are some hotels that are not successful in their current condition and might be better converted to student housing. i think the ordinance or rules already permit them to apply for a lottery for conversion to condo. why should we prohibit student housing as a use for that? we think it does not displace anybody, err on the side of making it more livable. we took the question of affordability seriously. it should provide a significant fraction of the housing to income-eligible need-based students, but what i keep hearing from the schools, and what i hope you will hear from them themselves, is how many of their students are already receiving financial aid. it ranges from 60% to 80% of the students already get financial aid. we would like for the schools themselves to define who is income eligible or who needs

it, and for them to make the determination themselves, based on fafsa, federal requirements, and state requirements. some schools also use private need-based scholarships, and that should be eligible to. -- eligible too. we would like to see clear incentives for this. put the weight of the city behind this, that says this is a policy area we want to encourage, we want to make successful, and let it go. maybe sunset it in several years and see how it has performed and how it has worked. we think one thing is certain, having talked to all of our community. if the city puts lots of requirements on it are figures out how actions or fees will be part of this -- we should not give this away, we should get something for it. if fees and actions are put on it, and rules and restrictions, we do not believe it will be successful. it will add uncertainty and risk

to the project. that would be the city's way of saying we are happy to let craigslist be the de facto housing policy. housing will not be built in this type because it will be seen as a tea 00 risky. we will continue to have what we have now, which is not good. this would be a win for schools, students, and the city. i want it to be enforceable. no sneaking out. we come back in a few years and it is market rate housing? not intended for what it is designed. we hope the nsr and the hammer of needed inclusion very fees is something that will make this work. -- needed inclusionary these is something that will make this work. we would like to see multi- institutional use. small schools could band together around a building built

by an entity and master lease. but the tech market risk for 50, 80, 100 units, or a few floors. several institutions could participate in something like this. they could pull it off. think of their neighborhoods in the city not far from here, which are crying out for uses like that to bring students in. these are transit first citizens of would enliven a neighborhood, neighborhoods that could use it. and we think it absolutely would benefit the city. i would urge you in doing this to err on the side of making it easy to start doing it and get it going in a hurry to build the maximum possible, and then evaluate later on how successful it was. thank you very much. president miguel: thank you. james hass, david merkel, david stuart. >> i am jim hass.

in the many years i have been involved with civic center, the issue of student housing has come up often. there are institutions in the area that have students that need housing. because of the nation -- the nature of civic center, there are other institutions that have looked at this as a good place to put housing. there are major difficulties with this. i got was involved with it. at one point, i wrote an article which was published in "the business times," which i will give to your clark, that talks about this. it is a real problem, and it is not just the effect of students on the regular stock of housing. it is the effect of the students. i met a student who lived for a semester in his car because he could not find housing in the bernasl market. it was really tight. people are -- the people who are going to build this house in our private entities.

the major universities can do it, but the smaller ones do not have the institutional resources to do it. you have to understand that. secondly, there has to be an agreement between the institutions and the private developer, and in most cases the institutions want the private developer to take the risk of building and operating it. you have to understand that. tim made the point about the multi-jurisdiction multi- institution problems, where one developer would team up with three or four smaller ones and bring them together. the point i want to make is these guidelines seem to be flexible enough to take into account student amenities. some institutions need housing for young disputants, undergraduates, and they may want to build as part of the educational facilities for faculty or graduates students or what not. you need to be flexible enough so that those kinds of things can be built. thank you.

