Historic Preservation Commission adopts letter pressing task force to preserve commission role

SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission on Wednesday adopted a letter to the city—ommittee reviewing commissions that urges the task force not to eliminate or subsume the commission nd to preserve its role in federal and local historic-review processes.

The commission voted unanimously, 5-0, to approve the letter with edits and appended materials after roughly an hour of discussion about the commission—hair nd staff—xperience with federal review, the commission—ody's history and the limited budget savings that consolidation would likely produce. The task force was scheduled to consider the staff recommendation later that day.

Why this matters: Commissioners said removing or folding the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) into another body could shift mandatory federal reviews to the State Office of Historic Preservation, adding procedural delay to projects that use federal funds. Several commissioners urged the task force to preserve the city—apacity to conduct Section 106 reviews through the Certified Local Government (CLG) program and the commission's programmatic agreement with the state Office of Historic Preservation.

At the start of the item, Commission Chair Foley introduced the draft letter prepared by department staff for transmission to the task force evaluating consolidation options. Rich Chukre, department staff, summarized outreach and the department nd commission—fforts to finalize the letter and said staff would perform a live edit so the version…