>> i am a resident of tenderloin for 24 years, a senior and a member of the tenderloin filipino-american community association. as a roipt and active member of the filipino community in the tenderloin i believe that the size and location of this project being built in our neighborhood will surely create negative impact to our community if not properly addressed. the traffic situation will definitely worsen due to influx of people coming in and out of the hospital, causing gridlock along van ness while turning our neighborhood streets to virtual highways. right now the traffic there is congested. how much more if the hospital is built there? the safety of the residents, especially the seniors in the streets of our community should be considered in this plan. one problem with cpmc is that

they don't want to engage the community in a productive dialogue to address our concern. what we want it -- is for this project to also serve our people. cpmc's record in serving low income people is the lowest in the city's hospital, especially medical insurance beneficiaries without me. it's not our choice to have is medical insurance and we don't want to be treated like second class citizens. how can we support this project when cpmc doesn't even engage us in a fruitful dialogue? what we want is a clear resolution of the issues raised by our community. during my talks with cpmc until now it's dragging and no result has been found. what we want is for cpmc to open its doors to the community. that's why we are still here until now. thank you very much. president olague: thank you. those are the only speaker cards we located for seniors so

we'll start calling all others. david mechanicel, bob kaplan, mark mitchell. followed by stanley seyfried. >> thank you, president olague and members of the planning commission. my name is david mechanicel. i'm the director of research and planning at the california college of the arts where i founded san francisco's first professional architecture program 25 years ago. my expertise is in city planning, urban design and architecture. in my professional opinion the cpmc architecture design and public realm improvement work is smart, sustainable and urban ifert lickly sophisticated. if it's hospital beds were transit and people are located

and does so in a way that enhances street scrapes, roof tops and solar access to surrounding properties. the long range plan places scales appropriately to the surrounding urban context to pacific heights, the triangle and district neighborhoods while concentrating the highest concentration of beds and services at the van ness and geary location where the infrastructure will best accommodate them. the van ness location used a very innovative drive -- mid block drive through and drop-off to move traffic -- remove traffic queuing from the surrounding streets is, which to my mind is the first time an urban hospital in california has integrated this into the footprint. the hospital building type is inherently inefficient with respect to energy use but filtered outside air, extensive

day lighting, natural nontoxic building materials, dwreen roofs for the people and missing suspiciousies habitats, irgration -- irrigation, storm water capture, etc., will enhance san francisco's climate commitment while healing our community. while i'm not a structural engineer i cannot help but mention the seismic improvements especially in light of the recent events -- president olague: thank you. >> thank you. >> good evening, commissioners. my name is bob kaplan. i'm a neighbor of the site of the proposed new cpmc inpatient facility and accompanying medical building. my company and i made a strategic decision to invest in the neighborhood because of its

design amick nature. i've watched the van ness corridor as building after building has closed their doors. we've seen the closing of california pizza kitchen, mercedes-benz, the market site on franklin has been closed since 2006, circuit city's space remains vacant and there has been an unsuccessful effort to attract a grocery store to the area for four years. these projects have components that go -- would have served the entire community. the stalled galaxy community though the -- theater project included a trader joe's grocery store. we believe the cpmc project will serve as an economic engine to help revitalize the entire corridor. 1,500 new construction jobs and significant newspaper services into our neighborhood. diverse services that would benefit the surrounding

community would include restaurants, health and beat. -- beauty shops, pharmacies, bake eries, card shops, and other retail uses. the 24-hour nature of the hospital will help stabilize the neighborhood and make it a safer environment for everyone who lifers and works there. the e.i.r. also addressed the unprecedented work of the blue ribbon community. the e.i.r. incorprates every recommendation of the committee. the cpmc has proven itself to be a good neighbor to the community in developing its long range plan. in closing it's vital we have a seismically secure hospital. thank you for your attention. president olague: thank you. you got it in in two minutes. that's pretty impressive. i read off four cards. i'll keep reading. john milsap, lance bayer, jason

