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Upon receipt of notice of appeal it shall be the duty of the department, board, commission or person from whose decision the appeal is taken to transmit to the Board of Appeals the original application or complaint upon which the license or permit was granted, refused or revoked, and all affidavits, exhibits, letters, maps or other documents used upon the hearing before such department, board, commission or person. The application or complaint and all documents, exhibits and records forwarded therewith shall be returned to the department, board, commission or person from whose order or decision the appeal was taken, immediately after final decision by the Board of Appeals, with a statement of the decision of said Board, certified by the President or Vice-President and Secretary thereof.
(Amended by Ord. 128-97, App. 4/9/97)
(a) Court Reporter; Fees. The Board of Appeals shall designate a competent court reporter as official reporter of the Board. Except as provided in subsection (b) below, the reporter shall attend all hearings of the Board and shall take down by phonographic report all the testimony, the objections made, the rulings of the Board, and all statements and remarks made, oral instructions given by the Board and the voting on all cases heard by the Board. The fees for the reporter for reporting all of the proceedings and testimony as outlined above shall be a legal charge against the City and County of San Francisco.
When requested to do so by any party or parties in writing the official reporter must, within a reasonable time after the request has been made, transcribe such specific portions as may be requested and certify to the same as being correctly reported and transcribed. The fees for such transcription shall be at the expense of the party requesting the transcript thereof. The Board of Appeals shall approve the reporter's schedule of rates and fees for reporting and transcription services in connection with Board of Appeals' proceedings.
(b) Videotape or Audiotape of Proceedings as Administrative Record. In lieu of attendance at the hearing by a court reporter, the Board is authorized to use the Department of Telecommunications and Information Technology's Citywatch Cable Channel videotape of the Board's proceedings as the administrative record of the hearing. When requested to do so by any party or parties in writing, a copy of the videotape or such specific portions as may be requested must be provided by Citywatch within a reasonable time after the request has been made. The fee for such videotape copy shall be at the expense of the party requesting it. It shall be the burden of the party requesting the videotape to obtain at its own expense any transcription of the tape. If such a transcription is made, the party obtaining the transcription shall provide a copy to the Board for its records.
(Amended by Ord. 154-66, App. 7/6/66; Ord. 128-97, App. 4/9/97; Ord. 53-02, File No. 020319, App. 4/26/2002)
For appeals from decisions of the Planning Commission, the Zoning Administrator, the Building Inspection Commission, and the Planning and Building Departments, the following procedure shall be followed by staff to ensure that there is adequate legal advocacy on behalf of those departments in matters that involve important public policy or legal significance.
(1) Staff of the Board of Appeals shall send to the Deputy City Attorney who has been designated by the City Attorney to be counsel to the Planning Department and the Department of Building Inspection a copy of (1) the advance or draft agendas at regular intervals and the final agenda for each meeting as soon as it is prepared, (2) all Notices of Appeal within 5 working days of when they are received by the staff of the Board of Appeals; and (3) any brief submitted to the Board of Appeals immediately upon receipt by the staff of the Board of Appeals.
(2) The Zoning Administrator, Planning Department staff, and the Building Department staff member assigned to the Board of Appeals shall consult with their designated Deputy City Attorney concerning any appeals of decisions involving their respective commissions or departments.
(3) The department staff representative shall determine whether an appeal presents any issues of important public policy and the City Attorney's Office shall have the discretion to determine whether an appeal presents any issues of legal significance. The City Attorney's Office shall have the discretion to determine what level of participation by the City Attorney's Office is appropriate in order to defend the department's decision before the Board of Appeals. The applicable department will allow for the City Attorney's Office representation based on that determination.
The criteria used to make these determinations shall include, but not be limited to, whether the appeal:
(a) Challenges a decision of the Planning Commission or Building Inspection Commission;
(b) Challenges a Zoning Administrator interpretation of a provision of the Planning Code;
(c) Involves a matter that is likely to lead to litigation;
(d) Raises novel issues of law.
The services of the City Attorney's Office in advising and representing the Planning Department, including the Zoning Administrator, and Building Department in matters before the Board of Appeals shall be funded by those departments and not chargeable to the Board of Appeals.
(4) The Zoning Administrator, Planning Department staff, and the Building Department staff member assigned to the Board of Appeals shall ensure that Section 10 of the Business and Tax Regulations Code is complied with such that the complete record from the department whose decision is being appealed from shall be made available to each Commissioner at least one week before the hearing on the appeal. Any staff report that was prepared below shall be included in the packet for each hearing.
(Added by Ord. 253-06, File No. 061212, App. 10/11/2006)
Notices of hearing appeals shall be sent by the Secretary of the Board by United States mail to the appellant and all other parties interested as shown by the record of the Board at such time before the hearing as the rules of the Board may prescribe, and the certificate of the Secretary of mailing said notices shall be evidence thereof. In addition, notice of the hearing shall be sent to all owners and, to the extent practical, occupants of properties within 150 feet of the property that is the subject of the appeal in the same Assessor's Block and on the block face across from the subject property. When the subject property is a corner lot, notice shall further include all property on both block face across from the subject property, and the corner property diagonally across the street. The latest City-wide Assessor's roll for names and addresses of owners shall be used for said notice.
(Ord. 173-06, File No. 060143, App. 6-29-06)
Any person, firm, corporation, association or City and County department, board, commission or City and County official may file with the secretary of the Board of Appeals a request for notice of hearing of the appeal, and such person, firm, corporation, association, City and County department, board, commission or City and County official shall be added to the list of parties and thereafter receive notice of all proceedings before the Board as herein prescribed.
