Blog Posts

OCTOBER 28, 2020

10/28/2020

CHN: 15+ years of serving/protecting our neighborhood

COMMUNITY ALERT

Development at 17th & Ord

violates planning code

The CHN Board held a special meeting October 26, 2020 to consider a highly-controversial project proposed for the NW corner of 17th and Ord, which will be heard by the Planning Commission on November 19, 2020 after 1 PM.

The project proposes to override numerous basic planning and zoning regulations such as those for minimum lot size, open space, and setback from neighbors, in order to divide an existing modest size lot into two lots and add four additional new units to the two already existing (for a total of six ) leaving virtually no open space. The developer argues that the exceptional disregard for existing development standards is justified due to the two "affordable” rental units which would be created.

The Planning Department does not support the project due to the extent of the prosed violations and because the stated objective of two “affordable” units can to be achieved without exempting the property from existing laws.

After review of extensive materials submitted by the developer and of numerous Planning documents and regulations, including the Zoning Code, the Residential Design Guidelines, which apply citywide, and the Corona Heights Special Use District, which CHN worked to enact, the CHN Board voted to support the creation of two affordable units as allowed under existing law but to oppose the extensive violations of existing and widely accepted planning protections, which would be required to build the total of four new units on the two substandard size lots which would be created.

The full text of the Resolution adopted by the Board can be found on the CHN website at https://www.corbettneighbors.com/ In addition, the April 27, 2020 Plan Check Letter is also posted for your review:

http://www.corbettneighbors.com/governance.html

The project submission can be viewed on the Planning Department website by searching address (4300 17th Street)(and then Planning Applications) at

https://sfplanninggis.org/PIM/

CHN urges all our neighbors to oppose this development. Share your concerns with the Planning Commission via Zoom on Thursday, November 19, starting at 1pm. More updates to come.

The view from 90 Ord Street...for now

If the proposed development is approved, a four-story building will fill the entire side yard of 4300 17th. Both buildings, right and left, will lose a significant amount of light, sun and airflow. And the south-facing back yard at 90 Ord Street will be overwhelmed.

Telep hone, telegraph, tell CHN

We are easy to reach at all times:

Leave a message: 415-404-9960
Send an email: [email protected]
Use snail mail: P.O. Box 14493 San Francisco CA 94114
Visit us at: https://www.corbettneighbors.com/

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September 4, 2020

9/4/2020

CHN: 15+ years of serving/protecting our neighborhood

CHN Annual Meeting:

Covid-19 & Homelessness

Monday, September 14, 7 pm...via Zoom

Join us for a fascinating discussion of two critical issues confronting our community and city, Covid-19 and homelessness. We have invited four highly-qualified experts who can lay out the facts and issues and answer questions.

Dr. Susan Philip

Deputy Health Officer,
Disease Prevention
and Control, San Francisco Department of Public Health

Rafael Mandelman
Supervisor, District 8

Dylan Rose Schneider

Acting Director of Strategy
and External Affairs at San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing

Jeff Kositsky

Director of the Department of Emergency Management’s Homelessness Heathy Streets Operations Center (HSOCH).

Via our first Zoom meeting, we will address two of our city's most vexing challenges: The Covid plague and the never-ending homeless challenge.

Dr. Susan Philip will provide a Covid-19 overview, the numbers, the trends, the issues.

The bulk of the meeting will address homelessness and street behavior.

For this, Supervisor Mandelman will provide a “state of District 8 update” and participate in the balance of the meeting.

He will be joined by Dylan Rose Schneider from the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing and Jeff Kositsky, from the Department of Emergency Management’s Healthy Streets Operation Center. This is the agency that, among other things, manages responses to 311 calls. In all, we have a superb group of speakers for this issue.

Join us. Simply click on this link at 7 pm on Monday, September 14. If you prefer a low tech alternative, simply call: 669-900-6833. When prompted, the Meeting ID is: 910-1485-7022.

Zoom has a helpful how to join a meeting page: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362193

Any questions for our guests? Please submit all questions, in advance, to [email protected] . Please include your name and street.

We will also introduce our newest board members. This electronic election occurs September 4-13.

All eligible members will receive their ballots via email.

CHN Board Approves Conflict of Interest Policy

Overview

As part of an ongoing effort to improve CHN practices, your board has adopted a first-ever conflict of interest policy. Your board approved the following resolution by a unanimous vote on August 17, 2020.

