controversial decisions that you have to make. i don't envy you in that position. thank you for always being well versed on your decisions. and for doing your homework on that. i'm happy to stand with all the commissioners with a full recommendation to the committee report so she can return to her meeting. >> we need to amend line 14. >> so moved. >> i'm happy to amend. >> no objection. motion passes. the amendment passes. we have a motion on the floor, any objections? seeing none. then motion passes. congratulations. [ applause ] >> >>supervisor norman yee:

madam clerk, can you call item no. 2. city clerk: mr. chair, we've called items 1-3 together. >>supervisor norman yee: mr. richards, would you like to make a statement. >> supervisors, thank you for allowing me to be here today. this is the first time i'm able to serve. i would like to thank those that support me. the committee report i submitted today involves many great details. i began my work in the historic preservation at the time the sounding board was threatened and we are glad to see it's now part of the lgbt community center. and also served the time in the last economic boom on the

community street services for dolores home and the housing for folks with hiv and aids. after that i served a little bit of time with supervisor leno on the task force and some issues that you are going to be hearing about today which reminds me about 14 years ago. i have been a member of the heritage for years. we reached help to get to under represented communities and getting more involved. i'm happy to say the work that my leader of heritage has done has really not only from a physical environment point of view but also a cultural point of view. heritage has really done great work there and i'm very proud of them on that. i'm president of the neighborhood triangle association for 8 years. i

remember when john came and he said we have a market octavia plan and we said wait a minute, we don't recall you coming to talking to us and the project was already five 5 years old and everybody who was involved in the plan moved on and we worked with john and rogers to get the many years of the octavia plan to make it sensitive and rational for the others in the market area. one of the other items that i'm ray proud of was cause and effect. it will be heard on the market octavia plan. we have insisted with the planning department that cac be created. i'm happy to report that i'm a member of that body since inception it's a great functioning body and we are really holding the planning department's feet to the fire on making sure that everything we were promised is best as can tried and delivered. i have also served

on a couple of other boards. castro cbd, natives since inception and worked for the neighborhood development for a few years. i have been incredibly business for the last 15 years. that's my community resume. philosophically i was at a meeting where i saw jim chapel and he spoke. he said something that resonated with me. he said when you ask somebody about their best day in san francisco was and they will say the day i landed here. sometimes it's frozen back in time. we'll always experience change and i'm concerned at the level of change we are experiencing quite frankly. the effects we are putting in place should mitigate those changes are good but i don't think they are proportional in keeping

up with the rate. i was at the octavia cac on monday and the clerk from the planning department and she said nobody from the planning department ever imagined that this level of change would happen. i think there is a good and bad side to that. we haven't even had some of the community benefits that we were planning to spend money on and having to realize and we heard people complaining about quality of life issues. i think we need to do something about that. i come from business. as a strong local economy. i know we have a lot of winners. trust me, i see them everyday in my neighborhood. i think there are others who are not sharing at all the wings. -- winnings. we need to share those. i'm going to bring an unholistic approach and i'm going to irritate people.

issues facing this city are affordability, displacement, neighborhood character shth historic preservation, retail and business landscape and live ability. i want to ensure that we stem the loss of our diversity, our sole and city's core. i feel it's happening too quickly. diversity to me, means income diversity, people diversity and cultural diversity. when we full lever in the same way to try to get the same outcome is dangerous. i don't think we have an approach to say how we are going to work in the future. i feel every city has some responsibility to say where we are going to go. we all own it. my experience and accomplishment should stand on their own. i would love toen attain any questions on it. i ask you for your support

today. >>supervisor norman yee: thank you. supervisor campos? >>supervisor david campos: thank you mr. chair and thank you mr. richards. i'm very excited by this nomination and surprised that this president would appoint you or at least put your name forward. i think that's a good thing. i have been saying for a long time that we need to have an lgbt voice on all of the government agencies where that voice is missing and planning is one of them. i'm glad to see this nomination. i think it's a long time coming. i do want to ask you, though, in terms of the displacement. i was very pleased to hear your comments about the affordability problems that we have and the displacement. it's disproportionately impacting a number of communities including the lgbt community.

