request for authorization. >> good afternoon. i'm kevin. the request is a conditional request that changes the knob hill masonic center to another entertainment use to establish food stations. a similar request was approved by the board of supervisors on appeal in 2010. four lawsuits were filed changing that. which also had an effect of avoiding the non use authorization so we had the environmental report that was discussed. the project sponsor filed another certification to allow no new capacitate in the center.

that was approved and that was to minimum miss the impacts on the neighborhood. there were restrictions on the event. the center has hosted activities with the variety of events like comedy and naturalization ceremonies. the entertainment activities were non-conforms which didn't permit southern activities. it's been operating with southern activities with other applicable applications until the approval. so the draft is for limiting the number of events and limiting

the hours and acholic beverages services and the perimeter for security and noise and parking and loading. i'd be happy to discuss any specifics in detail. those were similar but include other conditions that were agreed to by parties associated with the litigation. the center proposes to hosted live entertainment activities per year with more than 2 hundred and 50 folks. the facility will host 54 music activities and the center will host other things like banquets and meeting. in terms of the physical changes it will remove the seats to angry other chairs and tables.

those changes helps to there the seating to 3 hundred persons. it will up grad the facility for food operations and will add beverage concession areas and no alcohol will be served to the general public. the project also include a reconfiguration of the stage as well as new lighting systems. there are no exterior changes proposed to the building. staff received substantial comments from the public in opposition to the application for the site. regarding traffic and loading activity and crime and vandalism and routy in essence.

they've received no complaints in the current application. staff recommendation the adaptation of the security and it will allow the continued operation as a matter of cultural and civic importance. should the commission approve the project staff will staub one condition the loading dock it reads the pine street will close the camp and there access to the elevators. so staff recommendation that the last sentence be replaced with the following language the project sponsor will upgrade the pine street enhance by the closing the loading dock area.

and to remain completely open when cars are exiting the garage. that concludes my presentation i'm available for questions. thank you. >> thank you. project sponsor >> good afternoon, president and commissioners. here on behalf of the masonic memorial temple which is the owner of the temple which operates the masonic. the masonic was constructed in 1958 and has prayed as a treatment venue. in march the committee approved

the masonic to permit it to authorize a modification of the venue. now those changes are tooerg the main floor and increasing the at the end did he see and adding beverage stations. yet in 2010 it was a categorical exemption and it was upheld of 2010 but reduced the size to 35 hundred patrons. in 2013, the supreme court found it was inappropriate with a sequa document and voted the 2010 conditional use. the city choose not to appeal that but the eir which you analyzed and the intense indication would have any

impacts on the environment. the eir included it would not have any impacts nor litigation measures but the eir is recommending draft motions. in its 2013 motion the interpretation upheld the board of appeals termths that the masonic was constructed as a entertainment viewpoint not as a private lodge. there are some apparently that had mr. wallace is a private lodge and no entertainment should be held, however, it was revolved by the board of appeals and it upheld it and no is not prevented from convert the non

conforming use to a conditional use. and it's determined by the board of appeals and the supreme courts. while the eir was to allow the begins to continue. earlier this year i'm pleased to announce to you we've reached a settlement and 9 individual neighbors who participated in the litigation against the city have agreed to a strike limit to 79 fire department's and only 54 of the event maybe music's concerts. we've agreed to reduce the number of concession from 8 to 5. alternative c in the eir sets

forth that settlement position and we ask you adapt alternative c to implement this supplement agreement. representatives which the coalition are here to say the conditions before you incorporate that supplement. the number of events only likewise 25 additional entertainment events and likewise numbers from 31 hundred to 33 hundred. approved installation of 5 concession food areas down from 8 in 2010. by way of comparison the opera hall each afternoon 2 hundred and 50 live entertainment activities and have 5 concession

areas. a draft motion contains 50 separate conditions of approval including autopsying all the conditions approved in 2010 and all the conditions and so forth in the conditions. those include the number of events and the conditions to manage parking and loading and noise conditions and neighborhood security and alcohol service limitations and hours of operation. all the management has successfully implemented many of those conditions already. we've asking the commission to expose those conditions on your prevail. city policy strongly favors the

masonic to continue to operate. it's necessary because it will directly contribute to the cities express goal of combangz performing arts in the city. those express policies include the general parts element as well as the moufk and cult stability policy which was adapted in 2009 by the board of supervisors and is set forth in the management coincide. the successful masonic helps the 20u6r78 industry and places union workers and it's the center of the region. it enjoys board support from labor and knob hill institutions and music lovers. with this in place the individual litigant have withdrawn their litigation.

