this addition will not create a significant adverse impact to the adjacent residences or block. the department finds this project has not demonstrated extraordinary circumstances, but the planning commission should not take discretionary review. this concludes my presentation. president fong: thank you. d.r. request, sir? you have five minutes. >> good afternoon, commissioners. my wife and my two daughters moved into 26th street approximately five years ago. i grew up and lived on the west side, but after getting married my wife loved the sun and couldn't handle the fog, so we decided to move east. when i first heard about noise valley i said no way, the gardens are too small, we have children, the places are too expensive. it doesn't work. the agent told me take a look at it. i went and looked at it and we

fell in love with the house. we fell in love with the backyard. i've got photos there and i have some more photos here if you'd like to see them of my garden, the adjacent gardens. everybody really prides themselves on the open space and values. it's a sunny part of the city and we value that. my house was in the sunset and i was on the foggy side or my house was -- i'm sorry, i'm speaking a little fast because i'm a little nervous. but if my house was at a different orientation or if i lived in the sunset i probably wouldn't mind as much because it's foggy. i grew up there. i know exactly what it's like. we don't object to the project. i look forward to the development. in fact, i look forward to the developer putting in a really nice garden and complementing the rest of the houses. my biggest objection is the back side and what we call an open mid-block space. i'd like to preserve that. throughout this project and meeting with the contractor there's been a lot of

misunderstandings and misinterpretations and misinformation. i was just browsing through on page five of the developer's pact -- packet that he sent in on the sanford map. if you look at the sanford map it's totally crow districted by the next photo -- contradicted by the next photo that he sent to you in his own plan. the alignment to the properties are incorrect. it's these types of things that concern me. i have a very nice 3-d sketch here of a property with a stair layout, but i've got another document here that shows me that the doorway entrance to the building is going to be at the very front. if you look at the drawings, you'll also notice that top of the first floor is equal to mine, and you've got a nice floor, yet he shows us how approximately one or two feet shorter than mine. i don't know how that's going to map out.

the 3-d diagram it looks like it's more like seven or eight feet. takes up 1/4 of the 3-d drawing. and this is my problem. i got a light analysis report, a light study report here and it doesn't even have the firewalls. it's just a lot of information that i don't think has come clear, i don't think has been genuine. regardless, i look forward to the project being built and being done correctly. but i've got an offer letter in there requesting that he set back his property by five feet on the upper floor to the rear yard and five feet on the lower section, which is a total of approximately 75 to 80 square feet on each floor. and i've asked him to set back

his property on the second floor by approximately 60 square feet on the front top. like i said, this is my home. we bought this. this is a highly developed neighborhood. everyone gets top dollar for the square footage, but the reason is because the homes are cozy, the yards are large, they're very well maintained, and i'm open to any questions, if you have any. thank you. >> thank you. >> speakers in support of the d.r. you have three minutes each. any speakers in spoufert the d.r.? ok, project sponsor, you have five minutes. >> hello, i'm devin johnson, project sponsor. thank you, president fong and commissioners, for the time. this is the first time i've

been through the planning process, so i'm learning a lot along the way. but i attempted this process to try to be a good citizen and to work well with the neighbors. so i'm going to try to present the information as clearly and as accurately as possible so you can make an objective determination. so the four things i wanted to talk about was, one, that i was very understanding and compassionate with the neighbors. two, that i made a fair amount of design modifications and accommodations to the adjacent neighbors. three, that i did just a ton of outreach with all the other people on the block. and lastly, that the project really is not -- it does not significantly negatively impact the d.r. requester. so first of all, with respect to the neighbors, i embarked on the journey trying to be a good citizen. i thought that if i listened carefully, really tried to understand what their concerns

were, got creative with solutions, made real accommodations that were addressing their concerns, that i would avoid this kind of scenario of ending up with a discretionary review. unfortunately, it didn't work out that way, but i'm hoping that i can demonstrate that at least i did make the effort and i certainly tried. secondly, with respect to the accommodations -- can you see this? there are nice downtown views in this direction. this is front of the house. so with that understanding going in, i designed with a 12-foot setback for us the neighbor -- the neighbor has a 10-foot setback. he has a window right here. so we tried to preserve that and we put a notch in along the

lot-line window. he expressed concerns about light, so we ended up enlarging this notch, clipping off an awning so that the light could get into his lot-line window. his wife had concerns about privacy, so i ended up removing this window here so that there's no visibility between their lot-line window and the master bedroom. what he keeps asking me to do is to cut off the property right here, and what that does is it takes a major chunk out of this bedroom to the point that it's really not effective. and then what it also does is it allows his lot-line window to look directly into these windows. so the design has offset, gives us mutual privacy, preserves his lot-line window and gives him light. with respect to the back of the house, we reduced the massing. we put in a notch here, originally oriented the other direction to give light and give some space away from his property.

