organizations in 2012, coming in at $13.8 million. star bucks within san francisco we opened our first store 21 years ago on union street. one of the first stores outside of seattle. we maintain -- we had maintained and still maintain a regional corporate office for over 20 years in san francisco. we have all of our leadership of operations, operation support, support services for northern california. we employ over 1400 partners in san francisco and which 85% live within san francisco. we are a long-term member of the san francisco work force investment board. we are a founding member of the united way bay area road map to cut poverty committee. last year we were supporter of the mayor's summer jobs youth program. this year we are as well and recommit today adding 50 more partners in 2013. april 27th this year we worked with the san francisco giants

and dpw to have a san francisco clean sweep. we have 1400 partners, families, customers and businesses and working together contributing 500 hours to clean up the city in nine different areas. our partners participate in monthly dpw events. star bucks also supports charitable nonprofit organizations to cash and in kind donation. some examples are united way of bay area, bay area scores, community growth, friends of san francisco public library, san francisco aids walk, and the lgbt community center and glide. that's a small slice of what we do in local community and regionally wise, too. now to talk about our projected site at 2201 market street. currently this is what the location looks like right now. the building requires fundamental improvements. accessibility upgrades,

structural improvements, could met i can work, basic internal infrastructure has also been cited by the city as well. the property currently has ongoing issues with trash, graffiti, vandalism, and overnight camping. what exists today is not the match for the community vision for the upper market street. here is a rendering of our proposed site. we believe it will be beneficial and desirable addition to the neighborhood. the store was designed by the current san francisco architectural firm ginsler. with feedback from the merchants we designed the store. [speaker not understood] development design guidelines and incorporates the upper market community vision recommendation plan. the design would create an open interactive pedestrian friendly space and provide welcome and safe atmosphere for everyone in the neighborhood to enjoy

including unique store front with distinctive interior that we [speaker not understood]. large windows with visibility on both market street and sanchez street. and open and interactive outdoor space. the store also will be lead certified and green building specs. also we will be using sustainable and local resource material. we will be using led lighting, front resistant plant, low water fixtures, low energy function equipment and the first neighborhood store in san francisco in over 7 years. there are a few questions that have been asked and statements we've heard over the course of this cup process. hyde is the neighborhood need 2201 market street? our customers have been asking for more space in the neighborhood. people need a gathering area. they need [speaker not understood] being used for meetings, for individuals and also for mobile office space.

we do have our two locations at church and market and 18th and castro and we do have the life store operated by safeway inside the safeway center. but if you have visited 18th ask castro store, they did an incredible job with the store. currently at capacity and looking at ways of meeting our existing needs and our future needs as well. as of right now we have a thousand new units of housing, currently under construction in entitlement. demand will put a heavier burden on that store as well. star bucks pays for rent, will increase neighborhood rents. this is false. we are paying less than the asking rent of 7 of 8 spaces on market street right now. if you just ask any of our current landlords they will tell you we do not pay top dollar, we do negotiate. star bucks investment will revitalize and activate this corner. also what makes this desirable for this neighborhood? this would create 20 to 25 new jobs that are open from a wide

range spectrum candidates. everywhere from entry level jobs to management jobs as well at a time that is much needed jobs in san francisco. we need adaptive reuse and we have existing building. and we will be moderating the area for graffiti and general maintenance. i do have a concern i want to bring to the attention of the commission. the timeline of the conditional use permit and also to do with the formula retail use. star bucks filed the cup application in december 15th of 2011. at that time the planning department used a 25% concentration of formula retail use within 300 feet of the guideline for evaluating projects throughout the city. part of the lay of this project coming before you was a zoning issues for clarifying restaurant use. then we find ourselves april 11, 2013 where the planning commission department adopted a policy change and review, 20% for formula retail use

concentration. respectfully we ask the commission that if we could be -- we could be grandfathered back to the spot we were as the process has been going for 17 months now and the last month is when the changes happened, we feel we should be at the 25%. also, we conducted community outreach and support. we held two community open houses at the sanchez elementary school. we provided feedback from tenancies and incorporated into the store design. you'll see it where the light of the windows on sanchez and market windows, patio was arranged as well, too, with the seating inside. we met with over 250 neighbors and a dozen community organizations as well. some of our supporters are the heart of the triangle neighborhood association, the san francisco council district merchants associates. buena advice that neighborhood

association. we also have over 1200 letters, petitions and e-mails from community supporters including neighbors. our supporters represent over 20,000 individuals and merchants. commissioner, i thank you for your time and consideration and if you have any questions. >> thank you. we may have questions for you. thank you. >> commissioners, we did receive a request from three community organizations to have a block of time to speak in opposition to this proposal. the commission president has granted that request. are those people here? okay. commission president granted that request hoping that you would represent your members of your respective groups in this presentation. yes? yes. >> okay.

