neighborhoods plan. collaboration has been between the city the planning department and the community. and it's been a truly collaborative effort we gave a presentation in july where we had a lot of feedback. we've received he several letters and the resolution is before you today. what is in the dhs i went into exhaust detail but the highlights are the areas of concern which are highlighted in chapter four where it speaks to the cultural events and businesses and there's concerns from the community about the future of japan town. the next chapter includes recommendations for items under taken by the city.

and there's also quite a number of recommendation for new programs that would be under taken based on the dhs. and the other item i'll talk about is the initiatetion. as well as many projects in collaboration by the city. we're asking for first and foremost is the endorsement of the objectives as city policy. this will enable the community and the city to have a document to because the decisions on in this neighborhood. we're seeking the endorsement of how to implement with the various agencies and community groups that need to be involved. we're asking you to direct staff

to investigate the japan town guidelines that's in the policy and we're going to talk about that. we ask you recommend other cities including the office of environment office and others. we're asking you to work with other agencies and recommend the community to have those under the preview. and in a moment i'm going to ask my colleague to talk about here efforts and i'll transition over the initiatetion. we're asking you to introduce the japan town to fulfill the

recommendation of dhs and to have tailored parking in the neighborhood. it's vested by the organization community and we've had meetings with the property owners. it compliance the nc district into a single district. the recommendations are largely a hybrid based on the community desire. one of the biggest moves was to create a maximum in the neighborhood. so obviously it's to initiate today, we'll do the environmental review and return as soon as the environmental review is complete in a month. i'd like to turn to over to my colleague. >> good afternoon. i'm from the

office of economic workforce development and i'm here to express our support for the japan heritage and economic strategy and to offer our commitment in implementing the strategies and working with the city developments in the implementation both in funds and committed in this process and we hope to contribute to the economic and vibrancy of this town. >> thank you. >> i'm not next. wow. finally. president fong and commissioners, director ram good afternoon. i'm bob. member of the japan town organizing committee i'm here to ask you to pass this strategy

document. it couldn't have long been possible without the commented and generous support of this commission and the patience and diligence of director ram and his planning staff. we're grateful and appreciate the hard work of the several senior planners (calling names) and special thanks to steve. i'm here to a give you a brief run down of the community outreach efforts of the organizing committee. we've been planning in japan town over 13 years. this is the third plan to save the neighborhood still we don't have a document endorsed by the city. the b m public works started in

2007 and in 2345089 it was sent back to work for further refinement. since then we've completed the dhs. over the years we've conducted way too many meetings and two property meetings with focus groups and outreach to stakeholders. since february alone we've conducted one community meeting, community property owner meetings and outreach to over 20 community organizations, merchants and resident groups. during march, april and may we gathered the recommendations for changes that are in the documents before you today. we've received over 1 hundred comments that were reported and diligently responded to by steve and the staff. since the informational hearings

in july we've worked with steve to craft the resolutions before you today. further we've gotten the letters in your packet supporting the resolution. i'm particularly proud of the community coming together to support this very historic document. over such a long period of time there's going to be changes in the people involved and changes about the recommendations but it's good to hear that the visions and goals have not been changed and the document is needed to sustain and perpetuate japan town. dhs is the consensus of the feedback we've gotten over the years. thank you >> thank you. any additional - >> okay. we'll go ahead and

open it up to public comment then (calling names) and i'm sorry, i can't read this one. marlene. >> thank you commissioner please allow me to state my english i'm from japan. i'm come today to i'm not limited to - japanese live in the bay area. i've been in this area for 5 years and seen japan town for 5 years and i really think that japan town is very important for

me from japan. like japanese like me after world war ii, japan become pro american country so a person like me really don't know about japanese culture but i love american culture that's why i came here i don't know about japan culture but japan town taught me about japan town and on christmas day i danced in japan i never danced so japan town really taught me what japanese are and more importantly, they teach me the sense of community. we lost that for years but the

community was rebuilt after the 2011 the earthquake hit japan many survivors were deeply getting involved in the community to teach when the earthquake hit you have to go up to the hill so i was in a community but if you're not in a community you couldn't survive. but i already knew the importance of the community because of japan town. so i really appreciate japan town and city of san francisco and the united states that kept the importance of our culture. and i really want to appreciate my appreciation for the japan town people who are getting community together.

