the project's overall design excellence, scale, character, and urban plan are very well considered and would be an important contribution to the san francisco waterfront. we share the galvanizing platform of sustainability and healthy living. 8 washington meets this cultural needs by promoting vital, active, and healthy uses for the waterfront. the project seizes the unique opportunity to reconnect our city back to this waterfront. 8 washington's thoughtfully organized programs and strategy to include pedestrian-friendly housing, new pedestrian corridors, ground-floor retail, publicly open space, a health center, much needed underground parking, are well-suited and brilliantly planned for the

embarcadero. this is an ideal location for housing on a major transit corridor with open access to the waterfront. no development is not better development. it is the responsibility to approve the eir and the conditional use application for 8 washington. they are correct and accurate. to support this project is to look forward, not backward, and preserve the future of san francisco as a vibrant, livable city. thank you very much. >> good evening. my name is vince. i am with the labor international union local 261. i was preceded by my brothers who were more eloquent about the details of the project. i can tell you that it is difficult for us to get up here because we have a great deal of respect for supervisor chu, the elected official in district 3. we spoke earlier about the park

advocates. for those of you who have yet to find your way, i want to talk a little bit about the men and women that we represent, the working poor, the people who live in this city, the people who are from this community and the people who deserve us to represent them at this critical time. we have three or four opportunities every year to come here and create work for those people. $26.89, that is the number we should be talking about. we have heard $470 million, $270 million, we need to talk about the workers, the people who need your help. we need to talk about the laborers, the carpenters, the engineers. we need to talk about the hotel workers. we are getting killed by these ideological debates. by not moving forward, those of you who have yet to decide, we are pleading with you to move

the project forward. put the laborers to work. we are dying on the vine. enough is enough. build it now. thank you. [applause] >> good evening, supervisors. my name is joe. i am a resident of the richmond district with my fiancee. also work close to the 8 washington project in jackson square. in a few short weeks, we will be getting married in san francisco and we are proud to call san francisco home. this is where we are committed and this is where we will raise our family. i am here to urge your support of 8 washington because it will make our city healthier, greener, and more family- friendly. it will turn what is private, public. today, it is used as a private tennis club and parking lot. this will submit more than half

the land for public open space that our family could use. eight washington will also create a public park between broadway and pacific with a water fountain for kids. this is something that our family will use. eight washington will create nearly 30,000 square feet of open space where there is virtually none. it will add vitality and new housing, restaurants along the embarcadero. this project will make our city a better, more beautiful place to live. i urge you to uphold the eir and c.u., which are for an accurate, and move ahead with eight washington. thank you. >> good evening, president chiu and members of the board, supervisors. my name is john. i have been a resident of san francisco for just about 40 years. i am here tonight to urge you to support 8 washington.

i am also here to read to you portions of a letter that susan mccowsky, who is unable to be here this evening, had addressed to the board. i will be very brief. "it is certainly laudable that golden gateway is hosting summer camps for lower income families, although i do wonder where the funding comes from. possibly the affluent families paying $460-$525 for a five-day session. i also find it somewhat ironic given that when our kids were little, the residents did all they could to limit children's access to the two pools. members are not being truthful when they say that thousands of middle income families use the

sports facilities here. none of this addresses the key point. we need awful development to stay vibrant as a city. the project addresses green space needs, lead concerns, housing and retail, and does so in an unusually balanced way. the project has been in the works for seven years and many modifications have been made to it. on behalf of susan and myself, i wish you would please all told the eir and approved the washington project. thank you very much." >> good evening, supervisors. i am here representing spur. since it is 11:10, i figured we are spending our evening together. i would like to have a real conversation with this board

about the people we are actually talking about. the last nine years, i spend my time advocating as it shows co- worker -- as a social worker for the people we are referring to, the lower income residents we are -- of the city who are not living at 8 washington, living in our shelter beds, jail beds, hospitals. the individuals we are talking about in terms of affordable housing delivery in san francisco, they care about that $11 million that week bawk at. that is money that if i am working with a resident of the tenderloin, the bay view, any resident of this city, i ask them if affordable housing matters, it does. i ask you not to take for granted the affordable housing dollars that the city desperately needs and that those individuals in need and deserve. we need to recognize that this project provides resources and

