storeys higher. the residential guidelines dictate expressed guidelines in developing parcels and there's no reason why this site should be exempt from this plan, i ask that you request our request for discretionary review and require the developer to submit a plan that better addresses its 85 feet and is compatible with our neighborhood. thank you. >> hello, commissioners. >> good afternoon. >> my name is nancy and i own a latin imports retail store located at 1051 valencia across the street from the proposed project. my business has been dedicated to preserving mexican tradition for 16 years and i live four blocks away from my store. i am here to express my opposition to this development

as i feel the current model for this project does not fit in with the character of valencia street on this block. this project might fit in just fine in soma or another area of san francisco, but this particular block is an architecturally historical preearthquake san francisco, so it's very important that future fill-in developments along this corridor honor this uniqueness, the slice of classic san francisco, and your vote on this project today has broader implications about the effects and how we can retain the character and embrace change. development is inevitable. i am a realist and this attitude that allowed my business to survive the .com boom and then the economic recession and i'm glad that my

business is a part of the current sustainable health of valencia street. i feel it is important also to introduce one's self into the neighborhood, being welcomed by your residents, neighbors and merchants, there is a social responsibility to this area beyond what is required by code. lending architecture that bridges old and new is possible if the will is there and i look forward to collaborating with the developers to come up with a plan that everybody can be happy with. thank you for your consideration. >> next speaker, please. >> good evening, commissioners, my name's alan harks, i'm a business owner on valencia street, it is located at 1055 valencia at the foot of hill street across from the proposed condo development under discussion. aquair yus has been a business in the city since 1970 which is

the year after i was born so i'm not one of the original owners but i have lived and worked in the mission for over 21 years, obviously over these year, we've seen many changes in the neighborhood, for example, my shop moving there, also when that happened, there was the kfc that was located across the street which i personally enjoyed but that changed and now it's another restaurant and now there will be some kind of condominium development, we'll see what happens, the mission has obviously struggled throughout these years and i think so far, there's a balance that's been struck between the old and the new, the new boutiques and older ma and pop stores, the new restaurants and family run diners and so forth and i think that's because most of the

people who have moved to the mission to live, opened businesses have appreciated what's special about the mission and have contributed positively to the culture here, because these new folks do appreciate what's already there and they make an effort to make their presence not to be odd and change things, what they value about valencia street, i agree that growth is good, it's necessary but not when it disregards the character of a neighborhood and the very things that make the area appealing to those that come and shop and spend money there. and that's what i'm concerned with here, a five storey modern condo that towers over smaller storey buildings whether designated or eligible on our street i don't think is making an effort to fit in, in size or

style or other aspects and i feel if i had seen more engagement with the community from the developers and/or efforts to compromise with the neighbors with some sort of smaller scale proposal with the development, i would be more happy with it. it's important that the area retain its appeal that pedestrians would want to wander around and window shop, and that sun isn't blocked out with a gigantic building, many for your time. >> hello, my name is susan warren, i've been living on valencia street for 17 years, building a building at this site would be like building a

brick wall, it would be like an obstruction, it would be abnormal for this area. i'm a part-time teacher and what i tell my kids, if it doesn't look right, if it doesn't fit, you need to go back and find something that fit and is this building doesn't fit and i think we need to go back and look at it again and find something that fits better here. i have another question or another topic i want to just touch on real quick about the affordable housing. i think you all got a copy of this. i'm not sure, but i have some copies here, and on the overhead, these are the new projects for the eastern neighborhood development and -- is that upside down? and on each one of these, none of them contain any affordable housing and i know in this eastern development in the

general plan, it's supposed to contain affordable housing and none of these along valencia corridor contain any affordable housing so i'm curious when and where the affordable housing is going to go and i noticed 1050 doesn't include affordable housing, although they said it's going include two affordable housing units. i haven't heard that in any plans, i just heard that today, but i'm wondering why about 8 of these construction and developments, that none of them have affordable housing so that's a concern because you're going to use all this space up for market value and condos, where are we going to put this affordable housing because i know space is limited for new lots and new buildings, so that's a big concern, and also i wanted to talk about parking because all of these housing developments include parking spaces and 1050 doesn't and

parking is a big problem in this neighborhood, so i hope that you reconsider this and take a look at everything. thank you very much. >> hello, my name is avi air lick, and as a business owner, resident and homeowner at 1060 valencia street, i have some concerns with these plans as presented. one of my bigger concerns is about just the sheer height of this building, it will block out all of the sunlight in my own home resulting in substantially, it will be a lot higher cost, it's completely uncharacteristic of the shadows, it's a pretty sunny comfortable part of the city

and this will be a huge, ugly shadow. i also, i feel the architecture is just kind of ugly and just doesn't really look very pleasant and i'm also a little bit worried that this won't be very affordable. i'm disappoint hated the arts and culture that brought me to valencia street are being crowded by these profit maximizing sorts of developments. thank you. >> good evening, commissioners, my name is fran and i'm as a resident and a business owner on valencia street, and i am here to ask you to consider dr for this project. i think you've seen this map that's up here, so basically,

