the -- they wanted some more information on the original architects for that building. and they believe that the original architect might have been an sfrim of little known -- and -- african-american of little known -- and they wanted more information but nothing that would substance wait a litter. they also had the deir for buena island. however, they did express a desire to save the gun. they believe that the gun on treasure island -- well, they just believe the history for world war ii and the significance of the island would be lost or -- there needs to be some sort of documentation to preserve that history. there also was a concern that any building not obscure

building one that's on the island. and with that, that completes my report for the h.p.c. president miguel: thank you. >> commissioners you are now at general public comment and at this time members of the public may address you on items of interest to the public that are within your subject matter, jurisdiction with the exception of the agenda items which may not be addressed during the category. however, each member of the public may address you for up to three minutes keeping in mind that this category has a 15-minute time limit. i do have speaker cards. president miguel: thank you. this section is on nonagenda items that are within the jurisdiction of the commission. jim salinas, russ sturjouse, johnny chacon, and rolando deso. ok.

>> president miguel, commissioner, i'm jim salinas, born and raised in the mission district, life-long resident of the city and county of san francisco. i'm here this afternoon on behalf of the 4,000 men and women that make carpenter's local 22. as you all know on occasion you'll have a city of elected officials, someone like the mayor point out and call to a san franciscan and ask that they serve on these commissions . and when they do, they serve as a volunteer citizen with huge responsibilities. and in the beginning it can be very overwhelming and easy to get lost in. but on rare occasions there are people that can sit down in these appointed seats and hit the ground running and more

importantly think outside the box and in this particular case when we're talking about the planning commission it's not only about the general plan and planning code. it's about san franciscans. it's about serving. i wanted to thank billie. you've served with distinction. you've put hundreds and hundreds members of our organization to work, more importantly, you've put thousands of construction workers to work. god forbid, with a seismic event, we may need to start over. from the bottom of our heart, we are profusely indebted to you. thank you for serving with distinction on this commission. thank you, commissioners. president miguel: thank you.

>> good afternoon. my name is russ sturjouse. i've been a member of the carpenter's union for 41 years, 39 inactive, 25 of them as a contracting member and i was active with the residential building association also. i'm a resident of the subsidy of san francisco. i live in the richmond district. i just like to comment that commissioner lee has been very good at putting people to work. when he puts construction workers to work, three to five other people go to work in office occupations, factories, transportation, other things like that. at this time in our city and our country putting people to work is a very key part of what everybody in government service needs to do. and i would ask you to use

whatever influence you have to keep commissioner lee retained in the office that he now holds and has now helped so well for so long. thank you very much. president miguel: thank you. >> good afternoon. my name is johnny scinoni. i was born and raised in san francisco. still pay taxes of various stripes. and i was invited here today as a member of the carpenter's union local number 22 to commend, honor, acknowledge the legendary and ex-exemplary noteworthy and distinguished work by mr. william lee a member of your planning commission. the most important accolade is to acknowledge his wise service

to this city in terms of planning because oftentimes this planning will have an impact for decades. and people like mr. lee should be commended and they should be held on to for as long as possibly in order for the city to make good, sound progress. and at the same time, for the record, i'd like to bring to your attention for future consideration as a member of the planning commission mr. jim salinas who's been a long time business representative for the carpenter's union local 22 in san francisco, native of san francisco, quite familiar with the lay of the land and well aware of the needs of the people, the citizenry of the city and county of san francisco. thank you very much for your time and attention.

president miguel: thank you. >> good afternoon. i'm orlando dusue wave. i'm a local 22 carpenter's union member. i'm a san francisco. i'm here to thank mr. lee. i hope that everyone could be encouraged by his support for labor because labor is very important, having people work in san francisco. san francisco residents, it's very important. there's a lot of work going on. there's not a lot of san franciscans doing it but when you have more work there's more opportunity for san francisco people to work. like some of the commissioners have said, it does look beautiful out here. and we know there's a change

coming and there's a change happening. as long as we keep building and it will keep looking more and more beautiful. people will appreciate the city more and it will bring more revenue, more tax revenue. thank you. and i appreciate mr. william, commissioner william lee. and i hope everybody could be influenced by his good work. thank you very much. president miguel: thank you. miguel gomez, leo -- can't quite make out the last name. >> good commissioners. my name is miguel gomez and i am a local 22 member for 22 years but i also come here today to thank commissioner lee for his service here to the

city. without you, i mean, i bought my house, you know because i was able to come out, you know, from -- i mean, there's a lot of people that are unemployed right now due to being a minority, you know, i was lucky to buy a house there. 's not too many people. we've got to retrain the youth and put them out there to work. with commissioner billie, he's done a lot for me to be able to buy a house. and there's a lot of people that are thankful for you. thank you. president miguel: thank you. leo, are you there? >> the microphone right there. >> keep us work. i'm a local 22 carpenter.