thank you. hi, my name is hunt random and i represent two organizations, the san francisco locally owned merchants alliance and the northern california independent book sellers association. i'd like to make just a couple of quick points. first of all, as already been noted, i think this is not -- this particular site is not an under served area for coffee or baked goods. it's arguably not even under served for star bucks. in seeking this location, i think star bucks -- legally star bucks is following a really tried and true predatory tradition. chain research shows that it's much cheaper and quicker to open a store, a location in a well served commercial area and punch customers from existing businesses than it is to locate in an under served

neighborhood, for instance, and build a customer base from scratch. so, in this situation where we have two coffee shops literally a half a block away and many other establishments in the neighborhood, star bucks will have an immediate negative impact on those retailer sales and will inevitably cause job losses. it's interesting that they talk about the number of jobs they will create at star bucks. they don't talk about the number of jobs they will cost at other stores they will compete with. we would argue this is not only a bad deal for the neighborhood, but for the city as well. and the impact will largely be felt by locally owned and operated businesses. and that's important because they contribute significantly more to the city's economy than chains like star bucks. studies done in san francisco five years ago and around the country show consistently that independent businesses reinvest in the local community at 2-1/2 to 3 times the rate of chains. so, this isn't just trading one coffee shop for another potentially.

it's hurting local merchants whose contributions to the community, social, cultural, and economic are far greater than seattle-based star bucks will ever be and i hope you will take that into consideration. thank you very much. >> if i could interrupt you for one moment. the members in the audience that are standing on this side of the room near the doorway, you're creating a fire hazard. if you could please find a seat, i believe there is plenty available, or stand on this side of the room. i would appreciate it. thank you very much. you can go ahead now. >> okay, thank you. good afternoon, commissioners. my name is pat [speaker not understood]. i am president of duboce triangle neighborhood association and i am here today to ask you to deny star bucks' application to operate at a prominent corner in our neighborhood at sanchez and

15th and market street. i stood before this commission a month ago with a proactive policy to contain and control the onslaught of formula retail in the upper market corridor. this effort had the backing of the planning department, supervisor wiener's office, the local merchants, and the neighborhood. the commission passed that policy unanimously by a 0 to 7 vote. before this vote, the city lacked quantitative data defining how much was too much formula retail. where should formula retail exist and what size it should be and how much branding for branding sake was unacceptable in san francisco's neighborhoods with unique character. now that we have this policy in place and you have a not to approve recommendation from the planning department, this is the time where good policy

implementation is made. there is no doubt that star bucks is a world class brand and provides services to a number of people. however, they have opened an average of two stores on a daily basis since 1987, and we don't want our neighborhood to be one of their statistics. on october 27th and november 1st of 2011, star bucks came to our neighborhood for their official pre-application meeting. the requirement for pre-application meeting was to allow interested community members to learn of a project in advance. and to participate in an open discussion in which concerns are shared and questions are answered for everyone to hear, everyone being the community. while the exact format of these

meetings is not well defined, we believe that the star bucks event met neither the spirit nor the letter of the law for this pre-application meeting. i would see no reason for grandfathering since dtna still believed that the requirements of the pre-application were not met. it was definitely not a meeting, but instead a promotionally engineered event. attendees were not allowed to ask questions and discuss the project as a community. the only project-specific information was a table displaying the existing facade. dtna asked the planning department to disallow star bucks' promotional event from being considered a legitimate pre-application meeting and to require the sponsor to host a proper meeting with an open and transparent public format prior to the acceptance of the project's application.

