>> the planning commission is back in session. just a reminder for everyone to turn off their cellphone is. you are on item number 22. >> good evening, members of the commission. the item before you is a request for discretionary review to change the voting from three residential dwellings to 15 rooms of a group of dwellings. the request concerns generally revolve around the property managers and obstruction of light and air, noise of

mechanical equipment, the roof deck, and affordable housing. there are approximately 75 signatures. the neighborhood association is in opposition to the proposal. the sponsor has submitted eight letters of support. i am going to provide you with a brief history of the project. should you have any questions after the testimony, i am happy to answer. in 2005, they applied for and were granted permission to build a structure. and building permit was submitted. nouri public testimony at it was founded had been used as a tourist hotel without permission. it was revoked due to this issue. in 2009, the property owner

submitted a permit. this is a permit before you today. the reports noted immediate concerns and policy considerations for the project. the sponsor has provided evidence the premises was originally advertised in airline. -- in error. they agree to file a notice of special restriction and enforcement of procedures, should they be necessary. the department has received one additional letter of support. as the department has not found evidence that the project is exceptional or extraordinary, at this time we do not recommend you approve a permit, but we do

have concerns about larger policy issues. >> i am still horowitz -- phil horowitz. and we have two concerns. the first is the president this would set. first, he took the middle units and claimed he was going to move in as his own apartment. that is what was happening, but instead what he did was he promptly started renting it out as a tourist hotel instead. then he claimed his father was going to move into the bottom flat and got rid of rent control tenants there. instead of moving his father in, he started renting that out as

well. there are a town of ipads. he was renting it sometimes five a month as well. there was prior testimony on the garage hearing superior -- on the garage hearing. they were told he was moving his mother in and they had to move out. this was rented out as a tourist rooms and corporate housing. this is not affordable housing. we are concerned. our preference is to have three rent-controlled flats. one of the people living there

is here today. we think it is disability discrimination, because he has epilepsy, and some people do not want him there. part of this systematic plan to remove rent-controlled housing, and it is in the papers we filed, and to arrive permits to the bathrooms, and each time there is a permit application, he said it was with the department. that is not what you do for a flat. that is what you do if you do room rentals. it is not affordable housing. he admits in his papers that everything is going to the

market rate. if you look at his website common-law -- at his website, he is advertising rooms for rent for weekly rentals, corporate rentals, and vacation rentals out of place where san franciscans live with heirloom antiques and so forth, and it is the opposite of what he has been holding himself out to the media was doing, trying to have affordable housing. edie's actually removing affordable housing. this has -- it has actually been removing affordable housing. the garage permit, and we've found he lied intentionally, claiming it was being used to try to get a three-car garage that would have kept the next-

door neighbor up all night, because apparently they are very loud. the new rules would be the highest structure in of victoria and neighborhood, which is going to be loud and father the next-door neighbor. right now the tenants are not allowed to smoke inside, so they go outside and leaves smoldering bus around, and we are worried this will be a problem. he has looked people straight in the eye and claimed he has never rented the rooms. he claims there are mass releases, and if you look at all the websites, we do not think he is responsible, and we think this would be opening the floodgates to affordable, rent- controlled housing and replacing

it with torras housing. it is very profitable to do that. that is not what we want for our neighborhood. >> thank you. speakers in support of the requester? people who support you would come up to speak now. whoever supports the d r requester. >> i live across the street from the property, and i want to make a couple comments. first, there was a website that showed they were advertising rooms for rent on a nightly basis last month. he claims the advertisement was not his doing, that he saw the advertisement -- he stopped the

advertisement, that he has not paid for an advertisement since 1997. -- since 2007. we are to believe no one called him from five advertisement. i see people coming and going from his apartment all the time because my windows look out on his apartment, and i can tell the people who are staying there, and over the last few years, i have been able to see people living there for a week or two, and they leave, then somebody else moves in, and they are there for a short time, and they move in. he has been saying a number of things, that he has a mass release and that he does not know what anyone does with her rooms, and now he says he is renting rooms on a monthly

