San Francisco Apartment Association

Planning Ahead

Adding Garages to Residential Homes

by M. Brett Gladstone

The San Francisco Planning Department has announced stricter procedures for creating garages in residential structures, particularly in historic buildings. This article will cover Planning Department rules, not the rules of the Department of Building Inspection or the Department of Public Works.

A “historic building” includes all city landmarks and buildings constructed on or before 1913 that appear to be of either historic or architectural merit. While most are on existing historic surveys, Planning reserves the right to designate any building over 50 years old as “historic,” even if it’s not on a survey list. The tool Planning is using to undertake this review is Section 15331 of the California Environmental Quality Act guidelines. Changes to a façade will be reviewed under the National Park Service Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties.

New Criteria Added
Planning will review permit applications with an eye toward maintaining historic features. To do this Planning will subject an application to the following guidelines:

  • 1. Can the building’s new proposed height be reduced, or its removal of historic features be reduced, by extending the driveway onto the sidewalk? This will require a Minor Encroachment Permit from DPW under Section 723.2 of the Public Works Code. Raising a historic building to insert a garage opening will be strongly discouraged when to do so could render the building ineligible for the California or National Register.
  • 2. Is all detailing (including garage doors and their surrounds and decorative features) compatible with the building’s architectural features, without creating a false sense of history?
  • 3. Can garage openings be inserted on the side of the building or the rear since they often have fewer interesting architectural features?
  • 4. Has the width of the curb cut and garage door been made the smallest width absolutely necessary while still meeting the requirements for such in the Building and Planning Codes?
  • 5. Has the total width of the curb cut been restricted to 10 feet or less? If it has not, certain waivers of this rule are obtainable where an applicant can show that there are special circumstances, such as site or street constraints, or the inability to create a deeper garage in the building when two or more spaces are being created.
  • 6. Does the permit fail to show trees of similar trunk diameter and canopy size replacing those to be cut?
  • 7. Are the new curb cuts or garages located along streets with MUNI lines or high vehicular traffic? Would they affect transit stops, bicycle path designations or primary pedestrian streets?
  • 8. Has the garage been designed so as not to project out from the front façade? If not, it may still be allowed if the garage is in the front yard of a steeply sloping lot or in a retaining wall.

Failure to meet any of these criteria could result in an over-the-counter denial. If that occurs, the permit would require further Planning review. If almost any exterior dimension of the structure is to be increased, the Planning Department would send notification to the neighbors and the neighborhood association that members of the public have a 30-day right to request a denial of the permit during a Discretionary Review hearing before the Planning Commission hearing.

Environmental Review
If a building is deemed a historic resource, the Planning Department would require the submission of an Environmental Evaluation by the applicant, accompanied by detailed historic research about the age of the building, its architect, and even historic events that have occurred in the building. Often, this research is difficult and an applicant would hire a “historic resource consultant” to undertake it. Depending on the level of historic resources Planning preservation specialists determine for the building, and whether the proposed work is consistent with the Secretary of the Interior guidelines, the garage work could trigger an exemption from environmental review (which would take about a month), a Negative Declaration (3-6 months) or a rarely required Environmental Impact Report (6-14 months).

Over-the-Counter Permits
One should attempt to seek approval of the proposal at the Planning Information Counter. PIC staff will make an initial determination as to whether the property is a “historic resource” or a potential one. Even if a building is not deemed historic, the proposal must still meet certain other rules if it is to be approved over the counter. These rules are stated in the Residential Design Guidelines, the Planning Code and General Plan, and include the following:

  • 1. Are garage door design and materials compatible with the existing building and surrounding neighborhood character?
  • 2. Can one show that a greater number of curb parking spaces can be retained by shifting the garage door elsewhere on the building’s frontage?
  • 3. Could existing street trees adjacent to the property remain if the garage door and/or curb cut are shifted elsewhere on the building’s frontage? By the way, any street tree removal would disqualify the permit from over-the-counter review and would trigger the need for a Street Tree Removal Permit from DPW.
  • 4. Could certain special trees within the lot defined as “Significant Trees” under Section 810A of the Public Works Code remain if the garage and/or curb-cut was shifted elsewhere on the building’s frontage? A Significant Tree is one within 10 feet of the front property line that meets at least one of the following criteria: a diameter at breast height in excess of 1 foot, a height in excess of 20 feet or a canopy in excess of 15 feet.

Before hiring an architect to prepare drawings, it is important to review these new Planning Department rules. This article summarizes most (but not all) of them. For a further explanation, please review the Zoning Administrator Bulletins 2006.1a and 2006.1b at www.ci.sf.ca.us/planning.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of SFAA or SF Apartment Magazine. The information contained in this article is general in nature. Consult the advice of an attorney for any specific problem. M. Brett Gladstone is a partner in the San Francisco real-estate law firm of Gladstone & Associates. He can be reached at 415-434-9500. Copyright © 2007 by SF Apartment Magazine. All rights reserved.