me up and had to pull up in the front of the building at the bus stop. the gate has a bar at the bottom of the door. i will be on chemo for three years. i will be having in the dirt -- i will eventually be stuck in a wheelchair and there is a bar at the bottom of the door. i am not looking forward to having to go over a bar in a wheelchair. blocks to the gates is at 5 feet. i am the only one who has eight key -- a key.

nobody can get into the gate unless they have a key from the outside. i do not own a car. i be needing help -- i will be needing help. even though -- it is not always open on time and the drivers are unable to pick me up. the same thing with the groceries. i have to load and unload to the front door. at this point, it is workable. i am on a monthly chemos schedule. i get sick quite often, so there

are two or three or five-day periods when i cannot leave my apartment. it would be nice to have a safer and easier access to the back door. my oncologist, we saw a slight shrinkage of my tumor. it would down about a third of a centimeter. that is over the last eight months of keynote. my general blood of -- that is over the last eight months of chemotherapy. she is going to put me on hold after a year of chemotherapy. that is why this is a three-year process. the gate is not a bad idea.

it is nice to have a safe space, but because it is not being opened, it is not helping. it is causing more trouble and a bit of stress. a lot of my friends -- it is hard to open the gate. that has been really hard. because there is a video camera installed in the alley and 642 has hired private security, it would be nice if that would be enough to maintain the safety of the alleyway.

finally, parking and waiting in the bus stop is illegal. i do not want to have to do that anymore. i need medical staff to pick me up regularly and i want to do it legally. thank you. >> i was not quite sure, i thought i heard you say that you have a working key to the gate. >> i signed an agreement that i would not give a copy of that key to anybody else. >> but it does work at this point? >> there was a point last december were the building manager installed a padlock on the gate.

i had to call the police. >> thank you. >> this is a friend who has been here to help me. he is here to help me out today. >> [inaudible] >> my name is eric brown. i have known courtney for 15 years. i am just here to help her out. >> thank you. we can hear from the permit holder now. >> good evening, commissioners.

i am speaking on behalf of the permit holder. >> if you want to raise the microphone. >> thank you for your time this evening. we are requesting to uphold the permit as it is with no new conditions. we want to speak about the intended use of the alley. care reason why we pursued the gate. it was never meant to be used as a loading zone. it always has been a no parking zone. its intended use -- elisabeth lp acquired642 jones in june of 2009. there were very serious problems happening in the alley, all sorts of criminal activities,

from prostitution, drug dealing, drug use, people were using it as a toilet. it was a serious safety hazard. our resident manager importance to help her. she was the one who was starting to encounter homeless people, she was accosted at one point. we had several tenants making pleas for help. after consulting with the adjacent building management, we learned these issues have been plaguing the adjacent building since 1999. collectively, the building owners felt the emergency stop- gap measure would be to install the gate.

when we learned that ms. utt had access concerns, we provided her with a key to the gate. the solution worked. the criminal activities subsided considerably. the garbage, the health hazards, and the criminal activities subsided. to my knowledge, there are only to tenants that opposed the gate. we have 34 letters that support. the community overwhelmingly supported the gate. finally, i am a little perplexed in regards to the access issue that she brings up. when i went to visit the property the other day, i did see the ramp and ada access

that she referred to. that was installed for the commercial unit on the ground floor. i do not believe there is a commercial tenant in there at the moment. the elevators are not ada accessible. it is an older building, a very narrow elevators. even if she was able to access it through that side back door, there'd be no way for her did get to her apartment on the sixth floor since the elevators are not accessible. i feel very sympathetic to ms. utt and i tried to reach out to her prior to the hearings to see if there was some accommodation we could make to not bring it to the place of this appeal, but she did not respond and she did not mention the issue with wheelchair access. as i pointed out, there would be

no way for her to get a wheelchair into the elevator in her building. in conclusion, i would like to say our gate is supported by the san francisco police department, the san francisco fire department, and the department of public works. thank you. >> i have a couple of questions. whether elevator is ada classified is not necessarily related to whether a wheelchair can access it. to be classified it, it would require a turning radius. the gate was installed without benefit of permit. what was the rationale that the property owners thought they could close off a public street

with the gate? >> they felt it was an emergency measure to protect the tenants and the resident manager. there were cases of breaking and entering and one point, there was a tenant dealing drugs from a second-floor window into the alley. the safety concerns were very serious. >> the bar across the doorway, what is the reason for the bar across the doorway? >> i am not aware of the bar. >> is there anything at the sidewalk level where that occurs?

>> there is a bart that she speaks of, which would make it difficult for eight wheelchair to roll over it. i believe the property owners would be open to how to make that wheelchair accessible. but looking at the elevator, i do not see how a wheelchair could fit into it. >> a lot of times, these doors are installed. they come with a bar across the bottom to be able to hold the frame. once it is installed, those bars are cut off. you might check into that, too. >> certainly. >> i have a couple questions. not having seen the elevator in question, but i would agree that it may not comply with

current regulations, but one could fold a wheelchair and access it in order to utilize i am assuming the capacity is more than one person. i would not foreclose that as a possible way for an individual who has a ambulatory limitations to get up to their floor. the other question i have relates to the key. how many people in the building have keys? >> to my knowledge, i believe it is just ms. utt and another tenant who requested vicky. >> why wouldn't the keys -- requested a key. >> with the building owner be

willing to allow keys being copied in order to accommodate an assistant for these individuals? >> i believe is that was going to resolve the issue. i believe there might be some security concerns about who has a key, how many keys are out there. i believe they would be open to that. that is all i have for now. >> i have a couple of questions. if you are in the alley and you want to get out, can you get out without a key? >> there is a panic button puts in place so that anyone can exit the alley. >> where is the panic button?

what happened exactly? >> you just pushed out. there is a lock box on the outside. i also like to mention that on my recent visit to the alley, at the gate was open. having an open during a day invites the same element we were trying to fight against. there were empty liquor bottles and debris already piling up having the gate open during the day. >> was that a condition of the permit? >> that was something dpw asked us to do until we had this hearing? we would prefer not to have the gates open during the day. " we still have plenty of unwanted visitors during the daytime as well. >> what about making the door ada accessible?

