forward before us today. just so the public knows that they are planning about a 25-30 minute presentation. i have 40 speaker cards currently here. so we're looking at about two hours. so i just wanted people to pace themselves and also let me know if you need to leave. but i just think a lot of folks have a lot to say, being that we have had eight plus years of work put into this. so i just wanted everyone to know what you are in store for. so without further ado, i will call up the planning department. i'm sorry. >> thank you, supervisor kim for the introductory remarks and before we get to planning i wanted to make a few initial remarks. i have been following this plan for quite some time back to before i was a member of the board of supervisors and i first want to just thank

supervisor kim for her work on the plan. this is not a plan that was initiated when she was in office. and she has done an enormous amount of work on it and i am not envious for steping into a plan as controversial and complicated as this plan, but supervisor kim, i think, has done a very good job taking into consideration a number of the concerns that have been raised and asking if it can be steered to a resolution that people can live with. so thank you, supervisor. i have had some significant concerns about this plan. i just want to put that out there from the beginning and i'm looking forward to the dialogue today. i understand the number of the goals of the plan, but i do have concerns, and i'm hoping that we can address some of them through the course of this hearing and to the next hearing as well one is around nightlife and entertainment.

this area western soma is historically a significant entertainment and nightlife hub for the city. we know from the economic impact study that the city economists did, i guess, over a year ago now. that entertainment or nightlife is a significant economic contributor to the city. in addition to being part of the cultural heart of the city. and we really, in our zoning decisions, in our decisions that we make in this building, we can have profound impacts on whether nightlife is going to succeed or not succeed. and so for example, when you put housing and nightlife next to each other, housing 99 times out of 100 wins. and i'm a proponent of creating more housing in the city and i have been pretty outspoken about that. but when you put them next to each other, you can have some

conflict and housing almost always wins, we have seen that. for example, even one person who was unhappy about slim was able to actually get that club shut down for a period of time. and so that is one concern that i have had with this plan. i think that the plan overall, in my view, although i know has been an effort to acknowledge the role of nightlife historically and presently in this plan. i don't think it does so sufficiently. i know there have been a number of amendments proposed to make sure that the nightlife is embraced and maintained and enhanced in this area. and i am supportive of at least some of those amendments. so i look forward to that discussion today. there is another issue as well, and that has to do with the future of transportation. not just in western soma, but

in this entire area of the city. one of the concerns that i received from constituents quite frequently and i'm sure my colleagues do as well, as we're adding new housing whether it's south of market or along market street or in the mission, wherever it is, we're adding new housing. bringing in new residents, which we need to do as a city to accommodate population growth. what are we doing to make sure that our transportation system keeps pace? we're adding new housing, but our transportation system, public transit in san francisco is not -- does not have the capacity to deal with our current usage, let alone adding new housing. so it is so critical that as we add new population and grow, that our transportation system is keeping pace. and that means investing in the system that we have today, and expanding its capacity and all of that takes quite a bit of

funding. now transit impact development fees, are a very important part of that equations, as we're adding housing and office space and development, we're generating funding to pay for those transportation improvements to keep pace. one of the provisions in the western soma plan, which actual will you i believe may not exactly, but tracks the similar provision in the eastern neighborhoods plan. actually proves that you pay a lower fee or a lower percentage for your transit impact fees if you build a larger housing complex. i don't understand any

conceivable policy basis for that provision. and it's something that has caused me -- is troubling to me. so i will be asking questions about that today, and again, i look forward to the discussion about that. because to me that seems like not the correct way to go in terms of planning for the future growth in this area. so with that said, supervisor kim. >> thank you. i actually forget to mention that we do have a set of amendments that we are introducing today. most of them are largely just clean-up. they are corrections that needed to be made and planning will be presenting those today. i did forget to mention just in terms of the overall plan. the plan really provides a path forward to accommodate the immense development pressure in this neighborhood with the mixed-use integrated approach. by encouraging more residential development, especially in the alleyways where the streets are narrow and preserving the area's rich cultural heritage.

focusing development with improved pedestrian connectivity and having a discussion about a two-way folsom street, which i know the community has been waiting for a long time and incentiving affordable housing and industry use and office space while embracing the entertainment corridor on 11th street which you will be hear more about with plan's presentation. i am very interested in a conversation that came out of long-term negotiations -- not long-term, the yearlong negotiation s around prop c with inclusionary housing in exchange for reduction of overall impact fees elsewhere. i just wanted to know this is completely voluntary. i do know that within the community, one of the top

priorities is building more affordable housing. it's not to say that they would like to do that at the expense of transportation or the expense of open space, but i know that we have certain needs that are a bit of a priority over others. an example i will give in other policy we made an exception over surplus property, where we decided to potentially pause or suspend the sale of that parcel, because the neighborhood decided that open space was a greater priority over giving to the affordable housing side. i think this is another example where in this neighborhood affordable housing is just something that this neighborhood is dieing to see. as rent goes up, i think our residents are really feeling the push and pressure in the south of market and they would just like an opportunity to allow developers to opt into this program. thank you. >> thank you.

good afternoon chairman wiener, supervisors, i do have copies of the presentation and updated information for the supervisors. in the interest of time i will be giving a more streamlined version of the presentation, the nuts and bolts of the planning code changes and zoning map changes and other related elements to the plan. but before i do that, jim niko, the chairman of the western south of market co-s task force will give the key takeaways of the plan itself. i will turn it over to jim niko.