we did a light study and discovered that wasn't the best orientation, but twisting it by 90 degrees allowed more light to get in here and get to his windows. on the other side, my neighbor judy has a lot-line window that we also had to navigate around. i did a 3 1/2-foot setback all the way down the lengths of this house. she also likes the greenery, so i've promised to her that i'm going to put in a couple of trees against this wall to make it look nice for her. what the d.r. requester is asking is to dry a line right here completely flush with his building, and what it does is this bedroom's completely gone and this one is rendered a very nice walk-in closet but it's not a bedroom anymore. and so i had two design meetings before submitting my application with judy on this side. we shook hands and agreed -- she agreed she'd support the project. i had four design changes before talking with my other neighbor and he wouldn't budge an inch on his demands of those

two lines i wanted drawn, and i just don't think that's fair that i have to reduce my property that much, just so he can have a line of sight view through my lot elsewhere. with that said, it's also very relevant to talk about the renovation that he did three years ago. he took out a gabled roof and added a second floor. he put in this lot-line window. he extended to the rear and he took out a side setback, and what that did is create just a very, very large lot line blank wall. the only thing i'm asking for in terms of a lot line wall on his side is a little line that goes like that and a little line that goes like that. when you look at the backyard, there's nice articulation. it blends in well with the house next door. lots of sunlight can get in. we're both lucky to have this beautifully large rear backyard. president fong: thank you.

madam secretary, there is a three minute for supporters of the project sponsor, right? ok. supporters of project sponsor. >> hello, commissioners, my name is vincent. i'm the design team -- >> could you pull it up and speak directly into it? >> come closer. is that better? hello. so the few clients i've worked with over the years have gone about their remodel have been socially responsible. i have to point this out. the neighborhood outreach was extensive, fruitful. he reached out to literally just about everyone on the block, even though i don't think it's standard practice, to get their input and really take it into account. i think he made that clear. we have actually notes that express all the people he spoke

to. i find it unfortunate that with delays and unforeseeable expenses i'm rather saddened that his first experience is mixed up with a lot of unnecessary drama. from the very beginning we didn't start with a vehicles just plan, but -- vexous plan. we started with a commensurate plan that took into account the neighboring properties and keeping everything in scale. we purposefully didn't want to push things too far and propose an elephant. that's just not what the client, devin, wanted. then we went to the planners and implemented all their constructive feedback, which really did enhance our plan, like providing an entry to the main level from the street as opposed to what we had before. later on we yielded some 10 accommodations to please the d.r. requester. i found it really disappointing

that it served no purpose in the end, but we still kept all those accommodations out of consideration. my client, devin, is not wealthy. he's doing such remodel for the very first time and we're working with a tight budget still, because he is socially responsible. we are pursuing certification and have incurred expenses just to be socially responsible. we're very proud of the design of the house. we put enormous effort in thinking it through. we incorporated all sorts of socially responsible features like adding greenery, making it extremely energy efficient. we think it's going to look nice inside and out and it will be a great house to live in. we hope for your support. thank you so much. president fong: thank you. any other speakers in support of the project sponsor? ok. d.r. requester, you have a two-minute rebuttal.

>> this project takes a house that's debatable whether it's 810 or 900 square feet and not doubles it, but more than tripp els it, almost quadruples it, depending on which numbers you use. i'd like to make a correction or correct the developer. and this is the classic of what's been going on. they say that i extended my property to the back. i did close the gap, yes, i did. i did build i did not extends property to the back. they keep insisting that i did. honestly, i wish i did, but i didn't. there's this misinformation that keeps going out. i spoke to several of the neighbors who signed the letters and they say, well, we didn't realize it was that big. when i told them it's going to be over 3,000 square feet, and the house i understood to be 810 square feet. i don't mind.

