building. we had individuals who occupied a legal and illegal unit in this building, and they were very unhappy with the fact that this property owner was allowed to read constantly over and over these locations without the city doing anything about the legality of creating these units. i want to make sure you understand what was before me as a hearing officer. they considered it very serious. the property owner has not yet within the last four years filed a permit. she basically told me she did not intend to. here we are several months after that hearing -- it was december 1 last year -- and we still do not have any kind of building permits filed to see whether or not it even can be legalized, not necessarily as well units, but maybe for occupancy. that has not even been attempted. here we are with concerns about the occupancy, never having any building permits, electrical or plumbing permits to legalize that and the safety of it, and people complaining about it. >> thank you. that is a good segue to perhaps ask for the appellant to come up. thank you. >> i am kathryn roberts -- katherine robe

you are not buying a four-unit building. you bought a two-unit building. >> you could call me naive, and will not question that. it is the only unit i ever bought. i have never gone through this before. now, knowing what i know now, if i heard that, of course i would not get into it. i am pay utilities for the entire building. and you know pg&e charges four times as much. i do not know if you know, because of the tier system, they act like it is only one person using that power when it is really three units and the common areas, and i have to pay all of it. my bills are over $700 a month for just this one little building. i wanted solar panels. i could not get solar panels. this has put me in a horrible -- it has been my worst headache and my worst nightmare, and this building absolutely love. i have never loved anything as much as i love owning this building and living in it and taking care of it the way that i have. it has put me on the horns of such a dilemma. truthfully, there is a housing crunch in the city. twitter is

my wife and i have owned a two- unit building at 315-317 for 40 years now. we know the neighborhood fairly well. i am here today to articulate to you why i think the draft environmental impact report is in adequate and i intend to address to areas that are of particular interest to me, namely parking and traffic as it relates to fire safety. i have not previously filed any written comments, but i brought my written comments with me today. there is, i believe, nine copies there. one for the file and one for each of the commissioners. basically, before i get into parking and traffic, there is a bit of a need for some context about this proposal. first, the important critical fact is that public transportation to this area is flat out terrible. in fact, if this development or to be approved, as proposed, a person living in the 10-unit town house building at the westerly edge of the project would have to walk over half a mile to get to the nearest bus stop. it is hilly terrain both ways. on a rainy day, it becomes difficult. as a practical matter, at anybody who

there was a two-unit building where a tax was built -- a deck was built without a permit to be used as a recreational deck, but on the building plans that were approved by the department of building inspection, there were the -- there was the deck shown. the railings on the plan around the surface of this roof deck -- there was a staircase to get up to this, but there was no -- so we had a problem because the building inspection that was done for the sale of the property by the buyer indicated that, well, this cannot be permitted roof deck. in digging around a little bit more, we found that to be true. this is a two-unit building that the buyer intended to apply for a condominium conversion that some point in the near future. that was a big deal for them. what they found out in their search was they would have to remove what was there or find a way to add a second means of egress. that was a $10,000 problem. >> i think any to chip in your. things have changed about second means of redress for homes. only one exit is required for each unit. this created that. >> we go back to their unit

commissioner sugaya: i am not quite sure why i was doing this, but i did watch the building commission discussion about the efficiency units. it was quite interesting. i think there was unanimous backing from the building commission for this particular proposal. it was clarified that the 150 or so square feet is for the living portion of the units and the bathrooms and kitchens would not be counted. they were thinking that the unit would be somewhere around 220 square feet or thereabouts, and there are various reasons that i am sure we will hear about, but it was an interesting discussion. commissioner moore: i have been observing the discussion from afar and the incomparable that older buildings are not included. it might be a good and solid idea to ask architects to comment on it because it does have the sponsor board from design architects. i went to talk to some people about it, and it is really in the new building design where there are great opportunities to deal with efficiency units and design, which meet high visibility standards. we're talking to the experts themselves, and having to ask questions of them might b

the time she bought the building, the seller gave her a report that clearly showed it was a two-unit building. she may not have understood that, but the problem is by not filing a building permit or at least getting a set of plans, the discussion of whether she could even approve this with the planning department cannot go for it because that process has not been initiated. so i will tell you that it is very rare to have one of these cases go all the way up to appeal and had an owner never file even a permit. had a permit been filed, we probably would not have gone forward with the hearing because we would have allowed the process to go through so that that could be analyzed. she talked about a couple of things -- smoke detectors -- from the way she described those, she was talking about battery smoke detectors. as a four-unit or two additional occupancy, she would need hard wired units. these are the types of things that when you go from a two- family dwellings to four-and a building, these other types of things that are not there. as the senior inspector indicated, we do not have building p

