over 35 years. i found that san francisco renaissance painting. i got involved in organic farming, i started a local business here. part of the reason i'm telling you this is to establish my credibility as a business person. how many more rentals can this business make at this location if they doubled their size? how much more noise and how much more polluted what our neighborhood be? if they are not going to double their activity, then maybe they can understand a more scaled- down project which is all we have been asking for repeatedly, the gentlemen that stood up here earlier and said he was at those meetings, i never saw him before. one other point i feel compelled to speak about is not speaking

out about where the development occurred. they built baneful lot project just like this one. the result is a tremendous loss of sunlight that we used to enjoy it when i moved into my home in 1985. this would do a lot more damage to our neighborhood. this is right on their yard. this is right next door to their property. please ask the developer to reconsider the hardship they are imposing and try to imagine that all businesses scale down when we move -- when they moved to san francisco. that is the one of the ways that we preserve our city. thank you. >> hello, sorry. i live on north point street and i came here to represent the actual neighbors that live in the neighborhood. this is a community that i believe everyone thinks is so commercial but it is not. it has families and people who

love and care about the neighborhood and the area that we live then. i am raising my children there and it matters to me a lot that someone's life, many people's lives will be affected by a development like this. this really affects everyone and the fact that somebody's quality of life, and for me that is really important, not only the police and and everything, but the parking, etc. and the fact that we rarely get much like there to begin with. to actually impact someone and their family for not having some light all day long for me is a huge thing. this affects someone's family and children and it is important to look at this from the aspect that this is not just a

commercial area, this is a wonderful aquatics park and a neighborhood and the neighborhood is the best part about it. if you don't take care of the neighbors, then it will just be over run. we have a lot of vandalism anyway. it would be overrun by pollution and vandalism and if you don't let the neighbors be happy there, then you are looking at a lot of people moving out of the area, which is what we want. -- which is not what we want. >> i am the director of human- resources for blazing saddles and i would like to tell you about our employment practices. this is about to get exciting. during the peak of our busy season, we employ up to 100 full-time employees. over 85% of our employee base lives in san francisco. most of them are renters and use public transportation.

they must spend their wages in san francisco restaurants and bars. our employees enjoy many benefits including the highest wages in the industry and a starting pay rate over minimum wage. we also offer a 401k. we have a very high retention rate. over 50% of our employees have been with us for over a year. we have a strong culture of development and most of our supervisors and managers have been promoted from within. we are a very good employe year. we hire locally and we pay well. we offer excellent benefits that had many long-term employees. we're the kind of business that is great for san francisco. we're looking forward to growing our business but we can only do this if we have the resources and infrastructure for additional staff.

i strongly support this project. thank you. >> thank you. >> hello. i have lived in the neighborhood for 32 years. i have raised my daughter in the neighborhood also. we are lucky to have an aquatic park right at our doorstep, there is lots of fresh air and a green space. i a seat good neighbors and friends on both side of this fence but these are very special people. all of their employees, i run into them in restaurants and in the neighborhood and most of them are young kids. they are really a unique group of people. someone i would like to see in my neighborhood and i would like to see them come and live in our neighborhood. i have looked at the renderings of the building and seeing everything and i would not agree to come until i saw it all.

i think we all have to be responsible to our neighborhood. i look forward to you approving this and having them as neighbors. thank you. >> thank you. >> hello. i was hired to help grow the business. the approval of this would help us to continue to grow blazing saddles and all of the associated benefits to the city, the employees that was just discussed, as well as local residents, with continued neighborhoods enhancements. one other important stipulation is the noise and pollution of this it car which is not our primary business and a very small percentage of what we do at a blazing saddles. this needs to be taken into account when the local residents were taken into account.

thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> i have been involved for the past 12 years. i am in support of this project. you can go to any of their locations and see how they do business and see that they are an outstanding citizens and they care about their people and anything they are involved in, they can be around anything they care and they do the research. i am in favor and i look forward to it happening. >> thank you. >> i live on north point and i moved up here because i fell in love with the character of the

neighborhood and i love the way it feels. my concern is for my neighbors, the affect on light and air but also the development is inconsistent with the neighborhood context in the style that is primarily upscale and this is able to be achieved where we can have a building that fits into the profile and feels like it is a more natural part of the neighborhood. that is possible to achieve. that is my feeling on that. >> thank you. >> i am a board member of the aquatic park neighbors and i speak on the development proposal. this is a neighborhood membership organization. the proposal is within the

letter of the law. however, this is not within the good neighbor category and this is not fit within the neighborhood. there are many neighbors here today, you can recognize them by the sign and they oppose the project as proposed. there are other people here and it appears supporting the project that we don't recognize in the neighborhood. the building a significantly higher than the surrounding buildings. also expected are the two-stroke

go-karts that you see around town. they are noisy and obnoxious fumes and an environmental impact report is required to address any expansion or relocation of the existing business. we have suggested that we limit the building to 25 feet with 35 feet in the back. with these changes, we can support this development and considered them a good neighbor. thank you for your time. >> good evening, commissioners. i am a native of san francisco born and raised. i grew up in this neighborhood in north beach, fisherman's wharf. i went to galileo high school. i am a homeowner on bay street. i am here to object to the

proposed limit but not object to the building of the project. i would like to recommend that the building height conforms to the building on the right rather than to the left. raising the height limit would like to see the character and charm that has happened over the past decades. i hope that you will consider for the neighbors light and the air for this project and to lower it and maybe we can compromise and everyone can be happy. >> thank you. >> good evening. i represent a local business on the neighboring property. we have been working with sears for quite a number of years and

as a local merchant, it is important for us to continue to develop the area of fisherman's wharf to beautify the neighborhood and to welcome visitors and support the neighborhoods that live in the community as well. as you know, we are continuing to develop in areas such as jefferson street project and other improvements so i hope that you continue to support this business and their website. thank you. >> greetings. i happen to be a resident on high street and i will speak around the parking issue because a significant increase in this business will have a significant increase on the congestion, not the least of which is currently blocked by most of the commercial vehicles as they stand but what i would like to point out is that the current proposal as parking space for one vehicle. currently, they park their own

personal vehicles and one of them is considered personal but they do parked in front of my apartment on a regular basis. they also have their staff maintain the spot so that no one else can park there. they are very large, they are very large advance with marking on them. it makes it almost impossible to find parking on a regular basis. if this is to increase at the level that will be indicated, there is an issue with parking. there is only one parking spot associated with this as well as additional workers to our going to be there. the other thing i would like to point out is the facility that they have is a rush. having an additional two or three spaces would easily solved the parking problem which is already currently congested. i would like to point out that

the other challenge we have is some we have heard how wonderful neighbors they are. i have spent money and attempted towing fees and those associated with moving because the vehicles that sears had not complied with posting placards. i am not the only one, this has happened at least three times and as a consequence, i do appreciate their need to maintain their business. i feel compelled that while they are very good to their employees, they're not good to their neighbors. think you. >> thank you, next speaker. >> hello, i would like to thank you for attempted to voice my support. as a recent hire, i am encouraged by the possibility for a small business to increase its infrastructure with

additional office space, we can grow further. as is our job to attract more customers to the area. we hope that you will support our business but also towards them. i was fortunate to be hired to a positive and inclusive business. as someone who recently faced a difficult job market, i asked the commission to support local job creation here in san francisco. >> these are my parents and i am here to give them all of my support. i was raised pretty much on the street along with my little brother. they are incredible members of the community and there is no

reason we should be not be -- there is no reason why we should not be in support of them. >> i have been working there every summer since i was old enough to. i hope that one day i will be able to pick up wherever they left off. thank you. >> i live on high street.

everyone should compromise and reduce the high and keep the lights. you will see, there is a building there, you will see. that is all. thank you, commissioner. >> if there is one thing that my friends and i knew, if we ever needed any job, we could get in touch and they would welcome us with open arms. while i was 10, 11, 12 years old and had extra money, getting

busy in the summer was important. it is nice to know that there are still jobs over here at blazing saddles and i know that i'm not the only one that feels this way. my full support goes towards their project. >> hello, i live at north point and i am opposed to the project. i would like to point out three things to you. from my perspective, they have basically stonewalled us and they have not considered the compromise that was proposed. i'm opposed to it of course for the light, the ball, and the changing of the air and the light in the neighborhood. i've listened to these comments as i am waiting in line and this is not an issue of growth or no growth, i have not seen any study that says that they can grow the business under the compromise that we proposed.

