and japantown in the 60's and was very high buildings or very low buildings. the grid in the past in san francisco was always two to sick floors and what we did in those days is created a lot of surface level single or double story and everything else was really high and i think you may be able to gain density by looking at the areas where there's rooms now and if it' possible to add a floor or two to those and gain more housing or more things there, but then stay away from where are high buildings where you can and still end up with the same density but make it more of a pedestrian level type of community that is relates better and casts fewer shadows. that might be one possibility. and then the parking is realistic. yeah, it's going to have to be close to 1:1 in most instances because you have to provide for people coming to the area from all over the bay area and although transit will improve in

the future, you have to have a place where residents will be able to park and people, particularly visitors, will be able to park. the final thing is the i.f.d. which was mentioned earlier. it could be a great tool that you might be able to use in the future because as the city and county of san francisco can use a lot higher ta ee eer tax incr is higher than any other place in california because we are a city and a county and that is an attractive investment tool that could be used to help with the process. president olague: commissioner sugaya? commissioner sugaya: a couple ras last things on my mine. doesn't 3d little tokyo also own the hotel there? i think they just sold it. i think they just sold it. so there's maybe some movement on their part. yeah. i think that's been severed and

is in the hands of someone else now. sort of following up commissioner antonini, one of my pet peeves has been those two surface parking lots in the middle of your community. you would think there would be a higher and better use for those things even though i know it is extremely political and the way they are managed and i won't go into it, but it is complicated the way they are managed and owned. and it would seem two surface parking lots in the middle of japantown, we could try to find something to do with them. and keep the parking at the same time. and so if that could be explored a little bit more, that might bring about some additional space for either -- i am not thinking so much retail commercial but maybe just residential above or some kind

of creative open space situation or community spaces or something. anyway, then in terms of the density of the situation and retention in heights with some small, incremental increases, i still think that it would behoove the department to take a look at the actual economics of that. i know there's been a study that they undertook of the properties and the existing heights of the buildings that are there now. and the existing zoning and what increment remains and that results in their saying that increment can provide for a lot more housing than currently exists. my question about that is who would develop that anyway? given the lot sizes and my naive

thinking is you'd have to aggregate a bunch of properties to get to the economics where you could either build on top or to the side or maybe demolish and build new. anyway, so maybe some kind of quick economic study or developer or could come and tell us or you guys what the economics of that might be. lastly, i would really like to recognize one of the partnerships formed really tarp around the planning process that took place and added a lot to the community meetings i attended and brought new people and faces and a new way of thinking and the summary that they did wasn't the original plan, but it did go through point by point in a really good fashion for everybody to understand what the original plan was trying to say.

and i am glad they have stuck together and have continued to be involved in this process. president olague: i want to thank staff, mr. lord, for all your work. and the encouraging to hear members of the community also really support your involvement. so want to thank you for that. and commissioner sugaya for continuing to be engaged in this. what i heard today i thought was some more authentic community vig vision for japantown that was not driven so much by certain financing pieces like increasing heights and sort of having to base the plan on that but basing the plan on what the community wants to see develop there. and then sort of like this is our vig, vision, and then we'll figure out the financing rather

than having the financing determine the vision, so it is kind of nice to see that today. i support a lot of those concerns that commissioner sugaya raised, though, around the housing and who would build it and that sort of thing. but hopefully it will come around. the commercial land trust is an interesting and the community land trust for commercial use. and i think commissioner borden raised an interesting example of that, but again, with hamaguchi mentioned that 3d says there's -- it's not for sale. so what do you do with that, right? there is all that that still has to be worked out. but hopefully it will be at least soon. the cultural heritage we have long supported that. and also wanted to acknowledge neomachi roots and it is exciting in the past year we

have raised the concern that youth also be involved with the next generation decision for japanto japantown. when you see so many shifts in the community, i think it's really critical that they have formed and are giving critical input. we look forward to reading your 18-page memo when that you have done. and finally i heard someone say that characterize the japanese community as passive and that's never been my experience in dealing with japanese folks starting with sugaya and ending with a member of the audience. so i don't know. i guess you are closer to the culture and you would know, but i have to say that is not how i would characterize the japanese community. anyway, just good that everyone is continuing to engage and i am excited with the direction i see things going in because it just does feel more community driven finally.

