secretary. good afternoon, president wu, members of the commission. rachel, planning department staff. the item before you is a public hearing to receive comments on the draft environmental impact report a joint ceqa neah document prepared by the planning department and mayor's office of housing and community development. again case no. 20150 515 e. i'm joined here today by my colleagues sarah jones environmental review officer, also england flannery from the mayor's office of housing and comment development. members of the project sponsor team are also present. the project site is located on the south slope of potrero hill between u.s. highway 101 and 280. the site is generally bonded by connecticut street, 26th street

wisconsin street, 23rd, texas street and 23rd street. the project site within the potrero hill neighborhood and southeast quadrant of the city. in go public housing developments the potrero terrace and potrero annex. the proposed project would include demolition of existing 620 public housing units, and development of up to 1700 residential units for a range of income levels which includes replacement public housing units. the project also includes new vehicle and pedestrian connections, new street and block layout, new transit stops, new water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure, and new retail uses, community facilities and open space. construction of the proposed project would occur over approximately 10 years in three non-overlapping phases.

it should be noted that the majority of the impacts identified in the draft eir/eis are, in fact, temporary impacts related to this construction period. specifically the draft eir/eis identified significant impacts related to construction period aesthetic, socioeconomic, site circulation, noise and vibration and air quality impacts, as well as impacts related to the accidental discovery of archaeological paleontological resources, as well as human remains. also during the construction period, the handling of hazardous building materials and also effects on minor league ratsory birds during construction and site circulation and geological effects due to topography were also identified. mitigation measures were also identified to reduce these potentially significant impacts to a less than significant level.

the draft ivory/eis identified significant impacts related to transit capacity, delay at local intersections, exterior noise levels, construction period criteria -- air pollutants and operational air quality i or identified miggation measures for these impacts would not reduce impacts to less than significant level and therefore, these impacts would be remain significant and unavoidable. a hearing to receive the historic preservation commission's comments on the draft eir/eis was held december 23, 2014. at the hearing the hpc indicated that no impact to historical resources would occur as a result of the proposed project, approval -- excuse me -- they would like to see the project sponsor make an effort to document the history of the site pryor to demolition. at this time i would like to remind all speakers this is not a hearing to consider approval or disaproval of the proposed

projected. approval hearings will follow the final eir/eis certification. your comments today should be confined to the adequacy and accuracy of information and analysis within the draft eir/eis. the comments will be transcribed by the court reporter and responded to in the responses to comments document. this document will respond to all verbal and written comments received and make revisions to the draft eir/eis as appropriate. i would like to remind commenters to speak slowly and clearly, so that the court reporter can produce an adequate transcript of today's hearing. also commentsers should state their name and address for the record to be sent copies once it is completed. after hearing comments from the general public we'll take comments on the draft eir/eis

from the planning commission. would i note that the public review process began on november 7th and will continue until 5:00 p.m. january 7, 2015. comments that are not made verbally today should be submitted in writing to the planning department. this concludes my presentation on this matter and unless commissioners have questions, i would respectfully subject that the public hearing on this item be opened. >> thank you. >> i will call a number of names. the first person can come to the podium. if i call your name, please line up on the screen side of the room. patricia hunting, emily winestein, mar ritza, aragon dotty mudson. >> i apologize, we had a request for interpreters for this matter and if those persons seeking the need for spanish and/or chinese interpretation, if you could come forward, we can

accommodate that request now. i know that both interpreters are present. are you ready for spanish interpretation? okay. you can use both mics. >> translator: my name is maricitia argon. a resident of potrero hills. i'm participating in the activities that are carried out there.

i feel better now, but sometimes i feel very stressed because of violent activity in that area. my children are very afraid. we are hoping for better -- what we're hoping for changes in the new homes, housing that will be built. we're hoping there will be no more violence and that things will be different. that is all

>> thank you. could we ask if there are additional spanish speakers who need interpretation? thank you. and then do we also have a group of people that need chinese, cantonese or mandarin interpretation? >> if our chinese interpreter could approach. thank you. >> thank you. >> translator: how are you doing? >> could you please speak into the microphone. thank you.

>> translator: the reason why i am here today, i hope to bring about improvement in our community. and also improve the safety. and then improve the living environment. and there are more extracurricular activities and space for recreation for the children. oh, okay and there are more retail space and shops that we can be out on the street and spend more time on the street and shop.

because where we live, the reputation is not so good. in the neighborhood where we live -- -- and then where we live, people tend not to come and visit, because of the area. and i hope that there will be some change to bring about. that is all. >> thank you. you are providing interpretation, if you can speak more loudly into the microphone, that would be helpful. >> certainly. >> thank you.

