i have known each other a long time. we met when when we were both young students at uc berkeley. as we celebrate a new governor, here in california, i could not help but think that everything was new again. i thought about everything that we worked on together and how much they laid the foundation for his work in public life, hopefully, for my work in public life. one of the first thing we did together was to pass an american studies requirement, a graduation requirement, at berkeley, so everyone understood the strength of celebrating the diversity of the people of california. he fought for justice, not just as a student, making sure we had a university system that was open and accessible to students, but also to the faculty. he and i spent years working to defend faculty members who had been unjustly denied tenure

through a denied -- flawed process. we fought the first goal for together. we protested the first president bush together. we engaged in broadbased coalition politics that laid the foundation for much of what phil has done prior to coming into office, his years in office. over the past five years, you have no phil to be a problem solving assessor. the mayor talked about some of his success. the fact that he has generated $245 million above projected revenues at a time of this kind of economic crisis is nothing short of extraordinary. for as long as i have known him, he has been an incredibly forward-looking intellectual, a passionate leader, and that is something that has been consistent whether as a student

leader, leader in the community leadership role, or as the assessor. before he came to office, he was a strong civil rights leader. he thought and protected the legal and civil rights for asian-pacific islanders and all people in the city who needed their services. he served the asian law caucus, the board for the california equality institute, defending work to secure legal protections for lgbt people. this is important to me as the first day speaker. he and i go back so long, he probably remembers when i dated women. [laughter] i think this is long enough in where you can do the joke, mayor. becoming san francisco's

highest-ranking chinese american official in 2005, still has really played a key role in the community. i know that he is as happy as anybody to be surpassed in that position, now having major league. we all celebrate your ascension. -- mayor lee. [no audio] [applause] [no audio][applause] the mayor talked about his great work. he has been groundbreaking in his environmental work. really, making sure that we bring environmentally sound energy production into the

mainstream, not only here in the city and county of san francisco, but making that success the foundation for which the rest of us judge ourselves. as public officials from across the state are called to solve unprecedented problems, it is encouraging to know that phil will continue his work on behalf of good government policies and solutions. it is clear that he understands every dollar his office brings in leads to more funding for the crucial programs that make this a city and county that people so much enjoyed living in working in. the commitment that the mayor discussed with respect to real state watchdogs and others is phenomenal. in its first year of publication, the change report brought in $1.3 million, much needed for the city of san francisco. and that revenue went to help those in need the most, the children in our community,

seniors, families who desperately need so many of the services that people are threatening to turn their backs on in challenging times. the strides that he has made in san francisco and is first few years as office -- in office are clear. it is exactly that what we are celebrating, the next term of office, all the promise that bill brings to us. as a friend, public -- fellow public servant, i cannot think of anything i would rather be doing than what i'm about to do next which is administered the oath of office to my friend and our assessor-recorder phil ting. [applause]

>> if you would raise your right hand and repeat after me. i, phil ting, do solemnly swear that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the state of california against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that i will bear true faith and allegiance to the constitution of the united states and the constitution of california, that i take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that i will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which i am about to enter, and during such time as i hold the office of assessor-

recorder. congratulations. [applause] >> it is perfect when you have kids. they have an alarm clock when they tell you that you have gone on too long. you want to say hello too? first of all, i want to say thank you, first and foremost, to my wife susan, my daughters, and thank you for the wonderful introduction and all the love that you gave to my family. thank you very much. i want to also thank our elected officials, commissioners,

department heads, community leaders, friends and family for joining us in our office. it is an honor to have your support and share with you this great day. most importantly, why we wanted to do it in this office, i wanted to thank the people of the assessor-recorder's office. too often, you do incredible work, such important work, people do not often know the impact. let's give a big round of applause for the people here. they do the hard work. [applause] the speaker was absolutely right. i am one of the proudest people in this city that we have our first chinese-american mayor edwin lee. [applause]

ed, for many of us in the asian- american community, has been a longtime role model. he has always been my role model, mentor, and he gives the example of fighting for everybody every day and making sure that the city is not just there for some people, but that it is therefore all of us. it is something that i aspire to. thank you and congratulations. [applause] and, mr. speaker, my good friend, john arresperez. we do go back 20 years. susan did say just that, that there was no way that you would come down here. thank you for being here in these times.

