tourists. this seems pretty good for pedestrians. it is impossible for cabdrivers which is a major transit use. the biggest consternation is the fact elimination of vehicle lanes is not stopped the constant constant double parking for loading and unloading of commercial vehicles. those of you who know manhattan, much of the area we are talking about is along broadway. there are deliveries anywhere from two in the morning until 2:00 the next morning. the throughput that has been acclaimed by a the new york

transit authority. this is a very interesting experiment. the plazas are well used. the bike lanes are much more used. this seems to be more bikers or least they are more apparent. >> i have met with the project's sponsors and spoke with a couple of the d.r. requesters. >> mr. president, i have been informed that the city attorney

has obtained the signatures needed for item number five. >> [inaudible] >> second. >> is any public comment >> item 5? >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> we are now at directors report, directors announcements. >> welcome back from break. i guess the only thing have to do is look could be barred from the summer hiatus.

fall is already coming on with a vengeance. it is pretty intense for the next few weeks will be will be best to balance the calendar in the coming months. >> thank you. >> item number7 is the review of the past week's events of the board of supervisors, board of appeals, and historic preservation commission. >> of afternoon, commissioners. at the land use committee, they heard an ordinance that would amend the tdr controls in general. also this would amend the controls for the city parcel at old st. mary's church. this ordinance would further amend the general plan and this zoning map. the property would be rezoned from china talent retail to

office. the plant code amendment would add a clause that any individual land york -- landmark located within the c- three district to transfer their rights to any property within the district except within redevelopment agency controlled areas. it would also add that -- a clause that would require a property owner to use the money to fix any outstanding violations or severe maintenance issues and provide the zoning in administrator for upkeep of the facility. the historic preservation commission consider this ordinance on june 2nd and recommended approval. this monday, the board president voted to recommend this to the full board of

supervisors. on tuesday, they finally passed the reading that would amend the castro controls to allow most russia wants to be permitted with a conditional use authorization. the board also gave the city authorization to apply for a grant focusing on the gaming and storm water features for the cesar chavez redesign project. this is a grant we are pursuing. we have been extremely successful in augmenting our services. the department has applied for and received funding for more than four million dollars worth

of grants. the full board herridge that the development a key stimulation -- the development legislation. we are going to study the infrastructure districts. the other resolution would apply to the committee facility districts and at this july hearing, you recommended approval. to date, only the maximum resolution as been heard at the full board. we ask for the committee and the long-term effects from the general fund. the committee should analyze the potential fiscal impact to the general fund and there are some minor modifications and this week fell whole board adopted

it. we also had two appeals before the full board, one was an appeal for city place. the other was the appeal of a conditional use authorization. this is authorized by the signatures of four members of the border supervisor's. maybe you can -- you consider this on july 8th. at that time, we recommended approval of the form of a retail. at the hearing, the appellants concern was the approval of independent pet stores. the initial vote to approve your decision failed on a vote of 4- 7. the board would have needed six votes in order to appeal the

decision. they would have needed a super majority to overturn your decision. the board unanimously voted to table the item and by tabling the appeal, your conditional use authorization stands. you are approved the environmental impact report on august 31st of this year. this consists of the demolition of three buildings and retail based shopping. the primary issues were with traffic and pedestrian concerns and preservation of the theater. prior to the hearing, the developer agreed to provide additional funding at a rate of 20 cents per vehicle and to work with the department on revising the design. at the hearing, the board voted

to uphold the environmental impact report. the mayor introduced an ordinance that would establish a policy requiring the city departments to make data available to the public. the building commission introduced a host of ordnances. an ordinance was introduced that would amend the planning code which would add a section in the presidio special use district.

also the acting is on the administrator as the main to convey the there was nothing at the board of appeals this week but last week -- did an excellent job of defending the variants. >> i pretty much know the answer but for the benefit the public, if there is a matter before the supervisors in regards to an appeal of an environmental document, six votes would except the appeal. is that correct? if this is to overturn a conditional use, this would require a supermajority. >> ok, thank you. >> thank you.

>> historic preservation commission did meet yesterday and before them was the ada complaint rams for the board changers. it will go on in whatever other actions that they have to. they have continuing discussions. and i will say that there was the possibility of special meetings so that they can move these along at different dates. they have decided that they would like to have one special hearing for all day so that they can finally get through it.

they are in agreement and having a joint hearing with you including the subject on the 21st. >> commissioners, with that, we can move on to item 8 and your calendar. >> good afternoon president miguel, members of the commission. it is a long time.

excuse me if i fumble with mining and familiarity. there is an update on the planning department. it was 12 was to go that the director asked me to engage with the community. you asked the community to began following their hearing on most of a year ago of better planning for japan town. starting 12 weeks ago, i was familiar with japan town.

