encourage residents to access the neighborhood serving small businesses, lessening the environmental impacts of people coming to more formula retail stores while strengthening the neighborhood's vitality. i wanted to point out a couple of the amendments made based on the planning staff's recommendations and i appreciate planning staff's analysis. during their review, they made a number of recommendations. the first one that we support and are amending today is to modify the definition of formula retail pet supply stores. i believe it's on page 35 of the ordinance, to include÷3ñ/ñ)ñ stores that dedicate the majority of their occupied floor space to sales of pet supplies so this is like safeway or trader joe's, for example, which are formula retail stores and sell pet supplies would not be covered because they dedicate a

small percentage of sales to pet supplies. a second modification relates to the previous controls for the inner clement district from orgwello to funston on clement. previously, three additional eating and drinking establishments were allowed by ordinance through the conditional use permit process and i'll have to ask ron miguel to explain how these things came about with different zoning processes because they don't make much sense to me in 2011 but maybe they did in 1980. vice president miguel: it was pre-formula retail. supervisor mar: that's right. two of three of these are in place and as anne marie said and recommended, the third one should be allowed by right and the 30% threshold should be removed. this results in allowing all eating and drinking establishments additional to the one more that will be allowed by right would be approved through the conditional use process so it's creating much more flexibility there. the next amendment, we'd like to

modify the outer clement neighborhood commercial district and that's that clement street from 19th avenue to 27th avenue where i think there's hard knocks and some great restaurants out there. so that outerma clement neighborhood commercial district, we're modifying the n.c.d. to state that eating and drinking uses are regulated to prevent overconcentration so the conditional use permit process will apply there, as well. it really has to increase the types of businesses that the landowners can kind of consider to fillehñ hopefully vacant stoe fronts in that area. one other simple matter of cleaning up language and making it more modern is the lack of internal coordination within the legislation itself. let's see, the n.c.3 zoning control table should be updated to simply permit video stores in order to coordinate with the legislative summary so it's more of a technical thing.

the last modification, i believe it's on page 3, line 11, through page 16, line five, which i think we're urging to strike, or i think that's what we will be urging to strike. it refers to the five-foot high height bonus for active ground use units. we will not amend section 263.20 to permit a height increase of five feet to permit tall ground floor ceiling heights in the 40 and 50x height and bulk districts and the n.c.3 zoning district from geary boulevard to scott street avenue because we need to study this much more and increasing the heights is an important feature in the legislation so we will be exploring future legislation but not at this time and removing it at the urging also of planning

staff and we're going to be studying that further so with the modifications that we're making on this ordinance, this is really important legislation for me and the richmond district and the many residents and small business leaders that are here today. many of them had to go because it's been several hours from when we thought we might be presenting. but it's really important to the diversity and the diverse fabric of our district and the richmond on geary and clement. it will help preserve our unique character as a neighborhood and support our small and locally owned businesses and establish a new standard for how to support neighborhood serving commercial districts so i hope i can have your support and if you have any questions, i'm really happy to answer them. i did want to make one other point that the planning staff made a good point that the conditional use process could be used for formula retail stores already and i'll just say that i have nothing but respect for the planning commissioners and how

you analyze so many of the different issues that come before you but i think i've met with so many of my neighborhood residents and small business leaders that it's about the future of our district. we don't know who will come after you and in listening to and working with my neighborhood and small business leaders, we really want to protect our neighborhood. that's why we're proposing this package and this ordinance, to revitalize the richmond district so i ask for your support. thank you. president olague: thank you and i know you've been waiting to speak before us so i'm going to ask if any commissioners have any questions at this time for the supervisor. commissioner moore? commissioner moore: supervisor mar, the strength of your district is in small entrepreneurial retail, per se, that's why people come out there even if they live far away, truck out geary boulevard to enjoy the smaller aspects of the district. whyí0ç did you only single out t stores while there are small

