more than just the citizens' process. it involves the planning department, the board of supervisors and ultimately the mayor. we are are participating now in bringing issues that we felt marginalized wringing d bringing up earlier. where could that have been? not blaming anyone, if you read the eir, you will find it was based on faulty data regarding nightlife and nightlife communities. and we think that based on those errors conclusions were made in the plan that moved forward that now with a few minor modifications can be adjusted, affect very little and improve the plan for the overall neighborhood. thank you. >> thank you, mr. allen. >> good afternoon supervisor, henry carnalo.

i was on the western soma planning task force since 2006. and i want to congratulate and commend jim niko for what a great job he did. as ken said a second ago, i know a lot of people came and left and there ways was a group of local residents who were not happy about what was happening and tried to create disruption, but it wasn't possible. it was left up to western soma to say what was said. so particularly when it comes to entertainment, this is where i think it was left out. and i think we need to protect, preserve and promote live entertainment. we cannot allow to have residential in areas like 11th street, as was said by another person, these people move and

know what is going on and at the end of the day come back and [kpra-eupb/]. i have another run related not entertainment, but someone building a garage and the people bought their place a couple of years back. when the person went to build the garage, you can only go up 14', because we don't have the yard that we are supposed to have. well, this is a situation that we're not required to have an open space at the ear. so i really urge you to amend this plan. also, limited live performance. i wanted to see it throughout south of market throughout the corridors. >> thank you, and thank you for serve on the task force >> helloo, my name is cassmith, an architect and also an arts commissioner. i am here and congratulate the

task force and i'm here on a detail. i think good things are great, but they need well-defined details as well. there is subdistrict called sali, which used to be ten blocks that follows bryant from 12th to 5th and as written design professionals are excluded from that area. design professionals include architects, engineers, graphic designers and landscape architects. for many reasons, i really believe we should be included as a principal use. what we do as architects is not very different from arts activity or pdr. we build models, that is pdr, if there ever was one. we're essentially an arts activity and we're supporters of it. our staff goes to art openings within two or three blocks i

meet with sheet metal shops. i meet with furniture producers on what we're designing. and we're just good neighbors. we're also part of pioneering this, thank you. >> thank you, mr. smith. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is caroline -- [speaker not understood] i am here on behalf of our client, flared diversified properties to discuss a proposed well-reasoned amendment. you should have already received copies of the proposed amendment, but i have additionals here. as currently proposed the planning, building and code section would be amended to generally prohibit lot mergers.

as set form in the proposal such merge would only be permissible if an alley is provided result of the merger. i would like to everyone emphasize this would be an additional public benefit. to be sure existing session 270.2. the requested amendment is particularly important to our client's proposed project along townsend street and would provide 21 century space for digital media users, consistent with plan policy 1.2.3. notably the amendment would allow for pedestrian connection

from harriet to townsend on the project site. these requested amendments were discussed with the planning department and met no objection and thank you in advance for your consideration. thank you. >> president chiu, supervisor wiener and kim, my name is steve cookland and i'm with carline and the flare diversified properties, 520 townsend street. i want to commend the west soma task force and in general i believe the plan has done most things right. however, the proposed restriction on lot mergers of 100 feet that caroline referred to, i believe is counter to the countergoal along townsend have, which is an area that is supposed to be of larger scale office

development. the high-tech digital tenants that require much larger floor plates need large sites to accommodate them. the u.s.p.s. at 550 townsend is immediately adjacent to my client's site. adobe and zinger, et cetera. clearly 100' limitation along townsend is not consistent with the scale of the area. lot merger restrictions are more appropriate for neighborhood-commercial distributes which explain where the existing restrictions only apply to haves and national council on disability on hayes, church street and market street. we have reviewed our proposed changes with jim nicko, toby levy and planning staff corey

teague and none of them have any objections to what we're proposing. so we hope you include them as an amendment to the plan. lastly, i would like to introduce dennis flaherty, the owner of 520 townsend. >> thank you. we are introducing -- we're going modify the restriction on the lot merger today. >> terrific. thank you very much. >> i'm dennis flaherty and i have owned the property for over 35 years. i occupied it many years running my own business and my son presently has an office there. in getting your amendment, we realize that we have talked to a neighbor who has a 50' parcel.

