positive and eliminating union as a construction site is positive, butume not sure that the whole approach is appropriate planning approach for the city to take. we're moving the machines in north beach is really not economically efficient and i think there was a lot of commentary on that that you have seen. the tunnel-boring machinery is just a ruse to use funds to extend the subway beyond its federally -- it's otherwise federally-funded boundaries. the november, 2008 federal document approving this explicitly lists a temporary tunnel for the extraction of the tunnel-boring machines and thus if there are no tunnel-boring machines there

will be no tunneling into north beach. however, the city wants to tunnel into northern beach to get a start on the subway that will extend further. this is fine if it would properly plan. i am aware there has been no proper planning on the extension of the subway beyond chinatown, no community meetings on what path it should take and how it would be used. we are starting to build for a future subway without the careful study and approval of what we are going to do. we need a plan before we start digging. so i suggest that somehow we take another look. your job as the planning commission is to take another look at the longer term plan here and ask do we really know what we're doing for long-term subway construction? >> thank you, next speaker. >> good afternoon, my name is

lance kinds and i'm a resident of north beach and in a recent op ad in the new york times -- won't stay dead because it serves a political purpose, appeals to prejudices or both. krugman was referring to the ideas in washington on how to restore the economy that are provable wrong, but still trotted out regularly as being the way to proceed. in san francisco we have our own central subway zombie idea. if we bore two tunnels past the last station the subway gods will look favorably on this and some day award us with an extension to northern beach and francis fisherman's wharf. a

total of $80 to 90 million are needed to keep this idea alive. there may be more time and funds required in the near future. businesses adjacent to the pagoda will need to be compensated for losses and there is a strong likelihood there would be serious problems caused by water flows under the pagoda site as pointed out in the repeat geotechnical report by mr. carp. where will mta get the additional $5-10 million or more to resolve these problems? an earlier central subway plan had a reasonable idea. bury or extract the tbms at the chinatown station site. i encourage the city and mta to revert to thechinatown extraction reasonable idea and let the northern beach tunnels

zombie idea finally die. thank you. >> next speaker. before the next speaker speaks i would like to call up the following individuals. [ reading speakers' names ] those are all the cards i have, so if you wish to speak, you can line up, please. next speaker. >> good afternoon. brett gladstone speaking for the project sponsor. for about 15 years i have worked on development at this site. this is the first project that i worked on for the current owner, but in the past developers have tried to keep the theater even passing legislation at your board to create a dinner theater second

story restaurant, which wasn't allowed by code. so i'm particularly pleased to be here today after 15 years with what i think is the best possible project. in 2009 i presented this project to the planning commission and as you know it received approval. the project that is made possible by this legislation is the same project. after the approval in 2009, my client had fully intended to go forward and build it, but as you know the recession that started to hit badly at the end of the 2008 made financing and equity impossible. as he started to put the financing together to start again late last year, the city came and asked to borrow the site and obviously a majority of the neighborhood wants it and my client feels it's good for the neighborhood and as along as the site is delivered back within the next two years, the project will go forward. so i'm very pleased to say that the project sponsor is here in

favor and i ask that you go ahead and vote for this. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker. >> hello my name is ann ross. i am here to the special use district for this project. it is not a win-win situation for north beach. north beach has nothing to gain from this. it is simply a place to dump all the debris from this subway project in chinatown in northern beach. this is not been a good thing for the chinatown community versus the north beach community. we're not really happy about this. the change of location does not in any way reduce the construction impacts to the neighborhood. it moves them just to the other side of columbus. this pagoda property faces columbus, so the disruption to

traffic is inevitable and the dirt and all the other things are still there. it's not a handful of people that are opposed to it as supervisor chiu said. in all the meetings i have been to, a majority have been opposed to. one official at the community meeting was cut short by a fire alarm. it's been very frustrating to the people attending that meeting that we were not allowed to ask questions. the likelihood of a north beach stop is next to nil. the agreement with the owner does not allow for a station at that site, i understand. i would also like to dispute the idea that they keep saying it will be a 50' height limit on the project. it's supposed to be based on the conditions of the original permit, which limited the building to the existing building envelope only part of which was 50' high. i worry about the loss of that particular specific wording in all of these documents and i brought this to the attention

of mr. chiu's office and justin true at the time argued that the surrounding buildings were 50' height. that is simply not true. if anybody goes down there and justin never paid a height visit. >> thank you. next speaker. >> my name is mark brun [kwro-erbgs/] a long-term resident of north beach and head of the group save north beach, which includes3 2 businesses now that have joined in opposition to extraction at the pagoda palace. this is a letter from lorenzo petroni and other businesses have signed as well. please note that save north beach and north beach restaurant are opposed to the neighborhood as a site for the

tunnel-boring machines. we have been offered carrot, that it will result in a new site. there is nothing in the lease with the pagoda palace that assures that the city follow through with this respect. we strongly disagree with the extraction of the pagoda as well. there is no benefit tonight for the neighborhood or the city while potentially condemning the ones alongside it. our understanding is that the reward to the abandoned property will be nearly $3 million. the property that the city is subsidizing has been vacant for 30 years. we believe this is unfair, hurtful to the neighborhood and

will result in a potential loss of jobs. finally it's important note when asked about why the tbms are not left in the ground, the director reed it's based on contracts. we believe that the city is not a business, nor should be one competing with profit margins against existing businesses. thank you. >> i have called a number of other names that i don't think have yet stepped up to the podium, but the only card i have is for lori thomas. so if anyone wishes to speak on this item, please step up at this time. miss thomas. >> if i could just ask, if there is anyone who wishes to speak, if they could line up along the side, so we could flow from one speaker to the next, thank you. >> good afternoon, and thank you for listening to all of us.

