Board of Supervisors reverses Planning Commission on 110 The Embarcadero environmental clearance after heated hearing

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted on March 17 to reverse the Planning Commission's adoption of a final mitigated negative declaration (MND) for the proposed development at 110 The Embarcadero, a move that removes the MND as the project's environmental clearance and directs staff to prepare findings reversing the commission's action. The reversal followed a nearly three-hour public hearing that drew labor leaders, preservationists, architects and the project sponsor.

The Board's action came after appellants argued the site's links to the 1934 longshoremen's strike and other concerns raised a fair argument that the project could have significant environmental impacts that require preparation of an environmental impact report (EIR). "This project is the first project to break the height restrictions on the waterfront, to do a spot rezoning for height," said Sue Hester, attorney for San Franciscans for Reasonable Growth, arguing that the development raised multiple issues including consistency with waterfront planning, shadow impacts and historic significance.

Planning staff countered that the department and its consultants had concluded the MND was adequate. Tim Frey, preservation technical specialist in the Planning Department, told the board staff considered the property eligible under an events-based criterion but concluded the building had lost sufficient integrity to qualify as a historic resource under CEQA. "Based on their evaluation, we feel confident'the building has been substantially altered since the period of significance and doesn't have the integrity to be eligible under…