This action is part of broader, on-going initiative to safeguard the interests (and funds) of our membership. It started in Spring of 2019 when we transferred all financial affairs under the SF Parks Alliance, a registered 501C3 non-profit. This brought procedures and transparency to our budgeting and expenditures. We also tightened up our expenditure process, adding additional checks and balances.

To boost membership particpation, we also shifted the annual election date from July to September. This bylaw change was apporved by the membership earlier this year.

August 17, 2020 resolution

Statement of Policy: Duties and Conflicts of Interest 1. Directors shall observe and act in accordance with the standard model of corporate governance; that is, observing the Duty of Care and the Duty of Loyalty. 2. The Duty of Care calls for informed decision making. 3. The Duty of Loyalty calls for a director to act (or not act) on a disinterested, independent basis, in good faith, with an honest belief that the action is in the best interest of CHN and its members. 3.1. The “disinterest” of directors means that they should be free of a conflict of interest, which includes but is not limited to any material financial or other benefit in the matter under discussion. 4. Conflicts of Interest 4.1. Directors must promptly disclose to the Board any facts that could raise a question about their disinterest or independence in the matter to be discussed. 4.2. Any Director who is not disinterested must abstain from any vote on the matter in question. 4.3. Any Director who is not disinterested may, upon a majority vote of the disinterested Board members present and serving, be asked to withdraw from the Board meeting prior to discussion of the matter in question.

Triangle Park Update: Clean and L iterate

Although our parks maintenance has been greatly reduced by

Covid, a team of CHN volunteers did launch a major clean up

More than six large bags of refuse were taken away, plus two (used) hypodermic needles.

Next step: return with (lots) of mulch in two weeks.

Part of the CHN team donated a Sunday morning to clean up Triangle Park at Ord and 17th Street.

Our new community library in Triangle Park is a runaway success. It's overflowing with great books, come one, come all

Board Report

August 17, 2020

Present (virtual meeting): Paul Allen, Josh Baskin, Susan Detwiler, Maryann Dresner, Bill Holtzman Leslie Koelsch, and Mark Ryser

The meeting, held by Zoom conference, was called to order by vice president Maryann Dresner at 7:00 pm. All directors were present.

1. The Board unanimously approved the Minutes and the Summary of Minutes from the meeting of July 8.

2. Leslie Koelsch provided the Treasurer’s Report. There were no material changes to the general account, although there are four new paid members. CHN now has more than 100 paid household members.

3. Proposed Periodic Closure of 18th St. Leslie notified the Board that the Castro Merchants Association has applied to close a two block section of 18th street from Hartford to Collingwood from 1-10 pm every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Bill will contact Castro Merchants to obtain more information.

4.Monday, September 14 Virtual Membership Meeting. Josh Baskin reported that three new candidates have submitted their names for election to the Board at the September 14 virtual Membership Meeting. A ballot will be emailed to members approximately September 4, along with any other matters requiring membership approval.

5. Conflicts of Interest Policy. The Board considered and unanimously passed a resolution adopting a Conflicts of Interest Policy for Board members. The resolution and policy will be posted on the web site. In brief, the policy defines a conflict of interest as a material financial or other benefit in the matter under discussion; calls for a director with any such conflict to disclose it to the Board before the matter is discussed; mandatory recusal from voting on such a matter; and the option for the non-conflicted board members to have the conflicted member retire from the room before the matter is discussed.

6. Homelessness. Following up a discussion at the July Board meeting, the Board considered two resolutions, one a resolution that would explicitly have supported the articulated goals of RescueSF (see the July Summary for more information); and the second a more general resolution that calls upon the city to do more to alleviate the pain and suffering on the street. The Board adopted this latter resolution by a vote of 5-2, and that resolution is included at the end of this Summary. Following the adoption of this resolution, the Board discussed and passed a second resolution that, in brief, calls for the solicitation of additional information including specific remedies; input from CHN members; and an attempt to formulate more specific policies and positions if that is the will of the membership.

7. Edgehill District. The Board considered a request to oppose a development in the Edgehill District but declined to get involved, principally because the development is far outside CHN’s boundaries.

8. September 14 General Membership Meeting. The Board agreed that the meeting will proceed as a virtual, Zoom meeting. Supervisor Mandelman has agreed to participate. CHN will seek Supervisor Mandelman’s support to add a representative from the Health Department (to discuss Covid) and the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Services.

