-- scott edmonson followed by sarah tabor. >> if i may, i'm ben devries. i'm here to represent thethere s within a block of the parking garage. i need to speak to the fact that our viability as businesses in this community, where restaurants have flourished, in this economy coming in this day and age, challenges without that parking, without the hourly access to the parking. when it shut down for about six weeks two augusts ago, business dropped 25%. that is a sustained drop. we are talking probably 20 people being laid off. we are talking most of us going out of business. the hourly public parking is

paramount to our survival and a thriving of the business community with and that two- block radius. it has developed a beautiful culture of restaurants and small businesses. all of them are independently owned and operated. i came running from the kitchen. i have been there since 8:00 this morning. we are living in a small, tight community that has no other public parking access. rosas lot we have is four blocks away down two steep hills. we see drops in business specifically. the community thrives with a barrage of their -- the garage there. we were able to sustain through the milk down. without that in existence, at least three people agree that there would be shutting their doors down, depending on the results of this hearing.

there are few restaurant brokers ready to go into work tomorrow. it is a vital, -- it is of vital importance. we are sending 20 cars up there at any given time on any given night. it allows us to draw people from all over the city to dine and it allows a ready to fill seats. it is a key point for all of us to survive. thank you for allowing me. thank you. president olague: thank you for your time. are there any additional speakers? >> yes. my name is michelle and i live at the corner of green. i'm in the same corner and i was going to open talking about him today. yesterday morning at 5:00, his restaurant was broking into for the second time in a year.

while this is something we cannot control, we can control the other threats to his business, the loss of the parking garage, which you have heard about. it is a major threat. i am here to ask the commission to move beyond a narrow focus, short-term way of thinking about this. this is as it relates to the sustainability. i ask you to hold the developer to a sustainable compromise of two residential floors, which we could live with. there is enough for everybody's needs, but not for everybody is agreed. this is a perfect compromise to meet the needs. thank you. president olague: thank you.

>> good afternoon, commissioners. i have been a resident for 30 years now. i am here to further support the statements that were made by ben, the owner of the restaurant of the corner of hyde anbd green. i have a statement signed by 80% of the merchants in our area, varying from a small antique jewelry store to swensen's ice- cream. our neighborhood merchant said, "as merchants on the russian hill, we benefit when a neighbor of the district is created. over the last three years, many of the businesses in our area have come to appreciate the hourly parking lawford at 1945

hyde street, particularly in the evenings and weekends. all of the merchant benefit from the increased foot traffic from this increased business. in order to retain and support our neighborhood commercial district, we urge the planning department, the planning commission, and if necessary, the board of supervisors, to insure neighborhood parking, especially our lean neighborhood parking. people -- i have with me and overhead -- an overhead. >> there you go. >> this was a survey done by the community. >> we need you to speak into the microphone. pull it over. >> of this is a survey that was done of the hourly car account -- count. the upper count is from april

and it represents the days of the week. there are as many as 20 cars on the weekends. 19, 20. we did this survey again in june and we had a high of 18 cars that were parked there hourly. so, our business community, in order to survive, need the hourly parking. we encourage the commission to support our stance. thank you. president olague: thank you. >> i would like to highlight how important the valencia garage is as a parking structure by referencing documents, all of which were dated prior to the proposed change.

first one, and there is the consumer checkbook for 2001. this recognizes the parking rajahs one of only seven car repair facilities to receive the top rating for quality and price. this led in part to a -- a proclamation issued by the city and county of san francisco thinking the owners of valencia for their outstanding service, including, "providing parking spaces -- parking spaces in their garage for 40 automobiles, thus relieving parking congestion in the neighborhood." san francisco has recognized it as an asset to the city. i do not have this document. in 2008, a professor of uc-davis

published a study in the american institute of architects and parking garages in san francisco. 1945 hyde was prominently featured. it should be noted that the professor will be writing a book next year -- will be published next year on parking garages. and four is - a letter from 200. it was called "green garage llc ." it is ironic the developer did not use another name. i respectfully ask that the planning commission take dr on this project and retain its

present use. converting this to condos will destroy historic elements, including open interior space, and essentially destroyed a linchpin of our neighborhood. thank you very much. >> good afternoon. i am sara. i happen to be a member of the board of russian hill neighbors. also, one of the points that has not been brought up, you have heard testimony about how it will hurt the neighborhood. one of the point that has not been up is the fact that russian hill is one of the densest populated areas of the city, with the steepest ' and the least public transportation going through the corridors. i realize the city is stressing

transit first, but you cannot stress that when there is not transit. a lot of us need cars -- there are a lot of elderly and families with children. i have to deliver -- get shopping for meals for 60 seniors at the senior center. there are needs for automobiles and their army to get up steep hills. -- there are needs to get up steep hills. there is no other parking. the 10 spaces, three more than originally proposed by the developer for the neighborhood, is a nice gesture. it is not going to be enough. the developer has not proposed anything else for the residents on russell street. that is a concern. thank you for your attention. president olague: thank you.

