transit center district plan which would provide a comprehensive plan for the area around the trends bay terminal and include a mechanism to increase development value to fund the construction of the transit center program in addition to other improvements. next up was the student housing ordinance which would establish a definition for student housing and land use controls for that use. the ordinance is up for first reading. belong collaborative process was described and the board's support was urged. supervisor kim would like to pursue concerns of academic institutions in her district and consider some things that it's in the item back to the commission. she describes two outstanding issues, ensuring the student units were sufficiently monitored to make sure any

conversions from stephen housing to regular housing would trigger the requirement of the inclusion ary housing payment. there had been discussions with the academy of art and there are asked to describe the discussions. the director described the process and recommendations to preserve existing housing. he described it the legislation is a separate issue from any discussions at the academy of art and that there is a discussion for a more global solution to legalize their work and if there were any agreements reached, this would come before the board at a later time. supervisor kim asked for more time to consider grandfathering these institutions. she is concerned about the floor by floor conversions might make it difficult to track. the motion to continue failed

and the item was passed on first reading. the last regular or events was an '88 or events. when you heard this in december, it would amend the planning code and other codes. the amendment would have excluded the square footage for the floor area for any accommodations in needed for that 88. since you heard the item, the changes to the planning code have been removed and this ordinance would require commercial landlords to make space is accessible or inform their tenant. it appears the supervisors may be interested in coming back for trailing legislation that would accommodate our new definitions of restaurants and seek to exclude 80 a accommodations from the floor area calculations. there were a couple of appeals scheduled. the first was for 24th street.

that was granted by this commission on june 14 to establish a financial service known as the first republic bank of a small storefront. this was not subject to formula retail control because the law was not yet effective but prior to the hearing, applicants withdrew their applications and the board took formal action to reverse the authorization and disapproved the bank at this location. next was a appeal -- an appeal for 55 look good at. this would have been the first appeal made by the historic preservation commission. but instead dead appellant failed to show up for the hearing and the board upheld the c of a. it that next would create new districts for the lower fillmore area and this item will be

before you with in the next three months. that is the report for this week. commissioner antonini: thank you carried a little confusion on the 24th street. he said the board of supervisors reversed the see you and then that the application was withdrawn? >> the applicant did not which two -- did not wish to defend and go to the board on appeal. since this commission granted the cu, a formal request was needed. >> rather than -- first republic decided rather that instead of going through the appellate progress, they would rather not have the branch? >> that's correct. >> they made the decision not to

pursue at the port of appeals? >> that's right. it is beyond us at that point anyway, but that is surprising. i think the vote was fairly overwhelming in favor. >> there were additional complications. the formula retail controls did become effective, so i don't know if that influenced the decision. they would have needed it badly for the financial services granted -- skip that -- they were grandfathered in because when you heard the formula retail ordinance, there was a provision added week grandfather in anyone with existing applications. i am not sure why they withdrew the application. >> our measure was because of the square footage. >> -- for that particular

financial institution commercial district as opposed to the formula retail. what they have to come back to s for that or just have the appeal heard at the board of supervisors? >> they would have been grandfathered because they had an existing application at the time. if a new bank were to try to fill that spot, they would be subject to a formula retail controls said they would need that for financial services and for retail. >> that is curious, but we can't do much about it. commissioner wu: i was curious about housing production tracking system. is that going to the board of supervisors as well? >> that was scheduled for a monday that it was continued.

i expect it will be after the break. >> is there a board of appeals report? >> the item that was on for a continuance today was continued indefinitely. one of the reasons was to allow real notice for the project because its subject to the formula retail use for banks. pat will be before you in late september. the board of appeals did meet last night. there was the appeal of the local coastal zone for the athletic field. this is the first appeal of the local coastal zone that i am aware of. the local coastal zone permit process was added in 1985 and has never been amended cents. i think the first appeal we had

to the board of appeals was that hearing it. it was what a great public comment and the board of appeals did vote to uphold this project. it had been subject to an appeal. other items of note -- it was the last hearing for commissioner hillis who served on the board of appeals. the board of appeals will miss him and wish him the best. it is the board's loss, but the commission postgame. >> commissioners, we can move forward on your calendar. there is an informational presentation on the downtown plan monitoring report for 2011. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i'm with the city wide group and planning department. i am going to run through a

short summary of the results of the downtown plan monitoring report which you have in your packet and point out there is a more detailed summary in the cover letter and a new information graphically developed in the first couple of pages of the report. this report covers changes during 2011 in key land use and transportation topics as required by the administrative code. the annual changes identifies small changes that basically continue past trends. the downtown area continues to be one of the region's resilient places. a little more of an increase downtown than citywide or the region. downtown did have a net loss of housing units with the demolition of 31 units.

