i want to reiterate what everyone else has said. i'm opposed to having toxic fumes in my neighborhood and i do not trust these people to mitigate the situation. thank you. >> good evening. i am a tenant at 29 roger street. i lived there for three years. my unit is adjacent to the auto body shop. during the construction, there was no notification provided on the exterior of the building that the shop was going in. i woke up one morning to find two bands pointing into my back window. lee had shown a picture. the vans are 20 feet away from my back patio. the impact of these films will affect my quality of life. i do work from home and i am

home on the weekends. i have already expressed concern to my landlord and i will be forced to move out should this situation not be handled appropriately. during the western soma plan review, the commissioners mentioned it was important to support the influx of new residents and the auto body shop will not encourage this. by building owners, my landlord included is aware of the situation and greatly aware this will limit interest in his property, including renting and selling of the units. i am running -- renting from the unit, i am renting from him the 29 rogers street unit. i urge you to support us. we're concerned residents obviously. to not issue this permit or at least give some type of review. also this is why i think you for

your time and the service you provide to the community. this is the first time i have come to one of these hearings so i definitely appreciate everything you do for our community. president olague: are there any additional speakers in support of the dr requestor? everyone gets three minutes. that does not work. you can use your three minutes to read those letters but the visit. if there is one other person who wants to read the letter, whatever. >> i was going to be the reb utter. i will reserve my comments. president olague: you can speak. >> i am an attorney who has been

asked to assist in the presentation. i am not a resident of the area and i will try to be brief. i did prepare an analysis of the proposed analysis that you got and i would like to provide that to you although i realize it is late and i apologize for that. i got into this project on the late side. i will give it to you through what ever -- for whatever consideration you can get it. what i am here to say is that the residents of the full sum corridor coalition which is what this group of residents is calling itself, have been subjected to essentially a series of surprises by the operators. they did not receive public notice as they thought they would so they could not object to the fundamental project, the license permit that was given here. otherwise we would have filed a request on the permit. we are here to ask you to exercise what we depend on.

i have been in bodies like this and i respect very much the fact that you are here at this hour. as citizens, we have to rely on you doing for us we cannot do for ourselves which is applying the matrix of code sections that do apply to this operation. no one is going to deny it is a mixed use zone. even though the overall plan may make it into a residential zone soon. even under the slr 816 code which is supposed to prohibit use that is not compatible, bringing into the area that is venting obnoxious and possibly on health the toxic fumes since it does use isocyanite, it is not a compatible use. you have children and elderly

people, you have a school 590 feet from this operation. we rely on new. we cannot show that paint booth down. you can. and i think you not only can but i think you should. there are. books in the neighborhood operating away from this residential zone and in another wind direction. the wind direction goes into these residences. this is an alley. you have had presentations from the market. the plan that alley should be considered differently. when circulation and ventilation is not as good, there's not much they can do. we have documentation that the business disregards its promises. we cannot rely and agreements we made with them. we made agreements with them that they would not operate in the evenings, they have been operating until 10:00 p.m. frequently. we made agreements that would not use the paint booth, the use the paint booth. if they cannot have a contained surface, why did the have section 890, which in our zone,

requires a business not to operate unless it can have a contained non-ventilating system? as i said, we rely on you to help us because we cannot help ourselves in this context. thank you. president olague: thank you. are there additional speakers in support of the dr requestor. seeing none, project sponsor? >> good evening. i have been operating a business for the last 13 years. in san francisco. i used to be a property owner but because of the situation, i have to move my business. i was hiring the wrong architect when i moved my -- opened my

business. it turned into a body shop so it was not that much of the trouble to do the change because there was an existing body shop. i had never done this before, this is my first time doing it so i rely on my architect saar have to hire a new architect. this is what we did the new plans. he did everything the way it was supposed to be done. for what they are saying, the smell the paint fumes, we have had the area inspected three times and we never use a spray booth. the area quality management, they found out there was a shop across the street and they're painting and that is what i could smell. i smelled the pain. we are submitting work somewhere else. that is the reason that we have to work late-night because we do not have enough time to bring

the work back-and-forth from one place to another. this is putting a burden on my family because this is the only income by half. and eight of the families that work for me. i have to say, and i have my partner, too. president olague: i other speakers in support of the project sponsor? >> good evening. i am a partner of auto city repair. the thing is this. i guess i joined partner with hymie when he moved from his initial commercial space. from being a property owner to a renter, i know what he was going through. financially we are struggling. and so we had to relocate because the owner of the initial property decided they wanted to start a property. we searched and found the

property at folsom street. we made a mistake of hiring an architect that was giving us wrong directions and telling us what we need to do and we were following him. at the end, realized everything he was telling us to do including the plans, there was a lot of mistakes in there. at the end because of that, i do not know how much penalty we pay. we paid our dues and if i could show you the chart that we have, here. if you could see the chart, this is a guideline of the business we conducted in 2010. here is somewhat of a chart that uc to give you a rough outline. we're not a large business.

