rdt with the neighbors and real study of the neighborhood context. this is a brief narrative of the designer vision we went through showing day one up through where we reside today and you can see there's been a great many renditions. starting about halfway through that yard you can see where we started working with the rdt and that was really a moment where we were able to approach them and have a good dialogue about what they deemed appropriate for the neighborhood and what concerns we could take into account to make sure we built with as much, as light a hand as possible. ultimately, i'll just run true some slides and show you where we have arrived with the house's two-story feature at the front, maintaining recessed entry way at the front, trying to minimize the impact of a third floor while not completely reducing it, a rear yard that's sympathetic to lampson lane, also creates flat outdoor space for the owner. wie also looked at massing and materials and really recrating a property

that would have a warm feel, we built a modern house and we're going to keep it warm and friendly to the neighborhood. thank you for your time. >> time's up. >> okay, now opening it to public comment for speakers in support of the project. greg kleiner, john woodward, elizabeth mcdermot and claudia colasso >> good afternoon, or actually good evening, my name is greg kleiner and i am the neighbor immediately behind the project, i live immediately behind the project, i have been there 21 years, known carolyn for every moment she has lived in her house which she says is 17 years. carolyn has been very good about keeping us up to date about what the proposed changes are, has been very receptive to making changes proposed by us and other people in terms of the size and scope of this

project. it is no different than any of the houses that have been built, in fact it's much more tastefully designed than any of the projects that went up, unlike a project that went up next to me which was a spec house, they simply put things in and i had to go in and fight every day at planning to get things removed including illegal windows, illegal doors. this project, she's followed all the guidelines and complied, i believe, with all the requirements of the city codes and i am confident that unlike someone who is building a spec house, here we will get a neighbor and retain a neighbor that will be in keeping with the character and size and mass of the property and i strongly encourage this commission to approve this project. thank you for your time. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good evening, i'm john woodward, my wife and i live next door to carolyn at 61 castelli, to give perspective, we're on the alley, we look

directly to the south to the 3 brand new houses that have been totally remodeled. this would be the fourth in a row of houses. it's hard for me to stand here and see my neighbors not getting along but i think when you see the changes in the neighborhood, and we have lived there 25 years, it gets very emotional. this is different from the other four that have been completed in the last five years in that this is the only one that has come to us in advance and seriously asked for our input. and what's more, made major modifications in the plans and been sensitive. this is also the only one that's come forward and wanted to live in it. the others were flippers or were contracts for people that didn't live in the neighborhood. i think that carolyn has bent over backwards, perhaps not pleasing everyone, but making major modifications and keeping the style of the proposal in

the context and consistent with at least the three houses immediately adjacent to her on 19th street. and my wife and i reviewed those plans because we're going to have to look up at that house every day and we are absolutely comfortable with what she's proposing and how it's consistent with how the neighborhood has evolved over the last decade. so we're cool. thank you. >> thank you. >> hello, my name is claudia carosso and i'm here to speak on behalf of carolyn powell, more to her character and the type of neighbor and person and her contribution to the san francisco xhuepbtd. -- community. i think that's important as you weigh the evidence to make this decision. carolyn is a valued san franciscoan and she is an important member of our

community. i am a 22-year resident of san francisco, i've been a home owner in the mission district and a member of the liberty hill neighborhood association and i know that carolyn powell is extremely invested in seeing not only her neighborhood flourish but this city flourish. carolly, one shining example of this is her support of the women's initiative for self-employment, of which i am a board member, she and i served together on the women's initiative. she has been a supporter of buding women entrepreneurs, this program that helps low income women start their own businesses and rise, get themselves out of poverty and achieve economic independence. carolyn has played a critical role not only in providing mentorship and her business expertise but also providing financial contributions to that organization and has been a leader in that organization. she also has been actively involved in other organizations, the horizons foub daition, a local chapter of the aha, quality california,

lambda legal, the national center for lesbian rights, in addition she is a major supporter of the did he young museum, san francisco symphony and the police officer organization. so this is a very serious san francisco citizen. but also on the professional front carolyn is a bio medical professional, she has just had a medical device approved by the fda and was designed in conjunction with professors from ucsf despite the fact her work took her down to the pen nepbs sla she remained a devoted san franciscoan, she stayed in the city, she continued to pay her taxes, she dedicated her time to the many san francisco organizations i just mentioned. finally, home to carolyn is not just san francisco, it's specifically the eureka valley where she knows every street, every side running site and every dog friendly zone. she

