personal experience where something depose array where we here about the ortega branch library they received the sequa determination but the sequa determination deemed there were no changes to the project. and this kind of appeal process would have helped it was an unfortunate process and the ortega library was that demolished and the other library was small and it was extensively altered. so i'm no support >> thank you. i've been inclined to adopt the

staffs remedies here. what really has changed my mind is one of the argument made by staff is this is a substantial new process without any need. and i think they maybe correct in that. but there's another aspect to it which is that if, in fact, these - there isn't a need for this particular process the only harm that can come of it will be at the hands of nasty people who wish to obstruct other perfectly proper and desirable projects.

i don't think there will be many of them. the climate in san francisco seems to have changed over the recent years and the people are not somewhat less than inclined to support obstruction of projects. when the obstruction is not based on something that is really to do with the project itself and is motivated by ill will or a political war which is going on outside of the commission. i have as many others who appeared have had some experience with an appeal before the board of permanent appeals.

that groupings group has its own procedures and ways to deal with things in some instances it's satisfactory and other instances not. i was impressed with the fact that if there's this appeal that supervisors kim and chu favor this project will not be debated and that's an important part of my consideration but fundamentally it is i don't think that a great deal of harm will come from allowing this proposed appeal >> thank you commissioner. >> my primary of coming in this hearing is not whether there should be an appeal but the

recommend are, you know, a hearing or not i thought what i read ahead of time defended the process for a written determination but i want to congratulate the public on doing a really good job on convincing me and to come up with an agreement so the speak how this appeal should be handed. i can support a hearing because that's where we are at at this point. my understanding is assuming that's the way the vote would go the staff would have to come up with a new resolution; right? >> can we have votes? >> can we make a motion? >> a motion without

modificatio modification. >> i just consulted with the city attorney and i think we'll just change the language but if i'm incorrect i can ask the city attorney. the motion supports it would modifications so we could support it without modifications >> i make that motion. >> second. >> and call roll so we had a motion to approve without modifications. there's a motion and second on the floor to adopt a recommendation for approval without the modifications. on that

(calling names) so move forward commissioners that motion passes 6 to one with pearlman voting against >> commissioners your final item under our regular calendar is leveling case thirty 39 fourteen. >> if i might interrupt to thank the public for coming out and the legislative aids. thank you everybody >> the sustainable bill it an informational update. >> what's our time. >> wonderful got about 45 minutes and the presentation is 15. >> oh, yes commissioner. >> so i'd like to

. >> this is a group task force. and as with any process we can't convey everything in the 15 minute presentation but we'll be happy to clarify. so here's the process.

the planning department combaejz with the japan folks. we started with the neighborhood area plan that looked at the change that could be used in the neighborhood. as you may recall the plan so here we go four years later. what we did we kept the good better parts of the neighborhood plan. the community didn't like the proposed increases in the japan mall that would creativity an incentive to demolish the

buildings. that being said there was a lot that was liked including it's core printed, goals and objectives. so let me show you. here is the vision of the g hfshgs s it's larger the same. and the japan project will serve as a cultural project. the goals maintained a one hundred percent so here's - here are the golds of g hemorrhages s. to restore to the japan community. and it depends upon the future to the home and basis future

environment. so it is different in the ways we sought to have those goals and strategies. we promote the japanese cultural resources. this resulted is its nuclear and a preys document that others holistically the cultural. and it's one of only 3 japan towns in the country. it's for social and it's for arts and cultural events etc. it's important to the city because we've been good about preserving the history - and at

times of intense of shipping democrat graphics they might go away. step one we identify the resources that we have in a categorical way like in terms of businesses and organizations and institutions, buildings and cultural events and activities and look at the people and the land of japan town. we looked at the conditions in the neighborhood in calculation with the community. we identified 39 issues and i want to walk you through those areas of concern. so the first one is difficult to sustain japan as a communicated hub only 25 percent of the town is japan immigrants.

there are an ongoing concern about how to keep it up. there's a concern that abuse in young adults haven't been given a seat at the table. this one is in the seat of the neighborhood historic they've not collaborated to get the results for their own resources. related to the land there's concern about the utilization of the parcels there's a lot of development opportunity in japan town. we could grow if those grow we could have an additional 27 units and to see those parcels develop. in terms of buildings there's concern about the architecture

style and hard japan are reaching the end of their potential life and to make sure they fit sfwots character. and the buildings that were built before the era there's style differences. and without proper upkeep those historic buildings will deteriorate. there's challenges to help the institutions there's concern in the neighborhood there's a saturation for groups. there's a lack of space for organization and to maintain a physical presence in the neighborhood unless they have

the affordable spaces speaker straightforward you need a lot of tourists to come here. business and ownership generation they're taking over the businesses. and findings and attracting businesses, of course, you want your community to be attracting the same culture payroll there's always concerns about trash rae grateful e graffiti. you want the neighborhood to thrive and thus could displays other businesses. the japan mall is the heart of

the neighborhood their home to do sos of remunerate but their aging. they're never designed for retail and their inward facing to the community and their owned by an outside industry that are not concerned about the culture. the parking garages need upgrad upgraded. regarding cultural fire department's similar discern concern about the spates there's a lot of festivals in japan it up and they have a hard time navigating the process.

