planning commission will consider a request for extension later in the calendar but the presentation today is intended to update the commission on the current design for the project and improvements to the exterior of the project. it includes slight increase of units to 338. a decrease in parking spaces to 269 with the majority of those in stackers. a minor alteration at the rear of the podium building and continue to have nor commercial space within the building. the project sponsor will present the changes in detail and available for questions or comments. i will turn it over to them. thanks. >> good afternoon president fong. good afternoon planning commissioners. i am edward mercy and here representing jackson pacific. my company and art stone who collectively are and continue to be the original

project sponsor developer for 340 fremont street. as mr. teague mentioned we are supporting now an informational presentation of the new design for 340 fremont street. our goals and reasons for electing to redesign a fully approved, fully compliant residential tower were three. the first one was an esthetic visual exterior enhancement or upgrade for the absence of doubt this is not the vex exercise to the contrary. it's attempt to bring a building that we thought was good to very good in terms of architectural design. the second reason since seven years passed since our original design we under took a

significant effort in the under the hood areas of the building, primarily redesigning the structural system to be compliant with a more reason structural high rise code and practice and the third is redesigning each 348 residential units. just a small note on architecture. we conducted a national search for our architectural firm. we have a strong hire local bias but we have a strong need and desire to get the highest level of expertise available in esthetic design, in technical expertise and residential planning and the result of the search was a really good local firm who maybe known to you called handel architects. we have been working with them for a year. we are thrilled with the team

work and the work that they have done and really pleased to be presenting the new design to you today by handel architects and with they would like to introduce glenda scal vo and one of the design principals and will walk you through the design and we are available for questions or comments you may have. >> good afternoon president fong and commissioners. thank you for having us here. we're very excited about -- >> excuse me. can you state your name for the record. >> glen scaff voa and partners in handel architects here in san francisco. we are very excited of being part of this project as mr. mercy pointed out. the challenge for us was to really get this building back up to a standard of 2010 structurally,

esthetically and from a unit standpoint so this is going to be a short presentation on some of the changes that we have made. as you know the project sits on fremont street between folsom and harrison and midblock in the rincon hills district. this gives you indication of the parcel of land here. you can't see the chart but i think you have some handouts there. as mr. mercy pointed out we reduced the parking but we have below grade parking so nothing is visible from the street and the building is broken down into three components and the below grade and the building and the tower itself and at 400 feet. one of the other significant changes and adjustments that we made of course the client

pointed out the structural system. as you can see from the drawings one shows the old system which was small and the new system on the right-hand side which has an enlarged. that is due to the 2010 code so the building has met that requirement. we also made adjustments on the ground floor level to improve the townhouses that face on to parklet as well as the lobby and leasing office to activate the store front. this is a bigger picture of that indicating the three tone components. the blue being the townhouses? a. the light yellow the lobby and back of house for the residents and then the bright yellow being the leasing office will eventually be more lobby space. the nice thing about this project because the terraces up we have the ability to have three different areas for out door space. we have out door space on the second floor,

on the fifth floor as well as the ninth floor so the developer really offered to give the residents three amazing out door spaces, and the one on the ninth floor is spectacular and 85 feet over looking the city so it's a very enjoyable space. on the left-hand side is the original design that was done in 2006, and probably design closer to 2004 and approved in 2006. we have taken that design and we have basically kept the massing the same but improved on the material. we are still using the materials that were suggested earlier on pre-cast and glass but we moved the combination around a little to make it more contemporary in its feeling. we focused a lot on

the base of the building. as you can see on the left-hand side of the original the base design was very institutional in nature, a little heavy. we have heightened it quite a bit and as can you see one of the things that we try to do is break the base down so it had more of a pedestrian feel to it and the scale broke down and creating the windows and feelings at the base of the building, so that is one of the biggest changes overall to the project is how the base really meets the street and improveos the pedestrian sequence along fremont street. here's another view at that base. and the lobby is dead center and then as you can see it's a very active store front that we have created there, and this is a view if you were pretty much at rincon one

looking back towards the city, towards -- there's the financial district. again the combination of pre-cast and glass combined together and similar to the old scheme but more contemporary interpretation so that is essentially the design changes that we have made. if you have any questions i am happy to answer those. thank you. >> this is under the director's report. is there public comment on that? >> agendized item. there can be. >> all right. is there any public comment on this item? commissioners any questions? commissioner antonini. >> i had a couple questions for any of you. first of all i guess i noticed that you have increased the number of units within the allowable amount as

we know, and decreased the parking, and recently we had a presentation by tishman a fire for 201 folsom and they went in the other direction making the units larger and smaller number of units because they found that 400 i think 400 -- 300 -- the first infinity tower his more families with children and they felt the demand was there for the larger units, so this seems to be the ols in your case. maybe you can tell me the reason for smaller units and the two bedroom or larger is less than in our original entitlement. >> commissioner antonini i can address two of the questions of the ones that you presented. i cannot address the tishman spire strategy in changing or

