and cast moldings and trims around the outside of the building. part two level of parking level on the ground and apartment spaces in the back and this community yard, the courtyard at the second level and all these units will have front and back light from the street as well as from the rear yard and then the courtyard. the upper levels then are very similar and then the section you can see the courtyard underneath. so the other piece is the street scape. kind of forbidding there now. there are no trees there. we have a street scape plan that meet for

better sidewalks and sections of the landscapes. that is my presentation. >> thank you, we might have questions. opening up for public comment. ron miguel? ryan sprinkle >> believe it or not this was actually what i was here for today. i would like to very much very much give my appreciation to mary woods who has strug we would this project probably as long as i have. i as president at that time of the planning association for the richmond put together the first public meeting in '04 and have been working with this ever since. as being on and off the project from time to time and it was a struggle to get an

historic architect on the project. neighborhood theatres of this size are the conner stone of commercial neighborhood districts. so you have a special consideration of this project, but there is a couple of things i would like to caution you on. if you were to consider this project as open space, no theatre, just let us say all parking lot or level, the department and the commission would probably require some type of give back to the public in the form of open space. the small triangle that is shown here to me did -- does not meet that concept. it is far too small, the give back is far too small. that's my first comment. the second one is i have always thought and i have no reason to the absolute that this is a project

that will be sold after entitlement and my caution to the department of the commission is that watch out for any major changes at that point this is a very very important project to the richmond district. it is the focal point . i would be very very careful about that. other than that i think the project has finally come to some reasonable degree of the possibility of the neighborhood very much. they want something improved and since it's been started and that's appreciated. my only other question is whether the commercial spaces

are economically viable. i would not like to see the main spaces or the smaller retail spaces to be a drag on the neighborhood. thank you. >> additional speakers? >> good afternoon. i agree with the commercial spaces with the theatre. my name is ryan sprinkle, a resident of the district. my concerns with the commercial space plan for the interior of the alexandria is that our neighbor already has a significant band -- abundance of mixed use space. the place behind the theatre also includes retail space. this

seems like a lot of retail space to if ill when we already have a lot of retail space to fill in our neighborhood . what we really need in our neighborhood is entertainment destination. we don't have entertainment in the neighborhood as is and this theatre is a corner stone of the neighborhood. it is an icon of the neighborhood and i would like to propose and alternative plan which was presented is that we nix the commercial development inside the alexandria entirely and combine this theatre and restaurant into one entity like many other theatres around the bay areas have done. we have kabuki theatre and which service food and drinks and there is the

theatre in portland which i think is similar to the alexandria theatre and both face closure. the theatre was reopened by a chain of group pubs that found success showing second run film and selling cheap tickets and attracting people with delicious food and beverages which is i think is a more viable plan than trying to cram more retail space in a space that already has a problem filling retail space. i have some pictures here to show the baghdad theatre. i don't know if it will show over my phone, but i will try. you

can see in the interior of the theatre there is tables where people can watch the movie while they are eating their food and having their beverages. we can have community events there, we can have live shows, guest speakers, live music and the local schools can do performances on. thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i'm speaking on behalf of myself. sue von. this is a great plan. i'm so happy to see something happening on this corner. this is a place where i live. i think former commissioner ron miguel made a

point about entitlement and the project changing and i think there is a reason why we are watching the ceqa so carefully and the planning commission is going back and review changed plans and the public needs to have the ability to appeal changes and modifications. my main concern with this project is too much parking. we just need to get our heads around this. we just need to figure out how to take public transportation, how to walk and how to ride our bikes. we can do it. we don't need to be so dependent on cars. if we decrease the amount of parking as close to zero as possible, we will also decrease the cost of each of the units and make it more affordable and that is

certainly just top priority for the city, affordable housing and especially in the richmond district. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> good afternoon commissioners, derrick. i want to speak in general support of the project. i don't think i will be alone in saying that it's long over due. i have lived in the district for about 17 years. it's been a travesty that this theatre has remained vacant for over ten years with a n at the -- deterioration. this current design is a vast improvement and sort of on that

