talk about some of the essential facts and benefits supporting this application. so, if you will turn your attention to the screen. i think one of the things, it's really important to kind of get your head around is the fact that this neighborhood commercial district really isn't doing what it's supposed to do for the neighborhood, not surprising, it's small as mr. vu just mentioned, it's 6 spots but there are no services in this district, so what the zoning was intended to do has yet to come to fruition in the entire history of this district and this site, obviously the building originally was an auto dealership turned into a uspc and has been vacant for the last four years so this is a great opportunity for the neighborhood to benefit from a pharmacy come tog the corner but a general retailer who's going to provides provide a lot more goods and services where none exist today. it's also going the make the

neighborhood a will the more walkable, it's really there assist a bit of a no man's land between noreaga, they frankly have to get in their cars to go south or north to park and get their goods and services, here there will be people walking, this will create a more walkable neighborhood and allow these people to access their goods and services without having to cross 19th avenue and finally it's obviously, this is definitely what we call a white elephant, this building again has been vacant for almost 5 years, i guess the real question, if not this, what if ever, we need to bring services to this neighborhood. we received some comments from the leasee across the street,

we're in complete agreement with the conditions. with respect to specific 19th avenue imprao*ufm rkts cvs is happy to agree with a condition that we will participate any comprehensive program to deal with intersection, cvs will do their part as a newcomer to the corner. the q-in condition, we agree on that condition, we have some modifications that we'll be passing forward in a second and it's in a letter that i described some of these things to you, there's a good idea, if there are problem, we will deal with them, but we don't anticipate any problems on queuing. we want to work with staff and anybody interested in making the signage work and making it compatible with the neighborhood, the smoking

[inaudible] the one thing i don't think we can agree on is the parking. the parking associated with this site is the way it's always listen, the parking lot across the street with the nine or so spaces, the parking on the roof, that's how the building was built, that's the way it was always used and that's the way we continue to use it, the leasee seems to believe lez parking would be more appropriate, i think some of the neighbors would like more park, we oar in that happy media where nobody's happy about this, so we're probably in the right spot. with that, i'm going to turn it over to holly in a second, from landmark raoeltty, we have a vary ons the calendar today, so i would directly answers that mr. teeg as zoning administrator needs, i'm happy to answer questions about that with respect to the variance. here's holly. >> thank you. good afternoon, commissioner,

my name is holly representing cvs and landmark retail group, i've spent time here in san francisco, i've had an opportunity to bring successful projects before you in other neighborhoods, the importance for this store in the community we believe is to bring services and quality health care to the surrounding neighborhood. we've worked continuously with the community and all stores we've presented to you including this one. last year, we did ask far continuance so every neighborhood concern could be addressed, those who were willing to communicate with us have been addressed including those last minute conditions that we received in the lessee is down from request of adjacent neighbors to look at soundproofing and create conditions for ramps, so there's no disturbances or noise including the restriction of the loading hours.

i do want to thank staff, we spent the better part of the last year making significant changes to the design, i'll throw this in front of you, i know it's in your packet, here you're seal a drawing of what the current condition of the building is and here is the view of what the proposed building will look like after the improvements, what is missing is the street trees that will be added both along 19th avenue and ortega, we will be landscaping the street, improvements to the services, we heard from the neighborhoods, nr's a lack of services, we're including a minute clinic which was addressed in the staff report, as well as changing store operations to not sell alcohol and limit our hours of operation, were all considerations made to address concerns raised, we want to nang the staff like i said, we're happy to provide a full

architectural review for you, tony silva is here and available to address any questions you have of the design, if you have any questions regarding community outreach. with that, i will hand over the balance of our presentation to our property owner, i'm going to get just another sign of the team coordination that was brought to this project, it's rare we have an engaged property owner, they have been intimately engaged.in the property and have owned the property for a long time and has been part of the project process for the last three years. >> good afternoon x president wu and fellow commissioners, my name's ron greenspan, i'm the owner of the property i've been a business owner and a property owner in the sunset for over 45