>> just start talking. >> president olague, members of the commission, i am with the russian help community association. what you will eventually see is the old first church. whoops. the old first church garage is a sister to 1945, located on sacramento st.. 66 cars-plus park there each day an hourly, monthly, weekly. it has been in existence over 20 years and does aggressive outreach to the community. the garage has been successful.

it can be done. the fact is we're before you today because you have almost infinite latitude to address this situation, which is not easy. it is not easy for us to say that, you know, we believe this is in the best interest for all of the reasons. so, as a group, we sat down and struggled with how can we be solomonesque? we come to you and say the two plus two solution, the top two floors has residents, four condos, the bottom floor for parking, monthly, barley -- hourly, is a solution for the community. it is not your responsibility to

maximize the return of the developer on this project. you are being called today to really be solomonesque. this is difficult. it is difficult for us to come to you with this solution. you are called to really balance the property owners' right against the deficit -- deficit -- definite need of a community. commissioner antonini said "we really want to know we are listening to people who represent the community." the russian hill neighbors and community association both filed dr's saying the existing uses needed. there is no need for adaptive reuse. we called your attention that the community has concerns about this project. we ask you to exercise the broad discretion that is given to you.

if you are not going to retain the facility, direct the project sponsor to really investigate and look at the two pklulus -- two plus two solution we have given to you. president olague: thank you. >> good afternoon, commission. my name is scott and i'm resident of russell street, across from the 1945 garage. i am here as an independent planner. i have been planning for 25 years. i would like to amplify a couple of the points that are contained in detail in the report that we submitted as part of your packet and that you have heard here today already. i think you have a tricky situation here. the crux of it is whether

compliance with the planning code as it has been proposed is sufficient for this project or whether there are extraordinary circumstances around this particular time, the particular building, that really empower you to go beyond the planning code. that is one of your functions, basically. the -- the crux of the issue is really not about a couple of spaces of parking here and there, but about what is the best land use for that parcel. and, whether the zoning has been executed in a way that reworks

-- that really works -- losing my train of thought. sorry. and whether a continuation of neighborhood-based transportation uses on that lot, given it is the last remaining use in the neighborhood, would be a critical component of the city's multi modal transit system and sustainability transportation. we also know that compliance with planning code is really a minimum bar, a minimum set of standards. there are other circumstances around the design element, principles being violated with a change to a residential use. we have a 100-year investment opportunity here. the use has been here for 90 years. whatever happens now will set the stage for the next 100 years or more.

with a parking transportation- related use, having no other location in the neighborhood available, and also the parking used working with the current building, it really speaks to maintaining this use. hopefully, it would take -- president olague: thank you. are there additional speakers? project sponsor? >> i am john from the project sponsor and i will speak on the issue of community parking needs

for restaurants in particular. there are five full-service and two self-service restaurants and a wine bar in this district. they have offered hourly parking only since october of 2008. all the restaurants have been there since before 2008. immediately after the march 10 hearing, i reached out to each of these businesses. i inquired in writing and in person what are the hourly parking. they indicated little need for parking. a sushi restaurant indicated parking was important and several customers a night parked there. another owner told me the garage was not important to his business. some declined to complete the questionnaire. another owner stated he had no opposition to the project. i directed the operator to validate an experiment of $3

off if they presented a receipt from a restaurant. we received 63 validation during the 11 nights of the program for an average of about six per night, which turns out to one restaurant permit. nonetheless, we provided 10 community parking spaces. it would restrict resident parking to one space per unit. we were able to increase this number of spaces to 17 by reducing the size of the lower unit. this results in a total of 10 access parking spaces earmarked for the community plus the four spaces created on hyde street with the removal of the curb cuts. residents the past four and 19 parking spaces. that requires converting valuable light-filled space from a bedroom and a bath to a substandard space which is difficult to access and i don't believe that it's a good trade-

off. i request that you approved our proposal with the 17-space garage. it is preferred that the whole building are more than half become a transit center. we don't see how this is feasible and i have explained in writing to the russian hill community association citing specific costs that cannot be absorbed by four units. thank you. >> i will describe our design responses. first, we integrated commissioner sugaya's suggestion to retain the iconic arch opening to have the character of the garage. two, it is beyond our rear property line. to preserve light and air, we established an angled plane