note, i would urge the planning department and the planning commissioners to direct the planning department staff to work with this project's sponsor to achieve a successful project that's acceptable to the community. one of those notes in particular, just given that this has been going on for so long, it's been at least ten years that this site has been vacant, it is a dragon -- other local retail. i would respectfully request the planning commission not give in to demands such as we heard from the previous speaker and allow the develop tore -- developer to build a viable project within the guidelines and rules of the planning

department. so, reducing parking in a residential development reduces the commercial viability of those unit, reducing parking in a retail development, reduces the profitability of those units, a lot of people don't understand that when a developer builds a project, they need to achieve a specific rate of return required by their investors. if they can not get that required rate of return, no project will be built and this project site will continue to be a blight and an eye sore in the district. i urge you to approve a reasonable project and allow the developer to build what i think is going to be an asset to the neighborhood. thank you very much. >> any additional public comment? okay. public comment is closed. commissioner antonini? >> i think this is an excellent

project and very well crafted. i appreciate the comments of a number of the speakers. i think the first speaker who spoke about a project with the restaurant and theatre combined is a nice idea, but at this point i think we've been through many years to try to craft this into an ability to something that can be built and can make sense. i think it does a lot of good things and it does the type of thing that was done at the marina theatre on chestnut where two smaller theatres on the top and commercial use opt bottom and this combines additions on the restaurant t concern about vacant spaces in the area you have to look at the quality of some of those spaces. some of them are under utilized and when you have a very high quality customer base they

provide some new choices. then i also entirely agree with the last speaker that it's not going to be viable without parking. the parking is pretty moderate. it's one to three units and you have a small number of parking spaces for the commercial. a lot of people will drive by something and if they have to find a parking place, they will not go to the movie or restaurant or the store. you have to be a realist. i think the design is really good in preserving a lot of what was there in the original 1923 theatre. i really like the mediterranean revival and ceremony with the theatre. the other thing they did there was really quality

work. woodwind -- windows and relief with real offsets and balcony. i'm very much in favor. i would make a motion to approve. i see there is another commissioner who wants to comment. >> i happen to live in this area and grew up around 3 blocks from the area. if any of

remember the movie "bad news bears". >> i think it's a great place. the little cafe on california street is for live music and it's a venue for all nights. it's premature to announce who you think might be the operator of this theatre. if it's the lee company or not? >> i did want to comment about the retail space in general. we have had conversations with the director of the ymca across the street and i don't know if perhaps with the office of work force and economic development

there may be a way to d they need and you know if you have gone to that y, it's substantially under, it's very small. they can use the additional space and so that would be a great use, i think we have had conversations with the owner of the ford star theatre about operating it. i think if the y could operate it, you could serve in a community capacity that way. i have will is spoken to a number of two different real estate commercial real estate brokers who said they had restaurant who would be interested in a space like this. and i agree with commissioner antonini about someone once how can you have a restaurant on the upper floor, no one is going to be able to see it. having a 70 foot high blaze height saying

alexandria, it could help to spark a revival of some economic interest in that neighborhood. >> as far as if architecture i rarely comment on the architecture, my first response is it's so ornate inside. it would be great to bring it to the exterior. miguel did you have a comment? >> thank you. just to add what he was saying. about the second meeting, i was able to bring someone from the ymca for the

west coast. they are definitely interested in that. let alone some of the space in the theatre itself. it would be a natural mix and in this instance, the y actually owns the property. they are not renting it. they have owned it for a long time. maybe they can operate both or one and maybe the space as possible housing at some point. >> thank you, commissioner moore? >> it is a great story. i wish it had that little extra caveat what we heard about the mission theatre that an operator would indeed would have stepped forward. this is an exclusively rich theatre. when you see a complicated space like this without having a commit operator, it gets a little dicey to just optimistically looking into future where other

opportunities to get entitlement for the process but it's like the tail wagging the dog. i'm concerned about that process. are you in agreement that the first floor, the retail spaces because of the exposure and the way they are chopping up the big easter egg are difficult for anybody, the interior and unless you are in paris where you have some kind of a grand designer of making use of the drama of the space, it's very hard to find a normal operator in this kind of space. >> i think again we don't have an operator at this point of course, so it's hard to answer that question as to the final design, but this is the kind of space that should the y be interested in, we do not need the second level of entry and

