vivian cole, my house is 1901 and 1903 18th avenue behind the cvs, i basically support cvs because before it's the post office in there, then the parking is really bad. then right now since cvs move in, i think it will improve that location because too many french kids always on the street, they smoke, lie down on there, and a lot of the street people stay there, so really bad for that location. and the second thing, 19th avenue always been traffic. i live in sunset for a long time, most of the neighbors, they don't drive, they only walking, so i support cvs stay there. only i request for the sound

system because on the wall, because my house is behind the cvs parking when they go entry place, and i want to keep that street clean, that's all. >> thank you. next speaker. >> hello there, i'm a neighbor located on 17th and noriega, i'm speaking on beafter of the neighbors between 17th avenue and ortega, and the support of the cvs pharmacy is overwhelming on this block. in fact, from the people that i've talked to, i found very, very few people who had any questions about there being problems because, one, first off, the building is located, it's a six lot spot that's empty and it does not look good

in its present state. something needs to be done. that's number 1, and a cvs pharmacy would be great because instead of that being a spot for attracting french kids to the -- the french student tos come smoke there, it could become an actual useful business. number 2, cvs pharmacy would be great because the walgreens is located near there, and it's two to three block radius, and the problem is there's only three or four parking spaces for that walgreens, it's very congested. many our residents are between the ages of 40 and about 60 and they're mostly middle age people who have jobs right now who are unable to -- who aren't able to speak on behalf of this but the support is overwhelming and i think having a pharmacy in the area as a future medical

doctor, that would be great because you just need more competition, there's a lot of people who cannot access walgreens if you went for kaiser permanency, you could go off of kaiser or cvs and having a cvs would be great, not to mention many of our residents can walk, many of them have small kids, many of them could walk to the cvs and they won't be selling alcohol, and they have a minute clinic, that would be great and the support from all of the sixties is overwhelming from my area, so it would be silly to say neighborhood support, there's clearly neighborhood support. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker. >> hi, good afternoon,

commissioners, i live in the sunset neighborhood for over 30 years, my name is michael, right now with the new baby boom, all these asians are moving into the sunset neighbors, over 80%, i'm assuming this, but we're about 80% chinese in that area, especially around 19th avenue. there's a new medical center, the chinese medical center, it's a three storey hospital and then there will be more medical practices around that, 20th and noriega area so with the 20th avenue cvs, it's great for a medical office so people can get their prescriptions right away and i talked to a lot of neighbor ins the area and they can't wait for this

cvs to open because they will -- most of us asians walk and we would rather save gas than to drive somewhere to buy something, that will save us tons of money and cvs will give us discount service and they have an on-site nurse or prescriptions that will advise us of over-the-counter drugs because most of the time most people when they go to the doctor, they spend three hour tos the doctor and then go to the other prescriptions another 3 hours until their prescription is filled. i'm sick already, i spent three hours to go to the doctor and then i have to wait longer for my drugs, i'm sure that will save some time for these sick people that can get home as

soon as possible. and i heard cvs has very low discount prices, so all the neighbors can't wait to have this open, so it's very close by and i hope they are a bunch of bilingual workers there too so it will be more convenient for us. thank you, commissioners, have a nice day. bye. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, president wu and the rest of the planning commission, my name is adraoe yan stemmy with carpenter's local 22 and i need to shed a little light before you make your decision today because what you've read isn't the whole truth, in fact, it's opposite. the carpenter's union, local 22 and actually any local union in the 46 counties in o*rt earn california do not have an agreement with cvs.