planning nor did request nor include this in the procedural issues in your commissioners' packet because they said that the issue had been dealt with. well, we have never received a complete response, nor do we consider the issue dealt with. i'm submitting a letter to the commission that we submitted to planning in 2011. i believe aaron starr addressed the issue -- addressed the fact that a pre-application meeting is for the community. however, as we have described in our letter, that is not what happened. star bucks, to their credit, is the king of formula retail. there is no doubt about it. their corporate intent and their power, their marketing machine, and public relations

is enormous. star bucks new media campaign converts wanted, extend their marketing tactics to our neighborhood. so you know, their corporate mission is to inspire and nurture the human spirit one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time. our neighborhood does not exist to meet the corporate mission of star bucks. this particular parcel also is a perfect example of a landlord waiting for formula retail. there was a possible tenant about i want to say two years ago, year and a half, two years ago who it was a service that the neighborhood has asked for that type of business in the neighborhood. they went to the landlord and

the landlord gave them a price for the rent that was out of the world, out of this world. and, so, the vendor obviously said, we can't afford that type of rent. and he said, i am happy to keep it vacant. that chain link fence that you saw in the photo, i find it interesting that we had that chain link fence in the photo because it, interestingly enough, went up about a month and a half ago and we were told it went up because -- that the awning is not compliant with building code and that the landlord was going to fix the awning. i didn't realize that it was made so that the place could look worse than it possibly could. already does. when dtna and the planning department asked the commission to pass the policy that establishes a method of

determining concentration of formula retail and appropriate levels of retail concentration in the upper market, the intent was to save our prominent corners and preserve local businesses and safeguard the community against an over proliferation of formula retail, just like star bucks. this is exactly why we came to this commission for situations like this. it is for these reasons and many more that you will hear from other merchants and neighbors today that i ask you not to approve star bucks. the mission of our neighborhood is not to deliver on the corporate mission of star bucks, but to maintain neighborhood character and live ability. i also -- angela allelo [speaker not understood] asked me to read. so, she asked me to read something for her. this letter is to express the

castro upper market community benefits district opposition to star bucks conditional use application. the castro cbd board of directors deliberated carefully about this application. the board weighed the potential for more traffic on this corner against the displacement of a unique -- existing unique small business, increased rents that formula retail will bring to that block, and the need to keep the upper market corridor vital, to have a diversity of unique and interesting businesses up and down market street. the board made the following determinations in its decision to oppose star bucks. the application competes with existing small businesses, adds no new or needed community serving retail. displaces an existing small business, and will increase retail rents in the district,

thereby negatively impacting the potential for new and local small businesses. thank you for the extra time to speak today. >> thank you. we have a number of speaker cards here, and we did allot a 15-minute period for, as we just heard, for three different neighborhood groups and three groups to share a combined thought. so, if you find yourself of like mind, we want to hear what you have to say, but you might want to nod and keep your comments short and try not to repeat the comments. we see there are a number of folks in the audience with stickers. so, we under this is a large group here. go ahead and call some names. gary virginia. mikael meg.

[speaker not understood]. alex coulter. hali hail. lena coulter. max coulter, the whole family. trisha hickey. any of these names, if i called your name come on up. it might be easier to line up on that side of the room there. >> are any of those people here? >> okay, all right, keep going. vera la rotic. kimberly jones. justin jackson. auri wilmerton. [speaker not understood]. salve a door flores. john matenge. okay, we're getting some. ~ all right, if you're ready, go

ahead. good afternoon, thank you for your valuable time. i'm kimberly jones. i'm an artist. i've lived here 16 years. as a volunteer across the street from this site, i painted a 30-foot mural for the obama campaign, and i struggle as an artist to live in this city because of its uniqueness. with 25 years of practice in the architecture business, i am keenly professionally and humanly well versed in understanding what makes for uniqueness and memorable places and i am committed to being in a community that's like that. i love coffee and it is abundantly available in this neighborhood. and with all due respect to star bucks, their product is abundantly available and truly mediocre. the environments are corporate and unmemorable and i wish them well, but i don't want another of their enterprises in this unique city. so, please, please, reject this product -- this [speaker not understood]. [inaudible].

>> next speaker, please. good afternoon, commissioners. my name is justin jackson and i am not only a store manager for star bucks, but i'm also a resident in the castro. i'm asking you to approve our plan today. we'd like to put a star bucks there. i keep hearing all day long about how it's a dilapidated area. the corridor, the chain link fence. we hear people, we don't need another star bucks. we don't need another star bucks. but how many people have stepped forward today and said, i'll put something there? let's make that corner beautiful? let's do what only star bucks can do? our community service, 10,000 hours of community service just last month alone, what we do for our neighborhoods, what we do for our communities, how many other businesses do that? i mean, how many other people can say, hey, i'm really proud to work for a company that

truly recognizes community involvement and makes it a point to give back to the communities that we serve? so, for that i ask you to please consider this approval. (applause) >> excuse me, folks, no outbursts, please, okay. thank you. hi, my name is john and i'm a resident of san francisco. i've been living in the castro for almost 20 years. while i feel like star bucks has already displaced a community, vital community in the castro, they weren't welcome in the castro to begin with. they had to buy their way in in 2000. they've been denied access to the castro before that on many occasions. so, they've been in the castro now for several years and they decide to remodel this location they're in which is really sort of the warm part of the castro, a beautiful place, big fat bears hang out there, big hairy guys. their community is a special place.

