designs joe butler presented. even in their new design, it completely blocks off our windows, which provide the only light we have to the middle of our house. in joe's design, by getting rid of the barrier and extending the light will appropriately, you can see the windows of our house. we would get a limited amount of sunlight, which would be a blessing. the second concern i have is still with the height of their building, which is still taller than our building. given the slope of the street, you can still see their building standing above our building when you are standing at the top of lloyd street. especially from the back, they have a four-story design. our house -- this is a picture of my dog -- is only 2.5 stories, at two stories with a

little bit of a peak there. theirs is going to stand above all the houses at the back. we think it still does not match the rest of the houses on the street. the neighbors example design shows that two three-bedroom two-bedroom units can easily fit in a three-story structure. three-bedroom to bath was the definition at the last hearing. that was the goal of this project. our house has only two bedrooms, which we are able to get a queen size bed in. both units in joe's proposed a three-story design have larger bedrooms than we have in our house. it would be adequate to, more than adequate for family sized housing. i support the neighbors example design or any three-story design that fits within the envelope. we are not trying to say how the

building should be built. we are just trying to show what is possible in that lot that can remain consistent with the rest of the street. i would also be willing to grant permission for any property line windows adjacent to my property if that envelope is approved. we ask that you take discretionary review and approve a three-story building permit. thank you. president miguel: thank you. any additional dr requestors? >> hello, commissioners. my name is anee. -- anne. last time i was here, i had unwieldy boards. i have learned to condense. i am a dr requestor. i represent my neighbors on scott street.

several of them are here. unfortunately, a lot of the people who were here last time -- commissioner borden can relate to this -- are out of town on business trips. if my scott street neighbors can please stand? one of them stuck upside because there are not enough seats left. here are two of the neighbors who are affected by this as well. lenore spoke last time. this is the backs of the homes that are in line with what can be seen from the new envelope the developers have come up with. this is 4749 scott. it is 1.5 stories.

the homeowners unfortunately are out sick today. but as you can see, the bottom unit moves into the hill and the upper unit has stairs leading down to the back yard. this is my unit. my building is 2.5 stories. my neighbors unit goes halfway underground. my middle floor there is in the very back of the building. there is a little room that is an office. it may have been a maid's quarters. next door -- and fortunately, mr. thompson is sick so there were not able to be there. this is the unit next door to me. again, it is two stories.

i have a hard time understanding this. granted, i am not an architect. i am an ordinary resident of san francisco for 30 years. in the developers package, they talk about respecting the nature of the neighborhood. we are a historic district. my home is considered a historic home. this is what we will be looking at. i really do not understand the size and the amount of windows that are here. it is almost all windows. i agree with chris that i do think dr should be taken. thank you very much. president miguel: is there an additional dr requestor?

>> mr. president, commissioners, my name is robert denuncio. my wife and i retired at 33 lloyd street, the property adjacent to the east of the proposed project. on 14 october last, this commission wisely and with great specificity instructed the developers and neighbors to confer on a new design that should result in two 3-bedroom units that were compatible with our small street. the planning department generously hosted meetings between the developers and the neighbors to this end. and i would like to think the department, and especially mr.

aaron starr. the developers chose to redesign the building without our input, shrinking down the height but maintaining the fourth floor. at the meeting, the developers challenged us to design a three- story building with two 3- bedroom units, saying it cannot be done. as a reminder, this is what most of the commissioners asked for. we accepted the challenge, and a great expense did just that. joe submitted a design that would be acceptable to us and follow the instructions of the commission of october 14.

in the final meeting, we suggested they build up to my property line and put the 5 foot setback on the western mind of their property. this would fulfill our request for matching the light well of 45 lloyd street and make a variants unnecessary -- variance unnecessary. i submit the three story designed by joe butler better fits our street and put quiet all opposition. i want to thank the commission for your work, and i salute you for your service. the drawing -- this is the rear of my home. as you can see, two stories over

a garage. this is the backyard overview. the original plans on file. the unilateral revision. as you can see, it is massive. and mr. butler's design on bottom. this one better shows moving the 5 foot setback to the right. the bottom drawing would show that 35 lloyd street would get light into their windows there. i would sign off if necessary for them building directly to my building nine. -- line. again, i think you for your

efforts. thank you. president miguel: speakers in favor of the dr requestors? >> good evening, members of the commission. my name is joseph butler and i represent the lloyd street neighbors. since the first hearing on october 14, we undertook to meet with the sponsors and their architect to study the issues that were of concern to your commission, specifically whether a three story building that would fit in this context could also accommodate two family- sized three-bedroom units without a variance. on this 25 by 100 foot standard

