Pacific Heights ski jump has neighbors angrier than ever
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- Carolyn Jones, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
A promotional ski-jump contest that will begin taking over an intersection of San Francisco's Fillmore Street and surrounding blocks in Pacific Heights this afternoon will be able to use loudspeakers after all.
And residents who live near the section of the Fillmore Street hill where the jumpers will be flying Thursday -- and who objected to the issuing of city permits for the event because of the disruption it would cause and financial risk the city would face -- are angrier than before.
"I have this sense of deja vu," said Connie McCole, a Pacific Heights homeowner. "We all discussed this last week. ... So I'm not sure why it is an issue again."
Last week, the city Entertainment Commission denied the sound permit for loudspeakers and amplified music on a deadlocked 3-3 vote.
That decision influenced another city body, the Interdepartmental Staff Committee on Traffic and Transportation, which, after taking note of the fact that there wouldn't be loud announcements or music, agreed to issue a permit for the necessary street closures for the event, called Icer Air 2005.
But in an 11th-hour move that caught opponents by surprise, the Entertainment Commission on Monday scheduled a new vote on the sound permit for Tuesday evening so that a seventh commissioner who was unavailable at the previous meeting could vote on the issue. This time, it passed unanimously.
Event organizers made a few concessions to the neighborhood, however. They dropped the live music and disc jockey and moved the speakers about 50 feet away from the Vedanta Society, a Hindu temple where people pray and meditate throughout the day.
The Entertainment Commission's special meeting is unusual but legal, said Matt Dorsey, spokesman for the city attorney's office. He said there was no general city rule about deadlocked votes, so a commission can vote again on an issue if it chooses to.
The lack of a sound permit was a factor in the street-closure hearing last week. Several neighbors complained about potential noise from the event, but members of the Interdepartmental Staff Committee on Traffic and Transportation assured them that a sound permit had not been granted.
Set-up for Icer Air 2005 is scheduled to begin at noon today. Backers won approval to close Fillmore Street from Broadway to Green and Vallejo Street from Webster to Steiner from noon today to 8 p.m. Thursday.
Today, they'll build the ski jump, set up the barricades and unload 200 tons of snow. Thursday from noon to 4 p.m., Olympic skier Jonny Moseley and 20 other professional skiers and snowboarders will ski down Fillmore Street, soar off the jump at Vallejo Street, do midair stunts and land near Green Street.
In a last-ditch effort to stop the event, Pacific Heights neighbors tried to file an appeal to block it but were turned away by the Board of Appeals because street-closure permits cannot be appealed, Dorsey said.
Attorney Virginia Crisp, who's representing Pacific Heights homeowners, said the city's Interdepartmental Staff Committee on Traffic and Transportation, which issued the permit last week for Icer Air 2005, ignored several mandated city safety codes and "didn't properly evaluate Icer's ability to perform the event."
Icer Productions, based in Verdi, Nev., has not filed its list of officers or paid $200 in fees with the Nevada secretary of state's office and is listed in default, according to Scott Anderson, deputy secretary for commercial recordings for the Nevada secretary of state. Icer has until June to comply or the state will revoke its license.
Also, the company that Icer hired to remove the snow, Simon Construction of San Carlos, has a suspended license for failing to comply with an outstanding civil judgment, according to the Contractors State License Board.
E-mail Carolyn Jones at carolynjones@sfchronicle.com.