9. Neighborhood Parks. CHN will obtain an estimate to trim the damaged tress on Corbett Slope and for the addition of mulch to Ord Triangle and Merritt.

10. All outstanding matters with CHN’s former president have been resolved.

Updated Restaurant Take Out Listings

We continue to update (September, 2020) our local restaurant take out listings. These organizations are a critical part of our community and they need our support.

Consult CHN's updated list of take out choices. Photo by Tim Mosshandler

Lots and lots of take out
choices

Telephone, telegraph, tell CHN

We are easy to reach at all times:

Leave a message: 415-404-9960
Send an email: [email protected]
Use snail mail: P.O. Box 14493 San Francisco CA 94114
Visit us at: https://www.corbettneighbors.com/

Support CHN

This email was sent to

You received this email because you are registered with Corbett Heights Neighbors (CHN)

Unsubscribe here

September 4 Update

9/4/2020

CHN: 15+ years of serving/protecting our neighborhood

CHN Annual Meeting:

Covid-19 & Homelessness

Monday, September 14, 7 pm...via Zoom

Dr. Susan Philip

Deputy Health Officer,
Disease Prevention
and Control, San Francisco Department of Public Health

Rafael Mandelman
Supervisor, District 8

Dylan Rose Schneider

Acting Director of Strategy
and External Affairs at San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing

Jeff Kositsky

Director of the Department of Emergency Management’s Homelessness Heathy Streets Operations Center (HSOCH).

The bulk of the meeting will address homelessness and street behavior.

For this, Supervisor Mandelman will provide a “state of District 8 update” and participate in the balance of the meeting.

Join us. Simply click on this link at 7 pm on Monday, September 14. If you prefer a low tech alternative, simply call: 669-900-6833. When prompted, the Meeting ID is: 910-1485-7022.

Zoom has a helpful how to join a meeting page: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362193

Any questions for our guests? Please submit all questions, in advance, to [email protected] . Please include your name and street.

We will also introduce our newest board members. This electronic election occurs September 4-13.

All eligible members will receive their ballots via email.

CHN Board Approves Conflict of Interest Policy

Overview

To boost membership particpation, we also shifted the annual election date from July to September. This bylaw change was apporved by the membership earlier this year.

August 17, 2020 resolution

Triangle Park Update: Clean and L iterate

Although our parks maintenance has been greatly reduced by

Covid, a team of CHN volunteers did launch a major clean up

More than six large bags of refuse were taken away, plus two (used) hypodermic needles.

Next step: return with (lots) of mulch in two weeks.

Part of the CHN team donated a Sunday morning to clean up Triangle Park at Ord and 17th Street.

Our new community library in Triangle Park is a runaway success. It's overflowing with great books, come one, come all

Board Report

August 17, 2020

9. Neighborhood Parks. CHN will obtain an estimate to trim the damaged tress on Corbett Slope and for the addition of mulch to Ord Triangle and Merritt.

10. All outstanding matters with CHN’s former president have been resolved.

Lots and lots of take out
choices

Telephone, telegraph, tell CHN

We are easy to reach at all times:

Leave a message: 415-404-9960
Send an email: [email protected]
Use snail mail: P.O. Box 14493 San Francisco CA 94114
Visit us at: https://www.corbettneighbors.com/

Support CHN

This email was sent to

You received this email because you are registered with Corbett Heights Neighbors (CHN)

Unsubscribe here

Neighborhood parks clean up:Saturday, Dec 14

12/10/2019

Join the fun, beautify your community, meet the neighbors!
On Saturday, December 14th, CHN is leading its semi-annual "clean and green" effort to beautify our local parks.

Community volunteers will be joined by our partners, the SF Parks Alliance, to trim bushes, remove garbage and pull weeds. We did this in June and attracted more than a dozen volunteers....and our parks never looked better. From beginning to end, it should take about three hours.

We will start at 17th and Mars at 9 am then work down to:

Mars/Corbett (10:00 AM)
Merritt Park (10: 30 AM)
And then Ord/17th (11 AM)
And what’s required from you?

Just show up and bring some gardeners gloves...that’s it. All other tools will be provided.
This is a rain or shine event, so dress accordingly. Any questions? https://www.corbettneighbors.com/contact-us.html

Come one, come all!

Join the team!

In June the community turned out in force to clean up three parks and they looked great all summer. Now it time to do the final winter clean up.

