>> august 8, 2013, and i would like to remind the members of the audience to silence the cell phones that may go off and do speak directly into the microphone and if you care to state your name for the regard. >> we left on item 15, for case number 2013.0530c (s. lai: (41) 575-9087) 1301 van ness avenue >> the project before you is the conditional use to expand the use, in excess of the limit of 6,000 square feet and the project is located in the historic building with the frontage on van ness and the proposed expansion will occupy the adjacent space and revert the building back into a single

space as originally constructed and they find this desirable and is recommending approval with conditions. they began the operation in the current 10,000 square foot place in 2006 while the property was part of the western edition and the proposed project will be a 20,000 square foot liquor store with a permitted deli and alcohol, and an amount of tobacco, and specializing in the sale of alcoholic beverages and complimentary food items, there are three locations in san francisco and 137 locations nationwide and the department signs the proposal to be appropriate and desirable and in that there is not an over concentration of formula retail uses in the corridor and there is a notable number of vacantcies in the immediate

ar. the proposed expansion will eliminate the vacantcy and furthermore it will not increase the number of formula retail use or lock or stores in the area, it preserves the resource and consistent with the plan as well as other plan objectives they are informed that the community out reach is conducted today due to the last minute inquiries into the project from the polk neighbor association. and the project sponsor is prepare to speak on that and we also have an aid from the supervisor chiu's office will be making a statement after staff presentation. and no additional comments have been submitted to the department following the publication of the packets. the staff would like to recommend that condition number four, addressing the older controlled unit to be clarified as follows, in order to insure

that any, odors to keep from escaping, they shall include air cleaning or odor control equipment and details and manufacturer specifications on the plans if applicable. odor control, shall not be applied to the facade of the building. >> project sponsor, please? >> supervisor, representative? >> good afternoon, president fong and commissioners, i am a legislative aid for supervisor chiu and i am here because the supervisor heard this week from cathedral hill and polk associations that they had only recently learned about the proposed expansion at 1301 van ness, we understand that the project sponsor sent the notices to the neighborhood but we also learned that the list that was given to them was out dated and therefore many of the association officers on the

list were no longer serving. and there have been no subsequent follow up out reach to the neighborhood. so, it was only earlier this morning that our office was able to bring the project sponsor and the neighborhood groups together to work through all of their concerns and so we appreciate that they have agreed to a list of ten additional conditions that have been circulated today and that i believe that you all have, assuming that the commission adopts these conditions and the neighborhood association's position is now that they would draw that the request for a continuance, and the parties prefer to resolve the issues today, through this or these conditions without a continuance, thanks. >> if i could ask the members of the public who are just walking in to the chambers to not block those doorways you are creating a fire hazard and to find a seat in the audience or to stand on the other side of the room for now. thank you very much.

>> project sponsor? >> my name is greg and i am with the beverage and water based in california, and i am pleased to appear before you today, to present our expansion of our store, and we are told concur ant with the staff recommendation and the additional conditions that were distributed and we agreed to it earlier and we can speak to those during the presentation. really bha we are proposing the staff report is very concise and it says that we have a 10,000 square foot store we are asking for a 20,000. >> it is like a 20 pounds of potatoes. and the shop that we are proposing is really to enhance

the shopping experience for the customer. the increase in actual product selection is normal and we are taking a lot of the shelving that is going from the 6 to 8 foot shelving down to a lower shelving so that the lines of sight in the store will be more appealing. i can give you, and if we can get the overhead. so, we are going to this one really does not and this is not going to do what i need to do, but we have a number of areas in the store that we are going to focus on where half of of the budget is focused on is improve the receiving in the back of the house, right now, there is a roll up door off of the fern ally, there is a slope that takes the product down to

where the floor level of the store is, it is very dangerous, and it is not conducive for the employees or now that we have control of the area through the additional space is to spend a lot of money leveling that out and putting in a lift and making it more user friendly for the staff and deliveries that will alleviate the vendor's concerns that are trying to unload on van ness, and or any kind of traffic control. >> so that is a major part of our renovation. whether it is that we want to focus on, and we want to enhance the food offering right now, even though the store is one of the top cheese stores let's say in the chain and we saw a lot of... (inaudible) it is a six foot by eight foot