nitutski, em -- amelia luceon. >> good evening. mark misch -- mitchell. the labor representative with the california nurses association representing the nurses at the cal campus of st. luke's and in san mateo county. one of the observations i made sitting here is in all the renderings there were no scars -- cars and i think the street scapes and placid, you know, atmosphere will actually be very different since van ness is u.s. highway 1. it is the way that i go when i go up to november ato to visit those nurses -- novato to visit those nurses and i know it does not look like that during waking hours. the other observation i wanted to make as someone who just toured the mills peninsula

which is going to open this sunday, built by sutter as -- tanned -- and has a very similar aesthetic and the state is actually considering thrage it because they put the -- put the lab and food service in a different building not built to the seismic standards not required of an acute care facility. so there's glitches. when they say there are two separate things they're actually taking parts of the things required to have an acute care hospital hand -- and putting it in the buildings not built to the standards required. the other thing i wanted to mention is perhaps the reason this building is so enormous is they may be doing the same thing they did in burlingame, turning an acute care hospital which was generally double rooms where a nurse would be walking down the haul and have two patients in a room here and here and when she's visiting a patient she's within earshot of

three other patients now sutter is going to all single rooms for the patients and the nurses stations have within -- been broken up from having a central nursing station from each unit or floor to four tiny pods and the nurses stationed at each pod may or may not be physically near the patients they're assigned so serve. the other issue is with the hospital down there which i think will be repeated is the distances the nurses and patients will have to travel for treatments and services is much, much greater and times for nurses and physicians to be at the bedside are greatly reduced because of the enormity. we urge you to look at option 3 a instead of this gargantuan proposal. >> thank you. president olague: i called a few names. if you could start coming up to the mike. >> thank you. my name is john milsap. over 10 years ago i was cpmc's executive architect for this

project. since that time i've been an independent consultant working with the california health care foundation and others. i led the best practices effort with -- and was responsible for the selection of the cathedral hill hotel site and i support rebuilding cpmc. it's important to understand the significance of this location and the new st. luke's. first is the ability to create structurally safe buildings on green field sites separate from daily operations. existing services must be ontained to -- and in the past major earthquakes have occurred around the pacific rim. it's critically important that our most vulnerable patients and the people who verve them be housed in safe buildings. this will fulfill cpmc's commitment to safety. second, the accountable care organization 0 approach

proposed by the new affordable care act locate care for the sickest patients at centralized hospitals such as van ness and geary. rather than locating food service on an interior court yard its location on van ness energizes the street scape while still providing a modicum of privacy to diners. additionally, as san francisco's second largest employer it lies on one of the best served transit corners, making it an ideal site. increased birthing services are provided in a community friendly environment. they will have the sime -- same private patient room size as van ness and geary. these two hospitals are vital to san francisco's future. a great city needs the finest in health care and i ask for their approval. thank you. president olague: thank you. >> good evening, president

olague and commissioners. my name is lance bayer and i'm a san francisco resident and i am speaking on behalf of the concordia argonaut board of directors. the concordia argonaut club is located on van ness and post directly across from the proposed hospital site and directly across from the proposed medical office building. the concordia argonaut board of directors strongly supports the proposal by cpmc to build the van ness facility. the cpmc project provides a unique opportunity for improvements in a neighborhood that is badly in need of revitalization. we are particularly impressed with the proposal for retail shops on the street level and a significant improvement over the existing cathedral hill streetscape which involves the entrances to the former parking lot of the hotel.

the plan provides for continuity of street scape that will allow for movement of pedestrian traffic and residents down van ness and throughout the neighborhood in a way that will be enhanced and most importantly cpmc has made serious efforts to listen to the concerns of concordia argonaut and the surrounding neighbors as far as our concerns. we are looking forward to having cpmc as our neighbor and i at this -- thank you very much. president olague: thank you. >> thank you, president olague and members of the planning commission, for the opportunity to speak here tonight. my name is jason and i'm the director be manning and development for the department be veterans affairs, the v.a. palo alto health system.

