Historic Preservation Commission adopts letter urging task force to preserve local review role

The San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission on Oct. 1 voted unanimously to send a comment letter to the city's Streamlining Task Force urging the task force to preserve the commission's distinct review role and retain the city's Certified Local Government (CLG) relationship with the state.

The letter, edited and finalized during the meeting, was framed by commissioners and staff as a defense of the commission's capacity to conduct timely historic-resource reviews, particularly for projects that use federal funds. Rich Chukre, department staff, told commissioners the department is conducting outreach tied to individual landmark proposals and flagged the importance of the commission's review work as the task force considers consolidation of city bodies.

The commission said the CLG designation and a programmatic agreement with the California Office of Historic Preservation (OHP) allow city staff to carry out Section 106 review under the National Historic Preservation Act for some projects, including many affordable-housing initiatives. Commissioners and staff told the commission that if the city "decertifies" or loses the programmatic agreement, those reviews would shift to the state OHP and…