wants to stay in the eureka valley where her neighbors have become dear friends where she is often the first to help those in need. she is trying to create a new home for herself in the neighborhood to which she has dedicated her life. thank you and i hope you will approve her application and let her stay in this city. thank you. >> my name is elizabeth mcdermott and thank you for hearing me speak today. i would like to give voice to those neighbors who have written letters but were unable to be here this afternoon. all of these neighbors reside in the neighboring block. the first is juliet, who is 90 years old and takes these proceedings very brief. dear president fond and mr. smith, i have been a resident

here more than 90 years. i live 4 houses up the hill from 4546. i know the house and know it needs to be fixed up. i also nope the owner and know what she is proposing. the house is similar in size to other homes in our block and i am pleased it extends back only as far as the house uphill from it. i support the plan she is currently proposing. next is a letter from mr. jay allen. dear mr. fong and commissioner, i have reviewed the proposed addition at 4546 19th street. i use thorpe lane daily. appropriate for the site and the neighborhood. the neighborhood has an incredibly broad mix of architectural styles and this proposal, which is tasteful and attractive, is quite similar in style to at least two remodels

recently completed. it appears to me the only neighbors who are requesting discretionary review of the project and are frankly agitating many others not really in the neighborhood are those who are concerned with how it will impact their view. while they may claim the proposed structure is inconsistent with others in the neighborhood or that it is too large, their real concern is their view. walk 19th street and you will see the diversity of styles and sizes and the similar structures recently completed. despite the thin veil over their real concerns, carolyn has gone out of her way to work with the neighbors and spent over a year modifying the design. frankly, many other property owners would not have demonstrated carolyn's patience although i am not surprised, i have known carolyn for many years and she is a wonderful individual who has listened, made accommodations and worked in good faith with the neighborhood to arrive at the current plan. please approve this project as proposed. carolyn's new home will be a significant improvement to what is currently on the lot and she has made enough changes. for

brevity i cannot read all the letters by the 11 neighbors on the block that have been submitted, they all make similar points but have the common themes that the house fitness style and the neighborhood, she has been considerate to the changes making changes to her plans to address their needs and they respectfully request you approve the project as proposed. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> hello, my name is alex schroeder and i live at 4534 19th street, two doors to the east of the subject property. i have also looked at the plans through the various stages and have seen accommodations made to the neighbors' requests. being to the east certainly i

appreciate the changes that carolyn made, although i did not request any. specifically she has pulled the building back so on the western side at certain elevations it is equal with the canadian consulate building on the opposite side of that alleyway called lamp sun lane and on the eastern side she has also pulled the building back at certain elevations to match the furthest point out on the building immediately to the eastern side. i think also in front she has pulled the building back 15 feet and those are sort of the usual and common changes to a proposed architecture so it doesn't have overbearing scale. and looking at the pictures i appreciate the effort and the outcome of

the architectural rendering and i, too, have a -- this shows what you've seen already. some of the newer buildings, the canadian consulate and then two others but then some of the buildings that haven't been remodeled they are also in height very high. it is a down slope lot and the other picture here shows my house, i'm two doors to the east, and immediately to the east of my house is a building that also is very tall in scale. so i think the way that the setbacks were created in the front and in the back both setbacks in the back forward and setbacks from the sidelines of the property inward help bring this into an appropriate scale and address many of the concerns. along the alley she has created

a relief for plantings as well as set back on top of the garage, a fence structure as such, i think it says 28 seconds, i'm not sure which is right, the buzzer or me. probably me. and the garage also, it's interesting, the last 16 feet of her property or in the last 16 feet of the two neighbors easterly, of which i am one, we have an easement that affects only our 3 properties that gives access to the immediate eastern neighbor and then one further over, that would be me, access to the back of our property --. >> thank you, sir, your time is up. >> it's not a general turn around parking area. thank you. >> thank you. >> good evening, commissioners, my name is patrick buskovich, i was

