is where the deck would be. so at my back, bottom line, there's no place in my backyard where i would have any privacy if this would go in. my neighbors are nice people. generally speaking, they have a nice family. but again, this is a view. this is my property. and here's the here's the line. the proposed deck would be here again. five

feet from my front door, which is right here. and the window i'll show it to you in this way. front door. here's the deck. my living room window. i know that it was proposed to try and mediate that with something, but, one of the problems is downstairs is this was the window view before the adu went in. this is what it's like now. this is where the deck would go. this line. right, right across here. so there's this is the wall of the adu here. and that's where the, deck would go. so bottom line, i'm looking for, you know, my privacy as, as i get older, i'm not able to

really to leave my house. i'm disabled now. and i'm not sure that i can really escape. i don't have money to go on vacations and i really the views that i've showed you is 90% of the living space in my home is affected by this deck. i know there's sorry. i know there's some, there's some suggested, ways to mitigate these problems, but, i don't see how they work, if you. i'll just put this up. this was from. okay, so here's a view here. and again, you're putting some sort of railing up

here and that lets light through. but it does nothing for noise or privacy. so i'm not sure what i can do or how to come across in that. i think one of the biggest problems that i have here is that i suppose if i had a deck, which i do, i'd like to barbecue on it and a corner fire department. it's supposed to be ten feet away from any flammable material. building material. i don't know how you can. i suppose you can move ten feet over and barbecue over there. but the problem with that is that while 36 neighbors presently might adhere to something like that, it doesn't mean that if they leave that the next ones will. any kind of

arrangement really, i think needs to be written down. this building buildings are forever. and, i think it's important to know that, yeah. last but not least, i did look at safety. thank you. that's time you can. you have more time in rebuttal, mr. lloyd? you'll have three minutes in rebuttal. your time is up now, so you'll have three minutes later. okay. so i don't see any questions at this time, so you can be seated. thank you. thank you. so we will now hear from the permit holder. welcome. you have seven minutes. hello everyone. thank you for having us today. my name is claudia villicana and i'm the

homeowner, along with my husband, carlos villicana, and we are building have the permit for the proposed deck, i, i do understand the concerns of living in a small city with very little space. and, you know, i we have two little kids. we try to be respectful neighbors. so i understand that we're very close in proximity, you know, i'm willing to work with peter to see whatever we can do for privacy, noise mitigation. i, you know, in terms of who's going to be there next. we've been at this house for over ten years. our kids are five and two. my aging father is in the adu. we built this adu for him when he had a he had a stroke. my mother died. there was no other place for him to go. and we saw we built the adu thinking, okay, look how much of this backyard space it's going to take, which is fine. but, you know, i know my dad felt bad

about it, and we were kind of like, we have the kids and then we had the idea of doing the deck and, you know, that way we essentially are not losing any backyard space. and so we worked with our contractor. we got all of the permits. we did hold a meeting, you know, all of the things that we were supposed to do, and we got all of the permits and everything was approved. so i understand the concerns of being close. but this is essentially how we can have our backyard space back. i mean, i know it's kind of a luxury in san francisco, but i feel lucky that we could be able to do something like that and have that space for our kids. and also for our family. you know, we don't have a parents house to go to. my house is the gathering place we have, you know, a little bit of family here in san francisco. so for every, you know, gathering, we come to my house and it's a small house and it would be nice to have that outdoor space. i think we are outside a lot. we

have some gatherings. my kids are out there. i really, if we're ever too loud, i really would encourage peter to let me know. i, i texted him about it. i know that, like, we have not had the best relationship over the last couple of years because of this adu, but i am perfectly willing to be open to whatever communication he wants to have about this. i sent him a text message. i know that we had the hearing or had the meeting with him, but i don't know if we had to let him know that it was going to proceed. so i sent him a text message to say, hey, this is going to proceed. i just want you to know that it's happening. i'm happy to like, try to mitigate your concerns. if you want to have a call, call me like we can talk about it further. and i didn't hear anything from him. to my knowledge. he came straight down to city hall and filed these this appeal. so i, you know, i don't know if there's any questions about the actual permits. maybe we'll get to that, but, you know, the privacy screening that we are proposing,

we are working with the design team and our contractors to find something that would allow enough light to get in. there are ones that are sort of like a beautiful trellis that you can have plants on, you know, so i, i'm, i think that that would mitigate some of those concerns. i mean, i also don't want to be hanging out right outside of peter's living room. you know, i, i think that a barrier would benefit both of us, and in terms of privacy, you know, our entire backyard, right now is in full view of his own second story deck. so this would actually become, you know, would be give us more privacy to be on the deck and have the privacy screening. and i think that's all i really have to say, unless my. you all wanted to say anything. no. okay so that's i don't really have anything else to say, but if anybody has any questions happy to answer them. thank you. we do have a question from president lopez. thank you for your presentation. can you, let us know? it sounds like

there's, it sounds like there has been some communication previously and maybe that's that's broken down a bit in the last couple of years as these projects have been underway, and we also have testimony from you. and in the, in, in the record about, you know, texts going, going, you know, either back and forth or in one direction. have any of the recent communications, between you and the appellant? touched on the noise or visibility barriers, or has that just kind of been something that you've undertaken with your service providers? no. i sent him a text to say that i would be happy to discuss any ways to mitigate some of the noise and the privacy concerns, but i didn't hear back, so we haven't talked about it. okay. thank you. thank you, vice

president trasvina. i think you may have addressed this in your answer to president lopez, i'm trying to get a sense as to how much you have taken into account your neighbors concerns and whether whether if you have whether that's caused any changes in your plans up to now. any considerations that we've made so far are not to the plans themselves. i don't know. i mean, maybe would consider that. i guess it depends on what that would be, but, you know, anything that we are considering right now is just to kind of put up a barrier or, you know, something like that, and, and have a communication of whether or not we're too loud or i'm open to other suggestions, but we haven't considered actually