as a matter of fact, they will continue to grow the business and that was part of our compromise to give them plenty of room, plenty of space to grow. it is not either or. the third thing i would like to point out is the neighborhood itself. if you are a tourist, a visitor, that view out to the north bay come out to alcatraz is an iconic view of san francisco. it has been highlighted in movies, television shows. the recent nfc championship game that the 49 years posted. you will notice that none of the television studios go to a couple of blocks to the west and show that view because the buildings have completely blocked it. i am worried about setting a

precedent. this compromise allows them to be able to grow and be good neighbors. >> thank you. >> good evening. my name is thomas howard. my family has owned properties on the 800 block for 100 years. i have been at my location for 63 years. i am a fourth generation san franciscan and i would like to say that i am against the project for both at the height, the bolt, and the light. we want to maintain the character of this unique neighborhood and we would like to know if the board would vote no on this and if it goes through the 35 foot height limit with the setback. thank you. >> thank you.

>> hello there. was preparing to make a long speech. i will make it short. jeff is a hard worker. when i was young, i would go to high school, i would work in south san francisco. i worked as a busboy. i asked, how could you be a success? you give something, you take something. i go there, i go to college. now, i come back.

jeff owns a bicycle shop. i hope that you people come here to visit me, anyway, i tried to see the compromise because he built a block behind my back to build something that he struggles or con. you take away some of these lights and the privacy, especially my wife, we're looking at the third floor. you take the second floor, you're blocking. my wife and i have no policy i say it was -- two pictures are worth a thousand words.

the trees will be like that. they will be billed 40 feet high. everyone would like to make the best money, so, why not make everyone happy? to cite mama marry, they told me that. everyone is happy. i hope if i'm a businessman and i hope that you could take this in consideration. make it 35 feet high. >> thank you. >> bring it down and keep the lighting. >> i live on north point st., this is directly behind the project.

once a building is built, the back floor will be directly facing my living room and i have a big living room. i am also trying to raise a family. we are trying to raise a family. we have been living there and hanging on the living room. we are not greedy. i have been to all the meetings. we're all for san francisco small business.

we would like to lower a little bit, once they do that, for stories, 50 foot buildings, they would be staring at my living room. i don't have the luxury to close curtains on my living-room bay window. also, privacy. also some privacy, just try to compromise. we are trying to raise a family and allow them to grow. this is also affecting the neighbor. we do appreciate blazing saddles. this is what we face against evy day. this is what we face every day.

this logo was permanent and it took up two spaces on the street. now, they will expand their business. we will see that there will be more parking problems i don't think they have any kind of converter. this will create more pollution. we have been tolerating it all of these years and we want them to reach some kind of compromise. that is it. thank you. >> good evening, commissioners. i basically raised in san francisco. i was going around fisherman's wharf when i was 8 or nine years old.

it was run down and kind of cd. the whole area was like a plant at the beach north. since then, the area is undoubtedly had undergone a real transformation. this is one of the most popular visitor destinations in the entire nation. there is a neighborhood that lived along side of this but that is a fact of life of living in the area. i believe the remarkable transformation happening is due in large part to the hard work of city planners but in partnership with a visionary entrepreneur is to have transformed the area into one of the big money makers in san francisco in terms of revenue for the city and i think that this is a really important point that needs to be thought about but their business is a green

business and it is a sustainable business model. this is directly responsible for leaving literally millions of visitors to san francisco with indelible memories of the city and i think that the improvements they are asking for will continue to insist their business in serving the visitors of san francisco and residents alike. on the side not -- on a side note, i take my daughter to blazing saddles quite often. i think the plan is responsible. it is certainly reasonable. this is completely to code. i just believe that a visionary couple deserve a chance to continue their good work and i

urge you to approve their project. thank you. >> thank you. >> i live in north beach, i am a member of the telegraph hill dwellers. i am also a member of the aquatic park senior center. i am back and forth all the time and i have been doing this for many years. i want to mentioned that i think that they have presented you with a very elegant piece of architecture that is in tune with the neighborhood and we are in the 21st century, fisherman's wharf is changing the complexion as a more delightful place to be. a