ours is 138. we would like to merge those, and provide a -- the ability to introduce an office building that would probably project to high-tech usage. inasmuch as we would be limited in what we're planning. we're asking this change, which i feel would benefit the neighborhood, because we would be giving up a substantial amount to provide the thoroughfare through to harriet street. in occupying that property for so many years i have gone through a number of changes that have transspired there, from the flooding to finally we put a pump station on that harriet street, which has

alleviated our problem. but i just would like to have an opportunity to do something on the property that i have had for many years and i ask your consideration in that. we feel that the combined product of what we're asking would benefit the area and also provide a good thoroughfare to harriet street. i thank you for your consideration. >> thank you, mr. flaherty. the last speaker of the ten that i called before, i will call another ten names. after will tempt mr. temrano. [ reading speakers' names ] >> hello supervisors.

my name is tom temrano and i'm the president of the harvey milk democratic club, also one of the co-chairs of the south of market stabilize fund cac, where i recommend the needs of the neighborhood. one of the considerations has been the preservation of lgbt teen nightlife as you have seen the greatest loss of space in san francisco. last year we co-hosted a forum with the alice b. toklas foundation and the nightlife spaces that currently exist on 11th tv all of the existing spaces catered to the lgbt community and at least two of

those clubs are queer-owned entertainment venues. i think everyone deep down knows this would create conflicts between residents and businesses that we don't need to actually have. and we can avoid by ensuring that 11th street entertainment is supported in not allowing new residential units on that street. and i would love to see the opportunity for new businesses that can highlight queer entertainers and queer culture to be able to open along folsom street in this plan, further from a small business perspective, i would like to see south of market businesses to have limited live permits throughout south of market. thank you for all the work done

on the plan. i look forward to it. >> thank you, mr. temprano. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is ross levy. i'm an architect working at 7th and folsom on a project. i appreciate all the work that has gone into the plan and the fine-grained detail. i do have some questions about some specific details and specifically the buffer zones and rear yard requirements. the property we're working on has frontages on 7th and i believe there are architectural solutions that can alleviate concerns for all who might be affected by any kind of proposed development. and that we can solve these problems on a case-by-case and architectural basis. so i

would encourage you to consider the potential for creativity in terms of solving unique problems. thank you. >> thank you, mr. levy. >> good afternoon, supervisors. chairman wiener, jeremy paul, and i am a permit consultant. i help a lot of small property owners in the district a lot of people that don't feel they were included in the process and a lot of people busy doing their work and maintaining their properties and supporting their families. and we're quite surprised to hear about some of the things that were coming out of this. at the risk of being repeattive, i want to support the comments of the previous two speakers, assuring limited live performance district and

the nct district, i think that would be more appropriatery nct 3, which would allow uses on the first floor and that is one way they are available to solve the problem. to the previous speaker's point, there are a lot of existing conditions that will take a lot of work to manipulate into this plan. and i respect the task that the planning department has ahead of it in making it all work and making it all fit. thank you very much for your time. >> thank you, mr. paul. >> hello. my name is glendon hyde and i am an entertainment commissioner, but i'm here representing myself today. i have here a list of our llps that i want to hand out.

this plan has been in development as along as the entertainment commission has been around and we have seen better relations with neighbors and better understanding on their impact with neighbors. i'm going to concentrate on llps, limited live performances. you can see the orange is the limited live permits. we have offered about 30 of those so far. we have had four complaints and those are not four separate complaints. they were complaints on one place. this permit ends at 10:00 a.m. and as recently as last week we had an art gallery come in and ask for a limited live permit. they close at 10:00 and want somebody to play music while the artists paint and that is not allowed because limited

life is not allowed in much of this except for the folsom street transit. i think with the amount of development coming in, and fact that these end up being very innocuous permits, that work well with the community, i would like to see the businesses be able to use this tool, keep themselves grounded and keep some of soma alive and working through these businesses that mean so much tonight neighbors that will be staying. there supervisor kim, i just wanted to thank your office for giving nightlife a voice, when it was difficult to have it be heard. thank you. >> thank you, commissioner. >> good afternoon supervisors. my name is anderson pugash and city commissioner and founder of crossroads entertainment. my event business has 16,000 followers in the city and i can safely say i speak for many of them that we would like to see

entertainment protected and enhanced in the western soma area. in particular, i would like to see expanded limited live performance permits. i would like to see more entertainment permits in general on folsom street and i'm strongly opposed to the residential approval of the purple building on 11th street. i just think that is unfortunatatly an incompatible use. something like office might be more appropriate and more of a win-win for the community as a whole. and i would just like to say thank you for meeting with nightlife and hearing our concerns. that is it. thank you. >> thank you, mr. pugash. >> hello supervisors. andrew greg working with joseph and christopher harney. i would like to join in congratulating all who worked on the western soma community plan. that shows true dedication for