drug stores, small bakeries, small textile stores and almost like part of the old-fashioned way things were bought and sold. i am curious, for example, the threat of a cvs pharmacy coming and knowing to take down the few r9s et cetera.3wist owned that is to me the bigger issue and i would have really gone to the wall supporting what you are doing as one of the supervisors was proactive in changing economy, supporting wholeheartedly the strength of the city which is smallhzu entrepreneurial retail for the many artistic and wonderful manifestations in pet supply stores which are literally everywhere but i would have liked to see a larger embracing of small retail. supervisor mar: we have considered working with hardware stores, was on supply stores, but also as you were mentioning,

other small businesses but we didn't want to open a laundry list so we tried to keep it as succinct as possible based on different small businesses that came to us to urge us to work with them. we also wanted to make sure this wasn't seen as trying to prohibit kind of any one particular business. we wanted to look at it as a way to revitalize the whole neighborhood and that's why we put it together that way but that's a great question but we wanted to keep it as succinct as possible. commissioner moore: the question this commission is grappling with and i talked about it with commissioner miguel, the yet-to-be-determined land use descriptions for the alcohol store, pharmacy, eye glasses, combination food store, sandwich, whatever they are all, are our concerns because once they move in and there's room given to any one of them, they will have devastating effect on not just one but a large array

of smaller businesses which will all be equally affected at the same time so if your walgreens now sells flowers,?  sandwiche, alcohol, does your laundry, develops$x÷ your photography and looks at your teeth while you're at it, here youqvp have the mainstay of the strength of the city being undermined and that is for me really more for me the passionate question. how do we anticipate that coming down the pike and how are we prepared just like with your picking one use, on the largeru supervisor mar: i am working commission staff, jobs for justice, others, to look at the impacts of big box and formula retail on neighborhood corridors, to look at how we can help support more economic impact studies and impacts on small businesses and to have living wage jobs and other issues factored in and looked

at, as well, but i know those are bigger issues but as the supervisor of the richmond, i'm doing my best to look at step by step ways to help the small business climate and the vibrant community that we have. i'm willing to talk more with you about other issues as they come up, as well. commissioner moore: i'm prepared to support you but for us here in the commission, the questions are more urgent. just a few weeks ago, few months ago, had a cvs pharmacy which we done even know how to answer and when it comes to neighborhoods telling us that there are large amounts of vacancies in their area, we were hard pressed not to see that this might be one way to go although it's not the only way because i think anticipatory thinking and kind of like creating protections and barriers way ahead of time is really the answer so i would ask you as quickly as possible to help us on the larger scale to do exactly what you are now very concisely doing with one

particular use. supervisor mar: can i just say that as i talked to residents and even the businesses, people have very different views of some big box formula retail versus others and i'm finding that if a place has been vacant for so long, there's even a different perspective on what should go in. i do know that for different vacate spots i'm looking at neighborhood-serving uses like gymnastic schools or montessori or pre-k programs and not just at businesses to fill them but i want, whether it's a formula retail or big box or educational use, i want different businesses or entities that will serve the neighborhood and often i'm finding that if it's in an area that's been really depressed, sometimes people will want a big box or formula retail for the jobs and economic benefits it might bring and i'm trying very hard to be sensitive that different neighborhoods look at

it differently and even different pockets of the richmond district are looking at the target that may go into or that will be possibly going into masonic and geary differently than they might other formula retail stores but i understand the bigger issues and hope to work with you on many of those. commissioner moore: perhaps this commission under the leadership of commissioner olague could have a subcommittee to discuss this issue on a more ongoing basis that we all raise together as an issue which is very pressing to us. president olague: sure.ñi we can establish that and we'll also at some point put it on the calendar because we've been time, as well. commissioner miguel? vice president miguel: yes. supervisor, my thoughts are very, very close to those of commissioner moore. first of all, to get it out of the way, this commission has in general supported that five-foot

height increase. having been in the small retail business, family was directly involved from 1939 to when i retired in 1991 and the business is still there. i understand the viability of having that groundm flt increase without really disturbing the neighborhood fabric at all so i would be very, very supportive of that and quite willing to discuss it with you or others at any time. as i mentioned when you questioned earlier, the preformula retail controls lower clement and many neighborhood commercial districts in the city have changed in their aspect post-formula retail. the formula retail is an unusual