we are a small operating business try to make ends meet. and here is the 2011 chart. if you can see, the first three months, we were still on an initial commercial space. then on april, we started coming in to 1161 folsom because the instruction the architect gave us is you are free to start your process and we did. we do not know any better. this is the first time during this period that is what led to the notice of violation. i do not know how much do is repaid from that point. you see here in may, june, and july, we are completely shut down. i know they are telling us that we were operating a spray booth. they came by to the shops and many times, we did not operate anything. we have been struggling with this since day one and the sad

part is, we know that if we would have done this right from day one, we would not be here right now. i am asking to please put that in consideration. without this business, without being a full-service shop, we lost more than half of our customers from moving to one shot to another. we're trying to make ends meet. i am asking you to please support this project because without it, our business is going to die. thank you. president olague: are there any other additional speakers in support of the project sponsor? seeing none, dr requestor, you have two minutes of rebuttal. >> the situation sucks. i support industry. i support the repair business.

i am sympathetic. i expressed that to the representatives of the owners the first time we met, the only time we met in person to talk about it. at that time, it was not communicated that the full- service nature of the business was critical. it was communicated that the repair business was the primary business. again, i do not know the fact -- finances or the reality of it but i am sympathetic but at the same time, i am conflicted for obvious reasons. because of the health implications of our properties. and living next to a spray booth. the request for dr is to find common ground somehow within a wise planning decisions that accommodates both sides to the

best of your ability. with that, it is tough. and it sucks because these are our neighbors. i am friends with every other proprietor on the block. on a first-come basis. friends, because i support their businesses and i would love to be able to support this one. i urge you to please use your expertise to figure out how to help the residents by applying some conditions on this permit that do not necessarily force the business to go out of business. thank you. president olague: thank you. projects sponsor, you have two minutes. -- project sponsor, you have two minutes. >> one thing they did say is fulsome straight is to alleyways, this business is not

residential. also, living next to a body shop, we're not the only body shop. around the other side of brash streak, there is a huge body shop with four spray booths and they are doing 10 cars a day where we are doing one car a day if we do that. this is, you can see it from a building across the street. please take that into consideration that they are there. president olague: thank you. the public hearing is closed. i am going to go ahead and start out here today. i think this is something that is very frustrating. most discretionary reviews are very frustrating even though we insist on hearing them, at least i do and maybe one other commissioner does. >> good luck. president olague: i wanted to

say that sometimes we hear cases like that, it is a service like an industrial-mixed use district. and it is pretty well known when you look at the considerations as the staff person perhaps them here, the use as a major auto repair garages permitted in the zoning district perception 8 16.60. -- 816.60. it is and as of right use. at the planning information center, have the applicant completed the process correctly, there were misled by the architect as i hear which is unfortunate and it happens. it has happened before. we hear this frequently,

especially if you're a smaller business person. sometimes it is hard to know the rules and where to go. we're trying to improve that through the small business commission discussions and i believe there is a business now -- an office now for small business. -- for small-business assistance so we're trying to get better about communicating that to you all. you were definitely misinformed or misguided by an architect and at the same time i wonder sometimes, how are people who are purchasing residential units in areas that are mixed use, whether or not folks are being informed by the realtor as to what the allowable uses are in this district, western soma is coming up. the residential enclave districts are fantastic. sometimes there are existing uses and we do want to see a

continued mixed use in what is a pretty heavy or service light industrial, light industrial district. i do wonder and i have asked that before. what level of disclosure, what is the responsibility of realtors to people who are purchasing in these areas to disclose to them what is allowed as a right? they have not been misinformed by their architect, chances are this use would have gone through because noticing is not required. it is and as of right use. -- an as of right use. i would like to learn what information is required that the real terror disclose to people when purchasing units in these mixed use areas. also, it says here thatboth

currently exists, that is not true though. -- that booth currently exists. it has not been used. has it been used? >> and -- according to the inspector has not. >> it has not been used. there have been allegations that some of the fumes might be originating from someplace across the street? >> that maybe. another possibility is when they were installing the spray paint booth because the business owners believe they had been issued permit which they did not, it was the painting of the booth itself that may have been what the fumes were. it is not clear.