Fall Update

11/10/2019

Dear Corbett Heights Community:

CHN has been very active enhancing and defending your neighborhood. Here's our Fall update on what we've accomplished and what we are working on...

DISTRICT ATTORNEY RACE

Although the winner is still unclear, hopefully, you were able to attend our quarterly membership meeting on October 24.

We were able to attract all four candidates for the SF District Attorney contest. Each candidate spent about 30 minutes, with a vast majority of the time focused on questions and answers. Our mandate at CHN is to provide unbiased information so our members can make their own decisions. This is exactly what happened on that Thursday night. No filters, no sneers, no selective invitations. We are transparent, fair and apolitical.

PROP E PASSAGE IS A POTENTIAL THREAT TO CORBETT SLOPE

With the passage of Prop E: (Affordable Housing and Educator Housing), Corbett Slope could be torn down and turned into a large housing project. The Slope now falls under this legislation which requires the property to be city owned and more than 10,000 square feet.
Many people think the Slope is a park, but it is not. It is maintained by CHN volunteers, but it falls under the control of Department of Public Works. Legally, the Slope is now “up for grabs.” We will track this issue closely. The first warning will come if/when the city proposes to sell the land. Stay tuned…

CORBETT SLOPE STAIRWAY

For years a stairway has been proposed which would run from Corbett Avenue to Market Street. The cost of construction would easily exceed a million dollars and accomplish little. CHN now opposes this waste of money and has communicated this to all the appropriate government agencies.

LOT SPLITTING

Several proposals are coming forward where a developer can divide a lot, reduce or kill backyards and then construct new structure (s). There is a huge financial incentive for the developer. We are following this very closely and when a formal proposal is made to city planning CHN will become actively involved.

YOUR COMMUNITY PARKS CLEAN UP

Hopefully, you’ve noticed a significant improvement in many of our community parks. This doesn’t happen by accident and the city has little or no involvement. Our parks are not part of Parks and Recreation, so all the hard work is local.

In the last six months, CHN and our members have made substantial progress cleaning up Merritt Park, Corbett/Ord Triangle, Corbett Stairs and Mars Stairs.

The revitalization began in the Spring of this year and started when we organized a “Clean and Green” drive which featured CHN volunteers and workers from our non-profit partner, the SF Parks Alliance. We hauled out 30+ large bags of branches, weeds and assorted garbage.

Our next “Clean and Green” drive will be Saturday, December 7…and yes you are invited to attend, just bring some knee pads and a pair of gloves! More information shortly.

CORONA HEIGHTS SPECIAL USE DISTRICT (SUD) VERSION 2.0

About five years, CHN led the battle to create a special use district which would add more zoning controls to our neighborhood. We have used this legislation to avoid over development. Most recently, it was a critical consideration in our attempts to reign in a large, four story development on Ord Court. After a sustained battle, the development was scaled back to three stories, density was reduced by 900 square feet and the quiet streetscape of this quiet cul-de-sac was maintained.

Moving forward, CHN will take a serious look at the Corona Heights SUD to see if we can amend it and make it more affective.

FIRST ELECTRONIC ELECTION A RESOUNDING SUCCESS

This summer, we introduced a new electronic voting system so our members could use the web to vote for CHN board candidates This system is highly reliable and secure. It also allowed us to post a background statement from each candidate. As a result, our members could vote from the comfort of their home and do a bit of research. The end result was encouraging: a record voter response, 40 percent! Any feedback? We're all ears.

IMPROVED FISCAL CONTROLS FOR CHN

The previous CHN board and the current board felt that the organization required more checks and balances to ensure your membership money is well managed. After an extensive search, CHN moved our financial accounts under the SF Park Alliance. This respected non-profit has a rigorous procedure to document all expenditures. For example, any expenditure (big or small) needs a receipt and a copy of the credit card statement that confirms the amount...Now our finances are tight and transparent.

CHN DUES/CONTRIBUTIONS NOW TAX FREE

Since CHN is now under the banner of SF Parks Alliance, all membership fees and gifts are tax free. Start or renew your membership today.

COMMUNITY PROJECT INVESTMENTS

Next year, CHN hopes to make a proposal to raise funds for one or more local projects. This city funding ($5,000 to $20,000) could be targeted at anything that would enrich the community: a park improvement, a bike rack, a very specific traffic control, etc. The only real guidelines are a reasonable proposal and a clear community need. So, send us your ideas.
We hope to make a submission in Spring 2020. No funding is guaranteed, but it’s worth the effort.

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