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 back when it was a little bit easier to build these kinds of systems. we didn't get there was marin

and san mateo counties were able to opt out. so when we have opportunities to potentially expand systems we should take advantage of those efficiencies and make it happen. obviously this is not as large as the bart system, but it is a good opportunity for us as a city. in terms of the opposition, you have some folks who oppose the project as a whole. i totally respect that opposition. people are entitled to that view, but i think it's important, if you oppose a project just to say that you oppose the project instead of sometimes coming up with reasons to oppose a particular aspects of it. just say you aoppose the project that. is legitimate. i happen to disagree, but i think it's important for folks to say where they are coming from. i am sympathetic to the businesses that will be

impacted and every time we do major infrastructure work that in the long run will be hugely beneficial for the city or a neighborhood, sometimes there is disruption and we try to mine minimize that and do everything that we can to minimize the disruption. i believe this plan compared to other proposals does. >> it's using muni funds for expanding muni and improving transit service. and i would encourage the folks who have sent in those letters, i and others have been fighting some pretty big battles recently to actually try to stop muni funds from being

diverted to non-transit uses. we did this around our fight around the transit impact development fee and some other fights as well, where transit money is diverted to completely non-transit uses. so for the groups and the people that wrote letters decrying the diversion of muni funds, i hope you will stand us in the future when we're actually fighting against diversion of muni funds. this is not a diversion, but a good use of transit funding. so i will be supporting the motion. colleagues, if there is no other comment, can we take that motion without objection? that will be the order. [ gavel ] . madame clerk, will you please call items3-6. >> items 3, 4, 5 and [#r-6/] [tphao-urbs/]s amending the general plan, planning code, zoning map and administrative code to add and implement the western south of market plan. >> thank you. and supervisor kim is the sponsor of these measures.

supervisor. >> thank you. first of all, i recognize many members of our community here today and i just want to thank you for coming out on a monday afternoon to talk about a plan that has been eight years in the making. it is so exciting to finally be here. since i entered office two years ago we have been talking about west soma plan and we're coming in at the tail-end of. it this plan began in 2004 and went through an incredibly extensive community process, which you will hear more about from the chair and vice-chair. i'm really excited this is happening. again, eight-plus years, dozens of community meetings and we do have jim nicko and toby, the chair and vice-chair to present on the plan and i want to give a particular thanks to them for their tenaciousness for working on this and making sure it became a reality and i want to recognize many other folks including members of entertainment. i know we have two

commissioners steven lee, glendon hyde that have been working on this plan with terrance allen and the community, many members of the public and our planning department. i first want to recognize paul lord, who is not here with us today, but was integral in the process to come forward with this final plan and of course seeing it through fruition we have cory teague, who will be presenting for the planning department. he has been making sure we can tie up all the loose ends. many other departments were also invashon island, dph, mta, mayor's office on housing, mayor's office on workforce development and one of our non-profits, asian neighborhood design, fernando marquee, who had spent many years early on in the plan bringing this forward. for those who are less familiar with this plan, i thought i would just read its value

statement the western south of market task force shall maintain and enhance rather than destroy today's living historic and sustainable neighborhood character of social, cultural and economic diversity, while integrating appropriate land use, transportation and the design opportunities into equitable, evolving and complete neighborhoods. this plan was really in response to a need for comprehensive planning to build a complete and diverse neighborhood, to address your shifting population, social stability, conflict between many conflict uses in south of market, while protecting against displacement of existing small businesses and residents, while also welcoming smart, new development, which enhances this neighborhood and its need. it's of course a very delicate balance had a we're putting forward in the plan and i'm sure folks will have many different opinions, but we had to really balance upon the neighborhood, the residential that is growing in western soma.

along with office, pdr, entertainment, while also recognizing historic communities that have called some of their home, including the filipino and lgbt community. we have a lot of work put 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 an