i hope the city and county can give more work for local 22 because we san francisco residents. so we hope can get more work and san francisco county also. we want more work. thank you. president miguel: thank you. is there any additional public comment on items not on the agenda? >> [inaudible] >> i reside at 77 poof ier. and i was one of the d.a. requesters. we have thanks to our attorney steve williams, williams signed

a successful agreement with the owners of the property. but i'm here to speak in strong defense of the d.r. process itself because without it we would have had no recourse. and these were matters which deeply affected us and our neighbors, one of which was that the presence of our 40-foot tall avocado three was completely invisible until i called in early march to notify them that the project as it had been aproved would kill our tree because the roots and part of the canopy projected over the property owner's line and they wanted to build through the fence. that having been said, i'd also like to say that i think there are a few simple changes which might be made which will dramatically reduce the d.r. process, one of which is we have no -- we saw no finished plans in our neighborhood until

we received the plans that had been approved by planning on march 1. and at that point we were told, no, those were the wrong plans and we've got another set on march 5. we then had 25 days to examine these plans and that was not enough time. and there is no process in place for extending the d.r. review process. if planning had put a sign up on -- on the fence in front of the lot informing us that there were plans being reviewed -- we didn't even get the name of the planner until early march. so i understand that you've raised the fees and to us that's kind of a moot point because it's cost several thousands dollars in attorney's fees to what we feel we've reached an quitable conclusion. this house is going to be approximately 10 to 12 feet

taller than the house it replaced which was burned in a pg & e fire in which our house was heavily damaged in february 2009. and our neighbors to the east and west, one of whom had been born in that neighborhood and from the time she was a child had watched the sun come up in the morning was going to completely lose that because of the size of this building. the neighbor to the rear had nine fruit trees all of which were going to be impacted with the lack of afternoon sun. we feel there were corridors that were not addressed especially because of the windows that was in the back of this house which would act -- especially at night if all those lights came on would seriously impact privacy and the environment of the neighborhood.ivacy and the environment of the neighborhood,

which is a baufl neighborhood of 12 adjacent backyards. that is all i have to say, but i will answer any questions. i imagine some of you had v had time to look at the voluminous correspondence, some of which i wrote, about this project. president miguel thank you. is there additional public comment on items that are not on the agenda? if not, general public comment is closed. >> thank you, commissioners. the consent item 3 has moved to the consent agenda. and for 1423 post street.

>> good afternoon, president miguel and commissioners. this is a conditional use request for a full service restaurant to occupy a commercial space previously occupied by he tail use at 423 polk street in the polk street commercial district. the space is currently vacant. the restaurant does not have a permit at this time and the permit will be subject to subject 312 neighborhood note. the restaurant would be eligible for a beer and wine license. however, no liquor service would be allowed without further authorization for a bar. future restaurant must be full service in character and a small self-service restaurant would require further conditional use authorization and a large fast food restaurant is not permitted in the district. the project is supported by the lower polk neighborhood group. the neighborhood group that covers the polk street and this portion of polk street and i got a letter just a moment ago from a representative of lower polk

and they regret that their employment has taken them away and they won't be able to speak in support of this project today, but they were here to support. and department has also received communications from the middle court neighborhood no exthat they are opposed to the project because the tenant is unknown and the food service use ve placing a retail space. the police department has not taken a position on this request. and in addition to the neighborhood group comments, the department has received one letter in opposition from a neighborhood who is opposed for basically the same reasons that middle polk opposes. when a restaurant tenant is chosen for this space, they would be required to give notice under plan code section 312 and anyone objecting could file a request for discretionary review and bring the matter before the planning commission. they recommend approval of the request for a full service restaurant as it complies with the planning code to the policies of the general plan. i'll be happy to answer any questions you may have.

>> thank you. president miguel: is there any project sponsor? >> good afternoon. david sternberg, the architect chrt project. and i'll be very brief. i want to reiterate basically that this is just a placeholder at the time. the real estating a has been marketing this space and thinks the only real tenants that have viability for any time of length of time because we have had many other tenants in the space that just turn over are full-service restaurants. it is basically a space holder to save a little time and i do want to stress the fact that any particular restaurant does al need to go through the 312 notification and can be brought back through d.r. before the

commission. so it seems that the concerns of anybody would be met with the particular restaurant that gets finalized in the space. that' all i really had to say. i'm available to answer any questions if you'd like. thank you. president miguel: thank you. is there any p public comment o this item? >> good afternoon, commissioners. i'm with the middle polk association. we respectfully disagree. we think that changing retail to food service should require a full hearing that is noticed with a particular restaurant in find. the discretionary review process, i don't understand how that works but from the woman who spoke in public comment

before, it caused the people who wanted discretionary review some money to do that where under this process it's the general public that has a chance to have input as to what goes into their neighborhood. so we would not be totally opposed to having food service replace retail if the conditions were proper. and with that food restaurant would be. >> thank you. is there additional public comment on this item? public comment is closed. commissioner borden? commissioner borden: i understand the concern of middle polk. and even if somebody came through with a conditional use for a restaurant, saying they wanted to do hot food, say, they could still do indian food or

