District 5 Diary: Committee hearing on CEQA Monday

Stop Attacks on Our Environmental Bill of Rights

JOIN WITH Sierra Club, Coalition For San Francisco Neighborhoods, Black Human Rights Leadership Council, Unite Here Local 2, SEIU Local 1021, San Francisco Beautiful, San Francisco Tomorrow, Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council, D-5 Action, Potrero Boosters Neighborhood Association, San Francisco Preservation Consortium, SF Ocean Edge, San Francisco Architectural Heritage, San Francisco Green Party, Center For Biological Diversity, Wild Equity Institute, Arc Ecology, Parkmerced Action Coalition, Golden Gate Park Preservation Alliance, Take Back Our Parks, Greenaction For Health & Environmental Justice, Our City, Eastern Neighborhoods United Front, Gray Panthers of San Francisco, North Mission Neighbors, San Francisco Neighborhood Network, Sunset District Neighborhood Coalition, Aquatic Park Neighbors, Hunters Point Art Gallery, Cole Valley Improvement Association, Cathedral Hill Neighbors, West Of Twin Peaks Central Council, Middle Polk Neighborhood Association, Telegraph Hill Dwellers, Miraloma Park Neighbors, Castro/Eureka Valley Neighborhood Association and many San Franciscans.

WHO HAVE all raised strong concerns about Supervisor Wiener's legislation, and have collaborated to help Supervisor Jane Kim build strong community-based legislation that will improve CEQA for everyone, while being fair to the average citizen and disadvantaged communities.

TESTIFY: Land Use Committee, Monday, April 22, 1:30 PM, City Hall Room 263

Agenda Items 1 and 2

OPPOSE Supervisor Wiener’s CEQA Legislation, which confuses the average citizen, curtails public participation and the ability of public officials to make well-informed decisions.

SUPPORT Supervisor Kim’s CEQA Legislation, which was built by a broad collaborative process. Also, support continued efforts to refine legislation to assure fairness for the average citizen and disadvantaged communities, who need a chance to see notifications, approval timelines, appeal deadlines, project modifications, and final project designs.

Sierra Club: “Defending the California Environmental Quality Act" and "CEQA Successes"

Before CEQA existed, demolitions in San Francisco’s Western Addition, Lower Fillmore and Nihonmachi were ram-rodded through with alliances of government power, business associations, developers, builders, real estate interests, public relations firms and the one percent who benefited financially. Average citizens had little recourse. In 1970 the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) offered environmentalists, neighborhoods, disadvantaged communities, ethnic minorities, cultural groups, labor and the average citizen a chance to fight bad projects and powerful special interests. Now that chance is under attack.

Regards,
Howard Wong, AIA