Cow Hollow Association eNewsletter

The Cow Hollow Association was established many years ago to protect and preserve the residential character of one of San Francisco's distinctive neighborhoods.

The loosely affiliated Save Our Neighborhoods (SON) group is proposing to appeal the Planning Commission's Negative Declaration finding for the Housing Element which exempts it from an Environmental Impact Study. "We feel an EIS is absolutely necessary to expose the Housing Element for what it is...an attempt to gut the mandate laid out in Proposition M approved by the voters and an attempt to solve the City's housing "crisis" by building story upon story without any provision for parking." Click here to learn more details about the housing element.

The philosophical chasm between the pro and anti forces is so wide that an environmental impact study is absolutely necessary to define the issues and what impacts they will have on a variety of subjects including but not limited to parking, schools, zoning, neighborhood commercial, transportation (or the lack of it), traffic flow (or grid lock), infrastructure, utilities, shadow ordinances, etc. There is a lot of rhetoric, but few hard facts. An EIS would allow an empirical process to develop qualified and quantified answers.

The challenge to the Negative Declaration will not be cheap. The projected cost is $10,000 and this may be just the first bite at the apple.

SON has asked the Cow Hollow Association to join Pacific Heights and several other neighborhood associations in raising money to stage the appeal which will be filed on January 30. The Cow Hollow Association approved a financial contribution to the cause.

It is our understanding that the appeal will be considered by the Planning Commission staff with legal input from the City Attorney's office who will be advising the Planning Commission on its findings favoring a Negative Declaration. We do not know whether the appeal is subject to a public hearing, but staff will eventually make a recommendation to the Planning Commission on whether to accept the appeal or reject it. At this time, we are unaware of what time frames for action are required.

The appellants are seeking a sit-down with the Mayor on the Housing Element and the appeal, and Patricia Vaughey is arranging a "getting-to-know-you" meeting with Michela Alioto-Pier on February 9 at the theater in the Palace of Fine Arts at which time this issue will be a front burner item.

A flyer explaining the situation as it stands and the objective of the appeal that is on the Save Our Neighborhoods (SON) website at saveourneighborhoods.org site.

Click here for a copy of the information leaflet for the Appeal of the Negative Declaration of the Housing Element. Please e-mail it to friends and neighbors and distribute it in your neighborhood. Time is short and we need to get the word out as fast as possible. We will contact you with new information as it arises. (When and to whom to write letters, attend hearings, etc.). We must show a strong cross city united concern for this.

Thank you to all the neighbors and CHA board members who attended the Jan. 7th public meeting at the Pacific Motor Inn regarding the Verizon Cellular Base Station. For those unable to attend, there were approximately 30 neighbors who strongly and articulately spoke against this Verizon project. It opened Verizon's eyes as to what sort of battle they will have on their hands if they try to proceed.

As a result of the meeting, Verizon has requested another postponement of the cell phone hearing. They wanted to push it back to February 19th to give them time to try to partner with Lucas (installing the antennas on the new Lucas campus away from residential properties). The February 19th date was a problem for several of us (it's Winter Break for the schools), so Verizon has agreed to push it back to March 18th.

Meanwhile, we are trying to work with Verizon to help them partner with Lucas. Apparently, Verizon has tried several times to contact Lucas, but Lucas has not been interested in installing equipment on their buildings at this time. Attempts will continue to contact Lucas and the Presidio to discuss this option.

The Planning Commission Hearing is currently schedule for March 18, 2004 at 1:30pm. Since this topic has already been postponed a few times, we recommend you confirm that our case will be heard that morning with either call Geoffrey Nelson, the City Planner on this case at 415-558-6257 or visit the Planning Commission website and review the agenda for the meeting, case number 2003.0080C http://sfgov.org/site/planning_meeting.asp?id=15840.

