it's reasonable transit access for the proposed dwelling unit. president olague: thank you. commissioners, now you are on item number 18. >> for 1575 south van ness avenue. >> good afternoon, commissioners. diego sanchez with the san francisco planning department staff. before you i present a request for conditional use authorization to allow formula retail use during businesses, autozone for the mission commercial transit district. the project is located at 1575 south van ness avenue. commissioners, the proposed project meets all political requirements. it is within the mission street neighborhood commercial transit district, which is a

neighborhood commercial district, thereby providing ample opportunities. located in an area where there are multiple automotive uses. thereby providing the potential for synergies among the existing establishments in the proposed project. this project can also serve as a source of employment for neighborhood residents with various skill levels. it serves the needs of the immediate neighborhood and a larger population. and it is desirable for and compatible with the surrounding neighborhood. the department received one phone call regarding this project. the concern was that the patron of the autozone would begin to repair their automobiles on the street surrounding the proposal, creating a nuisance. the department also received numerous letters in support of the project and i'm presenting these to you now as they arrived after the distribution date of the packets. given the findings discussed, staff recommends approval of the

conditional use authorizations with conditions. this concludes my presentation. i'm available for comment or questions. thank you. president olague: thank you. yeah, project sponsor. >> i'm paul janssen, i'm with the san francisco office of the king and spalleding law firm. we welcome autozone development corporation. i'm accompanied here by several individuals, two of whom are from the home office in memphis, michael chastain and curtis stigler. before anything is done here, we want to be sure to answer any questions that the members of the commission may have, and answer those to your full satisfaction. i'm very pleased to be here presenting this conditional use application formula retail. this is a building site that has been vacant for a number of years now. it's approaching four years.

autozone targeted this site and they know that there's a demand for this store in this neighborhood. it's particularly important in terms of the services and the products it provides to low income and middle income residents. the products in autozone's stores vary according to the local demand. local vehicle registration. that type of thing. similarly, as time goes on, hybrids, new electrical vehicles, the product mix changes with that, the certain neighborhood demand. besides serving the neighborhood commercially, it serves the neighborhood in terms of employment opportunity. besides starting with a seasoned store manager, autozone looks to hire locally and to hire people who speak the languages that are spoken locally. both unskilled and semi skilled positions with the opportunity to learn and develop skills.

the company has a culture of promoting from within and proinviting the opportunities for advancement and development. this particular site, while not required to do so, has both off street loading and six parking spaces off street. so that aids in terms of the usefulness of this particular site. autozone has its own product distribution system also. so the delivery is very efficient in terms of bringing product to the stores. with respect to the concern that we saw referencing the staff report of the individual question, whether or not people might begin repairing automobiles on the street, we don't think that's likely. we do think the best way to avoid that is to serve people in their neighborhoods where they are. but also, it depends on what we're talking about. if, for example, somebody comes in with a headlight that's out

and needs to replace it right away, it would be at a culture of the autozone service providers to help somebody do that promptly, quickly, get that done. that's true. but we're not talking about having an engine overall on the site or anything of that nature. if anybody is going to have a minor repair, we expect that would happen in the off street parking lot. if this were to become an issue, autozone is happy to confer with staff and address that. any questions, we'd be happy to answer. president olague: we may have some when we deliberate up here. >> thank you. appreciate that. president olague: thank you. i have a couple of speaker cards. john arts followed by ted groger and ken allen. >> hello, commissioners. my name is john arts. i'm a neighbor adjacent to the

committee. i moved in about eight or nine months ago and i approve this project in terms of having at least the building being occupied. there's people still sleeping on the sidewalks and things like that. i think that activity would stop once it was occupied. i'm serply in favor of having a neighbor next door and especially someone else in the auto business would be to my benefit as well. i've been in business for 30 years in san francisco and i think this is a wonderful neighborhood. i think the two businesses would be a good connection together. both being in the car business. i try to keep a pretty neat operation myself and i know autozone is going to also set a good standard for being a neat

operation. i'd be proud to have them occupy the same area of town with me. those are my comments. thank you. >> my name is ted kroeger. i'm a retired firefighter. i currently manage a commercial office space. the economics of the city affect everybody and with this autozone going in here, it's a win-win situation, right? tax revenue for the city. they have their own parking lot. they also provide a good service for the community there. the community wants them to come

in. it's a source of employment. i would like to highly urge you to vote for this to go in. thank you. president olague: thank you. >> it's a real pleasure to be here to address you about this project. i think you know when a landlord has a problem of getting a tenant in, it's a sizable problem because you don't have any revenue for a long time. so it was very difficult to over the last few years, to keep turning people down that i didn't feel would be good

tenants. and we went through four years ago a rather difficult time, but we also survived and events went by and we're now very happy to be where we are. we think that autozone will be the perfect fit for our building. we originally started out with the auto spares people and they were there for 27 years and we were very sorry when they closed. but the reason they closed was the complexity of all of the myriad of parts necessary for so many different types of vehicles. it became too difficult for them to be able to access the resources to bring in those things. so they had 12 stores, but they had to sell out to other people. and so it's been a consolidation in the industry. and i feel like autozone is one

of the few survivors that can bring quality service to our community here. so i did want to just add one thing for your benefit. >> the overhead? >> if the overhead can be tupperwared on, please. this overhead is designed to show you the degree of encouragement we received from our neighbors. the yellow highlighted sections are all people that said they would not oppose the application, and in fact, i think you have something like 16 people here that are immediate neighbors that have approved this whole concept. the shaded area in the middle is our property on the corner of south van ness and army.