size lot, nearly flat, although in san francisco is definitely considered a flat lot, it seemed to the commission and that a it seemed to the commission that a variants was difficult to justify it. this is the 12 foot pop out at the back. without a variance, it allows a 5 foot setback. when you combine that with an equal sized light well to 45 boyd's street by marion them together -- like welt to 45 lloyd street by -- light well to 45 lloyd street by marrying them together. mr. denuncio per person on the other side of the building. we were told that they would

not produce any three-story study, nor any studies that did not require a variance. as such, the resulting schematic plans in our brief are dated december 12, 2010. they show a three story building with 9.5 ft. floors. unless you put 2 feet of structure between each of those floors, you would get many more than 7.6 foot ceiling height. the 25 feet is measured from the midpoint of the sidewalk in the street. when you go down 4 feet to the back of the law, it allows you to have a 29 foot high building. the neighbors would go to 31 feet, allowing more than 9 foot ceilings on each floor. but what the neighbors do not want and what this commission was concerned about was a four story building trying to fit into this two and three story context on lloyd street.

the fastest path to new construction jobs in san francisco is to take discretionary review, denied the variance, and allow the envelops suggested by the neighbors to be conditions of approval. the opposition will fade. the project and its approval can move expeditiously. all those who need jobs in construction can have them. thank you very much. president miguel: thank you. >> good evening, commissioners. thank you for taking the time to hear us. my name is susan miller. i need -- i live directly across from the development. i have been on the streets since

1998. i raised a doctor for 12 years there. -- i raised a doctor -- a daughter for 12 years there. you all know this well. i understand, commissioner fong, that you were not here last time. as you know, all the properties on the street are late 19th century, nearly all of them. late 19th century victorians. the street is very steep, 24 degrees. it is a one lane of two-way street. most of the units on the street are two stories over a garage or basement. you can see the hill is quite steep. i want this -- i want to pass this to you so you can look at the streetscape and see what the property's book like and noticed the slope of the street -- see

what the properties of look like and notice the slope of the street. the largest properties are on the main thoroughfares, scott and castro. there are a couple of larger properties on the block, but they are on the ends of the street. there are no roof decks or pentoses on the street itself. there is only one working roof deck on the corner of walker. it is not even on the street itself. again, as you can see, most of the properties are two stories over a basement or garage. i want to show you what kind of neighborhood support there is for this project. we have almost 140 signatures for people in the community. the blue pointers here are neighbors who signed on behalf of the dr requestors and a smaller design.

i have 20 or 30 letters from those neighbors as well, which we have submitted in our previous packets. i cannot speak for everybody, but i can say with some honesty that we respectfully request the commissioners take discretionary review. neither the plans on file nor the last revision address the commissioners' concerns, nor the neighbors' concerns. this proposal is an example of a building that would keep the character of the neighborhood and does not require a variance. we do not believe a variants is necessary on new construction. there are a few more neighbors here. we do not want to take too much of your time. president miguel: thank you. >> sue hester for the neighbors.

i want to clarify the procedural situation. you do not have plans before you that you can approve under your own decision or what we are asking >> the only plans you have are for a four story building that blocks the light on the west side of the site. eight variants -- a variance has to be granted based on criteria in the planning code. this cannot possibly meet the criteria because there is an effect of harm on the neighbor to the west. by refusing to flip the site, to flip the building, so it is at a location where the neighbor to the east has no harm and supports it and the neighbor to the west really needs the sunlight, it is an impossible situation on a variance.

you asked the developer to come back with a three story building. this is a very narrow street on the side of a hill. it goes up the slope of and one of vista -- of buena vista. you have a context that was developed in the 1800's. this is an important vacant lot. what you need to do is to give instructions on an envelope. my clients do not care how they arrange their space inside it. they can do anything they want. we support two 3-bedroom units in a three-story envelope. if you flip the building so that the masked is to the east, and reduce the height to three stories, you have people that will go away happy.

what we are not asking for is a continuation of the process, because it has been not the most functional. i do not want to call it dysfunctional, but it has not been the most functional process on this. there needs to be, we are asking -- we want the process to be over. we do not want to continue it. we want you to fix an envelope. because you do not have plans that allow you to do that envelope today, the staff is going to have to work on the design. we would ask if when the design is done that you see the plants. do not have a hearing, but see the plans. let us see the plans, obviously. get this over. we do not want to be going another year on this. but the solution is an envelope solution and the variants by

shipping it over to the east, but not another variance. president miguel: thank you. are there additional speakers in favor of the dr? >> my name is kenneth. i spoke to you last year. commissioner fong, welcome to the commission and good luck. [laughter] the picture here -- i want you to think about it in context of the last hearing. talk about burdens and the effect of the glass walls on birds. think about the picture you saw of the backyard with all the trees and plants. this invites birds. this is exactly what you were telling the department not to do in that portion. so please keep that in mind when you are redesigning this building. additionally, i wish i could support this.

