commission decide to i require approval by the board of supervisors to reclassify. among the comments, we heard primarily on the need to recirculate. the staff does not feel there is a need to recirculate here. the comments in -- show is a slight variation from what was an aized -- analyzed in the draft e.i.r. and additional information was included to stanciate the conclusions reached in the draft. there was no introduction of any new mitigation measure. the comment comment -- comment that the project would be below

significant levels rerailroad relate to the historical significance and the pornts of the booker t. washington community center, the oldest continuing -- continually operating community center providing services to the frick american community since 1918. as described in the comments and responsed findings document, the e.i.r. did not reach the objectives to the same extent. the commission would have to adopt a statement of overriding approval. at this time the staff recommends the commission certify the e.i.r. as adequate

and complete and that the project complies with ceqa. that concludes my remarks. i will be available for questions should you have any. president olague: thank you. commissioner antonini? commissioner antonini: thank you. a couple of things were raised. staff, correct me if i'm wrong but the time allowed for the comment period was consistent with what hef -- we have had on environmental impact reports and it's not reasonable to recirculate. >> and a 40-day comment period is quint -- consistent with state law and practice. antonini antonini another commentor asked about

contributions that may have come from the mayor's office of housing. i don't know that there is any problem with this or it may not be specifically for the e.i.r. but is there any kind of problem? >> i don't believe that this is necessarily germane to the e.i.r., we've prepared the analysis based on the proposal that you are considering today. antonini antonini i -- commentcomment -- commissioner antonini: i just wanted to get that clear from you if in fact it was used, the contribution, to the e.i.r., i've never heard that before. my final, i guess more of a comment, the only thing i find lacking in the environmental impact report, which i believe in my opinion is complete and accurate and should be certified is i did not see as many different views from

different vantage points as i am used to seeing. usually we see a number of different sites so we kind of get an impact where this will have an impact from different areas and we only have the one view essentially in this report so that's my only problem. 9 alternatives are here. the lower project, the, i think that's very accurately done. president olague: commissioner moore? commissioner moore: further in support of what commissioner antonini is saying, as people are saying they are concerned that the building has been refined and redesigned, that is not actually subject to -- substantive enough change. the e.i.r. in that interpretation is connect and i

do believe it covers those aspects we normally deal with. president olague: commissioner miguel? commissioner migole: move to certify. >> commissioners, before you is a motion to -- for certification of the environmental impact report. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> thank you, the e.i.r. has been certified. thank you. commissioners, you now are on items 13 a and b. you've gone back into a regular meeting. president olague: case number 2006 .0868 cektz for 800 presidio avenue. 13 a is your consideration of proposed rezoning and text

meapeds and zoning map amendments and 13 b is a request for conditional use authorization. >> good afternoon, glen creabs of the department staff. the cases before you this afternoon are a t.u., a z.u. and k.u. case for a rezoning and text amendment and zoning map amendment. the project is located at 800 presidio avenue. it is the proposed demolition of the existing facility and construction of a new facility, 55 feet tall including affordable housing, and such uses as a gym nacium and porking. the project before you requires

zoning map and text amendments and planning code text amendments. the s.u.b. legislation for your information was initially by supervisor aliote o'pier in 2008. in 2010, supervisor farrell reintroduced it with co-sponsors. this afternoon the commission will be considering an authorization for planning and development. the applicant is seeking exemption from the rear yard open space, dwelling unit and exposure parts of the planning code. in short, the staff finds that the design and contemplated uses to be consistent with the general plan and policies of the planning code particularly

with regard to the size and availability of affordable housing in the estimate this project was initially proposed as a six-story building with 110 units. the records indicate three letters in -- of concern and over 250 letters in support of a project that side. in 2007 with the application for conditional use authorization, public comment to date includes opposition from at least six individuals and a collective effort from the neighbors, particularly from the neighbors at the block and as submitted to you by steve williams. six letters from various organizations from the community in support of the project have been provided for the probably as proposed in its current form. at this time. -- at this time staff to -- would like to conclude our presentation. three motions are before you this evening or this afternoon

