we have been in the japanese community and we support all the local performs to showcase their talents. we have comedy show and fashion show and many non-profit groups. even the japanese council just host a perform and they were traen russia and many other countries. they said they were proud to have this venue in japan town. and they have 3 party mixer during the 3 week film festival and said they were happy we're located next to the theatrical.

i want to thank everyone for the sound problems we've had is because we get feedback. so good treatment food and drinks we frequently get guests that could from sun dance. we have received a lot of compliments for our food and drinks. they come for our happy hour and our hawaiian performs and stay around to see whatever the pen town has to offer. many of our customers are happy

that japan town has live venues. i want to thank everyone involved and thank everyone in japan town and the commissioner. i want to tell all my neighbors i'll work with them and i hope weeping we'll be given permission to have anyone business. so i want to say is today on i want to let sun dance citizen ma to know that we want to - >> that's your time thank you. >> thank you. >> i appreciate that. >> thank you. >> opening it up for public

comment. >> i'm not we have any speaker cards. >> yes, we do have speaker nig

they operate some nights until one a.m. a full-blown night club. now we were told by the mr. chang how corporate active hiss

he's been. he figure out tooth and nail for the sound study and finally your staff member told him unless your going doing this the right way you're not going to be here in front of us again. and after we had a hearing here in february you not only get a sound test done but you better go back and work things out with your neighbors. you're going to hear tote he hadn't done that. that brings me to my final remark. in order to grant a conditional use authorization for a full

blown night club operation you have to make forgive active venthd on evidence in the record on several different issues including that this is a necessary and desirable use for the neighborhood and compatible with the neighborhood. there's no such evidence in the record. so putting on my lawyers cap and risk offending you i believe as a matter of law you must deny this application. you will hear from many other people this evening and they'll demonstrate to you, in fact, all the evidence is to the contrary bad for the neighbors and bad for us. thank you. and a thank you >> if you want to come to that side of the room. >> president fong and

commissioner. i'm bob of the japan town task force. i'm here to urge you to deny the conditional use. j.t. f p had previously supported the need for a gathering place with the understanding that this would be a restaurants offering cultural entertainment but we request the use be denied. the task force considers a good policy by cooperating with the neighborhood. this has been a new as an to the other businesses by repeating the noise. in addition i have a letter this

that ail submit similarly requesting the denial. and a businesswoman and this wh

havingse violations since that last hearing even when they said they were going to comply. even when they say they're going to do it they end up not doing it. the whole issue of changing from hawaiian music entertainment do not fit next to a movie theatre. a movie theatre needs a quiet environment.

all the different non-profit boards and, in fact, their staff services on the japan center garage board of supervisors and they make they site for community events and receptions. this has been a real hardship and we you're going to you deny

this c u authorization. thank you >> good afternoon, commissioners president fong arrest i'm the vice president of marketing for sun dance. we're immediately next door to the lodge. in fact, we share wauldz with the lodge. this is the third time i've been here to talk about their blatant disregard for our commission and police department. 7 years ago we did a very

expensive project. the sun dance has been recognized as a cool landmark in san francisco. we're part of the framework and we host many events like the cheri festival the san francisco international film festival. sealed what the lodge is doing and proposes to do should they get the permit threaten the sun dance survival. we had a terrible noise issue with them in the past they came over at the 10:30 because the

abandon wanted to keep the music going doctor the merchants association and the merchants society they all site our importance to the city and at the indicate that the excess annoys is twool too much. we tried to mitigate the sound usage and they refuse to stop playing past 10:30. unfortunately we've had to contact the police department numerous times and that caused us to have to give refunds to our guests. we strongly urge the commission to not give them the permit which allows them to play past

10:00 p.m. we thank you for considering this month serious issue >> president fong and commissioners. i'm the national japanese director i'm also think the board of the task force. we serve for the day of remembrance program. for this event brings many folks to the site. and on several occasions i've been involved in the public programs. we work close with the sun

dance. this

business. thank you >> any additional speakers? >> thank you honorable commissioners i'm martin i'm the lawyer representing the sun dance. i'm here to say i'm against this because they shouldn't be allowed to play music that is so loud so late. i want to say first, the problems with this lodge is many. the police department has sited the lodge three or four times in

the last several months. in fact, there's been a very disturbing pattern he every time we have a hearing a day or two later we have a repeated serious problem. their violating the noise you ordinance and they had one event since the last time they were offering free acholic beverages. my point is this lodge is a problem now for the acholic beverage control and for their you neighbors why do we think they'll on behalf of better >> the staff report it was submitted is based on at least one incorrect premise.

it indicates in item 5 this is no known opposition to this this is entirely wrong. there's very serious objection from the leaders of the japanese community and the theater. the project meets none of the planning use permits. i don't have time in my brief moments here to hit them all but this is simply not compatible. on item 3 it applies that all the lodge is playing is hawaiian music it's not correct it's heavy i didn't metal music.

that is not compatible with the neighborhood. the final point is a new condition as proposed based on the report that condition would not be adequate to address the problems we're encountering. i'd be happy to baeblt of elaborate on that. >> thank you long time participate in the japanese-american community. my certain is that the sun dance cinemas which have continued the music to allow to have the treat

threat to support activities and to see this particular situation that the economical rests upon the attendance at those theaters. many folks have lunch before and after if the cinemas close it is unquestionable what will happen in the neighborhood. is there any additional comment? seeing none, none public comment is closed >> i have comments about the accommodates in opposition to this. it seems to point to a pattern

we've fried to avoid and trying to offer additional time for the project sponsor and the adjacent businesses to try to work things out. i know that the report sound insulation and other things that were done to try to mitigate the noise. and staff can you - i'm sorry - the moving of the stage and all the activity can you tell me when this took place? >> it was after the sound tests. >> was it after the festival?