you can see all around this are the neighbors that do approve. so i just wanted to say that out of 16 neighbors, 13 are totally in support and 16 did support. i wanted to add one last thing, and that is i think your planning officer, mr. sanchez, did an excellent job on this report. because the content is very accurate. thank you. president olague: thank you. is there any additional public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioner moore? commissioner moore: i remember in 2008, a paint company was not qused partially because they had contractors, traffic loading and

unloading, and that was of great concern because the impact on the community seemed too large. i think there was never a question that the building itself previously occupied the retail use, although i am not a supporter of formula retail, makes it more acceptable to replace it with one because the type of building, being what it is. i don't have to go into describing what i don't like about this building. it's not the point. it's suitable for a replacement like that. i have two questions for the applicant. one is what is the distinguishing difference between supplying 1,100 feet away from you to what you are offering yourself? that's my first question. and number two, and it's a very important question for me personally, are you providing recycling for the products you are selling because the types of products which come are very

difficult to recycle and you'd have to really search for a part to find places which take them. if you are building a customership, are you providing on site recycling and particularly in the area of electrical cars, the electrical car is not as green as we think it is. the industry has not addressed the recycling of batteries. are you addressing that in some form? >> thank you, commissioner moore. i'm told that yes, there is on site recycling, including the issue of batteries. with respect to kraigen, i know it's a different business model. i ask this question, why would you do this? there's a tiff customer -- different customer focus. autozone is more of a

consumer-oriented business. kraigen is more commercial. with the p.d.r. businesses that are right around this particular store, i know that there is a good synergy for this particular side. just going from the site, this is a hike up the hill to kraigen if you're in a p.d.r. business and you have to go get a part. commissioner moore: in principle, i don't have any objection to the use because these are almost impossible to find anymore. a few years ago, there was one down on lombard and you kind of knew where to go. now you have to go to god knows where to find these things. so i am not opposed to this application, but i'd like to hear what the other commissioners are thinking. president olague: commissioner antonini? commissioner antonini: a couple other things that were pointed out in staff report are very important. 45 vacant store fronts in the vicinity and this will fill one of them and that's really important.

i think the distinction between you and kraig p, and i understand, it's different market generally. sometimes just like any businesses, larger commercial customers will go one place, sometimes smaller retail customers not exclusively will go other places depeppeding on the product, so i think this is going to be a good addition. and i am in support. president olague: commissioner miguel? vice-president miguel: i am in support also. it's also back to where it originally started in a way. and it's a shame to have a major corner like that stay vacant as lopping as it has. may i ask about how many employees, at least in the beginning, are intended roughly? >> i apologize, i want to be accurate on this. i was about to say six to eight. i'm told eight to 12. vice-president miguel: very

good. thank you. the idea of kraigen being in the vicinity doesn't bother me. i had to go out to buy a specialty non-automotive item this morning, and ended up within a two-block radius going to the third store. all theoretically carrying the item until i could actually find it. so that's not unusual today. and then also, this will be the second corner in the immediate area that is being reopened. the old palace steakhouse will be opened a block away from you. so with that, i would move approval. >> second. >> the motion on the floor is approval with conditions. [roll call]

thank you, commissioners. the motion passed unanimously. commissioners, you are now on item 19, case number 2011.0270 c for 539 bryant street. >> good evening, commissioners. diego sap chez with the planning department staff. to install up to 1 panel antennas and associated equipment cabinets as part of the wireless transmission network operated by at&t. we have a zoning district. the project is located at 539 bryant street at the southwest corner of bryant and zoe street. the current use of the building, the four-story building is as an office. commissioners, the staff has received multiple letters and calls regarding this proposal. those in opposition cite health concerns and a loss of potential property value in the surrounding area. again, i have some additional

letters that were sent in to me and i have them here for your review at this moment. commissioners, the proposed project is consistent with the 1996 wireless transmission citing guidelines. the proposed location is classified as a preferred site with the location preference number four being a wholly commercial structure. holding a community highway meeting to residents within 500 feet of the proposed location. this was done in may 2011. commissioner, the proposed project will assist in maintaining a complete and comprehensive wireless telecommunications network. it is in demand and serves the public good. the staff recommends approval with standard conditions. this concludes my presentation. i'm available to answer questions. thank you. president olague: thank you. project sponsor? >> good afternoon,

