permit but with two extremely different conditions, one, pet food express has since opened a store just one mile away on california street so any marina resident can access a pet food express store, it has been an absentee tenant for the last four years, since 2009, many neighbors have grown increasingly frustrated by the graffiti, litter and homeless chaserbacker camping taking place aon a regular basis on lombard street, we filed complaints with various city agencies but the problems were never addressed and only seemed to get worse, for three year, neighbors assumed it was vai can't or no one would lease it, but there was a tenant that had a lease, pet food express, i was contacted wi jim moore and tom sing v*its, they asked to meet with the mca board and pet food expresses along with jim moore presented to our board

last september, we heard presentations from two local pet store owners, based on their, our board of directors voted 7-1 to deny pet food express's conditional use permit for this location, we are against locating a pet food express at this particular location on lombard street but not against pet food express, not formula retail and not other pet food stores in san francisco, the mca board decided we wanted to take a vote because of the dangerous precedent that this could set for the marina and other residents, if it has your vote of approval today, it sends a message, which is come to our city, buy a lease, try for a permit but if you don't get it, leave your building vacant to rot, don't be a good neighbor, don't clean up your mess and don't try for a permit, this can happen with absentee

tenant, since pet food express presented to us, we tried to get them to take responsibility by maintaining their building by painting over their graffiti or cleaning up their litter but these have gone to deaf ears, with the graffiti finally painted over and the litter removed from the parking lot, we tried to get information from pet food express express, the facilitator of the merchant's association who works for jim moore about what their mandatory community meeting would take place, but we never received any information to inform our member, we found out after the fact that the so called community meeting did take place about a mile away in pacific heights, maybe pet food express was confused to invite the community over to their proposed location on lombard street for their meeting. thank you.

>> good afternoon, commissioner, any name is nick davis son, i'm the vice-president for the marina association, it was established in 1929 and is the only merchant's association recognized by the san francisco planning, and i would like to read a letter that was addressed to supervisor farrell, thank you for your continued support of our neighborhood and your ongoing [inaudible] of the marina, by a vote by the mma general membership, we are asking for your support in denying a conditional use permit of pet food express in the marina, after attending many meet, speaking directly to the pet food express own e we have concluded this business is not something that the maer chant's agreement can agree with, we feel the merchants have spoken and we are asking support from you on this issue.

sincerely, mike [inaudible], the secretary of the mma, myself, nick david son of the mma and alex, our past president from the marina merchant's association. >> good afternoon, commissioner, my name is keith jerdano and i have resigned? the marina far years, in our planning code regarding formula retail state, the formula retail in the commercial business areas if not monitored and regulated will have a diverse retail base with distinct retail and personalities compromised with a mix of businesses, pet food express's conditional use application would be a complete disregard of the section, pet food express has attempted to paint a picture of a general local business merely trying to serve the community and serve animal welfare, pet food

express purposefully utilizing their because. at the same time, they have whether intended or not created an extremely decisive caustic at mot fear and employed questionable tactics of this project. first, pet food express recruited pets unlimited to be a partner in this application, but pets unlimited -- but the pets unlimited portion of this partnership will consist of 4.6% of the available square footage, i ask you to consider when does charity when achieved to ceasing *f seize self-interest goals have a desired function, their first application in 2009 for a conditional use permit at this location, pet food express began buying multiple pages of advertising in each issue of the mar wraen na times making them the largest buyer of ad

space in the paper, they testified in favor of the project and offered a series of one sided articles for pet food express in our paper, for months, regular pieces have been written vilifying our pet stores and our owners which have been incorrect and nasty and unbias, the fact is that pet food express has intentionally or not abetted the behavior which has been harm f to the community. in october of 2012, the marina community association informed pet food express they would impose the [inaudible] on lombard street, from sf weekly yesterday, pet food express has been instrumental of the lombard merchant's business association, an organization which appears to be to support their project. one of the first orders of business of this organization was to take up cause amongst the small business commission,

