outdoor space until they are open every night, thank you. >> calling public comment. [ reading speakers' names ] >> hello my name is eden palmer and i live at the building adjacent to the castro country club. 4058 cao street. i have two little boys 4 and 7 and their window is directly onto the property that we're talking about. my concern is turning the property into restaurant use and with all the nuisance that goes along with, that the machine noise from the restaurants, loud music, loud voices, public urination, et cetera. we already have a very large density of restaurants and bars in the area. i would like to understand what is to stop the rest of the building from falling into restaurant use, if this

changes? if ever the castro country club should leave, there is a space there with the backyard patio space, that if that ever turned into a restaurant the quality of my neighbors and my building would be compromised such that we would have to move and sell your properties. we made a choice to live in an urban areas with all the benefits and problems that go with that. my boys go to sleep every night with the hum of the restaurant machines and disco beat from the bars and restaurants and we're fine with the existing level of if any place, but we don't want anymore. the existing restaurant is already encroaching on existing space and they are in violation and out of permit. as someone allude to ir, the entertainment commissioner, we have to spend many hours of our time asking people to comply. the restaurant would be for us, a nuisance that we don't want

to have to deal with yet another one. my question is why can't it be either remain a residential space or can it be a commercial space other than a restaurant? i understand that people are trying to make money and go into business, and those are my comments. thank you. >> hello commissioners. thank you for your time tonight and for staying so late. i wish the restaurant was open, so i could go eat right now. my name is terry besswick and i spoke to you a couple of weeks ago. i won't give you the history of the castro country club and i think we heard unanimous support from the commission and the witnesses. i live upstairs from the castro country club for five and a half years and my bedroom is actually bordering the back patio that has been talked about a little bit. i think there was a lot of

confusion at the last meeting regarding the back patio. we discussed no ambientneys, noise from the activity itself and no smell from the restaurant as well. we support our landlord. our landlord is giving us a 10-year lease and we're a non-profit organization that has been there for 30 years. and we're getting a reasonable rent. i think it's important that the landlord after investmenting into the building and putting a lot of money into the building to retrofit it making it safer and putting in sprinklers and so on, he should be able to make back many return on

investment. this proposed storefront is virtually the only ground floor space on that block that does not have a commercial use. so i think it's perfectly reasonable for that use to be incorporated into the building. i do want to make two quick points. one, about the hours of operation on the back patio. as i said, we have been there for 30 years and we're respectful of our neighbors and rarely have any kind of amplified noise and would like access and the conditions of the application include access to the back patio. we're losing the front patio and we need to have a place for our people to be able to go, where there is no alcohol being consumed. so the actual space of the castro country club is extremely small. we need to have a place to go out and get some air. the other thing is the fencing bordering the neighbors and the application includes a small fence right now. and i don't understand why that

needs to happen. right now, there is a 6' fence there. and what is being proposed is a very short, low railing and that is not appropriate both for privacy and security concerns. so i think it should be approved with the condition of allowing a 6' fence minimum. thank you. >> good afternoon, my name is cory powell and thank you president and commissioners for hearing me. i volunteer at the ccc and i participate in the steering committee there as well. the ccc offered me a safe place to go when i was newly sober and needed support and could not find any other place readily available. as visible as the castro country club was to continue my journey in sobriety. and t provided me a beginning

for my recovery journey and in my experience it's a relative hub for the gay community for recovery. i am among hundreds who have used the facilities to live outside of addiction. the facilities include wi-fi that i have seen used to find employment and volunteerism opportunities. it provides me something outside of my day-to-day routine. and seek recovery support as well, which includes meeting with my sponsor and using the outside activity area for such activities, i suppose. and as along as they are open, people come seeking a solution to their addiction. when i volunteer, i usually volunteer from 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. and there are people coming in all the way up until 11:00 p.m.

looking for pamphlets and looking for answers to the questions that they are looking for. i would just like to say because of the castro country club i'm no longer on the street contributing to the drug trade or illegal activity in the city. i'm no longer wasting city resources because of my drunkenness and disorderly conduct in public. the build out could only make the ccc a more attractive and better place to seek recovery. thank you. >> thank you. good evening commissioners, my name is mike [skhao-eur/] and chairman of the advisory club. i would like the commissioners to notice in the plan as the country club is going to be redone, we're actually losing space in the renovation and we have talked about this. we're still in support of the plans as they are submitted about the conditional use and alteration of the hours, but we're still very much in

support of the proposal by the architects. thank you. >> hi my name is gary mccoy. i want to say as somebody going to the castro country club for quite a while now, it's been very important in my recovery to go back and meet with my sponsor and enjoy solitude away from the hustle and bustle of the street and the front. now that we don't have that as an option, thank goodness we have somebody that bought the building. so i'm fine with that, but now that we don't have the front patio as an option, it's very important that we have the back patio. and as other people have said, we have been pretty quiet back there. it's more of a place to concentrate and do step work and things like that and meet with our sponsors. so i'm just asking that you support the plans for the restaurant downstairs and also support us at least having the patio for