commissioner borden? commissioner borden: i wanted to say one final thing that i meant to say earlier. in terms of the issues around entrepreneurialism, i think it would be fun you were talking fabt you can't get local citizens or encourage businesses from japan, but you might want to look at how you can do some fun incubator and partner with organizations that go incubator stuff around small businesses. i think one of the challenges in the african-american community and often in the japanese-american community to get the next generation to want to do stuff but they don't necessarily want to run their parent's bakery or restaurant. if you can figure out fun, innovative ways to encourage businesses that might be a little different but get the younger generation excited about having the businesses in japantown that means something to them to explore. and one of the challenges we are trying to figure out with all the different cultural communities within san francisco, how do you keep the next generation wanting to be

part of that, of what's coming next. maybe the roots group can ponder about some of the issues around that. president olague: and one last thing was the existing open space. i spent a whole lot of time in jap japantown. i just like going there. i have often wondered ability the underutilization of the open spaces there. and outside of the roof conversation, it will be interesting to see what the community devises as far as that is concerned. commissioner sugaya? commissioner sugaya: i wanted to acknowledge the tremendous amount of work and support from paul wizaki to the effort and following what commissioner borden, it is curious, i walk up and down kearney because my office is there, but there is a new shop selling japanese -- juko, is that correct, dresses in the style of, what do they

call it? lolita gothic or whatever. there is one in japantown in the new people building but this is an independent store front. it's interesting that it's located where it is. it's the kind of thing that i think the community needs to get its head around because there's a shop in hayes valley, and stuff springing up all around the city that you would think, oh, it would be really great if it was in japantown. anyway. president olague: thank you. we're going to be taking item out of order. we'll be hear iing item number next. secretary avery: thank you, commissioners and public. president olague has mentioned, we are taking item 12 out of order. it is case number 2011.0921t.

public art fee and public art work trust fund. >> thank you, commissioners, anmarie rodgers, and as you know, this ordinance has been introduce bid two parties, both the mayor and board president chu and i would like first to turn the microphone to representatives of their offices to make a few statements why they felt the need to introduce this ordinance from the mayor and board president chiu. first we have jason elliott from the office of the mayor. >> commissioners, jason elliott, mayor's legislative director. thank you very much for holding this hearing. today we are proud to be co-sponsors of this legislation along with president david chiu. i think there has been some very

good recommendations that have come from planning staff there contained in this report and i have to say we agree with most, if not all, of them, and it's not a disagreement but we need some more conversation and new issues that need consideration. let me say as far as we are concerned with this legislation that was motivated by the success of the 100% art program and how the downtown gallery has turned into such an asset for the city and looking to do more in the way of public art and publicly accessible art and expanding the horizons of the gallery and the types of art that san franciscoans can enjoy and is funded by the program. we have heard president chiu and our office has heard strong community support to expand the options available to private developers in how they fulfill the obligations and the artist community which i know you'll hear from has made a very compelling case on different

types of art that could be funded by this program by the 1% program. now all that said, the planning department did recommend categorizing different size and different segregating commercials and residential and placing different requirements on different types of buildings and i will let president chiu's office speak for themselves but from the mayor's perspective these seemed like reasonable differentiations and distinctions to make and we appreciate the planning commission and the arts department working together on the recommendations. and ultimately it is a good idea to extend the flexibility that is included here. this is a good program, the 1% program and creates a good downtown gallery and we support the legislation and thank you for considering this and thank planning staff and the arts commission for all their hard work. i will first, if i could, allow katherine rossburg to speak and then would be happy to answer any questions. >> thank you, commissioners.

katherine rossburg from the office of supervisor david chiu. he is also the elected representative of much of the c3 district with the district of the focus of the legislation and we want to first thank the planning department for 25 years or over 25 years of great work administering the downtown arts fund. the proposal is many years of work by the arts commission and arts community and we want to thank them for all their work. last spring we began conversations with the arts commission and the mayor's office about legislation introduced in july and since then there have been many good convictions with the public and among departments about ways to improve the legislation. a lot of that is is representative of the stock report before you. and the supervisor, like the mayor, is supportive of the recommendations and open to others. thank you. president olague: thank you. >> thank you, commissioners.