in your packet. the first is the for the adoption of ceqa findings, the second for the creation of the special use district for the height and density uses and last for the conditional use, the planned unit development. i would be happy to answer any questions. thank you. president olague: thank you. project sponsor? >> members of the commissioner, i'd like to let the commission know that we're going to be sharing booker t. will share 15 units -- minutes to present the project and i only have one very brief thing to say and that has to do the legislation. i'd like to direct the commission's attention that the legislation is not one that said we are increasing the height limit to 50 feet, period, but rather it is a very neutral to allow flexibility

from 40 to 55 feet so that the commission have the ability to evaluate the merit of the project in deciding how high it can go and how much density you can give. so with that comment, i would like to have paschal, who is -- pat scott, who is the director of bakhtiarizadeher t., be the next speaker. -- of booker t., be the next speaker. >> my name is pat scott. i'm the executive director of booker t. washington center. you've already heard that booker t. started in 1919, but it started in 1919 as a direct result of women that started this organization because of the blatant discrimination and jim crowism in san francisco, that soldiers and their families couldn't find services or do anything else in san francisco and from that time to

the second warled wore we were still into some of the same kind of problems and it became not just a recreation center but it became a place where people could have organized sports but as well have some social services, some education, and quite a few other things going on. so over the years it's moved. when the redevelopment came along in the fillmore, it created quite another problem and that prop was -- problem was that we had children that did not have parents to support them so we were using booker t. at that time to do after-school programs and to suplement what should have been done in families but was impac bell to do at that time. so we are still in that situation. our board of directors looked at how booker t. could work into -- our board of directors looked at how booker t. could best function into the 21st

century and decided that one of the fall -- falouts from the redevelopment in the 1960's and 1970's was that we have a lot of transitional aged youth that don't have services, that don't have anything going for them. they age out of foster care. those that are in foster care become emancipated at 18 and there are no services for them. so this is a drop in the bucket, almost a band-aid to deal with some of those issues. we're look at providing housing r -- for transitional aged youth and we have wonderful partners. we have drew schools. they use our gym during the day and provide tutors to our kids after school. we will have a san francisco bureau of youth radio, which has won the highest award in the country, the peabody award for the work that they've done with the youth in the bay area.

i just want larry to talk about this. he grew up in bookie t., -- booker t., i didn't. but he can talk a bit about what booker t. has meant to people. >> good morning, i'm a native san franciscan and native to the district. some of minimum earliest memories were back around 1962, 1963 whether i attended the center not necessarily as a participant but i got dragged along by my father who was coaching basketball there. he spent a lot of his own volunteer time coaching basketball there. it was a very important part of my youth growing up in the western addition and this project would only make that a richer environment for the residents of the district and the neighborhood now. i wanted to point out one that -- thing. it's been described as a project for african-american youth. that's true, but many of the new residents of the

neighborhood, including people of middle eastern descent, people of mix -- mexican and russian and chinese descent, are now also participants in that project -- project or in that center so it's a very, very important center not only just to that area but to the life blood of san francisco. thank you very much. plooks thank you. we still have time? you have a total of 10 minutes left. so you still have time. >> my name is steve perry. oh, i'm sorry. i thought that -- excuse me. commissioners, good afternoon. i'm jack gardner, president of the john stewart company, co-developer with the booker t. washington community center of the affordable housing component of the probably before you this afternoon. the john stewart company is a statewide developer and manager of mixed income and affordable

housing. we've been in business 33 years and currently manage over 33,000 units of mixed income housing throughout california. we will serve as the management agent for the affordable housing units upon their completion. as the largest manager of affordable housing in california, j.s. company is dedicated to the creation and preservation of affordable housing. every day we see the enormous need for safe, affordable housing for vulnerable populations such as transition aged youth. j.s. has managed several such properties around the state including weldon place in san francisco's tenderloin district, that includes 27 units for young adults aging out of foster care. in addition dour doctor during our 33 years of operation we have developed over 3,000 units

