>> pavegly you can just say that the sign shall be preserved on the building. >> thank you. commissioners, there is a motion on the floor for approval with the amendment that the sign shall be preserved for cultural >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> that motion passed unanimously. >> we are going to take a 15-minute recess. >> i negligented to welcome britney back. >> welcome back britney. >> she has rejoined us after attending graduate school. she saw the light and came

back. we are very happy to have her. >> we are thrilled to have you back by the way. >> >> okay. the planning session is back in commission. we are going to item six on the consent calendar. it's case 2011.0415c for 234 ninth street. >> good afternoon, commissioners. dee yay goe s dee yay goe sanchz -- >> mr. sanchez, economyinger mig -- commissioner miguel wants to put something on the record. >> we have item 6, 10, 15, 16, and 17 in front of us. five items that all relate to cell phone antennas the we're taking them as a group. if i am reading the audience

correctly, someone has organized a group of people and at least one of these items, possibly 845 jackson. did someone organize a group to come here? great. you are the person i want to speak with then. is anyone organized a group to call on any other item? of those five? just a minute. did anyone organize a group to come on any other of these? then i would like to have you come up here also. i have no animosity against either of you individuals, i will say that to start with, but i want you to understand and i

want the people you brought here to understand that if your argument is that these items should not be proceed because of r.f. frequency emissions, you are in the wrong place. that is a federally regulated item that is considered prior to it coming here by the san francisco health department. we can't consider it. the planning department cannot consider it until it goes through the health department. so if you have brought people here with the concept that there is anything this commission can do regarding that particular concept of the r.f. frequency emissions, you have misled them totally wasted their time.

and f i may, wasted our time. i don't need any comment from you at this time. you can either speak or not speak later on. >> can i ask a question? commissioner miguel: no, we will proceed with the calendar. sorry, diego and too many items on the same thing and had to be said. commissioner antonini: the level of acceptable radio frequency emissions is set by the federal government and so if you have concerns about that level being too low or too high, whatever your concerns are, then you have to take it up with the federal representatives, the u.s. representatives, our u.s. senators from california because we have no control because if it keeps that standard, we cannot comment on any health risk that

may be a concern and the same applies to discriminating against carriers. just because one carrier has an installation in an area another carrier is allowed to have the same installation to make it possible for their transmissions to be carriecarried. thirdly, as most of you know, this is growing exponentially because of the use of handheld devices for everything under the sun. the demand is growing hugely. and so as long as that is understood, public comment, we encourage it and want to hear it, but want to make sure people are knowledgeable about the situation because many of the things that you comment on, we have no control over. thank you. >> commissioner sugaya? commissioner sugaya: just to say it once instead of five times is the other consideration is san francisco highly dense and an urbanized area together with the

topograp topography, we are seeing a lot more requests for cell phone antenna locations than out in the suburban areas. and the other thing to understand is that the coverage is not as broad as you might think. and it's the as small as four square blocks and n some instances and those are the kind of things that are a concern obviously to us, too, but we're getting a lot more requests and santa clara or other places outside the urban area, the immediately dense urban area. >> commissioner miguel? commissioner miguel: the other thing to add to this although we are using the term cell phone antennas is these are data transmission antennas and if getting that massive data transmission is actually starting to surplant the cell phone transmission themselves and it is the movement of that

electronic data that is involved and not just the cell phone. mr. sanchez, you can start. >> thank you very much. good afternoon, diego sanchez with the planning department staff. before you is a request for conditional use authorization and with the associated equipment cabinet as part of the wireless transmission network operated by at&t with an s.l.r. service operating license. the project is at 234 ninth street and is a three-story commercial structure. the project complies with all requirement of planning code and is consistent with the 1996 wireless facility citing guidelines and the proposed location is the preferred site for wireless transmission facilities with the location preference number four and they have complied with all procedural requirement for the establishment of a wireless transmission facility including

holding outreach meetings to residents within 500 feet in may of 2011 and commissioners, the proposed project will maintain a complete and comprehensive telecommunications network in the city of san francisco and provide the service that is in demand and serves the public good. staff recommends approval of the conditional use authorization with standard conditions. this concludes my presentation. i am available for questions. thank you. president olague: thank you. project sponsor. >> good afternoon, president olague and vice president miguel and commissioners and staff. i am the vice president of at&t for external affairs here in san francisco. i appreciate many of your earlier comments. indeed this project is part of our wireless upgrade to our network and i met with many of you to explain those and the steps we're taking to improve the wireless service. and that is due to the growth we

