most planning staff and dbi staff have starts down paths. i've heard comments from commissioners that can make that definition a lot easier. the difficulty is when do we discourage demolition or when do we say it's okay to demo a building? we certainly want to discourage it when it's a historic resource and it fits in the neighborhood character. we want to discourage it when it's rent controlled. we've kind of uncovered buildings that are rent controlled that weren't in the plans or understood to be rent controlled, so we want to discourage those. but i think when we did during the much maligned residential expansion threshold, we actually tried to encourage demolition of nonsignificant nonhistoric buildings where you could build more units, where you could building a two unit building where there's a nonsignificant single-family home or build a three unit building. i think we should still do that. i think we should densify because that's going to be the affordable housing stock of the future. so i think there's elements of r.a.t. that we sh

most planning staff and dbi staff have starts down paths. i've heard comments from commissioners that can make that definition a lot easier. the difficulty is when do we discourage demolition or when do we say it's okay to demo a building? we certainly want to discourage it when it's a historic resource and it fits in the neighborhood character. we want to discourage it

first i wanted to thank both planni planning staff and dbi staff for this presentation. i want to thank everybody from the public who came out today. i'm really touched by thement coulds that were made, and so these are broader comments and not so much technical questions. i would definitely like to see us moving forward either a joint technical group between the two departments so we can take up many of the suggestions made by the public or get to a point where it's a common definition or two definitions, we have more clarity. i think some of the most important things that the community brought up that i'd like to see explored by both of the departments as well as as builts that what's being brought across the counter is accurate in correct. i think in particular, too, as we're seeing more demolition used to built more units or displace more tenants, i'd like to look at one, requesting rental information going back five years to see what the tenancy records are, particularly when it comes to rent controlled units. i'd like to see us looking at policies and procedures si

tieing it to dbi, it cannot be tied into enforcement. rental registration is not about enforcement, but rental registration is almost like being allowed to live into the city. when i hear it all ties into dbi, i'll concerned you'll get into over crowding homes, etcetera, rather than just k w numerically holding who lives here and where, i think we may have more reasons to have a gent ral registration than we ever had before. >> commissioner richards: did you have to report what you paid in rent, too, or just that you lived there? >> commissioner moore: just that you lived there. this is your name, your age, and your address. >> president hillis: commissioner. >> if you look at the forms that berkeley uses, which i just saw this week for the first time, there actually is a number of requests that they make for information, just like you were saying about the address change. there's a request for the amount of rent and all that stuff, so we'd have to look at that, and where such a registry is will be discussed. whether it's dbi or the mayo

i'm a chief building inspector at dbi. first of all i'd like to say thank you to both commissions for giving me the opportunity to both on dbi on this very important topic. one of our suspect right lane engineers at dbi will also be a contributor in the presentation. firstly, as liz did, i'd like to emphasize the challenges presented to dbi in record to the inspections we perform on these projects. existing walls are often deficient in weather resistance, fire resistance structural and seismic. must be upgraded throughout percode. electrical and hvac work is required, and i think what's really important is when we have shoring that's required to preserve walls, floors and roofs to comply with the demolition calculations, this can often lead to unsafe conditions for workers who are working in the area of the shored components of the existing building. and demolition calculations are determined by the architect and approved by planning. site permits often approved without lots being completely vetted. there's a disconnect be

it was deemed to be an unlawful demoby dbi. the picture on your left shows the building two years later in 2008, and again, the picture on the right shows how it was in october 2017. now, i drove by there last week just to see if it had progressed any, and it's pretty much still like the picture in the slide shows of the october 2017 picture. in regard to these projects, when -- when they're abandoned, we receive a lot of complaints. the initial complaint is about exceeding the scope of demo, but when there's no activity and no progress towards moving forward with the work at the site, we get the complaints about blight on the neighborhoods, the impact on the neighbors, we get the complaints about graffiti, which you can see the graffiti in the picture. roof drainage becomes a problem because they usually tarp these buildings, and god only knows where the water's going to shed. is it going to go on the neighbor's property? going back to the tarp, the tarps are flapping in the breeze, and this is another complaint. this is what

dbi reflects that, too. we got a lot of calls from them after the hearing request was denied, because the ability to string this out until june was gone. because now we have this hearing and now they wanted to talk. at that point, we're already here. to talk about what kind of money they want to demand from us, we didn't feel that was productive, we'd rather exercise our rights here. now they're trying to say, we need let's continue the hearing to talk. it's been demonstrated they don't want to talk. we tried to talk when this was an issue early on and now they only want to talk after the rescheduling request is denied. it's not going to get anywhere. they know that delay kills us. they know every day that our permits are on hold, it kills us. and our move-in dates are delayed and we have hundreds of workers that need to move in and they're on hold. delay is not our friend, it's their friend. the water pipe burst issue, he said someone told me we caused it. we didn't cause it. it had nothing to do with the p