>> good morning. >> translator: i'm happy to be here today at this community meeting. i am sincere and hopeful that the city will rebuild this space, or the neighborhood. i currently reside on this side of masonic, 708.

oh, okay the housing in this neighborhood is over 100 years old. and many of which is in disrepair. okay and i sincerely hope that the city government, the city will rebuild this area and improve the area for the residents, the community and the children. that is all i have to say today. thank you. >> thank you. i believe one more person. one more time, could i ask you to speak into the microphone,

because the recorder is having a hard time hearing. >> good afternoon. >> translator: i reside in this area. according to the information i got, currently there are 606 living units in our area. and according to the plan, there can be 1600 units to be constructed. and also i would like feedback

that our mayor has 30,000 units planned in the future. so i think this is a great plan. and then using existing space to construct, to build this many units can only bring good things to the neighborhood area and no bad things. and all these constructions and renewal will improve the area and bring new elements and it

will -- and the real estate will appreciate. and i absolutely agree with this proposal, this plan of constructing the units in this area. this is my opinion. thanks. >> thank you. okay, next speaker. >> good afternoon my name is patricia hunting a resident of 1512 25th street and a neighbor of the sf hope reconstruction site. i'm very much in favor of seeing an improvement to the south end of our neighborhood. i have some concerns with the projected number of units being

built. i moved to potrero hill in 2003 and i moved this with the idea that i liked that it was not one of the most dense neighborhoods in the city. i think tripling the number of units that we have existing is exaggerated and i would like to see some kind of compromise reached so that we won't have that many additional people living there. i would like to know if all of the new units were completely full with the maximum number of resident what that number would be, compared to the number of people that we have existing in the units that exist right now? i am concerned about the issues with transit. there are very narrow streets going in and out of our neighborhood, especially on the south side where 25th street is and also going out from 26th to cesar chavez to get to the highways, both 280 and 101. i have already seen increased traffic in our neighborhood before this project has evenburn and would even begun

and? i think ten years is a long time to ask neighbors to be patient with a reconstruction project. i would appreciate very much if there could be some kind of compromise struck with that proposal as well. i would like to see less time in construction. on 25th street where i live, the wind blows from west to east generally, it brings all of the trash and garbage over the hill and on to our street. i would appreciate that that would be taken into consideration and perhaps you can put some kind of plan in place to keep our part of the neighborhood clean during the construction process. i think the things that hope sf is -- the things that they are planning are very well-designed. i have seen great improvement with the people who live in the projects right now and i would really like to see that those people have a better place to live in the future and i would like to see like the rest have stated more safety in our neighborhood. those are all of my comments.

thank you very much. >> thank you, next speaker. >> my name is don goodmanson and for the spelling will you have to see the card. i live in 27 blair terrace in san francisco, literally a a few yards away from the site we're talking about. for brevity, i will aomit appreciation for many well-done parts of the eir and move on to the grievances. it appears to me that the authors of the report in regards to one fundamentally important aspect lot sight of the forest from the trees. what i am referring to here this fundamental defining aspect is that we're increasing the density of that area, massively, to integrate low-income housing with a greater community. that is if i am not mistaken is one of the core reasons for this controversial density increase. so there is no --

the report doesn't really define and hence not review where exactly -- and i say the word "exactly" the 606 low-income housing will be located within this area? so this might be an important omission because we're not sharing that information any more but the previous disclosed plans that have i seen in public meetings that show the southwest block a yard from where i live incidentally will only be composed of low-income housing units this. is essentially a high-density project, micro project within the larger area. of course, if there are two other clusters as well. and i think this goes against the fundamental premise of increasing the overall population density in order to allow the low-income housing units to be integrated with the larger community. and the appendix shows to the

report -- to the report shows numerous letters received and reports it's a known controversy, but still it's not addressed adequately, but it can cannot be avoided. a time eir can only be complete with exact locations of the low-income housing units in the diagram and the impact analysis of the proposed locations. if this reveals that it's indeed the idea to create little micro high density clusters, then the analysis -- it might even go into the community that i live in park view heights, which is 200 units, and we certainly det a high-density cluster of low-income housing on our doorsteps. this needs to be considered. this has been sent in a letter that will be received and the back of letter, there are also questions that i have frequently been encountered, such as what are these plans? why is the developer doing

this? what is the ideal solution to the problem? is the ideal solution possible? this is all addressed here. and i would say that the ideal solution is possible. because the report says low-income housing will be -- >> thank you, sir your time is up. >> thank you. we'll take written comments until january 7th. as the next speaker comes up, i will call more names. [ reading speakers' names ] >> i don't know if you can hear me here. i'm emily weinstein with bridge housing the master developer on the project and i'm going keep my comments very brief. but we're excited that this project is moving forward. we're excited about this step in the public process. and that the public process of the project before you represents a two-year public process of the master plan. and we take the public process very seriously. and so i just wanted to also make sure that on the record, due to the storm, we had over

