cultural district, to have so many museums and cultural institutions. the center of our tourist life is here because this is where the convention center is. people from near and far can be introduced to the richness of the bay area. it is so wonderful and unique. >> the city thanks you for providing such wonderful leadership and vision. >> we're so happy to be part of the city and so honored to be part of "culture wire." >> to learn more about the exhibition and other upcoming events, visit the website. thank you for watching "culture

>> good afternoon. this is the regular meeting of the san francisco planning commission for thursday, june 9, 2011. prior to taking role, let me remind everyone to turn off your cell phones or any other electronic devices that may sound off during the meeting. [roll call] thank you. we have a full commission. commissioners, first category on your calendar is consideration

of items proposed for continuance. item 1 is case 201 1.1015t to add new alternatives to the market and actively of land area. the items proposed for continuance to june 23, 2011. item two is case 2011.0296c proposed for continuance to july 14, 2011. i, unfortunately, am not aware of any other item on your calendar being proposed for continuance. commissioner olague: public comment on items being proposed for continuance? if he could come to the microphone, sir. -- if you could come to the microphone, sir. >> my name is david gruber, and i'm here for the item on hugo street. there was a flurry of e-mails

this morning between the contractor of the sponsor about -- requested a postponement. commissioner olague: commissioners, i will just ask that because there was no written request for continuance that you take up the matter at the call of that item and not during this time. >> ok, we will have to take at the call of the item, sir. since there was no written request and many of us were busy -- we are busy with our jobs before coming here. we did not have access. >> we are, too. we came down your special for this. commissioner olague: it will be discussed and considered at that time. any additional comments on items proposed for continuance? public comment is closed. commissioner antonini: move to continue items one and two to the dates proposed. commissioner moore: second. >> thank you, commissioners.

on the motion for continuance, -- commissioner antonini: aye. commissioner borden: aye. commissioner fong: aye. commissioner miguel: aye. commissioner olague: aye. >> thank you. those items have been continued as they have been proposed. commissioners, you are now at commission matters. are there any commission matters? commissioner olague: i wanted to mention at this time that we will close the meeting in honor of the two firemen who lost their lives. commissioner antonini: thank you. i was absent last week on a family vacation to hawaii, and aside from the usual golf and beach activities, i did spend a couple of days touring honolulu and i was pretty impressed with the changes since i had been there. it had been quite a while.

like a lot of other cities i see, i think it is instructive that it was noticeably clean. there's not a lot of trash on the ground, and as you know, they have a lot of wind there, too, so i do not think we could blame that, and not much graffiti was invisible. i went through many parts of the city. the other thing they do that i think is pretty successful -- i'm not exactly sure how it works -- but parks are closed between 11:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m., so while people can occupy the parts for as long as they want during the other hours, when that time comes, those who are there are asked to leave except for passageways on sidewalks going through. they say it has been quite successful. i'm not sure how they do that, but it sounds like something we might want to look into. other than that, we also are a site for much tourism, and i think it's certainly marked a difference what you see in

honolulu, or at least the parts i was in, and that was the downtown area, also, and what you see in terms of the negative items. we can always take lessons from other places. unfortunately i also -- or fortunately, i did take a wonderful tour of pearl harbor, the uss missouri, which could have been in san francisco and probably would have been, but unfortunately, there was a lot of opposition, and now, it is in pro harbor. >> i have the pleasure tuesday evening of being at the green room of the war memorial building and saw the model for the war memorial. they are very interesting. the arts commission is leading

the design. the selection on this was very well attended, and the plaza itself will be deemed in honor of george and charles schulz who were present, and everyone has their favorites, but i think any of them would do the city proud. commissioner sugaya: i see on the advanced calendar that there might be an informational presentation on the academy of art university coming up. i think we concluded this week in discussions that we would defer that. >> i was just thinking they

either have purchased or are in negotiation for purchase of the cannery, i believe it is. i would be in support of a closed hearing before we move forward in a public hearing. commissioner moore: i have been meeting with the department of informational technology. i realize strong ties for planning as a user group to informational technology. and many exciting projects. at some point, it might be interesting to have someone else from the department -- to have these people talk to us, which comes from the commission to planning challenges and do what planning does and has successfully done for

