S.F. officials vow to reform appeals
Mayor seeks to make it harder to hold up emergency projects
Sometimes it takes an emergency to get anything done in San Francisco. During the COVID19 pandemic, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency has developed the popular Slow Streets program, created emergency busonly lanes, and found street space for coronavirus test sites and popup food pantries.
What could have taken months or even years took weeks.
And sometimes it takes an emergency to realize the usual way of doing things — or, more often, failing to do them — just doesn’t work. San Francisco’s timeworn tradition of letting one cranky person hold up a project even if thousands benefit from it may finally, deservedly, get overhauled. Mayor London Breed and several supervisors say they’re committed to ending the practice.
This column recently described how two San Franciscans — gadfly David Pilpel and attorney Mary Miles — have stopped important, wellliked transit projects in their tracks, filing appeals that consume 100 hours of city officials’ time apiece and forcing all work to be stopped in the meantime.
A peeved Breed on Saturday shared the column on Twitter, writing, “In the middle of a climate emergency, with our city experiencing weeks of dangerous air quality, there is no reason to subject important transit improvements to unnecessary delays . ... One person shouldn’t be able to delay an emergency response.”
That’s the truth. It’s a ridiculous process and gives enormous power to one individual with a lot of time on his or her hands. Breed has directed her planning department to craft a proposal to streamline the appeals process and hopes to put forward a consensus measure with the Board of Supervisors soon, her spokesman said.
At issue are five emergency projects initiated by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency
during the COVID19 pandemic. They’re two phases of the Slow Streets program to close some streets to through traffic to allow people to walk and bike while social distancing, emergency transit lanes for buses carrying essential workers, street closures to make way for COVID19 testing and popup food pantries, and a protected bike lane on Fell Street to alleviate crowding in the Panhandle.
They’re made even more crucial by California’s raging wildfires and the wakeup call that we need to take climate change far more seriously. Reducing personal car use in favor of walking, bicycling, carpooling and riding public transit is one way we can all help.
In normal times, the California Environmental Quality Act would have required the SFMTA to disclose the environmental impacts of its projects and try to mitigate them. But these are far from normal times — and the 50yearold state law exempts emergency projects from these requirements.
Local governments decide how the appeals process works for projects that are exempt under CEQA, and San Francisco has set the bar way too low.
“CEQA is an important law that provides important environmental protections, but it’s too often abused for other purposes,” said Jeff Cretan, the mayor’s spokesman. “The mayor is clear she wants us to address this issue.”
The details of Breed’s proposals are a ways off, and it’s unclear whether it’ll apply just to transit projects or other projects exempt under CEQA as well.
Supervisor Matt Haney, the Bicycle Coalition, SFMTA director Jeffrey Tumlin and others have discussed potential changes to the appeals process in recent days, concentrating on just transit projects.
There’s an emerging consensus that requiring 50 people to cosign an appeal makes far more sense than letting one individual go it alone.
Other ideas being discussed include allowing work to continue during the appeals process and requiring the appellant to pay the city back for its time if he or she loses. Tumlin has said the hearing alone costs $10,000 in city officials’ time, and that doesn’t include all the transit agency time to prepare.
“We’re outraged that private citizens would use city resources during an emergency time like this for their frivolous suits,” said Janice Li, advocacy director for the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. “The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is committed to pursuing every mechanism possible to prevent these suits moving forward.”
Li lives in the Outer
Sunset and spends a lot of time on the Slow Streets on 41st Avenue from Lincoln Way to Vicente Street.
“I see how much they’re enjoyed and how critical these spaces are,” she said.
Sarah Jones, planning director for SFMTA, said it’s important that projects can be challenged when there’s a broad consensus that they’re problematic, so increasing the number of people needed to file an appeal would make sense. She said allowing work to continue during an appeal might also have merit.
“It would address the situation we’re in right now for sure,” she said.
Haney, who has requested a meeting with Breed on the matter, said, “There’s a lot of momentum, and your column made a difference.
The current process defies common sense and is a huge waste of everyone’s time and resources and slows or even stops needed changes in our city.”
I asked the 10 other supervisors for their opinion, too. Supervisors Sandra Fewer and Ahsha Safaí didn’t respond. Supervisor Shamann Walton said he hadn’t read the original column and didn’t respond after I sent it. Supervisors Hillary Ronen and Dean Preston said they need time to study the issue and any formal proposal.
Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who holds a lot of sway in the land use and CEQA world, said he’s “definitely open” to changes like requiring 50 signatures. Supervisor Gordon Mar agreed the city needs to set a higher bar for appeals and the 50 signatures plan “sounds reasonable.”
Supervisor Rafael Mandelman said he supports changing the appeals process and the 50 signatures idea sounds “legit.” He said he’s a huge fan of Slow Streets and that SFMTA’s rapid work to redo our roads will prove to be a silver lining of the COVID19 pandemic.
Supervisor Catherine Stefani said requiring 50 signatures “definitely sounds like a good start.”
“I am incredibly frustrated that the installation of the Clay Street and Pacific Street Slow Streets have been delayed by a resident on the other side of the city,” she texted of projects planned in District 2, miles from Miles’ home on Page Street in the Haight. “My constituents are being deprived of almost 2 miles of open space. As a city, we must do better.”
Supervisor Norman Yee, the president of the board, was the only one to defend the current process, saying he doesn’t consider it a waste of time or effort and that appeals can lead to a compromise that improves the project.
“Like anything in a democracy, we can’t just throw the baby out with the bathwater,” he said, adding he pushed back on SFMTA’s idea to turn Hearst Avenue in the Sunnyside neighborhood into a Slow Street until there’s proof the community wants it.
Well, we have five supervisors supporting the general idea, and here’s betting it’ll be easy to get one more.
Pilpel could not be reached for comment. Miles did not return a phone call or email asking for her opinion on changing the appeals process. It seems they have lots of time to file appeals, but no time to explain why they’re so insistent on doing so.
Miles lost her appeal of the first phase of Slow Streets by an 110 vote at the board. The remaining four appeals are scheduled for Sept. 22, though it’s likely they’ll be continued. And progress on the projects in question will be delayed even longer.