all the work that had been done by department, there are efforts to get that plan before you. we a lot about the social and environment -- social and physical environment. six weeks ago we were at a meeting here that was attended by two commissioners and it supervisor mirkarimi.

we have been looking at the committee structure. we have been working with him to his effort to provide some additional funding. one of these warrants a significant attention from us and respect for the community in the effort that they have made. they have embarked on a very ambitious schedule. they were not aware of any

finding work continued planning support and the review of the better neighborhood plan. basically i was assigned to work with the community on that. we are looking to deal with the community in meaningful ways. it is very exciting to me to report with the progress that we have made in the past few weeks. the first is the most important and the planning department is now providing additional staff

support to the committee's review of the better neighborhoods plan. through the efforts of supervisor mirkarimi, we received funding to engage with consultants and trying to maintain the traditional cultural integrity. we're still exploring a means to that end. we have request additional funding to two specific projects. we should also direct of reach to those organizations and

seniors of a spiritual nature and those kinds of groups that meet regularly. we also received word -- word earlier this week that the ford foundation -- for a foundation for a means to maintain the cultural integrity and viability of japan town as a vibrant and thriving community. as commissioner miguel mentioned earlier, we met with the san francisco heritage. through their partners in the field program, we have also been identified and they will be focusing their attention in that partners in the field program.

i have been able to work with one of the cochairs of the economic development in japan center committee reviewing the plan. we have been successful in obtaining additional student help. we have a project timeline which is a tasked to the end of the memo.

there are established by laws for them to change, modify, to add to the better neighborhoods plan. i basically went to the members of the community and said that my paranormal abilities are very limited. we are in the process of both trying to greengage with the traditional steering committee and adding to that so it broadens its base in terms of community representation and to give them a basis for giving the planning department clear and explicit directions on how to add, modify, or change the better neighborhood plan that was presented to you just over a year ago. there are four working

committees that have been established. they took the plan and they took chapters. there are four committees, one that works largely on heritage issues, another that works on economic development, japan center issues that are mentioned. also land use and the public realm is the concern of a steering committee that will meet later this month.

we would like to achieve the preservation of the cultural integrity of japan town. rather than go into each of the activities of the committee that i ever tried to provide an explanation of in the memo. each one of the committees will submit a report on their activities to you. we do have with us today the cochairs of the economic development and -- center committee. we also have one of the cochairs of the land use committee. without me stealing any of their thunder, i would like to invite them to come to the podium and offer any insights or updates

that might or might not be in the memo. we have been making daily progress on the review of the better neighborhoods plan. i will be here for any questions if you have any. >> thank you. >> i am bob, duty -- i am bob tamaguchi. i don't want to co into the steps of the committee work so far. we are working diligently to review the various recommendations in the draft plan and we are also finding that there is very much interested in many alternatives to those recommendations. i think that he will see that this will have some significant changes by the time we are finished.

i think that there are lots of changes but it will be much more coherent and give us a better direction. i want to take the time to thank all of you for your support. also the supervisor. we have been able to leverage your commitment into other funding to support our need for consulting work to be done on different aspects of this. it worked very well. we are very blessed to have paul working with us. his enthusiasm and experience shows very quickly. i am looking forward to working

with him and am confident that he will get to the finish line. >> good afternoon, commissioners. and i and the jobs representative. i would also like to think the commissioner and a director and also supervisor mirkarimi. i see a new opportunity for us. i am fearful that japan town

does not become one such as sacramento which is nonexistent or seattle which is non existent. thank you for the opportunities. >> thank you. >> president miguel, commissioners, thank you again. we are truly pleased with the progress that is being made and really the assistance of -- has been invaluable. he has been opening our eyes to new possibilities. he has been pushing us along nicely to really come up with some concrete ideas and recommendations and we have been having some very exchanges both

with committee members and with mr. lord about how we built from the base of the traffic. -- of the draft. this is what the committee had in mind when we came to and we needed to get people's opinions because people were waiting to see something in print to response to. we're getting all kinds of reactions but we are now working in our subcommittee on creating some pretty concrete recommendations. mr. lord has been a tremendous resource and helping to find as the nation's and keeping us on

track and that has been very important and i think will results in a very good and very detailed plan that will carry japan town forward so we thank you for the assignment and your support and look forward to coming back to you with more details. for the land use committee, we have one change of time in our upcoming schedules on october 7th and we will begin our meeting at 7:00 due to availability otherwise we need to every thursday of the month. thank you, we hope that you'll be able to come to our community or so committee buildings.

>> is there further public comment on this item? >> if not, public comment is closed. >> i have been able to attend a couple of meetings and with the addition of mr. lord, i think that things are going quite swimmingly but from what i hear, things are moving along fairly well. on the cultural heritage part of a better neighborhood plan effort, just to extend on what mr. lord presented, he did mention support for the natural trust for historic preservation. that came in the form of a brand