somebody else could come in all together. to say that the use runs with the tenant and not the applicant at the time and the public pause in consideration doesn't make sense to make this retail sense into a restaurant space. and it sounds like there is issues trying to get retail in this space. that area of polk there is a need for more eyes on the street because it starts to get a little less -- there is a gap between activity on the street there and there's been issues with prostitution and other. and night eyes on this street seems like it would be a good advantage that a restaurant provid provides. if you look at the neighborhoods that are thriving in general, they are also restaurants that have helped rejuvenate the neighborhood. and part of the challenge is people aren't doing retail. shops are shutting down on every street. i see it even in my neighborhood

which has a thriving retail environment and it is an increasingly difficult conversation and restaurants have been the saving graces mof of the neighborhood corridors and as a matter of fact, we have seen a number of n.c.d.'s come before the commission requesting to lift the number of restaurants they are allowed and to provide conditional use for the restaurants allowed in the neighborhood because they found the previous prohibitions were too restrictive and hurting the viability and i understand the concerns because it's easier when you know who the tenant is and the d.r. process is a more appropriate way to deal with the issue related to the actual person going in there, so i would move to approve. >> second. president miguel: commissioner

antonini? commissioner antonini: and regardless of what type of restaurant may go in there, as long as if that restaurant were to go out of business and be replaced, i think it's 18 months and longs vacancy is no longer than that and the conditional use is in place with a different type of restaurants and it's three years in this area? i know there are different areas have different periods of time and north beach has a much narrower time as long as it fits the necessary requirements in terms of a full service restaurant and each time there is a change like that, there is additional 312 noticing as to the change and often they have to post a sign in regards to the fact there are going to be alcoholic beverages served also.

i'm in favor of this project. president miguel: commissioner sugaya? commissioner sugaya: under the scenario if it's approved and it is a c.u. and a restaurant and is it a specific restaurateur that comes in and one of the neighborhood groups or somebody files a d.r., what kind of powers does the commission have under d.r. short of overturning the c.u.? can we condition anything and everything at that point? >> thank you. good afternoon. >> i didn't mean everything and anything, but -- >> in this case i believe that once the building permit comes through, there will be a section 312 notification and one can file a discretionary view and bring it before the board who would be able to condition that permit. however, that permit is not

appealable to the board of appeals because it is issued pursuant to a conditional use. so that is my understanding but would defer to the city attorney. sh commissioner sugaya: for example, we could condition hour of operation and garbage pickup and storage within the building. there is no entertainment here at the moment, so these are not issues but we have the leeway to look at all those parameters. >> i would suggest if the commission is interested in putting limits on those issues to include them in the conditional use permit that the

condition is authorizing today. i'd have to look further and do further research on how extensive the review might be of a building permit once it is authorized because the conditional use permit should control those issues. if the commission does want to address the issues, i would suggest adding those as conditions to this conditional use permit or to include them in this approval. >> commissioner lee? >> you are opposing this because this is too many restaurants or is the liquor license or whant want to keep retail? i'm surprised. normally you are in sync with the lower polk. >> we are very much in sync with lower polk and to say we're opposing the project, our viewpoint is there is no project because there is no restaurant.

and to go with what the city attorney just said, if it is true that the commission can't put conditions after the conditional use process, then you're in a position where you don't know what your you aer approves today. if we knew what was going on in there and had time to talk to the people going in there i understand the need to have a space rented and to do business. and we're not blanketly opposed to replacing retail with food service. it's just that we don't know. it's an unknown process here. we don't know -- >> i understand where you're getting at. thank you. president miguel: in a way it

doesn't matter who goes in first. they could go out of business after a week and a month later they could go out of business and someone else could come in and you could have a mexican restaurant a chinese, italian restaurant of any type following each other. this commission does not approve tenants. we approve the conditions on land use. commissioner moore? commissioner moore: i do believe that lower polk requires a balance, a careful balance of who is there. we have an area which is really trying to pull itself up and i am prepared to fast track a realistic c.u. at the time when there is an offer for someone to move into the space. i am not prepared to move into a theoretical c.u. approval for the reasons that were stated and what middle polk's concerned

about. i can not really support the motion on the floor. president miguel: commissioner olague? vice president olague: i can see where both the commission and the polk association are coming from. i just tend to see a use here but i don't see any specific conditions which is i think the point that commissioner sugaya was making. and usually when we do look at these situations, we do have a project before us and even though it can change to a mexican or indian restaurant, the conversations we have here when we change the different types of uses, they do involve the specifics of how the space is going to be use and what hours and the nature of whether it's a bar or restaurant that's open to 1:00, midnight, 10:00, whatever, and there are the usually we don't hit here and

dismiss it as a restaurant and not get into specifics about those type of details. we can go on hours here talking about conditions that will be imposed on the store and even though the space isn't attached to the use, frequently when we condition and there is more information on there i would lean toward the arguments of middle polk although i understand commissioner borden's logic completely. i have never seen anything like this actually. usually someone comes with an actual project before us, not focussing on the use. th