just wondering if you have any thoughts in terms of what else we can be doing to address that issue? >> i think it's the most important we issue we face and we need to take an unconventional approach. i saw the with mecca and basing ger after i was nominated. we talked about different ideas and we talked about, you know, people that use the system in bad faith. i honestly think that i do appreciate and understand the fact that people who rent out their homes or own apartments or small property owners orlando lord's, they are running a business. when people buy a business and shut it down by ellis acting people, it's a terrible idea. when hershey came in to buy smith, my favor chocolate store. they closed

it. they are out of business. bad faith. i haven't had a hershey since. on the cac monday, i had some thoughts on this. our fees are frozen in time. we negotiated these fees five 5 years ago. there has been a wind fall on the other side. i think sometimes the community benefit fees they should be tied to what the yield, wind fall is going to be. i think there should be morement . i think people should allow us to share more. >> i appreciate it. one of the things that i always point out is that we are arguably the wealthiest city in the country and most of us, not just low income, but middle income and upper income have not

benefited in the same way that others have. one comment because you addressed the issue of your history of reaching out to diverse disadvantaged communities. i would simply note to you and to other members of the planning commission that another community that's also been disproportionately impacted by the displacement is the latino community. and just like we have not had a member of the lgbt community in planning in years we have not had that also for the latino community and other communities as well. i would urge you and encourage you to continue to reach out to those communities because i want to make sure that everyone's voice is heard. >> absolutely. i will. >> thank you very much. >> >>supervisor norman yee: any public comment? of course. i

have the cards. i'm going to call the names that submitted cards for this item. ted olson? did you speak on this item? >> yes. andrea a yala, andrea, mike bowler, robin le vits. and allen martinez. you have 2 minutes. c'mon up. good afternoon

supervisors. my name is andrea ayala, from the market benefit district. today i'm speaking for myself. primarily because of the quick notice there is no time for our port to get together to talk about this. i'm here to support dennis' appointment to the planning commission. i'm here today because i have noticed and been working with dennis for about 6-7 years and his absolute devotion to san francisco and planning and land use issues. he's in a leadership position for a very long time and also been as you said involved in the market octavia plan for as long as i have known him which is about 6-7 years before the plan was

finalized and his commitment to that and what he shared with the community was commendable. he's still interested and still quite devoted to these issues. and as a leader, as president of dtna, the association has significantly influenced land use in the upper market and castro neighborhood. and there have not always necessarily said yes to every project to every developer. in fact quite the opposite. the history of negotiating with developers early and sometimes taking a hard line. yet, dennis specifically is respected by these same developers that the he's taken a hard line against. to me this speaks volumes to his integrity and ability to collaborate and

the stroo city of san francisco will benefit from dennis to the planning commission. thank you. >> my name is liam nase am. i stand before you today to the board of supervisors to lend my support to dennis whom i have known for 20 years. i stood by not only in the sidelines but watched his stad -- stead fast commitment to the community, his passion, intelligence, integrity and independence. these are all things i know that he will bring to the commission. our neighborhood is richer because of dennis and the whole community will be richer for his appointment. i'm hoping you will pass on it today.

thank you. >> hello supervisors. my name is anthony lee. i have been a resident for 20 years and i have known dennis for 18 of those years. you will hear a lot about his credentials and his work in the community. i want to talk about him as a human. it's quite an annoying working with him in the neighborhood. there are very many people that know him achl very diverse group of people and always a level of engagement and i put that down to a sense of empathy. it's not that you just can't walk past the puppy. he's truly engaged in the community in which he lives and that's demonstrated by his resume. the other things which is slightly odd about dennis is in fact around planning. there are many planning professionals here, who spend

a lot of your time thinking about the future , but as human beings we haven't evolved around planning. we plan around dinner. dennis looks at things in a different way. there is a great deal of friends. if you ask those friends and almost all of them have an emergency kit at home and they have a plan and know what to do in the event of an emergency. the one thing you need to do in san francisco is about planning and an emergency. dennis helped me prepare for an emergency and he didn't tell me how, he showed me how to do it. and we got everybody christmas

emergency gifts. he's great. thank you. >> good afternoon commissioners. mike bueller san francisco heritage. dennis is known for his work with the heritage. i would love to have him on the board now but now he's going to a higher purpose. it's notable that dennis was among the first members to reach out to me in san francisco and i'm happy to say that we were able to work together very effectively regarding both articles 10 and 11 of the planning code with historic preservation in the city and recently in the landmark district nomination which was highly contentious at the time and dennis was the key figure in the community to act as a liaison in the preservation community and supervisor wiener and the vocal groups who were very concerned about designation at

the time and formed a compromise that everyone could live with and the most detractable decisions now have embraced the landmark district status and taken advantage of it's incentives. his historic preservation and experience is i am mpeccable and great he's able to fill the large shoes of commissioner sugaya. thank you very much. >> i have known dennis for many years and worked with many issues and i'm here to support his appointment to the planning commission. i first met dennis when he was working on the fundamental on building project. i learned to

appreciate his dedication and commitment to that project. and dennis helped us a lot on the issue of replacing the central freeway with octavia boulevard. he mentioned his work on the market octavia plan. as well as other neighborhood issues like the 55 project. i now serve on the market octavia with dennis. i want to second what our colleague olson said. when i think about his knowledge and commitment and his community work. he's a very easy person to work with. he's very collegial and i really strongly recommend that you