basis, but it seems like he is not being forthcoming in what is going on. on the very first page of the presentation to this committee, the state he is currently living on the premises and intends to do so. that is alive. he has not lived there since probably 2006. he was our neighbor. he was part of our group when he first moved in. we knew him very well, and we know when i neighbor is living in the neighbor or not. he has not been there for four or five years, and to place that on the first sentence stating he actually does live there is beyond me, but that is what i want to say about david. i also want to say i do not know

how he can claim it is affordable housing when you are taking three rent-controlled apartments off the housing stock and offering nightly or weekly rentals of seven days or more at a different rate. i do not see how that is considered affordable housing. thank you. >> good evening, commission. i am one of the residents who lived in the apartment complex, and there are many benefits to living there, although one side and we do see it is a follow- through of david to come and follow up on repairs and that need doing and that also include

him coming and spending the night as a responsible landlord dwelling on the premises and following up. i have been there close to three years now. i moved in august of 2008. maybe i am missing something, but i have not seen him living there. i like david as a person, but i do not see him around at times when we call for it. i find he has a tendency to not follow through when we really need it, and in a group housing situation there have been real of emergencies. when we thought we could rely on him, it turned out we were greatly mistaken. i ended up breaking my back. it could have been avoided. i think there needs to be a line

drawn about which way you are going to go, simple accommodations where david would not need to spend as much time at this household. he could spend time at his other properties, or if he is going to be a manager, he needs to be prepared to invest a lot more time, energy, and effort into staying on top of things. thank you. >> any an additional speakers? >> my name is kathleen, and i lived next door to david. i have lived there at least 35 years. my problem is the noise factor. if he has a 3-car moving garage.

also the light factor with the roof deck and mechanical things going on. as far as the emergencies, just a few months ago, and four or five months ago, there was a sewage problem, and raw sewage ran from his property onto mine for three days. i talked to two tenants. one had no way of getting in touch with david. the other one called him, and we were still unable to contact him, and this went from friday through sunday. i also have of a problem with the foliage in the front of the house, which has narrowed the sidewalk, where only two people

can walk past, and until last week, the wrought iron -- it is not a fence, but surrounding his plans, it is a safety hazard. they had someone cut off appointed a portion -- the pointed portion that is surrounding the foliage, and it is causing cracks on the sidewalk on the property i live on. thank you. >> thank you. >> my name is deborah, and i'll

live in an apartment building. some of my concerns are about the mechanical grosarage. the mechanical rooftop, a lot of people being on their roof, the noise from putting some equipment as well. he says he is going to soundproofing it, but there is no guarantee this is going to be done very good he says a lot of things. previously i have problems with people dropping cigarette butts and pushing them under the door. i had an incident where people were flicking cigarettes out an open window on the second floor, and how do we address these things, because david is not

very approachable when there is a problem, and he is usually not a round. other concerns aren' i will file the appeal, and i was the one who brought attention to the board of appeals that there was a tourist hotel. i saw the progression of that throws hotel -- progression of the tourist hotel when he started having people stay there and there were attendance on the lower flat but was renovated. people were staying there, and when other tenants were forced out, the same thing happened.

he never admitted to having 0 centa hotel. i do not think there is really an effective way. i do not think a memorandum were having somebody sign some restrictions is going to be enforceable and if things start going the same way they were before and then it is a week and then nightly. i do not think it is affordable housing. i think it is a way to increase prices. >> are there at additional speakers?

we were evicted, and he claimed he wanted to move his mother and father into the building. we were threatened with a lawsuit. we ended up being sued and settled out of court. i can go on the record saying he did not live there. yet he was running an illegal hotel, and what i understand now, he was also collecting a hotel sales tax. this might be if here say, but now our roommate had her parents visiting from germany, and they stayed there for a week. as far as i know, he never lived there