and moved tot front, i think they would still maintain a usable living room. the overall size of the building might actually increase. but that would just be the impact of the decision. >> okay. please call the question. >> commissioners there is say meigs and second to continue the matter to may 22nd on that motion, commissioner antiin. >> aye. >> commissioner borden? >> '? >> instructor: a. commissioner hillis? >> aye. >> commissioner moore? >> aye. >> commissioner sugaya? >> aye. >> commission president wu? >> aye. >> so moved, commissioners that motion passes unanimously 6-0. >> do we need to keep this material? >> i would imagine you are going to be receiving revised plans. >> >> okay. commissioners, that will place you on your last agendized item, no. 17, for case no.

2013.340d, at 1423 [ao-fb/] avenue a request for a mandatory discretionary review. >> commissioner antonini. >> i am going to have to recuse myself from this. i am waiting for interpretation. i have project sponsor is a dental patient of mine. we're not entirely sure whether his services at this point and renumeration and once i have a clear understanding for project probings it may have a similar circumstance, but in this case we'll just have to ask for recusal today. >> move to recuse. >> second. >> good evening. >> sorry, one second. on the recusal of commissioner antonini commissioner antonini?

>> aye. >> commissioner borden? >> aye. >> commissioner hillis? >> aye. >> commissioner moore? >> excuse me, commissioner sugaya? >> aye. >> and commission president wu? >> aye. >> so moved commissioners. commissioner antonini, you are now recused. and jessica, you may present the case. >> thank you. good evening president wu and members of the commission, jessica luck, planning department staff. before you is a mandatory directionry review request for medical cannabis dispensary at 1423 ocean street. with proposed hours of operations from 10:00 a.m. too 10:00 p.m. monday through sunday. the windows are proposed to be clear and unobstruct ed proposed mcd will sell cannabis and cannabis foot stuffs and would allow on-site smoking and

vaporization. the mcd would also be required to comply with the mayor's office of disability requirements. the project site is located within the ocean avenue nct district and there are two other existing mcds in the area, that operate on ocean avenue. the first mcd is located at 1545 ocean avenue doing business as waterford wellness health center and this mcd is located within 500' of the subject property. the second is located at 1944 ocean on and avenue. the project meets criteria for consideration by the planning commission and evaluating medical cannabis dispensaries. as this commission is aware there is currently pending [hr-eulgts/]ion introduced by supervisor norman yee that would amend the mcd controls within ocean avenue nct and that an nct -- mcd may be --

allowed with 500'. this first heard at the land use very many committee in april and if aproofed by the bdr board of supervisors. essentially the project sponsor because it's located within 500' of another mcd if the permit is in the issued by dbi, has to get conditional use authorization. the department received total of 22 letters in opposition and 64 letters in support of the proposed mcd. i have brought hard copies of the email. the department recommends to approve the mcd can withins. again the planning department's review is generally limited to the location. in relation to elementary or

secondary schools, public or private or recreational buildings or a permitted community center that primarily serve those under 18. therefore the staff recommends approval to the project based on meet ing these criterias. well, served by transit along on and off ocean avenue, et cetera. the department is staff does acknowledge this is a unique situation to bring a proposed mcd to the condition with pending legislation. and result the commission has a concern about the overconcentration of mcds, it may find there are exceptional or extraordinary circumstances concerning that project. and the commission can also

choose to continue the hearing until the legislation is continued. >> is the city attorney still here? i received some different advice from the city attorney earlier today. >> thank you, i did speak with the city attorney before she left the building and confirming that continuance solely for the matter of allowing the legislation to take effect is not advisable. but if you have other reasons to continue it, you can for those other legitimate reasons. but otherwise, we don't know what the final forum of legislation will be and we would suggest that you take action tonight or continue for another reason. but otherwise, this project would have to obtain their building permit prior for the effective date of the ordinance or otherwise subject to the ordinance. >> thank you. >> i have another procedural issue. in the staff report it says that the department of public health is delaying this hearing, which is a hearing on waterfall wellness, which is

going through a change of ownership and will have a hearing before the director of dph and says they are delaying this until this particular mcd is heard before the commission. it seems a little backwards to have the other commission wait for us, when, in fact, if a decision is made about that other mcd in the negative, like they don't get approval, then that puts entirely different light on this particular case because of the distances involved, i believe. >> i assume that could be a legitimate reason to continue that until dph has their hear and put it back on their back. >> as i understand, and let me know if i am come nothing territory we are not supposed to be in, dph would like to hear both locations at the same time and they have scheduled a hearing where there are two