creating their program. art stone is a rental developer, owner-operator, and the intention here -- one of the intentions in redesigning the project was to design a rental high rise. we think we've got it right. everybody has to make a subjective business judgment call in terms of the right balance and how many square feet for a studio, one bedroom, two bedroom is and is it 1100 feet or 1350 square feet? we have made a decision guided by the limits imposed by the eir and the original approvals to go to the higher unit end of unit count and adjust the size slightly lower. we still have met the 40% two and three

bedroom threshold. that's a factual statement and exactly where we were and recall us having been in 2005. in terms of -- the best way i can respond to the preponderance or not of families living in downtown hi rises is probably one hawthorn which is a project that my company developed and has 165 residential units and it's anecdotal information and not just speak for example art stone and i have provided to my partners. we have approximately five families -- i think the definition of families parents with children living in the 165

unit high rise building. 10 units remain unsold but it can't skew the mix too much and the preponderance of the units are primary residents. they're not investor units. i don't know if i can shed anymore light on the question. >>i think you answered it and certainly sounds based on your experiences with hawthorn this is the best you feel that would work best for you and i am certainly supportive, and obviously these units are condo mapped so in the future they had to be sold they could be sold, and i really complement you also on the design -- redesign with an outstanding architectural firm and improvement on the original design and much richer. i did have one question -- maybe it's more for the architecture tekt. you can probably answer. one of the renders look like a

masonry finishing on the units and looks richer and some look more pale looking and i'm not sure what the pre-cast material is going to be or appear on that lower frontage that goes up about six floors i believe. i'm not sure of the floors it goes up. >> i think that is primarily a question that we should ask glen scal vo to answer and we have been sensitive to the way it can be successful and as a wall material can be unsuccessful and the elements that we have tried to integrate into those portions of the building have to do with color, with add mixture, by creating release in the depth of the pre-cast panels and variety of finishes in terms of smooth

and rough finish and a big palet that changes the way light is perceived and the surface of the building is perceived so i think we have a very skillful architect and tried to maximize the visual impact of that material. >> yeah. it looks like it's going to be -- just for my personal preference if it's a little bit darker it's richer on that part about the third level up to the six level. maybe he can -- >>i am getting outside of my licensing permissions. >> so basically the way that we have done it at the base of the building we have stone and glass. as you go up to the second three i will the seventh floor it's a combination of metal, panel and glass and from there up we do is where we introduce the pre-cast because the pre-cast is somewhat of a

-- not that -- a little bit more of a raw material we like to keep it high up on the building, so it's really perceived more as a richer material. we have done -- one of the things we're doing with the pre-cast is giving it a lot of angularity so it casts interesting shadows along the facade of the building. one of the things we have done successful on some of the other buildings is create exterior walls that have more kinetic feel to them so when the light moves around them they change and that's what we would like to do with this building. i hope that answers it is question. >> it does and i think the texture i see in the drawings adds to the richness and i was expressinglet opinion of the midlevel and somewhat darker color to the metal exterior and any pattern that you could put

in and break up the light reflection it will be upon even richer and the direction you're moving in. thank you. >> thank you. >> commissioner moore. >> this is an informational presentation only. the one thing i wanted to say to the commission i am glad to see a tower redesign which is more residential in expression. it kind of lifted out of an area where we see more and more glass towers and for traditional purposes they're commercial and this looks residential and i welcome the redesign and the design meets that expectation and the code adjustments with the elevators as described so thank you. >> commissioners, that concludes the informational item. we can move on to the general public comment. not to exceed 15 minutes. at this time the members of the public may address the items interest to

the public except for agenda items and your opportunity will be afforded when the item is reached in the meeting. i have no speaker cards. >> general public comment. >> my name is genie quack and live in the university terrace neighborhood and i hope i don't offend the other commissioners and i support statements made by two commissioners. commissioner borden i agree with you there should be more informational meetings rather than just in commission meetings, but meetings about ceqa and other things so thank you for that, and commissioner moore i agree with you that the ceqa proposal was tough to read in certain places and i am glad you're going to work on the language and clarification, and as part of that could the description in the agenda please include the

word "ceqa" because a lot of people like me don't know what it means. thank you very much. >> sue hester. there are ceqa implications in what i am about to say. the concourse project was scheduled to come to you in december. now it looks like it's coming in january, and i will be the only person who has standing on the project because no one is paying attention to the fact that we are about to lose the exposition center of the city through demolition. it's on your advance calendars. how many of you know what henry adams and are andin and i know

that is demolition of the concourse. i have -- in the past month have been invited to kpfa's annual events which is in december, the green festival which was last week, and another thing. no one is paying attention because you don't give any notice and it will be exactly the same. notice only goes to property owners within a 300-foot radius and me because i get all notices. that is not very good notice. i have pleaded with the planning department staff, particularly environmental review, that they require owner to give notice to all of the tenants. the tenants come in there once a year. kbfa and the green festival. no one

