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Public commenter urges correction to historic evaluation for 60 Russell Street
Summary
At the June 15 hearing, preservation advocate Lillian Chow told the San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission that a 2014 historic resource evaluation omitted longtime owner Dr. Edmund Dixon Jeong, urging staff and consultants to amend the CEQA record to reflect his significance.
Lillian Chow, a preservation advocate, told the San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission on June 15 that a June 2014 historic resource evaluation for 60 Russell Street omitted significant information about a former owner, Dr. Edmund Dixon Jeong. Chow said Jeong, who owned the property from 1963 to 1999, was a pioneering Veterans Administration physician of Asian American/Pacific Islander heritage, a World War II US Army Medical Corps veteran and a trustee of the Chinese Historical Society of America.
Chow said the omission led the preservation planner’s CEQA determination to conclude the property’s owners and occupants were not important to local, regional or national history, and she asked the commission and Planning Department staff to correct the record and amend the historical resource evaluation response. She provided materials including an obituary and a memoir reference to support the assertion that Jeong’s association merited consideration under California Register criteria for persons.
Tim Frey of Planning Department staff told the commission staff had been in contact with the speaker and the supervisor’s office and that senior preservation planner Tina Tam was working with the preservation planner to determine whether the new information should be incorporated. Frey said the building remains considered significant as part of the eligible Chinatown National Register District and that, if new information is accepted, staff could provide an amended HRER or a report at the next hearing.
Commissioners asked about procedure and expressed support for ensuring evaluations re-examine primary sources rather than rely on recycled material. The commission did not take formal action on the evaluation at the June 15 meeting; Chow requested that staff and consultants correct the record and amend the CEQA historical resource evaluation response if warranted. The department indicated it would return with a report or amended HRER at a future hearing if staff finds new information should be incorporated.