>> yes. it was. >> is there someone from the affirm3

>> and if we drop to the next line and read across it's 88 38, 35 and 67. so, is there -- my question is, is there that much -- i don't understand how one -- going

from 36 to 35 suddenly goes from objectionable to not objectionable. is there that much of a difference between those two levels of dba? >> sure. well, first of all i'll introduce myself, peter [speaker not understood] with [speaker not understood] & associates. and it's sort of the limitation of using dba and dbc as metrics. it doesn't necessarily fully qualify the character of the sound. so that while the numerical difference between those two conditions is slight to nil for the dbc, the character of the noise perceived in the theater -- and that was with both myself and a representative from kabuki present -- i'm sorry, from sun dance present, that came to be that threshold about objectiveness between the two source noise levels in the lounge next door. >> okay. because those numbers, 35 and 36, are close to the ambient

noise level that already exists. correct. >> which is in table 1. correct. >> and i guess that would be the same reasoning behind under live music in theater 2, you also have objectionable and two numbers, 35 and 66, and not objectionable as the same number, 35, and actually the dbc number is higher. but you're saying that the recording doesn't reflect the kind of differences in the quality of the music or the -- not the decibels, but the frequency of sound being played either high, low, or drums, or base or whatever. right, it doesn't necessarily get pickedvv up by the dba or dbc metrics but it does by the human ear. >> okay. and according to the executive summary, then, you have recommended that record at 38 and live at 84 on the plan

allowed site in term of the level of sound that needs to be limited -- those two levels. those levels were determined by the subjective response of the sun dance representative. >> all right, thank you. >> i'm sorry to get technical, but ways just trying to understand how we were using objectionable and not objectionable and the numbers were a little bit -- not too far apart. but it just then raises the issue, i think, of how much control there is of the music levels and how that can be attained. now, i know that in past cases that we've seen, perhaps even at the board of appeals, there are instances of music being limited to particular decibel levels by requiring the sound equipment to go through a limiter. and that's mentioned in here,

too. the issue that i have is how is it, then -- i mean, who controls the limiter? does the entertainment commission -- i mean, we have a limiter box in planning allowance. they have to run their sound equipment through it. they limit it to 83 decibels, but then what's to prevent that from being changed? i thought in the last the limiters were controlled by the entertainment commission. i don't know. maybe that's a misconception of mine, but i thought it was something that the entertainment commission came and calibrated and then got locked, or something where the proprietor couldn't change what the limiter was limiting -- limiter was limiting. you know, do you understand? >> i don't know the answer to that question. i did speak with director grinelli before the hearing and i shared with him our added

condition for the maximum sound level and also the use of the limiter and the alert. he said that in the place of entertainment permit that would be issued if this is approved, that they could add that condition as well, have those two conditions aligned. >> okay. >> [speaker not understood]. >> if you do, do it in two sentences. from the last hearing the picture when we had the shield, once we pre-set the limiter to whatever you guys suggest, we'll put it there, put it 89, we put that sound shield also over that so nobody could touch it [speaker not understood] up and down because it's screwed. we would not take that off. [speaker not understood]. again, [speaker not understood] just for safety and back up. thank you. >> thank you, sir. i guess if it isn't within the control of the city, i'm having some issues with it. just given the history of this thing, i'm not inclined to

support the cu. and it's telling also to me that organizations that formerly supported the lounge, including the task force and i believe the merchants association also supported it in the beginning, but through the series of hearings and time that's passed, it seems those two groups -- doesn't seem like. the two groups have taken another attitude toward the conditional use permit. so, i'm inclined not to issue it, but other commissioners can weigh in. >> commissioner borden. >> yes, this is a cumulative case. it is a locally owned business we want to support and encourage. i've been inside the lounge a year ago. it's a nice space. it was very well done. i've obviously been to the kabuki theater a few times and think it's a great resource as well. although i don't know what kind

of soundproofing kabuki does have because i believe there is soundproofing between the theaters there. obviously if you were there first it doesn't really matter as much if you had the soundproofing or not. i do find it really frustrating because we did instruct the project sponsor to do certain things which [speaker not understood] has done, but it's really regrettable that yet another violation happened after our last hearing and it's hard to -- it is hard to, you know, support someone when there is continually bad actions taking place. i don't have anything of record for the may 8th violation. we've heard that there was an issue of may 8th. that would be concerning because we've had the soundproofing happened in april and then now we have another violation. maybe somebody can produce the violation if there is some documentation for it, but the project sponsor did do th