changing the deck plans at this point. okay. and when you say you're open to other suggestions, the way your neighbor knows that is because of the text right before the activity, the text, and then also what we put in the brief. i think that this is kind of a mediation process, right? we have not had a great relationship. so this could be a process for mediation for that. okay. and when you built the adu, i saw the photograph where that your neighbor shows the pre the view from his window before the adu and then after the then with the adu. did you have any discussions with him about the impact on his view from his room of what your adu would entail? we didn't and i, i mean, i regret that now. i think that that's been a source of contention between us. you know, i think we went through the

planning process as we knew that we had to do it, and we had said we were going to do it. i think, you know, i would have at some point he said, you know, can i see the plans? and i said, yeah, sure. my dad is the one who's it's his adu so he can show you the plans. if you'd like. and he said, okay, never mind, but that was after construction had already started. so i mean, i do think that, you know, maybe there was we should have had some more discussion about it. we just kind of said, this is happening. we're building the adu for my dad, you know, the city doesn't require us to say, okay, here are the plans. and here's what it looks like. like it does with other i know with other permits, and we didn't do that. and i think that, you know, that's i regret that. yeah thank you. okay. thank you. i don't see any further questions. so you can be seated. thank you. we'll now hear from the planning department.

good evening, president lopez. vice president i'm tina tam, deputy zoning administrator. 763 lakeview avenue is a one and a half storey over basement, single family dwelling in the rh one zoning district. constructed in 1904, the property is of potential historic resource. this permit, filed in 2023, is a revision to a 2022 permit. the scope of the 2022 permit is to construct a state adu at the back of the existing single family dwelling. the adu measures 17ft in width, 21ft in length, nine feet in height, and 375ft!s in size. the adu permit was issued on december 28th, 2022, and based upon the photographs, the adu has already been constructed. the scope of

the 2023 permit, which is the subject of tonight's hearing, is to add a new deck on top of the adu. while the permit initially did include spiral stairs as part of the deck that has been removed so no spiral stair is being proposed. the deck is primarily for carlos and claudia villicana, and her family, who resides in the main dwelling unit at the front of the property. again, the appeal is for the deck, not for the adu, as the adu permit has already been issued and more importantly, the adu permit is not subject to any discretionary action. the appellant is peter holder, the adjacent neighbor to the west at 765 lakeview avenue. peter is concerned that the new deck violates the city residential design guidelines and will cause privacy, light and noise impacts to illustrate,

some of the existing and proposed conditions, i'm going to go ahead and show some graphics. at the top is a sanborn map. the subject property is outlined in blue, and the appellant's property is outlined in red. below are two aerial photographs. the one on the left shows the subject property before the adu was constructed, and the photo to the right shows the adu, the appellant's property to the to the left. here are some more photos. let's see whether i can zoom in. the photo to the left is the subject property as viewed from the street on

lakeview avenue. the 3d aerial photo to the right shows the subject property as well as the appellant's property on the left. and this is a photo that was taken before the adu was constructed, and you can tell the subject property was the shortest among the two adjacent neighbors. below are two photos taken from the from the yard level. this shows the back of the adu looking towards the west and on the. on this photograph you see the appellant's property in light blue. the photo to the right shows again the back of the adu looking towards the east, showing the neighbors that's situated on the right. and as you can tell in both of these, in these photos, both neighbors have decks at the rea.

rear decks are common features in the neighborhood. the majority of neighbors on this block have rear decks or multiple level rear decks. decks are important features for many residential buildings due to topography and the building typology. in san francisco, mainly being multi-level. decks provide direct access for residents to usable open space. the new deck at 763 lakeview avenue is within the buildable area of the lot. it measures less than ten feet in height. no neighborhood notification is required. the appellant cited the residential design guidelines on page 17 of the guidelines. it states that, quote, with construction of any new deck, some loss of privacy to existing neighboring buildings can be expected. end quote design mitigations to

lessen impacts may include siting the deck back from the side property line using solid railing, or incorporating a private screen. the new deck will sit on top of the already approved and constructed adu. the new deck will be set back four feet from the side property line and sit below the appellant side, facing windows and rear deck, and based upon the applicant's response to the appellant's concern, they are willing to consider putting up privacy screens along the west side of the of the new deck with privacy screen. while it's not required by the planning department, can help to lessen potential impacts to privacy and noise to the appellant's property, and for those reasons, the department supports the new deck, either as proposed or revised, to include privacy screens as depicted in the brief. that concludes my

presentation. i'm happy to answer any questions. thank you. commissioner swig has a questio, thank you very much. i not that to dismiss anybody's importance. or uniqueness. we've seen this scenario before. and we've seen the same response before from neighbors who believe that their privacy is being obliterated or significantly impacted, and there are there's fears of, noise and parties and all that. and again, i'm trying to be delicate and because because the most important case we've ever heard is the one we here tonight. at least that's the view of the appellant. so we

have to respect that, so first question is, is there you've already shown us or communicated your support for this, but is there any aspect of this deck that makes it, unusual or different than, than decks that we've seen before, is there a feature that you consider, sketchy, risky, problematic, or is this pretty straightforward by comparison to, the precedents? and, you know, i'm, i'm very sensitive to that word precedent, as is commissioner trasvina and others, is there anything that that is deviates from precedents and or decks that we have seen before or that we should we should be worried about? thank you for that question, i don't think so.

