two storms last week and the trees made it through the storm so other trees didn't make it i'm stipulated the dpw pushed the decision by approving the project to us to make this decision i don't want to kill a significant tree i think the neighbors are allowing the developing i believe that's what i think i heard i think they're willing to gave me in give and take and not going to be all winners or legislatures what i'm thinking like we did in 53 states i ask you allow commissioner moore and i to meet with the staff to come up with something more in the middle and i would make a motion to continue this item. >> pending that outcome of

those decisions for thirty days. >> second. >> a motion and second commissioner antonini. >> well, i'd like to comment on regardless of whether or not it's continued first of all, most of what we've asked for has been done by the project sponsor removing the top level and dlaevent technically and reducing the parking i remember mention of the trees and i think it's important that those projects get approved because they have done what we're asked and i've read the report detailed from dpw and their talk about the trees not being the best their sandwiched into a narrow area of a deep slope they

might survive it's going to be difficult you know for them to do so i think particularly with any projects that is built certainly, if we set back the project and allow an attempt to save the trees interestingly enough mohammed nuru if you take the trees out he only thought you had room to put one new tree babbling back but those are smaller trees so i've been to the site i can see the trees will grow anywhere and stipz will grow anymore i'm supportive of project i think it's

well-thought-out and it aweville's it's itself in a difficult space to build into its is an open space i don't evaluate open spaces it's a different thing mid block t is shared this is someone else's property that is adjacent to our property it's a different kind of situation one that would be impossible for one to use for recreational purposes due to the depth of the space they're doing as good as possible, however if there's a way to set back something in keblgs to allow for an attempt to save at least one or both of the trees that might be a better situation i won't

want to continue what you said. >> commissioner moore. >> while there have been attempts to minimize the consent of the height and massing i'm still uncomfortable the result are so monolithic and particularly because each of us have supported the development of the scheme of the trees the trees are not as much as those trees that reflect public interest and civic value would that they take a long time to grow and not as amateur in our lifetime it takes 20 years for them to be that way they are. >> significant contributor and even if built in a bigger

building into the street by eliminating that the massiveness and the buildings together makes those 3 buildings worse then be that they are i'm not fond of the lack of having more creativity in them that's a separate discussion i believe one the challenges to come up with a mapping and the building variance that creates a solution where a larger building would be acceptable if indeed it meets the challenge of having to doling daily with the vegetation i'm not talking about a replacement tree and takes thirty years to be having a sculpture so i think the continuums will make it easier for us not to have the trees go

i can't take that responsibility. >> i'm going to agree with the general direction this is a unique san francisco street this is a unique piece of street it would be on a be a nice attempt to work with them a cooler smaller house with a tree rather than a smaller tree so i'm hoping that a continuance will be able to find middle ground to the project sponsor i've not heard from the neighbors they didn't want to see something done with the piece of property i see heads bobing upside down. >> that's the direction to think my thoughts are you'll know where i stand i'm not going

to be in support of anything i we were very clear in our previous commission hearing about finding creative ways to integrate the trees into the housing one thing i'll say in terms of how you might shape that one thing i personally said i'll be okay with more height they lopped off a floor if it works you can put that back on there i'll leave it to the commissioners. >> the devil is in the details on that one. >> to the neighbors? a give-and-take in terms of what will be the depth between the buildings but i think we hear you, you loud and clear. >> with regards to the variance

i'll appreciative to the responsiveness of the project sponsor to address the concerns of the commission and the concerns at the at least last hearing i'm disappointed to see the trees they suffer from neglect from the past owners and pg&e thankful been topping the trees to access the lines above it given that dpw has not out right said this trespassing tree needs to be removed we'll not have the two street trees as required by the codes they'll do one tree i'm skeptical that any variance will effect the trees and skeptical about the construction at all on the lot as part of the proposal they'll moved to do the development an

order court want to see a tree protection how will they maintain that tree and heavy equipment down the hill i want it addressed and if i understand correctly the 22 order court could be developed to not have impact on this trees; is that correct and we'll want the design to respect each other may be one could be approved at this point to continue them both to look at it closer. >> commissioner moore. >> i'd like to ask the zoning administrator lender us a helping hand when we meet with the department and applicants you're saying you speak from a lot of experience and taking into consideration i think it will require more activity than what we've seen because we have that buildings we can't use the

same kind of materials and windows that's not enough creativity i think we're setting the condition it requires a new size and expectation in place and work with them the creativity will shape what we get. >> commissioners there is a motion and a second - >> just i'll ask in case you want clarification. >> thank you commissioner president fong we hear where the commission is coming clearly we have more work i want to follow up on what commissioner richards and commissioner moore's process i think it is critical for the two folks to be involved we appreciate you're not saying back to the drawing board you'll be involved that is necessary in a situation considering the environment so i appreciate you

- >> want to have the neighbors at the table with us. >> i would have to ask the cork on gowns that's not what we typically do i personally find it difficult the challenges are earth and creative but that's your opinion there's a time of exploring i'd rather have mr. jazz listen or someone in the room than asking the broader representation i find that difficult saw commissioners it's up to you typically we have a design discussion at first and often a followup meeting. >> i understand. >> we'll take that subsequence that would be good. >> commissioners then there is a motion and a second to continue to march 12 and commissioner antonini.

