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 »

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 »

Illegally converted into a cannabis grow house early last year, with unpermitted electrical work and construction, a formal request “to convert” the former Bay Area Ironworks Suppliers building at 1440 Egbert Avenue, across from Laughing Monk Brewing in Bayview, into a “cannabis cultivation and packaging facility” have been drafted... Read More »

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... Read More »

With the master lease to the San Francisco Art Institute, which had been using the building for student housing, having expired last year, and 52 of the 54 units, 27 of which had private bathrooms, having been delivered vacant, the former Abby Hotel at 630 Geary Street traded for... Read More »

Purchased as a “grand and totally vacant” 2-unit building, “with ample opportunity for expansion and renovation in a prime Presidio Heights location,” for $3.95 million in October of 2019, a permit for an “in kind only” and non-structural renovation of the 4,165-square-foot Victorian at 3665 Clay Street was approved... Read More »

As we outlined back in February: With the project team having successfully secured forgiveness for the under-permitted redevelopment of their rather spectacularly “reimagined” home at 3847-3849 18th Street at the end of last year, the property recently returned to the market with a newly reduced list price of $8.5... Read More »

Purchased for $1.485 million in April of 2015, plans to “reconfigure,” remodel and expand the vacant two-unit building at 1369-1371 Sanchez Street were submitted to Planning and approved. Based upon the set of plans which was submitted to Planning, a building permit for the project was issued in September... Read More »

As we first reported back in 2018: San Francisco’s City Attorney, Dennis Herrera, has just filed suit against construction engineering firm Santos & Urrutia Associates, its principals and several clients and contractors over “an elaborate scheme” to excavate and expand under multiple San Francisco homes without securing proper permits... Read More »

With the project team having successfully secured forgiveness for the under-permitted redevelopment of their rather spectacularly “reimagined” home at 3847-3849 18th Street at the end of last year, the property recently returned to the market with a newly reduced list price of $8.5 million, down $900K from its previous... Read More »