retained two years ago on this house and during the last two years this project went from a de facto demolition to remodel so i'm quite taken aback that people have said that this project is big. during my tenure it's been scaled down dramatically to now --. >> are you part of the project team? are you the engineer for the project? >> i was the engineer doing the soundness report but there is no longer a soundness report because there is not a demolition. >> you are not retained by the owner, though. >> when i was retained this house needed over $300,000 worth of work. during this hearing no one said it but it was in the dr briefs that this is an affordability issue. no one said it today because that's ridiculous. my family all lives within a thousand yards of this house. we own about 6 residences here. we're natives of the city. if you

look up this alley you will see probably the smallest house in the neighborhood, which is earthquake shack no. 26. it's not skewed. the problem with this house, and it has a fundamental problem, when they installed the siding they basically condemned this house to need major rehab because they trapped the water in this house over the last 30 years so this house needs substantive work. it's not affordable and when i was retained, this was a dramatically bigger project that over the course of the work with planning it's been reduced to a point where it's a remodel. thank you. >> thank you. any further speakers in support? >> my name is sky lane again, i worked with ian reed when they were going through the

process with the design review team and the neighbor cooperation and i just wanted to speak to that process a bit. this project really started with the design guidelines for corner property. the landmark status of a corner property and developed over two years working directly from the very beginning, from the conceptual stages right here, with both the planning department, the neighbors and the rdt, and you can see how the scale of the building really started to shift over that process and the architects took both the comments of the rdt and the neighbors into account and in that process were able to get of the de facto demolition by keeping the floor plates, were able to squeak out a little bit more air space above the

building to lower it in the process, and were able to really create a prominent two-story volume at the street level that worked with the stepping down of this part of the block. all of the -- the rdt gave provisional approval to this project and all the comments were addressed during this long process, as well as many of the neighbor comments, and i guess that's what i have to say. what we came -- what came up with at the end was a very strong modern statement that fits with the context that has warm neutral character of materials, that becomes part of this mixed neighborhood of old and new buildings. thank you. >> thank you. any further

speakers? okay, seeing none, the dr requester has a two-minute rebuttal. >> is the light on? this is very simple issue. it's really about the topography of 19th street. this is what we currently enjoy right now on 19th street, an uninterrupted pattern of descending roof tops that go down and follow the grade of the street. this house is going to pop out of that topography. many of the other people who have spoken just now are taking pictures from the rear of the building. that's an alleyway that people go to for the garages and so forth, it's not 19th street. 19th street is the public part that people are going to see. i have not heard the sponsor counter how this is going to not disrupt the topography and that's really a very crucial issue for us, it's going to

really change the profile of 19th street forever. also they are taking, they are using, they are trying to qualify, this is a corner lot to give them license to build a gigantic structure that's deserving of a corner lot. lampson lane is not castro street. lampson lane is an extremely narrow alley and i don't think it justifies putting such a large structure there and qualifying as a corner lot to do that. i'm going to leave the remaining time for ken, another dr requester. >> i'm ken calstein, i live at 4565 19th street across from lampson lane and i want to do two things. one, i want to show you the front of the canadian consulate now, this is how it was before. same height, same width. also when they talk about a habitable space of 2600 square feet, this

building in reality is 5,000 square feet. there is 570 feet of garage, 470 square feet of garage, rather, 350 feet for a workshop, two storage units of 660 square feet, so what started out as an absolutely huge building is now 5,000 square feet. thank you. >> thank you. project sponsor, you have a two-minute rebuttal. >> thank you, vice president wu, commissioners. michael smith from the planning staff and his residential design teamworked pretty hard with this project architect and the owner to come up with the best possible house for this setting. and i think they have done a really good job with it. they have created a house that is both responsible and respectful of the character of the block. it follows the contour of the topography. the

setback at the top is very respectful of pedestrian experience along 19th street. but what it also does, it presents gifts to the block just as the corner block -- corner houses on the other corners of the block do. the front setback area gives us an open notched courtyard with the terrace above so light will come through. it is not a maxed-out property by any stretch of the imagination. there are opportunities to create living space where architectural details were placed and placed carefully. the rear building wall was sculpted very specifically to address view issues that were of real concern with the canadian consulate. we met with them several times before the application was filed and discussed exactly what their

