being part of this project and thank you for bringing "faces" to san francisco. >> the artery project will have installations on market street until june 2011. this revitalization initiative is funded by the national endowment for the arts in an effort to transform market street into a nationally celebrated cultural district. additional projects and events will be launched throughout the year, including art and storefronts and coordinated nighttime events hosted by the gray area foundation for the arts and the luggage store gallery. to learn more about the artery project, visit sf

>> welcome to the february 9, 2011 meeting of the board of appeals. joining president goh of the other commissioners. to my left, the deputy city attorney. she will provide the board with legal and vice this evening. at the controls is the board's legal assistant. i am the executive director. in the front row, we have representatives from city departments who will speak for the board this event. on the far side is lawrence -- laurence kornfield. sitting next to him is scott sanchez, representing the planned apart -- planning department. we also have dr. johnson ojo representing the department of public health and jervis marie representing the transportation

authority. please conduct the swearing in process. >> the board requests that you turn off all phones and pagers so they will not disturb the proceedings. please carry on conversations in the hallway. the rules of presentation are as follows. permit holders and department respondents have seven minutes to report their cases in three minutes for rebuttal. people affiliated with these parties must include their comments within this time. members of the public who are not affiliated have up to three minutes each to address the board and no rebuttal. to assist the board in the akron proportion of minutes, members of the public are asked, but not required, to submit a speaker card or business card when you come up to the lectern. speaker cards are available on the left side of the podium.

the board welcomes your comments and suggestions. there are satisfaction survey forms on the left side of the podium. if you have questions about requesting a rehearing, please speak to staff during a break or after the meeting, or call the office tomorrow morning. the board office is located on mission street. this meeting is broadcast live on san francisco government television, channel 78. dvd's of this meeting are available for purchase directly from sfgtv. at this point, we will conduct our swearing in. if you intend to testify, please stand, raise your right hand and say "i do." do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you are about

to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? thank you. >> commissioners, we have to be well housekeeping matters. the first is a jurisdiction request at 2350 broadway. that matter has been withdrawn and will not be heard this evening. the other has to do with appeal six and six a. of hundred one divisadero -- 1201 divisadero street. my understanding is that the document that was to be viewed during the closed session, and the copy of the identification card, is not available. my suggestion is that we might continue this matter in order to hear it at a time when that identification card can be

viewed by the board. we would need a motion to do that. president goh: so moved. >> is there any member of the public who would like to comment on the steps -- on this? do you understand what the board has decided to do? the board has decided it would like to continue this matter. one of the issues in dispute is what the minor decoy's identification card looked like, and a copy is not yet available. the department of public health is working on that. it would need to be continued until that time. dr. ojo, do you know when that would be available? >> i am not sure when next time will be, but it should be available by then. >> our next hearing is next week, the 16th.

we can calendar it then? are you available to come next week? then the motion is to move this item to february 16. thank you. call the roll on that, please. >> we have a motion from the president to move items six and six a to february 16. on that motion -- commissioner fung: aye. vice president garcia: aye. commissioner peterson: aye. commissioner hwang: aye. >> the vote is 5-0 and the atoms are rescheduled to next week. >> thank you. same time. moving back to our regular calendar, item one, public comment. is there any member of the public who would like to speak on an item that is not on tonight's calendar?

seeing none, we will move to item two, commissioner comments and questions. commissioner peterson: i will not be here the evening of march 9. >> any other commissioners? vice president garcia: didn't i ask last week? commissioner peterson: is it the same week? i do remember. it did not make it on to that list. why don't i see what time i have to be -- it is for my daughter's school.

maybe we can do one or two hours. >> any other commissioner comments? any public comment on this item? seeing none, we will move to item three, the adoption of the minutes from january 26, 2011. president goh: if there are no comments, i move the adoption of minutes. >> is there any public comment on the minutes? seeing none, if you could call the roll. >> on that motion from president goh -- commissioner fung: aye. vice president garcia: january 8? >> february 26. commissioner peterson: aye. commissioner hwang: aye.

>> the vote is 5-0. >> item 4a has been withdrawn. we will move on to item 4b. please call that item. >> : item 4b, adoption of findings. the subject is on taravel street. it is canaan tutoring center and the chinese gospel church. the board voted 4-0 to revoke the subject permit, with adoption of findings at a later time. the permit holder is greg schoepp and the permit is for a

medical cannabis dispensary. vice president garcia: before we hear from anyone, i watched the proceedings on line. i am able to participate. >> and you. -- thank you. we can give each of the parties three minutes. i understand there is some objection to the findings as drafted. we can start with the permit holder. >> good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the board. derek st. pierre on behalf of permit holder greg schoepp and bay area compassionate health. i want to take a few minutes and address two primary issues. first of all, the city of san francisco was made a sanctuary city in 2001 for the issue of

medical canvas by the board of supervisors. the board of supervisors subsequently reiterated the fact that we are a medical cannabis century city in 2008. the issues i want to address our the issue of patient access to the western edge of the city. if i may have the overhead turned on. just for clarity's sake, although this is a 2008 document generated by the department of public health, it reflects the general dispersion of dispensaries in the city. as you can see, the book are in the south of market area. i have hand drawn and x -- an x in the sunset district. the sunset district has a population of at least 60,000 residents. we are talking about access for patients on the western edge of the city. the second issue of wanted to turn the board's attention to is

the reliance of the board of appeals on certain facts before it in making their findings. there is a fairly significant role in your findings based on the letter that was issued by former captain schmidt of the taravel police department. that letter, in and of itself, raises significant public safety issues, and says that the vicinity of mcds has increased crime. the problem i have with that letter is it was addressed at the police commission on april 28 as well as may 12. i printed the abstracts from the police commission's website of both of those meetings, and have extra copies available for the board and for them to review if they desire. the primary concern there is that the letter issued by the

then-captain of the police station raises significant concerns regarding public safety. unfortunately, those are not based on statistics or facts that were presented to the police commission. they do not bear out when that information is analyzed. if you look at the police commission abstracts, it is clear from the face of them what is going on. in this situation, i think the best thing for the board of appeals to do is to not adopt the findings in front of it and to reopen the hearing before it so you can actually analyze the corporate evidence and go forward from there. i believe you have had submitted to you a letter from police commissioner petra de jesus.

