you cannot get any escape from islamiit. there are elderly, bicycles, parking. and we are not affected by the light or the air, but the pollution, i think it is important to keep the neighborhood, have children, light, air. i went to naples, and they build next to the other. there is no light. there is no air. it is horrendous, so there has got to be compromise, and i think the neighborhood association has come up with a good compromise. of lower the building, and the business needs to figure out what they are going to do about

parking, because it should not be that they take up all the parking on-street and people have to come to larkin and try to park there. it is a mess, so please consider with the neighborhood association of bozos -- what the neighborhood association proposes. it is not about view. it is about light, quality of life, raising families, and general quality of life. thank you. >> my name is robert, and i have provided of the area since 1978.

i am also a principal in the property. during our tenure, we have seen much change in the fisherman's wharf area. we would like to contributed positively by employing thousands of city residents throughout those years. we are at the moment where we want to take our work and go to the next level. we have operated businesses out of the small building on 500 square feet, knowing that someday we would invest in the waharf, creating a property that would maximize potential, and

that would be a contribution to our neighborhood. a lot of effort has gone into the appliance -- plan that is before you today, and we believe that takes into consideration the neighborhood. >> seeing no further public comment, public comment is closed. commissioner antonini: i appreciate all the comments we have heard, and there are issues. i am having trouble identifying donthem. one issue is height. i hear people saying if you make it shorter it will be satisfactory. the dwelling units on north point are quite a bit higher

than beach, and i believe the height of this is only 2 feet into the bottom of the places on no. 0orth point. >> that is correct. the height of the building proposed incentives approximatee same height as the building to the rear, so the roofline would not be any higher than the roofline of the rear of the project, and it would be lower on the north point purblind -- curbline. >> i cannot see any blockage of

light to the buildings on the rear of north point? >> that is correct. >> the next area would behin st. hyde -- wiould be hyde street. it looks like a height is 43.6, and the buildings to the west, the martin lawrence building looks like it is 33 feet, and there is a building further to the west that is 37, and further to the west it looks like it is about 56 feet. there is no shadow study, but i am trying to see if the addition to the fact is high enough to

block light to the backs of the dublin -- building. >> this project is four stories high. there are two projects, and it requires 25% rear yard, so for the last 34 feet, the upper stories provide a real requirement for the residential units. along the sides of the building, both three residential buildings would have rear yards varying from approximately 17 feet. 17 feet would be the narrowest, and two would be open to the

required rear yard for the project. good >> it does provide a separation. what you're saying is in has a death rather than a solid structure -- is it has a deck rather than a solid structure? on parts that is correct. a height limit is 40 feet. the height limit the project who -- who we saw was for 40 feet. a 40-ft height limit would allow for this building, because the building is allowed to follow the slope of the lot, so they were able to have an additional floor for a five-story building which is also within the height

limit. >> what they do it is they cut the floor off from the top. >> for the last 20% of the lot, the last two floors are stepping down to provide that rearguard area -- rear yard area. >> i hear a lot about parking, and there have seen points made there should be more parking because it as a commercial operation and they are not compliant with one residential parking place. is there any basis to that? >> there is one parking space required for the residential units. it shows on the plans they are providing the one parking place,

so the parking requirements for residential units is satisfied. in terms of the commercial space, the occupied florence is below the threshold, no parking is required. the floor area of the project is above 5000 square feet. however, parking is calculated on the parking. the commercial use, there is no parking required for the project. >> i do not know if anyone from the neighborhood wants to represent the neighborhood and answer some questions. i have gone over a few things. there was a young lady who thought she might have to believe the city, but i do not see the impact. maybe i am missing it.

we talked about the height. there is the case it could be shorter, but i do not see the impact. i am hearing about the issue with parking and operation of their business. is that what we are dealing with? >> we are not here to fight about the operation of the business. we are not here to fight with employees. we are in favor of the employees. if we look at this proposed alternatives, the adjacent building, we are saying if you come to 25 feet here, you have a building that the average height will be approximately mid block units adjacent.

you can see the building on- street -- on hyde street, they will be looking at a wall. that is the most significant impact, but you are also hearing from the neighbors this is a neighborhood. it is people who live together. they really believe if you come together and have a design that works but also maintains some respect for the height of the adjacent buildings and allows some air for the height. >> i understand, but it looks as though you are doing -- you are bringing it well below the unit

to the east, so they are not going to see their walled but the existing wall. they should be able to go at least as high-en as the next building to them. >> that is much lower. >> they are already seeing those walls, and if they look far enough they are already seeing a 56-foot wall but at a distance. good >> i will tell you what the neighbors have told me, that most of this light comes from this direction, so the way it has been described is the bad distance from the wall allows a lot of leg to get in. if you're moving it against the wall it does have a dramatic impact. >> thank you. that is all for now, but i am

sure some commissioners have some comments. commissioner sugaya: i have a quick question or observation. commissioner antonini's question of rear yard is satisfied by the description of commercial space sitting above the first floor, and that is considered to be the rear yard, but that does not necessarily have to be accessible to the rest of the unit? >> in this case the rear yard requirement is just the depth in location to the level of the residential unit, so they do not necessarily have to have access to that level.

it is the volume that needs to be provided. >> i have another question for the project sponsor. this is a use issue you may or may not know the answer to, but commercial space to has access to this regard, -- rear yard, and you contemplate any restaurant use for this space? >> they were anticipating using it for blazing saddles back office operations, and there is no intention to use it as a restaurant. >> if it is going to be used as an office, is there a zoning issue? >> successor read to the retail space -- accessory to the retail

space. >> in terms of the office space, it would be an accessory use to the retail space. if it was to operate solely as a commercial office use, that is permitted in this district as well. >> i am not sure where the commitment -- the commission is going with this, but i have to ask a question. the residential uses include dining and kitchen, and above you have the bedrooms. you have something who labeled uas a suite. can you explain what that means? >> we have bedrooms, and there is an area that is a study. i can take go look at the drawing.