view quarters were. it is important to them because they view them as being an important reception area for their governmental duties so we are being very respectful of that and we did not extend beyond the point at which their building wall ends, despite the fact that our lot extends considerably further. this is a well designed project, it's a project that needs to happen to this house, it's not habitable in its current sense and it does not meet the level of exceptional extraordinary circumstances required for you to take dr today. thank you. >> thank you. the public hearing portion is closed. commissioner hillis. >> so first cunningham, it was a fairly civil dr from what we normally hear. you can all get along after this process. what's more to the -- i mean, it is a big addition and a big

remodel to the home, but i think it kind of works with what we see as very different size of homes uphill in smaller homes, downhill, it has a set back on the side and a decent set back in the front. so i am generally supportive. i mean i think i could look at kind of addition of a setback, additional setback in the front along 19th street, that's the only thing giving me a little trouble, but generally i don't think there are exceptional or extraordinary circumstances here, i think it's generally well designed and kind of responds to the homes around. certainly have been major changes to the housing stock, especially to the uphill side of the building. i'm generally satisfied. >> commissioner moore. >> i would say i'm generally supportive, i just have one

question and that ultimately goes more to the area of the jurisdiction of the zoning administrator. i'd like to ask the architect, as you were observing the neighborhood, the adjoining buildings up and down the street, is there rear yard open space on grade? >> there's a mix. uphill there are one or two that have a portion of rear yard grade, but by and large the newer developments have a stepped-down yard that steps down to the garage. >> appreciate you having observed that. question i like to ask the zoning administrator, as we are identifying the city it is very difficult for me and i think also for some other members of the commission to give up that open spaces as required are on

grade. we just took the 1601 larkin to mention the second time today, a major redesign in order for that to occur. my question, is it a fact that this particular project by choice is larger than perhaps an addition would allow that would provide the required open space on grade not to inflict a difficulty by which it might be a little more difficult to step away from a variance? >> thank you for the question. so first, just a couple of things on usable open space. the code does not require that usable open space be located at grade, it can be located in numerous ways, either by a roof deck, a balcony, at grade. in this case these open spaces are being provided by the garage, on top of the garage, they are developing that as usable open

space and also an underground connection or near connection from the main living level of the building to the rear garage. in reviewing this and reviewing the variance request i'm actually quite supportive of the proposal and think it's a clever way of dealing with usable open space issues here for this lot and if we were to have usable open space at a lower level, in fact it's actually at the main living level here at least for the unit that's being added so i think that it's a reasonable solution. additionally it's been noted by the neighbors that the rear most portion of the lot, and it is a large lot, a longer lot, is dedicated as an easement for access to adjacent properties so that's an at-grade area that could otherwise be developed for usable open space except it can't because it's dedicated for access. so they are taking

the roof, dedicating it for usable open space and i see this as a fine way of satisfying the requirements of the code. certainly i would be supportive of the proposal. >> if i may engage for another minute in a conversation, i think the joint agreement for not having land locked lots which do not have rear access is a discussion between three neighbors who i don't believe that the turn around itself is de facto open space any more, it is an agreed-upon circulation space by which all people together reduce their lot widths in order to have the garage with rear access. the only question i would ask, that's not only looking at this property but looking at other properties and similar circumstances again reflecting on what we had on larkin where in the larkin case the adjoining neighbors were seriously impacted by the lack of open space on grade and do

you see that possibly in other circumstances to be an issue? >> depending on the project, certainly having usable open space at grade may be preferable to having it located elsewhere. i think this project that's before you now the location of usable open space is appropriate and satisfies the intents and requirements of the code. >> i am in support of this project for all of the reasons but i like to send a message to the department that we're starting to look more carefully on the larger patterns of sun and light and collective open spaces including the wall effect on narrow properties it creates to either side. in this one case we have an alley which was green which makes it greener on the alley side but generally i am concerned about

that becoming a standard way of doing things. thank you. >> would anyone like to make a motion. >> i'd make a motion to approve the project. >> second. >> not take it up. >> second. >> commissioners, there a motion to not take dr and approve the project as proposed. roll called. that motion passes unanimously 5-0. >> on the variance, the public hearing (inaudible) grant the requested variance. >> commissioners, that will place you under your last angendized item, public comment. i have no speaker cards. >> is there any general public

comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. meeting adjourned. (meeting adjourned).