he has proof of this, documentary proof from the dbi. and also, they complained that google has been doing constructing activities on the exterior balconies of floor 7. and there is no permits that allow google to do that. lastly, we argue that because they violated the existing permits, and because the noise is so horrendous, it goes on for every day, from monday through saturday, sometimes sunday, they can't sleep, they can't think, they can't even talk to each other when the noise is going on. and because of the violations, they're not protected by the construction equipment and you 2907 of the police code, rather the construction activity falls within the regulations required by police code section 2909, applicable to residences, a much lower decibel standard that is you a lowed for con -- allowed for construction activities. now the -- we believe that the machine they are using is impact tools and equipment. and google agrees with that, if you can see on page 6 of their brief, they say -- page 8 rather. according to the data collect

inspector duffy. >> commissioners, joe duffy, dbi. i don't want to go over the details on the permits. i think you've heard enough on that. so far, normally, i read those, but just some of the concerns on the appellant, on the -- on the lady on the first appellant was the -- it was some of the items that were brought up were all reasonable. i thought the flashing detail notification service were all good. and then, i heard the permit holder respond that they were going to take care of it, which was good news from a dbi point of view, so i'm happy enough with that. i didn't hear any other public building code issues brought up, and as i said, the permits appear to be -- have been issued correctly by dbi, and i am available for any questions, however, if you have any. >> you have 27 minutes left. >> clerk: is there any public comment on this item? >> good evening. i'm di i'm dylan casey. >> clerk: i'm sorry. can you lift up the microphone. what's your name? >> dylan casey, and i'm here to testify in favor of this proposal. it's a modest

dbi already conducts housing inspections of multifamily housing, and they already have a database. now they're not real good at keeping the data and using it in a systematic way in the same way we are, but they already do that. they already have a system for inspections. they already have most of the housing inventory that's for rental in that database, and perhaps what we should do is have a work order, have mr. ojeda's team and expand on that and work on that because they do have surplus that they need to use for inspection purposes, and i think that would be a really great idea, but that's my two cents worth. i think this is a perfect area to do a collaboration, not just to build a database but the system going forward because it will live in the sls somewhere and that can be picked up on both ends. and the other thing that i think is a good -- makes the case for it being dbi is the code enforcement housing program contracts with various, you know, community organizations that respond to low income populations to your point about renters, you know, registering themselves or, you

so it might get a little confusing. >> dan lowry of dbi is not here. my name is james. i'm the housing coordinator for the two housing executive directives and our plan review manager gary is also here available to answer your question. >> supervisor ronen: i'll start with dan and then move onto you. so, dan, are these positions considered ombudsperson position that the task force had recommended? >> supervisor ronen, thank you for calling the hearing. in a word, yes. we have one ombudsperson and we brought on carly drove is here with us today to assist with this significant undertaking, but critical important. >> supervisor ronen: these two individuals for each 100% affordable project, are they sort of the person that leads the project through and interfaces if there is issues with dbi, p.c. or any other department? >> carly and kate, are ombudspersons, our facilitators and work with the project planners in the various divisions to make sure we're delivering. we have a number of staff to satisfy each of the technical requirements with the housing staff making sure all

and that's dbi management. when we lose an 1861 house on russian hill to vandals, and a 1961 house to greed, you can chalk it up to anything you want, but things just continue. friends of ed sweeney can get anything they want. they can have hidden from planning all manner of violations that would be apparent. if the two departments cooperated, the lost fees from hiding scope of work cost the city money, the collapsing buildings cost the public its safety. the lack of inspections undermine the confidence that should exist with multimillion dollar properties. the uneven playing field encourages others to cheat, and the result is a city out of control with illegal work and demolitions and $600 persquare foot profits on every rule that can be broken. you should change the codes to agree on demolition, but you may need to clean house in the departments before any enforcement comes from it. >> president hillis: thank you. next speaker, mr. welch, and if there's other speakers, please lineup on the screen side of the

. >> i have some sort of insight for dbi in being a housing coordinator for the department. and city-wide task force. i can assure you that each of the city departments is trying our best to stream line and expedite the whole process. >> supervisor ronen: i'm just -- >> -- my colleagues in planning could maybe shed some light. >> just briefly, certainly with the planning department we have a number of things that we think should be improved about the development and review process to make all projects, but especially housing and even more so 100% affordable housing projects move quickly. we've done a great deal of work under the mayor's directive from last fall, both administratively, we've made a series of changes and tweaks. modest tweaks and adjustments, but they do have impact. we're drafting legislative proposals for your consideration very shortly that will provide more meaningful change, standardizing our practices with the idea being that we can throughout the development do things to make the public's role, our develop partner's role and our role that much more stra

so with that, colleagues, we have a representative from dbi.u have questions, we can go to public comment. mr. sean, any other remarks? >> i would say the department is appreciative of this consideration, supervisor. we have had a number of small businesses and property owners come back to the building department and request additional time beyond the may 23 date. a lot of this has to do with notifications and people paying attention. per your reference to the program, which has a september 15 deadline for each of the different tiers, we know that people often wait until literally september 12 or 14 before they'll submit for the september 15 deadline. so, i know we have done two notifications and four or five public workshops so far. we have another public workshop in may and our annual earthquake safety fair will have a special workshop on june 13 as well. so we're increasing the notification aspect in order to try to get more of these responses in from property owners. and we do appreciate the extra time. >> ok, thank you very much. and i neg