they've decided to use union carpenter's in san francisco because san francisco's "a union town". what will happen and i'm certain of this is they bring in non-union subcontractors, they'll use them, these general contractors will go to san mateo county, they'll go to south san francisco, build a cvs and use carpenters that are undercutting wages. now it should be the same wage in all of northern california, but it doesn't happen that way. what they're doing is lowering the wages for carpenters using carpenters that don't pay the benefit and is it's hurting carpenters in general, i have no doubt that if this is passed, they'll use union signature carpenters in san francisco, but exactly the

opposite will happen anywhere else, you cross a bridge, forget about it, san mateo county, out of bounds, it's inevitable, that's how things work, so before you make your decision, just remember that, you weren't told the whole truth and it's exactly a template of what's going on and some of you know about what's happening with the restaurants here in san francisco, same thing. general contractors will come to san francisco, use our folks to appease whoever and then go, you know, to oakland and all bets are off, so we need to put an end to that. we need to raise benefits and wages and hold carpenters and all trades people, give them a chance for a livelihood, for a good pension and good benefits and for that reason, carpenters local 22 does not support this project.

thank you. >> thank you. is there additional public comment? >> good afternoon. my name is [inaudible], i'm living on 20th avenue, and it's going to be short. we are a large group of elderly ladies living alone, not having family close to us to help us when we would like to. we have to walk five blocks down, five blocks up, sometimes we cannot do it, and we wish very much to have a pharmacy closer to us. i think that people against it will find tons of excuses not to do it but we wish really to get satisfaction in this.

thank you so much. >> thank you, next speaker. >> my name is mary liz, i live at 1882 18th avenue so i'm one of the closer people to the actual site. i appreciate the needs expressed by those who would be able to walk to the store, but i don't envision that a retail corporation with a good focus on its bottom line is going to put a retail store of this size on the major thoroughfare from san mateo county to marin county and expect people to walk to the store in significant numbers. people are going to be driving home from the airport to marin, they'll see the cvs sign, they'll turn right on the first street where they can turn right, circle around the block ask try to get up the one-way or they'll just park in our

driveways as they often have before, so i urge you to think about that as you consider the item. mostly i'm pleased to see that cvs and mr. greenspan have taken steps to say they would modify their proposal. unfortunately, that came out to late for those of us who have serious concerns to really see it, so i would strongly urge that you issue a continuance so that the school and the neighbors who have concerns can understand what the changes are that are being proposed. i'm not sure that simply changing the window treatment is really sufficient to get the planning department to change its previous recommendation 180 degrees, so i assume there are more things in the changes that were made, but with the very little amount of time we had to see the documentation, it's hard to know that, so with open

government and transparency, i urge that you consider that, a continuance i think would be the way to go. thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, my name is claudia person, i live in 1857, 27u, i've been living there since 1970, i'm 86 now, and it's very difficult for me to go to walgreens 7 blocks down, 7 blocks up, that's 14 blocks. i will appreciate very much if cvs has a pharmacy on 19th avenue, and i don't think there should be any problem because most of us in that neighborhood are probably around my anal and

we have to take care of the people who don't drive. anyway, thank you, and mr. greenspan, thank you for trying to make our life a little bit easier. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, my name is sung sun and i live two blocks away from the site and i am against it, and i know that that proposed site, cvs is convenient for some and it's not so for a lot of us, and i know that with every policy, there are some pros and cons, but my main focus and concern is the safety and children, and for that, i'm against it because i mean, i am so proud to be a resident of this beautiful city, san francisco and safety is something that all of us should be focusing on

and our children especially, and i have heard that a lot of seniors expressing the convenience of not having to walk for many blocks to get their medicine, and i just want them to know and maybe their friends as well that we have the three small pharmacies that we have in the neighborhood, they deliver the medicines, so all they have to do is just call them and contact them and they can have their medicines delivered, so again, just to emphasize again, i do care about these children and teenagers, especially across the street, and the safety of the neighborhood, and thank you very much. >> thank you. is there additional public comment? okay, seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioner antonini? >> yeah, i have some questions

first, maybe mr. teeg can help us, there was mention of the variance, i understand this is a rather unusual n c-1 district that just has a few parcels, and i needed just a little clarification on the variance, or if that was accurate, that the speaker brought that up. >> i believe the speaker referenced a variance for the size of the project, i think that was the trigger for the conditional use, the issue that is up for the variance is for an off street loading space. >> that's what i thought from reading it, so it's the size that makes it before us in the first place. so, well, generally, i am in favor of the project and i'll tell you why. points have been made about the services on the east side from

