Environmental Monitoring

Overview

The San Francisco Planning Department’s Environmental Monitoring Team works with private and public project sponsors to ensure compliance with environmental monitoring and reporting requirements.

Compliance with mitigation measures is a requirement of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Environmental monitoring and reporting ensure that the environmental impacts and pollution of a project’s construction and operations are reduced to the maximum degree possible.

Topics may include, but are not limited to, cultural resources, air quality, noise, and transportation.

Example mitigation measures can include:

  • requiring clean construction equipment
  • reducing construction noise and vibration levels
  • reducing air quality impacts from industrial or other pollution generating land uses, and
  • preparing documentation of archeological or historic resources

Resources for Project Sponsors
Pre-Construction Environmental Compliance (PEC) Letter Process

Pre-Construction Environmental Compliance (PEC) Letter Process

Pre-Construction Environmental Compliance (PEC) letters are issued by SF Planning and ensure that all pre-construction environmental monitoring requirements have been put in place before construction begins.

If your project application was submitted before January 1, 2024

You do not need a PEC letter.

If you submitted a Planning Department application on or after January 1, 2024

You must get a Pre-Construction Environmental Compliance (PEC) Letter in addition to the Planning Approval Letter (PAL) which is also issued by SF Planning before applying for a building permit. The Building Department will not accept your permit application without this letter.

The following are environmental resource templates for project sponsors.

Air Quality

Archeology

Paleontology

Mitigation Spotlight: Preserving San Francisco Histories

The department has compiled visual reports associated with cultural resources mitigation monitoring. These include videos, photographs, interpretive programs, Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) reports, and more. There is also a map of compiled resources or visit the department’s Cultural Resources YouTube playlist.

Find Monitoring Details using the Property Information Map

To see if a property or project has environmental monitoring requirements, visit the San Francisco Property Information Map (PIM):

  • Begin typing an address in the search field at the top of the page – a list of pre-existing properties may appear to choose from, or you can continue entering the address – another option is to click a target location on the map below the search field:
    the home page of the Property Information Map has a search field at the very top of the page
  • After results appear, select "Environmental Information" from the column on the left.
  • If a project has environmental monitoring requirements, a case number will appear below "Projects with Monitoring Requirements" i.e., 2014-123456PRJ in the center section of the webpage – click on the case number:
    the Environmental Information section of the webpage with additional content in the center section of the page showing the Project with Monitoring Requirements case number link
  • PIM will scroll to the relevant case number and address – select the the first “MORE DETAILS” button:
    the More Details button as it appears in the project description
  • A series of additional links will appear – click “Related Documents" link under the Further Info column:
    the project profile listing a series of linked documents under Further Info and highlighting the Related Documents button
  • A popup window will appear – locate a document named Mitigation Monitoring Reporting Program (or MMRP) and click on the link to download the document:
    the related documents popup window with the MMRP document link highlighted by orange box
  • The document will download to your computer.

Filing a Complaint

To make a complaint about a possible violation of an environmental requirement, please submit an email with address and complaint details to CPC.EnvironmentalMonitoring@sfgov.org, or contact the assigned environmental planner.

Find the assigned planner

There are two ways to locate the assigned monitoring planner using the San Francisco Property Information Map (PIM):

  1. While still reviewing the subject property in PIM
    • select “Planning Applications” from the column on the left
    • in the center column locate (case number) Monitoring Conditions and Mitigation Measures (MCM)
    • the assigned environmental monitor is listed below:
      the assigned planner name appears in the center section of the webpage under the case number and address
  2. Search by case number + MCM
    • locate the case number for the subject property (i.e., 2014-123456)
    • copy the case number into the PIM search field at the top of the page
    • add MCM at the end of the case number (i.e., 2014-123456MCM) and then Enter:
      in the search field at the top of the page enter the casse number of the property then type MCM at the end of the number and then select either the results from the automated ropdown or click on the Search button

If you cannot find the monitoring planner

Please send an email with details about your concerns to the email address CPC.EnvironmentalMonitoring@sfgov.org.