president olague: ok. we will see what other commissioners thing. it would be good to at least look at some of their requests that the neighbors had in terms of conditions. i am willing to at least look at them. and see if it is something we can -- if there is some that are actually -- >> this is about the operation of the auto repair shop, how they operate, the hours of operation and so on. it is -- the permit is for the auto spring with only. it is already permitted to be an auto repair shop. if they do not get the spray booth, they cannot do the body work. president olague: ok. >> they can do other kinds of repair. president olague: it is the spray booth that is really --

some of the other conditions we cannot consider because that is not before us. >> if you are going to allow the permit to be approved for the spray booth, we can condition that permit with some conditions. but it is my and your standing they do not want -- the requestor is do not want any spray booth there at all. so if they permit, if you take discretionary review, you can denied a permit. or put conditions that they can operate the spray booth with certain conditions, or permit just as of right. president olague: i wanted to clarify that. thank you. commissioner sugaya? commissioner sugaya: you were mentioning air quality. i assume the permitting process includes getting a area air quality permit inspection,

approval, something. >> they have not been able to go through that process yet because they are waiting on this process. the bay area air quality management district, i have spoken with an engineer there. and the inspector. the type of materials they are using does not raise the threshold for them. -- for them to do investigation. because it is located within 1,000 feet of the school, they will be doing noticing. our department did not require noticing for this change of use in the western soma. commissioner sugaya: i do not know whom to direct this question to. maybe staff will know. currently, the spray booth vents where? >> through the roof.

commissioner sugaya: one of the residential buildings is taller, is that correct? >> i have a photograph. i went on the roof and pictures. i can assure you, if that would help. >> dr requestor is are saying 20 feet. i understand is distance but i would like to know the relationship. >> this is from the roof of the subject property. i did measure the distance is to the dr requestor's home is here. these are intake valves in the exhaust system events here. so this is 30 feet. so this i am taking from -- that

is west. from the east of the roof. this is taken from standing in front of the dr requestor's window. this is an average distance, 30 feet. and the front of the property at folsom looking back. this is from the back of the property at brush place looking for. commissioner sugaya: thank you. i am thinking that i am not enamored with this point is, by the way. i think it is a real position. there are enough residential developments around at that you can call an excuse, but i do not think that bmw fans anything exterior, does it?

>> i believe they do. i did consult them as i was walking the neighborhood to see if a spray booth exists that does not bend externally, and it does not. >> bmw vents externally with a similar situation? >> yes. i believe so. it did not come up here but there is a huge roof and closed mechanical venting system. >> if there were two event -- to vent it higher, with that have a less negative affect? >> you would have to ask the dr. requestor is. if we moved it further toward folsom, if that would be amenable. it did not seem to be a solution. commissioner sugaya: i am saying

like with chimneys and other exhaust systems, can't we vent it higher? >> the question is if that would help from a film standpoint. the ventilation standpoint. i am not an expert but i would guess it is like a chimney and it would go -- it tends to go up it is not hot. -- tens to go up. it is not hot. is there a fan? >> there is two exhaust pipes and one for each chimney. i proposed to the dr requestor that i would raise those pipes 10 feet up but that was declined.

>> we offered to make adjustments to whenever we wanted it. they declined. commissioner moore: what is missing here is a technical expert which deals with insulation of these areas which are not architects designed but they are like manufacturing equipment. there are other auto repair places in the city, across from valencia gardens. there is bright painting on the second floor. that is within the spirit of business to create efficiency, location, and service. if you subcontract spring, it comes over the other thing and. to get back to the point i am trying to make, in order for

anyone to understand the problem, we need a technical expert just as we have i and other technical situations. who really speaks to the installation operation. my own belief is that exhausting at a higher point makes the impact on the residents last. for example, the middle of looking at its plumbing code to raise the venting sewer pipes higher for downwinds not to interfere with open residential windows. it is a similar situation but i do think to get back to the point i'm trying to make, if you would have brought your technical expert, and your engineer to come and speak to

us, it would be easier for us to consider this. there are other permitting agencies from air quality to california epa that has a bunch of other people that look at this. it is not as saying it is all fine or it is terrible. i would suggest we create the opportunity for that to happen. >> that is not in our board. commissioner borden. >> we're trying to take that into consideration. the spray that people are smelling did not come from this business but from another business. that is one of the things that concerns me in this process. it seems like there may be other actors in the neighborhood who could be influencing the fumes. it is an auto repair shop.

if you fix something, you want to paint it. you do not want to vouch for someone else's work if you do the fix job and they do a bad paint job. it does not make sense. i get that purpose and i am understand how the zoning is and why this makes sense. the only thing i can see as a compromise is we would take dr and ask a technical expert be brought in to look at the best solution to minimize the fumes. that is the only thing that would make sense right now. we cannot say 10 feet or move it to this because we do not know. if we took dr and asked a technical expert be brought in to look at the best location of the exhaust to minimize the impact and the quality management district and others were away in and make a further decision in that regard. we're not the people who can really tell you about the toxicity level and the air and atmosphere. we're n