what we've seen on the maps, there's quite an elevation change that continues to the east and also to the west, and so if you do have to walk to pick up not just prescriptions but other items because nowadays, the walgreens, the cvs's, the other pharmacy of these types have become more than where you get your prescriptions but your everyday items there, particularly if you live nearby and you just need a couple of things like bread or bananas or milling, you're not going to get into your car and go into a supermarket and walk that far, you're going to walk a couple of blocks and pick that up, i think it will serve a need particularly to those who live to the east of 19th avenue, the changes that have been made are pretty clear from what i see, the design keeping in what

staff had asked for, making it more transparent, cutting the hours of operation, no alcohol, tobacco sales, so i think they did the things we asked them to do, i have a question about the ramp, mr. junias, is this a single or two lane ramp? >> it is a single lane ramp and with the appropriate signage and signaling, -- this is the way it has to work where you have lights that will alert somebody if you're coming down, somebody that might be coming up, you have to wait and vice-versa, there's plenty of queuing room for that ramp, we're confident this is going to be a solution that's going to work. >> i think i ran into a couple of those, but generally

speaking, patronizing a lot of different farm sis for the types of things i spoke about, oftentimes, the trafficker impacts are being overstated because the one on lakeside village where i fraoektdly go, there's almost always a parking spot right in front, they have no parking at all, where footage is less than this one, there's a fairly large cvs by partola drive near tower market, and rare to have to go more than a few steps to get in there, and that also deals with the traffic that's incumbent in that area that's going to tower market and the other facilities along there, so i don't think the traffic is going to be -- it will probably be more than some of these others because it is on a busy street. i don't see it being a huge amount. i would make sure that the cvs

is obliged to pay their fair share of the neighborhood improvements, i'm not sure if this is a condition but something that has to be watched or mentioned as our aprao*ifl, if it comes, if there are plans for signaling or traffic improvements, that, you know, maybe mr. vu has an answer for that question. >> yes, so as part of this project if approved, cvs will be required to pay 125 thousand dollars in traffic impact development fees, and the director can direct me if i'm wrong, i believe a portion of these fees will go into the city's walk first five year cip, and that five year cip, 19th avenue is identified as a risky corridor and both short term and long term pedestrian and safety improvements have been idea for this and so the planning department has communicated with mta and perhaps if it's found to be

necessary, the department can coordinate with mta to maybe elevate the priority of the improvements at this intersection. >> that's helpful to know. i think having a facility like this on the east side might tend to minimize the problem because, you know, having to cross 19th avenue to reach convenience stores or pharmacies on the west side, this will eliminate that for people on the west side, there are already places they can go, and there have been speakers who have talked about the students, the french school across the street and it always is a concern, anybody crossing 19th, it's something that we have to live with until somebody comes up with a solution to put it underground or something, but you know, the same kind of situation exists, mercy high school in stones town, even more traffic with people walking across from one

to the other. whatever we need to do, traffic calming, try to do things to somehow perhaps elevation change which might be a big job in the future, if there's a way somewhere along there to have some sort of a tunnel or walkway over the top of 19th might make it better for all of us concerned, but that's not before us today. so, i don't really see reasons why this project would not be a benefit and i think it would be a big benefit for the neighborhood and i'm in support of it. see what the other commissioners have to say. >> commissioner fong. >> this is a site we've driven by, there are few things to come to mind and i think this is potentially one. i think it would have made an interesting annex for the school, i thought that would have been a good choice. the school apparently had more than a year and this project

has been continued three, four times and i think over a year if there was true interest or feasibility of doing that, the school would have come forward. i see some heads shaking in the other direction, partly because i'm not supportive of the continuance today and in support of the project. this may need a little more clarification of when this list or concerns of item from the school came through, but if it was sort of last minute, that's unfortunate but i'm happy the project sponsor has agreed to 6 out of the 7 and glad to see the safety pedestrian program and the 120 thousand dollars is going towards that program. hopefully from this end if we can help accelerate that program and get those funds on to the street, all the better for 19th aver, so i am in support of the project and hopefully looking forward to seeing this vacant site

eventually filled.