>> there are two spaces. one is better no. 3. >> it is a non-suite with a bathroom. >> with respect to reducing the height, you have a two-story living and dining space. is that correct? >> that is correct. >> if you fill that in, the building could slide forward by 20 feet. gooif you slide the entire bedrm wing over, it would effectively be putting the third floor to the top by 20 feet. good >> if we did that.

one of the things is we have tried to give a good height to the retail space, so we have compromise those as we have gone up. this entire floor has an eight- foot ceiling. commissioner miguel: this is a similar situation to what has come before us from time to time when there is a vacant lot, when there is a very slow commercial building in -- very low commercial building that has existed for a long time, and arguments are the same every time. they deal with light and air

because there has been light and air for a century, much more than a normal building situation in send francisco in a very dense city. we are dealing with views. are you have to do is look as the site and understand it. compared with the project formally proposed by someone else, it is lower. they have taken care of the penthouses, taken care of the sullen therapist -- of the parapet to reduce the bulk of the building. we often have discussions as to

the heights of ground-floor retail, and certain ground-floor retail takes even more than most ground-floor d tel requires -- ground-floor details. it really should go up to 1820, and as far as the architecture, i think using the materials of the area but doing it to the 21st century is perfectly in order. i do not want to emulate the 19th century all the time, but

using materiality can work and works recently here. -- decently here. because of the difference in the grave, i think they have taken that into consideration -- difference in grades, i think they have taken that into consideration, and they have compromised for this particular site. commissioner borden: it does seem like there was a disconnect with the project sponsor and the community. we always tell people to work with a community, and we are not saying you have to take their proposal, but the earlier you can get to people and start working with them, the better

things cand be. it is always hard when you have a one-story building and are replacing it. i think the building could be shorter. i do not think this is a solution. it looks like a squad building, but i could see dropping a few feet off the top of the building. get it just seems a little talk, but i think the project is pretty respectful. i just think it could be a little bit shorter. i know the neighbors have a more dramatic proposal. i do not think that is the right one, but the biggest problem is there has not been an open dialogue among people, and views

are not protected. it is always shocking to find views are not protected, but it is a commercial with 1 residential units, and they are trying to figure out a way to make sure everyone gets sued benefit while the project -- gets to benefit while the project sponsor gets to benefit. commissioner antonini: i would like to talk to the project sponsor's representative here again we have a lot of testimony from neighbors, and the fact there was not a dialogue. maybe you can describe what type of meetings you have and what really transpired. >> i will start.

jeff was very aware there was a lot of concern with the project in this neighborhood, so they did purchase the property. they went to the planning department and talk with the planners and ask him to discuss how they could adjust the project to respond to the concerns. they dropped the fifth floor. the reduced the units. they provided a parking space. they modernize the architecture. that is what they first presented, and they have responded to what all the good folks were talking about here again there were a number of the

-- who were talking about. there were a number of responses were they said, take it lower. between the increase ground- floor retail space, which is 10 or 11 feet, the floor and ceilings were at a point where you have 10 or 11-foot ground floor and eight or 9 feet of headspace in between, so that is why it has been difficult -- going much lower gets difficult, and that gets in the way of the project. >> i want to ask about the

possibilities of the parapet. i assume for fire purposes it has to be there. but is not going to change anything. >> when asked about the height, we have reduced it to 6 inches, so we are going to do a one-our roof construction, which is expensive. we have taken the staircase penthouse thoss and removed them completely. those are expensive things to do. good the railing system will either be glass or stainless steel cable, so it is as secure as possible. >> it has dropped from 40 ft. 6 from the front, and one would

assume that carries out appropriately. it looks as though you have almost 56 feet joining the buena vista building, so you do not start to go to the neighbor's backyards until you get there. >> this is a double or triple lot and moves back quite a ways. the north point a buildings are considerably far away, so on the hyde street elevation where to buildings are looking into our rearguar yard, and we have provd a side profile of how they look at our building, and it is very low. it is down at our garage lovell.

>> you are saying there is only a part of the building that comes by far enough to block some of the light and air to hyde street neighbors. >> the second is a full commercial building. there is also the residents. >> they have a pretty good separation already. they have 25 feet. >> it is more than that. we show the profile and how it relates. our two-story section is only four-feet above their rear yard, so our rear yards are almost the

same level. >> has staff made comments? in order to incorporate the changes, staff would invites you to incorporate those modifications to the project, as the plants do not currently reflect the situation. commissioner sugaya: we will take dr. you can elaborate when ms. avery

ask you about fasthat, and i wod like to continue to work on the design of the front's assad. the lower part is a retail commercial space. the upper floors are residential. they do not read residential to me, with legs have to work hard on the upper two floors. they are really glassy, which i know is 21st century. with some deference to the buena vista building and the buildings around the corner, not so much the commercial stuff down the street but something the garrido little more residential