mcds that they would like to hear that are within the 500' of one another. >> commissioner hillis. >> i agree with commissioner sugaya, it's backwards and we're going to take this up and talk about clustering, which is an issue regardless of the legislation or not passing. it's been an issue that we have heard about for a long time. dph's issue is the quality of the enterprise that is operating now and which would change our opinion significantly if they said no to it. so i agree with commissioner sugaya. i think we're doing this back-yards backwards and need to wait what dph says so we can talk about the issue of clustering and regardless of supervisor yee's legislation. >> is there more than one

location within the 1,000'? >> there is another mcd located within 500'. >> so i was thinking even if the other location is ultimately denied i did dph, this would be [po-urbl/] for cu. >> other mcd is located within a thousand -- it's outside of the 500'. >> i suggest that we go ahead with the hearing and hear from the public. they have waited all day to talk. and then discuss. commissioner hillis? >> no, i'm fine with that. >> well, that concludes my presentation. and i'm available for questions. thank you. >> project sponsor.

>> hello commissioners my name is greg and i'm the sponsor of very passat health centers at 1423 ocean. a little bit about myself, i grew up in a family business -- we're in security business. i got into medical cannabis for my injury for pain, which we still continue today. they are talking about 1944 ocean is way past 1,000' for the second one, if waterfall was to be denied. the other one is way past 1,000 ate. there was some concerns with the neighborhood groups that i met with about the appearance of the front of the store. there will be no bars or hume cameras and we have low profile cameras out front and you will be able to see through the store, so it won't be blocked off, which is a big concern to

the community. the other thing was there is a lot of talk about the smell of the cannabis. our paint store was next door had some smell problem and since then we have hired an engineer to connect that problem running negative air, which we would have air changes in the building seven times an hour. so the smell won't be coming out of the front of the store or impeding on our neighbors. that is about it. could you have any questions? >> he may have questions later. >> thank you.

>> hello. >> are you part of the project team? >> yes, i am. >> great. [ inaudible ] my name is christina -- program coordinator. native san franciscan. i graduated from san francisco state and i have a degree in civil justice and political science and paralegal certificate, just to give you background. we're applying for mcd 1423 ocean avenue. for the last three years i managed waterfall wellnessness on day to case basis complying with city ordinances and regulations. in january, greg and i left waterfall wellness. my experience in managing the dispensary and understanding the needs of our patients has enabed me to create the model of successful outreach compassat care program in san

francisco, which assists over 300 patients weekly. our program is one of the few compassion programs that cater to veterans suffering from illnesses living in san francisco. we continue to offer delivery service that is free of costs for our home-bound patients who are too sick or too ill to leave their homes. our patients are diagnosised with serious conditions and most of them suffering from cancer, aids and other terminal diseases. we are able to develop personal relationships with our patients that go beyond just delivering the delivery service. for some we may be their only contact. in short, greg and i continue to provide one of the largest compassionate care programs in san francisco. these services are not required by dispensaries. which are makes us pretty unique. we know first happened there is a need for more services for our parens and that has been our main motivation to find a larger space and bigger

location, to where we can offer more for those in need. aside from working directly with our patient, working with city officials and both greg and i hold seats or the medical marijuana task force and cannabis industry and end iting the working group at city hall, sponsored by president of the board, david chiu. it has always been our intent to serve the community and patients with the utmost sincerity. this open house every tuesday night is welcome to welcome the community and we present current topics and opportunity to respond to questions and concerns. as far as our neighborhood outreach we contacts the surrounding neighborhood

associations includinging the ocean avenue association, et cetera. >> i'm sorry, your time is up. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. let's open it up for public comment. i have a number of speaker cards, please line up on the screen side of the door room so we don't block the door. [speaker not understood] public comment is for two minutes. >> good evening, my name is barry and i'm here speaking

opposed of the granting of this permit. i am a united states marine. i am a decorated vietnam veteran and also a member of the marine corps league vfw veterans legion and newly formed san mateo county -- i do 300-400 community service hours a year primary with veterans, va hospitals .

secondly, i am a third generation san franciscan and it used to be that there was a liquor store on every corner in this city and we have kind of gotten away from that, which i think is a good idea and having a cannabis store on every corner doesn't strike me as a good idea and this was mentioned to several people that i talked to before i came in, if there is smoking involved on the premises, they hate the idea for a variety of reasons. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good evening, commission. my name is derrick morgan and i was a former employee of greg

and christina for two years. i was a manager at one location, and the general manager at another location in vallow. i am here today to explain these people are not responsible and professional business owners. when i signed up for waterfall, the compassion program consisted of a jar of dirty meds, that we just hand out to anybody who said do you have compassion today? under me and tyra, one of the other speakers we reformatted the compassion program and now offer patients medicine that they need and in proper amounts. also there were no compassion programs at the other location in vallejo that was owned by greg. very poor quality medicine is coming in. we would bring to their