now as part of the staff presentation, i would like to do something different that we haven't done before. i would like to introduce a retired staff member of the planning department who is part of the department for many years and actually helped develop the 1% program as part of the original downtown plan in the 1980's. and after she presents some of the successes of the programs, then i'll go through the department recommendations for this ordinance. and we do have an item on the overhead, too. >> commissioners, i am ava lieberman and i worked for the city for 19 years and for 15 years i helped to implement the arts requirement. when we initiated the arts requirement in the course of the development of the downtown

plan, it was a true innovation. public art to be provided and maintained by private developers for the public enjoyment was groundbreaking. after the requirement was adopted as part of the downtown plan, more than 40 people worked over a year in order to design guideline is attesting to the popularity of the provision. it is this book that has been developed and also very meticulously followed. and what we want to attain in downtown is an exquisite outdoor

gallery and i would like to introduce you to some pieces that have been developed in the last 25 years. this is the angel by a berkley artist. an ar piece in an exclusive pedestrian walkway. an historic piece. it's art deco mounted on the facade of the building as part of the requirement. it is on the garden and the eclipse when the earth and the sun aligned up.

across the street -- not working here. i just want to go back. i missed a few. across the street is a successful collaboration between the landscape architect and two

of the garden. and here in detail. and the piece which is placed on the steps of the old federal reserve building. this is where the developer provided two art pieces and a painting and a sculpture. this is the view from the mezzanine of the fantastic open space or conservatory.

this is one of the monumental pieces again in one of the exclusive pedestrian walkways. the previous section concentrated on monumental art and now i will show you several very small open spaces that also generated art. >> that is okay. >> so please bear with me. these are the small open spaces. less than 3,000 square feet. the smaller art pieces are smaller than the large art pieces. and very small open space near

chinatown. >> and with the sculpture here. a tiny open space in enclosed by very tall buildings and the marvelous tool in the core of the financial district. and it's an art piece. the massive fountain right next to the market street sidewalk. actually a double fountain as you can see with two walls that make up the fountain.

smaller than 3,000 square feet. very useful and popular. this is the access to the garden and to see the logo which clearly identifies every public open space including the art pieces. just a few slides showing art in connection with to the other buildings. a mural with a glass wall.

the entrance to one of the residential buildings. and the other residential buildings. i hope this shows you the great variety of artists have created that consists of sculptures and paintings and mosaics and reliefs and the art piece together with the open space is located most of the time and is wonderful in areas sprinkled all over downtown and make the downtown so human and enjoyable. thank you very much. >> thank you, commissioners. i also have a little power point. hopefully it will stay on the

table here. and a little bit about the downtown plan and you know a lot about that. and one we might want to look at for re-examination and in fact, i do have some more public comments that were delivered to us. and it was developed under the assumption of office employment downtown. >> and this would provide new revenue sources with the costs necessary for urban service improvements and created by the need for housing transit, child care, open space, and art.

and the arts requirement is in third quarters 429 of the planning code and provides the construction or addition of any new use upgraded in 25,000 square feet within the c3 district and to 1% of the construction cost towards the provision of public art. this is showing the other areas closely related to the art requirement and primary purpose of the plan is the art and open space requirement are to over time assure that the development is guide sod that workers, residents and business wills not adversely impact the downtown and will have a nice compact, walkable core. you heard about the fine art

guidelines and that count towards the costs and provisions and this is the downtown plan and what we have is we have done an inventory with that piece of art or more than a project per year required to produce this art and in the draft survey which we have provided in the packet and updated since then, there will be a new copy in a moment and even though we haven't done any enforcement since the downtown plan was created, there is only one property with a problem to access. and we reminded them of the process and the one we had trouble accessing that they better fix it and with the $500

fine. and there were a few that were removing the plaque, but we have gotten new signs on those. and the downtown development and it is also available on our website. looking at the art and we anticipated that the office growth would expand beyond the c3. and there are a number inside the c3 and also outside and in the south market area. and you do provide the public art and outside of the district you are not required to provide any public art under the

existing environment. and a residential growth. the downtown plan buzz about guiding office development and a lot of high-rise, high intensity residential development also in the downtown. in talking with some of the authors, there is more of them here today actually in the audience, and it is true that it was with the development for the office and a requirement for the open space. and sometimes it's more of a challenge with the public art pieces in concert with residential development. and our analysis found that the monumental art that you have seen today is really important for the downtown buildings, especially those where they have an open space requirement. and it is a public space where

they are welcome to go and also leverages private development in an interesting way. and not only do they put the capital into a piece of art associated with their property and also add value to their property and required to maintain and that is something that's significant and the city also struggles with the maintenance cost for any infrastructure and art is no exception. and we need to prioritize the public art requirement where we have a large plaza on the downtown floor and here is a piece of art work inside the lobby and the requirement states you have to provide it in the right-of-way or in the