San Francisco Board of Appeals upholds multiple permits, delays others after hourslong hearing

The San Francisco Board of Appeals met March 18 to hear a crowded docket of permit appeals, safety corrections and neighborhood disputes, approving several permits with edits, reducing one penalty and continuing other contentious items for further review.

Board President Frank Fung opened the meeting and confirmed attending commissioners and staff. After routine housekeeping the board moved quickly through several housekeeping motions, including adoption of minutes from Feb. 18 and March 4, which passed on a unanimous roll call.

The board upheld an Urban Forestry decision on a tree-removal permit at 3575 Gary Boulevard after the Department of Public Works and the permit holder reached a compromise. "They will plant six 48-inch box trees," Carla Short of the Bureau of Urban Forestry told the board, and the appellant will pay the in-lieu fee to cover the size difference; the motion to uphold the permit with those new conditions passed 4–0.

In another contested enforcement item, the board reduced a penalty assessed for construction without a permit at 646–648 Madrid Street to two times the regular fee after hearing from Andy Levine, the architect representing the bank that repossessed the property. Levine said, "the bank repossessed the property, foreclosed on the mortgage, and the bank is correcting the violation currently." The penalty reduction passed unanimously.

A lengthy public hearing focused on a proposed Mercy Housing 120-unit supportive-housing project at 365 Fulton Street and the board’s draft findings, where much of the debate turned on the language of a recommended Good Neighbor Policy. Deputy City Attorney Catherine Barnes and Redevelopment Agency counsel…