attention there is like mildew and other mold and they would say to go around it -- trim around it or get rid of the ones that look the worst. that is not responsible at all. did not care about their employees. they have been sued -- greg has been sued several time by old employees for violating labor laws. not offering proper breaks. and not paying overtime. i have also -- when i was working in vallejo, they refused to pay for my commute and had me transporting large amounts of medicine. i have also received abusive texts and gotten emails with viruses in them from them. saying that they were going to hold raises -- if i didn't do things >> thank you. >> so i urge you to please vote no to any additional

hearings for this em. >> thank you. next speaker. >> hello, i'm desiree and the current compassion coordinator at waterfall wellness and you would like to thank the commission. i have worked under both greg and christina, as well as our current ownship. i want to go back to something that christina just said about our home-bound patients that she delivers to, who i am very familiar with. our home-bound patients aren't supposed to leave their homes for a variety of reasons due to their health. i see a lot of them here today, which is unfortunate and i feel they are -misinformed on what they are advocating for. i have a couple of hundred signatures for accessibility to

medical cannabis dispensary. i want to talk about the compassion program. a lot of people here today are already part of our passion program and i want you to evaluate the need for an additional mcd? for our community? we are already serving all of these people and he work with them daily. if we copyright accommodate them -- i always work with another way to find that we can. essentially, it's just about evaluating need and i just don't see a need for another dispensary. also i want to make note when i took over the compassion program there were about 50 people on each list that were

not active. i was able to add more people. i wanted to add that as well. >> thank you. next speaker. as the next speaker comes up i will call more speaker names. [ reading speakers' names ] >> hi commissioners and thanks for having me. my name is tyra mitchell, part of waterfall wellness. my position is opposing the new dispensary at 1423 ocean. as it has been mentioned before, our patients are satisfied with what we do. and is there are already two dispensaries within a four-block radius, why make it three? we provide quality medicine. we [ho*-ed/] host neighborhood events and patient-appreciation programs and as you heard our compassion program. we also have started doing

drives and fundraising and just bringing more to the you the community. he attend neighborhood meets and we get to know all of our neighbors more. there is a pending lawsuit against gregory from embezzling funds. and also, the ocean association

have voted against a third dispensary, which is the neighborhood meeting that we attend and they are a known organization. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> i will call a few more names. [ reading speakers' names ] >> good evening, my name is kyle maple. the basic reason i am here is in support of this program and i'm speaking as a former caregiver. the idea of having another option, one that will actually make it easier and more affordable for patients to make the adjustments that their illness has had required them to make in their lives is important. i don't think coming up here and taking away options is good for them. i think it should be all about

them. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good evening, commissioner. my name is james ward. i am a disabled marine veteran. i was a cold war vet. i am a bay area native. i have been living in the tenderloin at the same address for seven years. about two years ago i was part of the veteran's committee that in the access of love we drew a letter up for the medical cannabis commission task force and apparently greg was the only one who listened. what we asked for in that letter is pretty much the way he setup the compassion. i know these folks as bac, but i know them as greg jazz jazmyn and nick and that was really

important to me. when i checked other dispensaries, they had a discount, but you had to buy higher amounts and the ones that i could afford were not part of that discount. i really appreciate that the people are wright the book on our a compassionate dispensary should run. i believe that they have served employee as me as a veteran. it's a beautiful building and i have seen the neighbors come in during the open houses and how the neighbors feel about them. these people, that is what we

need in a medical cannabis dispensary and to deny them a permit would be a slap in the face to every veteran here. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker: >> good evening everyone. my name is mary lou and i'm here to support the collective. to me they have provided compassion to me because of my budget i am really poverty level and cannot afford to buy my medication. also i used to live around the area where the bac wants to do business.

that is why i am here, and also there are liquor stores and nightclubs around that area and where they serve liquor, which is detrimental to our health and having bac in the neighborhood is for harm reduction. i believe that and i'm really hoping for your kind consideration regarding to the bac group bay area compassion to open up. so that will have a nicer area and quiet place. thank you very much >> thank you. as the next speaker comes up, i will call more names [speaker [ reading speakers' names ].

ch my name is mike hinkel, ge resident of san francisco. i believe bac sets an example for compassion in san francisco and maybe even nationwide and without them, the access to love group -- they support our vets group and our end of the month dinner. without them, it would be gone. bac has always been involved with helping less fortunate homeless vets and disabled. all of their compassion programs that i have seen have petered out or the medicine just gets poor. i have none these guys for almost six years and the medicine has always been good. and they made me feel comfortable. i felt safe there.

they cared about me. i felt secure. i haven't found that anywhere else. i know that they care about me and no other place has made me feel that comfortable. we need people like this. not people that think about their wallets. we need these kinds of people. we need these kinds of people because they care. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker. >> good afternoon commission, my name is chelsea and i'm here on behalf of bay area compassion health center, because they have helped me out when i needed it.