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A group of neighbors along Greenwich Street and several of the cross streets have been working hard to have the utility wires placed underground. On September 19, 2003, Gavin's office introduced legislation to become an Underground District (see details of legislation below). By becoming an Underground District, we fall into the queue to be undergrounded as funding becomes available from the CPUC. The next step is for our legislation to go before the Land Use Committee (McGoldrick, Maxwell and Ammiano). All Land Use Committee hearing are on Mondays at 1pm (City Hall rm. 263). The date of our hearing is still to be determined.

Since 1958, Greenwich Street and other cross street residents have made several separate attempts to have the wires undergrounded.

1958 - Muni line discontinued and residents requested undergrounded - denied, promised later
1968 - Petitioned again and request denied, promised later
1976 - Most of area undergrounded, except streets in our legislation - residents ignored
1986 - Residents attempted petition process, but was not completed
1997 - Our most recent attempt to have the wires undergrounded during the open petition process for all of San Francisco. Criteria for the selection process were:

· A minimum of four contiguous blocks had to be in need and request undergrounding
· An upgrade of another utility (water main, gas line) had to be planned for that area
· Area had to be close to or part of a main traffic thoroughfare
· 65% of signatures from property owners had to be obtained to show support for the effort since each household had to contribute a portion of funds to the undergrounding.

While Greenwich Street qualified on all of the criteria above, our application was lost. This resulted in the non-consideration of Greenwich Street from the selection process in 1997.

In July 2002, we received notification that PG&E was planning to "upgrade the underground wiring" along Greenwich Street. Further exploration into this notice revealed that in fact it was not an upgrade of underground wiring (since all of Greenwich Street's wiring was above ground) but rather a new power line for the Lucas Digital Arts Center. Several strong attempts were made by the Greenwich Street residents to incorporate our desire to have the wiring undergrounded in conjunction with the Lucas Power Line project. All of our attempts were rebuffed due largely to the time needed to co-engineer such a project. In the end it was determined, that a permit for the Lucas Power Line should not have been issued for Greenwich Street as the street had been dug up the maximum allowable times in a certain time period (please note that in past three years both the gas line and the water main have been replaced along Greenwich Street).

Working with Gavin Newsom (our then District 2 Supervisor) and Mike Farrah, it was determined that the next best course of action to have the wiring undergrounded would be to draft legislation for consideration by the Board of Supervisors. This legislation was submitted to the Board of Supervisors on September 16, 2003 and was subsequently assigned to the Land Use Committee for consideration.

As residents of Greenwich Street, we strongly feel that we should be included as part of the city's undergrounding efforts for the following reasons:

· Finish off an area of the city that was undergrounded long ago. With the exception of Greenwich Street and parts of several cross streets, all other streets in Marina, Cow Hollow and Pacific Heights are already undergrounded.

· As indicated above, we were overlooked during the petition process in 1997. We already have signatures to support high level of interest and had met all other selection criteria.

· We have a $2 million bond offered by a private company - investigating whether this can we use in the interim until more CPUC money is available to pay it off.

· Safety concerns - the poles along Greenwich Street are becoming overburdened with wires and this raises major safety concerns. Most recently Comcast has strung massive equipment on the Greenwich Street poles to accommodate the addition of Broadband Internet and High Definition Cable. They also plan to add Video on Demand which would add even more wires to the already overburdened poles. The continued addition of wires raises serious safety concerns in terms of a possible earthquake, EMF emissions as utilities continue to increase the amount of overhead wires to accommodate new product offerings and the presence of a fire station on Greenwich (and their ability to safely maneuver equipment and respond to emergencies in a timely manner).

· Help with San Francisco Tourism -- For the last 3 years, the premier US cycling event, the SF Grand Prix (now called the T-Mobile International) runs down Greenwich between Lyon and Fillmore. This event is televised globally and seen by fans worldwide. What better way to attract visitors to San Francisco than to make the entire race course as attractive as possible by cleaning up the overhead wires along the racetrack to create a more visually attractive race route?

· Help Make SF Green -- As a good faith initiative, many home owners of the Greenwich Street Corridor have planted trees as their part for a "Trees for Wires" offering through Friends of the Urban Forest. Many neighbors would like to take part in this program but are prohibited from doing so because of the interference of the wires in the growth of the trees.

