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 seattle and sacramento they lost their japan town. so i hope we're stronger and will allow japan town to prosper for this and future generations.

in fact, i think it's the most important thing we have a basis we are cognizant and i urge you to adopt the dhs. thank you >> good afternoon, commissioners and director ram. i'm karen. i'm a member of the japan town organizing committee i've been co-chair of the land use and built form committee and i've served on all the committees. you'll heard about our process it's been collaborative it's been open and it's been arduous. i mean, we get in their we fight, we try to educate he each other and work together we check things we go over and over wus

we have a process but a it's produced a good document. the same thing goes for the resolutions that are before you. we worked on those we thought about the language what was included and not included and it's very disturbing that yesterday we had a member of our committee blind sided us what a proposed amendment. the preservation system handled it embrace fully but they recognized it's not a part of our process and it could have been. so i understand there maybe an amendment submitted asking this

committee to accept an endorsement or support of the s public works resolution. i would ask you not to include that because what happened there greatly disrespected the process you that asked us to have and we feel is important to have. it's so important going forward that the community can trust one another and know we're working together and the city agencies who we come before and ask for support and approval support the kind of work we do and hold us to the highest standards and make us live up to your expectations and don't allow others to undermine us. there maybe other parts of the content we don't dispute but the process was entirely wrong. you've heard from all those

folks here how much they have felt this process has worked on many levels bringing the community together and producing a fine piece of work for our community. please support that. thank you >> good afternoon, commissioners i'm ryan i'm the director of programs and community affairs of the japan town center. so director ram i'm saying the same speech as yesterday. first off i want to thank the community members and staff and we spent days and hours and years hammering this out. today commissioners i ask you to endorse this document. number one it promotes solutions

surrounding the preservation of our count iii community and dhs helps to preserve j toun. and number 2 its power the power when the stakeholders come together to create something positive >> and thee its beauty the beauty that couples u accompanying cites of the community to insure the economical stability cultural assets japan town stays alive and number 4 awesome. it's awesome that we're strategy gigz on how to preserve historic buildings and the events and activities that took place within those building.

activities like the cherry bloom festivity bring people together to get involved in japan town. number 5 beginning. i know that all of us on say originally committee are so they've we're almost done but all we have to do is transform this document into reality we have to make sure that j town thrives in this city. and lastly i'd like to thank and support of the decision of dhs to put the two things like the j, ymca. we have to consider the possibility of landmarking those

together for thigh great grandchildren. i'll have to have children first though (laughter) thank you very much >> good afternoon, commissioners my name is john i'm the executive director of the japan town youth council. i've been in this process since 2001. it's been a struggle, it's been frustrating and it's been very much a challenge and i'm pretty much here to say it's time to adopt this plan. i certainly have had many spirited discussions about what ended up in this plan. i haven't gotten everything i wanted but i don't think anyone

has. everything - everybody has had a say. i've been an executive director for 17 years and i've felt at times the city didn't feel like japan town be a priority for the city's time and stipulation. i appreciate the fact in this case, the planning department did navigate make this community a priority and i want to focus on urging this department and urging the department of economic workforce development to continue to make it a priority to continue to make it's resources available because i do agree with the statement as long as it took for us to get here this is the beginning of this process.

i've been around long enough to see businesses closed and the community rallying around certain aspects of our community that's not here anymore. i look forward to using many of the strategies that from this document to insuring that doesn't happen in the future. i want to thank you all for your time and attention to this matter. i urge tour support and i look forward to working with the planning department and all city department to see the conclusion >> any additional public comment? >> thank you places, dates, and times arnold townsend. i'm a board member of the

african-american complex the representatives from this effort made a presentation to us. just wanted to commit briefly that i think this is an exciting and outstanding proposal before you. it's something that desperately needs to happen. the people in japan town had the benefit or the strange benefit from watching the other part of their community the phil for being destroyed and is it will be if this is not approved and a they'll find themselves was we do when with have events on fillmore street they'll find the cherry bloom festival in an almost hostile environment as we

find ourselves now. it's important this become law and policy because the same meetings, the same discussions were held in the fillmore, the same kind of decisions were made to maintain and keep our heritage but the problem was they were just suggestions. and they were totally, completely go forward. and you then watch our culture and your memories and future being bulldozed. with the idea of bringing gary street back up to grade it's safe now and so when it happens and the change that will make the opportunities for development and other things that will be created by that it becomes very dangerous to a

community like japan town. i urge you i don't have the words as much as i talked to tell you how important it is that you support this effort so this community can maintain it's integrity >> thank you. any additional public comment. seeing none, public comment is closed and opening up to commissioners. commissioner wu >> thank you. i'm really happy to support the plan today. i really want to thank the supports supportsers this kind of neighborhood organizing takes a lot of diligence and patience but i think it's great to see the department supporting what i'll call the neighborhood determinations for a lot of people to get into a room

difficult to come to a skoeng but to find the common pieces. i also want to say that it's interesting starting to a grapple with the organization it continues through this plan and but what this means for san francisco is a challenge and a creative one. i said this in july i think that the gary brt is a real opportunity to do further organizing. you need projects that have money behind them. i know that b r it is very controversial but if it's going to happen there can be real physical changes that can be made to the link of transportation to japan town that can keep people coming to the neighborhood >> commissioner borden.

