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Last night the Planning Commission heard the case of the Hole in the Wall. An agreement had been reached more than a month ago on mitigations suggested by the neighbors who were supporting Damian Ochoa’s requester for discretionary review. The Planning Department had already written those conditions into their case report.
The other person who had requested Discretionary Review, Jackee Bryson, called the Commission and requested a continuance. She claimed that she’s disabled and that she was unable to attend. Being sensitive to the ADA implications, the Planning Commission had to respond to her request.
We (Jeremy Paul, Damian and I) huddled in the back room with several Planning Commissioners, the City Attorney, Zoning Administrator and Planning Director) and arrived at this solution: out of respect for the dozens of supporters of the Hole who had been waiting around for more than four hours and for the neighbors who had produced a compromise which had been accepted by the project sponsor, to give us all closure the Commission would move forward on the case using a mechanism called a “motion of intent,” which meant that the decision would not become final until Jackee was allowed to testify next week.
Both sides agreed to accept the conditions contained in the compromise and to ask their supporters to do the same. Jeremy and Damian spoke for less than a minute each, simply acknowledging the agreement. No one else testified. The Commission moved to “take Discretionary review” in order to impose the conditions. Vice President Olague asked the planner to read all 15 conditions into the record, then requested that language clarifying the sound issues (their noise is not to be audible, as defined by the city noise ordinance, in any surrounding residence) be added and the Commission then adopted the motion by a vote of 7-0.
Sitting through a recitation of the conditions had a sobering effect on the entire audience. There was no applause. People left quietly.
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Jim Meko is a South of Market activist, currently serving as chair of both the SoMa Leadership Council and the Western SoMa Citizens Planning Task Force and is a member of San Francisco's Entertainment Commission. Here at the Bulldog, of course, he's expressing his own personal opinions. He can be reached at jim.meko@comcast.net.