Board upholds CEQA emergency exemption for Vaillancourt Fountain removal, 10-1

San Francisco ' After several hours of public comment and testimony from city staff and engineers, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Jan. 13 upheld the Planning Department's determination that disassembling and placing the Vaillancourt Fountain into storage qualifies for a statutory emergency exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act. The motion to affirm the exemption (item 21) passed on a 10-1 roll call, with Supervisor Fielder the lone no vote.

The board heard appeals contending there is no sudden emergency that would justify bypassing CEQA and that officials had effectively pre-committed to removal as part of the larger Embarcadero Plaza renovation. Appellants'representatives, including historic-preservation lawyer Susan Brant Holly, argued that the fountain's condition is the predictable result of long-term deferred maintenance and that environmental review is the appropriate process to consider alternatives and impacts. "None of them recommend removal for any reason, including an emergency," Brant Holly told the board during her remarks.

City staff and outside engineers told the board the opposite. Planning Department senior planner Kei Zushi summarized written assessments and said the Recreation and Park Department determined the fountain posed an immediate public-safety risk that the emergency exemption was intended to address. Lisa Gibson, the…