Pacific Heights Residents Association

September 2003

PHRA Wants Non-Historic Hospital Wings Removed
-- No Replacement (Presidio Notes)

Residential Design Guidelines are actually rules, in the view of PHRA directors, and need to be enforced. They are only suggestions, in the view of many at City Hall, and tend to be ignored.

Those opposing views were clear when staff of the San Francisco Planning Department appeared before PHRA Directors in July. New guidelines are in development.

The Planning Department’s goal is to minimize the number of Discretionary Reviews, each of which costs about $20,000 and which collectively take up half of the Commission’s time. The Planners said the new plan adds “Good Neighbor” elements and concern about building scale.

They also reported that architects want more freedom and the ability to integrate modern architecture into neighborhoods with less focus on building details. The section on historic buildings is being expanded because the existing “Secretary of the Interior Principle” is not easy to implement.

PHRA Director Alan Malouf said that guidelines are great – but they’re not enforced. Planner Kay Simonson acknowledged that “training will be necessary” and she “hopes” that Planning Department management and Planning Commissioners will attend training sessions. Director Courtney Clark replied, “A lot of planners simply don’t understand older buildings.”

Malouf added, “We’re not asking for people to build new houses that are reproductions, but if it’s an old home, don’t try to make it modern. And don’t call them guidelines. Make it clear that they’re requirements.” He cited a Superior Court Case in which the judge ruled that the Residential Design Guidelines are “mandatory established standards set forth in the planning code . . .” and that a new building must be “consistent with the Residential Design Guidelines.”

Malouf, who monitors building permits for PHRA, spends many hours with homeowners and developers, trying to mitigate remodeling plans that are insensitive to a building’s architecture and/or neighborhood.

The ultimate solution for Pacific Heights may be the difficult and time-consuming task of writing specific guidelines for this area as other neighborhoods have done.