i do go back to our days at cal. in the late 1980's and early 1990's, we were also facing budget cuts. this threat of contract that the people have given to families and students, that you were going to get a high quality of moral education starting in kindergarten, all the way through college, if you could stay the course. we saought start to the road bak then. that is something that we continue to fight for. i want to thank you for your leadership. i cannot imagine someone who is more capable, strong, a willing leader at this time in the budget. so thank you, john, for your leadership. if you ride muni, if you send

your children to public schools, if you use public parks or any of our libraries, you have felt the impact of the office of the assessor-recorder. someone told me yesterday that it is the office that most people have ever heard of. there is some truth to that. but everybody, even today, has felt the impact of our office. we have one of the most important jobs in city hall. we make sure every san franciscan, from the smallest home owner to the biggest in the city, pays their fair share in taxes. since 2005, we are on the way to being the best. our office in the last six months had been tracking carefully all of the transaction that had come over through the desk on the recorders side. we were watching all of these

transfer taxes. basically, is a sales tax when you buy property. in the last six months, by saying, these transactions do not feel right, the value does not seem as low as that -- we have been able to bring in $3 million of additional revenue directly for our general fund, just by being more diligent -- [applause] i say thank you too many people on that side of the office. just by being more diligent, more efficient, by paying more attention, we have been able to do that. we are trying to get our government to become as efficient and diligent as we can be. by doing that, we can achieve the high expectations that citizens have for us. thanks to the incredible work of our staff, implementing the law

management ideas that i brought in. we have brought in $245 million above our budget in the past year. that led to making sure that we did not have to layoff teachers. that allowed us to keep firefighters and police. that meant more parts which could stay open. that also meant that more buses could run. that money is what you rely on to get to work everyday, enjoy your life, and as families, that you get to live the quality of life that you have. our office is also using new technologies, professional management technologies and the customer service our highest priority. some of these improvements have led to us closing millions of dollars in tax loopholes. we have launched the program to

fight predatory lending, to make sure that home owners understand they can do something about their homes in foreclosure. lastly, i am extraordinarily proud that many members of the solar task force are here tonight and were able to help over 1000 home owners get solar on their roof. [applause] hawaii and also dedicated to making sure that every home owner gets their fair share when the city might be losing money. right now, given the huge drop in home values, we have some people who bought after 2004 who deserve a reassessment our office, proactively, like many offices across the state -- we have looked at 20,000 home owners. we reduced the assessment by

15,000 homeowners -- 50,000 homeowners got a reduction. many of you have worked with me closely to make our tax system more transparent. to close loopholes to make sure that the very few do not escape paying what they are owed. i am also honored and grateful that you have stood by me, even when some of the most powerful institutions and people -- we work closely with homeowners to fight against predatory lenders and we work to make sure san francisco can leverage that most important asset, their home, to put solar panels on their roofs. by doing that, we have launched one of the first green jobs programs in san francisco. go solar not only allows of 1000

people to get solar on their roof, but it injures 40,000 san franciscans have jobs -- ensures 40,000 san franciscans have jobs. we have an opportunity to get paid not just for this year and future projects, four years in the future. i know many people who have been advocating that program. and thanks to many of you have worked closely with me to close one of the state's biggest tax loopholes, proposition 13. none of the people in this office are shocked, but i am shocked at how few people realized that every single building gets subsidized by proposition 13, regardless of how big or small they are. unfortunately, we have had to pay the price. we have seen a huge shift from

who pays property taxes. 30 years ago, over 60% of property taxes were paid by commercial retailers. today, it is 43%. so the thing that we passed to protect home owners is now subsidizing somebody else. we felt that a fact. that meant higher fees at the university of california, state university, university college. it has meant fewer classroom -- larger classroom sizes for people k-12. it has also meant that we have cut our social contract, in terms of people most in need able to get help. whether that is the elderly who need help at home, mothers with children who really need this money. that is why we need city government to be as innovative and compassionate as the people

of san francisco. the best argument we could make today is to make sure that every day we are making government work better. the most progressive thing we could do is to make our city government work faster, fairer, and smarter pour every san franciscan today. that task, however, is too important to lead to us in city hall alone. we need your help. we need to be sure to engage the entire population to identify those problems, to help fix them, and most of all, to hold all of us in government accountable for all of the services we promised to deliver to you. and only by engaging our entire community can we make sure that we have a solution, innovation, and that we have the ideas that will solve the myriad of problems we have been san francisco. i am more confident now than ever, by using technology, that

we can achieve our goals. i want to thank you all for being here today and for your support. thank you also to the speaker and mayor lee for supporting us here today. thank you. [applause] >> and what is a party without food? i just want to mention some of our sponsors in terms of our refreshments and beverages. thank you very much to everybody, speaker perez, mayor, and please enjoy the food and wine.