>> commissioner hillis commissioner johnson commissioner moore commissioner richards commissioner wu commissioner president fong so moved, commissioners, that motion passes unanimously 78 to zero and places you on general public comment for which i have this speaker cards. >> new general public comment tonight. >> seeing none, general public comment is closed. and the meeting is

>> i am jim lazarus with the chamber of commerce co-chairing the outreach effort as we transition to gross receipts. thank you for being here. this has been a huge effort for many years. in fact from the business community interest goes back decades with our ongoing concern that you don't tax job creation. you tax economic success and although the city is limited -- cities and counties are lipted in california on the income side gross receipts is as close as we can get to a tax

structure that allows us to tax economic activity and growth rather than jobs and certainly in this economy now when we made other steps to move job creation forward even with the payroll tax in place this is going to be a great transition as businesses look at their tax liabilities under the payroll tax transition the remaining four, and five years to a full gross receipts tax. supervisor christensen here today and members of the mayor's staff and the tax collector's office and the controller's office that really made this possible during years of work, research and many, many months two years ago of negotiations that lead to the successful ballot measure so it's our pleasure representing part of the business community to be here and now the manufacturing community. >> so kate sous executive

director and co-chair. i think creating this program was a great pleasure and a accomplishment when we worked on this together with kindred spirits and finance and tourism and hotel sectors and really brought all of the folks together around the same table including labor intensive businesses and manufacturers and i am proud about that and businesses that are labor intensive and manufacturers and those businesses this is a celebration and affirmation that san francisco is open for small business and manufacturing, and i couldn't be more excited about the kind of base this builds for us as a city to continue to have these kinds of businesses start, stay and grow in san francisco so without further adieu i would like to introduce our hero of

the day mayor ed lee. [applause] >> i have been called many names before but not hero. thank you. i was just walking in i was persuading jose to come over on this side because this group is about the people who generate the revenue and that group is about the people that spend the revenue. i am so glad to be here with all of the names announced and supervisors as well with the small business commission, our sf made movement and of course our chamber. today is all about great news. this is the first we've actually completed a full year of our new gross receipts business tax as opposed to what both jim and kate described already and the job punishing payroll tax from

before and it's a milestone. i said three years ago when we were putting proposition e i think of the alphabet, to convince everybody this was going to be better and scott you know for small businesses you create a million dollar exemption. that is pretty good and supportive and i know mary and everybody else here knows that we have been and wanting to make sure that we reflected our support for all of our small businesses while we change a tax structure that really inintized job creation. i am still passionate as three years ago about getting good jobs out there and as we see the innovation going on in our city combined with i think the investor confidence that we have in the business community we're seeing a huge surge in job creation. we can then make sure on the promises to our youth

that they're really going to have a good time if they stay with us and continue their education and by the way businesses is investing in education as well at the same time, and so is our great successful business leaders that you've heard this past week and too and philanthropy is also on the great rise and this is all part of that great story that a business friendly, investor friendly city can be a city that exemplifies its prosperity and equalizes everybody's live r life here and whether it's education and housing and the greatest jobs to produce. i want to give a personal thanks that this year's success first of all has in large part has to do with early meetings that we had with our treasurer, jose

cisneross and combined with great financial minds in the city and ben rosenfield and ted eagon and ted is here and he had the very difficult task joining with a whole team going around the entire city as i recall ted because i asked you to report back to us what was the business community saying big and small and he would have this group meeting and this meeting and this group would have so many cautious things about changing the business tax and the chamber weighed in and so many other groups that we were concerned about. industries that are all important to us and we had to weave together a collaborative reform that invited everybody to the table, and said not only set -- said it but demonstrated we didn't want to lose any major industry in the city. the other thing we were informed of and came through in all of the meetings as a result of this

was that they told the treasurer and told us you got to make it easy. you got to make it workable for everyone. if you have a complicated tax system even if you claim it will be helpful that's not going to be that helpful to everybody, and this is where i want to just really single out that this past year jose and his entire staff are to be congratulated because if you go on that website as i have done and we were here personally and walking me through, and by the way i am one of the few folks that still does my own taxes, and you know why i do my own taxes? because i'm not an asset rich individual like you all here so that's why it's easy to do my taxes. it's a one pageer and i had to do that with the website and it's just as easy and we're getting kudos