have experienced over the last 14 quarters in data transfer. in fact, we now carry more data over our wireless network than we do voice traffic. and that trajectory is showing no signs of mraing to or peaking any time soon. it's -- no signs of plateauing or peaking any time soon. in addition, we are planning for the onslaught of additional visitors to san francisco and the bay area that will be assembling for america's cup and knowing a lot of the visitors will have g.s.m. enabled phones to upgrade the network to handle thar traffic as well. you will be hearing several times today and i wanted to kind of thank you in advance and thank the planning staff for the great job they have done in reviewing all the sites and to put on the record that at&t has done extensive community outreach on all the sites going above and beyond the community meeting required and there is a website available to the public and been at a number of community festivals and events

and to educate and inform the community about what we're doing and continue to do merchant walks to let people know how the improvements are going to affect their business. the site before you at 234 ninth street, i am joined today by a representative from hammond edison who is an engineering firm that's done the r.f. studies to attest to the fact that we are within the f.t.c. standards you alluded to before as well as k.d.i. who is our project coordinator for this. and we stand ready to answer any questions that you may have regarding this matter. thank you. president olague: thank you. we have one speaker card. jackie bryson. >> good afternoon. again, commissioners, my name is jackie bryson.

i literally live under the corner and a back fence from the proposed location of this facility. my concern has to do with the impact on my little neighborhood and my little building in particular. my little apartment building which part of it faces on the ninth street part of the block, the other fart or fullsome street is one step above laguna honda and the san francisco population and one step below the san francisco county jail given some of the other populations who live there.

and i am concerned about the impact of making our neighborhood look less of a neighborhood with the small buildings and the limited parking and the quiet and a number of the residents required. and two other proposed uses of the same site and basically what i am asking for that the owner of the site will come back before the planning commission and give a big picture on what exactly i had given the address incorrectly before, and i apologize for that. what the exact usage of 234 ninth street is going to be. is it going to be a four-story single family residence with a rooftop garden where people can

peer down into my bedroom window? are we going to have the at&t stuff? is there something else? i really and my neighbor who is couldn't be here today would like an overview of what the big picture is for this particular location. basically that's why i came here today and i know you have a long meeting ahead. so i am basically done. thank you. president olague: thank you. is there any additional public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioners? commissioner antonini. commissioner antonini: in view of the comments, it appears this is a lab video. is that no longer there? >> commissioner, diego sanchez with the san francisco planning department. i think what the public has commented is some time back the building owners had put in -- request for a variance and building permit application to convert a couple of floors of

this building into residential. that has not been finaled. the work has not received certificate of final completion from the department of building inspection. so that with some of the notification put out by as require required and the various requirements and received in the past and a different project requesting the antenna installation on the roof obviously going under a different entitlement case and will see a subsequent building permit as well. commissioner antonini: although this is entire different, when there is a movement to be replaced by a residential, that would come before us? >> section 312 was senlt and expire -- was sent and expired in the variance and that has been taken care of and occurred

in march of this year. this is a subsequent project that the project that the building owner is undertaking completely separate from what was done in march. commissioner antonini: you are saying that -- i don't remember a project coming where we had -- >> it would have gone before you because the 312 wouldn't come before you unless there have a discretionary review filed by the public and a variance is heard only by the zoning commissioner. so you would not have seen this project. commissioner antonini: it seems to me this is a change of views fwauz upstairs of this was not residential before -- because the upstairs was not residential before? >> it would have change of view notification done in march of 2011. amount commissioner antonini i guess my -- commissioner antonini: my question of procedure is a change of view from what had been commercial to residential does not require action by the planning commission? >> not in this case, no. commissioner antonini: okay. >> no, it does not. it required notification and it would have come to you fit

required conditional use or discretionary review. commissioner antonini: i didn't know because these are the kind of comments the public had earlier and for their protection, it is important we look closely at this code and see if it needs some tweaking or changes because you can slip in some uses under the definition of residential which are not accept to believe the neighborhood and unless somebody gets on it and filed a d.r., all of a sudden it's done and no day in court. so i am fine with this particular project but glad comments were brought up about the change of views. >> thank you. president olague: commissioner moore. commissioner moore: mr. sanchez, i mentioned this last week and i think i have asked it before. i think it would help the public greatly to understand the tech niek of using designated -- the technique of using designated preference sites to explain what you are primarily looking for when you are trying to permit or

ask us to approve the location of antennas. and with that, with that not fully being explained, i think the public is missing a very important piece of information and would help people sitting here wondering why we are not at all entitled to comment on this. and there is the process in the planning department which is quite thoughtful and the consideration described as preference sites. and for the planning department to perhaps explain on the website in order to make it clearer. and if somebody has a question and the application in the neighborhood and what does that really mean? and to help people be better informed. >> we can put that together in

the future. president olague: commissioner sugaya. commissioner sugaya: move forward with conditions. president olague: second. commissioner miguel: diego, i am looking at the packet which says, to follow what was commented on, the project is the location for preferred location and commercial structure. however, this is residential as well. >> the department doesn't recognize, as i mentioned before, recognize the residential conversion until they have secured a c.f.c., aer is -- a certificate and we are not sure if the project is abandoned and remains completely commercial, that is how we are looking at it right now. commissioner miguel: okay. secretary avery: commissioners, there is a commission on the floor for approval. [vote taken]