>> thank you very much. supervisors, jim niko, and i have served as chair of this planning process for more than eight years now. please, pass this plan, so we can get on with our lives. the western soma process of course was not without controversy. it began when he were still part of the eastern neighborhoods process which was a one size fits all, very ambitious process that set about to rezone more than a fourth of the entire city. south of market even though was unique in that we had already been rezoned in 1990.

and became the first mixed-use area in the city. so we had a nish of years to work through the notion of mixed-use and i think we understand it bert than anybody. when the eastern neighborhoods process seemed to ignore our concerns. and we promised them we would engage in a much more thorough, more comprehensive process and i think we have done that. what we have developed was a true. mirror thanks go out to paul lord, who is now retired after six years on the task force and

suning himself on the beaches of bangkok, but nobody new better how to mix the expertise of a senior planner with the humility necessary to listen to the community at the same time. i have to acknowledge the department of health and department of public works and the san francisco county transportation authority has been well-represented for the last few years by chester fong. the composition of the task force itself has been diverse, and they have devoted themselves to hours upon hours of work in the service of their community..

i can show you, if i can have the orford briefly here, a representation of more than 50 community members who served on the task force since it was first established. at the height of the task force's activity, we were holding more than five meetings per month. meetings of the full task force, as well as subcommittees, which addressed business and land use. which was chaired by paul lord. complete neighborhood fabric. and the arts and entertainment focus group, which was chaired by terrance allen. this was an exercise in both representative and participatory democracy, representative in that the 26-member task force represented a broad range of

community stakeholders, and participatory, that we brought the meetings and the business of the task force down into the communities often as we could. in particular with three town hall meetings that drew each time in excess of 200 people and through the generos ity of city planning we did thousands of mailings to the residents and property owners of the community. we were able to engage in surveys of residents and business owners and big in outside facilitation. so we were not simply hearing what we wanted to hear. the task force remained at full

strength 26 members and in october 2008 we released a draft for citizens review. that was enough to trigger the eir of the process. and while the eir was underway, we continued to meet for another four years to continue to address the contentous issues and to fine tune the plan. the final proposal for adoption, which is before you today, was approved in the fall of 2011. the western soma community plan is subtitle ed," building a complete." >> supervisors thank for your time, i think the introduction that supervisor kim aptly summarized what i

is subtitle ed," building awas going to say that it started out with the businesses, the entertainment industry, the filipino community, the lgbt community and it all started to develop a holistic plan. we also acknowledged our community, our 9th and 10th street are beginning freeway streets and we have almost an emerging folsom street neighborhood center which we hope to develop, as well as our allis, which people love, which actually contain the heart of the affordable housing, as well as mixed-use businesses.

you with will hear we were successful in some areas, but we did want to boil a plan that build a plan that allowed for growth. we have a lot of jobs. so what we had was a balancing act to maintain this mix of uses when we develop zoning we try to use the type that was done in the eastern neighborhoods, because that was one of our principles. we wanted the sort of uses to

be easy to understand. and offices and offices and offices of businesses and businesses and not have arcane differentiations that allowed for unintended consequences. what we wanted was simple zoning that would sort of work to enhance our neighborhood. and i think we actually for the most part achieved it through a lot of effort. so i would like to introduce chris schaffer from the community outreach program, who will describe a little bit more how we use our principles and maintained a variety of outreach to bring in the neighborhoods. >> good afternoon, supervisors. you have said several times, i have noted that in earlier testimony that sfmta didn't have people involved early enough or that people were just now talking in front of you, rather than having input. something very different about the western soma process was that immediately in planning

for the stakeholders, not only did they have a committee that represented the various groupste also planned very early on to have input from all of the groups. as jim niko said, you had input that was representative by the committee, but you also had a totally democratic process by having members of the public come to the town halls. when you get over 200 people together in a room, you can imagine how tough it would be to make sure that every voice felt that it was heard, not only that it was heard. and when everybody talks at the same time, that is not beautiful music. so the role of the community outreach program and the group of facilitators that we brought is to have the members of the community directly be able to speak to the issues that they felt strongly about. we are members of the american society for training development, who actually have