>> thank you, commissioners. i am the director of research and planning at california college of the arts, located in the showplace square neighborhood. we are a nonprofit, independent college of art and design, founded in the aftermath of the great fire. although we have an international reputation, we are not a large college. at 1860 students, we are smaller than many of this city papyrus scrolls. , innovative economies are fueled but intellectual capital. -- we are smaller than many of the city's high schools. as you know, innovative economies are fuelled by intellectual capital. colleges and universities need

to attract the best tunes from across the nation and around the world to pursue their locations. we are not competing with each other for students. our competition is outside the bay area. wheat compete regularly with the art institution of chicago and private institution in brooklyn, both of which can add -- we compete regularly with the art institution of chicago and pratt instutition in brooklyn, both of which can offer affordable housing. you have already heard about the craigslist problem, where we think 40,000 students are hitting each fall. these functions should be able to coexist and floors together -- student housing and permanent residents. you have already heard about the situation in boston.

there is a super door in chicago. there are plenty of examples of winning conditions. this city needs college and university students. the work in bookstores, they played music in coffeehouses. they interned at design firms, and a renewed the intellectual energy of a city like ours. the compost, the recycle, the volunteer like crazy. -- they compost, they recycle, they volunteer like crazy. then they go and work at places like aub = zinga, google. since we are struggling to provide education at an affordable level for these students, we cannot create housing in a way that generates a positive cash flow on the backs of these students. 80% of our students are on need- based financial aid.

we instead have to subsidize the housing as a form of financial aid. with that in mind, you can see why no developer is rushing in to create student housing in san francisco, and with the current inclusion requirements why we cannot provide them ourselves. we urge you to approve the amendments related to the planning code, ensuring that san francisco nonprofit colleges like us can remain competitive in attracting the best and the breakfast to add to the creative capital of this city. -- the best and the brightest to add to the creative capital of the city. thank you. president miguel: thank you. >> good afternoon. my name is david seward. i am the cfo at university of california hastings college of law. we are a public institution. i am here to speak to the benefits and fell use that

student housing brings to communities -- benefits and values that student housing brings to communities at large. hastings is located at the nexus of the civic center and the tenderloin district, an area that has its share of charges. one of those is the relative absence of activity in the evening hours, particularly in this portion of the neighborhood. i would look at other areas of the neighborhood where there is more dynamic activity. you look at golden gate at night and it is a different scene. student housing brings activity. student housing brings young people who both study hard and play hard, who support local businesses, who bring vibrancy to communities. they volunteer like hell. they engage in social activism, political activism, and they

are low-impact residents. the typically do not bring automobiles. they support a public transit. the support small, ethnic restaurants, small businesses. -- they support small, ethnic restaurants, small businesses. we are obligated by state policy to make our entire enterprise self supporting. we are not allowed to redirect student the revenues or state appropriations to support auxiliary enterprises, and student housing is considered as such. so many of the inclusionary housing policies do not apply to the university of california, but these projects are challenging nonetheless because of the need to provide affordable housing and win 87% of the students qualify for need-based financial aid. we try to provide a high value low-cost education. given the diminishing levels of

public support, that is becoming increasingly difficult. it is vitally important that students who come to san francisco are able to participate in the intellectual community that they are paying to do, while providing that these benefits. i cannot speak highly enough of the benefits of student housing, the benefit students bring to this city and the vibrancy of its streets. i think the commission for its time. -- i think the commission for its time. -- i thank the commission for its time. >> i am jason smith from the san francisco conservatory of music. i am the associate dean for student life. i want to speak in favor of these modifications. currently, the conservatory does not have student housing, and we find it more and more a disadvantage in attracting students.

students have a desire to live near the educational facility. they want housing that is safe and affordable. that is incredibly important for their parents, when they send them away to school outside of their home town. schools for the most part have an interest in having students in living environments where there, curricular academic beads and the developmental needs of students -- where their co- curricular academic needs and the development needs of students are met, particularly younger students who are not yet ready for the rental market. i see them come into my office, very upset about what they have gone through. the school has lost a lot of control over that. we currently do not have student housing. being able to provide that is another educational element to

our program, one that is incredibly important to our young folks in a college environment. these proposed changes would encourage the development of new student housing and reduce the burden on the existing housing stock. i encourage you to approve the amendment to the planning code. president miguel: thank you. >> brad paul, speaking as an individual in support of this legislation with the changes to staff has recommended. i have a confession. when tim cullen first mention this, i said "as long as it does not apply to the academy garden." i figured they would find some way to use it against us. but on more careful reflection, it is exactly them we need to apply this to. the only way we are going to get this institution back on the straight and narrow -- it is

