considering her for a governor's award. the first, he item was the landmark for moekz. supervisor breed came in support after the staff presented the finding of our report there was a great deal of overwhelming support. the commission also unanimously approved the landmark designation, however, during the public comment portion that really talked about the influence marcus book store has had on san francisco in general so we'll be updating that report and bringing that back in the

fall. the counter property owners were on hand and asked for a continuance of the matter until february to sort out some outstanding legal issues. we felt were a number of hearings in the pipeline that there would be plenty of opportunity to address those issues before the final approval or vote by board of supervisors. we had a new certify for the brandon street within the south landmark district and that will be before this committee in the next two weeks were the next two items on their agenda was the adoption of the japan town statement and the endorsement

and the complexity statement was drafted in 2009 and revised in 2011 so the commission asked us to amend those and it will be finalized in the upcoming months. and there was a couple of amendments they want to add two buildings and it's not an endorsement but to engage the community and property owner to see if the landmark is a viable thing the japanese language school and ymca and those were two of the additional properties

that were included. and i have some staff that will refer to that. there was to be a presentation on say heritage task force report on historic preservation and recommendations resolving around entitlement but due to time restringency it's continued. and the commission unanimously endorsed and adopted the sunset district historic research survey it's a vary survey of over 1 hundred landmark districts and a small collection of landmark buildings. there was a large amount of community outreach and

overwhelming supporting to have one member of the community show up and in his area what is a potential landmark district he and his neighbors are looking forward to moving forward. that includes my comments unless there's any questions >> questions? >> commissioners if there's nothing further we'll move on to public comment. not to exceed fourteen minutes and it's within the subjected matter of the agenda items pr the opportunity to talk about the agenda will be up to two minutes and i have two speaker cards >> patricia and linda. >> patricia neighbors and

merchants. we have a case on boarding restrict. it's been a case a that's gone on and on and i received a letter saying they can't do a stop order because the department of city planning is holding it up. i'd like the two departments to try to work together. this is a case that's been going on and on. and the other thing is i'm dismade over two to three cases i've been working on when i call about it they say our design committee is doing it and you have to 80 no say so. there are times when the neighbors need to have an input in it. then we get the drawings like 72

hours before the hearing after most of things happening in city planning we didn't know about. there must be a better way of working with the public. i'm a little bit upset about this and it's he happened repeatedly. the other thing, too i really think that there's some a program to redo the forms the application forms and i understand there's a committee working on this but i don't know who's on the committee. and some things we really need to do is really have some input in. i did cut it off - we should - the public should have >>right. to have some input and one of the things are who the

expediteers are and we really need to know who's working on say projects. so i really would like to have more conversation between the department and us. thank you >> thank you. linda chapman and paul >> linda i came to continue discussing our concern the concern that people who come to our meetings have the negotiations for our neighborhood. john my mentor from the 70s who spoke at one of our meetings recently has always said if you go to negotiate with the developer you might as well go to work with the developer and essentially that's the way it works out.

those groups don't have any authority for you or example and what happens is they get what the developer is willing to give them such as a trees off-site would be an example. john wrote he quoted afro-from our meeting he spoke of the role of ego and compromise and we found on the website of the 18 van ness development that by way of the neighborhood association and in exchange for their support 15 units will be below the rate for parking bicycles and car shares and the person comments all of those things are required by paw law and certainly not a case of the

developer oh, up more than they have to, in fact, the bike spaces wouldn't even meet the law requirement. a lot of those people did petitions and came in here and there had been a meeting where the developer came in and they made a presentation. you could ask questions of them there was no discussion and yet so-called someone comes in here and says i support them and we don't knows who they i'm going to try to read to you a disgrateful letter. the proposal says it's nearly enforceable when the zoning meets the variances and so forth

which we don't mention. we wouldn't have won the argument without the zoning. but the zoning was against us. i don't think we could have had a better outcome we unsuccessful negotiated on projects like this before then they discourage them from going down there. >> good afternoon commissioners i'm paul. at the risk of possibly becoming a crank on some topics. i've been using the issue of planning vs. reacting. and there are a couple of items

on today's agenda that correlate with this. we've been making a lot of discussion in the city about walkable neighborhoods and to me it's critical i walk looting a lot it's important and dictates where i walk. and for example, in the japan town plan that question of how does one maintain a walkable engaging store front i'm using this to let you a point. and then we get to the ate row in san francisco which was auto service. but that's chang. its becoming very residential. and the c pmc project suggests to make for a very nice

streetscape and poke street is more pedestrian friendly and yet we're seeing projects at least one prestige on a connecter street that will be before you today, this is replacing a garage on say ground floor with a garage on the ground floor. part of the problem is we don't all understand what streets are dictated for walking and or parking services or whatever. but the result is we get a reactive and a lot of things that makes a lot of people confused about the clarity of zoning code means. and i would urge the commission to request the planning

department to be take a look at this and where is the direction and where are the features the infrastructure that might not alien with our future development and how do we migrate there today. i don't see that outlined in such a way it community groups understand it and quite possibly the planning department has that as an important part of the planning review. thank you >> is there that i additional public comment? okay public comment is closed. next item, please. >> commissioners that places you under our regular calendar for items 7 and 8 we'll be calling those up together and considering action. case no. - for the japan town

strategy and 20 fourteen t and v an attempted planning code to manage the japan town neighborhood district >> good afternoon. i'm steve on the planning staff. we're happy to be here for the japan neighborhood we're here to get the endorsement. the dhs is the first document to focus and preserve the neighborhoods cuticle heritage. it will thrive as an economic economically japan community for generations to come. the process to date this plan has been many years in the macon the never adopted making for the

concepts for the 2009 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.

issioners 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