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Board continues San Bruno/Gerard appeals and asks parties to clarify assessments and permit history
Summary
Two complex appeals involving San Bruno and Gerard Avenue properties were continued to the next Abatement Appeals Board hearing (vote 5–2). The board directed staff and the appellant to supply clarified documentation, delineate which assessments are being appealed, and pull any outstanding permits tied to life-safety issues.
The Abatement Appeals Board voted 5–2 to continue two interrelated appeals concerning properties on San Bruno and Gerard avenues (Case Nos. 6772 and 6774) and asked the department and the appellant to provide clearer documentation before the next hearing.
Appellant Richard Thomas and counsel David Barry sought reversal of past determinations including a contested claim that a unit at 1265 Gerard Street was an accessory (illegal) unit. Department staff said the permit history was mixed and that, in a good-faith gesture, the department had set aside a single assessment of approximately $2,200 tied to one complaint-tracking number, but maintained that roughly $22,000 in other accrued assessment-of-cost charges remained across the open files. Staff and senior inspectors explained that the city’s assessor records (a "reg card") do not by themselves establish legal use and that a building permit was necessary to legalize the contested unit; they said a permit appeared to have been filed and then left incomplete.
Senior Housing Inspector Andrew Kars and other staff outlined life-safety and habitability violations across the properties — including window and heating issues, rodent complaints, and other code violations — and described which items already had permits pulled and which remained unresolved. Tenants at the properties made emotional public comments about cold apartments, broken windows, electrical and fuse problems and lead-paint exposure, urging the board not to grant open-ended delays without clear enforcement.
Several commissioners asked for a more precise delineation of which assessment-of-cost items are being appealed and asked staff to prepare a clear table of outstanding assessments, permit status and which violations are linked to life-safety exposures. On the motion to continue both matters to the next AAB hearing and direct staff/appellant to supply clarified documentation and pull necessary permits for life-safety items, the board voted 5–2 to continue both appeals.
The continuation leaves existing notices and abatement orders in effect while giving the parties 30 days to provide clarified records. Staff and the appellant’s counsel agreed to work together to separate the appeals into discrete issues for the next hearing: one question about unit legality and a second about accrued assessment-of-cost and code violations.
