Having completed a “Public Integrity Review” of the Department of Building Inspection’s (DBI’s) permitting and inspection processes, driven by a need to root out departmental fraud and a history of inappropriate activities, the Controller’s Office of San Francisco has identified the following weaknesses in the DBI’s systems, processes and... Read More »

Plans to add a new Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) to the four-unit Noe Valley building at 1475 Church Street were drawn and approved back in mid-2018. And the completed work was then inspected and approved by a Department of Building Inspection (DBI) inspector in March of 2019. Following the... Read More »

As we outlined early last year, plans to raze the shuttered Quan Bac building(s) at 4110-4116 Geary Boulevard, a perennially challenged restaurant and lounge space with a second floor residential unit, were in the works. And as envisioned by architect Derrick Wu, a modern five-story building with 16 residential... Read More »

While the former president of San Francisco’s Building Inspection Commission, Rodrigo Santos, has been indicted for bank fraud, as charged last year, the City Attorney’s investigation into permitting, inspection and contracting abuses within the Department of Building Inspection and SFPUC is still going strong. As we first reported back... Read More »

Purchased as a 3,260-square-foot, two-unit building for $3.2 million in June of 2017, plans to remodel 2742-2744 Baker Street were approved in early 2018. As approved and subsequently permitted, the building’s second story was to be split 60/40 between the two units, with what was a storage area on... Read More »

Having admitted to accepting a previously unreported loan of $180,000 from Freydoon Ghassemzadeh, whose family operates SIA Consulting and development, a San Francisco Building Inspector that signed-off on a number of SIA Consulting’s projects in San Francisco is now under investigation and has been placed on administrative leave. According... Read More »

Walter Wong, the permit expediter for the 555 Fulton Street project and head of the W. Wong Construction Company, has agreed to repay the City for $1.45 million in no-bid contracts and grants awarded to Wong and his companies by San Francisco’s Department of Public Works, the SFPUC, and... Read More »

Following a major false start by Portland-based New Seasons Market, which was aiming to open in 2018, Trader Joe’s has now formally submitted their application to build-out and operate the roughly 17,000-square-foot ground floor grocery store space at 555 Fulton Street in Hayes Valley. If approved by the City,... Read More »

As part of the widening probe and criminal investigation into San Francisco’s former Director of Public Works, Mohammed Nuru, the City Attorney’s Office has just issued 14 subpoenas related to the (waylaid) Hayes Valley development at 555 Fulton Street. Six (6) of the subpoenas were issued to companies linked... Read More »

A special meeting between San Francisco’s Planning and Building Inspection Commissions is being convened this week. The topics of discussion: How demolitions in San Francisco are defined; the rise of fraudulent building plans designed to skirt San Francisco’s Planning Code and/or the Planning Department’s approval process; and the potential... Read More »