we ask for your support and we'll talk about the live nations facility. thank you. >> good afternoon. i'm matt i'm the ceo of live nation in california. live nation has been in the - we have been operating in knob hill with no incidents with hundreds of concert. the masonic is a uniquely sized vehicle and currently most of the concert events at those size are currently going to oakland and the fox that is right. live nation has a strong history of responsible event in san francisco. we've been managing many operating the fillmore the punch line and cops comedy club and

most recently successively operating the passively listen. ever since we've assumed management responsibility with the masonic wore setting the standard for best practices. we've agreed to the most strike regulations. we've developed strong working relationships with the hotels and grass cathedral and the knob hill association. in the past if you years ago we've hosted president obama twice at the missouri masonic. i don't know what's more challenging than hoefts the president of the united states. we've worked closed with the san

francisco police department to make sure your events are say. furthermore live nation is providing hundreds of jobs both union and non-union to pay payroll parking takes and bring business to the local hotels. the night time economy rings although true and we're happy to be part of the san francisco live culture. if we're not able to compete in san francisco we will work hard. i want to thank everyone for their assistance in a long and difficult road. our business is music and special incidents so we strife to keep the masonic alive.

thank you very much for your time >> any public comment on this item? >> good afternoon commissioners i'm joanne i'm an assistant business agency with local 16. just to give you a brief overview of our relationship at the masonic in the past year the masonic has paid $100,000 to stage hand those are contributions to health and welfare and a pension to all our workers which helps our as to this hands to support their families. we support this project and look forward to a long and productivity relationship with live in addition, we thank you for our consideration

>> good afternoon, president and members. i'm captain commanding officer of the police department. i want to give you a brief snapshot we're not favoring it but during the past four years the masonic track records has been good. i ran the computer states and it shows 8 calls from allowed noise. there's been 3 police reports and no arrests at the masonic center during those venues. there's 2 to 5 police officers hired by center to keep traffic

and their during the duration until its complete. the concerts originally center station was attended to having live nation come in because they were afraid the concerts, you know, would caterer to unyou ruling crowd but we've seen a older audience. and one of our concerns were that the masonic would do outreach to the community and it seems they have met with knob hill association and the knob hill coalition. that's our prospective from the police department. thank you. >> thank you, captain tom. any additional public comment? >> good afternoon. i'm greg

president of the knob hill coalition. i'd like to say as well that we have been down this road now 5 years. we represented a large part of the homeownership's association on the hill and therefrom we were part of the litigation for the last 5 years and also part of the negotiations of the settlement. i'd like to expand. as far as the 5 bars are concerned only 3 of the bars are open for events that are for 1 thousand people or less and 3 bars one of the bars is in the vip room its from a historical stood up it's comparable to the number of bars that were open since the 50s so there's no problem with the alcohol if you look at the presence of alcohol.

at the same time there's no alcohol in the auditorium so we've tried to be as adequate and fair as has been in the past. we were careful how we drafted the settlement and get and looked at it all the constituents. we wanted to look at knob hill park and those funds will going going to the park and we'll be going to hearings in december. there's an early access ticket program for all the residents that between powell to washington to larkin to sutter which will allow the residents to get access to the tickets before they go on sale to the

general public. that will have an impact of reducing the amount of tram traffic and it helps. there's also a grant program for music programs for all of district 3. we're happy where we ended up in terms of the agreement with our neighborhoods. we've put into place a monitoring committee that includes both the mason's, live nation, the neighbors in the knob hill association and we look forward to working with everybody. thank you for your support >> any additional public comment? >> linda chapman speaking on a former member of the knob hill association.