>> yeah. i wasn't at the earlier meeting but i want to support the process. it's exciting to see a group of people come together over something that matters over the framework. this is something that we struggle with we're not creating a now a community like japan town. there's so many exciting opportunities. and heeding the words of reverend townsend this is the kind of things that don't happen in the fillmore. and some things shut down recently and that you don't take things seriously that's exactly what happened. sometimes initially it comes up organicly but we have to have the support.

it's abatement to know that one of the largest tenant didn't participate and obviously japan mall meet the street in a more friendly environment s as this project comes forward but this is a great vision sea a great way to look at other communities in preserving cultural heritage but i want to commend the community in reaching consensus it's a difficult thing to do so thank you >> commissioner hill us. >> so to echo my congratulations. i know people have worked for decades on this. i've had the pleasure of working with many of you and.

i'll alleyway agree with commissioner borden's comments that one of the biggest property owners wasn't involved in this so hopefully, they'll see the benefit and come around and get engaged or sell their property, you know, and get someone who is somebody who's, in fact, engaged. there's great bold ideas in here establishing a community development corporations but i'm glaltd to see the big ideas. the city owns the garage which is a huge asset and mta has got to get involved but one of the assets we can use to implement japan town. so i support this >> commissioner moore.

>> i'm touched and moved and inspired it the community came together as a community and a planning was able to play a major roll in this. this is a wonderful outcome. i'm obligated we saw it mutual in all it's aspects. i personally want to thank the commissioner who as a commissioner helped us keep the attention on your project on the forefront. he's been at least to me a great source of information and advise and while when we didn't did you say outcomes together emphasis intimate nlz has helped me. i want to congratulate everybody and i look forward to support the project >> i too am supportive of the

project and want to thank everyone whose contributed to it. it's been well done and i'm going to leave it up to commissioners is a >> i'd like to thank the community for its hard work manufacture or. some members of this commission were involved in the b m public works effort but everyone's fully aware of the importance of this document. it's a landmark document i fully support it. it's built on the communities strong desire to retain it's heritage and it is the most expensive approach that we've had to date. the prior events mainly in the social heritage sdprikt are in that plan but this takes it a

considerable distance further. i think that i was appointed as a city planning commissioner and this is a city planning commission. we have over the years approved many neighborhood plans the market or takeoff plan and the western plan and the he eastern neighborhood is its own kind of animal not exactly a neighborhood plan in my opinion by in all of those instances even though western sill ma like japan town and market or staff were community driven and supported by the planning department there were many reiterate shuns of those plans

there were changes that were made. i'm not proposing to make any changes to the dhs document but i'm going to make a motion to adopt the dhs document as city policy as stewart set forth as be it resolved clauses but i want the planning commission to consider another be clause recognize the planning commission that the committee supports the historic planning commission in its own endorsement and the planning drifkdz they've given to the city staff. i think it's - the planning department directs its staff to work with rec park and the

multiple planning agency that they port of the economic workforce development in japan town that the planning commission recommends that the traffic he helps dhs through the heritage travel program and the planning commission recommends the county of transportation agency work a little bit more closely and diligently on the gary street brt. my reasoning is as a sister commission i think it's important to recognize the work that the commission has been doing also through this process and their resolutions were somewhat - well, i guess i can say totally different in some respects but i think they've

diligently at yesterday's hearing considered the issues and adopted their resolution and i'd like to support that >> second. >> commissioner hill us and not knowing what the historic preservation commission did yesterday maybe you could explain that or react to it. i get your point about - it may be a boarder discussion about having us to recommended the implementations but i don't know what they did yesterday but certainly they've got an aspect of this that's important to recognize >> i - did everyone on this commission receive the historic preservation resolution in their

packet? i can read them if you want >> well - the 5 directives are as follows. that the historic preservation commission directs planning vice president, staff to complete the san bernardino county forms for the 1 hundred historic preservations for documentation. that the historic preservation commission directs the planning staff to work with the community and the resource effort management including adding resources to the japan town social he heritage san bernardino county purging recognition for the resources and san francisco legacy bars and restaurants program and

pursuing national registers and historic resources registers that the historic preservation planning commission directs the stapling staff to add the peace plaza and here's with their action deviated from what the staff recommended and the community had included. it says directs the planning staff to add did japanese language school and the japanese ymca. the peace placing to its work program for designating the sites as a culture sclabd and to work with rec and park of the peace plaza and association with encroachments there to and it directs the planning department staff to conduct a clinic on the available historic preservation

tools listed in dhs in fiscal years 2013 and fourteen and designate the information to organizations where tyler in san jose and los angeles and to sent to asian and patrick - pacific folks etc. >> i think those all sound reasonable it would be good to get a reaction. i would recommend it being boarder if there's controversial elements to say that the planning commission recommend those aspects which i think are all of those.

i don't think i'm - it takes it even boarder to what they actually did took things they maybe able to do in the future. >> would you like some. so as commissioner mentioned basically, what he stated was the language that was in the resolution before the historic commission there was one clause that was addressed that basically identified two buildings in the neighborhood to be added to the historic preservation and those two building are the japanese ymca and the language school. and those buildings to be added to this landmark in process didn't mean they'll be landmark but as identified in the dhs at

the time the resolutions were written the organization committee didn't have a feeling this was something they wanted to be identified but it didn't preclude them but it was something that wasn't agreed to >> and the plan didn't designate. >> we don't identify the peace plaza or any buildings in the plan. >> so the resolution took the next step. >> yeah, the peace plaza was the implementation of the t did h s and the puc said to add them. >> those are the ago only two buildings that are added. >> is peace plaza correct.

i would only add from the community standpoint this came in as an 11th hour that was following the discussion and two we had already received the letters of support from the community so it was - and not having a chance and time to circle back we stand by and i stand by the resolutions that are originally were submitted to you. okay. the two buildings are in trouble historic resources and significant to the history of japan town and they're identified in the dhs listed among the historic resources so, now or whether