going to take not just regulations, fees, and penalties, but incentives as well. this is just the tool we need. this, as you recognize, is the map of the 17 areas they would like to move into. what we need to do with those regulations and incentives is to concentrate them in the transit-rich mid market area around civic center. this is where there are residential projects that could buy. there are vacant lots that could be developed. there is the great building, which recently approved as a youth hostel. that is a shaky project, given the size of it. if the academy of arts or to lease half the building for students, or some of the other institutions here today, i think it is likely they could get the financing to do that project. how would this impact the city? this is what i find fascinating. these are bus routes. you can see this great long line

out here to the star motel. that is the only thing it serves. this red line goes all the way out to fisherman's wharf for basically two buildings. if we can focus their residential and academic buildings in the transit corridor, the transit-rich market, the civic center area, you can eliminate these empty buses that are basically running buildings. i want to commend supervisor dufty and tim cullen for doing all this hard work. i think tim's reference to boston creating 10,000 units of student housing with these incentives is exactly the model we are looking for. i think we all know what -- where this can be concentrated. i have two recommendations. my only concern is that you have in here that they have to provide annual reports to the city to say they are still being used for city housing. we know in tough budget times

there are not staffed to do that. i looked to the hotels for a model of the private right of action. it is not everybody. you have to define who has that. it is nonprofits that have in their mission statement the preservation of affordable housing. there is a way to narrow it. if there were a few private institutions who could go in and read these reports, and if there is a suspicion that are breaking the law bring that to the city's attention, i think it would be helpful in making sure nobody abuses it. i think you could states some preference for this housing being on or near transit. those are my suggestions. i support the legislation and commend the people who worked on it. president miguel: thank you. >> my name is henry. students are a segment of our society that many sort of think all they can do is go out and protest. let's face it. they are the future leaders of our society, our future doctors,

lawyers, engineers, developers, innovators, and explorers. that is what they are going to provide for our city. they also need housing. there is wonderful legislation before you. i applaud supervisor dufty and the san francisco housing coalition for drafting the amendment before you, and i urge you to approve it. thank you. president miguel: is there additional public comment? >> commissioners, i am glenn loomis, director of operations for the university of san francisco, a private university in the richmond district. we are currently able to house about 2200 students, about half of our on-campus students. the rest of our students go to craigslist or live at some

distance and commute. as a university, we are very interested in our campus becoming more walk-centered, so students are able to walk to class, walk home, and not drive automobiles, or at least take transit. we very much support this legislation. we see it as a great thing. we hope you are able to pass this. thank you. president miguel: thank you. is there additional public comment? >> my name is clark. i am the dean of student affairs at the art institute of california, san francisco, not the art academy. our campus is located on the u.n. plaza. we do not currently have dedicated student housing. we do have a master lease with the property at the fillmore center to provide housing for our students.

this has probably been mentioned ok -- mentioned already today. we use apartments rented by the school or we refer them to craigslist. they are often taking low-cost, low housing -- low-income housing in the city in order to afford this. this amendment supports the creation of student housing, therefore making more housing available in a community. i fully support this legislation and the amendments. thank you. president miguel: thank you. is there additional public comment on this item? if not, public comment is closed. vice president olague: i guess we all recognize the need for student housing. we want to create that here. i guess the only questions -- i

had questions i think i just want to put on the record. my concern was on allowing the conversion of other uses by conditional use authorizations, and i know that we are prohibiting the conversion of single room occupancy hotels, but i was concerned because in the past i think that speculators will always find an out. in the past, with little work loss, where we now have -- or senior housing -- you always see speculators of use the system. -- c. speculators abuse the system. i want a little more understanding of the other uses. when we talked earlier, i mentioned i was concerned because of the industrial uses. the live-work had a serious impact on entertainment issues,