and they remodeled it and they ruined it. they made it into this takeyh mall place with all plastic surfaces. all the seating is a kindergarten level. you sit at three feet where you talk to people who are standing and they're standing there at crotch level. ~ tacky the benches outside have a hard core thing in the back where you can't sit there and be comfortable for more than a couple minutes. it's breaking my heart. i'm so upset. so many people hung out there, it was a beautiful place, you know. again, it was like the only star bucks in the whole world. it wasn't really a star bucks. the way they made those choices in remodeling that place, i have to believe they didn't want it to be a bear bucks any more, they didn't want fat sweaty bears hanging out there any more. there is not a seat for a big bum in the place. they're all about this size. they're all so small. i would say just based upon the poor behavior in the castro already, don't let them in. keep them out. this is really bad. they're already a block and a half away of safeway. a block and a half away and

you're going to put another one right there on market street? all those new people moving into the castro, they don't come in for star bucks. they're coming for a castro experience that is being ruined by places like star bucks. please have some censure. thank you. (applause) >> sir, that's really not called for. >> if that continues, we'll have the sheriff's officer escort you out. hey, good afternoon, commissioners. my name is salve door salvador flores and i was raised in los angeles, i lived in san francisco 16 years i would love to take that space and make a cafe of my own. in mount shasta my mother owns a clothing shop, [speaker not understood]. my little brother owns a auto

repair shop, my sister owns a clothing shop. [speaker not understood]. as a californian family member, this is how we prefer to thrive, owning our own businesses. so many reasons i would like you to reject the star bucks application because putting a formula retail store there will not only make [speaker not understood] in the neighborhood go up. it will also make it only harder for me to live my own dream, which is to own a cafe. i've been working in san francisco for 17 years doing nothing but that, working at local cafes. i've only had a couple jobs, one starting at just desserts, the second one being at walking java on hayes street and the third now being at jumping java on noe street which is actually only about 2-1/2 blocks away from the proposed site of the new star bucks. so, there's actually more cafes in the area than we're acknowledging here and i work at one of those. so, yeah, you know, and i just

want to say that it's in my personal opinion these formula retail stores do actually take away from the spirit of san francisco. i live in san francisco working barista would not desire to work at a star bucks. i feel like that place would confine me as a san franciscan. my spirit and my soul. so, please, do not accept this application, reject it. thank you very much. good afternoon, commissioners. art [speaker not understood] on behalf of united way of the bay area. we like to acknowledge our strong commitment to [speaker not understood] and poverty reduction. we worked with star bucks as a strong community partner to prepare young people from under served communities for jobs. when united way placed a call for companies to support the mayor's summer jobs program, star bucks was an early and eager taker pledging 25 jobs and exceeding their goal with

more than 40 placements. more specifically about these jobs, from the beginning star bucks pays its employees a living wage above minimum wage. employees receive tips from training and more importantly excellent package of benefits including health care and tuition for reimbursement for all employees who work more than 20 hours. as a result, fortune magazine has consistently ranked star bucks as one of the 100 best places to work for more than a decade. these include precisely jobs of the type so critically needed in san francisco. entry level positions for individuals with or without high school diplomas. these jobs not only enable youth to gain important life skills but also allow them to access health care, tuition reimbursement, and stock benefits. it's not surprising, then, that more than four out of every 5-star bucks employees work in san francisco also live in san francisco. as a member of the work force investment san francisco board, star bucks is an active partner with the city and job creation.

the company is an active participant in providing excellent work experience through the mayor's summer jobs program. finally, star bucks is a founding member of united way poverty committee. the committee's goal is to formulate solutions to ensure bay area families are able to enjoy productive lives free from hunger and hopelessness and reduce poverty in the bay area by 2020. again, we hail star bucks's outstanding job creation and poverty reduction and we welcome new star bucks jobs in the future. thank you for your time. >> >> please stand by; change of captioners