of affordable housing through construction, rehabilitation and adaptive use efforts 79 this experience has helped us to taylor -- tailor the project to the needs of the population, to manage the finished property as a welcoming project for its residents and a welcome addition to the surrounding community. there is a desire to reduce the size, but there is tremendous need for housing for transitional age use and we believe the needs justify its skate. in addition, tell -- developing more units increases our economies of scale and makes for a far more cost effective development in terms of operating costs. we have site control, a great team and a great project buff today. they all add up to an opportunity to develop greatly

needed sup isortive and affordable housing for a disadvantaged population. we should seize this opportunity to maximize the benefits of the project rather than minimize them. thank you for your consideration today. president olague: and one partner that i neglected to mention earlier was first place for youth. >> first place for youth is the agency that will provide the on-site services for the emancipated youth. alice made me sit down the [laughter] >> my name is steve perry. the architect on the -- on the project, once again. i would like to go through the -- the changes we've made regarding concerns from the community and the commission and show you what we've worked with, the planning department

with. so if i could please have on the screen -- so to begin i would like to just go back to the old design where we have a five-story building and as you turn the corner we have a full expression all the way through the rear yard and to sutter street. and in this diagram we show that after looking at the comments we went back and looked at the concerns and the analysis we did in the past and so starting with looking at the neighborhood and the blingds -- buildings around, we look at the streets first coming up. we have smaller streets come up into a larger avenue. and with this larger avenue you have larger building expressions on the east side of the building here. with these buildings, these are

residential buildings, they have a larger bolder massing expression. then on the west side of the street. we have institutional uses with the muni yard right across the street and then further to the south and to the north. we have the fire station. we have the credit union and the ucsf laurel heights. and then looking at the pattern of the streets, this image at the bottom here, this shows diagrams about the historic street with the building height ratio in san francisco, and this shows that typically there's a one to one ratio. on larger streets a one to one ratio and on smaller streets we have a one to one ratio. that's why the planning commission really likes to seek to create that urban realm. our center street where we have

a 68.9 width -- width, as i go into the design i'll show you how we've addressed that. so here are the two elevations that face presidio avenue and sutter street. so on presidio avenue we have a larger massing expression. rlt taken from the building across the street here which is stronger horizontal, broken up by vertical windows. as we come down the block the massing decreases just as it does across the street is. with this composition we have the entry in the center is, the mid part of the building and that has a vertical expression that allows us to transition to the community center. and then with this we have a base, a middle, a top that is predominant in the neighborhood. with this base, middle, and top

on the ground floor we have tile, pretty much a water course design detail at the base with plaster above. we have aluminum windows, painted aluminum windows, but with this base we actually activate the street with uses of, first the manager's office and the residential commons which you see on the other side of the street, which is pretty much a standard pattern in the neighborhood where you have large swaths of parking garages. then as we to to sutter street on the horizontal dimension, first from the property line we set back the building 10 feet and then responding to the buildings across the street we have a 50-foot width and a 50-foot width of larger buildings. we break our building down into a 43, 10-foot width and then a 30-foot width and with this we step down coming down the block

to relate to the topography of the street. with the first setback, we come back 13 foot 10, then on the setback from the rear yard we come back 15 feet nine. then with the, on the materials of the building, basically once again we have a tile water course in the bottom with plaster above and then we have aluminum panels that kind of he chloe the middle part of the building, then we have a protected canopy at the top. then for the community center with the ground floor we have windows at the street level and then windows at the rear yard, trying to pull views through the building and to the street level. and then up above, we have a channel glass system which i've brought here and i can circulate that with you in a minute.

