-- >> you are talking about the alcove in the egress stores. >> yeah. that it doesn't become a nuisance for people. >> it's definitely our concern and the goal is to activate the alley and we'll to have light that area and think how to properly design to make sure it's not a nuisance. >> okay. thank you. >> commissioner moore? i think the project is an interesting design. it's more variety. i couldn't be more pleased to see the affordable units on site. i know that was an issue a few week ago of getting the update a week or so ago that this has been resolved. it looks very

comfortable to me. it's much thought about parking ratios, all things that i consider positive. i do take issue that this is not an architectural design review committee, this commission cannot and be judging on architectural design, i think we should refrain ourselves from trying to be too detailed oefrnd oriented with the details. >> i have no pro be with the architecture. i really appreciate the packet is complete. i do think that these are going to be very beautiful

units. they are going to -- not going to be very expensive. with all the construction happening in the city right now, the viability of all these older and small businesses is important. ask the contractor to be sure to keep clear pedestrian pathways and have signage and do whatever we can to help some of these long businesses intact through construction. >> i will make a motion to approve with conditions. >> second. >> on that motion to approve with conditions, commissioner antonini, aye, borden aye, moore, aye, fong, wu. that motion passes unanimously 6-0. zoning administrator what say

you? >> if anybody would like a copy of the letter, please ask staff. thank you. >> commissioners if there is nothing further on this item we can move on to item 15. case number 20130266 c. 2224 union street. >> good afternoon. the project before you request authorization to establish a new formula retail use. the subject property is located on the ground floor of the mixed use building. the department is recommending approval of this project. the site is currently occupied by another retail use that houses an, antique collective. the proposed changes will not result in the

expansion beyond the space. the retailer specialize in cook ware products and approximately 100 locations nationwide. the department finds the proposed use and find it in the over all ncd and there is not another cook ware store in the area. compatible with the neighborhood and modifications are very minimal. based on the sponsors information there are currently 13 vacancies with the the ncd which none are comparable to the size. one letter of opposition and one phone call and six letters of

support. i have a copy of those additional comments here. this concludes my presentation. i'm happy to answer any questions. thank you. >> project sponsor, please. good afternoon, president fong and members of the planning commission. my name is bonnie, a director at sur l.a. tables . i'm joined by my architect and district manager for northern california cal who will be over seeing this particular location who also happens to live on russian hill and is within walking distance

of this location. if you aren't familiar with sur l.a. table we offer a wide variety of cook ware. we offer a robust offering of process from the everyday to hard to find and even the unexpected. more often than not, those that come to our store looking for a product that they can't find elsewhere. our staff is informed and dedicated and will pass along a great recipe. we look forward to hiring up to 30 new team members in a variety of full and part-time positions. sur l.a. table will also offer

management roles. in terms of architectural elements of this project, the exterior facade will not be changed. it will simply receive a fresh coat of paint. new awnings will replace those existing. it was important for us to keep the flavor of the existing facade and not make any changes to the personality of the building. in a retail area, a new shelf will be created for delay. we'll present cooking classes with a local shelf. in these classes the residential chef will offer anything from technique to

original cuisine. allowing those to be passing by to get a view of the actions. however, the kitchen's ambiance and over all personality will function as a kitchen. it's no way a full scale restaurant. the exhaust hood will be located on the roof and any noise will be located by the commercial hood. as part of being a consider the neighbor, sur los angeles table will be available to the neighborhood. throughout the duration of construction, sur l.a. table will be able to

provide information to neighbors if any concerns arise. as you can imagine this became an area for providing good food and entertaining. sur l.a. table will be able to serve many facets to this community. this will be just a third location in san francisco and the only one offering cooking clauses. we believe the store will bring quite a draw. in come to this community, we hope to highlight the neighborhoods vibrant scene. during the course of our outreach effort. we are pleased with the amount of local support from the neighbors. our commercial neighbors have expressed strong support to