cheese fixture and it is very tight ko merchandise and very tight to walk around and so we want to create a real food provision area that accents the cheese, snacks, the humus the sauces the dips and the chips and as far as that the rendering, we are going to staff it with a live person and have a fish and a deli where we cut the wheels of cheese and keeping with san francisco, and also it is just good for business. and so that is one of the functions that will take a lot of space, in the new area that will be expanding into. one of the other things that we will do right now we have a tasting area that is about 8 foot square and with respect to the product and not conducive to tastings and one of the things that we will do is we will enhance the area with much more nicer decor and right now, the rendering shows here the

chairs and stools. and that was our artist taking some liberties with the design, and we don't allow the chairs and stools in any of the tasting and we are not there to act as a bar or a long term visit situation. so even those are in the drawings, and those are not how we operate the business and you will not find those in any of them but this is one of the areas that will enhance to really increase that ambiance in the customer experience. lastly, we don't have any area in the store to display and come together with high prized wines and so this is an area that we call the celler that will have the climate control and focus on the upper end

products. we did out reach and we held a meeting at the site and meet with the alliance and included a letter of support and today we as was mentioned by supervisor chiu's aid, we did come to an agreement and on some additional conditions which i don't know off of top... but there are copies for the commissioners. >> i am happy to answer the questions that you might have. if it is inappropriate that these conditions are included in the staff application, we are more than willing to sign separate agreements with the neighborhood if that is appropriate. >> thank you we may have questions for you. >> let's open it up for public comment. i have one speaker card greg? >> that was you. >> sorry. >> is there any public comment on this item? >> seeing none, public comment

is closed commissioner moore? >> things that we did not received any more detailed relative to where certain areas of the store are, and i would like to express the concern amount of desire and concern relative to the large to overcome the larger store. and we have a lot of frontage dedicated to a use but what i would be interested in is that the people that use, ie, the cutting of the cheese, etc., be within the view, from the window by which the other side of the store would look a little bit more like a real store rather than just more like a merchandise store which is the nature of the lighter stores, could you perhaps put the plan on the screen one more time that we could follow what you have in mind?

>> there we go. >> so, commissioner moore, exactly, your point is what we had in mind. right now, in the front of the store, we have glassware that is stacked about 7 foot high in the front window space of van ness and one of the goals is to get that out of the windows and make them so that you can see through into the store again, it works for everybody. and it makes it more pleasing street scape but it gives us a better way to display a product. the food component will go right in this front corner. this is what, this is what you will be looking into to see from van ness, and we will have the food and the deli and the cheese cutting right there in the front and we have lowered as you can see in the picture all of the shelving is low so it keeps a more wide open view of the activity. >> thank you.

>> the other question that i have is when you are talking about improving your loading area, you are not operating wholesale within that particular location. >> no, ma'am. >> that was very important to know because i hear your concerns about safety with the 45 degree slope into the loading area and as long as we know that it is not necessarily a significant increase in truckloading and unloading and traffic in that particular alley. i am interested in seeing this store on the historic building, but also in its use as contribute in upgrading of what are now is an emerging medical district. and where the need for a variety of stores will be very important in order to service the hospital proper sxli that is the flower stores and art

stores and whatever are the famous people take when they visit someone in a medical facility. this was this configuration, and it could contribute to that and so strongly include that the people's side of the store is aesthetickly frontage wise and etc., kept like exciting and inviting rather than just one other i am going to be a careful a look-a-like on this corridor. >> if i could just comment on commissioner moore's comments. our deliveries are handled by, we don't have our own delivery fleet and so they are handled by the vendors that have served the area, they are already there serving other customers on the van ness. and so the delivery piece comes very simple and they are just going to be stopping and loading an extra case or two whenever they make their periodic stop and we controlled

the deliveries so that they don't come at night and they don't come early in the morning and so we are sensitive to the surrounding neighborhood. and the other piece that this really us the opportunity to do in in change is to increase the food. because we recognize that is a great opportunity for bedmoe and it is something that is really needed in the area and it is something that is desired, and we have 100 or 200 new condos across the street and so we think that is something that we can really feel that we have done a similar kind of a transition in another store in the east bay where we added a deli and the food and it is well received and so this is really the chance to make the store, a flag ship for san francisco. >> and the commissioners have not seen the negotiated conditions, which aid supervisor khao*u umar chiu has alluded to. and the thing that i have acknowledged is that the neighborhood has had the