the city also experienced a drop in housing production city-wide last year. however, there are approximately 4000 units in the residential pipeline right now, so we would expect production to increase in the future as the economy recovers. transit use continues to be stable and high relative to most cities. 36% transit use for peak hours downtown. unfortunately, that is not quite reaching the planned goal of 70%. that concludes my presentation. i would be happy to take any questions now or later.

>> are we going to take public comment? commissioner sugaya: i have a question about the graphic on page 3 here on the commercial pipeline. is this series of numbers for office retail -- the greyed out portion are the number of square feet in the pipeline in other parts of the city? >> exactly. commissioner sugaya: we're seeing 9,500,000 square feet outside of downtown in the pipeline? >> that includes the downtown. you get a ratio there. >> it seems like another -- that

seems like a lot of office development -- if we could look into that -- >> i suspect it is mission bay and hunters point shipyard. >> there are a couple of projects that will build out over a longer time. commissioner sugaya: those projects are skewing the numbers on the city-wide side? it isn't distributed evenly throughout commercial areas? >> no. commissioner antonini: in addition to the housing projects in the pipeline, there are quite a few under construction. one would expect the 2011 drop

was an anomaly and there will be big changes in 2012. the transit use mentioned only 36% and your report says 31% walk, 2% pike, and 2% use other modes. adding it up, it looks like 70% coming to work by non-auto means. that is pretty impressive. walking is a statement to the fact that we have quite a few residential areas in walking distance of the businesses downtown. >> the data behind the summary is a journey to work data from the census. it is the choice of residence inside the super district.

the next page is the percentage of transit ridership in the peak hours of 2010-2011. commissioner antonini: this was probably for the 2012 report, but as was mentioned in the press and i believe it was brought up during comments here some weeks ago that we had a big jump in employment in the downtown area in the first six months of this particular year. there are newer figures that will show quite an increase which is encouraging >> absolutely. president fong: is there any public comment on any item in

this report? commissioners? any comments or questions? >> if we can move forward on your calendar to the general public comment for 50 minutes. at this time, the public may address you on any subject matter in the jurisdiction of this commission. however, for this category, each member of the public may address you for up to three minutes each. keep in mind the entire category as a 15-minute time on it. i do not have speaker parts. -- i do not have any speaker cards. president fong: is there any general public comment? >> i'm not sure if you had a chance to read a little message

i just sent, but anyway, i'm sick and tired of being sick and tired and i know that's not an original sentiments, but i think i speak to the sentiments of the neighbors of that little church. i have spoken about the fact i know the people and the little congregation at the end pray for saving the little church and turning it to a good use and some people believe god sends angels to earth. i don't know if they believe that or not and the angels look like ordinary people. i have met the angels living across the street from that little church. what she has done to try to guard it is sad. frustration and the paint and michael who lives across the street has than documentation you can't believe. we went to the department of building inspection and we

pursued it there. after the 2010 denial of the application, i went up a few times and i made a report and the police came and asked to meet with me and said please write to the district attorney because there is nothing we can do unless they are in possession are have open containers because the property owner wants these people there. i wrote the district attorney and went to the board of supervisors when they were looking into the parallel and testified there and i wrote to the board of supervisors and nothing happened. i've written to you and other people. this is just terrible. think of the press and for other developers. let's say they want to stamp their foot and say we have a

right and we're going to sue. if suing the city gets this kind of results that the city can't do any enforcement of these matters against the sponsors, it is a slippery slope. maybe they will say never mind that we want to put a pedestrian tunnel across the route of the subway and never mind that we want to eliminate a thousand units or more from the area that is supposed to be housing and never mind the parking spaces and emergency vehicles and the sirens 26 times a day as they try to make their way against traffic. we are suing. maybe you can't consider these things. the city cannot be paralyzed by the fact someone has sued and i would ask you to try to take action to get the city attorney to take some action here.