decks within the buildable area of the lot, measuring less than ten feet are routinely approved over-the-counter. i don't want to throw out a number, but in the past, it has been hundreds per year where we approve those without, further review or review with the neighbors, certainly i commend neighbors who do end up discussing the design and working out some sort of design solution. but from the planning department perspective, it complies with the planning code. we believe it complies with the residential design guidelines as set back, the appellant's deck is not set bac, his windows are not set back with the setback being proposed is consistent with the guidelines. could there be further design considerations? yes. it could be a solid railing. it could be some maybe privacy screen that could help

further lessen any potential impacts. but that's that's a discussion between the neighbors and we encourage that communication to take place. okay. thank you for that segue perfectly into my second question. so when we have had this situation in the past, this board has suggested some privacy screening. we have suggested, everything from, opaque, glass or plastic or the approved an improved and a, a dbi approved, composition to that would prevent some noise from trickling over. certainly, if it's opaque, prevents some sight lines, that that might be problematic. we've also,

suggested some flora of some kind, whether it be a tall plants or of various kinds. is there a direction, as you say, that's between the neighbors. but we've we have fixed that in the past right here on this board, is there a recommended solution to that or maybe i should ask mr. birmingham to make his. oh, in fact, i will right now. he can comment on later, but is there a preferred direction? is it a is it a solid, glass or or or other material that would be opaque for protection, or would it be a the, the vegetation option that would be, preferred by the planning department. thank you. there isn't a prescribed design, for this privacy screen that's outlined in the residential

design guidelines, we have some on the rooftop of the building. this is not necessarily a rooftop. it's a it's a deck on top of the extension, we don't even feel like a privacy screen is necessary. i'm going to reiterate that, i know cost is an issue or a factor for the applicant, i think whatever design solution that is proposed, it should be vetted between the two neighbors. more so than having a plan or be involved in that discussion. so your your recommendation is sorry. your thoughts are that a privacy screen is not a bad idea. you're not ready to prescribe it, but it would be a good idea for these neighbors who have to live next to each other. to come forth and go in one of the one of the directions that i might have suggested. okay. thanks very much. okay. thank you. no further questions. we'll now hear from dbi. good

evening, president lopez. members of the board, kevin birmingham for dbi. as always, i'd like to thank tina for a good presentation. she does most of my hard lifting by addressing most of the key points, this permit is to place a deck on top of the adu on the back. it falls within all the allowable heights and setbacks and requirements. it's gone through a full review and all the permit stations, there were no issues as the permit went through the whole process. there is a wire railing which would allow a lot of light and ventilation through to. to your point, it is more than three foot from the property line. it's four foot from the property line. so whatever type of privacy screening they do decide to go with, it doesn't have to be fire rated. so it would be more of an open thing. i might suggest, you know, start with the fauna. and if that doesn't work, move on to something a little more permanent. but it's nice to see that the permit holder is willing to work with the

appellant. and hopefully they can come to some kind of an agreement. after that, we believe, you know, it was properly reviewed and we have no issue with the permit itself. so okay. thank you. i don't see any questions. thank you. so we're going to move on to public comment. is there anyone in the room to provide who wants to provide public comment on this item. okay. is there anybody on zoom who wants to provide public comment? please raise your hand. okay. i don't see any public comments, so we're going to move on to rebuttal. mr. holwerda, you have three minutes to address the board in rebuttal. i'd like to wish this is

something that we could work out. however, i think the attitude on this has been very disappointing. i was given a text five days before construction was to begin. where was i supposed to get my input to? and how does that evolve into a drawing? and if you're going to put privacy shrubs or whatever it is up, what's going to make that permanent? how by law do we make that permanent, we live at the el monte gap. we get 90 mile an hour winds in december, stuff in a box that grows up on a trellis. good luck. you got to strap that down. but most importantly, and i'm glad the building department is here to, the contractor here

violated the setback for the adu, it is not four feet as described in code. it is smaller than that, there have been you. i went to the building department today. there are several revisions to the adu and what bothers me about that isn't so much that as it is the permissiveness of whatever you want to do next, because i didn't know about it. had i not been given this text, i wouldn't have known. in fact, the adu, the way i knew about the adu going in were jackhammers. at 730 in the morning when construction started. that's not right. it really is wrong. i mean, i know we want adus and we want to house people. that's great. but we should really involve the neighbors in some of this, at least to look over the plan, suggest something, but there's got to be some teeth if

there's going to be some sort of mitigation or, you know, new plans here. great. again, i want to make sure that we all understand ten feet from flammable building material is what san francisco fire department is saying. okay, that's number one. number two. and i like those children. they're gorgeous kids. i will leave this for you to is called kids. don't fly. and 30s. it does not, allow the kind of wire, thing that they're putting up for, on the deck, it's supposed to. apparently they allows them to crawl up and ove. so you're supposed to have some sort of way that they can't do that, i don't know if you want this or not, but it's here.

thank you. thank you. okay. thank you. we do have a question, sir. please stay there. mr. lloyd austin, you can stay. mr. mr. lloyd, we have a question from commissioner swig. i'm sorry, we have a question from commissioner swig. sure. so the benefit of you being here tonight is that we can ask you questions, and you can you can communicate your thoughts to your, to the, permit holder. so as you heard, according to the building department and planning department, this is a it would be atypical deck application, it the literally according to the planning department, hundreds of these typical deck applications are made over-the-counter on a regular basis. and i will tell

you from sitting on this panel for many years, we've heard many appeals on the subject which are similar to yours because nobody likes a deck put up next to their house. that's just it just happens. but, what i'd like to end and we've also come up with prescriptions, to mitigate the impact of what you're complaining about, justifiably. so, given that that we have the permit holder in the house right here tonight, and you're you have the microphone, if there was a something that could be, could mitigate your fears about sound and privacy other than not putting up the deck at all,

which is probably not going to happen. what what substance would you see as, in the form of either a, opaque, piece of material or a plant material? what would be your preference, if you were requesting the same from the permit holder tonight? well, i guess, you know, i i've had some time to think about that, so i, you know, would really like my neighbors to be happy. can you speak into the microphone, please? i'm sorry. i really would like my neighbors to be happy. i've thought about it. trying to figure out how to do that, and, you know, again, five days before construction was to begin. so, after i came in and did the appeal, i started thinking about it. and. yeah