building and we submitted plans that was to construct a new two-unit building with the same footprint in bulk of the original building that was sitting there once. after a few months of process, planning department deemed the project basically demolished and has asked that my client to return -- to turn this building into a single family. this was a some financial hardship to my client and they really wanted to keep both units from what we understand the quote does not allow that to get rebuilt. we are an architecture engineering firm. architects and engineers on staff doing over 100 projects in the year for the last 125 years. architecture the last 10 years. and we have never had anything like this happen to anything that we have done. although we were not in charge of this prong, but i think the cause of the demolition was just wrong timing of that windy night. i hope that you look at this project and approve the project as proposed. i'm available, and the owner is available for any comments you may have. thank you. president fong: thank you s there public comment on this item? none

as indicated earlier, the garage roof is successful only from one units in the building, unit number 3. the request was filed by kim meyer. the owners of the for condominiums located in a three- story building immediately to the east of the subject property. the front approximately 27 feet of 1468 francisco extend the right to the property line is shared with the subject property. 1468 steps back from the shared property line that includes windows from the bathrooms and kitchens. the front portion of 1468 francisco that extends to the shared property line and adjacent to the garage roof contains to property line windows that belong to unit 1 on the second floor. as you can see from the various -- these to property line windows are set up relatively high in the western wall and appeared to be glazed with non transparent glass. the concerns include potential impacts at the garage roof deck to their privacy, light, and there. there is concern that it will be a source of noise. it is the department's position that the project does not contain extraordinary circumstances. the two property

many marine the apartment buildings have similar one-story garages. this allows all units of but in both buildings to have windows, light, and air. adding a deck will provide an alliance to the units above. once constructed, there is no control over how and when it is used. it is also -- and will also cause a loss of privacy for the apartment above and behind the building. allowing this to be built will set a precedent for similar decks in the neighborhood. additionally, adding a deck will be a loss of privacy for all the many buildings and apartment windows it looks down upon. there is no way to control the noise factor. walleye live there, the police were called -- while i lived there, the police were called for a rowdy rooftop party. i respectfully request that you denied this. >> thank you. additional speakers in favor of the dr? project sponsor, you have five minutes. >> good afternoon. mr. chairman, members of the commission, i am the project sponsor. i am also the project architect. i am here representing the owners of the building. in 2010, we started this process

it started in a carport at the a unit building. flames quickly spread, cutting two of the units and leaving the entire complex temporarily uninhabitable. >> i yelled to everyone to get out. i grabbed my baby sister and took them out >> she knocked and everyone was coming >> the fire displaced about 30 people, some of them for good. one family's dog was killed. they found evidence of arson but did not go into any details >> san francisco's fire chief is blasting pg&e for a fire yesterday. three firefighters and a construction worker were hurt in the portola district. the fire department says it took too long for pg&e to shut down the gas main. >> san francisco police are investigating a murder in the diamond heights neighborhood. someone found a 27 year-old man's body near clipper street 630 last night. police have not identified the man and they will not say how he was killed >> a reward for information in the sierra lamar case is up to $35,000. the missing teen-ager's family is looking for tips that lead to a whereabouts. antolin g

several cars burst into flames and the fire spread through the eight-unit building. people had to run for safety after being awakened by a 13-year-old. >> i told them the cars were burning up. and once i ran outside, to see the cars, they, like thre three -- blew up. i yemed to everybody, get out. >> 30 people were dts place twhid fire, investigators say this may be the work of an arsonist. and there is a dog that did die in the flames and there is police want to know if anyone has information on a man, there is a look at four videos they appeared to show the same man. police say the first happened may 26th at first community bank the same suspect hit u.s. bank inside of a safeway store. >> pg&e insists it did the same thing. this video shot by a neighbor and abc 7 is there live tonight. not everyone is buying the story. >> there is police believe has been critical of the two and a half hours that it took pg&e to shut off gas flow yesterday. pg&e says it does a review of the actions after an incident like this one but for time being, it appears it acted in the fastes

as was earlier mentioned, there is nothing in this building code change that says that these units will be allowed where they are not allowed currently. they can only go where the planning commission has said we want increased intensity. we have either relax or eliminated density controls. we're already building this type of housing. it is a very, very good and effective way of getting more housing more cheaply. it is sort of puzzling to hear this sort of inflated or in flamed claims about this. it is something that seems so modest to us and some of that is such a necessary part of delivering something that we need so badly, in this case, coming right up to student housing. we think it is a very modest proposal, and it does not change the rules anywhere, and anything that would require planning approval is still going to get it. i would hope that you move it forward. thank you. >> mr. chair, supervisors, i have long been involved in advocating for student housing. one of the things that we put in the legislation which is currently at the planning department will be up to you in several