>> commissioner harris. i'm supportive and i'm glad to see the school and see us talking or exchanging letters. i know this sounds like there's issues but it seems like things are coming together and folks are talking which is good and helpful. certainly 19th avenue is -- has problems and issues and we all recognize that. it's probably not the greatest place for a school also. but i think we all recognize that. we can't stop things from being added to 19th avenue. we've got to fix 19th avenue which is a challenge given the amount of traffic in people that use 19th avenue. but kind

of echos commissioner fung's comment, i do go by here a lot and you scratch your head looking for the best use of this site. i don't think it's housing, but this use is somewhat ideal for a non ideal spot. cvs is not -- we have these in our neighborhoods and i'm not driving to 19th avenue to go to this cvs and they'll be people coming off 19th avenue that go to it, but those people will have the cvs like store unfortunately in their neighborhood or walgreens, so it's not a regional serving and the traffic impact will be enormous. i want to develop that in the future, is

that parking link today this -- can they do it without undoing what we're doing. >> if they want to, they can do so because the project due to its square footage requires 28 parks spaces, and the code allows up to 150% of what's required to be considered accessory parking, so those additional nine spaces that are in a parking lot are considered accessory, but not required. if the property would like to improve that property or parking lot in the future, they can do so. >> we're not linking it with our approval because i like the dealings if we could. we say this small block in this commercial district, i think cvs can do something to make that happen because i don't think it's a neighborhood commercial feeling at the moment, but if

you link it and there's the ability to add retail, we may get more retail establishments to make it commercial. i had trouble figuring out whether it was linked based on our conditions of approval. so that's -- >> mr. tea. >> i have questions for the project sponsor. as existing, there are three curve cuts for the three small loading bays for the post office not counting the fourth curb cut which will not customer parking. two of those three will be removed. i'm curious about the third one? >> i believe they all are supposed to be removed. >> all of them -- if there was a mistake in the plans, i apologize but the only curb cut is the one in the plans. >> great. thank you.

>> commissioner moore. >> sorry about that. you're representing cvs and you're representing the owners and the question i have, there's been a very kind of interesting solution request the reuse of kel log at the corner of california where two -- the thing i'm concerned about, i believe cvs is perfectly well located on 19th avenue because it needs probably because of its moving corridor character, it needs a larger thing with no harm, a combination of another user on this side, is that the proper solution or to really deal with, what i believe, is an extremely cvs side. have you thought about that? have you tried that as an approach? >> we've been looking at this site for 3 years so we've been doing things. one the problems you didn't have on the exact

project with the trader joe's next to the cvs on california, this is not that kind of building. this is a very awkward building. this is a building that has been piece together overtime and trying to split it or create a small space with a much smaller retailer, it's difficult from just a problematic and a structural standpoint. it's difficult enough to get this use in there. there was some -- because it was a former automobile use, there were some hazards we had to take care earlier on, it's extremely expensive and difficult to get this project done more or less two of them. we did look at that. >> thank you. could i ask planning staff on the issue of pedestrian safety, is there already a crossing guard at the location for the school? i know it has nothing do with this project, but to get a sense of the existing conditions?

>> perhaps the project sponsor might be better to answer this, but i believe in the pedestrian study that was submitted, they actually did some counts and there was a crossing guard present at the time that did the count. i would have to defer to the project sponsor for that? >> i'm sorry, commissioner, and president wu. we weren't aware before we did our pedestrian study, we observed the obvious which during school hours, it does have a crossing guard and it has been apart of their safety program since they started. >> i think the pedestrian conditions on 19th avenue are very tough. i would encourage the planning department to push forward the walk first ' em mri -- i am --