commissioners. i want to thank you for your support of the approval for the cathedral. it's my church and i also wanted to let you know that their greek food festival is happening this weekend. if you're in the area, it's great food. >> that is marvelous. >> my mom is down there making food right now. president olague: what's the cross street? >> 245 -- president olague: i walk, so i don't know these places. >> friday, saturday, and sunday. you're all welcome. so with that, i'm back before you seeking your approval on our lab's wireless antenna site for this evening. it's a 12-panel facility forecasted for 539. it's on a four-story building and i can specifically attest to -- i call this area the teddy

drop zone. it's on my way to work and it manages to drop every call every time. it's necessary and desirable for many reasons and it does meet with the components under section 303 of the planning code. i want to thank diego sanchez. i know he's tired of seeing me. i'm absolutely certain of it at this point, as much as you probably are, and i thank you for your support. i'm here to answer any questions you have. president olague: thank you. i'd like to open it up for public comment. is there any public comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioner borden? commissioner borden: move to approve. >> second. >> commissioners, you have a motion before you on approval. on the motion -- [roll call] >> thank you, commissioners.

that high tell has been >> commissioners, you are now on item 20. 2904 24th street. >> good evening, president olague, commissioners. the proposal was to establish approximately 1440 square foot independently owned full-service restaurant doing business in the existing one-story building on site. the commercial space previously housed a different full-service restaurant which was in operation for many years but has been abandoned for more than three years in the site has been vacant ever since. the proposed operation consists of 6-10 employees. the hours of operation -- the proposal does not include any

outdoor seating. regarding public comment, the department only received one letter of support and no letters of opposition. the department recommends approval with conditions based on the fact that the project is a small business that will occupy a currently vacant building that will contribute to the vitality of the district. it will not result in significant overpopulation of restaurant. it will create up to 10 jobs and is consistent with the district, planning cut, and general plan overall. i am available for any questions you may have. president olague: project sponsor. >> good evening, commissioners. the family that owns el tomate,

they currently operate a restaurant immediately adjacent to the proposed restaurant. they have been at this location for 17 years. when they closed a little over three years ago, then made an inquiry as to leasing the space. the ownership was not quite sure if it wanted to open up their own restaurant or if there were going to lease the restaurant. it did take a 3.5 years to make a decision about the lease option. at some point, we had a neighborhood outreach meeting with neighbors, a number of people showed up. we have received signatures of support for most of the businesses, and many of the residences. will also received a letter of support from the twenty fourth street council. we met with members

individually and collectively. he wanted to put something in this space that was appropriate for the neighborhood. there are a number of wonderful eateries along twenty fourth street. this one will be a pacific coast and -- the proposal will have the restaurant opened between 11:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. this is just to see how it goes, they want to change its sometime soon. they have constantly been removing graffiti and other talent are, so to speak, along the building. if any of you have visited the space, you can see it has been tagged again and will be constantly repainted over and

over. i will be more than happy to answer them, it is good to see you again. >> is there any public comment on this item? public comment is closed. commissioner borden: this area of twenty fourth street, the vitality and the nature of the way you feel, probably how it used to be more on valencia street back in the day. with that, i move to approve. >> second. president olague: i saw your other place, congratulations. >> of the motion on the floor for approval. [roll call vote] thank you, commissioners, the motion passes unanimously.

you are on item number 21, 4546 president olague: after this item, we will take a break. >> items proposed for a continuance, this is the variants that the zoning administrator determined was no longer necessary. >> a good evening, again. the planning commission continue this project after hearing with other neighborhood residents in march of this year. you instructed the project sponsor to work on issues of parking, access, and the safety. the original project had adjacent buildings on separate lots.

each building contains dwelling units for a total of four in the project. no parking was provided due to access issues, and the conditions were mainly on the issues of parking access and associated safety basically due to the slope of the driveway and the fact the you would have to be backing out. there were some concerns raised about the overall scale of the buildings. in response, the project has been modified as follows. the building at 54, the number of units was reduced from two to one. the area has been reduced in 1900 and 29 square feet. the proposed third floor is reduced in size over also that the front setback changed to 13

ft. the ground floor was raised and converted from a palette system to a turntable system to provide better maneuverability. the number of drilling units there was also was reduced from two to one. a total of from four to two. and the top floor was completely removed from that building. the original proposal also required a parking variance because only five of the required were proposed. in the parking variance is no longer necessary. the planning department recommends that the commission approve the project as proposed. the recommendation is based on the fact that the project sponsor made significant changes

to address the issues raised by the commission and the neighbors. they already restrict the height of the buildings in this area beyond the typical planning code controls. the design review board issued a letter based on the design stating that the current design conforms to their guidelines and to the project respect the space overall and is consistent with of the guidelines. president olague: dr.r. requestor? >> some speaker cards here. >> thank you. just start, i'll get them. >> good afternoon, commissioners. my name is bob,