president fong: any additional public comment? next item, please? >> you are now ready to start your regular calendar with items sixa and sixb. the zoning commission will hear the -- [unintelligible]

>> it good afternoon. i'm with department staff. this is a request for a conditional use authorization to demolish the gas station and construct a 43,000 square foot mixed use building that would include 24 residential units, three of which will be affordable, 3000 square feet of ground for commercial space and a 14-space underground parking garage with 12 bicycle parking spaces. access to the garages from castro street. the zoning administrator will consider the request after you consider the conditional use request. subject property is on the northwest corner of castro street and market street in the neighborhood commercial

district. the sponsor has been working closely with neighbors on the design of the project and as a result, the project includes a 450 square foot community meeting space and extensive pedestrian street scape improvements. the demolition of the gas station would allow full use of the site and will not appreciably diminish access as a 24-hour chevron station is located across the street and a shell station is located east of the project site. proximity of the site and subway station makes it well suited for residential development and the elimination of the gas station supports the city's transit- first policy. the commission has received one call an objection to the project and has received comment from

castro planning in action and a letter supporting the project. at the department recommends approval of the project as it creates 24 new one-bedroom and two-bedroom dwelling units and includes a three on-site affordable units and redevelops and underutilized's -- personal and provides new opportunities for employment and advances the general plan meets the applicable rick -- plan -- applicable planning code. president fong: project sponsor? >> it good afternoon. i'm mitchell benjamin and rick essentially describes the project and i came here to describe the project also. what i am about to show you, you should have gotten in your packets.

this is the proposed one on its own the project is right on the corner of castro and market street. it is it 24 residential units above retail and a ground floor community space that has been given to the various community groups we have been working with for the last year-and-a-half or so. the design of the building has morphed. the project was submitted in 2005 and it has morphed from an architectural design to a

modernist, more dramatic strong building at a very important corner of the city. there are 14 parking spaces, 12 of which are for the residential units. that commercial space, besides the community space is about 2500 square feet and the design can be used as one big space or divisible into two or three smaller spaces depending on how it is used in the future. i can answer any design questions if you have any. president fong: will call from -- will call for public comment and i do have some speaker cards unless there is any other information from the sponsor.

>> you all have just received a letter of support from the three neighborhood organizations we have in working with over the past years. on the design, specifically. just five minutes prior to this hearing, one of the members of one of the group's who i believe missed one of the meetings showed up and asked if we could continue with the hearing today but have the department come back later with an informational presentation after everything has been finalized. if the commission is disposed to do that, we have no objection. >> i'm with department staff. this is not a continuance they are requesting. what is being requested is an additional conditions to be conditions of approval asking that the final plans be brought

back to the commission under the director's report to show the commission what a final design is that has been worked out with the neighborhood. that is being requested of the commission would care to do that. thank you very much. >> public comment? [reading names] approach the podium if you are prepared. >> and the executive director for the castro upper market committee benefit district and i would like to speak very positively on behalf of this project. the district has been working

for about a year-and-a-half with the neighborhood associations the project sponsor on all lot of details on this project. you have a letter signed by all of us in strong support and the board is in strong support of this and i would say the project sponsor has been absolutely cooperative in meeting all the needs and interests of that community. thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i am here both personally as a resident of the castro as well as a business owner. i live about two blocks away from this project. this is where i live and this is where work. this is where my employees work and live and my clients live and

work. i canceled to meetings to come here, finding out only one hour before this meeting was happening. i've never done this before, so i hope i can do it properly. i'm a commercial real-estate broker before the economy took a turn and after i went to law school, i got my advanced law degree in tax and i run a tax business is a very untraditional space. i purposely chose the space where rim because it had would at floors, because i have the white picket fence look on the inside, because it was old. now i see this morning at the meeting, they took a vote and i was one of many people who said no, this is not right. this doesn't fit our culture. doesn't look like the harvey milk plaza or the castro

theater. it does not look and feel like where i live and work and where my businesses. it is not what we are. it is steel and glass and downtown. the same look of the project will be built two blocks away. i'm glad to see both of those come because i think it improves the neighborhood. this building destroys my neighborhood that is my home and office. if the other gas stations across the street were to do the same thing, we would have highrises around are a central intersection and it would not look the same. i would have lost three of three gas stations. i ride a motorcycle so i don't need much gas but i don't even know where another gas station is if you take these gas stations away.