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tv   [untitled]    May 31, 2015 11:00pm-11:31pm PDT

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planned those are the differences and bulk 35 percent less and in terms of height it is really the height limit is half but the building is 55 percent less. >> right? but you have a 20 foot penthouse on top of top we're adding 20 feet along the i 80s is still there but not the reason why i'm asking the question have you tried a code compliant building in which your coming up with. >> we looked at doing the code compliant at 4 hundred feet it will not met with good strong support from the city and the other considerations the neighborhoods the rincon hill condominium association and now residents in the second tower completed and the 35 lansing
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under construction they don't have tenant yet but working through the neighborhood outreach with the condominium owners and other residents in the neighborhood the response we got from the early outreach they liked the smaller height and design they were adamant they wanted the sound factory to go away and the auto dealer but they made comments we got were the desire to have a little bit of retail space on the ground floor the cafeteria and the coffee shop if it please the court, if you will, that's the plan having the streetscape like rincon hill be redone at the sidewalk level and getting into a more pedestrian safety along the sidewalks a blank wall for the sound factory. >> if you want to answer that.
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>> is there anything you want to add, sir and if i could have the official again if you look at this slide code compliant project a extremely narrow and the north south dynamics gets cut back by 14 feet a building that is not buildable given the depths that are needed so it would be a difficult building to build to structurally build you squeeze between the tower of lansing and at the once you squeeze those it's difficult to develop a project. >> may i weigh in there's been
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a lot of discussion with staff two years the feeling from the staff standpoint was the rincon hill plan was that the rincon hill plan intent the reason it is zoned for 4 hundred feet the intent to put the tower spacing and judge where the toddler tower should go this i say thinking a 4 hundred foot tower wouldn't make sense on this site with the tower facing reduction but at the lower height made more sense but given you wouldn't want to do a tower on this site that has the exception of the tower site but that makes sense difficult issue director ram is that the fact that rincon hill wanted to if turnout the way it
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was the previous commission regrets they approved it the way it is why is the thing doing there it doesn't makes sense what is the next layer the discussion is that adhering to the basics policies by which we create city gentrification in 83 when the director making reduce initiate the downtown plan how to identify and maintain a balance for awful well knowing that much much taller building will i've got to tell you sprout up in the san francisco landscape we know coming down from the freeway of oakland rincon hill one was a huge mistake we're starting to go
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into the new york way of building no one will build in new york because they sit too close to the freeway with no breathing room around them this building falls within the con narrations so what did we do about height and bulk and tower situation and more than bulky mentioned by still creating streets and visibility without starting to block the city off i mean, i think your guidance on making it a lower building is great but i still think i prefer a building which would also not supply our legislation i want to leave it with that basically things i appreciate and things i see as good moves but something
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i know that pines has spoken with the city for many, many years they're trying but still challenges i have problems with but i'm pleased to hear what everyone else says. >> commissioner richards. >> we saw with a couple of things i think we have a couple of projects 1-800 hundred market street it was not a allowance we pushed back on design and mobility issues every time we extend exceptions and exemption we're eroding the ability of the city i see director ram will understand trying to create a situation in san francisco this
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design to me goes against what i believe good upper design facing the 88 fiat is 24 percent the diagonal is a building for a size of 51 to 55 feet as currently stand and it is a lot actual support a higher building whether it go is to 4 hundred or 3 hundred feet with the appropriate separation and sculpt and massaging it will be more appropriate and hopefully code compliant were one other aside aside the directors commented and formally requested any approval for the potential
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of the co-traffic flow lane on the bridge and they said that it should be transit first policy impacts the economic viability u vital of the city not having good transportation they also said without significant investment in the transportation will worsen the effective of the bus service and the transbay center and effects the viability is critical to contra flow to the bridge and the new transbay center will cut across this parcel into the existing podium not bagging my decision this is a database with all that going on you're welcome to comment.
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>> i'm happy to respond to the news relative to the transbay they have commissions a study they asked us a while back months ago to meet with their consultant with m t c called arab we did that met with them several times the first initial studies they have opposed that didn't cross the property the late round of options did have this impact on the property all of them actually go through the 411 harrison not shown on the screen at the moment as an existing i think historic building that needs to be condemned and demolished so we're happy to work with ac transit and reached out to them per the consultant viable is one that just kind of touches the
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corner of site and that will my require us to reduce the corner by 5 units and that can be done i think the other two options the tighter swing of the option option one is more impactful and impacted by the 10s there's a way to design that out i think that is just a study and a lot of constituents caltrain and others i don't know if they view that contra flow and happening. >> one more question if you're trying to achieve the same amount of units this design has in a code compliant won't reach 4 hundred feet how many feet tall does that have to go.
