Having been flagged for the addition of an unpermitted in-law unit back in early 2015, the Excelsior District home at 68 Vienna Street hit the market in July of 2015, listed as a “fully remodeled” four-bedroom home with a “separate entrance” to the two bedrooms, two baths and big “laundry room” on the home’s first floor. And with the illegal second kitchen having been removed from the unit by way of a permit, the home sold for $865,000 that August.

But the aforementioned illegal kitchen on the home’s first floor appears to have reapparated at some point after its removal was completed and inspected.

And having recently been flagged anew, likely on account of the lower unit having generated a complaint for having been illegally listed as a short-term rental on airbnb, a notice of violation for the illegal use and re-construction has been issued anew but a request for an inspection by the City has yet to be acknowledged by the homeowners.

8 thoughts on “The Curious Case of the Reapparating Kitchen”
  1. A reapparating kitchen plus the fact that this half-block of Vienna is invisible on Google Street View…maybe us muggles shouldn’t probe too closely into what is going on here.

  2. I have questions…

    – Is removing an illegal kitchen as simple as removing the stove? Fridge, sink, cabinets, microwave can stay, right?

    – Anyone have insights as to how to legally subdivide a condo into two condos if an existing second kitchen already exists?

    – Any word on whether SF will lower its ceiling height min from 7’6” to 7’0”, which is the state standard? Oakland recently moved from 7’6 to 7’0.

    1. For the sake of tall people please do not lower the minimum ceiling height. I can see going lower for limited exceptional retrofit cases, but not as the norm. And especially not for new construction.

      1. a 7′ celling sounds like a nightmare. Standard door height is 6’7″ so look at your current doorway and picture your ceiling being 5 inches higher than that…

    2. Subdividing a condo sounds like a nightmare in SF, plus you’d need all other owners approval, and remap the entire property etc. Sounds like a very expensive and lengthy proposition.

  3. Listing it as an Airbnb isn’t great (also who’s staying in Airbnbs during the pandemic??) but it’s so dumb that the City doesn’t just allow subdivisions. We need more housing desperately. Dividing the house, subject to building code, and renting the additional unit out to a rent-controlled tenant should just be legal.

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