and, you know who actually knew the people who were opposing this and still respect them. i'm going to comment that coalition of san francisco meeting it was announced by one of the officers he'd been trying to get in touch with the knob hill association and they said not one deliberate or popcorn where they able to contact because no one was associated with knob hill. it has to do with having a few people negotiating. having agree little group of people who identified themselves as a knob hill association. i was told by the knob hill officers there were knob hill they couldn't identify themselves who are the neighborhood she couldn't say

and somehow they i think you traded and took over. and a share of every ticket that's about the last thing that the knob hill association wanted to do was promote sticks out. there were 9 hundred people opposing those tickets and somebody was forced to sign that. all the evidence they developed there were so many fewer events of 47 license what do you think this is going to do. of course, if ben was there he's been there for years and to attract an audience like me is no problem i'm told he will not whole area turns into a toilet when there's events.

what happens on polk street. well, there's a 47 license this is less than one 20th that's the run down there the capacity total chaos on the street. the abc said they don't want any more licenses it's supported to be a for a restaurant. so they're able to drink because there's no way to control who drinks what. they find them full of youth. now there are infinitely more events e events planned in a dive situation with alcohol compared to the past. in the past it was culture events. one and a half live entertainment incidents in a week is a lot in that area

>> hello, i'm jay wallace. i wanted to address the conditional use issues in the zoning issues. we have a situation here and i started to alluded u ludicrous to this my understanding of a special use district their special. and in knob hill there's conditions like hotels and the masonic is not. there are ancillary uses which they're not and a private lonely they don't want to be and they're eating and drinking those are the four things you can do. we were not contesting the one thing we agree with the judge

that the knob hill be a entertainment use they get to live with that they don't get to change that. they're a legal notary republic conforming use and that was not overruled in the appellant court but what was made was an advisory opinion. they have is a non-conforming assembly and entertainment use. they want to use that to reach into an adjacent zoning district where this commission sunshine said no more liquor or bars it doesn't apply to california street but that's what this commission said. they're bringing a conditional use from an adjacent district

that's not an allowed use. i've go ahead live nation probably does a great job i watched van morrison not of the noise concerns but they do a nice job and they should keep the 50 conditions which is the 2012 they've allowed that's what the code likewise for. if the department is going to take the position on this matter that is a a special use district can be trumpeted in a non-adjacent ac 1 district i will stand corrected. i don't know that's how the code gets interpreted. the last time with the code commission and department made a change to the special knob hill

district it's in our files the great bob made a text amendment to allow for private clubs and eating and drinking it was done by a text amendment it was not done by a zoning code. i've raised the issues and i'll look forward to the decision of the commission. thank you very much >> thank you. any additional public comment? >> president fong and members of the commission. i'm stanley thank you for the opportunity for this brief appearance. i wanted to speak on behalf of the knob hill association. i'm the corporate secretary. the board has 37 members and

approximately a year ago today, we voted to approve the settlement in the lawsuit. we're very saved with the conditions i wanted to assure you on behalf of the association it's 37 member board and approximately 9 hundred members wore looking forward to working with live nation and masonic temple in accordance would the terms of our supplement agreement >> thank you. >> any additional public comment. okay pgdz. >> in the a good testimony and we've approved a similar project a few years ago and we've denouncing gunning gone through the environmental analysis which we've certified. it's well pointed out the

benefits of having a facility that can be excessive through the fox theatre in oakland because different size venues are important venues that have not only different capacities but different, you know, embellishments and things for the viewing public. so the increase in captivity is almost negligible over one hundred but to allow the flexibility by removing the seats from the main auditorium. and also a enhancing the drink and food experience. its not just the fact there is alcohol available there is now that's not new wore making s it into is an appealing situation.

you can go eat at a variety of over 3 thousand restaurants in san francisco and just being feeding fed is your requirement kooul you'll go to the at least expensive one. if you want more of on experience of the meal itself urge tow go to a restaurant that gives us that. that is the same case. we're making an attractive venue for events. i certainly think they've worked extremely well, as was pointed out to the neighbors. we've got smaller clubs in the city like the feinstein's and, of course, venues such a davies and the opera house. but again those don't