type of law. outer clement, you just have cvs and fresh and easy go in, formula retail. they're not too disturbing of anything out in that area. we have had cvs come to us with and without liquor depending on -- these are all things we can and have done under the present formula retail situations. we have stopped pet food stores that are formula retail. and we have allowed pet food stores that are formula retail. every time we get into prohibitions, different n.c. districts over the years, not just restaurants, not just liquor establishments or bars, but no more financial entities such as west portal had at one time because it was too much of

a concentration which sounds a little silly to some people but that was true out there. what has happened since formula retail, although, unfortunately, in my opinion, banks are not included in that, has been a control that was not available to the city before. in my opinion, it has worked pretty well. nothing's perfect. i'm not going to oppose your legislation but i will raise my concerns about this type of land use planning, that very, very specifically targets a particular type of business and, in my opinion, a particular business, because that's what precipitated it. i hope there's no question about that.

i do not personally think that's good land use planning. maybe conditional use for formula retail isn't the best. it's what we have. 0rxr'k it works reasonably well. m at least in the future to consider that method or maybe improving it in targeted situation. president olague: commissioner fong? commissioner fong: thank you. my thoughts are a little bits on the same line. i really struggled this week reading this a couple of different times trying to understand it and there really are four subtopics here. but the one i guess that we're all kind of caught up on is the pet food store. and i can't help but i live out there, as well, and put two and

two together and when you name a video store, protect the video store and adding a pet store provision that you're really looking at the blockbuster location on geary and1 the big hard cafe on geary and 19th or whatever and trying to8= block a pet food store from those locations. which i have trouble with and we mentioned, we have the c.u. in place. i think it's an effective tool, tedious sometimes but effective. we're going to need formula retail in some cases so i'm still a little puzzled and i have trouble supporting at least that aspect of it. the other three, it seems like you addressed to some degree or struck the fourth one. supervisor mar: commissioner fong, i think once you hear from the workers and the owners and the people that have been running a number of the small

pet supply stores for so many years and how they create community-based connections with people in the neighborhood and how a formula retail store would hurt them and how pet food express has undercut them in different ways, i think you might understand more of where the thrust of much of the legislation is coming from and i hope you try to understand that. as i learned, there are more pets than there are children in san francisco. president olague: commissioner antonini? commissioner antonini: taking the different parts of your legislation, it's curious but let me go over them. the increased height of the ground floor, we know it can't be part of the legislation now because of the time but that

sounds reasonable to me and certainly the idea of conditional use for additional eating and drinking establishments both outer and inner clement are really good tools because i think it's not a question of -- you want to the tailor this to the neighborhoods so that's a good thing and the other thing is geary fast food with new definition, supportive. i have a problem with any formula retail bans, particularly one to a specific industry and in general i don't support it in many neighborhoods. we had that issue before us in the mission valencia area. fortunately, we continued with conditional use which has served

commissioners will be just as thoughtful as we are. their decisions may reflect changing values but that's what happens as the city changes and neighborhoods change and decisions may not be the same but i think they'll give it as much consideration as we give it so i think conditional use works. president olague: thank you. supervisor mar: thank you so much. >> commissioners, i'm sorry, at the time i had written the report we had not received public comment but since then we have received public comment and i'd like to submit those for your reading. president olague: i'd like to recognize ms. dooley from the small business commission. i'm not sure if you'd like to address us at all, at this point. >> good evening, commissioners, kathleen deal, small business commission. at this point i want to talk briefly more about that it's really time for us to get together and discuss formula retail and the controls, talk about what's working, what's not

working. things have changed in different ways and i think that we would all be kind of tweak what we have so there isn't a constant running battle between small businesses and big box stores. we are very concerned about the cvs prototype. we're also concerned with the pet stores, the predatory pricing. they are just a beast of another kind. in fact, we just recently heard information that the denial of the pet food express on lombard, we are hearing that they've continued to lease the space and will be coming in front of you again and reapplying for that same space despite thesoi outpouring from the community on that. so i just really want to request from our commission to your commission that we get together, have a committee, talk about