and in terms of the peaceplasia it's situated between the two malls and it's the ceremonial part of the neighborhood. there's a design in 2000 the plazas is in and out inviting and the plazas could use the connection to the boulevard. it's pedestrians that have concerns about the sidewalks and as other things that speak to the culture. there's a signage that needs to be improved. that's kind of the look at the

concerns that are categorically look at the community. we have a list of about 2 hundred and 79 resources it they thought were important in the community and working with them we rounded out the list and comp come up to a total of 3 hundred and 9 resources in the neighborhood. i'll walk you through the maps. the g h includes the map and figures we have a database on the website that contains the address and any resources that has important information. this is the area of speaking about japan town and hires the structures that are important. here's the institutions and a

here's where the businesses are the clustering and here's a long time the event a lot of them occurring in the malls themselves. i'll be back to this in a second. in addition to looking at at the individual resources we said okay. here's a way to look at the cultural resources. we developed a method.com to access the resources. our assessment methodology was for the park service or we could apply the methodology to the list and we developed heritage inventory forms. and all this information has been available on our website for many months. and because a lot of this work

is a technical and because a lot more people are interested in this topic we would like to come back and talk the methodology and the work we do we wanted to hear your input and the communities input. so that's a bridge version and we would like to common carrier and talk about this more. in terms of the resources we thought about how to preserve those resources. we hired the economic consulting firm. and who organize and put together a list to make sure this is accurate and, of course, this is on our website. most of the tools they identified in the area and those

including the development impact fees which is regular but it is for up zoning so we didn't use this wl-used tool in this neighborhood. we went through 19 recommendation additional fulfill our goals and objectives. this includes recommendations for the new mechanisms in the neighborhood. for each recommendation includes the description and the assessment of how it could benefit japan town and the key leaders to implementing it and the list of potential next steps. so let's go through the list of recommendations. first one is the utilized tools

for the prehistoric buildings and structures. this is the tools we use such as a the millions act. those tools can go a long way to provide space for businesses and a organizations. next is the downtown special use district payroll the special use district has been there since 2006. think about the culture implementation. this is a shadowing of what we are doing. so we, of course, recommend this. we recommend did guidelines this is to make sure that the guidelines help the structure of the tonsil. this is how to make the city

comfortable and inviting. such as a comforting streets and other environmental improvements. the city is currently ordinary care on some transportation improvements we look to comfort the system. and the buzz - bus transit. given that japan town has any improvement for connectivity is welcomed. the business bureau don't a lot of marketing work to draw folks inform the city. we that they could do a better you don't believe promoting kitten tougher than that and start a tougher than that that

would highlight the japan town. so lessors a list of proposed strategies. the first one is to create a community corporation they're not o nonprofit organizations dedicated to reinviting neighborhoods. cd directions are well established on a china down in san francisco. they provided ownership real estate and community advocacy and they address, you know, a wide range of needs in areas of concerns effecting the businesses and organizations etc. of all the recommendations we think a community organization will be the best. of course, there's on signature that a community can do for

itself. the next one is to create the land trusts and it is to help with the targeting properties. the community is well along in creating a c l t having grants. next is the purpose you have vesting in neighborhoods it is to foster economic development by strategizing all the departments that interface with those neighborhoods the timing is 0 perfect for the implementation of the g h s railroad in connection next one is the negotiation of developer agreements between the city developer sea the community

agreement between the community and developers, of course, can lead to san in the neighborhood. next one is create a public, private you partnership that allows the property owners to pay for the enhancement over what the government does. this includes streetscape improvements and etc. this one is a tax on property owners that can help with sidewalk improvements and parks and potential improvements at the peace mall as well as build facilities. next is for the grants to the arts. the hotels are talked to help with the arts. and some of this money go to the

cherry festival. next is the garbage capital investment fund to direct some of the money that comes from parking to do capital improvements on the site. right now it's going for seismic upgrades. next remedies is not commercial japan district it's pilot between the next c to the north. it would like the named district like we've created before for custom used in the neighborhood. we've contrasted the language and brought out to the community

owners of properties as well. the guidelines as discussed before we've seen the guidelines but there's an opportunity to critique of the guidelines that speak to the unique character of the neighborhood. implement of improvements in peaceplasia we know that in the cultural part of the neighborhood it would create more collaboration between the parks department and community etc. we have this as a mall we would work with public works rather than the park and recreation. the parks are owned by an outside entity. we know there's a ton of

improvement that can make the mall for beautiful and how that can be done with existing buildings. we recommend that a task force get together and work with the property owners to create a win-win for more property owners to bring folks to the businesses. i've discussed each the recommendations. the g h s explicitly looks this. this is how the implementation tools and one of the areas of concern is showed and we put dots to where we think that the tool can address of the areas of concern or meet the the goals and objectives. there's no single goal

implementation that can meet all the goals. but it would require the complete prelims to really address all the areas of concern. most of the areas of concern we've talked about japan town and the investments in the neighborhood. allow them like most plans it is up to the community. we can't start a community land trust. f this is kind of the nature of the clafb effort. i want to bring up our executive director. >> thank you steve. president and commissioners. tim.