we've put the map together to show you that there's strong opposition from business owners on valencia street on this black of valencia street, and also residents on valencia street and the surrounding neighborhood. this just shows you a few of the people who are objecting to what's going on here, we have a petition that has been put in, different stores and residents and neighbors in the area have signed over 407 people have concerns about what's going on here. basically, the overriding objection or concern that people have is the height and the bulk in this tiny little space, and it is a small space. this is a one block long street of hill street which really isn't being talked about. the project itself seems to be

on valencia street, that's what they talk about, but hill street is one block long, it is not through, it is 32 feet wide, so it seems reasonable to me that the project should consider both the width of the transit area to valencia and also the width and the historic nature of hill street. it's hard to balance both those things but it seems to me the developer has emphasized that he's on valencia street, but in fact, it's like being in a restaurant in a smoking section or something, you're going to be affected by what is around you. this is part of the neighborhood that he's come into. so, we're basically asking that you take consideration of the fact that this building is in very, very close proximity to

the historic neighborhood, that it is the development that will be on valencia street and maybe strike a compromise somehow that there could be a reasonable solution bringing down that hiekt, lowering the mass and making it work for everybody in the neighborhood. thank you. >> can i have the projector again, please. good evening, my name is elizabeth, i live on hill street in the liberty hill historic district, i lived in the mission for over 30 years, i'm a little embarrassed at how old i am, we have invited the developers many time tos come and speak with us and sometimes they come even though they don't seem to hear us, they've told us that this first ever experiment with 0 parking building in san francisco, that they want to build here is

because they really believe in the importance and richness of our public transit and the importance and richness of our bicycle friendliness and every time they come, they drive their own automobiles and sometimes they park illegally on the sidewalk, but never have they taken public transit to our neighborhood, never have they walked or ridden bicycles. the idea that little hill street, this fragile margin of liberty hill historic district is what was envisioned as the commercial corridor of the eastern neighborhoods which is really the mission district commercial corridor, we're told that we're a transit-rich neighborhood and that's what we're relying on, we're served well with transit, muni as you know has failed ever to meet

its own guideline, we are now below 70% and on time performance, we are at 50% in terms of headway, the time between buses and streetcars that they're supposed to hit, that is not well served by anybody's standards and our neighborhood is not well served. there's nothing between mission and the jay, there's nothing between 24th street and 18th street, we are not a well served by transit neighborhood. the parking situation as you've heard also, the neg deck, it was done for this project indicated there would be an additional 24 automobiles for which it indicated there was no available street parking and no parking on the site in a place where we do not have transit,

where we have elderly people, people with families, disabled people on our little block, our little residential neighborhood where the developer said he believed he would not be eligible for residential parking permits, he said he would not apply for residential parking permits, has in fact now applied, he's received that permission and he's changed his address to hill street. that will allow the single parcel to take every parking space on hill street and leave 32 other parcels without any available. i hope you'll take dr, thank you very much. >> thank you, next speaker, please. >> good evening, commissioners, my name is rick west, i live on hill street directly across from the new proposed project, i've lived there for 12 years. my neighbors and i hope for a

building that will benefit add to the area and fit in with this vibrant and beautiful historic district. we have worked in good faith with the architect and developer for the past 3 year tos reach a compromise, we do want something built there, the loss of the kentucky fried chicken franchise building will be beneficial to the whole neighborhood, over these past three years, we have had several meet witching the architect and developer, we have been told many things, we have expressed our concerns and listened to their plans. here is our problem over and over again, we have been told one thing only to find out that they were telling us, what they were telling us was deprive -- deceptive and false, they're seeking condos, they never intended to build rental units there, 17 units in that little

building, it was a red herring to distract us to what they really wanted. they told us the residents would be uneligible for residential parking and that they wouldn't apply for it just like was just mentioned, they will and they can. they told us -- they claimed to have made design changes on input from their neighbors, what changes they have made have been from planning department comments or city building codes, the one change i heard them make, we were complaining about a five storey building, and the architect came and put a tower on top of it and his compromise to us was to take this tower off, we were told it was going to be on valencia street, now they plan to place it on hill street and call it 1 hill street.

even -- that gives you an idea what we're dealing with. even at our last community meeting, we were expressing very valid concerns about the effect of traffic, congestion and parking and i asked point blank, how did you get here? their answer was by bus. the truth is they parked illegally on the sidewalk because an already stressed neighborhood has very little available parking and they could not find legal parking so they parked on the sidewalk. what we are going to get from this project is double parked cars and cars parked on sidewalks creating real hazards, ped raoe cyans and cyclist alike, we are here out of extreme frustration, we need your help, thank you very much. . inger good evening, commissioner, i initially came here to support the marsh because that's a theatre that

has broukt me to the mission district and i'm very supportive of it and i wanted to make sure that it is sustained. from hearing the comments of the other people here and the neighbors, it's totally besides ruining culture, it's totally out of character with the neighborhood and i urge you very sincerely to deny it or at least do the discretionary review -- excuse me, my name is susan petro, i live in the outer mission. thank you, bye. >> thank you. >> good evening, commissioners, i live on liberty street and i have for almost 30 years, when i got there, valencia was like a boarded up al camino rial, i remember the first restaurant, the first whole food store that