that, you know, offline and get some productive stuff done and i think we could really do that together. president olague: thank you. we agree, that would be great. >> i'm available any time. president olague: great, thank you. i'd like to open it up for public comment.k 10-minute block of time which we do grant to people -- to individuals, groups, opposing a project or any matter before us. so -- >> good evening, madam president and members of the planning commission. i feel sad to be the one in the doghouse tonight to kick off the public comment but i am part of the petco team. we're here tonight because we do believe this legislation was triggered by petco's request for a conditional use permit and i'm joined tonight by elizabeth

mckinley from petco and andrew junious. the three of us are going to make brief remarks. i'm finishing most of mine and we have a short video presentation for you. i guess i would say respectfully that we have very different views on what would constitute maintaining a diverse economic community. we think this ban is unnecessary. we genuinely believe the conditionalo sufficient and as someone who's done this for more than a decade, i feel that the conditional use process is a significant hurdle so with that i'm going to bring up elizabeth mckinley. thank you. also, one more thing. i'd like to submit for the record more than 800 signatures in support of economic diversity on geary boulevard, people who live in the richmond in and around the city who are supportive of that. thank you. >> good evening. i know it's late. thank you for taking time to hear our comments. my name is elizabeth mckinley,

i'm the regional real estate director at petco to be here today at your disposal to address any concerns that you have about petco or this ban. petco is opposed to the proposed ban on formula retail on or pet supply retail on geary. we believe that there is a lotú÷ of business in the richmond district ongoing with pet supplies, over 10 million dollars of pet product supplies there, as well, so we would not be predatory and we're not known for predatory pricing. we're also active in the san francisco community. we've been part of the community for 20 years. we have two full sized stores, one on float near the zoo and the other at the patrarro shopping center.>j those stores serve customers from the richmond district already. our attempt would be to serve those customers more conveniently on geary.

and we also in the past five years have provided more than $300,000 in support to local animal charities and will continue to do that. sopy just would like you to reconsider. thank you. >> commissioners, andrew junious with reuben and junious on behalf of petco. i want to return to something supervisor mar said at the beginning. much has to did with the police powers. we don't get a chance to talk about police powers often because they're broad. everything you do is pursuant to police powers but they're not all encompassing. there is a limit. and i think in the case of the petco situation and this legislation specifically focusing on a very, very small part of geary boulevard and a very specific type of store, it goes too far. the recent case, supreme court

case back in 2007, hernandez versus city of hanford clearly laid out that you can't put forward legislation that is specifically tailored for the express purpose of favoring one business over another. and that's really what this does. so i'd just like you to keep that in mind as you move forward with your deliberations. i very much agree with many of the comments that have already been made with respect to formula retail. you have a great -- you have a process. it's an imperfect process but it's a process. it's been around for a while. i think it's working pretty well and i think that should carry the day here. with about six minutes left, i'm going to turn it over to taylor who will actually bring it up on the screen a handful of merchants that we've talked to that were not able to make it tonight but would like to speak to you through the video. thank you.

video: my name is john. i am on mckinzie and 19th avenue. when blockbuster was there, my store got more traffic. the announcement that they're not in the area, my business has declined, to be honest. so i would really appreciate it or really want another business to step in and take over. and not only that store but most stores on geary because i do

know that once new businesses 1 only my business.traffic to >> to have petco come down here to take over the walgreens space which would probably bring in more traffic into the area, especially in this challenging economy. hello, my name is nancy. i own a business on 18th and geary. i've been here for seven years now and i would love any businesses to move into the richmond district. this theater has been vacant for over, i think, eight years. the store across the street has

businesses, more people in the area. hi, i'm the owner of cards and comics central from across the street from the old walgreens store. basically, i do support having a business that's open across the street and this neighborhood definitely needs, you know, more businesses rather than have vacancies that hurt the neighborhood. other than that, i do support businesses coming to the neighborhood. >> hi, i'm the manager, owner, y2109. i support for the petco. i just want over there. [inaudible]

not only petco, any company. >> i'm gary i'm for putting petco into the walgreens space. any industrial that wants to fix the place up and maintain a quality business, this area needs it. it would be good to revitalize the area. >> there were lots of interviews. [inaudible] president olague: thank you. like to open it up for public comment at this time. we have no speaker cards so all those interested in speaking can come up to the mic. >> hello, again. my name