i'm lori thomas, the owner at 532 columbus, which is right on the block before columbus and union. i just wanted to reiterate what i have already told a lot of folks here and director reiskin, which is this is a difficult situation and i think the pagoda palace is the best alternative, as well as i can understand to minimize the disruption in north beach. during the period full time from august to the end of, nor when we had the utility work going forward, our monday to friday lunch sales dropped 25%. i would recommend that the city and mta consider some sort of rent credit for the co-located businesses, certainly on that specific block, perhaps. because it's hard to project

all of the influences that affect drops in revenue; right? so i do want to say that i appreciate all the work that everybody has done to try to come up with a solution and if we have to bring the devices up in north beach, i think the pagoda theater offers the best alternative that i am aware of right now. but i do want to speak as a business owner and recognize that i'm not asking for it for myself, but certainly for those businesses next to the site where there will be more disruption. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker. >> good afternoon. my name is dori hajjin and i own the restaurant adjacent to pagoda theater. we have been in business for eight years, and since 2005, in and around washington square, most of the businesses have come and gone, at least three times. and we have been there, we have

struggled, and we are a very successful business. we support 18 families. this project is going to hurt us immensely, very much. i am not sure if i am going to be able to stay in business after two years or three years. this project the building was supposed to be condominiums that would take a year, year and a half and on top of that, we have all of this extraction. i have talked to city officials and i have asked them for help, information and lots of other things and i haven't had any help or information given to me to help me cope with this whole project. so i am against this

whole thing. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. i am brian hirsch, structural engineer, resident and business owner in north beach as a consulting firm. quite frankly, i think the overall subway planning has been poor from the very start. having said that, it looks like it's going to go ahead anyway and if it's going to go ahead, do it right. it's going to get to north beach eventually and perhaps even to fisherman's wharf. if so, do it now and extract at the pagoda theater, not bury it in chinatown at some cost. because in the future, it will be extended. and it will benefit the city to have a complete transit system rather than just a partial one. it would be absurd to stop it

at chinatown and burry bury it there. that does no good. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> supervisors my name is julie christinsen and i'm in favor of the proposatch my favorite line is the adage we use about planting trees. it's never easy, but for our part of the city it needs to be done. i think a lot of the people here really want to talk about whether there should about a subway or not. you think we're a little past that discussion. what i want to talk about is that the north beach station. we're apparently not ready for that discussion. so we have sort of a cold war issue in front of you, the battleground of the moment. i think leaving the tbms in

the ground is not economical and not very san franciscan. i have gone to community meetings where dozens of merchants have said their businesses are going to be completely ruined by extraction at columbus and union. this is an alternative that i think serves our commercial district. the dem othis proposal preserves the tunnel from chinatown to north beach and we don't have to give money back to the federal government. that is it. >> thank you. let me ask are there any members of the public that wish to comment on this item? seeing none, mr. chair that is the end of public comment. [ gavel ]

public comment is closed. president chiu. >> mr. chair i'm hope something city staffers can answer questions raised during public comment. the first question is what was raised by the attorney for save muni. i wanted to ask the city attorney's office if he could respond to why you think that that is not appropriately in front of this board? >> >> john givner, deputy city attorney. as the speaker mentioned our office issued a public memo last friday, explaining that the board could not hear the appeal of the planning department's determination to issue an addendum of the final eir for this project. the board has the authority to consider appeals of certain types of ceqa documents. neither ceqa, nor any local law provides the board the

authority to hear appeals of issuances of eir addenda. >> thank you. >> and then if i could ask mr. guy from planning. there was a suggestion by one public commenter that somehow the height related to this sud was going to be significantly taller than other height as round it. could you clarify the height situation in that neighborhood? >> >> you know buildings in north beach range in size, but there is certainly quite a number of buildings that do exceed the zone 40' height limit which exist. the sud legislation includes language to limit height not

only the top roof height, but the roof profile of the existing building. the existing building has flat roof feature, perpets and quire prior to demolition that it be surveyed and that new construction cannot exceed the volume envelope of the existing roof height. similar language is also included as a condition of approval by the planning commission for the conditional use authorization for the new construction of the pagoda theater. >> thank you. and then i have a number of questions for the project sponsor and the sfmta. actually mr. fongi, i hope you might be able to answer some of them. the contention has been raised that the tunnel-boring machine should be left in chinatown underground and i'm wondering if you could address what has often been raised with that particular contention. >> chairman wiener, supervisor