establishing a powerful web site. a treasure trove of wealth these people have appeared from an idea point, it is quite exciting to listen to them, particularly as it challenges come to the city with america's cup, and while they are brainstorming with the next layer, it might well sued us and be very fun to listen to some, so we can kind of head a tentative date or have it on our things to do calendar, that would be a good idea. commissioner borden: i know that members of the public already know this, but i will not be here next thursday, and the reason is because it is the 100th anniversary of ibm, the company for which i work for, which has been in san francisco since 1914, the we have been in san francisco for almost as long as we have been around as a company. on the 15th, the day before, our

company is having a global day of service, so employees around the world. we will be installing solar panels around our home and bayview hunters point. we will also be working at st. anthony's clinic, working with patients there through a community health center initiative we are working on. people are also being trained with the red cross, and others will be volunteering in open public schools, so it is exciting because we have a lot of fun things going on and around the globe where our company has had a challenge. we are challenging everyone to pledge eight hours of service in the year 2011. commissioner sugaya: speaking of i.t. and ibm, i am trying to connect these things on pretty

much a lack of information at the moment. it seems that salesforce has done a pretty nice job in their architectural work with respect to their campus. one of the comments i noted in the paper was that they seem to have opened up the campus to the public with access ways and open space areas. that kind of attitude seems to me to be very good for san francisco. when companies take that attitude, i noted in the paper there is a proposal from apple to create a new campus with some kind of circular building that seems to be totally the opposite of what salesforce is doing. of course, i do not have details. there may be penetrations into that, but the secular space of the courtyard in between does not seem to be as penetrable as the salesforce campus. some clips from mr. jobs also

indicate that he may not be quite as attuned to what apple may do for cupertino as salesforce seems to be doing for san francisco. he basically said they could not build it here, we would just go somewhere else. >> [inaudible] commissioner sugaya: is in cupertino, but he was quoted as saying something to the council that they were not going to prove it, they could just go to mountain view or somewhere else. and also, some council and ask them about contributing to the city's wifi network, and he said that is why they pay taxes. so i sold my ipad yesterday. commissioner olague: let's save that for coffee somewhere. commissioner miguel: just a tag on to what commissioner sugaya

manchin, i mentioned last week seeing the model of salesforce's 14-acre campus proposal. not only is it completely open, it brings 16th street all the way into it, but unlike google and many of the others, there is no in-house food service. the cafeteria, no restaurant, no nothing. they are bringing in private enterprises who will be given or lead, probably, spaces along the plaza and everything in order to activate and service the general public as well. it is the first major firm of that kind that is breaking away from keeping everything in house. i thought that was fantastic. >> although we're not allowed to discuss this particular

subject, i want to say the and there a couple of architects who can deliver a building out of the unusual -- out of the usual, and i think that will be good for mission bay because the building type has become a little bit subdued and boring. commissioner olague: ok. that is coming up on the agenda at some point. but not today. >> with that, commissioners, thank you. you can move forward to directors report, directors announcements. >> thank you. regarding the salesforce campus, you will see that. the commission does receive the office portions of the mission bay development because of the office allocation. commissioner olague: and we have

all been invited out there, so i think we all have scheduled times to me. >> we were informed last week that the academy of art did in fact close on the cannery, and you will soon be receiving a letter from me to the academy outlining my concerns about that issue, particularly in light of the fact that the cannery is not within the eir study areas we have identified in the current process. those study areas were identified over a year ago. so we are quite concerned about that in light of the fact that the eir is what allows them to come into compliance. also regarding the academy, i want to point out an article that i just printed out just before this meeting that was in today's "wall street journal began which i just had -- today's "wall street journal." which i just had in front of me. that is the outline version, but

