I am appealing building permit number 201408113496 issued by the city permits office on August 12, 2014 for foundation work on the residential property at 4121 20th Street, which is immediately adjacent to my property at 4119 20th St. The proposed work digs under a 117 year old unreinforced foundation, 2 feet and places new concrete underneath as a footing in order to raise the basement ceiling level. The existing foundation at 4121 20th built in 1897 is approximately 5 feet high and is directly adjacent (less than 6 inches away from) my foundation at 4119 20th St. Structural failure due to water or earthquake of the 4121 foundation will result in substantial damage to my foundation because my property is 5 feet higher on the very steep segment of 20th St (approximately 20% grade). This appeal requests that the city permits office suspend the current permit and require reevaluation the structural integrity of the proposed work based on input from the 4121 property engineer (Antonio Prado) and a structural engineer I will have do an independent evaluation. The 4121 owner who recently purchased the property (May 2014) and is preparing it for resale has denied my request to have my engineer inspect the 4121 foundation. I request that the appeals board instruct the permit office to insist that independent engineering inspection be done before granting a new permit for the foundation work.

Here are additional details of structural issues involved.

1) The existing foundation is crumbling unreinforced concrete that is 117 years old (house built 1897). I believe this is not structurally adequate given the large drop in height across the foundation. In the preceding month workers removed newer concrete facing that prevented the foundation from crumbling.

2) At the south east corner of the foundation, the digging has already been done about 5 feet deeper than the base of the foundation. The existing foundation is supported on exposed water-saturated soil. In the preceding month worker removed newer concrete facing from the foundation and below it which was preventing this from caving in.

3) The issued permit drawing does not describe drainage. The property is on a steep hill (Liberty Hill) and has year around subsurface water flow. On the neighboring property 4119 20th St, approximately 4 feet to the east from the foundation work, water flowing down the hill is running year around in a drain visible in the 4119 basement. One house further to the east (uphill, 25 feet from the foundation of 4121) has a year-around spring with installed drainage, which can also be seen at the sidewalk access plate to be continuously running. In the past 12 years (since 2002) that I have lived at 4119 20th St, water seeping through the foundation of 4121 has been observed flowing in the 4121 basement during wet months. As mentioned in 2), the water saturated soil can be directly observed in the south east corner due to the recent removal of the facing concrete.