when i remodeled my house i went from almost 1300 square feet to 2100. i didn't double the size of my house, i just built on top of it. this is an extensive project. most of the houses on the average are 1,500, 75 square feet. i left a little spread sheet there for you with all the houses on 26th street odd and even and also on cesar chavez, the street behind us. i used them as a gauge for the outreach program. those are the people that were contacted, so i used that as my reference. if you look at the dimensions of those houses, this house is out of scale. their own diagrams and their own sketches contradict themselves. so my concern is where is the clarity? i requested story poles. i never got them of the i got a jaded light study. i'm in support of the project, i don't mind it. but don't take away my sunlight and don't take away the reason why i moved to this neighborhood of the my biggest concern is the following

developer over the next year or two will build even bigger. thank you. president fong: thank you. project sponsor, you have a two-minute rebuttal. >> ok. i'm not sure i can cover it all. one, in terms of community outreach, i put on a one-pager that i think vincent is going to hand out all of the outreach that i've done throughout the whole neighborhood and i've got support from everybody, except for mario on the whole block. secondly, with respect to sunlight, i keep hearing this thing about losing sunlight, and the lucky thing about this lot is we both have rear-facing -- the rear facades are south facing. we get great sunlight for most of the year. the only time that the sunlight starts to come more from the sides is close to the summer sole tiss in june, where it gets more northerly.

in that situation where you might get stayeding from the side the reality is that his own property starts shading its self. he's got canopies that shade, a high fence and retaining wall that shades his patio. and vincent is also going to hand out -- i took a couple of photos to prove this point after the soltice that his backyard is already in shadows. lastly around the square footage argument, mario's got plans from last september that he's been basing this whole argument off, this 3400 square feet. that's not what was in the neighborhood notification. it was 3,110 square feet, which is almost identical size to a house two doors up at 4381. secondly, with respect to context, when you look at the pictures, the 3-d drawings, it really does look like our houses aren't too much

different in size. and the reality is that's true, they're not too much different. they're very comparable in scale and size. i've got 2,800 square feet on the first and second floors. there's an extra 300 square feet finished garage area. his house is actually 2,600 square feet. i did measure it by looking at the drawings, the block maps, and have done a plus or minus 50 feet assessment. so they're 200 feet different. friendship ok. public comment portion is closed. commissioners, questions, comments. commissioner antonini. commissioner antonini: thank you. i can appreciate the d.r. requester's concern for sun, because i live on the west side and we actually have 10 months

of the year where we get really good sun. but july and august we do have a lot of fog. but any time of the year it's really important that we get as much sun as possible and are not blocked out by hills or by trees or by another structure wherever possible. however, i'm looking at the maps and also the pictures that are presented. it looks like -- staff, correct me if i'm wrong on this -- both of these backyards are south-facing, and nobody's tried to dispute that. and as was presented by d.r. and the project sponsor and it seems to hold true looking at these pictures, the only time there might be any impact at all of this addition would be in the months near the time near the summer sole tiss and very early in the morning when the sun is at a fairly low angle, 7:00 to maybe 8:30,

there's a little bit of a shadow from the addition and i don't see too much else unless you're reading it differently than me. >> that's correct. on this side of the block all of the properties have southern exposure. their year yards have southern exposure. as far as the particular sun angles at the various times of the year, i'm not an expert on that. but i would just in general, there's probably a good amount of sun that is going to be able to hit the rear yards along this side of the block. across, they obviously have northern exposure on the other side. commissioner antonini: the exposure looks really good and as the sun moves to its most northern point, the summer sole tiss, and then you'll get the most direct light even though it's lower in the sky with the winter soltice coming in. and as it moves overhead -- that's the only time i could

see where there would be any blockage. maybe i'm reading these things wrong. so i don't really see the problem here. i'm very sensitive to any light blocking it, but it looks as though the addition is just a little bit beyond the length of the house of the d.r. requester. >> that's correct, yeah. commissioner antonini: so basically how many square feet it is is not material to me, because what we're trying to look at is the impact it has on the d.r. requester's light and air, whether it's 1,500 square feet or 3,000 or 4,000 square feet. if there's no impact, it really isn't material as to the size of the addition. as long as it's appropriate design-wise and appropriate as far as the residential design guides.