years. over the course of this project, my wife and i have had the opportunity to meet with the neighbors and we've heard over and over again the same message, how grateful they would be to finally have this vacant blighted corner be a cvs. from the elderly neighbors that do not drive, we have heard how wonderful it would be to no longer have to go all the way to irving or teravel, there are many who are elderly that are underserved that will benefit from the goods and services that this cvs will provide. i respectfully ask the commissioners to approve this project, to serve and give services to the people in the sunset and golden heights. and as a show of support, i have received 89 -- and i would

like to present 89 signed support letters and 169 petition signatures which cvs has received from the neighbors in this project. thank you. >> thank you. opening for public comment. if i call your name, please line up on the screen side of the room. (calling speaker names). >> if your name has been called, feel free to approach the podium. >> good afternoon, i'm loretta wood of 1862-18th avenue and i am here to speak very strongly

against this project, the only reason that this is a blight on the neighborhood is because the owner of the property has let it go to rack and ruin, it's filled with pigeon poop, litter, garbage and it's this wind swept no man's land and that's not all fault, that's his fault, for 45 year, he got all kinds of income from it, it is a bit of a white elephant, what he oukt to do is tear it down and sell it to developers for the housing that the whole city is screaming for. the other point is -- and i do have a visual, they're requesting a variance of more than four times the size of what the regulations state should be the size of a store

in that n c-1 district. that's the same size -- this is their standard corporate package that's comparable to what they're proposing for a 10 acre shopping center in victorville, this is [inaudible] on our lovely little neighborhood and i would bet that no one in this room would want this thing around the corner from where they live, if you live 400 miles away, you think it's a grand idea but if it's around the corner from you with the trucks rumbling, people getting run over because they're jaywalking from the little parking lot across the street and having little signs that say don't jaywalk is a complete joke, no one's going the listen to those, and queuing up for that 70 degree incline single lane parking is to get up and down,

they're estimating a 10 second wait which is totally absurd, and we just feel that we've been really ignored and treated with contempt by cvs, the meeting they had last year was really insulting. it was inside the property it was cold, dirty, dusty, there were no bathroom facilities, no even water, mr. greenspan spoke eloquently about the elderly in the neighborhood and they didn't even -- there weren't enough chairs for themfinger nrfs a young man would was in the middle of chemo treatment because he stood because he was well trained for the elderly and he had to leave early, this whole notion thae ear bringing some vitality to lovely quiet little neighborhood that doesn't need it and is happy as it is, i just find absurd, plus the numbers are completely off on the pros and cons that we have secured and i know one of my colleagues will present that. >> thank you, next speaker.

>> hello, everyone. my name is lily shoul dice, the feeling among those paying attention in our neighborhood is that this project will be conveniently railroaded through the process at a time with some of the most vocal opponents of this project may not be available. such as the concerned parent and is faculty of the french school directly across the street, more cynical minds might conclude the time of this appeal was contrived. at the very least, a continuance of this hearing is warranted and deserved especially concerning the planning department's initial refusal to consider this project to be viable in this location. this proposal to approve a massive retail space at 19th avenue is going to hurt the local community and those daring to cross 19th avenue at this intersection. the proposed cvs will bring in hundreds more cars to our

street and is the recipe for accidents will have been completed. let's look at some facts about 19th avenue, according to the san francisco police department, there have been 14 fatalities on 19th avenue since 2001. in 2009, sterile officers wrote 4611 moving violations targeting major corridors in the district of which 19th avenue played a considerable role. according to a study conducted by transportation for america in 2011, more than half of the total traffic fatalities in san francisco are pedestrian accidents. that's four times the national average. let's consider what the impact would be like if this proposal to allow cvs to occupy this location is approved. cars from turning northbound 19th avenue in ortega would be met by a delayed line of other vehicles attempting to access the one way ramp to this

parking lot. adding to this will be the cars attempting to exit the lot on to ortega street and compounded by the lot proposed across the street fra the ramp. as busy times during delivery periods, the options include a double parking or occupying the only scanned neighborhood of parking spaces. increasing traffic and aging population in an already time allowance of pedestrian signals in our area makes future mishaps more likely, 19th avenue and highway 1 is a state highway owned and operated by the california department of transportation, caltrans, as a 6 lane highway serving both regional and local traffic, as a state highway, 19th avenue is the jurisdiction of state, the county is not responding to its bad safety record with a comprehensive plan for improvements zone as vision sower row, note the appalling