we encompass 10 sites of care including three inpatient facilities and seven outpatient facilities. one of our highest priorities is to provide a safe and modern environment to care for america's veterans. we plan to invest over $1.5 billion to replace buildings to ensure that in the se -- event of a seismic event safe facilities are available. hospitals must meet seismic standards. recent studies indicate there say 62% of a magnitude 6.7 or higher earthquake occurring in the bay area over the next 30 years. we must remain vigilant. i have independently concluded that this plan to replace seismically deficient aging facilities is a reasonable and

perhaps one -- once in a lifetime opportunity. this proposal in my professional opinion is a strategic road forward for cpmc. it will ensure surrounding communities have access to safe, state of the art facilities for the next 50 years. i would urge the commission to approve the proposal. president olague: the next round of cards. john can drazzio, lorenzo lestano, grassita democrat or anno and -- dem or anno and manuel eng.

>> thank you, president olague and members of the planning commission. my name is john and i am i am eye -- a health care architect and support rebuilding cpmc. my entire career has been committed to designing healing heath care environments for communities across the country including dozen of major hospitals and medical centers like catholic health care west, stanford medical center, ucsf and most recently and currently under construction, kaiser permanente oakland medical center. it is with great interest as -- and good intentions that i speak to you this evening. here's what i have learned about cpmc project and it really impresses me. i'll give three examples. number one, place. there's been a great effort in my opinion with great success in integrating buildings and neighborhoods. health care services are both inwardy focused -- inwardly

focused and outwardly focused. some can and need to embrace and enhance the community and some need to be up heard and unseen. i see a complex balance between function, design, and experience which again i believe is being addressed very nicely in this design. number two, world class. san francisco is a world class city and it deserves world class medical institutions. i know a little bit about the issue of world classes. i was appointed to the defense healed board advisory committee charged with enshiring that the new walter reed hospital is a world class clinical and physical facility. one of the physical drivers of world class is health care institution's ability to accept and even embrace change. the art and science of medicine is constantly evolving and buildings maustdafment in my investigation of cpmc i'm convinced that systems are in

place especially at the st. luke's campus, to adapt to change. lastly i would say -- [bell] president olague: thank you. we have the comments. we have just half a page least -- left here. so thank you. and we did call the names out so please if you heard your name if you can start coming to the mike. >> i beg your pardon. apparently i missed my name when it was called. president olague: ok. that's fine. >> i'm dr. stanley sey frmplet --fried. i'm a psychiatrist practicing in the bay area for 43 years. i am here on behalf of the physicians organizing committee of which i am a member. the primary issue for me as a psychiatrist is that whenever the sutter hospital corporation does anything with a hospital,

psychiatry vanishes. that has happened repetitively in my experience and so that one of the real issues for me is that what is happening in community psychiatry or psychiatry that is in the community i should say is that as the number of inpatient beds is collapsed, what happens is that when the police officer picks up someone who is seriously mentally ill, the only option they have is to put that individual in jail because that's the only secure place where you can hold someone against his or her will. what is happening in local jails is that what is happening in the state prisons is very similar and the state department of corrects has recently recognized that and they are embarking upon building a brand-new

penitentiary near stockton in which there will be 461 psychiatric beds. now, this seems very peculiar to me because we have moved from the point of depopulating state hospitals and now we are going to start putting those patients in state prisons instead of hospitals. so i find that remarkable and unfortunately it is my belief -- [bell] sutter is involved in that. thank you very much. president olague: just in the order i called your name you can start coming up to the mike. >> good afternoon, commissioners. my name is lorenzo and i'm a resident of the tenderloin and a member of the tenderloin filipino community association. we believe in our organization that this huge project will

create many negative impacts in our community. we can say that cpmc has not done much for our community in provide health care access for residents. that's what the record will show. tenderloin residents are one of the lowest serves -- served in their hospital system. secondly, cpmc will not commit supporting affordable housing despite the fact that this huge project will be a cause foff -- for displacement of people. secondly, this project will potentially cause gridlock on van ness while turning our neighborhood streets into highways. these are some of the issues we want cpmc to address but sad to say, they are disengaging in the talks with the community. we want a clear resolution of these issues and our commissioners can help ensure that will address all issues being raised by the community. president olague: thank you.