access that is not for people in this room but for people who actually -- that we work for in the city. thank you. >> good evening. my name is earl. i have lived in san francisco for 40 years, since 1972. i maintain my wall offices at 1 maritime plaza. i can see, from my law offices, the tennis court. i have played on the tennis courts dozens of times. what is amazing to me is faults in this 1%, who belong to this tennis club, are saying this is a 1% project. they are wrong. there is no practical reason to use the tennis courts. as i understand it, the members are given access to the san francisco tennis club, where i have also played dozens of times.

tennis courts are the same size in both places. there is no practical difference between the tennis courts that are both private and that are being allegedly taken away. they are not. i also looked down on the whole project. one of the ironic things i've heard is that this building or these buildings would be ugly or less attractive. golden gateway commons, the 25- story monstrosity blocks my view. it is really ugly. they are the ones saying this is a problem. it is not. the other thing i look down on is the environmentally friendly parking lot that they want to save. the other thing that will happen, which i think is really cool, if this project gets approved, is there will be a green roof next to the new swimming pool. i will get to see that and we will lose a green wall. i urge you to approve the project. one last thing. i also part in the golden gate with parking lot. this thing is empty on saturday mornings. thank you.

>> good evening, supervisors. thank you for your time and thank you for your amazing perseverance. my name is mona lisa. i am a district 8 president. i am an attorney and small- business owner. i am also the mom of two small children. i'm here to support the 8 washington project. i am also here to support the over 100 merchants at the ferry building. i would like to talk to you about how excited i am to imagine and -- to imagine we can manifest here, picture in our minds, children frolicking in an outside water fountain. how beautiful that idea is and instead of walking out with your amazing food that you got from this building, looking

across and seeing a chain-link fence and concrete and instead, use the green, people walking, bicycles going back and forth. just the picture of that, i am really excited about that and i am really excited about progress. i would like to take the last few moments and read a letter from another mother. she is the former executive director of the bay area bicycle coalition. "supervisors, i am writing you to set express my strong report for the project. as a mother and bicycle advocate, i am pleased with so much this project has to offer are deserving city. i love that it will bring more housing to the waterfront, making the area more safe and active at night and on the street. the whole city will benefit from restoring jackson and pacific streets. i love that the project will create public open space where there currently is none.

the children's playground is icing on the cake. please vote yes. thank you for your consideration." >> i am an architect. a member of spur and aia. i want to speak in support of this project. it is a fantastic project. it replaces these ugly fences and an ugly parking lot with a wonderful, brand new health club with swimming pools and new ground-floor retail there really benefits the public. i walk from the embarcadero station to my office in north beach. i avoid the block right now. i hope someday that i can walk through the spot -- this block

and enjoy the public benefits, a lot more pleasant pedestrian environment that would be created. the product sponsor and his architect has worked well with -- to design these buildings. as a result of this planning, a compromise with the planning department, we have lower buildings on the embarcadero to allow more light. the higher portion of the buildings are up against the golden gate center. we have the same amount of square footage, but it is placed better in the project. much better planning. on top of that, the icing on the cake is the green roof. all of the existing buildings will look down on this green roof, a lot better than the tennis courts. the green roofs will solve a lot

of our storm water runoff problems. it will door of the rain water instead of running it into the sewer system, creating environmental overflows. there are a lot of great things for this project. as far as heene workers, -- as far as union workers -- president chiu: thank you very much. >> good evening. i live in district 3 on the northeast waterfront, not far from the project. i am representing a lot of neighbors who could not stick with us all evening. some of us could not. i highly support the project and urge you to deny the of the -- deny the appeal and approve the conditional use permit. i am sick to death of the allies and misconceptions that the

