and we are going to hear from dan sider from the planning department. >> good evening, dan sider with planning department staff. commissioners, thank you for having me here tonight and please let me forward the regrets of the planning commission in regards to the scheduling issues that prevented them from joining you as well tonight. the planning commission president and the vice president do see the value in conducting a three-part joint hearing with you all and certainly from the planning department staff perspective, we do want to help arrange this and we do think that it could be extremely productive. your invitation, commissioners, to tonight's hearing contained a really thorough and excellent set of questions about zoning and about state ceqa law and about the state legislative process and about processes internal to the planning department. because of the very wide breadth of this request, i don't have a formal presentation to offer the commissions here tonight, but going forward, so that we can offer you a meaningful response in the future and at the request of our planning di

dan sider, planning department's staff. to get it out of the way, i draw your attention to the similarities between this matter and the one you just heard, particularly planning code section 604, the removal of general advertising signs. procedural background. this is a sign on the south side of 24th street. it contains a four-unit building built in 1908, like the previous case. this building does relate to two six by twelve structural suns mounted on the south side of the building. a bit of relative history -- this can become complex, so stop me if i lose you. in 2003, this sign was the subject of an in lieu request, a process by which a sign for which the permit cannot be located may seek legal status by providing evidence that it was likely legally authorized. in august 2009, the department granted this in lieu request and asked that a permit be filed to proceed with the legalization process. later in 2009, rather than seeking a permit to legalize the sign to complete the process, cbs submitted a permit to remove both of