[Sustain] CEQA: Please Contact Commissioners -Today- To Support Our Ability To Appeal Modifications Of Projects Exempted Under CEQA

[Eric Brooks]

Hi all,

Please see this message that I just emailed to the Historic Preservation
and Planning Commissions via their commission secretaries at
tim.frye at sfgov.org and Commissions.Secretary at sfgov.org

Please email similar individual and group communications to them right
away. The more comments they receive, the more likely we are to win on
this key point:

Hi Tim, Jonas,

Please forward this communication today, to your respective Commission
members (Historic Preservation and Planning) so that they can consider
it before their decisions tomorrow and Thursday on their agenda items 10
and 8 respectively.

thanks, Eric Brooks, Community CEQA Improvement Team

Dear Historic Preservation and Planning Commissioners,

Your support is urgently needed.

This Wednesday and Thursday you will be making a recommendation on a
piece of trailing legislation to the CEQA procedures rules (which are
likely to pass today at the Board of Supervisors). Note that this
trailing legislation, originally sponsored by Supervisor Jane Kim, is
planned to be amended by Supervisor David Chiu to reflect recent
negotiations between parties effected by the CEQA procedures changes. By
now you should have received communications from Supervisor Chiu on the
nature of the new amendments.

Please know that this trailing legislation embodies a -vital- assurance
that members of the Community CEQA Improvement Team must have, in order
to support the overall agreement on CEQA procedures that has been
brought to the Board.

Specifically, because the main legislation now requires that CEQA
appeals must be filed after the -first- approval of a project, the
public will completely lose the ability it now has, to appeal any
project that substantially changes after its first approvals, in the
case that the Environmental Review Officer determines that the project
change does not require a new environmental review. The Community CEQA
Improvement Team considers it absolutely essential that the public have
the right to seek a public hearing with the Environmental Review Officer
in cases in which we feel that the Environmental Review Officer has
erred in deciding that a substantial change does not warrant a new
environmental review. Such a right is the essential backstop that the
public needs to retain, to prevent projects from becoming harmful to the
environment and San Francisco neighborhoods, due to error, neglect, or
bad action.

The trailing legislation, as amended by Supervisor Chiu, will give us
this assured right, and in return we feel we can support the full
package of CEQA procedures legislation and trailing legislation
together. This at last, after 12 years, will form a groundbreaking
compromise that will ensure vast improvements in CEQA procedures in San
Francisco so that they are better for both project sponsors and project
appellants.

We strongly urge you to show your support for this crucial trailing
legislation, so that all parties to these CEQA procedures negotiations
can finally reach a fair and productive compromise.

Thank you,

Eric Brooks
Coordinator, Community CEQA Improvement Team
415-756-8844