>> my name is krista shaw. i am council for the appellant. we are asking that the matter be continued pending our ceqa appeal. we are also hoping to be able to come to an agreement with the neighboring property so that we do not have to waste any more of the city's resources in hearings. there is also litigation pending and with all of those items outstanding, it does not seem to make sense to tie up the boards time with a hearing on the permit at this time, especially given that the environmental review is in question. if you would like, we can move to the merits of the argument -- president garcia: right now, we are hearing on the continuous issue. how long is your window of opportunity bint to appeal? >> the cat x accompanied this building permit and it was dated early february. under the city attorney's guidance, we are timely on the ceqa appeal because it is pending before your board. president garcia: how long into the process did you wait to file your appeal on the cat x? >> we filed it yesterday. i was brought in on this matter last w

. >> krista shaw, for appellants. i would like to give you some background very briefly on the structures at issue here. i am going to speak very briefly because i want to give most of our time to speak to some of the issues being created by the granting of a permit. the structures are planned at 2323 hyde and 1100 lombard. they were originally built as a single residents. there were subdivided in the late 1930's, and since then have been occupied and operated separately. the permit at issue, i can show the overhead, would require closure and filling of this door and this window. this door is the only access to the exterior of this home from the permit's west side. it is a very large home, over 8500 square feet, and this is the only exit door from the interior of the home. by granting this fire will permit, you essentially are eliminating an emergency exit from this side of the house. the other door being shown is a mechanical service door. part of the reason we have a ceqa appeal on file is that the building permit f

>> my name is krista shaw. i am council for the appellant. we are asking that the matter be continued pending our ceqa appeal. we are also hoping to be able to come to an agreement with the neighboring property so that we do not have to waste any more of the city's resources in hearings. there is also litigation pending and with all of those items outstanding, it does not seem to make sense to tie up the boards time with a hearing on the permit at this time, especially given