opposition is growing around, including the asinine assertion that some of us are on the payroll. we have been here for many hearings and have no financial connection with the project whatsoever. it is strictly a good project for the city, a good project for the waterfront. it is a good project for our neighborhood. i urge you to get it going. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker. >> good evening, president chiu and supervisors. my name is june. i have lived in san francisco since 1965 from canada. i am in my senior years and i have a severe health problems, osteoporosis, cervical and spinal stenosis. i have lots of time for walking. i do a lot of walking in the

area, which i am very lucky to do. i get to see everything down there and study all of the construction. it is really exciting what is going on. when i go past there, for many years, you can see the terrible green fences. you cannot see anything. it is just horrible. the parking lots, i have seen drug stuff going on there and everything. it will be nice to see improvement. we do need to go forward. this is a serious situation that we have. i used to be afraid to go along with everything and now study everything more in detail. i am not afraid to speak up. i think it will be wonderful if we go forward. i will be very happy. one very fine example is our golden gate bridge. we mentioned many years ago that it was not going to work, environmental problems.

washington can be another wonderful one. i want to thank you for hearing me and hope that you will support it. i'm so nervous. thank you so much, everyone. president chiu: thank you. >> good evening, president chiu and supervisors. my name is richard. i am on the russian neighbors board and am currently the chair of our design, zoning, and land use committee. i have lived in san francisco since 1982. all in district 3, originally on telegraph hill and subsequently on russian hill. a great city. i love being here. when russian hill neighbors looking to the proposed development, we were inclined to be against it. after looking at the existing condition and following the ever-improving evolution of this design, russian hill neighbors

is in strong support with the current iteration of the proposed project. most significantly, for us, it reconnect the city with its precious waterfront while providing new swim club facilities. russian hill neighbors urges your approval of this project, which we believe will benefit the city as a whole. it will be a much better land use with this underutilized site. please approve this project and deny the appeals. thank you very much. >> hello, supervisors. i am a condo owner in russian hill and an eight-year resident of sentences of. i am going to read a letter from the president of our russian hill neighbors association. "after extensive study and consideration, russian hill neighbors has concluded it will

support the current design for the proposed project. the condition being that the height limit adjustment due to specific circumstances surrounding this particular site not be used as a precedent to justify other high limit increases along the northern waterfront. our support is based on the following -- the developer will reconnect the city to its waterfront, it will provide more open space to the more sensitive northern side of the development, and the cascading of the building provides a logical transition from the existing much taller buildings to the shorter buildings close to the embarcadero. we urge your approval of this project, which we believe will benefit the city as a whole and be a better land use for this underutilized site. thank you." >> good evening. almost good morning. my name is justin.

i am the founder and spokesperson for waterfront for all. i am a district to resident now. i used to be district 3 when this project first began. i was involved in the study and that was a public process. the current design came out of. there was mention about an alternative plan. that was not public. i was not invited. i would also like to take a second to thank the planning commission. they have done a great job. they are a world-class organization and i hope the supervisors give their work to the consideration that it deserves. i would like to thank a lot of people in the audience. no one has a dog in this fight. we are here because we love sentences go and we have stayed here for seven hours. -- we love san francisco and we have stayed here for seven hours. we are here because we care and we think this is a good profit. i'm going to address a few

points. first of all, the height. we can have buildings that are all 84 feet, but all the design professionals tell you it is not going to look good. we raise the height in the back to make the project financially viable and we get something better. affordable housing is a huge issue. i am very sympathetic to it but these units do not come out of thin air. they have to be paid for. this will provide $11 million. that is significant. that money can be leveraged and we can buy a lot of units. if we are serious about afford housing, we should talk about raising a heights on this project, not lowering them. the 99% discussion offends me. unless i win the lottery, i will never owned one of these units. but if you build it, i will benefit as a citizen, a pedestrian. waterfront for all, are big thing is to try to get people engaged in the process, to talk about -- i suppose that is all

my time. please support the project tonight. do not continue it. thank you for your time. >> only seven hours. it feels like 10. i am sarah and i represent the jackson square district association. we represent both of the owners, merchants, and residents of jackson square. when this project first came before us, it was not something we like. this project has evolved into something that is very exciting. from the input of a lot of people, a lot of professionals. it is something that we should embrace and be proud of. the outcome of the input. at great cost to the developer. we support this project in part