. >> very common question dealt with in immediate post-earthquake multi-unit buildings of making an entrance appear suitably formal for the main units, but still allowing access to a secondary basement space, which might be another living unit or a storage place, depending on whether it's an uphill lot or downhill lot. if it's a lot that slows down from the street, you could go down what look libe a basement unit and get daylight. >> it reminds me of new york city, a lot of ups and downs and utilizion space wherever you can. >> there is tremendous opportunities to brighten this up. no ornamentation at all. it's really a missed opportunity, i think. >> need some of the light that harvey was mentioning, indirect light. >> here the doors are treated and paint a brighter color with brass or something. it's got a lot more interesting and liveliness to it. and even gold leaf numbers, things as simple as that. >> which are the original numbers in this case. many have survived. >> because it's lighter, brighter and more inviting. >> the terazo steps that are left until someone drops a refrigerator o

code in san francisco requires a minimum of 144 square feet for a unit, which is even less than what we are proposing for the building code today. moreover, for units to go below the current 220 square foot minimum, down to the new minimum of 150 square feet, there would be a maximum of two people who could live in the unit so as not to be having too many people living in a small unit. other cities in california have exercised their ability under state law to define an efficiency unit in a similar way, at 150 square feet, including san jose, santa barbara, and santa maria. seattle and new york city also have a similar minimum. san francisco has a desperate need for housing for all income levels. particularly for our work force, for students, for seniors, for a transitional populations. this legislation would promote affordability by design. it would lead to reduced construction costs and projects that take advantage of this, and it can be done without subsidies. in fact, there are projects in san francisco that are at that size. right now if you have a building that already has units that are rooms at the 150 square

this does not in any way to require a developer to build smaller units. it is going to be the exceptional project where it would make sense to do that. all it does is give more flexibility in our very limited land mass in san francisco to build different kinds of housing to meet the uncountable housing needs we have in the city. i appreciate the comments and agree we need more family housing but we need other count -- other kinds of housing as well. supervisor campos: just a question through the chair. i seconded supervisor wiener's motion to continue hoping that would provide a mechanism for everyone to maybe have more of a discussion on this. the hearing -- hearing what supervisor odious thing. i wonder if there is not a benefit to sending it to planning or having more discussion. what would be the problem with that to have everyone have an opportunity to have more discussion and i know you are willing to make changes to address some of the concerns that have been raised. that is a question to the chair. supervisor wiener: it went to the dbi's committee

it is a 160-unit building and is full. we have a waiting list. we have waiting lists of people who are looking for affordable housing in the city. they're not all people with special use problems. they're not all mental patients, drug alex -- additsct, alcoholics. there no -- ordinary, everyday people who make $9 or $10 an hour and cannot afford to live anywhere else. if we start whittling away at these units of which are really a treasure, there really should be like landmarks that before you can take when you get away, you have to go through all kinds of hearings to do that. i think you need to think carefully. as i said, when we bought the cadillac, it was compared to a very cheap hot dog. now it is like filet mignon. everyone wants them. we're looking at a real estate crisis in the city out -- in the city. it can almost afford to have a studio if you were living -- you can afford to have a studio. i beg you, think about losing these units and how it will affect the city as a whole and let's try to figure out how we can close the loopholes. th

a driver hit a bank of gas meters for an apartment building it forced the evacuation of a five unit building. we are told the leak has just been capped. pg&e crews have been on the scene since 2:00 this morning. >>> update on the resumption of bart's transbay service after that huge fire yesterday. engineers are conducting tests overnight in hopes of returning to normal operations today. we have live team coverage starting with terry mcsweeney live at west oakland bart. >> reporter: just talked to a bart spokesman. he says inspectors were on this elevated section of bart tracks for hours this morning and they have determined that everything that they did yesterday is working fine. they can run full speed, full load this morning. congratulations bart. take a look at the crews who did those repairs. one hundred people working nonstop to get the trains rolling again. fire at a structure next to the tracks destroyed 45 insulate ares which hold up the third -- rail which was warped, 400 feet of cable damaged, crews got it fixed and the news this morning is good. the inspection shows all systems g