attract positive attention to this community. we have 85 cards and letters to this pro -- project which i present to you today. much like our presence in the ferry building, we hope to attract new customers from both areas and the city as a whole. in closing, we are strongly committed to being good neighbors and believe our presence will help businesses of our commercial neighbors while providing convenience to our neighbors. thank you for your time and consideration and hope you will support our efforts to bring sur l.a. table to this area and approve our use permit. >> thank you. open up now to public comment. sam black. richard . joe murdock and terry

ram ba. >> hello. my name is sam black. i have lived and worked here for over 20 years. i'm here to protest the sur l.a. table. it's not needed on this street. half of our stores are stocked with merchandise from gourmet. this area is with unique and small businesses. once you let a chain storen, in, part of the heart and soul will go away. first them come in with house wares and jewelry. if a

san francisco retail needs to fill a vacancy would have an independent store. not a big box store that will drive a way the locals. i know you don't help a business that helped building the area for a hundred years. they promised to meet with me with our coexisting with our store being with the proposed location. i'm concerned that this is a beginning of a terrible relationship where big business trumps little business. i believe it will open the flood gates for big box retail. we want this to be main street san

francisco. not main street u.s.a. >> next speaker? >> thank you president fong and commissioners, i'm raymond, manager of sur l.a. table for the last eight years. i hope you let us come to the table at union street. we offer a unique shopping experience in our stores. we have cooking demos, product testing before you buy. we do recommendations for staff and soeshths and associates and customers in our stores. we welcome all to our table from sur l.a. table to cook for the professional chef, homemaker, we are open to all. we welcome everyone and even though we are as one say we are a large

company, we feel we are very family oriented, we have a small staff and we have a great working relationship. i hope you let us come into union street and be a member of that family. i welcome you all to our table and we hope you will welcome us. >> thank you. next, speaker, please. >> good afternoon, president fong, commissioners, my name is john murdock. i'm a shipping receiver at the ferry building. i'm a foodie. obviously everyday all day i love to talk about food and cooking and whether it cooks who work in the ferry billion, -- building, around the city. it's

just a wonderful experience working there especially with the proposed building. with the cooking classes. i can't tell you how powerful that is and how much it's going to make a difference. thank you so much. >> good afternoon commissioners, my name is marco williams, i'm a veteran of the union street commercial district for 29 years. having done a lot of projects on union street and a lot of reports for you. i would like to report that by the way, the union street association asked me to be here on their behalf. i have done a consensus study recently on the relationship of formula retail use to small businesses in close proximity. it seem on union street most of the

merchants there, the consensus is that we have an appropriate mix of formula retail use and it works for us and they don't feel like they want to have too many but it has an appropriate mix. this is why the approval of the union street is happening and they went out to express their support or opposition or new opinion and unsdrieded undecided as well. the vote came in favor of sur l.a. table. i would ask you to approve this project. some businesses have asked you about moving across the street from them and having retail operations with similar products. it would seem business owner would not be afraid of having a formula retail use, they just want it

to be compatible with the neighborhood. although we are a respective member of the board, we don't see frederick sons being compromised by this operation. we feel like there is enough room there for everybody. once again the consensus study that i did on formula retail use, made very important points to the merchant community about whether or not it hurts you, helps you, does it work for you, if not, i want to know. so far everything i have gotten has indicated that formula retail use and in close proximity is helpful, brings foot traffic. appropriately and that particular location down that, they can use a lil help. thank you very much.

>> good afternoon commissioners. my name is richard garcia . i just want to support sur l.a. table. i began as a stock associate to a sales lead and now working managing the san francisco sales store in the western mall. some things that i love working for sur l.a. table is we find the cooks find things that they need for their kitchens. if i'm helping a chef that she really needs this carbon steel knife, that she's having trouble finding elsewhere, i can help her. we are here to support. another thing that i really

enjoy sur l.a. table, it's a foodie community. we are getting the customers excited about the farmers market. checkout this new pan and bringing all this to the community. thank you for your time. >> thank you president fong. i have a jewelry street at 1909 union. i'm here to give my full support to sur l.a. table. arm annie. ralph lauren, having sur