the same business hours that it operates. >> thank you. any additional public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioner moore. >> just picking up where we left off last time, and it has helped me with a proper report. i think the commission very much supported the social component of what this project is proposing. i think the commission also was very empathetic of the concerns of the neighborhood. now the question is how do we deal with that? let me acknowledge the architect did a great job to visualize what those questions were, which we couldn't answer last time when we had drawings in front of them. which described what could be, but we didn't quite know how

that would resolve itself. i'm actually quite impressed by having two alternatives and the ability to compare it to what we looked at last time. quickly coming to the point, i would say that alternative a is for me more in keeping with the compromise which spatially leaves it open there is an 11' setback, by which landscaping an open area, that will be a relief of noise transfer relative to buildings across the area. with the issue of the fence, i would look for the zoning administrator's sanchez's guidance and the point of compromise. i am supportive of it, but we need to guides it that it best

addresses the height and zoning requirements, which normally exist for fences. which i think you can't make it too tall. it has to be a certain height and it can't be too low that people fall over it, either way. including a fence material that is consistent with fences rather than glass or transparent element. the thing i have a little bit of a problem with is that using the outdoor space after 10:00 is an issue for me. living in a building where neighbors use an outdoor spaces a communal space, when things become quiet at night and even not loud conversation becomes ten time as loud when you leave your window open and trying to sleep. the noise is more amplified than during an afternoon when

people are bustling around and creating their own noise. so i'm concerned that giving hours to 11:00, 12:00 is not really in the spirit of the adjoining neighborhoods, but that would be my only concern. everything else i believe is addressed well and i will restate that alternative a would be my preferred alternative based on what we talked about last time. >> commissioner antonini. >> i would say that alternative a is the better alternative. i have sympathy for the property owner who spoke who lives in the area. and there is a pretty intense restaurant use. however, i think alternative a makes the size of the seating area of the restaurant a little bit smaller and leaves a bigger space between the back of the restaurant. so there is actually a little bit more of a buffer. so i would think that would be the better one. as far as the deck is concerned, which would be

servicing the castro country club, i think it's a nice outdoor space to have, but i kind of agree with commissioner moore. i think 10:00 is late enough to be out on the deck. even though, the castro country club participants would not be drinking, and they still could be making noise and conversation and talking. especially on weeknights, if you are trying to get to sleep at night, it's probably going to be more of an impact than would be the activities inside the restaurant, which will be enclosed, i understand. so those would be a little more -- the noise would be more mitigated. so i would favor option a and having the deck close at least on weeknights at 10:00. >> commissioner borden? >> i don't want to belabor the point. i think putting an hour limit on the deck is not very enforceable. so i mean, i think it creates a nuisance for

the castro country club to do that. i don't think it's their intent to be partying on the deck. that is the only thing i would say. i respect that i don't want them disrupting the neighbors, but it's hard to keep track of. >> public comment is already closed. commissioner hillis? >> just two questions. one second floor, what could that be used for with the country club? >> the variety of uses in the castro street neighborhood district would be allowed on the second level, retail sales, financial service with a conditional use and medical service. >> so restaurant-type use? >> a restaurant would not be allowed on the second level in the castro neighborhood commercial district, no. >> do you want to respond? do you use this space outside now at 10:00 at night? would it be a hardship?

>> currently our hours are until 11:00 monday through thursday, until midnight friday and saturdays and 10:00 on sundays, but any noise that we have out back is negligible compared to the noise of the back patio of the mixed bar, which is three doors down, which is like being at a dance party. >> do you use the back patio now at all hours that you are open? >> very minimally. >> so i'm all right with that. >> thank you. >> commissioner moore. >> mr. sanchez, how many people are allowed to gather on the deck based on structural? >> i do not have the expertise to answer that. it's a building code requirement and perhaps the architect could answer what the load is? >> people quietly conversing is one thing, but with 20 people hollering, that is a

different thing. i don't know the country club well enough, but i know as i said earlier, at night noise really amplifis. >> commissioner antonini. >> the project sponsor, i want to ask you something. i realizing that the purpose of the restaurant is to help make the castro country club economically feasible. >> that is correct. >> and i would assume that either option a or b will work economically for you? >> i think if you were to ask my client, who regrettably couldn't be here tonight, he would ask for option b because it gives him the extra simple linear feet. it doesn't really make any difference, i think, for you, because i don't think there is any outdoor perception of difference, whether that cavity is 6' bigger or not, but we'll leave it at your direction is. >> okay. thank you. >> commissioner hillis.

>> i move to approve option a. >> second >> was it 11:00 on week days? >> 11:00. >> did someone second that motion? >> i did. >> thank you. on the motion to approve option allowing the deck obused during country club hours, commissioner antonini aye. >> commissioner borden? >> aye. >> commissioner hillis? >> aye. >> commissioner moore? >> aye. >> commissioner sugaya?

>> aye. >> commissioner wu? >> aye. >> commissioner president fong? >> aye. >> so moved commissioners. zoning administrator, what say you? >> grant the requested variance, close the public hearing at this point i would actually take the item under advisement and come to resolution on the deck issue. sorry i didn't respond to the email of last week, but have you 10' above existing grade. so i don't think we'll have a problem, but we'll review that more closely. thank you. >> commissioners that places you under "public comment." i have no speaker cards. >> is there any public comment? okay, seeing none, the meeting is adjourned. [ gavel ]