ability to be in the direct discussion and found a way to communicate and hopefully relate to you in the future. sfe. and most of the conditions, i just want to point out the great majority of the conditions are how we operate any way. they are operating standards about not allowing minors in the store and not hiring anyone under 21 and not offering cigarettes or pornography or wines, and we do all of these things any way as a matter of course and so for us to be able to put them down in writing just to document that is more than acceptable for us because that is the way that we do business. >> commissioner borden? >> yes, and i do want to thank the project sponsor so take the time to meet with the community and to actually explain the project a little better, we would have benefited to have the photos in the packet and then the public would have seen more and i appreciate that there is a differentiation between the two storefronts because it is a problematic situation when it is kind of

uniform and i do appreciate i have actually shop at this store and it is kind of a nightmare and so i am kind of happy to see that you are going to make it a more pleasant shopping experience and i am going to ask the staff about these conditions and i know that for enforcebility, some of these conditions are not able to be add ad to our motion, and so, if there are any that are actually able to be maybe to the city attorney or the staff could weigh in on what if any of these can be included on our list. >> sure. >> and i think, kate just stepped in and we did conduct the city attorney and there are a number of these that are questionable in terms of the feesbility and whether it is really should be something that comes from the planning commissioner perhaps, it is more suitable for dph or abc, or alcoholic beverage control

to be reviewing them >> the staff at this point is not recognizing that we adopt additional conditions. and based on that, there is really, the conditions that we have found to be appropriate, we have included into the commissioner's packet and there are really no community issues that have arised since the publication of the packet and so there is not really a reason to additional athis point and also the project sponsor and the community has agreed to sign a private agreement which may perhaps be more suitable in this case, since we are unclear about the enforcebility of a number of them. >> great, so then, what i will do is make a move it approve with conditions, with the updated letter, and notice of today and then just put it in the record that project sponsor acknowledged that they will provide the documents to meet the conditions agreed upon with the community. >> right.

>> second. >> commissioner antonini? >> thank you, and another thing that i would like to suggest and this is not a condition, but now that we are moving and opening the doors and we can try as much as possible keep the building restored to its original facade and i think that it was for many years, it was one of the first auto dealerships in san francisco. and so, it is got quite a history to it. >> commissioner wu? >> i also want to thank supervisor chiu's office for actsing so quickly, and i know that in the last 24 hours, there is a lot of activity and i want to confirm with the staff that in the conditions that were proposed by you, that there are conditions about noise and litter, that those are sort of standard or if you could explain which ones are the standard conditions. >> condition number six, addresses sidewalk maintenance and trash. and this is specifically a

retail store is not the type of activity that we would expect to have and excess amount of noise. so we did not include a condition about noise that we could certainly do so. >> not that i need it, i just want the public to know that there are some conditions that we do just to know what those conditions were and also to include the hours of operation, and to be a contact person and a liaison to the community. >>; is that correct?? >> we, sometimes do include the conditions, and addressing hours of operation, in this case we didn't, there are no hours of operation limits within the rc four district, and as to the liaison, it is not a condition that we applied in this case so that we could certainly add that. >>

>>s commissioner moore. >> i would ask the city attorney, there is sometimes a footnote referring or referencing another motion as it were, i would ask the supervisor chiu as to whether or not you were aware that some of the things that are discussed here are not being able to incorporate in the motion. >> and so, commissioners this morning, it did not come up that some of these may not be able to be included in today's conditions. but it sounds like there might be a few that could be included. so i think that the supervisor would at least ask that those be included. >> so the community liaison and the hours of operation and i am not sure which other ones from the list. >> i also accept that as a friendly amendment to add the hours of operations. >> and within it and we could

ask the representative one more time that it does has a implicit understanding that you will bring up what you discussed with the supervisor this morning? >> expressly. >> thank you. >> commissioner sugaya? >> oh,. retrieving my pencil and know i can't talk. and of the stores that we frequent, i think that this is nears to our house, we go there whenever. but, i have never observed any issues, in or around the store, and you know, the people that are in there seem to be fairly well behaved, if anybody is worried about the behavior or the noise or outside or anything like that? >> commissioners there is a motion and i second on the

floor to approve with conditions adding to the list of conditions a community liaison and the hours of operations as noted in the agreement that was passed around. and on that motion, commissioner antonini? >> i am sorry? >> moore. >> there was one clause that is a little unusual. and that no entry under the age of 21. and if someone wants to send their son to buy some cheese and he cannot go in to buy the cheese because he is not 21 isn't that a contradiction. >> we do not allow any minors under 21 without a guardian and that is just the way that we operate the business. >> okay. >> commissioner, i just want to confirm that that condition that was just discussed is not going to be part of the minutes. >> no. >> okay. >> and the business for sure. >> please continue. >> all right, commissioners then on that motion to ov