and even industrial uses. i just wanted some assurances that this type of thing would that happen here with this. i was just wondering if you could address the industrial uses. would it be offices that would be converted? what are we looking at when we talk about conversion? >> thank you. to your first point about abusing the system, and that a developer could come and say they are using it for student housing, come to see you, and do whatever they want -- unfortunately, having seen other types of exceptions, sometimes it is hard to catch those people. however, i do believe that the way this is set up, primarily because it has to have the imp trigger -- we would need that in place. if there were not qualified

academic institution, they would not be able to use this exception. we would be able to catch them through that. in terms of other uses and conversion of other uses, i think amory mention to you earlier there are other checks and balances in terms of what can or cannot be converted. those would still be in play, and this would not trust them. i think it would be a balancing test for the commission to decide whether or not the neighborhood controls allow that, and if so is this used worth the conditional use authorization. i am not sure if that answers your second part. >> it would not be allowed warehousing would not otherwise be. >> yes, thank you. vice president olague: great. it is just by the very nature of the zoning prohibited.

so there is all of this other -- >> right. all the underlying controls of zoning districts will apply. student housing can only go into areas where housing is allowed, or the conversion of housing in those districts. like the director said, eastern neighborhood does not allow conversions. vice president olague: then where would this be done? i mean, where would it be done? there is such limited -- are there any sites that have been identified? i just want to know. how would this happen? >> i have thought about that as well, and i would defer to the institutions themselves. it primarily would be allowed in the core of the city. c districts, rc districts, probably the nc districts. anywhere housing is allowed. there are some r district, but there are some limitations.

it would probably be primarily in the c districts. vice president olague: i know mo has probably been doing some work. how do they feel about it? >> i have reviewed all of this and they are in support of this. craig alderman was working closely with us for many months on this. vice president olague: i think it is really necessary. one other question i had. i guess that the imp will describe the following. you get one bad player and you get paranoid about all institutions, which is unfortunate. the question i had was the cost of the housing. the housing program itself -- sometimes -- how many students would live in each unit? i know that many student dorms are overcrowded anyway. what would those standards be that we would be using for student housing -- the quality

of life, the number of students that would be living, the amount of space peck'? would it just the group housing? >> amory rodgers, planning department staff. we have been working with zoning administrator scot sanchez. we have asked that the supervisor allow us to work with the city attorney on going through the fine grain proposal. we have a group housing sort of controls. vice president olague: great. i know that sometimes in institutions where there is -- most people are using financial aid, obviously, but i do not think there is any way of really -- i know there is some language year of qualified students in 30%, but i just note there are not any ways we could really, in other words, limit to

how we have some discretion over the amount a student would be charged for the type of -- there is just no way. i do not think we can do that. this is just me thinking out loud, i guess. i am going to move to approve it with the modifications of staff, and i would like to add -- in courage on or near transit -- encourage on or near transit. president miguel: you have a second. commissioner antonini: i have a modification i want to get into. we are primarily interested in new housing. our chief object is to incentivize the schools perhaps to get together and be able to build new houses. however, the details are going to be on what happens with conversions of existing facilities, that being housing and non-housing uses.

i would change item 3 and a lump all existing residential housing together and make it require a cu. if you prohibit things, i think it is a little broad. there may be situations where you would have run down, seismically compromised sro's or residential hotels. perhaps if the schools pulled together, they could paper that as housing and convert this into a structure that would be good for student housing. but prohibitions, you eliminate things. conditional use is, i think, a good tool. the other item was the hotels in general, large tourist and smaller tourist hotels. i would like to see that may be being done by a permitted method rather than having to go through the end ttire cu.

as was mentioned, the large tourist hotels already had to go through a whole process to be able to convert to condos, and doing the same thing for them to become student housing makes total sense. i do not think you need a cu necessarily for that. the smaller hotels, motels often, a lot of them are in a lot of trouble which uses that are less desirable at the present time. this could be a wonderful way to get them to be converted into student housing. i would like to encourage that rather then -- maybe cu might be too strict for them. the final issue is about eliminating -- i like all these other provisions. i think removing the requirement of certain income levels -- i do not know any students who have a lot of money to spend on housing. i think to analyze their housing -- their family income or anything, i