accident rate of 19th avenue intersection took years to resolve and that the cost of countless accidents and tragically squandered lives. thank you. >> thank you, your time is up. >> next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, commissioners, my name is stephen say ben, i'm the senior pastor of christ church lutheran which is located at 20th avenue and quintera, two blocks from the development. my congregation expressed through action of its board of directors was very concerned about this project in terms of its safety. you've already heard information about how difficult traffic is on 19th avenue and how there have been an appalling number of fatalities and injuries to pedestrians and traffic accidents. we're concerned as people approach this very large, in fact too large, development at

the corner of ortega and 19th, the people who are approaching it south on 19th will be making right hand turns into the neighborhood streets, one of which is our, our church houses a preschool across the street from us is another preschool, one block away from us is an assisted living center for seniors and disabled persons, there are a number of elderly people in the neighborhood, all of these people are pedestrians who are in need of protection in an already dangerous area. we just believe that there is nothing obstructionist or nondevelopment in asking that developments in a neighborhood such as ours with so many particularly well defined and needy populations, that the proposal be sized appropriately to its location and it not increase the already dangerous conditions for pedestrians and traffic in our neighborhood.

we are extremely concerned about this proposal and we think it is completely inappropriate for the site that is being proposed and we ask that you reject the proposal. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, my name is an is it as yoes pap dop louse, i'm third generation florist, me and my brothers have a flower stand, we have a business right on 19th avenue and like most businesses around the area of 19th area, the traffic is one of our biggest -- most of our customers come from 19th avenue traffic and i believe the cvs being built on ortega will not serve the neighborhood, it will serve mostly people commuting and

would cause a lot of traffic. traffic's already bad, excuse me, traffic is really bad on 19th avenue, i'm there every single day and our location is semi-outdoors, and i see what goes on, and during the -- over the past few years, it's worse and worse and building this huge retail space that's on 19th avenue is going to be craze and i there's not only the french school, there's also lincoln high school and i'm receive lincoln high school kids get hit by cars multiple times every single year and they will definitely be going to the cvs during their lunch break and traveling -- and the lincoln high school kids will bring business to the cvs but also will cause trouble for the

neighborhood in the area and also they will -- another con for the cvs is the small business impact that it will have, many businesses are small businesses and there's a walgreens on sterile and a walgreens of terieva that can provide the stuff cvs does, and if cvs opens there, they will hurt mostly the small businesses and not walgreens, thank you. >> thank you, next speaker. >> hi, my name is adriana low and i'm a small business owner, i'm part of the business incubator program in san francisco and we live in close proximity of the proposed cvs pharmacy. our main concern is that we are

requesting that the continuance requested by [inaudible] of san francisco be granted because we don't feel like we have been heard. our voices haven't been heard and we waited until last week when finally the files were provided to us to review. that doesn't give us enough time the review the files and to make sense of what's happening to our neighborhood. our neighborhood is a really good naibtd. it doesn't need to be revitalized. anyone who has lived there long enough knows that there are plenty of pharmacies around the neighborhood and small businesses that will be impacted by this pharmacy. there are at least three small pharmacies that would be really heard if a cvs is opened in our neighborhood and what jobs -- the pharmacy will generate, it will be taking away from small

families and small businesses. we also feel like the criminal history nationwide that cvs has is not fit for our neighborhood and we would not want to have that around. we've been waiting for a long time and our relationship with the planning department went from fantastic last year to this now this year, our access to the case file was hampered by the inability to coordinate schedules with the planning department and the end result is our group having only limited access to the present information being reviewed. there are too many lingering concerns and open issues and that's why we would like to agree with the continuance and hopefully you will consider it. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker.