all who participated for that length of time and as such, i want to apologize for my kind of episodickip involvement. there is a great deal of rhetoric about job creation and housing. right here, right now, in tangible ways, after all it's the street where rubber meets the road. western soma is also part of the greater soma area and eastern neighborhoods that are the engine and epicenter that will drive the city over the next couple of decades. as a result, this plan is not just a neighborhood or district matter, but a plan that has citywide implications. joe and chris are commercial real estate brokers, with offices on mariposa tv they work in the trenches everyday helping businesses move in and

sometimes move out of western soma and other eastern neighborhoods. is that my time? >> you have 30 seconds. >> they are here to share their suggestions with you, given what they see on the ground everyday. thank you. >> thank you, mr. greg. >> good afternoon commissioners. my name is chris harney, i'm with hc & m commercial properties. i started the firm 25 years ago that specialized in specifically south of market and the eastern neighborhoods and helping businesses relocate within the area. a couple quick comments with regards tot plan and i do know there has been a lot of work going into this plan, but i think there might be a few things that should be looked at finessed

before the plan is adopted. one is that sali. i would say sali is comparable to old zoning. how much demand is for uses that are allowed in the sali-proposed zoning? very little demand. the question to ask yourself plast ten years, in this area, has anybody proposed to build a sali building? the answer is probably no. i know every building block-by-block, lot by lot and the current activity. so moving forward, i think we should design the polices and the zoning for the new economy. i think a win-win would be to have a one-to-one replacement in sali. if a project sponsor wants to do a vertical addition, add new space, construction jobs,

transit impact fees? let somebody have more flexibility when they add space. i think furthermore in the eastern neighborhood rezone you won't see job or vertical construction. this is better public transit, the central corridor project and hall of justice rebuild really wants some better zoning. >> thank you, mr. harney. i'm going to call ten more speaker cards seeing that we have one more speaker of the last group. [ reading speakers' names ]

>> some of the red mx new

residential zoning is furnish away from the concourse community just approved and that does not make good land use sense of we want the west soma radmx to work well with the new housing and showplace. and i know radmx is not protecting existing residential uses because many of the proposed sites that are medmx are parking lots and light enough use. pearces with currently uses are zoned along 7th street between -- excuse me, along 7th between th and bluxom to make it more contiguous. thank you for your time. >> thank you.

>> good afternoon. i earn half my income as a piano player and i probably played in every single club, including paradise lounge. i move to that area with the hope i would be closer to the places i play. i think it's important to remember i moved into the neighborhood and knew what the noise would be. it should not be possible for those moving in complaining about the noise that is going on as existing. thank you. >> thank you, mr. wick. thank you for being here. >> supervisors my name is vlad coug, the owner and operator of the butter bar. i wanted to first thank you all for being open and conscientious of entertainment

in san francisco. it's a treasure of the city and something that shouldn't be overlooked or discarded in light of other interests. it should maintain well-orchestrated balance as it has built the neighborhood. in the beginning of the meeting you read the mandate and the mission statement of the western soma task force, when they developed the plan. it seems it's in contradiction to that entire mission statement to put residential in the middle of 11th street and limit the abilities for entertainment along folsom street. even how to the task force has been at it for eight years and done an amazing job, in eight years the economy has changed, but i don't think the task force is able to keep up with the changes when it comes to regard of entertainment.

i think putting residents in the middle of 11th street is like putting a stripclub next to a church and needs to be corrected. thank you. >> thank you. >> good afternoon. hi name james tracy and i'm speaking on behalf of the neighborhood. we are opening up the renee casnaves homes by the bay bridge and we're very, very concerned and actually very excited about moving into a neighborhood that is actually having the dialogue of what it takes to keep a neighborhood complete. we want to congratulate our good friend jim niko and all the hundreds of people that have collaborated on this and have made really hard collaborations. and we're extremely excited and

supportive of the additional support for affordable housing. as we know south of market is one the epicenters of displacement, but it's also an epicenter of opportunity where we have buildings like ours and now the san francisco community land trust has just acquired a building and prevented displacement of long-term residents. so thank you very much for your time and your attention to these. >> thank you, mr. tracy. >> praise the lord, supervisors. i live off 6th and howard. i live at the raymond hotel, which is a senior building. i sat on the board for many years and i felt like i have been lied to, because i have fought for a lot of businesses to come into the south of

market and you were supposed to be building for low-income families and it's going to be a 9-story building and only 54 units will be affordable housing. i asked them if there were discounts for low-income people? i can't afford those burgers, but i voted for them to be there. you guys are not investing in the people. the people. the ground, you know we have some wonderful kids in our neighborhood and every year they have to come in here and fight