came along and suddenly there were lots and lots of people, people have been buying up buildings because they were less expensive, after that, there was a restaurant that was flowered and it's been a wonderful thing to experience, it's a really vibrant, diverse, wonderful place to live. i was listening to president clinton on the television last night and he mentioned president obama who still believes despite everything in constructive cooperation i think is the phrase that he used and it came to my mind that that's exactly what we need here because of the developer, this is the kind of either/or thing, it's like transit is either bicycles or cars but actually i ride my bike, i use public transit when i can, there isn't very much, i walked here, so it sort of varied, i do what i can and i

use my car, if i'm having a late dinner in the richmond, that's how life is, you can't really live where we live if you're going to go anywhere and not have a car but you don't have to do everything in the car, so it's not an either/or thing and to lose 32 spots on hill street, i can't imagine that, that's where our audience is. the other thing is we're a mixed use diverse maybe and it's not either/or, it's not if just for young hip sters who can buy condos, we have all kinds of people and i for example couldn't buy a condo in this building because i need a car, so it's not an either/or that needs some balance here and since i'm the publicist for

the marsh, please do whatever you can to build what needs to be there. >> i'm the director of the marsh's youth education center, also known as myt, i started myt with stephanie weizmann years ago, we annually bring 250 students and we serve an additional 450 students in san francisco schools, all our programs are on a sliding scale, we can offer this amazing arts opportunity thanks for public funders including the rna, the california arts

council and six years of operational funding from dcyf, so this is san francisco's program as well as the marsh's, i'm a little late today because i was rehearsing our new show, in and out of shadows about indocumented teenagers, this kind of show typifies myt and the mashing general, they directly affect our young performers, the marsh is a community anchor for low income artist youth, a place where they hang out after school during the summer, make friends, make art and are mentored by our faculty, the marsh is an amazing facility but as an older building will be severely impacted by the proposed development. most concerning is the upstairs ventilation where myt classes and performances take place, a large neighboring building cutting off air flow to the

windows in our drama classrooms and backstage room will threaten to make it unusable to our summer months, they will greatly compromise the downstairs and upstairs performing spaces f the building goes forward unmitigated, the marsh has its ability to produce its unique theatre and ultimately the youth program and our ability to offer this free and low cost programming. myt is not only about developing young artists, its's also about developing community members, at myt, we talk a lot about what it means to be a part of an ensemble, the french word for tokt. myt students know if they don't work tokt, their show will not be great, the marsh needs the developer of our adjacent property to be part of our ensemble, part of the community's ensemble, to work with us and all our neighbors

so the cultural richness of our neighborhood is great, we ask that the commission and the developer should consider this. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> good evening, my name is john barbie and elizabeth sitron is helping me with the powerpoint portion of my presentation because i'm 67 years now and i'm technically challenged. i've lived in liberty hill since 1979, i was in my early 30's then and i am one of the founders of the liberty hill historic district. i live at 325 st. carlos then. we wanted to say -- >> you can't hold the microphone. >> just like that and it

works. again, technically challenged. this is almost a fully in tact segment of very old pre1906 san francisco, we knew it was fragile and vulnerable because demolitions had started and we wanted to slow this whole thing down, and also when you take on one of these old houses, it's a very serious challenge because of the age of the house, even window blast becomes fr*ifl and shadows, all the piping has to be renewed, the piping, all the electric has to be renewed and it has to be made more seismic in spite of the fact that these buildings survived 1906, we have new codes and it is advisable. so, it's a very serious undertaking, you have to build the house from the inside out,

at last we see, and you can see the street gates are two low, usually they were over a basement many of which have been converted to garage spacing, here we are, this is again hill street, change. >> i'm trying. >> okay, sorry, and again on hill street, you can see the very small scale. it's important to bear that in mind. it's fully in tact street, these are -- my house on st. carlos was 1876, these tend to be about that age or later on in the 1880s. again, hill street, and yes, we're still going.

god, there's so much. it's very important, it's a matter of compatibility and the compatibility really hasn't been respected in this case, and i would contest the staff comment that this block of valencia is not eligible because when we made liberty hill, we deliberately chopped off most of this block to expedite the formation of the historic district. there were absentee landlords who didn't respond and they cut off big districts in buena vista in the western addition. >> time's up, thank you. >> good evening, commissioners, my name is ro*t mill, i'm a former commission on the building inspection commission and the board of appeal, i've lived in san francisco since

1985, i currently live on valencia street a few blocks away, i think the developers to be commended for propose lg a car-free building and if i thought what was at issue if fundamentally there were car-free buildings, i would not be here urging you to take discretionary review, but i don't think that's the only issue with this building, this building is too big, too tault, too passive, out of scale with its surroundings, a particularly smaum site that it is next to a historic district, that it is on a thriving area of valencia that is not characterized by particularly tall buildings currently and it is next door to a critically important cultural resource for all of san francisco. this building might be appropriate in other par o