john fongi. the concept of actually leaving the machines in the ground were analyzed early on in 2006 and incorporated as part of the original environmental analysis. it was called alternative 3a that was rejected as part of the original environmental analysis and that being said, that option was looked at at the end of last year, and brought to our policy board to reconsider that option. and that option was not selected. >> the soil conditions have been thoroughly analyzed and similar to the soil conditions that we're facing along the corridor, that is currently

under construction. the sfmta is employing tried and trued engineering construction techniques that are currently being performed along the alignment and currently being performed successfully by the sfmta. we have a deeper shaft currently under construction on 4th street, employing similar techniques, which is basically utilizing deep secant piles that create a water- tight curtain barrier with bracing that has no effect on the adjacent properties. >> one the public commenters suggest there had was only one public community meeting on this topic. i believe i have attended least five or six and i wonder from your perspective if you could talk about sfmta's outreach and the engagement you had with the community since last may. >> i have lost count in the number of evenings that we have

spent, but i believe they are in the neighborhood of ten meetings that we have conducted with various constituents in the north beach community. we have had targeted meetings where we have met with the property owners and we have had targeted meetings with the entire community and we have had targeted meetings with the businesses, all centered around getting feedback off and on what the concerns are and how we can mitigate those concerns. >> in today's examiner there was an article regarding a restaurant and from my perspective, this compares with the many business owners that have raised concerns with the prior project and if i could just quote from the examiner, "the proposal had a we're looking at today was chosens a prefer alternative by the

northern beach business association after the original plan was met with intense opposition from merchants." and quoting the president of the business association, "we had to take the position this would be the best for the major of merchants. columbus avenue would have a severely negative impact on businesses. the pagoda site has less of an effect on the neighborhood as a whole." that being said i think we're all concerned about every business and i wonder if you could talk from your agency's standpoint what you could could to help the specific adjacent property owners in and around the pagoda site. >> we are looking at doing everything possible in order to mitigate the business concerns on the properties adjacented to the proposed construction site. i would like too add that the work would have occurred with the construction of the condominium development. so the first activity would be for the demolition of the existing

building; which we're planning hopefully to start in april. and that work is snag would have -- a version of that same work would have occurred irregardless whether we we demoed the building or versus the property owner demoing the building. in terms of construction equipment and techniques that we're employing, they are rotary equipment, hydraulic equipment designed to minimize vibration to the adjacent structures and we'll be complying with the city's noise and dust vibration ordinances, where we'll do everything necessary to stay underneath the levels that is required by the city building code. so we will work very closely with dario and work with him throughout the process to minimize his disruption. >> thank you and are there any

other comments that you want to respond to that you had heard during the public comment that you think need further explanation? >> just one. in terms of the overall duration of the proposed tunnel-boring machine retrievalshafts, i believe i heard testimony it was a four-year construction effort. we're leasing the property for approximately two years, where there will be about a one-year construction effort off an on, but the actual duration of the tunnel-boring machine retrieval shaft and the removal of the tunnel-boring machines when you add that time together would be about close to a year of construction effort. >> thank you. colleagues unless there are any other questions, at this time i would like to ask if this committee could move forward this item with full recommendation? when this issue first arose early last

summer, early spring it was one that i had an awful lot of issues with. the original proposal would have been incredibly disruptive to the community and with a lot of debate and discussion, this pagoda theater option as i described before really solves a lot of problems for the community. and i want to thank the many merchants and residents who understood that rather than the disruption that would have been created by the original plan, we're going to have less disruption and construction plans always have a little bit of disruption and we'll continue to work to make sure that the adjacent property owners and their businesses disruption is minimized. with that being said, we're moving forward with the plan that is far less disruptive and will get rid of a 15-year

eyesore and leave it with future options for north beach and if we want so or not more forward with the option. we were asked to pursue other options including the pagoda theater option and last summer i told folks i was not sure we would get to where we are today. well, we have gotten here and i hope folks understand that we move forward and this is the best option for the neighborhood and the city at this time and ask for colleagues for your support. >> i will interpret that as a motion for suppositive. >> i am excited that this compromise is able to move forward. i know there are concerns in

the neighborhood. having represented a distribute where we're currently undergoing the construction and the work to build the central subway, i can say in the long-term, i think our neighborhood is just going to incredibly benefit from this public transit infrastructure and from connecting to the larger city. i think as we talk about bayview to the ballpark and caltrain to union square and chinatown it will be exciting to have north beach as part of that line as well. and also connect north beach to many of these important areas to the city. thank you president chiu for your work and happy to support this. >> thank you, supervisor kim. i will be supporting this motion as well. one of the major challenges that we have with public transportation in the city is lack of good north-south connections. and it's a real problem when you look at just getting to

north beach to chinatown, and points north. it's a real challenge and we have some bus lines that are very overcrowded, and very narrow streets that are already crowded. so the central subway, despite some of the criticism of the project as a whole, as being somehow unnecessary, i don't agree with that fundamentally. it's very important for the future of transportation in the city and i do hope at some point it gets extended further north and i think it will become more and more of a great transit asset for the city. you know, and in terms of this specific issue, if you ever want to be really depressed, go back about to the 1950's and look at the proposed map of bart. and where bart was supposed to go