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Board of Appeals denies rehearing request over structural-review records for Fremont permits
Summary
The San Francisco Board of Appeals on March 12 denied rehearing requests from the Metropolitan HOA seeking additional structural-review materials and calculation records for permits at 340 and 360 Fremont, finding the submissions did not meet the 'new material' standard.
The San Francisco Board of Appeals denied rehearing requests on March 12 from the Metropolitan Homeowners Association that sought additional structural-review and peer-review materials for permit decisions affecting 340 and 360 Fremont Street.
The appellants, represented by Mark White, said they had learned after the February hearing that a city-convened design-review panel had issued a September acceptance letter and that thousands of pages of related records had not been produced to them earlier. "We want information that indicates the risk associated with the design…will be minimal," Dennis Martinez, president of the Metropolitan HOA, told commissioners, urging access to calculations and peer-review logs so neighbors could assess risk to adjacent property and utilities.
Opposing counsel Andrew Junius said the site's basis-of-design materials and site-permit package had been in the administrative record and in briefs submitted months earlier, and argued the rehearing standard requires new material that could not reasonably have been found before the initial hearing. DBI Principal Engineer Hans Son Tam told the board the September 30 letter affirms the design criteria and that calculations had been provided to a city contact; he said the letter does not indicate hidden safety problems.
After brief deliberations focused on whether the newly cited documents met the board's standard for rehearing or showed manifest injustice, Commissioner Frank Fung moved to deny the rehearing requests. The motion passed 5–0. The board ordered that notices of decision and order be released.
Background details in the record show the three permits at issue were previously upheld by the board on Feb. 19 on the basis that they were code compliant; the permits include a new residential project and associated demolition permits. Appellants cited two court decisions and AB 83 in arguing consultant-held materials must be produced as public records; the board concluded the record and briefs already submitted provided the bases for the prior decision.
The board did not schedule additional review on these appeals. Notices of decision and order will be released as the board directed at the meeting's close.
