Board orders environmental review for 424 Francisco Street after appeal over six-space garage

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted in May 2010 to reverse the Planning Department's categorical exemption for a proposed six-space garage at 424 Francisco Street and directed the clerk to prepare findings supporting an environmental review. The action follows a lengthy appeal from neighborhood groups and preservation advocates who argued the project may cause cumulative traffic impacts, alter neighborhood character and harm a historic resource.

Appellants including Chinatown Community Development Center and Telegraph Hill Dwellers argued the proposal's small, incremental changes should not be judged in isolation. "When you look at all these combined effects, the cumulative impacts should lead to the reasonable conclusion that there is a significant cumulative effect with respect to the addition of parking spaces within that geographic area," said Omar Kalimbas, housing attorney with the Asian Law Caucus, citing an internal survey of Department of Building Inspection permits and an estimate of hundreds of additional parking spaces added in the neighborhood over recent years.

Why it matters: The board applied the CEQA "fair argument" standard for categorical exemptions, which requires an environmental impact report if substantial evidence supports a fair argument that the project may have a significant environmental effect. Appellants said that history of Ellis Act evictions and the pattern of garage insertions in North Beach justify further review; the Planning Department said the six-space proposal by itself does not rise to significance and that historic features of the building would be preserved.

What the board did: President David Chiu moved to table the motion that would have affirmed the Planning Department's…