that was my hope tonight, that i would be able to say what they have done meets the needs of what you have asked for. unfortunately, it does not. i do ask you to take discretionary review and make sure that they are constrained on the envelope and that they understand that if they build on the finally approved plans, the permit will be at best problematic. thank you for your time. president miguel: thank you. >> good evening, commissioners. my name is dennis turner. i live at 27 scott street. my garden is adjacent to six other gardens in the center of the block, including a few feet of the garden the developers are proposing to build on.

i have lived in that building since 1993. i want to say that even with the modifications that have been proposed, and which you have seen demonstrated in the pictures here, the building remains a four story building with a roof deck on top of it, and therefore i believe it is out of scale with the existing block. the other buildings on the block as the presently exist -- as they presently exist. i ask you to approve a building that is in keeping with the character of the existing building and the block as a whole, which is, as you know, in line to be designated as a historic district. i request that the neighbors envelope -- that you take discretionary review. president miguel: thank you.

are there additional speakers in favor of the dr? if not, project sponsor, you have a two minute rebuttal. wait, there are. >> thank you very much for your time. i want to first of all wish you a happy new year. the reason i came here is i live on 49th street, directly across the street from the building site. as i spoke to you back in october of last year, i spoke to the developers myself. they came around the neighborhood asking for support for their building. i told them i truly support a building -- a structure there. but i also need to go with what our neighbors in general want, which is a three-story building.

beyond that, we really -- since they are just there to develop and sell the property, they will be going away. i do understand in our economy that the real-estate industry is our main industry, so i want to make sure that you guys know that we do not want to stop the development of this property. but we do want someone to take concern in to our needs and what we want as people who are going to be living on beyond the year or so that they are going to be their building. we do not want to take any of their jobs away. i know contractors are here. we do not want to take jobs away. we want to build something there. thank you very much. president miguel: thank you. are there any other speakers opposed -- in favor of the dr?

ok. speakers in favor of the project? >> good evening, commissioners. my name is kevin, and i am a lawyer. i am a realtor and a mediator on the community board. i worked in the neighborhood at the office of the of our company. my best friend lives there. i always walk his dog with him in the park. i want to speak in favor of this project. one day, actually do want to live in this neighborhood. homeownership is a dream of mine. i help represent clients entering the market. i notice there are not any homes in the area that have energy efficiency, that have modern amenities.

i think there is scarcity in the market for that right now. it is also a very difficult item for neighbors to acknowledge that change is coming. i have mediated many a dispute with that happened. but the important thing to keep in mind here is that kevin is a good person. they are trying to make a living. they are trying to provide jobs for everyone else. they have gone through numerous procedural hoops and such. i feel that since they are local developers who are going to employ local contractors, some of whom are here, that the project is beneficial to people. in concept, the idea may be more intimidating than the actual product itself. but change is change, and i think this is a positive change. maybe one day, i will be able to

buy it myself. it is something i think the neighborhood needs to have in a vacant lot. it will be put to best use. thank you for your time. president miguel: thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i am the president of the haight ashbury association. i have known todd and kevin for a few years now and have worked with them on other projects. what they have consistently prevented -- presented to you in the past, as they have with this project, are good designs that really meet housing needs in our neighborhood and other neighborhoods around the city. i frankly in listening to the dr requestors feel they are disingenuous. they are basically saying they would like to micromanage this design to their specifications

at the expense of pot and kevin moving this project forward. -- of todd and kevin moving this project forward. they have been over backwards to be reasonable. there are things they have done to accommodate neighbors' concerns. keep in mind they have remained within the code for everything they are doing. there is nothing unusual about this project. i took a walk around this neighborhood recently to refresh things in my mind. i notice there is a mishmash of building styles around here. it is not all victorian or arts and crafts. it is a mishmash, including a number of '60s buildings. this is a building at the end of the block that powers by -- that tower by 30 feet over the building next door to it. there is nothing unusual about the structure.

i would ask you to work with the developer to finalize the design and get it going. get the jobs going. get money going that will result in a positive gain for housing in san francisco. that is what is important here. i think these people are within their rights. i would ask you if you have concerns about the design to talk to the department began about what their view was on how this process has moved forward until today so that you really understand what todd has been working with with the department. i urge you to ultimately approve this project. consider the benefits that far outweigh any of the concerns of the neighbors. the developer has done more than good faith effort to move forward with this project. thank you. president miguel: thank you. additional speakers in favor of the project? >> hello. president mi