Board of Appeals denies jurisdiction request for 282 Urbano, upholds Planning suspension

The San Francisco Board of Appeals denied a jurisdiction request tied to a suspension of building permit 201709289834 for the property at 282 Urbano, voting 4–0 on May 5.

Architect Derek Vinn, speaking for the property owners, asked the board to let the owners file a late appeal, saying the owners learned of the suspension notice after they experienced vaccine side effects and had mistakenly believed the 15‑day appeal period excluded weekends. "They thought all along that the 15 days of appeal hearing does not include weekends," Vinn told the board.

Scott Sanchez, Deputy Design Administrator with the Planning Department, told commissioners the suspension was properly issued and that no timely appeal was filed. "The suspension request was properly issued and the jurisdiction requester, the property owner did not timely file an appeal," Sanchez said, noting the suspension aimed to halt additional work until longstanding violations dating to 2017 are resolved.

Commissioners said the record did not show the city had intentionally or inadvertently caused the late filing. Commissioner Anne Lazarus moved to deny the jurisdiction request on the basis that the city neither intentionally nor inadvertently caused the requester to be late; the motion carried unanimously.

Because the board did not grant jurisdiction, the Planning Department's suspension remains in effect while the underlying enforcement case proceeds.

The board also noted that a suspension is intended to stop further work until violations are addressed and that the department may release a suspension if the property owner makes demonstrable progress on outstanding violations.

The matter was recorded as Jurisdiction Request #201‑3 on the Board of Appeals calendar.