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@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_Pro... - 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@earthlink.net to confirm that you plan to attend either or both meetings. peace Eric Brooks Campaign Coordinator, Our City 415-756-8844 -- "I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." Che Guevara