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>> we could do the math the way the site is set up in its triangular form there's an interesting height map line across it the pronounced where it is is a 65 foot limit and line that was drawn across the site and the neighbors sites where the 4 hundred foot tower sits it gets squeezed so i think that is a difficult design to just take that pure you know code and map conforming less about the rincon hill code for the size of towers more about the fact that the map has a line that moves from 4 hundred to 65 we need to stay - when achieving the best answer we could create
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a housing project. >> why not ask for an exception on the 65 feet. >> you could do that and move the tower that's an officer, what we did we were able to reduce the decision making to real 2 exceptions one so for the tower separation from 45 and one for the bulk we pet that and reduced the size of the floor plate of the tower we existed that down to 2 but going down and restrict that we'll allow for a larger tower. >> hey, we have a project we are going to build it and oh by the way, it's under the footage.
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>> we'll not. >> you have your projects you'll conform to the project. >> it is the way is reads i'll see what my fellow commissioners have to say. >> there's a lot of discussion with the staff we talked about you know changing the 65 height limit and the staff felt more comfortable coping the 65 feet adjacent to the freeway and adjudicating closer to harrison street if i increased the height limit it is more difficult to accommodate the transit we have a podium there so you're taking 5 or 10 units out of the podium as opposed to the whole tore to make sense to keep the 65 feet against the freeway and looking at putting the mass of building on harrison street i'll see what my fellow commissioners have to say. >> commissioner antonini.
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>> i voted for rincon hill plan including all the towers that are being built we wanted to put towers on hills that makes more sense than the valencia and the gentrification is working anti well as a result point up in the staff report the 399 got an tower exception two as well as 375 i remember the discussion an 399 but arc today's they are putting two buildings and the compromise to have one tower that is aesthetically better i think this is it brought it closer to rincon hill they needed to tower exceptions correct me if i am wrong if
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anyone knows i'm quite sure about 375 but maybe a similar situation. >> so the separation is between this building and the 45 lansing is somewhat similar to the situation between number one and 399 fremont if i'm not mistaken i a point of information, sir can answer this question what's the definition of a tore is it over 85 feet considered a tower? >> in the rincon hill it is over hundred and 10. >> hundred and 10 oh, but this qualifies as a a tower our hundred and 7 three or four hundred presumably the tower
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that's the higher tower would be showing so narrow away from lansing does that make it consistent. >> yes. if it were set back at hundred and 10 feet we're talking about the difference in between one event and hundred 73. >> not having the set back there is an area as it relates to jasper we call is lansing the prospective of having the building be sort of a fit at 2 hundred feet i'll call is and zoning versus 4 hundred was a pleasing thing again rincon hill side and 45 not saying that we still got a lot of harrison street between it we're talking about the difference between one 10 and one 75 a difference of 65
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feet it is tight. >> but in terms of the separation to be compliant the upper parts of tower would be hundred 15; is that correct. >> that's correct. >> what the modifications you're asking us to do what would the separation been on the upper parts of the tower. >> from one 10 to one 75. >> between the towers to 82. >> 82 that's the change. >> from harrison street. >> the width of harrison street it is similar to what it is between 39 fremont and at least the second tower of number one rincon hill i think that is the closer wound i'm not sure but in any case yeah. it sound like a good compromise to me makes sense especially, if people are concerned about too many towers
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it still has the appearance a of a tower it would be subsidiary to all the towers under construction you have 340 out of ground and another 1 on the street so is it seems like a reasonable compromised director ram i thought that caltrain ac transit had all this business with the ramps figured out sound their is discussion. >> this is not recommended to the terminal but the possibility of a future c0 contra flow on the bridge in general. >> they're to have 1 bus lane in the other directions. >> there's a much larger study underway called the core
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capacity studies that looks at the traffic across the bay. >> you're not making fewer cars it will cram everything and build a second span or railroad but taking lanes away didn't make sense if this were to happen the reduced plan makes it possible for them to squeeze that contra flow lane than the plan of the tower i would think i'm not sure but anyway, yeah, i'm supportive this sound like it is reasonable to initiate we'll discuss it more. >> commissioner wu. >> can i ask the designer to show the dining room not the white box the white box it the diagonal so the bulk expectation
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is because the - your bigger than that white box can you explain the needed for the bulk exception with the tower exception. >> you need to have the additional bulk is a compromises it is a long discussion with the planning department and you have one of the give backs of coming down from a 4 hundred fiat height what that realization of the unbelievable and knowledge we want to place the massachusetts on the north side as much as possible away from the freeway. >> the original business owner the tower and separation were about the sunshine can you talk about the thinking of sunshine and how impacts the ground level
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people walk on the sidewalk kind of thing. >> the bulk if you look at the it's on the screen this is the diagram is not true this is the true diagram that shows the impact from the east side from the rincon hill side of the building and the site is pretty well shadowed by the rincon hill in the morning and then the building allows for penetration into the intersection of first and harrison as well as allowing penetration into harrison street from the middle part of the afternoon. >> okay. thank you. >> commissioner hillis. >> just a question own the height and where it ends up how do you get hundred and 75 feet.