· Power Outages - There have been power outages in our area, which, too, are dangerous. State-of-the-art undergrounding should eliminate these services interruptions, the cost to PG&E of responding to these interruptions, and the risk of danger resulting when power is out.

· Increased Tax Revenue for the City -- One model of home prices includes a 10% increase when overhead lines are undergrounded, and when homes are bought, this leads to 10% more property tax that goes to the city. As the Greenwich Street Corridor may have some of the most expensive homes where overhead wires still exist, it makes the most financial sense to city budgets to try and capture some of this tax potential.

In short, we believe there are many strong reasons why the legislation to support undergrounding wires on Greenwich Street should be adopted. We ask for your support as this legislation is presented in the Land Use Committee and before the Board of Supervisors. Please check the Cow Hollow Association website for updates on the hearing date. The more people there, the better.

Water Quality Change- Chlorine to Chloramine

Fish owners must neutralize or remove chloramine from water

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) announced today that the conversion to chloramine as the water treatment disinfection process will begin February 2, 2004.

The system-wide conversion to chloramine will benefit 2.4 million retail and wholesale customers in San Francisco, and parts of Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. Chloramine is considered a better disinfectant for a number of reasons. It is currently used successfully by other water agencies throughout the Bay Area and across the nation.

Converting to chloramine will allow the SFPUC to provide water that meets the stringent drinking water standards for disinfection byproducts, specifically the federal and state Disinfectant/Disinfection Byproducts Rule (D/DBP Rule). Chloramine, a combination of chlorine and ammonia, is a more stable disinfectant, lasts longer in water, produces lower levels of disinfection byproducts called trihalomethanes, possible carcinogens. Following the start-up transition period, chloramine is expected to improve the taste and odor of water.

“The change to chloramine strengthens our efforts to provide the highest quality drinking water to our customers,” General Manager Patricia E. Martel said. “Chloramine helps us to consistently meet current and anticipated water quality regulations. Over the past two years we have built three new facilities and made modifications to our vast water system to make this water improvement a reality,” Martel added.

Chloraminated water is safe for people and animals to drink, cook with, bathe in, and for all other general uses. As with chlorine, sensitive users such as kidney dialysis patients, fish and amphibian owners and businesses that use highly processed water, need to take precautions before using the water.

Fish owners must neutralize or remove chloramine from water used in aquariums or ponds as it doesn’t dissipate quickly from standing water as chlorine does. Treatment products are readily available at aquarium supply stores.

San Francisco customers, particularly sensitive users, have been notified of the change to chloramine over the past year. The outreach effort has included distribution of materials in English, Spanish and Chinese. Information on the conversion is being disseminated via the website (better.sfwater.org), telephone information line (415-351-4200), through mailings and articles, as well as television, radio and print advertising.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, more than one-third of the country's water agencies have already switched to chloramine from chlorine as a final disinfection agent. In the Bay Area, these agencies include the East Bay Municipal Utility District, Santa Clara Valley Water District, Contra Costa Water District, Alameda County Water District and the Marin Municipal Water District.

During the transition period, as chloraminated water replaces the existing chlorinated water in system reservoirs, customers may experience a change in the taste and odor of their drinking water. This is a temporary condition, carefully monitored by water quality and treatment staff. Customers can be assured that the water is safe to drink and meets all state and federal drinking water regulations and standards.

For more information, please visit the dedicated website at better.sfwater.org, or call the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission at 415-554-3289.

http://sfwater.org/detail.cfm/MC_ID/7/MSC_ID/67/MTO_ID/104/C_ID/1734

Next Cow Hollow Association Meeting

Tuesday, February 3, 2004 at 5:30pm

The CHA board and advisory members’ meet the first Tuesday of each month at 5:30pm (the location rotates among board member’s homes). We are always looking for new board members who want share their talents and passion for the preservation and improvement of our neighborhood. You are welcome to attend a meeting to listen to the issues or bring up a topic of concern to you. To attend a meeting, please contact the CHA President, Tony Imhof at 415-921-4657 for the location.

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