there you can use plants in certain places. absolutely. you can use opaque, places. yeah, certainly, the thing is, those are not permanent foliage dies, especially like planter boxes. we live in a salty environment. you have to use some stuff that's pretty solid. as i said before, the winds up there are substantial, so it's got to be able to withstand that. and, i mean, there's a lot of there's a lot of thinking that that would need to go. i mean, i've lived there since 1987, so i'm pretty familiar with, you know, the weather and all. but again, what's to stop? and let's say these folks get a better paying job somewhere else. what's to keep the next owner from just tearing all that out and starting over again? and us army

us. you okay? well, here we go again. i'm getting too old to be a policeman for noise or light or. no, but this this board, we can discuss whether this board wants to put. i'm sorry. i'm. we can discuss on this board tonight whether, we can do an add on to, to this permit, which would include a private, some privacy screening. so when i say us, i'm not being facetious or sarcastic. we can do that. which is why i'm asking. if when we are chatting later, we would have a choice about discussing a permanent requirement to that, be it floral or be it an opaque or something else. so the answer to your question who's going to keep it permanent, we can do that tonight. okay that's great, then there's the question about a fire hazard if people okay, the question that he posed to

you is what kind of screen would you like for it? so we your time up is up for speaking. so if you can just answer his question, please. i think it would. it's very we live in san francisco. everything's in a matter of inches here. i mean, if you're working on a house, you know that you better damn well plan it out. because right now, work out because you didn't measure. so what kind of screen would you like? well, i'm trying to get to that answer and whatever works. the downstairs window. i'd like to keep light down there so, you know, a transparent screen might work there, but it'd have to be very transparent as far as privacy for the backyard and noise abatement. you know what i it would have to. you're five feet away. i need to know what kind of foliage is able to

mitigate noise. thank you for your answer, i'm going to ask mr. birmingham to address your issue related to your claim on the fire risk, item that you brought forth, and he can address that now, the how dbi and the fire department, come to a conclusion on things like barbecues. okay. thank you very much. thank you. and we do have a question from vice president trasvina for you, sir. you thank you. thank you for your presentations. and i wanted you you've mentioned the fire issue three times, so i assume it's important to you. can you elaborate and make clear for me and perhaps others what your concern is on the on the fire issue so that we can address it

if possible. right. so, as i understand it, fires start not so much by a big flame, but they start because of embers. things like that, and they carried by wind and they get trapped on, on a on a house somewhere in a vent underneath the eaves. there's a variety of ways that that it happens. with the winds, as i said before, that we have they're they're significant. and according to the fire department, it doesn't matter if it's lp or if it's charcoal, things flying around, especially wind and wind and, fuel. it's perfect for fire. so that's the problem with living there. we're very windy place, so you described the problem. you have described the problem. yeah. do

you have in mind tonight any recommendations? recommended solution. you don't have to, but i was just wondering whether, whether you have anything to guide us at the moment. you know, look, i'm, i'm saying what i'm afraid of, okay? okay. i don't know how to fix this stuff. okay, and, you know, it would take, some convincing on, you know, convincing of myself to know that i'll be safe. okay? i mean, it's not just it's not just, you know, the fire, but you know, on the nicest days, which we have very few of in san francisco, i want to put my window open and enjoy the air that comes through. and five feet away. i don't care if you

put plants up or not. it's still going to be noisy and, the other part of it is, is that you got a barbecue going. i'm going to be smelling your barbecue, too. okay. mr. lloyd, i you i don't know how to help that. right. okay. well, i, i'm not trying to convince you of anything tonight, but, like, commissioner zweig trying to lay the foundation for hearing what the concerns are, if there are any possible solutions so that your neighbors can hear the concern, a possible solution, if they can't be elaborated on tonight, hopefully there will be future discussions with your neighbors on what it is that will make this a better situation. so i appreciate your answering my question, commissioner swig's question and your presentation. thank you very much. thank you, mr. lloyd. there's no further questions. you can be seated. okay thank you. we will now hear

from the permit holders. i believe your architect was previously raising his hand on zoom. i believe your architect, daniel vargas, was raising his hand. oh, okay. well, someone took your invitation and was raising their hand, so i apologize about that. okay. didn't get their own, so i just had to send it to them. sorry. okay. no problem. go ahead. yeah. so my name is daniel vargas. i am here for, claudia villicana as well as carlos. he was unable to attend. i represent hcd we are the contractor for the adu as well as the dec, as well. i'm joined with my colleague janelle. she is our principal designer. she put together the renderings for this proposed deck. what we could do for this screening, i want to be clear that we went through every single step that was necessary, from the nucleus of or. sorry, the birth of the adu. up until now, every single planning step, building step was

done, we had a meeting. we didn't hide anything. we took everything that was voiced by mr. lloyd. we shared his comments. his concerns, so nothing was left out. and at the end of the day, it was still approved. we were not given any extra, instructions from the planning department. so, of course we want to be open to helping. we want to be open to like, we stated in our letter that we handed to him, we want to make sure that everybody's opinions are being heard. so, in regards to i guess, what we would prefer to put up, i think something that would cover everything as far as light, noise, privacy, ideally, not something opaque, not glass. those things are expensive, i think a trellis or with the planter box, maybe combination, you know, flowers, plants, whatever, have you. that would work just as well, th is san

francisco, you don't see the sun until after, like, noon or 1:00. so i think, taking away sunlight isn't really an issue here. and, you could actually look at the appellant's brief and look at before and after the adu. i personally don't see a difference. the pictures that he showed you was black and white. if you look at it in color, you do not see a difference. so i guess that's i don't really have much else to say, but we are totally open to, putting up the privacy screening. how you guys see it fitting and, also, thank you to tina. she did a great job. she had basically everything wrapped up that i wanted to say. so. yeah, that's kind of all i've got. thank you. we have a question from commissioner swig. okay. no questions. you can be seated. thank you. okay. we will now hear from the planning department. i'm sorry, sir, your time is you don't have time

left. okay. so, miss tam response to that? i'm sorry. you cannot miss. miss tam. rare decks are very typical on this black face. the majority of the houses on this black face have them both neighbors of the subject property have rare decks as well. here is a partial site plan. showing the subject property and the adjacent neighbors with their rear deck. as you can see from this partial site plan, the appellant's rear deck gets further out into the rear yard than the subject property's rear deck, and then corresponding elevation is belo.