i hope you will send a clear message that this kind of manipulation in pursuit of a permit will not be rewarred or tolerated, according to the planning department recommendation, in 2010, the commission made a find hating the pet food express should work with city in order to identify neighborhoods, there would be no negative impact on existing local businesses. i question how exhausted that search could have been if after it, their answer was to once again try to open on lombard street. a location which was roundly rejected by the community just three short years ago, deny the request for conditional use, thank you very much. >> thank you, as a reminder, the commission will not tolerate any outburst, applause, hisses, this is obviously an item that's of great interest, but we'll try to keep a very civil hearing, thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioner, my name is bobby whiles and i'm the owner of the

pet store george, i'm presenting over 32 pet stores in our san francisco coalition, pet food express has 50 stores all located in the bay and surrounding bay area, most importantly, pet food express is the fifth largest pet supplier in the u.s., as the fifth largest supplier in the country, they use their significant buying power for their 50 stores and warehouse their projects in their 150 square foot distribution center located in oakland. this means they can buy for substantially lower prices in the san francisco independent store, they can sell their products for what i can buy them for which leads to a direct impact to our community. i'd like to read an excerpt from a letter of a store that went out of business in part because of pet food express. my name is liz pack, i'm a san francisco bay manufacturer and until february, 2013, i owned a pet store kauld chingu on union

street, i urge ewe to deny pet food express's application for a conditional use permit on lombard. my opposition to this lombard street location is based on my experience as a past pet store owner and as a small local manufacturer, i opened my shop on union in october, 2009 and my sales increased until pet food express opened in 2011, it hurt my sales and contributed to my decision to close my retail business. when i had the choice of whether to renew my lease or not on union, i knew pet food express could come in on lombard and i could not afford the financial risk stays open knowing they could possibly open up another location close to my stores. stores on union and lombard will close if pet food express opens on lombard. if you open other pet food

stores, you will contribute to the demise of the independent pet store ins the city and the demise of other businesses like my manufacturing company. the city must realize by now the domino effect of the closing of independent pet stores in san francisco's neighborhood, end of letter. this is a current one mile radius map of the five independent pet stores in which chingu used to be the sixth store but since no longer since pet food express opened up, lastly, i believe it's important to note the planning department's executive summary square footage of approximately 7 thousand square feet is a discrepancy from the 9514 square feet from the sf tax assessor's report. this in part is due to the lack of the disclosure to a basement with a walk-out and exit area to the back of the building which could be used for

additional storage facility, this could be used for storage, thank you for your time. >> good afternoon, commissioner, my name is susan land ri, i am with the animal connection on chest nut street, 27 years of unfailing service to the marina community, we are an integral part of this community, the store has served more than one generation of customers and we have watched our customers grow old. we deliver food to the elderly and if we have not seen them for a while, we check on them to make sure they're okay, catnip and bones which has been on chest nut street offers the same personal service as well. in a reflective moment while at the store last week, i looked out the window to the two businesses across the street from me who closed their doors this past may, it made me sad to think that in a short while, our store front may have the very same vacant look.

commissioners, our customers are asking us what will happen to part of the heart and soul of chest nut street if pet food express is granted their conditional use permit, how i will answer that question is in your hands today. thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners, my name is evan goldman and i am also a resident of the marina, you have already heard from the marina community association and other presenters opposed to granting the conditional use permit for the proposed project. i wish to echo these views and add a few points of my own, i have lived for over 8 years in the marina and i am deeply concerned about preserving the stores and other independent businesses, i am not alone in my views, the numbers as presented by the planning department shows that 3555 residents and associations oppose the project, and we have already been through this

process once before in 2009 when the commission denied the first pet food exprez location for the first lombard location, have the things changed? just the opposite. in 2009, the neighborhood continues to overwhelmingly oppose the project, second, pet food express is now even more formula retail than before, this fast growing change has over 50 regional stores including opening the third san francisco store on california and presidio just one mile away from the project, the digital california store has ample parking, why would there be a need for another store on lombard. third, in the present application, it tries to make a case for itself by offering non-profit operated cat adoption and for a fee, pet washing services, it is only a small percentage of the square

footage of the proposed project and similar services are available in the area including pet washing shops such as foggy doggy, in addition, as i have seen myself, the spc has prided pet adoption services on chest nut. >> thank you, sir, your time is up. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> you're welcome to submit that if you want and submit your notes if you wanted to. typically when the supervisor is here, he or she is here themselves or has a representative that wants to speak, we grant that and there is a request from victor lim from supervisor mar's office. >> thank you, commissioners. here's the statement first.

