Last weeks San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission meeting was crowded indeed! Most of the public showed up for the portion of the hearing that was to discuss the landmark initiation of the Appleton and Wolfard libraries. However the hearing start out with a one-hour CEQA training. As I am comfortable with CEQA I skipped most of this presentation though I am sure it was interesting. This was followed by Public Comment and a handful of people spoke. The first speaker discussed soft story buildings which is a very pertinent issue as we have almost reached the 20 year anniversary of the Loma Prieta Earthquake. Two speakers raised concern over a residence at 2750 Vallejo. A few others sited the lack of televised or electronic files for the HPC. I see this blog as a way to get at least some information out there about the meetings. I also spoke at Public Comment. My statement follows:
"Just a quick heads up about the Muni Substation at Turk and Fillmore which is as of yesterday back under City jurisdiction from its failed Redevelopment journey. This landmark is one of our most vulnerable. I hope that the Commission will consider contacting the Office of Economic and Workforce Development in regards to their upcoming community meetings to determine the fate of this building."
Public Comment ended and the Minutes were considered with changes made. The next item was a continuance of a Certificate of Appropriateness. Finally the Commission got to the first library project; Park Branch. This item had been continued from the last HPC meeting. Page & Turnbull was brought in as a consultant and some changes to the project were discussed. Though obviously eligible to be a landmark the Commission is aware that throughout the designation process, which takes at least 180 days, no permit activity can take place. As the project is already in the permit process it would be unfriendly to designate the building at this time. So the Commission voted to disapprove initiation with the intention of perhaps landmarking it after the project is completed, pending available money to do so. Commissioner Buckley voted against the disapproval. The next item was the highly anticipated initiation of the Appleton and Wolfard libraries. President Chase decreed a one minute time limit for each public speaker, much to the chagrin of those who had waited quite a long time for the opportunity. I had to leave the meeting before this item was finished. The Chronicle indicated that the final vote was 5-2 for initiating five of the eight libraries including the North Beach branch.