this shows the new deck on top of the adu. it shows that a setback four feet from the from the side property line, and it's lower in height than the appellant's rear deck. so the appellant should be able to continue to still look out and look over. the neighboring properties for those reasons stated in my presentation earlier, the department respectfully asked that the board deny this appeal and uphold the issuance of the permit that the permit was properly issued. thank you. okay. thank you. i don't see any questions. so we'll hear from dbi. all right guys, whenever you want. alex. there i get the overhead for a second, if you don't mind. overhead, please. thank you. okay yeah. that's

fine. okay. this is the information sheet issued by the fire department. and as you can see, it says for an r-3, a single family house, the fire separation is actually three feet on on for decks and residential decks and stairways. and this deck is four feet away from it. so it's more than a foot away from what the fire department requires. i did want to address the one thing about the four foot setback on the adu. the adu is four foot back. there was an error in the documents for the original house on the east side, which is the opposite side from the appellants, and it was shown as four foot. it is actually three, and they do have an administrative and administrative permit filed right now to correct that dimension. as far as i know, there was i don't know if they're ever going to barbecue up there. and if they do, you

know, if it's that windy, i would hope they wouldn't be barbecuing. but if they if the appellant was worried, he is free to call the fire department. but at the same time i do hope they work together and get some kind of an agreement as far as noise and privacy goes, they seem to be trying to go in the same direction, so hopefully they can work together. okay. thank you. i don't see any questions. thank you so commissioners, this matter is submitted okay commissioners, let's begin with commissioner swig and work our way this way with comments on this matter. thank you. as i mentioned, the most recently important deck project that we've heard is tonight. we have to take this. even though this is a typical deck request over the counter, we have to underscore to the appellant that we take it as more seriously or as seriously as any deck that's come in front of us, that that being said,

this deck is a is, as i asked, the planning is this deck any any different? does this deck give you any, fears? she said no, it's pretty typical. we do hundreds of these have done hundreds of these in the past, it is according to all the statutes, guidelines, etc. so it would be very easy for us to just deny the appeal on the basis that the permit was properly issued, we have in that we do listen to appellants, we could make an adjustment and, and, and ask that as suggested by the permit holders. architect put a trellis, require a trellis around the edge. my thought on that would that would be nice.

and it would be a nice thing for the permit holder to do according to the, the thoughts reflected by her architect. at the same time, if we did it, it might be perceived as as punitive because as miss tam has pointed out, that the appellant's deck is normally it's the problem that the next door neighbor's deck is going to be higher than mine, and going to look down on my deck, but in this case, the appellant's deck is higher than the new requested deck. so i might suggest that we consider, requiring a trellis, but then again, i might not suggest that because there really isn't the general problem of privacy is really that some of these deck is higher than the next door neighbor's deck, which doesn't exist in this case. so,

i would be happy with denying the appeal and the permanent basis that the permit is properly issued and leave it into the hands of neighborly, empathy and respect that they might put up a trellis, a trellis by themselves. i'll leave it at that. can we call that a motion, can we call that a motion, i'll let you all, discuss it if. because that's what this period is for. before motions filed. thank you, commissioner epler, thank you, i think that commissioner swig summarizes, the issues. well, and my feelings. well, i would add that, you know, we could mandate a trellis or something like that. i am not sure if the two parties have any agreement on yet on whether that is the correct type of screening. it does seem like there is an interest in screening from both

parties. and so i am, you know, slightly unless one of you has a better way of phrasing it in terms of the motion, slightly more inclined to denying the pill outright and then allowing them to work together to fix the issue outside of the permitting. i generally agree with my colleagues, except that i really want to encourage the neighbors to work together. we've we've gone through the legalities. i recalled my first meeting with commissioner swig, educated me about decks. we have a lot of deck cases. there they are. the subject of tremendous ill will between neighbors and but there are the limits. the proper limits of the law, over the past two, two years, the jurisdiction of this board, our discretion has been limited by state law. and we have we will have more

disgruntled neighbors and residents of the city because they would come to us asking for a resolution. we can't provide a resolution, but that doesn't mean that neighbors have to limit themselves to what the legal requirements are. there's no legal requirement for you to necessarily talk to your neighbor in certain cases or notify, but certainly good, good neighborliness, working together, living together for many years, there's high regard for by the neighbor towards towards the, towards the children of the of the of the of the, permit holder, the permit holders in their papers have made clear they want to work things out. they, they, they, they respect they understand, the neighbors needs. we want to encourage that. and really, this

is for everybody's best interest. moving forward. it's very hard for us to say it's got to be a glass or some type of opaque, shield or a trellis or different types of plants. that's best resolved by by neighbors working together, respecting each other and trying to come to some common ground because you're going to be living up there, living up there next to it, next to each other and lake view and the or am i is very far from city hall. that's very. and you all have to come down here to resolve a matter that could have been resolved on lake view. you have every right to be here, and we want to resolve this on the law, but i think we can only go so far. the rest of it needs to be done by the goodwill that you that you can, you can and have to express to each other. so on, in terms of the appeal itself, i would join my colleagues in denying the appeal, but but also join them in the hopes that further

progress and further actions can be taken by by the neighbors together. yeah, i would echo much of what's been said. i do think that, even though there's clearly been a breakdown in communication, i do think that this situation, comes across as one where it would be fruitful to reengage in those communications. i think there's a lot of mutual interests. there's certainly, i would think, an incentive on the part of the permit holder to, to have some, some privacy themselves, especially given the, the, the, the adjacent deck height point that was, that was pointed, pointed out by miss tam and touched upon by commissioner swig. as being the father of,