really, really difficult and then i just really amazed by their patience and mercy it's unbelievable. so this j h s is a really town community and friends really encourage more people to engage in community and people from japan really, really benefit from it. thank you very much >> thank you. >> good afternoon commissioner and director ram. i'm greg gloria i'm a san francisco born and raised resident and an community aid for the japan town task force. i've been involved with the j h s staff member and supporting

outreach meetings and those future meetings contain not only community groups but even a group from japan that was interested in the j h s we put together. as we talk as community members, you know, this road has been tough to get here and the implementation actually will be also tough if not tougher and i think we all recognize that. you know, without the city support as bob had mentioned earlier we couldn't have gotten here as well. i want to urge you to continue to support of the japan town community by partnering with us into the future and i urge you to support of the resolutions before you today >> thank you very much. >> thank you.

>> good afternoon, commissioners and director ram. i'm robert. my family as i negligence in the last introductory mentioned has lived and worked in japan town since 1906. we ran a market for the community for over 1 hundred and 5 years but i'm still a prosperity owner and i've been involved with the document since it's beginning and i'm here to ask you to endorse that document and approve the resolutions before you. it provides the community and helps to preserve our neighborhood. thank you very much >> thank you. next speaker. i'll call a couple more names

(calling names) >> i'm speaking on behalf of the cathedral community. we've been involved in the better neighborhood plan process since 2007. we strongly endorse the principles and ask for the commission to adopt them. cathedral hill is from the redesigning japan town and japan town obeying being on would side of the hill but we share many common interests. the mrntsdz and the foists are all important to cathedral hill

and also the senior community town. there's a couple of things that are before the planning commission that are of particular interest one is the adaptation of the japan town area and two is the focus on the gary rapid transit we're having a lot of problems with the crossing in japan town and would like to have special interest in or those areas. thank you very much >> good afternoon president fong and commissioners and director ram. i'm steve i'm the executive director of the senior center located in the heart of japan

town. i'm here as the executive director from the expansion in terms of all of the 13 years invested in this resolution to write an endorsement. i've sent an endorsement but also want to make it very, very clear that the center does support and asks for your endorsement as well as the dhs. yesterday when we were here i talked about the japanese-american customarily to senior seminar so most of the constituents came from japan and particularly produced a good environment until we all they were evacuated in 1942 to those

different contraction camps. this meant life stopped for us. in terms of that when they concluded and came back to san francisco our community came back to san francisco and had to rebuild their lives. this resolution commissioners is the first time historically through a community process of 13 years plus a one hundred years before that has any kind of direction to go forward for things we believe in. this could not have happened without the planning staff beyond a agency the redevelopment agency but it's affected us what we have produced today.

this is a great process of working together within the community. we beg to differ but collectively we can work together on a common bond. thank you >> thank you. >> good afternoon again commissioners aim paul wormer. i've been involved on the japan town planning for a number of years now they drew expansive boundaries that included my house and i acted as a liaison for the proposals. i really want to compliment the planning staff and particularly steve for dealing with a less than unanimous community in forging consensus and bob doing a good job of hurting cats.

i want to on the record the real disappoint i have is one of the property owners declined to attend any meetings. and when proposals come forward in the future when may not purport with the community objective i think it's important to bear in mind that people decided not to participate when they koifb constructive. thank you >> hello, i'm ben. and faculty at the san francisco state university. in the college of ethic studies

where among other things i teach japanese-american history. so through this i feel i've felt i'm a stakeholder that was the reason i became a participant in the japan town organizing committee in addition to my own personal connections to the committee through the board of supervisors for the japanese-american national library. i'd like to affirm the japan plan but i'd like to speak from the angel of academic he teaching in the university and would like to stress the importance of doing what can be done to preserve such a rich and a culturally diverse community especially in connection with

the social and cultural heritage. it's a long-standing mission even if ethic studies even if being a upper place in the country that links the you thought to bay community and through this mission we as faculty encourage and seek to create opportunity for our students to experience things in their own community whereby i hope in their later crazy they'll give back to their community. many of the students are here today to learn about the relationship between community and the business of the city.

