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Board splits on Golden Gate/Lyon permits: revokes permit for Lyon front fire escape, 1960 revocation fails
Summary
After extensive testimony from tenants, owners, engineers and planning and building staff, the board failed to secure four votes to revoke the 1960 Golden Gate permit but voted 4–1 to revoke the permit for 800–808 Lyon Street, citing life-safety and legal-easement issues and directing follow-up actions and findings adoption.
The Board of Appeals spent a prolonged hearing on two related appeals over rear decks, easements and a proposed front fire escape for properties at 1960 Golden Gate and 800–808 Lyon Street. Tenants appealed permits that would remove rear decks and replace them with a front fire escape; owners and their counsel argued replacement was necessary for life-safety and cited a superior-court quiet-title judgment extinguishing an easement.
Multiple tenants testified that the rear decks and garden had provided decades of usable open space and a second means of egress; they argued removal would reduce safety and enable evictions. The permit holder’s representatives and expert witnesses — including a wood technologist and a fire-protection expert — described extensive decay of the existing rear deck and testified that rebuilding in-place would require vacating units and that a new front fire escape, with code adjustments, would meet life-safety objectives.
Planning, Fire and Building Inspection staff acknowledged the structure’s age and deferred maintenance but confirmed they would support a front fire escape plan to address life-safety concerns, subject to technical corrections (e.g., counterbalanced ladder, window sill alterations). Counsel for the permit holder argued the court-ordered extinguishment of the easement meant the rear-deck encroachment could not be preserved by the board.
The board considered motions separately. A motion to revoke the permit at 1960 Golden Gate failed for lack of the required four votes (result 3–2); the motion to revoke the 800–808 Lyon Street permit succeeded, 4–1. The board indicated it will adopt written findings at a later date and asked staff to coordinate next steps for safe temporary egress if owners proceed with corrective work.
Next steps: adoption of findings will be scheduled; DBI and Fire Department to work with property owner to ensure temporary means of egress or other life-safety measures while final remedies are implemented.