representing a lower son angle during the winter solstice. removed -- we moved things in zone. a window previously had a view blocked by a doctor. we will cut diagonally into the previously proposed masking with a vertical plane projecting from the window. there will be a clear view corridor. we also offer to reduce the west-facing overhang to only four feet, a significant a light and energy-saving feature allowing us to avoid mechanical cooling. we offered to maximize existing light wells with a reduction in penthouse area. this was rejected. we have worked in good faith to substantially modify our proposal to protect light, air, and views, but the owner has not given us any specific feedbacks

or proposed any alternatives, other than telling us to reduce the mass. we try to reconcile the principles of transit first with a request for more parking. we met with neighborhood groups for over seven hours and exchange numeracy mills. we met again yesterday. we investigated increasing parking by eliminating units, changing into. , and using parking devices -- eliminating units and using parking devices. the layout efficiency is reduced by two internal corridors. we are proposing 17 spots with a semiautomatic system and the potential of up to six additional ballet -- valet spots. we also designed a 19-spot plan. it is difficult to use,

especially -- [tone] president olague: thank you. we may call you up during the discussion. we have one speaker card, david. >> thank you, president olague. my name is david. i'm an architecture and urban sign educator in san francisco. in my opinion, this achieves multiple planning, urban design goals. it eliminates and non-conforming use and replaces it with well- designed housing, which is one of the biggest unmet needs of present and future san francisco ness -- san franciscans.

it preserves and rehabilitate the historic resource. the new penthouses at it in a way that honors the light, air, and views of neighboring buildings. using expensive solar access studies, the design solution maximizes natural daylight for the new use and follows thesegreen point -- the green point standards. the energy consultants on this project are experts in intelligent energy design features, such as the debated west-facing overhang, which is critical to reducing the need for forced air cooling in san francisco's already temperate climate. also important is to introduce another layer that still allows the historic elements to coexist with their own clear identity.

this is a well-known urban tradition of contributing to the narrative of how our buildings and cities evolve. in order to achieve these benefits, the project meets the request of variance with respect to the rear yard requirement. i think the thoughtfulness and quality of the design validate the request. thank you. president olague: any additional speakers in support of project sponsor? >> good afternoon. my name is kevin. i'm a general contractor and i have lived near the garage for 15 years. i have worked with the architects on numerous projects, which have designed -- received design recognition. i support the project. i'm here to address the zoning administrator about the rear yard determination. last october, i was contacted byjoe harney -- by joe harney.

he had some concerns about a large box attached to garage. -- large duct attach to the garage. i met with the project sponsor and the building owner. joe wanted john to remove a very unsightly three-foot diameter duct that ran down a ligh twell and -- light well and past the windows of the building. his position was that it was potentially dangerous and he wanted john to remove it. he asked joe whether he had concerns about the project and joe said he was not opposed, and he was also in the real-estate business. with that understanding, john asked me to remove the duct, which i did later that week. removing that had the effect of significantly improving of view and light of at least two units.

i have been on the roof many times and i know the conditions well. the only two windows on joe pose a property that have a sideline of the new building are primarily looking on the existing concrete para pit wall of the garage. one of the tenants keeps her curtains drawn during the day so it appears she does not consider the window to have any view. it is clear to me that even with the new addition, and with the proposed sculpting of the addition, joe's tenants' views will be at least as good and possibly better than before the doctor -- duct was removed. thank you. president olague: thank you. >> hi. i have lived on russian hill near the garage for about 20 years. for part of that time, i was a member of russian lawmakers. i have a strong love of the neighborhood. let me say that i disagree with

the comment made earlier that there is no viable public transportation and card usage as someone mandatory. i frequently take the cable car to union square and back. i have had both my knees replaced. i can manage to get on and off the cable car without any problem. there are many restaurants in the neighborhood and all of them have been there beforehourly -- before hourly parking was first offered. some patrons due undoubtedly part in the garage. a round-trip cab fare for much of the city would be possible for the hourly rate on the weekend. it would be a small lifestyl change. san franciscoanans need to adapt the way new yorkers have. in case no one noticed, this building is severely in need of

restoration. not long ago, a chunk of concrete fell off the back and landed by any proposal entry. i encourage anyone who doubts this to take a tour. i have. i hope you approved the project. thank you. president olague: thank you. >> good afternoon. tim coleman. we long ago endorsed this and support of this project. it is inappropriate use of the building and the land. the neighborhood is a perfect context for the proposal. it preserves a beautiful historical assets that we agree need preservation and adds a space for uses that enhance the neighborhood. as is often the case, we end up -- the housing is almost incidental. we argue about parking. when i was at the last hearing on this project, i said this was an under-a valued asset