that's -- that diffuses the light. it's a double channel system that makes a translucent appearance and it brings light into the building but it also doesn't project light. it's really a gloge element more than a projected light. -- glowing element more than a probablied light. this is the building looking from presidio avenue. you can see the changes, we're pulling back at the rear of the building here. this is a bird's-eye view looking from center street and once again the new setback we have. and we've also changed the coloration of the rear of the building to let more reflectivity into the building, into the rear yard. and this is looking up sutter street. and this is a comparison from what we had before on the right. where we had a full expression coming to the rear yard and then as we break it down now

and we create a setback of 13 feet from sutter and then the top floor is set back 15 feet from the rear yard. and then looking from a biredsie perspective from the -- bird's-eye perspective from the year yard, we have a four-tier conceptual plan, the top tier for child care, second for gardening and a third and fourth tier for general use and then -- president olague: thank you. we may have more questions during the deliberation. thank you. >> the president has determined that public comment will be for two minutes each. president olague: and i wanted to recognize members of the youth commission. i'm going to recognize them

first. they may be in the other room. tobias serrano, naomi, accompanied by mario yadida and in the mean tomb i will call some folks' names here. brad paul. donald stroh. gary brown. >> my name is brad paul. i'm here today as an individual, as a father of an 8-year-old son, and as somebody who spent 35 years wrestling with the ideas of affordable housing in neighborhood. i have a lot of sympathy for you today. but having said that i'm here to support the project as you have seen it now in its current size. i urge you not to reduce it. not nine units, not one unit. for economic reasons, design

reasons and humanitarian reasons. as jack gardner from the john stewart company said, if you reduce this at all it has tremendous impacts both on the development costs but more importantly on the operating costs over time. if you reduce it i think you also affect the design as a previous speaker showed. you go to a blocky building without the setbacks and for humanitarian reasons because you would serve nine fui -- fewer of some of the most vulnerable youth in the estimate i drove by the site the other day just to remind myself -- i've been there many times -- but it's very clear that this is not a small, little, narrow residential street. it's on a major boulevard. the buildings on both sides alon presidio are very large. across the street is the muni bus yard. but i think this design and i don't foe if -- know if you can get it on the overhead for a second, this is what i think is the most telling picture. can this go on?

right here is the current proposal. this is what the former proposal looked like. someone earlier mentioned, one of the opponents, the need for a reasonable alternative. that's the original design. it was 110 units. this is the reasonable, preferred alternative that we've been looking for and i think to change that, to reduce it by one unit would be a tragedy at this point. the people supporting this project have already compromised from 110 units to you -- to 48 units. i would not are you d.c. -- reduce it one more unit. the design will get worse. >> thank you. members of the commission on youth are here to address us at this time. >> good afternoon, commissioners. my name is ava and i'm the legislative affairs officer for the -- of the san francisco youth commission, a body of 17 12 to 22-year-olds charged by the city charter with advising the mayor and board of

supervisors on issues affecting our population. in 2005 after noticing a severe lack of housing for -- affordable housing for transitional age youth we did exactly that. we recommended that the mayor ordain a task force on this legislation. i repeat this history which the members of this commission are likely already aware of with the goal of reminding everyone here today that the needs of housing for youth who have just left the city's public services remains great. should should -- this project as well as all of president other housing projects in -- commurnt -- currently in the pipeline all get built we'll still be only at 119 units, just over one fifth of the recommended amounts by 2015. timely i'd like to emphasize the task force came up with 16 recommendations to protect this population, so wile we focus on

just one of them here today, it's important to keep in mind exactly how in need of government assistant -- assistance this population actually is. so please approve the plan you saw five years ago. thank you. >> thank you. my name is naomi and i'm the community outreach officer on the youth commission. i'm a senior at st. ignatius high school and as a youth representative in city hall we, the youth commission, are charged with, like my colleague ava said, with address the unmet needs of the san francisco youth. and as our history points out, the youth commission has consistently advocated for care and oversight of some of the city's most at-risk and vulnerable members, the