for it and easy to navigate and it was so easy and called out for one of the examples of innovation by our governor jerry brown and said this is the stuff you have to do in our cities to be successful. have that innovation and technology support from the group with us. have their commitment to be easy for all of the taxpayers, and then the benefits of this transition will be that much more felt so i want to give a hearty thanks to jose and his crew. i know he is dedicated in many ways to make our city succeed and on the cusp of education and certainly educating our immigrants and all of our under privileged that they can our financial education that he wants to help them be even more successful, so he's much more than our treasurer tax collector. he's been showing a great heart they think goes

along with all of our city employees. they always have a chance to demonstrate for more than what the job calls for and that's why we have such a great city and i want to say thank you to you and your staff. thank you to what you have done to make it easy for everybody and your commitment being engaged with our community, not just the business community, but i will tell you without this strong relationship that we are developing with our business community you won't get creative jobs. you won't get good conversations about investing in education, investing in our hospitals, investing in our communities, strong neighborhoods. all of that wouldn't happen unless there was a strong belief in our collaborative spirit in the city so i am very happy to just sarks announcing this on valentines weekend and everybody make sure you grab a cookie and chew your way to a good heart and we

announce this has been a very good successful launch of ongoing relationship we want to continue having with our business community so that we can create the kinds of local jobs that katie and scott and everybody wants to have in this city continue making a great city. thank you for being here today. [applause] >> i will introduce the treasurer tax collector jose cisneros. >> thank you mr. mayor. thank you so much for your kind words and your dedication and your partnership on launching this important new tax. as you mentioned mayor prop e was passed over two years ago, and i am here to report to you and to the entire city of san francisco that we are now at the point we can say we have successfully deliver the gross tax receipts system on time and on budget. [applause] so believe me a lot of people

deserve credit for that success and i will be honest it's not an easy road. our previous tax system was not just built to accommodate this kind of a measure and therefore we executed an agreement for a new tax system which configured almost all of our taxes including the new gross receipts tax. i would really like to recognize our great vendors on the project who are us today and let's acknowledge them for their great work. thank you so much. [applause] and last year in march we implemented one of the first important steps, the quarterly installments for the new business tax, which replaced a system we had for many years of mailing out prepayment quarterly bills and a huge change communicated to 95,000 business taxpayers and they complied and in april of last year we rolled out a change to the annual business registration fees for

all registered business in the city. this was a large change for all taxpayers and important for the city to bring in money during the year we're for implementation purposes. the collections of the business registration's fees were designed to increase from $8 million to $38 million and our businesses complied and we hit that target nearly exactly. so before taxpayers even file for the gross receipts tax now at the end of the year the new tax approved by voters brought in over $30 million to the city coffers. during the process we had many of the concerns that the mayor talked about that we needed to know what was in the new law and we worked with the mayor's office of economic development and others to implement the most aggressive outreach strategy around a tax

measure. this measure took an eacial of people to accomplish from the tax team in the city attorney's office and thank you to them. our experts at 311 and thank you nancy. the city administrator's office for hiring support and the controller's office and the mayor's office team and of course i am surrounded by the business community that never relented with their involvement making sure that the measure got passed and now engaged making sure it's implemented fairly and correctly in a way that people understand. i want to thank jim and kate and all of the tax advisory members for your guidance and help getting the word out. folks like jan at the apartment association brought many more requirements and obligations to the members of her community and we're grateful for the partnership to make the transition as smooth as possible but i don't want to in any way

forget the folks that took care of the lion's share of this and the staff from the tax controller's office and stand and be recognized. [applause] they have done the lion's share of this work and implementing this measure and i wouldn't be a good tax collector that the deadline is coming up and due and all returns must be filed and taxes paid by march 2 of this year. it's usually by the end of february mr. mayor, but that falls on a weekend so this year it's march 2, and i want to make sure that nobody misses that or at least file for an extension because we want to see anybody in compliance and with that i want to thank you for your time and introduce why neata from the city administrator's office. [applause]

>> hello. i am the program manager of the community challenge grant program and i am really here to encourage and ask that businesses check that box at the bottom of their tax forms designating 3% to the community challenge grant program. the program is also known and on the forms it's known as the neighborhood beautification and graffiti clean up fund. we provide grant toss organizations and nonprofits and residents and businesses to implement various greening and beautification projects in their neighborhood. many parks, community gardens, gathering spaces, and sidewalk and landscaping and public art just to name a few so with the 3% we can fund these projects throughout the city and i am sure a lot of you have already seen many of them around and you will know what this money we can continue to do so. thank you.

[applause] >> tell people how to file. >> well, then this actually concludes it. thank you so much for coming out this afternoon and remember to file by march 2. thanks. [applause] >> i'd like to call the meeting to order thank you everyone fewer patience i was waiting for a full house