five year olds. i know that the permit holder will also be incentivized to address the fire and the safety of scaling any barriers, those those issues and i think with, with those things in mind, this doesn't seem like the, the, the, the case that lends itself to, resolution fro, from the board in this case, i think it does lend itself to further discussion on the part of the parties. and for that reason, i would be inclined to give a clean denial, without, without, obligations to, to put up specific types of, of barriers and encourage the, the neighbors to, to, you know, reengage to communicate, you know, respectfully and openly

and find something that's of a mutually beneficial solution for, for the parties, with that, commissioner swig, i see your your request to speak is that, now, i'll make that motion. okay. so moved. okay, so we have a motion from commissioner swig to deny the appeal and uphold the permit on the basis that it was properly issued on that motion. president lopez, a vice president trasvina i commissioner epler i so that motion carries 4 to 0 and the appeal is denied. thank you. we are now moving on to item number five. this is a special item discussion. and possible adoption of the departmental annual report for fiscal year 24. as commissioners, as you know, the charter requires all boards and commissions to issue an annual report, and it gives the public an opportunity to see what we have done. so prior to the hearing, vice president trasvina reached out to me with some proposed revisions and

corrections to the report. these changes have been emailed to you and posted on our website. vice president has further requested an update on the memarzadeh versus boe case, found on page 31 of the report. the deputy city attorney proposes amending the language to reflect recent updates, and this language has been provided to you and posted on our website. so we can go through other parts of the report, i just want to highlight a few points. we do this every year and it gives us an update on our numbers, so a few points, if you look on page three, the, the board meetings for fiscal year 24, we had 28 meetings lasting 108 hours. and if you look at the next page, you can see how that compares to previous fiscal years. it's a bit definitely a lot higher than fiscal year 23 and fiscal year

24 or excuse me, fiscal year 22 and 21. so we did spend more time in the meeting room and so, we had some different types of cases. the coastal zone permits, which we previously hadn't dealt with, and some entertainment commission permits, which those also did take some time because the board wasn't as familiar with them. i believe. so, so looking at page eight, we'll look at the appeal. volume 80 new appeals are filed. this is below the ten year average of 141 appeals. and this is where one correction, commissioner trasvina requested. it's the ten year average is 141. it was actually 140.6, but i'm rounding to 141. so i just want to make sure that number is consistent, and so, you know, appeal volume is generally related to the

volume of permit issuance. and since fiscal year 19, dbi and the planning department have issued significantly fewer permits and planning department determinations. and, as you are all aware, that changes in appeal volume from year to year can be attributed to other causes, such as changes in legislation. and we know assembly bill 1114 became effective january 1st, 2024. and that means, basically that the board of appeals cannot accept jurisdiction of appeals of post entitlement phase permits for housing development projects. and this restriction applies to permits filed january 1st and later, looking back, i looked back over the previous, well, fiscal year 24 and fiscal year 23 and approximately 16% of the cases were housing related. so that will affect our volume

because i as i recall, commissioner eppler had that question a few hearings back. so just moving on and then then to throw some historical slant, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19, we had a high volume of, telephone telecommunications related things. and those have been taken away from this board and taken to the puc or other places. right. and legislation in some cases, you know, we had 2 or 3 of them in a week, so those that, that, that, that grouping has a significant amount of impact on that. there were quite a few of those appeals, back in the day. so as long as you're on that area, i don't see any reference. i don't see any reference to the taxi medallion cases were. yeah. we

didn't hear any. were we done with them? yes. in fiscal year 24 we did not have reporting period. we didn't have any. that's correct. thank you. time flies when you're having fun. and we didn't have any taxi hearings in fiscal year 24. so but thank you for asking. and okay, so moving on to page. let me see. so page 12 subject matter. no surprise that 80% of our appeals were of land use decisions made by the department of building inspection, planning department planning commission, historic preservation commission and the zoning administrator. and it's interesting to look back over the years how that number fluctuates, but it's consistently the most of our cases are of land use matters. so, in fiscal year 24, i just said it was 80% last year, 88% the previous year, 63%. and it jumps. but it's pretty consistently high. and in terms of the budget, if let's move on

to. let me see. page 24, the board, as you know, has two sources of revenue surcharges placed on permits, which are designed to generate the revenue to cover the operating expenses. those make up 98% of the budget. and the other 2% are made up by filing fees, which are collected when new appeals are filed and the important page for the budget discussion is page 25 or excuse me, page 26. that basically tells us how we did and we do. we did have a surplus, which we will use put in our deferred revenue account to act as a buffer for future years. so that's good news. we

didn't have a shortfall. and, vice president trevino did recommend we just omit the word shortfall. all his changes are listed on the sheet i provided to you. so, and then moving on to the litigation portion, i know that as i previously indicated on page 31, vice president trevino wanted an update, that was provided by the city attorney. but i believe vice president, you had a further comment on that. well, i appreciate all all your hard work in putting the report together and then to address and accommodate all the requested changes on this last one, i believe what i had wanted was an instead of saying there was a pending motion on august the 24th to update with the status

of that motion, which was done, but i don't think we need to go so far as to say what the city's intentions are in the future of the litigation. so i was i would be happy if you were if you were trying to address my concern about an update. it's satisfied with saying what happened with the august 24th motion. so i believe you're suggesting that we delete the last sentence. if the which starts with if petitioner proceeds with litigation, the city intends to file a demurrer. is that the sentence you would like deleted? you propose? yeah, i i'll defer to the city attorney as to whether it's necessary, but i don't think it's necessary for purposes of this report to state what our intentions are. i would prefer it be removed. deputy city attorney huber, the board can remove it if it wishes. i don't think there are any concerns about including that information here. the. i don't think it's a secret that those