commissioner, good afternoon, my name's victor lim, i'm one of the legislative aids to supervisor mar and i'm here to deliver a statement on behalf of the supervisor, many of you may be aware that pet food express has attempted to open a store on lombard street four years ago, this committee voted 5 -2 based on the competitive advantage of retail, i urge you to consider the concerns of a business model that has had a se vaoefr detriment impacts on small businesses. there are currently over half a dozen pending policies and ordinances that seek to address the proliferation of formula retail in san francisco, this

indicates that as a city, we are concerned that we are not being fully -- sufficiently careful in the way that we regulate formula retail. according to planning staff, 75% of the conditional use applications are approved. i'm sure in some cases, the applicant businesses is appropriate for the neighborhood they seek to move into. the other case, i do not believe the commission examines and gives weight to the financial impact that is these businesses have on small locally owned business thaz are the true life blood of our neighborhoods, i respectfully ask that you take neighborhood and merchant concerns seriously in your deliberations. thank you. >> thank you. we're going to go ahead and open it up to public comment and i think i have over 120 cards here.

we've also received hundreds, plural, of e-mails from you over the past two, three weeks so i think many of us understand both sides of the issue. we're going to go ahead and call names. if you find yourself repeating maybe some of the thoughts that a previous speaker has, you can sort of get to the point, then call yourself either in opposition or support and we'll get through this hearing, so i appreciate that. and for simplicity, i think the best is if i call names, if you can line up on that side of the room. if i've called your name, go ahead and come to the microphone, two minutes, correct, (calling speaker names). any of these names ring a bell? >> commissioner, president, some of these people may be in

the overflow room. >> they may be and we'll give them time to get up here. >> if your name has been called, please feel free to approach the podium and give your testimony. >> hi, i'm ferries prodom, a business owner and part of the merchant's association. name david son hasn't been on the board or the mma far year and a half, he's been asked to resign from ryan fuller and myself, back then he accepted the resignation, he hasn't been to a meeting since then, ryan fuller who signed the unauthorized letter has been transferred to palo alto, so he's not a businessman in the marina, so unfortunately, there are not very nice things going on, and i'm only here as a businessman to say that vacant store fronts don't do anybody

any good, it doesn't matter if it's on lombard or chest nut or union, we're not separate, we're all part of the same group, and if lombard is an improved -- it's not going to help chest nut or union, and i mean, it's just simple, i mean, i'm not going to get into the politics and the dirt, it's really sad, this has gone on a long time, i wish bother parties that had been here for a long time had reached some kind of an agreement, but a good store front is a good store front, and it only makes things better for everyone. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker, please. >> thank you, my name is jane tobin and i'm here to support pet food express as an exemplary

business merchant for the marina district, i am the co-president of friends and san francisco care and control and we are a non-profit that supports san francisco animal, control and care, which takes in almost 10 thousand animals a year, pet food express has been an incredibly generous supporter of san francisco animal, care and control and of our organization and they do that in a number of year, they don't just give money and walk away and say that's enough, what they do is they offer the cap satellite adoption facility and i agree it is a small footprint in the store, but in that small footprint, 5 thousand cat and is kittens have been adopted in the past 10 years and that's a significant improvement to our

euthanasia and live release rates in animal control, in addition, they do support us through community event, they allow us to use their space for adoption, outreach events and they have also increased our profile in the community. they have consistently referred people to us, sent us to adopt animals through us, they've made people aware of us who had never heard of us prior to their efforts in the community, so i will say they do in fact support the community outside of the marina district and i hope they can do the same for the marina as well. >> thank you. >> president fong, commissioners, my name is harold hugasian, i am a past president of the district merchants, i served three separate terms as the

president, i've been doing business in the marina for 36 years, as a property owner on lombard, we do need a lot of help, we really do, a vacancy like that is really detrimental. the big box is a herring, it's a red herring because there are only i believe two other spots on lombard street that are even large enough to even consider a big box and really not, but my personal family situation is that my wife started buying supplies on west portal when this company first started and we've maintained two and a half generations of cats over the course of the last 30 some odd years. business is hard to do nowadays, and as a property owner, i have to say as a rental property owner, i would say the pet washing facility is