then they could be in a position to use the whole thing on an operator like that, it could actually improve the way this interior is designed. these movie theatres are definitely a challenge because of the volume of space and how balance, how they get seen on the outside because we have these murals above that we don't want to affect. the store fronts run below that. i do agree it is a challenge. >> i appreciate the way the two buildings tie together. i think it would be easily approvable. i would like to see in the conditions that this does not make it just a flipable project. i believe the quality of adaptive reuse, needs a

commitment to the quality architecture on the quality of the parking lot that it's not just an adventure and cheapish down. unfortunately it came to my attention, please correct me if i am wrong that somewhere along the building there was vandalism in the last couple of weeks. i heard that. >> there was some vandalism. someone did break in a few weeks ago. the good things about the vandalism, the front doors were open. there was graffiti sprayed on the interested but not on any of the historic fabric, the bad news was that, there are three small plaques that as you walk up the grand stair they are about this big and apparently

someone chipped those out. one of the solutions to that is we have very good photography of them. they are small and plaster and potentially can be created and we have others with the same finish and it could be matched by a conscious -- conservator. >> the point i'm trying to make to this commission followed an absolutely heartbreaking story from mr. miguel was part of a theatre on hardening. it was so absolutely heart wretching to see an historic resource where at it's time had the qualities similar or comparable to what you are describing absolutely totally there are no words to

describe it, ripped apart and because there is no commitment, but there is indeed a real estate venture on the other end that there wouldn't be restriction put on the maintenance, supervision, day-to-day care of the theatre that is what i believe the commission needs to attach to the approval of this project and in addition to that and i think we are not allowed to do that, i would like to tie the execution of the adjacent build to the same level of care, preferably which we can't do with the same architecture to bring it forward with the same promise by which this community comes out and supports it and has lived with some difficult conditions.

>> following on commissioner's comments i want to check on the checks and balances we might have to ensure that the projects maintain this integrity if the sponsor or if the entitlement is sold. >> i think the only way that staff can do it is to as suggested by commissioner moore is to place a condition in the approval so then that way staff would be able to enforce the intent of what you are trying to do. if it's not written down then staff has no mechanism to do enforcement or to make sure the sponsor maintains the theatre regularly so it doesn't get run down. >> jeff johnson planning

department, because those concerns are raised by the community and others, we held the project to somewhat higher standard to some of the finer scaled details. not contained in your packet are a number of details that we requested and product and included windows, cultured stones and sections and details, roof tile, canopy elements and doors surround and that kind of level of detail to make sure that is memorialized. >> i appreciate that but the element is day-to-day security and the manner that we don't have to spend later money to imitate a plaque that has been

ripped off. i would like this to be a protected resource if it's occupied. that requires an investment and commitment from the owner that is like a real life presence in a project. >> commissioner antonini? >> i would like to make a motion to approve and i would to capture a few things. the first part of my motion is to require strict security on the building until such time the project is completed as designed. obviously there would be security after it's completed too but our biggest fear is what might happen if it was vandalized an things were destroyed before and the second part of the condition would be we would require a new conditional use or had it come back to us if there were any significant change in the materials described in the

architecture to include the tiles in the building as those done in the theatre and residential building. if we can get something to that effect, that would be my motion. >> i second the motion. may i ask one to add to the motion is security and maintenance. >> security and maintenance. yes. >> okay. there has been a motion and a second. if i can have it correct here. to include conditions that would require strict security to prevent vandalism of the interior and especially

attention to the architectural features and the maintenance of the interior and if under any circumstance in the future the architectural design or materials are modified in the future that this project be returned to the planning commission for their consideration? >> yes. on that motion, commissioner antonini, aye, hillis, aye, moore, aye, wu, aye, fong aye, that passes unanimously 5-0. >> could i ask the community to keep us posted on any forthcoming operators if there are? i would greatly appreciate that, thank you. >> next item, please? >> commissioner, your last item on your calendar items 14 a and

b for cases 2012595 d and e roosevelt way. request for discretionary review. this is an abbreviated discretionary review.

>> good afternoon planning commission. you have before you a dr for a project at 165, 167 roosevelt way located in the corona heights neighborhood. it includes a one story vertical addition and north elevation to the building to replace rear stairs and add rear balance -- balcony. a 1200 square foot of habitable area and