>> i am not aure. -- sure. >> you talked about street vacation. this is a public street. why didn't you pursue more of a street vacation or does would become a private street? >> after doing some research, we found that the other dates had similar encroachment permits. that seemed like the most straightforward way to permit the gates. there were other similar rallies would similar issues in the tenderloin that had encouragement permits. we decided that was the best route to take. -- encroachment comments. we decided that was the best route to take. >> candidates be closed, but

unlocked? -- tan the gate be closed, but unlocked? >> i do not believe so? >> closed, but it is not locked. >> it sort of defeats the purpose. >> not necessarily. if it appears that it is private, one might feel disinclined to open it. i have not driven by, i do not know what it really looks like. >> i would need to look into that. >> the restrictions -- i will hold these questions.

>> good evening, commissioners. the department received an application from the applicant. there were several applications. the challenge the applicant faced is there are multiple properties that exit onto this. an agreement must be made with each individual property owner to authorize the vacation of this portion of the right of way. planning department had specific issues. there were other challenges and obstacles in the process of a

vacation. moving forward, what happens was the application determined there were other alleyways along the tenderloin that consistently received quality of life issues were the department, in conjunction with the police department, has deemed it to be an emergency to fend off those in this case, the department received support from san francisco police department as well as our department as it relates to the installation of this gate. the mechanisms that were installed sadr satisfy the requirements. we issued the permit.

subsequent to that we received an appeal to this board where the department -- permit was suspended. in her documentation we found out she had required access to the gate. the director believes that continued closure without providing access would not be appropriate and he decided that he directed the applicant to open the gate during daylight hours. had the department known about the accessibility issues, we would have worked with the applicant to find a way to provide the access she seeks.

one thing to remember is the intent for this gate is to restrict or deny access to the general public whereas she is asking for reasonable accommodations. it appears to be somewhat of a contradiction in the intent of the permit. what the department is insuring is one is ms. utt's request for redress. a sheet asking to overturn and have the gate removed, or to hold the department and direct as to make adjustments to the permit to provide reasonable accommodation? we do not know at this point and we will seek guidance from the sport at this point. i am here to answer any questions that you may have. >> looking at the gate, except for any type of bar across

the bottom and there is a limitation on the height of any threshold for ada, i'm not sure that this date is not -- 8 is not -- a datgate is not ada. >> the panic bar is is the ability to be on the side of the block and to pull the door open. it appears that is available. once the bar is removed you can provide reasonable access from

jones street onto colin place. >> are they -- >> there are quite a bit of dead end alleys in the financial district. that provides a certain level of access because of second points of egress. >> i do have one question on the time that you have the daylight hours that are supposed to be open or openable. >> the kids are required to be open. >> -- the gates are required to be open. >> assuming this photographs are

accurate, what does your department do to enforce the hours of openness during this period of suspension? >> had the department been informed we would have taken appropriate action like going out there, reviewing to ensure it was open and if it was not to my direct the applicant to open it and there will be other actions as appropriate. we were not informed the gate was locked. >> have you or your department had direct communication with the appellant in this case regarding her access issues? >> there has been to meetings that i know that this type of approach came to dpw office and informed them of her situation. the director decided this was appropriate. >> did anyone tell her that if you have any issues with this gate and access issues to call

your office? >> the gate was to be open and there was an expectation that if the condition was not satisfied she would contact the office. vice president fung: is there any public comment? please step forward. >> good afternoon. i originally objected to the gate but on certain conditions. i think it might be appropriate to have the gates. however, the gate has been a nightmare to us. when it was the original illegal temporary gate was installed, it was chained so that not even the

garbage trucks could get in. if you look at this plan that was drawn by the applicant, two or three things that worry me. >> i think it is upside down. >> if you look this way -- thank you. i have marked on this which is not marked on any plan, there to doors on 619 -- 691 entrance. they do not show up on your plans. the first door is a tenant that is used to the lot of work and it is on the ground floor. he was given the key.

as a tenant, the conditions we would ask is that everybody who wants a key should get one. this is a public street. and we have been using this, i have lived in this building for nine years. we have used the rear entrance which again is not marked on their plan. it was marked online. there is this ada disability and exit-and cents -- exit-entrance for tenants. you have to inspect it because it is not legal. the way it was built. the second worry of mine and this is a public safety worry, if you look at my plan, i note

the avis garage is on the side and the end of this elway. -- alleyway. that is 300 cars. this is a dangerous place and we want the gate not to be locked because this is a fire escape. it should be closed, it should be locked on the outside. we want if you're on the inside to have access to get out of that alley. >> about the panic button -- what about the panic button? >> do you realize there are 70 people that live in six -- 691 and i do not know how many in

642. if there is a fire there, i am asking for the inside not be locked so we can unbolt it and we can get out. >> the panic button. tell me how that does not -- vice president fung: i think he is talking about the gates. president hwang: your name? >> i am a tenant. i did not understand what you were talking about when you were referring to avis. >> they have windows along the back. they do not have a door. they have to entrances on -- two