>> good afternoon, president wu, planning commissioners, my name is elizabeth, i'm the chief administrative officer for the [inaudible] san francisco, i'm glad cvs feels they have addressed the school's issue, as you you heard, the lesai is currently on summer break, this is not the first time that a hearing has been scheduled when school is out, like many speakers before us, i would like the hearing to continue to september so it will allow the teachers and parents to participate, when the families are im-- that would be impacted are not here, it's quite sneaky.

there may be some members of the community that support cvs and that's fine, i understand people's opinion is guided by the notion that whatever the city approves will be safe for the surrounding xhount. that is our problem there is in terms of safety. i want to make it extremely clear that we are not anticvs, nondevelopment, antigrowth or antichange, we support the reuse of the old post office building and are simply trying to make sure that cvs is a good neighbor. instead of repeating the concerns raised by those who have spoken before me and those who will speak after me, i want to focus my comments on solutions and how we see cvs being a welcome member of the community, our primary concern will always be that the addition will result in traffic circling the block driving up

20th and crossing 19th at ortega street, this will create a dangerous situation along 20th avenue and ortega street, our primary frontages, the more car, trucks, delivery vehicles, the greater [inaudible] of one of our teachers, students or parents getting hit. cvs is not however proposing any improvements to this intersection even though it knows our teachers, students, staff will frequent the development. i know that a study cvs prepared, there are no traffic or pedestrian impacts and like many before me, i question the methodology of the findings and instead of picking it apart, i want to discuss what it does

say, it does recommend improvement measures to address raoe yan concerns and a seizes of other potential measures are available, thank you. we just want to continue to so that can be involved. thank you. >> bhiel the next speaker comes up, i'll call more cards. (calling speaker names). >> thank you so much, we've waited a year to have a chance to speak to you and waiting to wait until september if continuance is granted to [inaudible] the absence of the school. the parking has always been used this way, that's a commercial structure, the vehicles that went in and out of that ramp were commercial vehicles driven by commercial drivers. it's a one lane ramp, it's never been used for parking for retail, it's never been a

retail center. with we're told it's going to be used like it was used, it's not. we prefer for it to be used the way it used to be. one of the things we saw was on the cvs website calls out the new store criteria. what they're looking for is 12 thousand square feet near a high traffic area, this is on their website, we can provide it to you. the building that they're looking at is was already mentioned is four times what's allowed in our small n c-1 district, what they call for in term of parking criteria is 75-85 parking spots, so a store that's even bigger than what tha*ir criteria is, they're looking for 75-85, behave only 40 spots here, they're going to be parking up and down our streets and our driveways, we're not looking forward to that. we want to participate in the process, we haven't had a chance to see the file, as with

you mentioned, our communication and is relationship with the planning department last year was great, they looked at this not like a small n c-1 neighborhood, if you look at this area like that, yes, there's no formula retail there. there's no formula retail at the japanese tea garden either, does that mean there should be a formula retail like a star bucks or something like there? no. there's plenty of options for us, there's multiple pharmacies, there's a large walgreens, the area is already well served. [inaudible] tells you they're primarily going to serve the neighborhood, nothing is farther from the truth, greenspan said we're only to serve the neighborhood, he sold cars there for years, of course he's going to market to that area. why does the store have to be so many square feet.

[inaudible]. it had a produce, it had grocery items. 2000 square feet before the safeways served that area, i request, what do they need 14 thousand square feet for just a pharmacy if? also down the street is 19th [inaudible] liquors, they stop decoys to buy alcohol or tobacco, they're going to be -- thank you all for your time. >> thank you, next speaker. >> hello, good afternoon x commissioners, my name is milton juan and i'm a resident in the neighborhood, i live on 15th avenue which is east of 19th avenue where the proposed project is being discussed. i'm in favor of the project, i support the project, i think it will provide good retail

services and pharmacy to the area. currently what we do is like a lot of people in the area, we drive down to walgreens or to safeway and if this plan is proposed, it's within walking distance of quite a few neighbors, so i know it's a little bit controversial, i'm surprised to hear all the objections, folks that i talk to and the neighbors in the neighborhood feel that it would be a good place for a new pharmacy for the residents that live up in the hill where we live. thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, my name's 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