[Sustain] VERY IMPORTANT: Wiener-CEQA STRATEGY MEETING & PUBLIC HEARING, Thu, Mar 14, 11AM & NOON - SF City Hall Cafe and Room 400

[Eric Brooks]

Hi all,

We have both a crucial Planning Commission hearing on Scott Wiener's 
legislation attacking the the California Environmental Quality Act 
(CEQA), and a pre-hearing STRATEGY MEETING beforehand, coming up this 
Thursday in City Hall beginning at 11am. It is vital that we establish 
to the Planning Commission that Supervisor Wiener was absolutely 
unresponsive to their recommendation that he work with community 
stakeholders to improve his CEQA legislation.

(NOTE: The Planning agenda items being heard in front of the Wiener-CEQA 
measure should go fairly quickly so show up on time. See talking points 
for public comment further below and attached. Please reply right away 
to brookse32 at earthlink.net to confirm that you plan to attend either or 
both meetings.)

NEXT CEQA STRATEGY MEETING:

- Thursday, March 14, SF City Hall Basement Cafe, 11am
- To discuss public comment strategy for Noon Planning Commission CEQA 
hearing

THEN - PLANNING COMMISSION: on project deadlines & Wiener CEQA measure

- Thursday, March 14, SF City Hall Room 400, 12 noon
- NOTE: Two Items #8 and #12

Details & Talking Points:

- Item 8, COMMISSION POLICY ON TIMING OF PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION

Two resolutions which extend the start deadlines for many developer 
projects to 6 years (instead of 3) and allow the Planning Dept. Zoning 
Administrator to unilaterally extend such deadlines indefinitely! See 
details at: 
http://commissions.sfplanning.org/cpcpackets/Commission_Packet-Policy_on_Project_Implementation_2013_03_07.pdf

- Item 12, CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ACT (CEQA) PROCEDURES (WIENER)

Draft 3 of Supervisor Scott Wiener's CEQA measure; which still contains 
no significant amendments whatsoever in response to our concerns.

**TALKING POINTS FOR THE HEARING** (also attached as pdf)

ON ITEM 8, PROJECT TIMING

These rule changes should not be considered until the proposed 
amendments to CEQA procedures are decided upon, -especially- where the 
rule changes would allow deadline extensions due to CEQA appeals. The 
rule changes themselves would give developers excessive leeway to delay, 
and leave important land and buildings idle much too long, with the 
selfish intention of increasing profits by waiting for property values 
to increase. And they would give FAR too much power to the Zoning 
Administrator to extend such delays indefinitely.

ON ITEM 12, WIENER CEQA PROCEDURE AMENDMENTS (3 points)

1) On November, 29, 2012, the Planning Commission unanimously 
recommended to Supervisor Wiener that he meet with the many community 
opponents to the first and second drafts of his CEQA legislation, and to 
then introduce an AMENDED text which reflects feedback from these 
community organizations.

2) Supervisor Wiener was then highly selective in notices he sent to 
community representatives, leaving most of us uninformed that the 
meetings were taking place. Community representatives were forced to 
find out about the Supervisor's so-called 'roundtable discussions' third 
hand, and then send out our own notices to others and alert them to 
these important meetings.

3) After three so-called 'roundtable discussions' with Supervisor 
Wiener, Planning Staff, and City Attorney Elaine Warren, no substantial 
changes AT ALL have been made in this legislation to address the many 
serious problems that we have clearly documented both to them and to the 
Planning Commission. We therefore call on the Commission to recommend a 
'NO' vote on Supervisor Wiener's legislation to the Board of 
Supervisors. Community requirements which have still not been met are:

(Bring and refer to the longer attached 'Talking Points For March 14 
Planning Hearing On CEQA' to read one or two specific requirements that 
Supervisor Wiener has failed to meet.)

This is a big one all! Let's put Supervisor Wiener on public notice for 
his failure to work with us!

Again, please reply right away to brookse32 at earthlink.net to confirm 
that you plan to attend either or both meetings.

peace

Eric Brooks
Campaign Coordinator, Our City
415-756-8844
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