(Amended by Ord. 128-97, App. 4/9/97)
The Board of Appeals shall hear the applicant, the permit holder or other interested parties, as well as a representative of the department from whose action the appeal is taken. After said hearing and such further investigations as the Board may deem necessary, but not later than 60 days or a reasonable time after the filing with it of the first appeal, the Board may concur in the action of the department authorized to issue, transfer or revoke the permit, or may overrule the action of said department and order that the permit be granted, restored, denied, or permitted to be transferred, as the case may be.
Any immediately adjacent property owner who requested discretionary review of a permit by the Planning Commission and prevailed, in whole or in part, shall have the status of a party under this Article or the Board's rules in any appeal of the permit to the Board of Appeals by the project sponsor. Status of a party includes, but is not limited to, the right to any notices provided to parties, the right to receive service of papers filed by other parties to the appeal, equal time for an oral presentation including rebuttal time, service of the Board's decision, and the right to request a rehearing; provided, however, that if there is more than one such adjacent property owner, the Board of Appeals may, at its discretion, limit the time for oral presentation to three minutes for each adjacent property owner and a combined total of three minutes rebuttal for all adjacent property owners.
(Amended by Ord. 128-97, App. 4/9/97; Ord. 205-00, File No. 000800, App. 9/1/2000)
Wherever in Part III of the Municipal Code or in any other part of said Code there appears a requirement for a metallic badge, plate, tag or shield, the officer responsible for the issuance thereof may substitute a nonmetallic material therefor.
(Added by Ord. 509-60, App. 10/21/60)
On the filing of any application for the issuance or transfer of a permit for any purpose specified in this Section, or the filing of a notice of intention to revoke any permit, except in any case where such proposed revocation is due to the failure to pay the fee fixed by law or ordinance, the department responsible for the approval of such application, shall fix the time and place of hearing thereon, which shall be not less than 10 nor more than 20 days from the filing of said application, and shall cause to be conspicuously posted upon the premises involved in such application not less than 10 days before said public hearing, notice of such application and the time and place of hearing thereon. Said notice shall also set forth the name of the applicant and the purpose for which the application is made. The department in which the application is filed shall cause said notice to be posted. The lettering of the words in said notice, "Notice of Application for...Permit," shall be one-inch type, and all other lettering shall be one-half-inch type. After the posting of said notice the applicant shall maintain said notice as posted the required number of days.
The classes of permits referred to in this Section are: Service stations, commercial parking permits, public repair garages, public storage garages, commercial and truck garages, automobile sales garages, hospitals of any character, including hospitals for sick animals, dog kennels, places of refuge and detention, laundries including laundry delivery services doing business in San Francisco, junkyards or premises, livery stables, riding academies and riding schools, pawnbrokers, secondhand dealers, secondhand clothing dealers and secondhand furniture dealers, encounter studios, retail firearms dealers, nursing homes, day nurseries, nursery schools, play schools, kindergartens, and children's institutions, but shall not include private family boarding homes for aged or children.
(Amended by Ord. 355-85, App. 7/12/85; Ord. 219-10, File No. 100639, App. 8/12/2010)
All other applications for the issuance, transfer or revocation of permits shall be subject to action on or issuance by the department or office specified by law or ordinance; provided, however, that those classes of business or occupation required to secure quarterly or other periodical permits from the Entertainment Commission or Police, Health or Fire Departments, respectively, as provided by ordinance shall, after their original approval and issuance thereof by the department concerned, be subject to issuance by the Tax Collector for each successive period on the application of the person, firm or corporation conducting such business or occupation. The Tax Collector is hereby authorized to issue the license for the next quarter or other period fixed by law or ordinance unless:
1. The department issuing the permit files written objection with the Tax Collector to such renewal or continuance;
2. The permittee does not have a current business tax registration certificate, when such business tax registration certificate is required pursuant to Article 12 of the Business and Tax Regulations Code.
In case of any such objection by the department concerned, or when the permittee does not have a current business tax registration certificate when so required by Article 12 of the Business and Tax Regulations Code, the license applied for shall not be continued or renewed by the Tax Collector, and the applicant therefor must file application with said department for the renewal or continuance of the original permit.
The Tax Collector shall, within 45 days after the expiration of the period covered by any quarterly or other periodical permit, notify the department authorized to issue said permit of the failure of any permit holder to apply for a renewal or a continuance thereof, and shall likewise immediately notify the Chief of Police or Entertainment Commission of any delinquency on the part of any permit holder in paying the fees required by law or ordinance for such permit.
(Amended by Ord. 345-88, App. 8/4/88; Ord. 193-05, File No. 051027, App. 7/29/2005)
Any department authorized to issue, revoke or transfer permits or to act on applications for any of said purposes, may detail such members or employees of said department as are required for the investigation and inspection of applications for permits subject to issuance by said department, and for the inspection or regulation of the conduct of any business or occupation, under such permit. Any department may revoke any permit subject to issuance by said department when it shall appear that the business or calling of the person, firm, or corporation to whom it was granted is conducted in a disorderly, improper or hazardous manner, or that the place in which the business is conducted or maintained is not a proper or suitable place in which to conduct or maintain such business or calling.
The Police Commission and the Fire Commission, respectively, shall serve as advisory boards to the Chief of Police and the Chief Engineer of the Fire Department, respectively, in the hearings on permit applications, transfers and proposed revocations required by Section 22 of this Article, and each of said advisory boards shall make such recommendation to the head of the department concerned as in its judgment the facts established by any such hearing shall warrant.
(Amended by Ord. 2928, App. 10/9/44)
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