certainly available online as well. second thing i wanted to tell you about was that yesterday, we released a draft of the recreation and open space element of the general plan for the public. those should be in your packets that you received today, and staff will be coming to you on june 23 for initiation of that element. the environmental review is almost complete. just for the purpose of the public, there will be, is available at the department. it is online. there will be freebies and hardcover is available for people to review. this is been a work in progress for a couple of years between the staff of the recreation and park department and several other agencies and public task forces as well. that has been released as of yesterday in draft form. and i wanted to call your attention -- i just received an e-mail before i came here about

some reorganization in san diego on the planning department side. they have recently taken steps to merge what had been a separate planning department responsible for long-range planning with their building services and development department. as best i can tell, it is the equivalent of merging planning and dbi in san diego. these things in many cities, and san diego is one where these organizations go back and forth. a few years, they will be one way, and then there will be a change, and it will be the other way. it is not clear how much of their long-range planning function will survive. i know that the director of that apartment was let go as part of this process, as part of the murder, so -- but it is an indication in some cities where this is happening -- several years ago, you may recall the city of cincinnati entirely eliminated their planning department. that has since been restarted. chicago eliminated their long- range planning function a few

years ago as well. so these things are moving targets somewhat. cities often reorganize these functions in many different ways, but i thought it was interesting that san diego was one, the first california city i have seen in a while where it happened. the first large city where i have seen it happen. i just thought that was interesting and wanted to bring that to your attention. i think that concludes my report. commissioner olague: thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners. here to give you your weekly report on activities at the border supervisors. it is a big report today. but the land use committee this week and the full board had a lot of planning items. the land use committee did hear the 800 booker t. washington mixed use development. at that hearing, they considered legislation introduced by supervisors mirkarimi, mar, and avalos, that would create a special use district and amend the height from 40 to 50 feet.

you heard this legislation and associated project on april 28. there was a great deal of discussion about whether the height limit should be 45 feet or 55 feet, and your decision was to approve a 55-foot project. this week, the land use committee took public comment and forwarded the item with no recommendation because there is a pending ceqa appeal, so they could not take any recommendation on that. at this time, there is both a pending ceqa aseu -- a cu appeal before the board. the committee also heard the western so what community stabilization policy. supervisor kim is the risk -- the sponsor of the resolution, whereby the board would encourage the planning commission to a corporate policies and objectives of the western soma stabilization policy into the plan when it is before you in the coming year or so. the stabilization policy would establish a metering of

development with the goal of achieving the community's desired balance of affordable market rate housing as well as the balance between jobs production and housing production. as a resolution, the board does not refer this sort of legislation to the commission. they only need to hold the ordinances for the 90 day wait. monday's hearing, the department's staff expressed support for insuring balanced development. staff also expressed concerns about a few of the ramifications of this resolution. specifically that the proposed metering may bond future commissions or board members and prevent them from using their discretion to approve potentially beneficial projects. the department explained that the meeting projects in an area this small is difficult and projects just outside the boundaries would not be counted towards the numbers but would have an impact in the area nonetheless. the boundaries of western soma

were not drawn to reflect a self-sustaining urban organism but are the result as a result of political negotiations, and a split through blocks and st. pierre lastly, due to the specific lot size needs of affordable housing got to come staff requested more time to study the issue to ensure there are not large parcels of rezoning to support the 70% affordable housing that the community is seeking. the community discussed continuing the item to allow our director to meet with stakeholders, but the legislative sponsor did not consent. the item was forwarded to the full board without recommendation. also before the committee was an ordinance for parking in soma and mission bay. planning commission considered the proposed ordinance on april 28. the legislation would revise land use, parking, and street- fighting controls to conform with our more contemporary policies.

at the hearing, the commission voted to recommend approval of modifications. they recommended a host of changes, largely to ensure the legislation originally sponsored by supervisor daly has taken into account the many ordinances that have amended the sections in such a short time. also agree with the intent to remove the mission bay from this potential ordinance. supervisor kim inc. all of your recommendations and made some minor adjustments this week. the item was continued for one week for what will likely be the final hearing at committee to hear it as it was amended. moving on to tuesday at the full board, they heard the north beach library appeal and associated approvals. the commission approved the library and associated approvals on april 21. i hope that is not the commission secretary's phone. >> i cannot find it. >> this week, which failed to