l.a. table is not going to raise our rents because they can't go any higher. i have been on the board of the association, when we opened in 1976 there were 2 jewelry stores on the street. there are now 15. competition is very good. it keeps us all alert and on our game and we help each other out. if i don't have something, i don't carry watches. i refer them to another store. this makes the community work. this is what we need on union street. if any of you have been on union street, there are about 15 empty stores. it hurts. the theatre is being constructed. i have long time customers who come in and say, this is sad, what's

happening to union street? what's happening is we've lost a lot of people since 2008. we need to get people back. a formula store is needed right now. they are creating jobs. this will create more lunch space on the streets for restaurants to survive. i strongly hope that you will consider having sur l.a. table as a store on our street. >> thank you, any additional public comment? >> seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioner antonini. >> i'm in favor of this proposal, speak to a few issues presented and very much like frederick sons, i go there frequently. it's a hardware store. they have a paint

section and we have an area for their paints and they have some house wares too. the shoppers that go into fredericks will be different people and traditionally the customers looking for specialty items and those people will specifically go to a sur l.a. table and they will go to another one in the city who will drive out in san francisco. i think you have heard from the merchants and heard from a number of people who want the foot traffic and i will say particularly in that union street they are dead because a lot of times people will head down that way and towards chestnut but they don't get to that last commercial block between fillmore and

steiner. this will bring more traffic. this is going to be a good addition to the street. it's going to bring more business and it's going to be synergic with some of the restaurants that depend on a lot of foot traffic. this will bring a lot of people in because the other locations, the ferry and mall like settings which means somebody has to walk into inside to see the sur l.a. table. anybody going down union street walking see's it and didn't even know there was one in the city. i think it's a good project. >> commissioner borden? >> yeah. i used to live in this neighborhood, i know it pretty well. the other formula retails along the street has shut down.

the sur l.a. table seems like a real fit for the neighborhood. it interesting, chestnut street has balances and retail like william -- sonoma, i think this will be beneficial. i do love frederick sons. i spent many hours buying large and small things. i don't think there is a threat. frederick sons is primarily a hard ware and home improvement store. i believe with the entire merchants thought they can support sur

l.a. table. i move to approve with conditions. >> i had a couple of comments. i'm supportive of it as well. i don't think union street suffers from over saturation of formula retail. we want to give the small guys a chance first. this is a large location. the other thing i want to note is that this is a very far west end of union street. so like a mall having two anchor tenants at each end that will drive traffic aborted. -- back and forth. i'm in support of the motion.

>> commissioner antonini, borden, sugaya, wu, fong. that motion passes unanimously 6-0. >> commissioners are you okay for continuing or you want to take a break here? >> take a break. we have two more. commissioner that will place you on item 16. case no 20120397. >> good afternoon. sharon young department staff. the item before you is the proposal to legalize commercial use authorized by retail store to restaurant use doing business

at 205 frederick street with anrh 3 zoning district and neighborhood commercial district. the proposal includes a system with a kitchen hood exhaust system and new dining service counter. the proposal of the restaurant use will include the food preparation during business hours when establishment is in operation. the properties commercial use is considered to be a limited use pursuant to planning code section 186. the report for discretionary view for 210 frederick street. the dr request or primary concern is that it does not meet the

market based on the commercial space which requires use authorization. to legalize the use size limits and is considered specification of non-conforming use. there is not a permit of the delli use and helps code violation in sufficient waiting areas. it will provide to dr requester and presentation. according to the record, the former authorized use at 205 frederick street, as the market as a limited commercial non-conforming use with rh 3

zoning district. the subject lot is within a quarter mile of hayes street. the commercial controls, also apply to subject property. within the rh 3 zone is district, the operation of limited commercial non-conforming use should be between the period of the planning code. >> normal days and hours of service, 5 days a week, a minimum of two meal services should be provided during each business day. a catering

establishment is used as a commissary and the neighborhood district. it's not conforming use of the 1994 planning code section 191. in addition planning for the provision with the the hayes street because those revisions for use at that time. the controls were added in 1987 and required for change of use was added in 2000. as far as issues of consideration the health department has been advised that use of this property. the mobile food truck preparation use must maintain the same hours