at dbi we get a rash of complaints all at once and then it stops. we don't get anymore. it gets settled, they have the meetings or the work gets done. if you're finishing what the sheet rock is on, it's not going to be noisy. i don't know where this project is, but i think it's maybe a little bit critical to it. i do sympathize always with the residents, being kept awake, putting up with the noise is not easy. i don't want to come across as someone who doesn't care, but the code does allow construction and that is what we're stuck with. >> but it's not with this board it's stuck with. >> the question, there was a water leak that caused no service for five days. that would require special permit. can you take a peek -- >>, i'm sorry, no, i don't have access to that. >> your magic ipad. >> i don't have reference. quite frankly, i made a remark on a permit that was not under appeal, i made a misstatement, and i've been paying for it ever since. i'm not going to speak if you don't mind. >> mr. duffy, have you run into a situation where a rental building is next another build

>> commissioners, joe duffy, dbi. as you heard mr. teague say, we did go out on the site visit together. it was very helpful. first of all, i want to thank mr. paxton for pointing out some of the items on his appeal. it did bring awareness to a few things we had missed on the drawings. back at the office, i did contact the planner, and that resulted in revised plans being drawn and -- well, submitted. they haven't been submitted yet, but we have received them, and that is in relation to you did hear about the discrepancy in the property line wall. number two, i have down here with the sheer walls, we did have a shear wall in the back wall, and there was a back window. we do need to add structural drawings in the revised drawings. that is to allow for the new wall and the shear wall. the width of the egress is 36 inches, and that's okay. we did check that, as well, and the -- i think that was it. i didn't -- i didn't have any other issues, as i say. the site visit did help us, and there was a response from the permit holders, and every

they can go to the dbi website, to be able to get that information. also informational materials and handouts are being developed. our office is working on specifically handouts and informational materials to the small businesses who occupy the spaces that may have entryways that are worked on and fixed. and inform property owners and businesses of the legal laws around accessibility. and financial and tax resources that are available. so our target audiences are the property owners, business owners, business organizations, the disability community, design professionals, certified access specialists, city staff, the board of supervisors and city leaders. and so, again, more resources, department of building inspection has a really good detail page for the accessible business entrance program outlining what a property owner and guidance to the design professionals or certified access specialists. that information is provided online, at business entrance section of dbi's website. and if there is questions, for those who are listening, there is website,

he contacted the dbi and was told by the dbi inspector, this is an insurance problem. call your insurance. i don't know, but this is something i wanted to bring to your attention. excavations are problematic. smaller ones and even larger ones create problems that are severe for homeowners more than other kinds of remodel activities. i'd like to thank commissioner richards for bringing up sb 828. the april 9th amendments have in them what i believe is a stealth up zoning provision and also a transit oriented provision. a couple of amendments slipped in right before the demise of 827, so the comments are coming back from 827 into 828. the upzoning is a little complicated, so we'd like some help in understanding what the language is to make sure we understand that that's what's going on, but i believe it is. and also, also to thank you, the commission for having the hearing -- the joint hearing last week. as was already mentioned, it was extremely educational and appreciated. thank you. >> president hillis: thank you. >> hello, commissioners. i just wanted to speak real q

i've spoken to all my fellows at dbi and the lead people at planning on this. just enforcing those and being sure that this move through now with great care and high level of supervision to be sure we get the results that we're looking for. is clearly the goal and we all saw some recent articles will bad things that happened to landmarks during the construction process. and when i look at this, i basically say this is our opportunity. we are all on notice to make sure that everything is right on this and hope to fully we find very constructive manners in which to work together that can become the model which we use for all historic properties. thank you for reviewing this again. we're at the point of optimism. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, my name is e.j., my wife and i live at 827 fillmore street around the corner from the subject property. we acquired the property about seven years ago. did some restoration on our own building and understand the difficulty of upgrading property of historical value. i'm pleased that the hist

our dbi guy left already, huh? >> thank you. >> you're welcome. >> the old days, a change of use required a structural upgrade. >> i would imagine. >> okay. we' we're going to move onto public comment, if you would like to provide public comment, can you please lineup against the wall there, and if you had a chance to grab a speaker card. okay. great. >> and the first person come on up. >> clerk: and we're going to limit public comment to two minutes. >> because of the time. >> clerk: yeah, given the late hour and the number of people. thank you. >> yes. good evening. my name is bob gordon. i serve as cochair for the san francisco tobacco free coalition. we are a coalition made you be -- up of a number of coalition, including youth leadership institute, the african american tobacco control leadership council, and in sunnydale, samoan community development center and many other youth, health, and neighborhood groups serving in the city. there is no shortage of tobacco retailers in our city. there are over 800, and a