Barbary Coast Neighborhood Association

Minutes of the Board of Directors Meeting

January 17, 2008

At Ferry Boat Santa Rosa – Pier 3

“DRAFT”

 

 

The meeting began at 6:00 pm and was called to order by President Fred Allardyce. 

 

Board members in attendance in addition to President Allardyce:  Debra Bleemer, Carol Parlette, Lee Radner, Bill Sauro, Felix Rodriquez, Morton Beebe, Joe Wyman and Linda Schwartz.

 

Board members who were absent:  Bill Benkavitch, Diana Taylor and Member-in-Waiting, Jonathan Middlebrook. 

 

1.  Approval of Minutes.  The minutes of the last meeting on November 15, 2007 were approved as amended by unanimous vote.

 

2.  Treasurer's Report.  The Treasurer's Report was distributed by Parlette with Balance Sheets and Budget Summaries for the year ending 12/31/07 as well as to-date cash position thru 1/17/08.  Efforts at getting existing members to renew their memberships for 2008 were continuing, and 14 new members have also been added.  The Association had a positive cash position of $6,287 as of this date.  The Treasurer's Report was approved unanomously.

 

3.  Waterfront Action Committee Reports.

 

            A.  8 Washington Street Condos.  Radner presented information regarding the efforts of the Friends of Golden Gateway (“FOGG”) concerning the Notice of Planning (“NOP”) submitted by Pacific Waterfront Partners.  Experts within the FOGG community are working to ask The City to require the developer to prepare more Environmental Impact Reports on many fronts including Traffic/Noise, Shadows/Light, Loss of Recreation, and Environmental issues such as air quality, buried nautical artifacts and so forth. 

 

Wyman brought up his views on upland parking.  He stated that he believed it was the only viable solution for water dependent industries that can not secure parking over the water.  He also said that a regional or district approach needs to be adopted by the Port. He raised these same concerns about the proposed Exploratorium project.  In addition, Wyman hoped the BCNA could develop a list of key issues or goals that we can extend to each developer before they come to our meetings.  While he agreed that there does not need to be a cookie cutter approach, he felt the BCNA should look at what THD Planning and Zoning Committee hands out to project proponents, and create something similar.

 

Allardyce and Sauro also commented on the project and the Board, by a 7-1 vote, passed the following resolution:

 

RESOLVED that the Barbary Coast Neighborhood Association (“BCNA”) supports the efforts of Friends of Golden Gateway (“FOGG”) to require the developer of 8 Washington Street to perform the additional Environmental Impact Reports (“EIRs”) requested by FOGG as part of the planning process application as required by the City and County of San Francisco.

 

The Board also authorized the Secretary to send a letter to FOGG showing our approval of this Resolution.

 

            B.  555 Washington Street Condos.  Allardyce explained that on short notice, representatives of the developers of this project invited BCNA board members to a presentation of the features of their proposed 40-story condo tower adjacent to the Transamerica Pyramid.  The Dutch insurance firm that purchased Transamerica, Aegon NV, plans to enlarge the park area between the pyramid and the round-shaped proposed tower; make the open space more accessible and add other concepts.  Renderings of the completed tower showed a larger than expected spacing between the two buildings and its construction would likely not affect the views from the Barbary Coast because of the presence of many tall buildings, such as the Golden Gateway Apartments, between the Pyramid and the Embarcadero.  The Board did not take any official position supporting or opposing this development at this time, but would like the developers to make a presentation to the Board in the near future.

 

            C.  Broadway Family Housing Proposal.  Allardyce stated that more than 8,000 people applied for the apartments at the new Broadway apartment building, and that the now-empty lot on Broadway between Sansome and Battery Streets across the street might be developed into additional low and mid-range rental housing. The Board did not take any official position supporting or opposing this development at this time, but would like the developers to make a presentation to the Board in the near future.

 

            D.  Exploratorium.  Schwartz presented details of a presentation made by the Exploratorium concerning their proposed move to Pier 15.  Parking, traffic, and the presence of dozens of school buses each day of operation were some of the problems seen by Schwartz. The Board did not take any official position supporting or opposing this development at this time.

 

4.  Existing and New Committees

 

            A. Membership Committee – Sauro presented the latest membership roster showing 79 renewals and 14 new members.  A second mailing has been made to existing members inviting them renew their memberships.

 

            B.  Newsletter Committee – Allardyce stated that June Osterberg was writing the next edition of the newsletter, and that it would be published as a Spring edition.

 

            C.  Program and Social Event Committee – No discussion.

 

Wyman gave a brief presentation on the Community Opportunity Fund. He indicated that he thought the BCNA should attend and purse grant funds for public open space planning in the neighborhood.

 

Wyman also indicated that each Committee should come up with a strategic planning statement for FY 2008 with some sort of metric that we can compare our efforts against. 

 

5.  Next Meeting.  The next BCNA Board Meeting was scheduled for Thursday February 21, 2008.

 

6.  Adjournment.  The meeting was adjourned at 8:00 p.m.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

 

William H. Sauro

Secretary