Tonight San Francisco attorney Anna Shimko and Burlingame Community Development Director Bill Meeker delivered a tag-team tutorial on historic property law and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to the Planning Commission and about 50 spectators in City Hall.  Using a 21 slide Powerpoint deck that will be available on the city web site, Ms. Shimko walked the Commissioners through the definition of a historic resource and made recommendations on how Burlingame could move to bring clarity to property owners and buyers going forward.

The changing of the guard from former City Planner Meg Monroe to Bill Meeker could not have been starker as Meeker fielded question after question with a level of expertise that has seldom been seen in Burlingame chambers.  His responses on discretionary approval, best practices in managing architectural historians and how Burlingame’s design review process will contribute to easing the issue at hand were crisp and to the point.

Ms. Shimko reiterated several points through the presentation.  Among the recurring points were that this issue is not unique to Burlingame since it is driven by state law, that the finding of historicity (a real word, look it up) is evidence-based but CEQA has many subjective aspects to it and that an historic resource list should not be done “half-way”.

This led to a motion by the two real estate agents on the Commission (Tim Auran seconded by Dave Cauchi) to recommend to the City Council that an historic inventory of the Burlingame Park neighborhood be undertaken as a first step.  Frequent readers of this blog will recognize this idea from the last City Council debate where it was not universally accepted as a good way forward.  But the City Council will change on December 7th and most of the new Council was present to hear the two hour session tonight.  Tonight’s motion passed 7-0.

Councilman-elect Michael Brownrigg made several key points including asking about the modernist Eichlers that cluster around Cuernavaca park as an example of architectural significance.  He also suggested that the Burlingame public have input into what is and isn’t historic in town rather than relying on an out-of-town consultant and statewide standards.

Commissioner Sandra Yie also acquitted herself well by asking that the city enumerate the benefits of historic designation—a sentiment echoed by number residents during the public comment segment.  Yie also questioned how the historic report on 1540 Newlands Ave. could be valid if it did not include the Burlingame Park neighborhood’s historic value.  There will be plenty of time to consider that question, but given that the adjacent San Mateo Park is zoned 1A for “additional” due to its uniqueness this should be an interesting study all around.

Here’s attorney Anna Shimko addressing the Planning Commission with Councilmember-elect Michael Brownrigg on stage left.