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>> the hundred and 75 feet really became a specific some of the constraint of the site for example, the structural system that height there is limitation on the structural part of building and the size of the - within the plan that starts to effect efficiency and the second aspect is the elevation of the building one side of the building is a property line so that long side of the site adjacent to the parking lot next door is a pro-property line and we've pushed it over the hundred and 75 feet is driven by the number of elevators in the building as we hit that height that means we can rely on two elevators so it starts to impact
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the efficiency so the complex analysis that gets us to the hundred and 75 feet. >> okay. thank you. >> i also am supportive i mean i see we without the possibility of parole want a 4 hundred feet tower on this site i'm not as nervous as some other commissioned is it so an unusual site and kind of doesn't lay out the code otherwise dictate so i'm not nervous about making a change to the code we're kind of here for and looking at the size and constraint and so i like the project obviously we don't have everything in front of us but i move to initiate. >> second. >> commissioner moore.
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>> i would have liked to see a better package that skaz asks you to to make decisions the package is hard to understand the discussion about building separation and height and bulk is dynamic rather than the the- it didn't show what you're looking at you're not looking at i don't know what i was looking at i was guessing i would have liked to seen that might be difficult to ask i can't condition what you have in front of us as you're looking ahead in the decision you contra flow lane becomes an issue it might never happen we kind of know you thought about it which makes us feel better articles like this pop all the time we
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did we said we heard we are not talk about but if you wrote about it okay. i heard about it but at least we know we can deal with this. >> if you could show the screen we've had - we were frankly we didn't know whether or not this was going to be an initial a distraction we've been in discussion with the people that prepare the ramp studies how it is effecting the project so we prepared american people exhibit we didn't want to bring the block but we're prepared. >> since you live in twitter city somebody will send it to us and the site is aggressive about
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being ahead of many decision and it crosses our desk generally speaking i'd like to see that as part of package. >> we didn't have all the information when we prepared this so we - >> well, this commission is quite sharp and relative to ask the right questions don't assume it will not come up we'll to have a better package and instead of second-guessing what you're trying to do. >> let me add a couple of thoughts i don't have an issue are the change of height it could go higher what troubles me from a distance you can't i don't have a issue but the
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proximity of the freeway that adds to it i'm not a fan of that i love skyline and coming across the bridge i think those buildings are so close to the buildings block the downtown they need to grow and i realize this is not exactly what we're talking about today but that's my difficulty with this project site. >> commissioner antonini. >> yeah. the whole rincon hill plan the whole idea i mentioned earlier at this point we're making a choice between the tower that is higher than what is there now or the tower it is significantly honor what is there the intent of the plan whether or not we make the motivations to allow for denser
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hours it was settled it was the modification that makes it a little bit more acceptable in many ways and but i think we have a month and a half until this comes of we initiate this today, i ask the project sponsor and staff bring back many any of the questions the commissioners asked like the contra flow lane any other types of things that might maybe more comparisons of the two i think the discussions of the elevators and other things that make the taller building more of a challenge were helpful in the decision to go with the shorter and somewhat bulkier building. >> i want to say we'll do that for the 168th of just like we've got a more robust presentation
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so we're trying to limit the number of slides and schonz commitment the tower and podium as it cigarettes from the freeway there is a fair amount of space not just the top of harrison that is dead next to the freeway this is is an on ramp we'll be come in the city and showing that all the angles on the 16 did podium sets back in the freeway and when we get to the tower we believe that the architect and the planning department have begun a go back of creating a nice looking view of the building and i'd like add that it is a - not an easy site to work with we're proud of the project and it is adding housing to rincon hill in the city and
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taking out across the board is a current use it is a night club so we're happy about that but work done in making sure we get it right and we felt like we did our best to create a good building for the site we feel that way to hopefully, we'll present that when we have more time on the 16. >> thank you very much if you look at your images to shows the building in place and cars coming off the one ram not an off-ramp is a counter flow you might want to correct that when you look at it you'll see it shows two or three cars coming off unless they're driving