because it opens up jackson street to the waterfront. and because of pedestrian thoroughfare that will introduce people to jackson square as well as chinatown. we also think that the condos, it is a perfect location for such a development. we really do believe that people should live where they work and work where they live. on the other hand, we also support the additional parking. it sounds a little contradictory, but retailers need that parking. we know today, in jackson square, parking has been -- there is less parking out. on saturday, by 10:00 in the morning, we are already full with people who are parking at the ferry building. i do not understand all the numbers, but it is a very important part of the project that we think the city will benefit from. thank you. we hope you support the project. president chiu: thank you.

next speaker for it -- next speaker. >> my name is amy. i am the owner of a green roof and green infrastructure company. so i care about green roofs. 8 washington provides a significant move towards residential green roof insulation. these green roofs will clean the air and water, provide insulation, and improve the views for the many people looking down on this development. for me, it means adding dozens and hopefully hundreds of well- paying, sustainable jobs. ever since i moved from new york city and started my company, i have been trying to get back here. this project provided the final inspiration needed for us to establish our west coast office headquarters in san francisco. the office of economic development has also been

helpful and encouraging. we want to make a difference here in san consistent. we think that the thousands of people walking along the embarcadero every day, looking out at the screen roof, looking over at the green walls on the north side of this building, are going to be inspired. they're going to think to themselves, i could do that for my own house, for my own business, my own industrial or commercial building. we think that is very important. it is going to be great for my business if that happens, but it is also, more importantly, and to be very good for the environment -- going to be very good for the environment and the quality of life for people in san francisco. i urge you to support and uphold the eir. thank you. >> president chiu, supervisors. my name is katie. i am an avid walker. i live two blocks from the

embarcadero for over 17 years. i spend a lot of time on the embarcadero and around the area. just being grateful that i can live and what i do. i am really looking forward to this project because it is like to make my walks safer and a lot more enjoyable. i have often wondered what it looks like behind the walls of the green fence where the current club exists. it has been an eyesore and arrogantly-minded that some said franciscans have been able to use this wonderful piece of land for themselves. this product will open up the piece of property for all of us to enjoy it while the club members will have a new and improved facility. everybody wins. those club members who bemoan the demise of their club are playing with other people's emotions. there are not losing their club at all. on another note, i am the president of the mission bay neighborhood association. i invited representatives from this project to speak at one of

our meetings. the group did not currently endorse anything. i can tell you that everybody was very pleased with the project. there were no-objections or anything. everybody was very happy with it. so i asked you to please approve 8 washington and uphold the eir certification and conditional use applications. this will make the area around the ferry building so much more inviting. thank you. >> good evening, supervisors. my name is steven. i am one of the rare birds in your chamber tonight. i am a native san franciscan, just turned 60. that tells you how long i have been witnessing the slow but shirley positive evolution of the embarcadero. i look forward to further positive developments along the waterfront. i speak tonight for mr. will

travis. "after spending 16 years as executive director of the sand francisco bay conservation and development commission, my first civic act as a civilian, i offer my unqualified support for the proposed project located on lot 351. i will not dwell on many of the other public benefits of the project, its consistency with community planning goals, or its outstanding architectural design. i will stress the role it will play in making the embarcadero a truly world-renown to urban boulevard. i am proud of what ecdc accomplish during my 10 years. the waterfront today is remarkably different than what it was two decades ago in large part because the city, the board, and the ecdc coordinated our processes to attract and light and developers to

implement our shared vision. the result is an ever-improving urban landscape being built on san francisco's historic piers. it requires complementary structures on both sides of the roadway. so far, -- some parts of the embarcadero have this. in other places, chain-link fences for the border for this magnificent boulevard. the 8 washington project will replace one of the stains. i have learned that in politics there is nothing more powerful than the status quo. however powerful current conditions may be, we have learned to live with them. president chiu: thank you very much. >> good evening, supervisors.