25 -- close to 30 public housing residents that were signed to come today and due to the storm and closures of the school, many were not able to be in attendance and to put on the record, this is not a great reflection of the public process and encouraging people to submit written comments. we have an ongoing public process and meetings every month to make sure that people are included in the development process. thank you. >> [tkpwao-frpblgt/] thank you for allowing me this opportunity to speak. i'm with bridge housing. and the rebuild potrero program director. i wanted to share a little bit of my predict on the residents who weren't able to attend today. in my capacity, we do a lot of community-building with residents and what i have heard from them is that people are

very excited and really looking forward to having new homes and they are also very excited about the opportunity of additional open space and parks and places where they can take their children and families. right now there really is a scarcity of those types of locations and safe locations in order to do that. in addition, the additional community center/retail space is another great amenity that people are looking forward to on that side of the hill. obviousesly there are not a lot of places for people to go to and on top of that, many residents have expressed to me the -- with the new retail and other opportunities, they also feel that they may have a chance to start their own business or somehow participate in that and really see it as an upward movement for themselves and everybody in the community. so we encourage you to support the project, so that everyone's quality of life can be improved in the area. thank you. >> thank you.

next speaker >> good afternoon, any name is kim christensen and i'm also a resident of potrero hills and i'm enthusiastically in favor of this project and hope we can started building right away, because it has amazing potential for all of the residents of potrero hills. i have had the opportunity to work with bridge housing and sf hope. the mayor'ssoff on the community advisory group these last two years and we were working on the people plan, which is the kind of companion piece to the free buildin component, focusing in on the community needs assessment and looking at opportunities to raise the quality of life and embrace the residents of the neighborhood so this going to have solid improvements and investments in the community from a social aspect as well.

that is really city council. i had that is really critical. i had a chance to know folks from the community process and folks living in the terrace and annex and i have really seen my neighbors blossoming with these opportunities. it has just changed lives and has such great potential for our neighborhood. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> good afternoon. my name is joe boss and with

the potrero annex and terrace, and we're at the point it has good development community and the outreach has been absolutely the best i have seen. and i mean that. 20, 25 years ago i worked with people that were tenants of the annex and terrace and did a clean-up and who showed up. they were either living down the hill -- what can i say?

we have worked so hard. it expands quite a bit the market rate housing that really goes along way to making it a mixed community. i can't say enough about emily and her work. i have seen a lot of projects

falter when it comes to community involvement and this one certainly hasn't. the eir/eis i think has been exhaustively gone over, the comments originally certainly did slow the process down and answered were made to the questions raised. i heartily support this eir/eis and i hope you will concur. thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker i will call some more names also. [ reading speakers' names ] >> good afternoon, commissioners, my name is janet carpen eli and i'm also a 30 plus-year resident of potrero. i live in dog patch and i'm a member of the potrero boosters

and from where i am we look up the hill to the project of the potrero annex and terrace. we have been looking forward to seeing the remodel for years and years and years, and i would also like to concur with the last two speakers in that the group that is doing this project now, bridge housing rebuild has done a fantastic job of keeping the community involved and bringing very different people together. there have been many, many many postcards, ads, at or abouts in the potrero view and they have been to the potrero festival for years and they do everything that they can to be out in the public and bring people together. i have been up to many get togethers and working -- workshops, et cetera, et cetera, and i'm really think that this project should go through and that it has been studied and it has gotten a lot of comments from people in the neighborhood. i think the idea that there is going to be a new and extended

street grid system, so there will be more transportation in and out, more ways to get in and out and more ways to bring people around the hill is a plus. in gener, i would like to say, this is really for the city rather than the project is that we must have more and better public mass transit all over the city and particularly potrero hill central waterfront. as far as the project goes, i'm very much in favor of it and i'm looking forward to seing it move ahead. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, my name is thomas shaw and i think it's commendable that you are attempting to modernize potrero hill. i wasn't served when the services came out when they carried out the scoping and