-- i want to say a license to perform, but in essence, we are neutral facilitators who were there to allow each voice to be heard in such a way that they really do feel respected. in essence western soma plan had three different town halls each with a different purpose, but to hear the purposes so you understand the richness of the input that was there. in the first town hall, literally for residents in a variety of business interests is that our mission totally was to listen to input and to have input from over 200 people, we designed several ways to do that. one is to have a survey, a written survey of people proving their input that then in turn in writing to be digested. in the second town hall, again the purpose was to listen, and to listen now as members of the community talked about the four

areas that the western soma was providing them. with neighborhood fabric, transportation, et cetera. so the point is to again listen and to listen in a rich way, so that the input from the community could be heard. the purpose of the third town hall is that now there was some drafts put together, and again, the point was to listen, so that members of the community could really understand what was being addressed. what was being given to them, as well as they could provide their input. so this was a dialogue and a discussion about that. i think at the end of the day, that one of the things that was true about each one of the town halls, led to a definition that was true when they first tried to have their very first meeting. and i will read to you what it says. community involvement in western soma was to create

citizen planners, residents, small business owners, community activist and public officials trained in the basics of land use and urban design, working together to create a more livable neighborhood, economic opportunities, safer streets, and a healthier environment. so thank you very much. the next person i'm going to introduce is peter cohen, who at that time was part of the asian network design group, who provided community studies and research that helps to inform the western soma plan. peter. >> as chris said this process has been going on long enough

it spanned a few different jobs that i had. at a time when a lot of planning work was done i was in asian neighborhood design and we had a program that i was directing for much of the period of time that we provided technical support through the process. the staffing was through the planning department, but that was augmented by the work we could do. we were co-thinkers. this was a different role. i wanted to share with you then the typical consultant role you might have for some of the other planning processes. our job as chris said was to help citizen planners really become citizen planners by doing technical work that they could understand and ultimately that they could own. i wanted to go over an overall theory and the first we were providing direct technical assistance. we weren't just providing ta to the planning staff or leadership, but to all the

folks involved in the whole process. related to that was the notion what we were trying to do with our product, was to create citizen planners and not just documents. the product that comes before you today has citizens' fingerprints all over it. people can actually see the direct imprint of their ideas. and that leads also to ownership of the process. the process was a very significant part of this plan as chris and jim mentioned to you. and it can seem very laborious, but that is in fact, what felt for folks that they owned the come of outcome of the plan. there is kind of a cookie-cutter approach to doing planning.

from a sort of ta standpoint, we were often given questions and problems that didn't have easy answers, but out of that came some really interesting and creative aspects the plan itself, which will be highlighted later. and lastly, a key part of this theory was to start from an understanding of what is already there. i think one of the things that i heard first off was folks did not want planning for western soma to be approached as though it was a blank slate and there was actually a community and history and evolution there and we needed to understand that in a deep and respectful level and plan from there going forward. so just three points, if you will, how we kind of approached this then. one was we did a lot of fine-grained and fields-tested analysis. we spent hours and hours in the field, with a team of folks who made liberal use of students from san francisco stay and

berkeley. secondly we had a lot of emphasis on -- if you will, again information with the task force. so we could come up with interesting analysis, but we wanted to make sure that people experienced that in their real lives of it's not always the case that data is accurate. people know for more and lastly we used visualization and mapping. spreadsheets and documents just don't work and you have to create pictures and that was an informative part of that approach. it was a fun process and we enjoyed it very much. others took over after i was gone and i hope you see it was very informative to the plan.

i will introduce the next speaker. >> thank you, peter. i'm john, the ceo of tyco, and trying to maximize the affordable housing for its resides and communities. i want to address finally the likely outcomes in about over the next 20 years, if you adopt this rezoning. what will actually happen in the real world? this is a major upzoning. both residential and commercial. it increases the build-out capacity of residential by thousands of units compared to today's zoning from 1990. and certainly will result many substantially more residential development, new market rate housing than would otherwise occur without it. commercially it loosens up the restrictions from the 1990's

zoning substantially and add expands the sfo, now a west soma office district along folsom street that will see hundred hundreds of thousands of-square-feet of commercial office development built than would otherwise be the case. it is a definite neighborhood building division, and the core of that reflecting the many new residents we expect to come is a new folsom street shopping district with the concentrated muni service. it's the folsom street nct that the zoning -- the rezoning would establish. and it would become a real center for south of market neighborhood that has always been desired, but is still only in a very beginning form at this time. the third thing is that we have used every trick in the planning tool book we could think of or was suggested to

maintain our neighborhood's diversity. it's economic diversity, it's business diversity, it's cultural diversity. it's always what made south of market special in our opinion and we have tried everything that we could to foster that, especially given the otherwise gentrification that is steadily spreading throughout the neighborhood. in 20 years, perhaps all the market rate stock will have been gentrified, which makes affordable housing and inclusionary housing that our plan provides for extremely important, essential in order to maintain any social diversity. finally i just want to note there are dozens if not a hundred compromises in this plan. i know you understand as legislators that although single issue advocates will always