>> the residential design time are not particularly counting square footage as much as they're looking at building ability and a lot of it is up to the expertise of the building or design architect to be able to efficiently design square footage that still respects the overall scale and integrity of a block that -- for the building form that's established on the block. commissioner antonini: thank you. i would compliment mr. mcgannon on his backyard, it's beautifully done. you really used that space very well. it's very gratifying to see when people do take advantage, if they have a nice backyard, that they design it well and keep it maintained, and it's really heartbreaking to see a lot of areas that aren't taken very good care of. and particularly when it's the front yard it's even worse, because then everybody else has

to see it, too. i appreciate what's been done. it looks like the impact is not going to be that significant. president fong: commissioner moore. commissioner moore: i appreciate that the commission is sensitive to light and air, although we are not basically judging that as a criterion to approve or disapprove a project. we are interested in hearing neighbors' concerns. -day believe, though, that this project very sensitively enlarges a building which is very, very small and does it in a manner that fits the block pattern and i do think has hardly any impact on the adjoining building either. i found that the department's residential design team's evaluation very convincing, and i give myself really an objective look at how you evaluate, i believe, how it was discussed is right on, and i am in support of this project,

particularly because it operates on rather reasonably large lot. the typical san francisco lot is 25 by 100, sometimes even less than 100. we have a 27 by 114 here. and we're not really comparing, well, one neighbor is 2,500, the next one is 3,100. that doesn't fall into the way we look at it. i find this building appropriate to its location and in the way it's designed. president fong: commissioner hillis. >> i think i agree, but a question on the size of the wall. how far the new building goes beyond -- it looks like it's also than five feet on -- >> i believe it's five feet in the rear. >> ok. on both floors? because there's a deck on both the first and the second floor.

>> first floor, four feet 10 inches and five feet on the lower level, which i would agree. that's kind of the crux of the issue. >> i don't think that's an enormous impact on the neighbor's property. commissioner moore: i make a motion to approve the project and support the residential design team's recommendation. >> second. >> commissioners, the motion on the floor is to not take discretionary review and approve the project as submitted. on that motion, commissioner ants nene? >> aye. >> commissioner hillis? >> aye. >> commissioner moore? >> aye. sugaya? >> commissioner fong? >> ie.

>> thank you, commissioners, that motion passes unanimously. commissioners, for the record i will restate that for item 11-a , for 2712 broad way, both of the d.r.'s have been withdrawn and this matter is no longer before you for consideration. however, i do believe the administrator still has a side yard variance to consider. >> commissioners, if you'd like, i know the next item is general public comment. so if you'd like to have general public comment, then you'd be free to leave and i could stay here and conduct the variance hearing afterwards. >> that's considerate of you. is there any general public comment? seeing none, it's back to you. ok, yeah. so let's adjourn the 12:00 planning commission. >> ok, the planning commission hearing is adjourned.

however, the zoning administrator will stay and hear item 11-b. . . [7:42 p.m..] >> thanks for coming out this beautiful san francisco day. for those of you from out of town, it is like this every day in san franciscoúud

i cannot really say that compellingly because some of our out-of-towner's are from the bay area. i'm the director of transportation in san francisco. among other things, it gives me the honor and privilege of running our beloved muni system here in san francisco. on average weekday, that means boarding more than 700,000 people. add ac transit, bart, golden gate, and there are a lot of people that the transit agencies of the bay area are moving to get to work, to get to where they need to go every day. :::::::zoñ pae qeñ?ñ?economy here in the bay ad we feel very honored to be a part of that. but in order to move all those people and in order to move them well, we need to invest in maintaining our assets, our buses, trains, assistance to support them moving safely and

efficiently through the city, and we need to make them better. we want to attract more people to transit especially as the bay area continues to grow. we want transit to be the most effective and most reliable way for people to get around. but to make those kinds of investments requires leadership. we are very fortunate here in the bay area to have that kind of leadership. from president obama, all the g state, to our local and regional leaders, we have had the leadership we need to make that investment in transit and transportation in the bay area. we are very lucky for that and that is the reason we are here today. without further ado, i want to introduce our local leader here, san francisco mayor ed lee. >> thank you. good morning, everyone. we can do, besides what at

redskin and the mta board, and all the staff have been doing, investing in our system and making it better and better, it is to realize that our municipal system is connected to a whole regional system. this morning you see a backdrop here a lot of our partners in the region. from caltrans, sam trans, everyone that works together here locally. that is not only important to us as a city, but clearly, coming from the u.s. conference of mayors this past weekend, we realize cities across the country are looking atz!zxxf transportation systems and making sure they are connected appropriately, whether there are regional or state or federal. so we are