cases were untimely filed and the city would file a demurrer, as it did in the initial case. so i really leave it to the board. i don't there there are no concerns with including that level of information in this instance. and the litigator has no concerns with it. okay. well then then it's fine as updated. okay thank you. thank you. so, commissioners, if you have any comments or questions, i just touched on a few points. i know you had time in advance to read this report. commissioner quick, just, we know that the state law will prevent us from hearing things that we heard before. we and we know that there has been a downward trend in the amount of, items that have come in

front of us. i am very happy that we have a surplus because if that will allow us to potentially weather, i'm not going to call it a storm, but a flurry. of a shortfall that may occur. and in hearings which would have brought us fees, which, would keep us buoyant as a department. so just that comment, a surplus is this is good timing for a surplus because i anticipate that we will, we will not hear as much as we had before on certain items because of state action on what's being developed in the city and the and the faster flow that the politicians would like

to, to have towards getting from application to approval. i would echo those comments. i want to thank our executive director for the work that went into the report, it's always informative. it's always appreciated. i think it's it speaks to, the board being, blessed with with, our executive director's leadership and attention to, not just to detail, but broader kind of higher level questions that relate to operating, the, the board in a responsible way. i think i also want to thank our immediately past president and our executive director for their

financial responsibility. that's that's led to, the surplus and that, i agree that that that would help us, you know, weather, the, the potential for leaner days ahead. and it's a it's a good thing to go into the, the, the near future with. okay. thank you. i would just like to acknowledge the support that alex and xiomara mejia give to the board. we're a very small department, and they make it run very well. couldn't do it without them. so is there any public comment on this item? i don't see anyone in the room, and i don't see anyone on zoom. so. so we need a motion to accept the we would need a motion to adopt the fiscal year 24 annual report, as amended by vice president trasvina and deputy city attorney huber. i

think i can do that. please. and also, while thanking you and staff for their hard work and diligence and preparing such a clean report with so few changes recommended by the board. okay. thank you. so on that motion, president lopez, a vice president, i commissioner eppler, i so that motion carries 4 to 0 in the report is adopted. thanks everybody. we are adjourned.

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everything was just really within walking distance, so it make it really fun. when i was a teenager, we didn't have a lot of money. we could go to sam wong's and get super -- soup for $1. my parents came here and were drawn to the beatnik culture. they wanted to meet all of the writers who were so famous at the time, but my mother had some serious mental illness issues, and i don't think my father were really aware of that, and those didn't really become evident until i was about five, i guess, and my marriage blew up, and my mother took me all over the world. most of those ad ventures ended up bad because they would end up hospitalized. when i was about six i guess, my mother took me to japan, and

that was a very interesting trip where we went over with a boyfriend of hers, and he was working there. i remember the open sewers and gigantic frogs that lived in the sewers and things like that. mostly i remember the smells very intensely, but i loved japan. it was wonderful. toward the end. my mother had a breakdown, and that was the cycle. we would go somewhere, stay for a certain amount of months, a year, period of time, and she would inevitably have a breakdown. we always came back to san francisco which i guess came me some sense of continuity and that was what kept me sort of stable. my mother hated to fly, so she would always make us take ships places, so on this particular occasion when i was, i think, 12, we were on this ship getting ready to go through the panama canal, and she had a breakdown on the ship. so she was put in the brig, and i was left to wander the ship

until we got to fluorfluora few days later, where we had a distant -- florida a few days later, where we had a distant cousin who came and got us. i think i always knew i was a writer on some level, but i kind of stopped when i became a cop. i used to write short stories, and i thought someday i'm going to write a book about all these ad ventures that my mother took me on. when i became a cop, i found i turned off parts of my brain. i found i had to learn to conform, which was not anything i'd really been taught but felt very safe to me. i think i was drawn to police work because after coming from such chaos, it seemed like a very organized, but stable

environment. and even though things happening, it felt like putting order on chaos and that felt very safe to me. my girlfriend and i were sitting in ve 150d uvio's bar, and i looked out the window and i saw a police car, and there was a woman who looked like me driving the car. for a moment, i thought i was me. and i turned to my friend and i said, i think i'm supposed to do this. i saw myself driving in this car. as a child, we never thought of police work as a possibility for women because there weren't any until the mid70's, so i had only even begun to notice there were women doing this job. when i saw here, it seemed like this is what i was meant to do. one of my bosses as ben johnson's had been a cop, and he -- i said, i have this weird idea that i should do this. he said, i think you'd be good.

the department was forced to hire us, and because of all of the posters, and the big recruitment drive, we were under the impression that they were glad to have us, but in reality, most of the men did not want the women there. so the big challenge was constantly feeling like you had to prove yourself and feeling like if you did not do a good job, you were letting down your entire gender. finally took an inspector's test and passed that and then went down to the hall of justice and worked different investigations for the rest of my career, which was fun. i just felt sort of buried alive in all of these cases, these unsolved mysteries that there were just so many of them, and some of them, i didn't know if we'd ever be able to solve, so my boss was able to get me out of the unit. he transferred me out, and a couple of weeks later, i found out i had breast cancer. my intuition that the job was

killing me. i ended up leaving, and by then, i had 28 years or the years in, i think. the writing thing really became intense when i was going through treatment for cancer because i felt like there were so many parts that my kids didn't know. they didn't know my story, they didn't know why i had a relationship with my mother, why we had no family to speak of. it just poured out of me. i gave it to a friend who is an editor, and she said i think this would be publishable and i think people would be interested in this. i am so lucky to live here. i am so grateful to my parents who decided to move to the city. i am so grateful they did. that it neverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

