New Procedures for Adding Garages to Residential Homes

The Planning Department (“Planning”) has just announced stricter procedures for creating garages in residential structures, particularly in historic buildings. This article covers Planning Department rules and it does not cover the rules of the Department of Building Inspection (DBI) or the Department of Public Works (DPW).

An “historic building” includes as 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 without its being on a survey list. The tool Planning is using to undertake this review is Section 15331 of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines. Changes to a facade 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 to maintain historic features. To do this Planning will subject an application to the following guidelines:

  • Can the building’s new proposed height be reduced, or its removal of historic features be reduced, by extending the driveway onto the sideway? This will require a Minor Encroachment Permit from Department of Public Works 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.
  • 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?
  • Can garage openings be inserted on the side of the building or the rear since they often have fewer interesting architectural features?
  • 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?
  • 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.
  • Does the permit fail to show trees of similar caliper and canopy size replacing those to be cut?
  • Are the new curb cuts or garages located along streets with MUNI lines or high vehicular traffic, or would they affect transit stops, bicycle path designations or primary pedestrian streets?
  • 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 (including just raising the height of the building to accommodate a new garage underneath) 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 an 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 an “historic resource consultant” to undertake it. Depending on the level of historic resources it is found to be by Planning preservation specialists, and whether the proposed work is consistent with the Secretary of Interior Guidelines, the garage work could trigger an exemption from environmental review (which would take about a month) or a Negative Declaration (3-6 months), or a rarely required Environmental Impact Report (6-14 months).

Initial Determination of Whether a Proposal Can Be Issued Over the Counter, and the Amount of Time of Review if the Permit Cannot Be Issued Over the Counter.
One should attempt to seek approval of the proposal at the Planning Information Counter (“PIC”). 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 can be approved over the counter. These rules are stated in the Residential Design Guidelines and the Planning Code and General Plan, and include the following:

  • Are garage door design and materials compatible with the existing building and surrounding neighborhood character?
  • 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?
  • Could existing street trees adjacent to the property remain if the garage door and/or curb cut was 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.
  • 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 and which meets at least one of the following criteria.
    • (a) a diameter at breast height in excess of one foot
    (b) a height in excess of 20 feet or
    (c) a canopy in excess of 15 feet.

Conclusion
Before hiring an architect to prepare drawings, it is important to review these new rules. This article summarizes most (but not all) these rules. For a further explanation, you may review the Zoning Administrator Bulletins 2006.1a and 2006.1b at http://www.ci.sf.ca.us/planning. You should also review pages 35-37 of the Residential Design Guidelines.

M. Brett Gladstone
www.gladstoneassociates.com