be very easy to add a ground floor and third floor kitchen, turning the building into a three-unit building. it appears this home is not planned for a single-family residence and will most likely end up a rental property on a street that is primarily truly single-family households. thank you for listening to our concerns and recommendations. we want this proposed willing to seem as they fit into our streets an invalid. we want 42 miramar to make a lasting contribution to the entire street and neighborhood. thank you. >> did you receive the notice last july? >> no, i did not. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good evening. my husband and i live in 26 miramar. where were the original filers for the first d.r. i want to address two issues. the first, the history of this project. i want to tell you about our interaction with the applicant. before the d.r. we tried to contact them to discuss this project. they refuse to even call us back and they threaten to file a lawsuit. after the d.r., we worked with them, with a series of expediters and teams of engineers that a higher. but it seems they could

this is a 44-unit building. firefighters say when they arrived, most people were already out, many of them didn't even realize that this was actually an active fire in progress. one person, a senior citizen, suffered from smoke inhalation, was take on the hospital. but i'm told that person is in stable condition. but i'm also told that the stairs are compromised in the building so that is a real concern. but we're finally seeing firefighters starting to move into the building. when we first arrived, they were basically standing on the outside. residents are getting help from the red cross at a building on the 6000 block of o'farrell. at this point, firefighters say they're not sure exactly how it started but arson investigators are on the way. reporting live in san francisco, christie smith, nbc bay area news. >>> okay. just minutes ago the defense resting in the trial of a south bay man accused of assaulting a catholic priest. this coming after a morning of very dramatic testimony. nbc bay area's bob redell liv

the 273-unit product that investors would build on the south side of the channel. it is consistent with the zoning guidelines, and the board unanimously approved the project on monday morning. also, i would like to move to the board of appeals report. he tells me there are two cases that were previously heard by the planning commission that would be of interest. one was a case at 42 miramar, which for it -- was for the demolition replacement of a single-family dwelling. prior to the hearing, the requested indicated that his concerns had been resolved, and he did not attend the hearing, and no one actually attended your hearing on this. following the unanimous approval of the commission, the project was approved by a different neighbor, who had not previously made any comments. there were a number of speakers with a number of concerns, and impacts to the feral cat population living in the existing building. bowing to the lengthy public process and notifications that had already taken place, and the compatibility of the project with the neighborhood, the board denied

building. then there is a note that there is an illegal basement unit. then we have another complaint in 2012, fifth of february. it was received by the building inspection division. the first notice of violation was issued on 1/27/1997. iran has not beenthe inspector s not been renewed. the inspector issued a rare man meant -- a remandment. there was a notice that never are taking care of, so we created a complaint for this year. i'm not really sure -- >> what instigated that. >> it was an anonymous complaint. i'm not sure where that came from. it was an illegal unit then and it still is. it has been appealed, to remove the unit. >> maybe we can hear from the appellant council now. >> at our last hearing we talked about the permit holder being a brief feet -- repeat offender. i have here a definition of robert jack offered. i'm putting that on the overhead projector. he is the former tenant of 1285 40 fifth ave. he said, i make this declaration on my personal knowledge, and called as a witness i could competently testify in another hearing. he said that

units. in the long term, they plan on building 2200. in this case, we have 134 units built, and in the case, the developer is contributing to a 11 million, roughly 1.2 million less. what made 1 rincon hill innovative was a way to give more benefits to communities that did other sorts of stabilization, not just community housing. we priced out how much that would raise the city, and the total brought in $5.7 million, so when we divide that by the number of units, it came to $46,000 per unit for phase one. if rincon hill was able to build that to thousand 200 units, we found that the total per unit is 47,947. with eight washington, 134 units that they are building. they are giving us $82,000 -- $82,089 per unit. we could talk about whether we want more benefits from the developer. i certainly never argued that. supervisor campos: i just had a question to staff through the chair. we received some numbers in terms of the total revenue to the developer for this project, and then looking at the total cost and the profit -- do you have any ques