a tremendous asset because i'll tell you, it's difficult for folks to find places for pets to be washed. i know nowhere on my property can they do it except out in the parking lot and it's tough enough, but i ask you to support business in san francisco, paying these gentlemen as some corporate entity is a misnomer and i ask for your support to making a decision for the future of san francisco by approving the application of pet express. i was on the phone with a friend of mine, i told him about this process and formula retail and he said, really. >> thank you very much. >> hello, my name is j. . the collins, i'm in support of the pet food express and i wanted to say i have been a

shop owner, i shopped two doors down of the proposed location and wanted to say that with the businesses that has been happening inside of the lombard street corridor, it's disheartening to try to run a business there, i have noticed there's been less foot traffic than ever before, i feel a good shop would bring good traffic, a good retail shop would bring more people along the corridor for better business. i want to say we need more quality shops there on lombard street, particularly on this west end of the corridor and i think pet food express is going to bring that quality. thank you. >> come on up, let me call a few more names. (calling speaker names).

>> good afternoon, commissioners, my name is charles vain, i own judy's cafe on chest nut street for the last 31 year, i'm also the vice-president for the lombard business merchant's association. the lombard business merchant's association has been opened up, has been trying to help clean up this street, trying to help deal with 2 vacancies and the thing that is are taking place with miscellaneous crimes and thing that is are on the street. things are starting to move in a positive direction. there's a condo project that's coming across from pet food express which i think is a big positive for the street. i support pet food exprez to come in as to clean up this area and to take over the parking lot and the building,

and i hope for your support too. in this last several months that has been going on, i'm not trying to pinpoint things or put judgment on people but i don't understand why we can't join together as community and hear the truth. i see a lot of misconduct taking place and i don't find it in my own heart that it's justifiable as able as a human being or a business owner, i'm asking for everybody to hear the truth and analyze it in the part that we can step forward because my real belief is when we talk about the i, myself as my ego, but the we is for the community. thank you for your help and support. >> good afternoon, planning commissioners, i'm the director

of community outreach for pet food express, it is my job to put together the community programs, work with groups such as rescue, pet canine teams and other, i am a founder of german shepperd rescue, so i've known martin and mark for a long time before i came to work with them. they plan to have somebody in charge of this department who knew the rescue community and put what we had available to where the greatest need was, not where the greatest support is, where the greatest need was, taking a rescue lake, building six cat adoption centers that have saved 37 cats and kittens, a police canine officer getting help for his jobs, and i can quote you a lot

of numbers, the support is widespread, it's sincere, we're not the only pet supply company that do it, i would like to commend them for doing so too, the animals in need don't care how many stores you have, they want you to care and pet store exprez -- express has for a long time. >> i would like to remind members of the public or the project team that you were provided your 15 minutes and we wouldn't expect that additional speakers on the project team come up and speak again. >> next speaker please who i had called. >> my name is cindy alenjer and i oppose the project, and i love san francisco, i was born and raised here and i love all the unique stores, and the beautiful area of the marina and i'd like it to say *f stay

that way, not with big corporations and just i love the small stores, so i would like it to keep that way. thank you so much. >> hi, my name is louise tully and i'm vice-president of the police and working canine foundation, we're here to speak out in support of the pet food express lombard location as well as pet food express as a partner with our non-profit. we're an all volunteer non-profit organization that provides essential safety equipment and training for law enforcement canine teams, everyone from very small tourn towns here in california to big cities like san francisco. without the help from pet food express, our small organization could not have accomplished what we have to date, over the last five years, they have donated close to 500 thousand

to help our canine teams with bullet proof vests, donations that help us host more than 400 canine officers to attend our canine emergency medicine class as well as to receive trauma kits at no charge. we also install heat sensors in patrol cars that keep the dogs safe. for us as a non-profit, we find it really cynical that some of the people have made comments about pet food express's intentions, working with them, we have to be sensitive because we work with law enforcement agencies and we have to be sensitive of who we're working with and what they expect in return, they have been extremely flexible and supportive without being overbearing as a sponsor. we value our partnership with pet food express and hope this is a model for other companies to contribute to the