convince the board that it was an adequate or that the entitlements that the library and that recon park were seeking should not be granted. public testimony centered on the legality of using the so-called triable parcel has a site from the library rather than open space. appellants argued that eir wrongly characterizes the tribal parcel based on its current use, rather than open space, what they think should be the intended use. the board by unanimous vote of public planning commission unanimous certification and denied the appeal. the board went on to approve the street vacation, the zoning map amendment on first reading. the board could not approve one ordinance related to authorizing the site at the playground and library due to noticing issues, so they continued. treasure island, the appeal and associated approvals was also

heard this week. the project had the usual complications related to reusing a former military base, and it was a challenging location. further complicating matters in the process were uncertainties about the future of redevelopment agencies in general and a decision to switch the government and financing to not include redevelopment. the improvements included the sierra club, as well as others. there was considerable uncertainty as to whether the appellate arguments were gaining traction with the board members in the five--- and a five-hour hearing ensued. opponents raised concerns about hazardous materials, sea level rise, tsunami, residual effects, transportation, historic resources, and other issues, which we felt were thoroughly addressed in the eir. based on recent changes as to how the project would be implemented, which now gives greater oversight of the

planning department, the appellants argued that the product definition required recirculation of the eir. a contested the legitimacy of the hearings and essentially argued for starting the process over again. in the end, the eir was up held unanimously for treasure island. regarding the associated approval, supervisor mar introduced an amendment related to historic preservation. this one was passed 7-4, and like all the other actions, which were unanimous. the amendment was designed for development, and would require thattida -- that tida follow the interior secretary standards and consult with preservation experts at our department for any development involving historic resources. after the staff review, the department could bring the matter to the hpc is decided. chris lee, they have needed to consult with an expert but not necessarily within our

department, and there was previously no mention of the hpc. all the other minor amendments were approved unanimously, and this amendment was considered separately from the other items and received a split vote due to the explicit codification of the secretary frontier status. supervisor wiener expressed concern that this will be first city ordinance with the standards you with that, all items were passed unanimously on first reading. lastly but not least lee, park ridge said and all the ordinances related to it were passed -- parkmerced. there were a couple introductions i would like to share with you this week. supervisor farrell interest an ordinance that would establish a city center fine district. you will hear more about that in the coming months. supervisor cohen it is a request

to study the status of california's high-speed rail initiative. that includes the lengthy report this week. commissioner olague: thank you. there is a question. commissioner antonini: thank you. i just wanted to ask for some additional information regarding this western soma that you mentioned. as you know, this was separated out from eastern neighborhoods and was not involved in the planning process as we normally know it, but rather was through the community planning process. i am concerned about this situation of meter and the amount of housing you have relative to affordable than market rate seems to basically sort of take away our ability, as someone pointed out in your comments, too, you know, individually make judgments on benefits of projects and also

kind of goes against our city- wide inclusion their policy, which we cannot balk at, so anyway, i have concerns about that. i would like to hear more. commissioner olague: thank you. >> the board of appeals did meet last night. they had a full calendar. there were three items i think the commission might be interested in. we first mentioned this to you a few months back. there have been appeal on building permits for the chase bank. at the previous hearing, which identified that there was an atm located on an exterior wall that needed section 312 notice or alternatively, they could move it inside. at the previous hearing, the board could not reach a resolution on amending the plan to accommodate that. revise plans were submitted the following day. that was appealed to the board of appeals heard last night. many of the same issues regarding formula retail were raised. i did do a site visit with the senior building inspector. we measured the site, and it

does comply with the size requirements. it is less than 4000 sweet and does not require a conditional use authorization. it was still disputed by the appellant, the claim that a corridor/storage area that is not in use by chase bank, that is not least by chase bank should count toward their use size, which we disagree. the board sided with the department and of how the decision. the building permit was issued. we would like to highlight the last time we had discussed this issue about financial-services, noting that financial services are not covered under formula retail uses, and the commission had requested a hearing on formula retail overall to see how the program is going, and i think we're going to try to bring that to you in the middle of july in association with legislation by supervisor mar that would deal with pet food stores and the fast food special use district. the second item was