knows they're about to lose their venue and it's on the calendar as a demolition 801 brandon and approval of massive condo project 801 brandon and henry adams and no one will be here because no one will know about. i wish the commission to over ride the staff and tell environmental review and the staff that you don't have to have a hearing on the project with no one getting notice. the owner knows who rents. it is not in the owner's interest to say a word about this, but i know about it, and i commented on it when i commented on the eir. i'm the only person that has standing to pursue it, and with the scott wiener's

amendments even less standing and please tell people you're considering demolishing it and with the board of supervisors and with that building. thank you. >> next speaker please if you're ready. >> hi. my name is reynolds cameron. i'm an individual and not representing anybody. i am married and just moved to san francisco in january and lived in norway, copenhagen and france and shanghai china. i am here to speak about my experience about living on the south slope of po troro hill and how my

experiences can shape how it should help you shape the future of san francisco. many of these countries have a very -- have been recognized as being innovative in incorporating the needs of low income and especially refugees from third world kowntsdz that have been going through civil wars and they have come to the scandinavian countries that are wealthy and have through their rental policies given them rental subsidies and still involved with market rate housing and because of this people are living together side by side instead of ghettoized public housing areas, and people that wouldn't otherwise meet each other they live next door and go to the store and everyone knows each other and that enables them to l

norwegian and you will see the five year olds speak perfectly even though they have curly black hair and in san francisco there should be focus on market rate housing and the discussion on micro housing and i lived in a small apartment of about 300 square feet in os low, in paris and copenhagen and the difference between that and my larger apartment here in san francisco those were nice and the one here is crappy. i can hear my neighbors when there was a discussion. over there the walls were thick. it was warm and nice appliances and taken the walls were taken care it and it should include a certain decibel

readying so you can't hear them next door and if public housing is considered a priority housing subsidies should be considered and this is probably the only time i will speak to the commission because it's not my job to come here and speak to you. i think surterrainian freeway and subway along 19th avenue and turning that into a opportunity to sell to individual housing owners or developers or whatever and that would create a lot of land for housing for this city. thank you. >> would you like to offer public comment? you can leave it right there. thank you. is there any additional general public comment?

>> good afternoon president fong and commission. my name is karen mint and i am a business owner and resident of the dog patch area. i would like to oppose the addition of the nine cell phone towers slated to go in on 3rd street. >> that is an item actually on the agenda. you will have an opportunity to speak to it when we get to it. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. any -- okay. >> hello how are you doing? i am eric barrett. i'm a real estate agent that does leasing and i just wanted to state that in general we see a great demand for individuals and couples for smaller apartments in the city and what we find is that most of those individuals are priced out of the market, and having this opportunity to create a greater number of units in san

francisco is a great benefit to all those individuals that want to be here in the city, so that's all i wanted to say. thank you very much. >> thank you. is there any additional general public comment? did you want to speak to a particular item? >> [inaudible] >> no ma'am for your benefit and other members of the public item 11 with ceqa modifications has been continued to november 29th from this date. >> thank you. >> i'm sorry. there was action taken to continue item 11? >> yes. >> can you state your name for the record? >> david pill pow. can i make a comment at this time? >> yes. >> my understanding is that the 30 days provided under the board rules would expire this week so

the commission wouldn't be entitled to make comment on that. was there discussion of that 30 day limit on comments from the commission? >> thank you. thanks for asking the question. we can't have dialogue during this public comment. >> okay. i wanted the commission had the opportunity to weigh in substantively on this ordinance and i am hoping any communication to the board would request for further time for the commission to comment on it just as they requested more time to comment on the proposed ordinance. >> director. >> just to be clear the supervisor agreed to wait until november 29 to consider the matter at the board and would hear comments at that hearing. >> that's excellent and thank you very much. >> any additional general public comment? okay.

>> okay. next item please. >> commissioners, it will place you under your regular calendar. item 12 the western soma community plan informational presentation number two. >> commissioners cory teague for staff. the next hearing in the line of hearings for the western soma community plan and adoption of the elements of that plan. just to give you a reminder of the hearings so far and in the future. on november 1 we had informational presentation to cover the background of the plan, the process of creating the plan and some of the key principles and outcomes of the actual plan itself. last week november 8 you initiated the amendments to the general plan, the planning code and the zoning map. today will be is informational hearing to get into the specifics of the

zoning changes and the planning code changes, and then you have scheduled the adoption hearing for december 6 and that is a public hearing where you first have the opportunity to certify the eir and adopt the amendments to the general planning and zoning code and zoning map, and then if that happens in that order you could also on that date hear the entitlement hearing for 338 fifth street but specifically today we're going to discuss the proposed zoning and height changes in western soma community plan and some of the controls adding to the plang code, give overview of controls for land use like retail and housing and office and look at the intraim corridor and speak briefly about the administrative code