>> good afternoon. my name is melissa vandra. i'm a member of south of course market action network. i'm also a resident of tenderloin. cpmc sutter hospital served mostly have expensive insurance and i heard that they're going to build a luxury hospital here in vanness. so -- van ness. so it is very unfair like -- for us, like the low income family and for those seniors who live around in the neighborhood. we need a fair and we want -- we want them to serve all the people in the community. thank you.

president olague: thank you. if you can speak into the mike, ma'am. >> good evening. cpmc will be in our community and the people in our neighborhood should have priority when they need to apply for jobs in that hospital. thank you very much. president olague: thank you. >> my name is amelia. my concern is about that acpmc that will be built in our neighborhood. it will affect our environment, it will cause traffic and i think especially to the children that go to the school in the neighborhood. thank you. president olague: thank you. >> good evening.

i'm mr. manuel eng. i'm a resident of south of market and i think that cpmc should give job and job train -- training to our community first. thank you. president olague: thank you. i would ask people to stand away from the door. thank you. tyler krelek? i'm sorry if i mispronounce your last and i'm. -- namend and vince, i can't make out your last name. i can't make it out. valerie gruber. eugene gains pland and michael treece. you can just come up as, you know -- so if i called your name you can start coming up to the mike.

>> good evening, members of the planning commission. my name is vince ab alone. i'm a licensed architect working here in san francisco. i specialize in health care planning and design. i'm 5eu78 -- i'm a member of the american institute of architects and a certified architect with the american kling of -- college of architects. i support rebuilding cpmc for the following two reasons. one, i support patient care. as you know, health care practice has changed since the cpmc facilities were built 40 years ago. best practice now calls for more space to could -- accommodate family and friends and for more privacy and separation and seismic stability. better facilities that improve staff working conditions result in improved patient care.

secondly as a resident, the improved street scape shown tonight in renderings are welcomed and will improve and enhance pedestrian experiences, public safety, urban vitality around all the three campuses. as a health care planer, tertiary health care planning is complex and i believe the scale is appropriate to meet the needs of the health care needs now and in the future. i feel the building sizes and designs are in line with the surrounding neighborhood densities and architecture so i support the economic development that these facilities will bring and i encourage moving forward on patient care and community development. thank you. president olague: thank you. ladies and gentlemen -- >> ladies and gentlemen of the planning commission, my name is dr. valerie gruber and i'm a psychologist at san francisco general hospital and i'm here representing the membership of physicians organizing committee

particularly those who work in mental health. i've worked in the field for over 15 years and have seen the impact of 57 million in budget cuts to department of public health here in san francisco and solely in the general fund in the past three years. those cuts included over 500 city positions plus additional positions from community based organizations. this on top of this, dph is facing another $13 million in cuts starting this july and it is not looking good. they're getting into very high priority services. they're going to cost more than the service lost. i know that the city can improve my ability to give quality care to patients by directing sutter and other entities to honor their agreements one is the health commission resolution to -- 210 on the cpmc institutional

master plan to provide medically necessary services to low income and indigent patients. as mentioned by a former speaker, there is a need for that. the constituent must not allow the facilities to route such patients to overcrowded county programs to pursue profits at the public's expense. in viewing the rdp please remember that sutter plays -- pays no taxes on any of the properties that could support public health and they eliminate need services further burdening the public system. for example in, 2005 sutter flouted a health commission resolution and state attorney general order by closing a 32-bed inpatient psychiatric unit at st. luke's and the city and county did not hold sutter to their public health care obligations. they didn't do anything about that such as revoking its tax breaks. [bell] president olague: thank you. >> i would like to give theys -- president olague: you can submit these.

thank you. if the next speaker can start toum -- coming to the mike -- >> about investigation needed into their practices. president olague: thanks. >> thank you. >> good evening. my name is eugene against lan -- genzlan, retired physician who served the community for over 35 years and i've referred many patients to st. luke's back when it had a full complement of services to refer patients to. i'm here to fake sbsh speak on behalf of the physicians organizing committee to voice our connective op soigs to any plan approval of the plan given the wholly inequitable allocation be resources moving forward. this is one of only two hospitals serving the entire working class area south of market. to put sutter's plan