appoint him to the planning commission. he'll behind -- be an excellent commissioner. thank you. >>supervisor norman yee: go ahead and lineup. >> good afternoon. it's a pleasure to offer my support for our neighbor dennis richards. i met dennis in 2008 and have known him to be a true advocate. his agenda is very much that of the community. he's a devoted participant to the market octavia plan and crazy enough to continue on to the commissioner dsh cac. he's vehicle a -- very much a proponent for inclusionary housing and he's willing to fight for what he believes is

right. one particular occasion that i would share with you is a recent developer came to the neighborhood and was proposed a building and dennis fought very hard to make it very clear to them that unless the policy included non-discrimination according to sexual orientation and gender that it was something the community could not support. he brings knowledge and combination and works with community and engagement. he's passionate about improving our neighborhoods and at the same time maintaining their individual character. it's my pleasure to offer dennis my full personal endorsement and that uconn firm his appointment. >> supervisors, i would like to support dennis richards to

the planning commission. my name is betty levity son. i work well with dennis. about eight years ago8 years ago dennis invited me to join the dnta. i have worked with dennis closely not just on how well he writes, but on issues involving housing and development in the neighborhood. i want to reiterate and support what danny just said and i want to point out how well he works across groupsch he's really very good at within dtna and putting together committees to analyze issues before us that have differing opinions. he made sure that everybody was in the room. i think that a

lot of what people talk about when they talk about planning process has an under current of politics. dennis is unwaiveringly fair. i can't think of a better person for the commission. i think he will support, i think it's unfortunate that he couldn't serve with bill sugaya. but in replacing him, it's a wonderful addition to the planning commission and a great addition to the planning within the san francisco. thank you. >> good afternoon, my name is allen martinez speaking for myself. i have known mr. richards for 20 years. we met in boxing class. so we go

back and worked together on the friends of 1800s saving the building and the harvey milk store and the market octavia. with dennis i think we are getting several things. it's been long my contention that people in the neighborhood understand planning better than going to the architecture school and not the things i learned in school. dennis has been a member of the community for a long time and involved in that process in that community. in both prospect ifs, he knows how to community works and more than that, he cares about it. as a member of

the community, he knows what community means to people. he knows what's at stake and his passion for the city is important. lastly he's a natural leader. he really is. i have seen him in leadership positions many times. he knows how to bring consensus, resolution, he knows how to open discussion. i think that is going to be a skill that is going to really shine on the planning commission. thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors. aaron highland. 22 years resident of the castro. i knew dennis long before he knew me. our firm worked on the fallon

building. i'm disappointed. i expected to be here to support bill sugaya. having said that, i can't think of anyone else who could fill his shoes other than dennis. i fully support his nomination. >>supervisor norman yee: any other public comments on this item? c'mon up. >> supervisors, do ug weinberg. as a resident of 25 years in san francisco. i'm here to support his nomination to the planning commission. i have worked with dna. one example of dennis' skill and

fair mindedness occurred two 2 months ago when he stepped in to suggest that my next door neighbor on the opposite side of me and yes, dennis is my next door neighbor on the other side, e erect poles to show exactly how to propose expansion would potentially impact their neighbors on both sides of them. that advice has proven helpful with the situation. needless to say, dennis richards would be an asset to the planning commission. thank you. >>supervisor norman yee: thank you. any other public comment? seeing none, public comment is now closed. i just met dennis yesterday and i had a good time talking to you. because it was so

interesting he was in the area that when i was a young person from age to 18. my family had a grocery storay e storay block away from where he list. what -- lives. it was nice to see some of the things that existed when i was there or when in the past for me that was 40 years ago. and then he talks about the present and he understands the reality of what exist today as he was talking earlier about the affordability crisis and so forth and the neighborhoods. at the same time, he's one

that i found that can also think about the future. when he talks about, you know, nothing remains, changes constant. that's the type of person i would like to see on the planning commission. people that can actually throw that balance between the past, present and future. i will be supporting your nomination. supervisor campos? >>supervisor david campos: well, i didn't know that you were a good time on top of what's been said. i'm glad it's not always you can say that about a planning commission appointment. i'm very happy, proud to make a motion to move this item forward with a positive recommendation as the committee report and look forward to working with you and thank you to all the community members who have come out to support you. >> okay. supervisor tang? >>supervisor katy tang: thank you, i too had a great time

chatting with mr. richards. i'm looking forward to seeing you working on the planning commission. what impressed me not only the organizations that you have been involved in , but the amount of time and that shows true commitment to your neighborhood and that brings a lot of experience to the commission. as a new incoming member potentially of this planning commission. i have one question for you: are you ready for this? worried but i'm also happy, still able to support campos' motion. >> he took boxing classes for christ sake. we have a motion to amend line 3 and line 13 from the motion to approve this nomination. >> so moved.