thank you, commissioners. the motion has been approved. commissioners, you are now on item 10, case 2011.0292c for 845 jackson street. >> good afternoon, president olague and members of the commission. aaron hollister. before you is the structure commonly known as the hospital and include nine antennas at a maximum height of 80 feet with the associated equipment cabinets of two of the proposed sectors with a rooftop screen and a third sector would be mounted on the rear of the building. they would be installed around the antennas to hide cables and cable connections. according to the wireless department site guidelines, it

is preference one location which is the most preferential site for a wireless facility. since the materials were distributed, the department has received additional support and opposition of the project. i have both in hand in case you would like to review. after analyzing the aspects of the project, we have found this compatible with the neighborhood and recommends approval to allow the expansion of the wireless capacity and coverage in the project area, that the project is consistent wo to the wireless guidelines and located at the preferred site for wireless facilities and when viewed from public rights of way, the antenna would not have an intrusion and avoid disruption under the architectural integrity of the public building. this concludes the presentation. i will be available for questions. thank you. >> thank you. project sponsor. >> thank you, again, president

olague. and there has been questions about the notification and we hid hold a public meeting on may 11 with about 25 attendees at the meeting, mostly chinese speaking and the meeting was conducted in mandarin, i believe, it was, with chinese translation. we also notified over 2,800 residents and 23 neighborhood organizations regarding the meeting and also submitted a petition from 463 individuals that work, do business, visits in the chinatown area about the need for improved wireless service in that area. wanted to let you know that we have an r.f. person to attest to the design wells our project coordinator if you have any questions. thank you. president olague: thank you. i have several speaker cards and will be limiting the time to two minutes. i was wondering since many of the names are chinese, foreign

names, is there a translator? are you present? if you could come up, sir, and i will go ahead and hopefully pronounce them somewhat correctly and of course, that would allow for four minutes all together and two minutes and then two minutes translation. and you know the drill. you have been here several times. okay. so hans chu. followed by amy wong and andy yu. >> they can start lining up over here. >> hello. my last name is chu. i am a resident of washington street. secretary avery: you can only have one mike. i can't have both on at the same time.

[speaking chinese] >> i am opposed to at&t's action installing antennas near the chinese hospital as well as in the surrounding washington street. [speaking chinese] >> the reason being that most of the patients in the chinese hospital are elderly as well as in the resident apartments. [speaking chinese] >> so you probably know that asian people are mostly susceptible to sickness and now

that you have request that the installation that is right at the window and 24 hours, seven days a week. [speaking chinese] >> at&t should not come by around midnight, 11:00, to install the antenna. [speaking chinese] >> well at the time an elderly

woman came by and alert us and my wife look out of window and saw people installing antennas and there was blue light emitted from their devices. and my eyes were hurt and ever since she is having problems. she is having dizzy spells and all. [speaking chinese] >> she has to continuously seek help from the medical field. [speaking chinese] i am asked by the elderly residents in my apartment complex to come here to tell you with the installation of the antennas, they will not be at peace in their living quarters.

mostly they will be suffering from insomnia and some will probably have some kind of cardio on their behalf. [speaking chinese] >> i would ask you have time to come by our apartment to check with our residents. [speaking chinese] [bell ringing] >> actually, i would ask that -- >> thank you. thank you.

president olague: if you can start coming up to the mic if i called your name. president olague: he was next. we called him. he was in the first three. >> i was called. good afternoon, commissioners. and i don't need -- president olague: great. >> i don't need a translator. my name is andy yu and i live at 840 jackson street with my 86-year-old mother. i am not against at&t and in fact, i have at&t cell phone for over 10 years, but i was surprised to hear that they're going to put a strong an the -- big antenna on top of the chinese hospital directly across from the building. the reason is i am not surprised they need for cell phone and

more coverage and all that, but as mr. sugaya said, san francisco has a topography and so five-story building, chinese hospital, is like the first floor and only a block up. and so why put such a strong antenna on such a short building in a mostly residential neighborhood when half of your radiation is only useful and the other just walk by other -- the other is blocked by other buildings. i don't understand the rationale for that particular site. i am against putting that antenna on top of the chinese hospital for this reason because in sfrafr san francisco there is to many buildings, taller buildings, and so many other locations in terms of topography

is much taller than the chinese hospital. chinese hospital is in the middle of the chinatown which is historical area we want it to be served. thank you. president olague: thank you. if i called your name, you can start coming up to the mic. and not everyone will need a translator. >> commissioners, my name is sandra and i am a resident of jackson street. and many residents cannot come today. i am here to present 500 signatures of labels of residents from jackson street that are within approximately 300 feet to oppose this at&t project.