with the first property, the balance of the units before town houses with two or three bedrooms and four buildings that have four units with them again with multiple bedrooms. and a campus concept with privacy afforded by having the separate buildings. >> let me turn to the programs and we all know that the federal debt and deficit are going to be squeezing programs in general. what are the key programs for affordable housing and what would they mean in terms of housing veterans and your ability to do that? >> i would rather not have that question. i think we all have been aware that the incredible resourcing that they brought to bear is not going to last forever. they said that everything on the table now will have to be reexamined and there will be flat funding coming up and an appeal to the community business community and housing to become more involved in the local planning. i think what was exciting to us up to 60,000 units, they will be held as long as they are available and that's a huge departure from the original legislation. the veterans in the units that will lose eligibility. those vo

a unit building is of a five cut of a lot of sense and by street.county judge charges of theft is due back in court last month after making his first court appearance last week. >>james: face that is paying $10 million to settle a lawsuit over advertisements there: sponsors stories fade >>james: travels announce any major announcement carried in and e-mail the companies said that this will be a major microsoft announcement that he will not want to miss. reports said microsoft will be launching its own tablet on the new windows eight operating system. we will let you know what comes out of the meeting today. >>darya: the man beaten by los angeles police spared violence nationwide. he is now dead. it appears that rodney king drown. his autopsy was scheduled for later today. >>vicki: of nearly two months after the 28 anniversary of the l.a. riots, run making was found dead. police responded to 1911 phone call from his fiancee early sunday morning. >>vicki: april 29th, 1992 is the day that many will never forget. >>vicki: protests turned deadly. at leas

building, stepping back from the area adjacent to 1630 clay street. you see additional stepping back at the top left-hand corner and the top floor unit which pulls back significantly from the building lined to allow for the stepping down. that is the view looking across the intersection at larkin and clay. we have a very large contrast going on here so i apologize for the quality of the image. the street a few looking back toward the end resection indicating the setback of the garage entrance. the transparency of the first floor is a criticism of the previous design has been enhanced with units being sent back from the building line. it is not encroaching into public space, it is within the private realm. a base material that allows the building to address the sidewalk. the materials of the building are a limestone stucco plaster that is different from the cement plaster. this is a french limestone, with relatively water impervious. it does not need of the control joints. this project -- product allows you to him to let to a very fine and finish. it as is if you holiday piece of limestone. looking back toward clay and larkin hit -- the building it fea

that every unit has to have a clear path of travel to the front door of the unit, as well as through all public areas of the building. within the unit, a certain percentage of those have to be outfitted with grab bars and additional clearance required for floor accessibility. >> that is important for a big building and high rise because you have to lay this out exactly right. the plumbing has to be in exactly the right place, the walls have to be exactly right all the way up or you did not meet the very critical tolerances. it is a real challenge to make sure it is exactly where it belongs. >> we're talking before about post tension slabs, which are a wonderful tool for reducing concrete in making buildings lighter and less expensive. but you need a precise path through the slab. those openings for plumbing, electrical, etcetera, have to be designed have time. once they are there, you cannot change them a lot. some building owners do not understand that you cannot drill holes through the slab 20 years from now. >> tellez with that is? >> that would be a fire sprinkler pipe. >> we have a bunch of different types. thi

could build quite a lot more units. i would like you to think about the new project alternative when the time comes. they attempted to meet with the actual owner of the building or contact them. the owner did not wish to deal with them at that time which is ok. therefore, they could only go so far. they could not go out and pay engineers to do that. >> just to be clear. general public comment should not be on an item that is on the calendar. as you started off speaking about ceqa, that was fine but when you related it to the project that became inappropriate. >>president fong: is there any other general public comment on items not on the calendar? general public comment is closed. >> thank you. we can move on to the regular calendar which begins with item 8. the amendment for requirements on privately owned open spaces signage. >> good afternoon. the ordinance before you is proposed by supervisor david chiu. it would make changes to signage for publicly accessible open spaces. >> thank you and good afternoon. i am the le

flames were shooting out of the apartment building. two units in the building were destroyed, two others heavily damaged. the families, 12 adults and two children got out okay no injuries the cause of the fire under investigation. >>> in hayward, a firefighter rescued this 13-year-old bassett hound last night. it happened on lafayette about 8 p.m.. the couple managed to get out safely but told firefighters their dog mattie who is blind in within eye, was still inside. the firefighter in the picture found mattie in one of the bedrooms and carried her out safely. >>> "good morning america" fans are sending love and support to host robin roberts as she begins her latest health battle. this morning she revealed is now facing another life-threatening illness, five years after beating breast cancer. >> it is something that is called mds. and if you look it up, i was doing the same thing. >> surrounded by her gma family she announced today she begins treatment for a rare bone marrow ab mall one that dr. besser explains -- could lead to anemia, low bloo