every semester we bring students out to japan down u town by also other asian-american communities for events and research as well as intirmz so over the years this has involved any students to the communities. thank you >> thank you. any additional public comment? >> good to see you again legislative aid to supervisor breed. the supervisor was planning to be here today but i want to over a brief statement. starting first with a big thank

you to bob and every other member of the communities that's been so helpful in this process. san francisco japan town is the oldest japan town in the united states over 1 hundred years old. it's an important community in the western addition i have my own histories the cherry bloom and the shopping and in my youth bowling. it's so. important we protect the cultural and economic communities of japan town. we've worked together with the assistance of san francisco plans department and presentation i was to make sure we keep the japan town in san francisco. keeping in mind of what happened to our japanese-americans in san francisco it's important we protect this jeweler by

endorsing this resolution. i offer high full support of this resolution. thank you >> i'm going to call a couple names and come on up (calling names) whoever is ready. >> good afternoon, commissioners i'm and my family are long term residents. my family owned a shop in japan town. we've been here in the community for 50 years. i'm here to ask for your support. the dhs is 50 years of dialog

from business and property owners and community organizations and neighbors and planning department staff. it's a expensive and systematic plan it incorporates the visions and goals for cultural and economic stability for japan town. there are only 3 remanding japan towns in united states san francisco is fortunate to be included in one of these cities but it is important that measures obeying be taken to preserve it. we have an opportunity at this time to make a difference and do something constructive in empowering that will have positive benefits. with your adoption of j h s as city policy we can insure there

will always be a japan for san francisco and future generations. thank you very much >> good afternoon president fong and members of the planning commission and director ram. i want to thank all of you as well as director rams patience and very professional support for this whole process. many of us here do i have been involved since the beginning of this process and we really appreciate this commissions support. i'm the chair of the japan town task force board of supervisors and i'm here to ask for your support for the resolution that's in your packets that's from 23 different community organizations and entities including businesses to support the resolution in our packet. i know within the last

twenty-four hours you've gotten e-mails from different individuals but we ask you to support of the resolution in our packet. one of the things that i just wanted to acknowledge is i think part of our planning, you know, we're not really addressing the issue we're in a transit corridor and this is going to become an issue and we'll have to deal with it. the same thing as a the density issue many folks wanted to have no interest in that so people are supporting this but that maybe an issue in the future. i also want to acknowledge the work of bob our executive director without his leadership and his ability to engage every aspect of the community that

wouldn't have happened. he asked everybody to stay at the table but it's difficult as we all know all of us have long been involved in community processes and it's not easy to do that but he has had the ability to gain everybody's respect and everyone will give their opinion to him and he's be able to balance all of that so thank you, bob and thank you, commissioners >> thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners i'm the representative to the japan town organization committee. it's a japanese-american federation. i joined this process because my minister was i think he was the

president of the committee at that time, he got this letter and when i saw it i leaped. i said wow, i need to get involved by the way, i didn't want a plan that was demerol detrimental to future japan it up. first of all, i want to thank many people involving the commission. because which this came to the commission the commission realized it was a plan that the community really didn't agree b upon and the community really didn't have a chance to respond to the original plan of japan town. so with the community process it took much long-range than anticipated i think it was about 4 years. we were told and thanks to

director ram he allowed us enough f t e's to carry on. i want to thank all the planners that were part of this and paul was - he's made this so the community can grasp. steve really become very valuable to us even in the 11 hour so steve earned his keep and shelly thank you for your efforts of the heritage portion. so thank you to all of you. my greatest fear when it first came out i was afraid the result was something similar that happened to