supervisor mar: the meeting will come to order. happy monday afternoon, everyone. this is a regular meeting of the land use and economic development committee of the san francisco board. i'm the chair of the committee. to my right is the vice chair of the committee, and to my left is supervisors got wiener -- supervisor scott wiener. are there announcements? >> please make sure to turn off cell phones and pagers. any documents to be included as part of the file should be submitted to the clerk. items acted upon today will appear on the february 8 board

of supervisors agenda unless otherwise stated. supervisor mar: thank you, and i would like to thank the staff from sfgtv for broadcasting this meeting. can you please call item 1? >> item 1, or in its amended the planning code to amend the upper market street neighborhood commercial district. >> the proposed extension of market octavia goes west to the northwest corner of castro street, specifically the lot with be artsy gas station. my home that i own is a condominium at 17th and diamond, which is less than 500 feet away from the gas station. as a result under california law, i have been devised that i must recuse myself from this item, item one, and i request permission to do so.

supervisor mar: thank you. supervisor cohen, without objection, we can reduce the supervisor wiener from this item. thank you. thank you. so for item one, it is extending the zoning controls for the market and octavia plan up to castro and market street. this extends the zoning controls and infrastructure improvements as well. we have ms. rogers from the planning department. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm here to represent the position of the planning commission. this is an ordinance that they initiated in response to hearing from people who lived in the area, so probably over a year they lobbied the planning

commission. the proposed amendment is not an extension of the full market and octavia plan. in large part, it extends a number of specific controls. the intent of the ordinance is to insure the development is consistent with the existing development patterns. the supervisor from parking requirements encourage more transit-oriented development in this upper market -- maybe i will put a little map on of the area. this map shows market street. here is castro. this middle color here is the upper market with the two parcels going down 16th street. it would ensure that development was in this area and also contributed to the community benefits program and impacts of new private development through

infrastructure fees. specifically, the ordinance would amend the following controls -- section 134 to require rear yards be provided at the ground floor and above, require glen ridge a ground floor of commercial uses would be required. of street parking would be amended to permit one car for each two dwelling units. the general standards for parking and loitering would be admitted -- amended to not permit new entries on market street in this area, and restrictions on the demolition conversion and merger in the area would be amended so that there would be added restrictions on existing dwelling units in this area above and beyond the current demolition controls allowed by section 317. same with the division of dwelling unit controls. the area would be a special- exemption that would allow for

additional height, and portions that are currently zoned for 40 or 50 feet, and that is -- as the supervisor said, the development would generally be extended to this area. the planning commission initiated after hearing from residents, and that is when the commission asked staff to provide some analysis. in doing so, we found that this proposed amendment is consistent with work the department has done for eastern neighborhoods, said the commission enthusiastically recommended approval of this. there was one thing that they added at the hearing. most of the ordinances which we did through planning efforts involved extensive community outreach and years of notice. because this draft ordinance did not benefit from the same process, did not provide the same link a notice to developers -- the same lengthy

notice to developers, the provision -- the commission proposed changing controls so there would be an exemption for certain controls and taxes with pre-existing cut six that have already filed, and if they are able to make good on their permanent application and get their entitlement within two years, so this is insuring that the projects is actually ready at the time the board is considering the ordinance and that it moves through and does get entitlements in a timely manner. so that describes the ordinance before you. if you have any questions, i'm available. supervisor mar: i do not see any questions. thank you very much. now, let's open this up for public comment. is there anyone from the public that would like to speak? please come forward. how many people would like to speak on this item? there are quite a few. let's limit this to two minutes

per speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i represent the 12,000 members of the san francisco bicycle coalition. we are very supportive of the proposal. it is very common sense. it rationalizes and harmonizes the zoning and deals with this orphan block. you have heard about this already. if anything, it will make development there more predictable, more fair, and it really brings the standards that we have developed at length for market and octavia to this last block, and it really helps to protect market street as a transit bicycle pedestrian corridor, so it seems like a very common-sense thing to do, and again, we bring you our wholehearted support for the measure. thank you. supervisor mar: thank you. those that would like to speak, please come and line of the

pecan -- line up if you can. >> hello, supervisors. i represent the castro area planning. our members and members of other neighborhood groups have been working with the planning department and also some of the developers who are working to build new developments within the zone, over the past year. we wholeheartedly support this, and we believed it is a very sensible and really kind of a modest change to the zoning, but it also kind of completes the process that was begun several years ago in which the community was engaged in a very popular and successful planning process to determine how the future of market street would