Supervisors Demand Investigation Into City's Role In Millennium Tower Debacle

Supervisors Demand Investigation Into City's Role In Millennium Tower DebaclePhoto: Ethan T./Flickr
Brittany Hopkins
Published on September 13, 2016

The sinking and tilting Millennium Tower is also a growing city political controversy, with supervisors Jane Kim and Aaron Peskin now demanding an investigation into the city's role in approving the tower in the first place. 

At a press conference at City Hall today, District 3's Peskin said that city staff members raised questions and concerns about plans for the tower long before construction began, condos were sold and construction on the Transbay Terminal (which the tower's developer, Millennium Partners, is blaming for the excessive sinking and tilting) began. 

"I believe—and I know this is a very serious allegation—that there was some level of political interference with the day-to-day duties of the individuals who are charged with making sure that buildings in this seismically prone area that we live in were not allowed to do their job,” Peskin told the crowd at the press conference, according to the San Francisco Business Times. 

Noting that the mayor's office and the Department of Building Inspection have been silent on the issue of the Millennium Tower's sinking since it was first raised last month, Peskin argued that it was time for the Board of Supervisors to get involved. 

Last month, NBC Bay Area reported that the Millennium Tower issue may have been avoided altogether, had the city paid closer attention to a previous incident in mid-2004. At that time, the head of the Department of Building Inspection ordered developers to halt construction on a 52-story tower at nearby 80 Natoma St., because of concerns of it sinking twice as far as predicted.

NBC also reported last month that the city agreed to pay Millennium Partners "for any soil settlement and the cracking caused" caused by construction on the Transbay Terminal. A legal battle over who is at fault will likely ensue; should the city be found at fault, it could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, the report stated.

Connie Chan, a legislative aide for Supervisor Peskin, says an official hearing on the Millennium Tower will be held by the board's Government Audit & Oversight committee at 10am next Thursday, Sept. 22nd, in the BoS Chamber (room 250 in City Hall).