>> right before the game starts, if i'm still on the field, i look around, and i just take a deep breath because it is so exciting and magical, not knowing what the season holds is very, very exciting. it was fast-paced, stressful, but the good kind of stressful, high energy. there was a crowd to entertain, it was overwhelming in a good

way, and i really, really enjoyed it. i continued working for the grizzlies for the 2012-2013 season, and out of happenstance, the same job opened up for the san francisco giants. i applied, not knowing if i would get it, but i would kick myself if i didn't apply. i was so nervous, i never lived anywhere outside of fridays fridays -- fresno, and i got an interview. and then, i got a second interview, and i got more nervous because know the thought of leaving fresno and my family and friends was scary, but this opportunity was on the other side. but i had to try, and lo and behold, i got the job, and my first day was january 14, 2014. every game day was a puzzle, and i have to figure out how to put the pieces together. i have two features that are 30

seconds long or a minute and a 30 feature. it's fun to put that al together and then lay that out in a way that is entertaining for the fans. a lucky seat there and there, and then, some lucky games that include players. and then i'll talk to lucille, can you take the shirt gun to the bleachers. i just organize it from top to bottom, and it's just fun for me. something, we don't know how it's going to go, and it can be a huge hit, but you've got to try it. or if it fails, you just won't do it again. or you tweak it. when that all pans out, you go oh, we did that. we did that as a team. i have a great team. we all gel well together. it keeps the show going. the fans are here to see the

teams, but also to be entertained, and that's our job. i have wonderful female role models that i look up to here at the giants, and they've been great mentors for me, so i aspire to be like them one day. renelle is the best. she's all about women in the workforce, she's always in our corner. [applause] >> i enjoy how progressive the giants are. we have had the longer running until they secure day. we've been doing lgbt night longer than most teams. i enjoy that i work for an organization who supports that and is all inclusive. that means a lot to me, and i wouldn't have it any other way.

i wasn't sure i was going to get this job, but i went for it, and i got it, and my first season, we won a world series even if we hadn't have won or gone all the way, i still would have learned. i've grown more in the past four years professionally than i think i've grown in my entire adult life, so it's been eye opening and a wonderful learningtelevision.

>> in 1948 swensen's ice cream used to make ice cream in the navy and decided to open up an ice cream shop it it takes time for the parent to put money down and diane one of the managers at zen citizen in arena hills open and serve old-fashioned ice cream. >> over 20 years. >> yeah. >> had my own business i was a firefighter and came in- in

1969 her dad had ice cream and left here still the owner but shortly after um, in here became the inc. maker the manager and lead and branded the store from day to day and in the late 90s- was obvious choice he sold it to him and he called us up one night and said i'm going to sell the ice cream store what you you talking about diane came and looked at the store and something we want to do and had a history of her dad here and growing up here at the ice cream store we decided to take that

business on. >> and have it in the family i didn't want to sell it. >> to keep it here in san francisco. >> and (unintelligible). >> share worked there and worked with all the people and a lot of customers come in. >> a round hill in the adjoining areas loved neither ice cream shop in this area and support russia hills and have clean up day and give them free ice cream because that is those are the people that keep us the opportunity to stick around here four so many years next generations have been coming her 20 er thirty or 40 years and we have the ingredients something it sold and, you know, her dad

said to treat the customers right and people will keep on coming back and 75 or 74 years, you know, that is quite an accomplishment i think of it as our first 75 years and like to see that, you know, going into the future um, that ice cream shop will be around used to be 4 hundred in the united states and all gone equipment for that one that is the first and last we're proud of that we're still standing and people people are you tell people it's been around in 50 years and don't plan on

when completed in 1923, o'shaugnessy dam was the largest of the time built with over 660,000 cubic feet of concrete and 700,000 pounds of steel. what ask most impressive the purity of the water in hetch hetchy reservoir. >> quality of the water coming down the tuolumne river is snow melt rung off of grantite. it does not pick up pollute

annuals the most pristine water source wrochl getting it from the dam to san francisco was a challenge. the construction of mountain tunnel through 19 miles of grantite brought the water to the reservoir and then to the moccasin power plant the pipe lines called pen stalkers. for moccasin it flowed across the san wa queen valley where michael o'shaugnessy failed a daunting challenge. >> most feat was tunnelling throughout coast ranges. which was the tunnel was 28 miles long. it was an under taking but we persevered he wanted to drill through so it would be gravity flow from beginning to end. there were 85 miles of tunnels

some through grantite and 71 miles of aqueducts to carry hetch hetchy water to the crystal springs reservoir >> o'shaugnessy delivered to bring water and generate power from the tuolumne river 167 miles across california by gravity flow to the san francisco bay area. >> this o'shaugnessy dam centennial moment is

>> who doesn't love cable cars? charging emissions and we're free which we're proud of you know, it's not much free left in the world anymore so we managed to do that through donations and through our gift shops. you got a real look and real appreciation of what early transit systems are like. this was the transit of the day from about 1875 to about 1893 or later, you know. cable car museum is free, come on in. take a day. come down. rediscover the city. you can spend as time you want and you don't have to make reservations and it's important to be free because we want them to develop

a love for cable cars so they do continue to support whether they live here or other places and people come in and say, yes, i have passed by and heard of this and never come in and they always enjoy themselves. people love cable cars and there's none left in the world so if you want to ride a cable car, you've got to come to san francisco. that what makes the city. without the cable cars, you lose part of that, you know, because people who come here and they love it and they love the history ask they can ride a cable car that has been running since 1888 or 1889. wow! that's something. can't do that with other historical museums. rarely, have i run into anybody from outside who didn't come in and didn't feel better from knowing something about the city. it's a true experience you'll remember. i hope they walk away with a greater appreciation for the history, with the mechanics with people are fascinated by the winding machine and i hope the

appreciation, which is a part of our mission and these young kids will appreciate cable cars and the ones who live here and other places, they can make sure there will always be cable cars in san francisco because once they are gone, they are gone. it's the heartbeat of san francisco that founded the cable and the slot and without the cable cars, yeah, we would lose something in san francisco. we would lose part of its heart and soul. it wouldn't be san francisco without cable cars. [bell ringing]

>> i'm supervisor connie chan. over the last 4 years i worked to make