there is a member from the public that will read it to the board. commissioner peterson: i have a question. are you disputing the finding in paragraph h that there are two mcds located on the ocean avenue corridor? >> i am not disputing that are located there. there is one located at 1944 ocean. the one at 1545 is temporarily closed. there are two dispensaries on the ocean avenue corridor like to suggest, but those are fairly far away from the actual western edge of the city and taraval, where this is going to be located. commissioner peterson: they are not shown on your map are they? >> i believe they are, right here. any further questions? thank you.

>> thank you. we can hear from russell davis or another representative from the chinese gospel church. >> good evening, members of the board. i just want to state that my name is russell davis, and i represent the chinese gospel church. i want to object to the introduction of any evidence at this hearing. the simple reason we have not had our due process rights to introduce counter evidence. i also object to any hear some evidence that is going to be submitted to the board. one comment i would like to make in terms of the findings is a requested that the board specifically find that my client qualifies under 790.50a as a

recreational building and a use which provides social fraternal counseling and recreational gathering services to the community. in the findings -- excuse me? i am sorry. in the findings, the board note the permit was consistent with the intent of section 790, which is to prevent mcds from being located near facilities that primarily serve children under 18. at the hearing, mr. sanchez suggested by client qualifies under a different section of the code. there is no reason my client cannot qualify under both sections. there is nothing that would prevent that. i respectfully ask this board to find that my client qualifies under 7 90.50a -- 790.50a.

any questions? >> thank you. next, we can hear from mr. moody, the agent for canaan tutoring center. >> good evening. i would like to address the two points raised by the permit holder, access and this issue about the captain's letter. as those of you who were here or watched on line -- there was a lot of talk about access last time we were together talking about this. the fact that there is now citywide free delivery of medical cannabis i think makes this point less significant than it might have been when that business model did not exist. speaking to the point about captain schmidt's letter, we all read the paper. i do not think i am breaking any news when i tell you that since

the hearing there was an armed robbery at the mcd on geary involving a guy with an uzi and a guy with a shotgun. one of the mcds on ocean -- there was a fire. when the fire department responded, there was a gun. the effects of the matter are hazy. i suggest if you want to reopen the public safety point, you are going to find that the most recent facts are that public safety is a concern at these places. although medical cannabis is madison for those who need and use it as medicine, it is contraband for other people. it is understood with the criminal element that there is a valuable commodity and cash in these places. speaking to the point of captain schmidt's letter not being based

on statistics, captain schmidt now is chief schmidt. she wrote the letter and gave her opinion as the law enforcement officer with many years of when you look at the lt talks about the makeup of the district, who goes down that corridor, and gives her opinion about what the public safety consequence of opening this business would be. i would submit that speaks for itself. we do not ask our experts to come in and flyspeck them down, and try to drill down to a specific fact here or there. when you want an expert opinion from someone on public safety, you asked an experienced kopp. i will point out that captain schmidt, assistant chief schmidt, has not withdrawn her letter, and in no way has repudiated it. these are solid findings you can use to make your own findings in

this matter. with that, i will stop it you have any questions. >> thank you. mr. sanchez? >> good afternoon, members of the board. scott sanchez, planning department. the department maintains its support for the project and the commission's approval of the project. the department does respect this board's decision in the matter. to that extent, we would like to provide comments on the findings. the board does support the comments. we find this accurately reflects the board's decision in this matter, and that the board can make findings and rely on its decision based on its charter rights and the business and tax code, which allow this board to

have discretionary authority when considering the impact of a project in the neighborhood. i think that is what this board did. the appellant is continuing to push their argument that they are reclassifying uses in the neighborhood from religious institutions to social service uses, from personal service uses to other uses, without going through any building permit or conditional use authorization that may or may not be required. the department recommends that the board maintain the findings as proposed by the deputy city attorney and executive director. i am available for any questions. thank you. >> we can move into public comment now. can i see a show of hands of how many people are interested in speaking on this item? i will ask that people lined up on the far wall to speak.

please let us know how many minutes you would like each person to be given. president goh: going to the number of speakers we have tonight and the fact that we are looking at adoption of findings, one minute. >> each person will have one minute to speak. line up right there. move the line closer. that will save us a few minutes. we will ask that you also, if you are willing, give the legal assistant a speaker card, so that when we create the minutes will be able to do so accurately. if you have not filled one out before you speak, you can fill it out after and give it to him. please go ahead. you have one minute. >> good evening, commissioners. my name is ed breslin. i would like to read into the minutes a letter from petra

dejesus, the police commissioner that happened to be at the april 28 and may 12 police commission hearing when crime data statistics were submitted by chief gascogne. it has come to my attention upon reading the findings in this matter that the letter of captain denise schmidt has been cited as a finding of fact in determining the land use permit identified above. i write this letter as a concerned citizen. i can tell you that as the current police commission i asked the department to verify captain schmidt's statement with actual statistics. the department provided no information directly related to medical cannabis dispensaries. the department included all crime in the surrounding area. >> thank you. th