Planning Department Proposal Met with Skepticism at PAR Meeting

By Paul Kozakiewicz

A team of planners from the SF Planning Department met with members of the Planning Association for the Richmond (PAR) in July to explain proposed revisions to the city's Residential Design Guidelines.

The group's members met the proposal with skepticism.

The planning department is updating its residential design guidelines to clarify them for developers and neighborhood residents in an effort to cut down on the department's $400,000 expense for participating in Discretionary Review proceedings brought before the SF Planning Commission for arbitration. If the rules for development were more clearly spelled out, the reasoning goes, there would be less opportunity for neighborhood disputes.

The department wants to update the city's 1989 guidelines by better spelling out guidelines for site design, including entrances, landscaping, light and air, privacy and views, architectural features, including bay windows and garages, and rooftop features, including penthouses, parapets and windscreens. Allowable architectural features would be determined by surveying the areas near the project site.

Helping make the case for the Planning Department were Senior Planner Max Putra-Tan and Kaye Simonson, the planner responsible for the northwest quadrant.

But many of the 50 people who attended the meeting raised concerns about the adequacy of the guidelines, given the planning department's questionable compliance with the city's current residential design guidelines.

Maria Sousa, a member of PAR, said the current problem in the Richmond District is with "monster homes." Often, two-story homes are being replaced with four-story homes that change the topography of the neighborhood and affect the neighborhood's sunlight and air. These projects are being approved even though they are out of scale with the neighborhood and do not conform to the city's current guidelines, she said.

Also at the meeting, some PAR members questioned the adequacy of designating the rules as guidelines, instead of standards, and for applying the guidelines only to single-family and two-family homes in residential zones and not to the city's commercial zones as well.

As standards, compliance with the law would be mandatory and requirements would be checked before a permit was issued.

San Francisco Supervisor Jake McGoldrick, who represents the district, said property developers do not have to make changes under the guidelines. He said when developers refuse to make changes it is costly and time consuming to challenge the matter in a Discretionary Review process before the Planning Commission.

McGoldrick also said he was introducing legislation to cut down on the number of "de facto demolitions" going on in the district. He said developers often demolish properties, leaving as little as a portion of a wall, under the guise of remodeling a property.

His plan would require "readable" floor plans and notification to properties within 300 feet of the project. It would also limit replacement of the front facade to 50 percent and limit exterior wall replacement to 75 percent.

Also addressing PAR's membership was Lolita Sweet, public outreach associate for the SF Department of the Environment. She said there were nine major programs the department was working on.

She also said the department had just gotten approval to use biodegradable bags for the storage of compostable materials for those who do not like to use the green recycling bins. The bags, which come in a variety of sizes, are available from Russell Wagner at 552-1000.