locations we are going to treat the tenants well and reoccupy the space we are looking at to do student housing and performing space and we will do replacement housing for the tenants as we have more concrete plans we'll keep the planning commission and the planning department informed and we will probably all the time the master plan we respectfully request you consider the institutional master plan and no need for anything further i'll be happy to answer any questions katherine from the conservatory is here. >> opening it up for public comment

comment. >> sue hester this is a way the institutional master plan is supposed to work you you've had them from california college of arts and crafts conservatory and a couple of other institutions relatively painless this one is struggling to build housing in a principle manner on the site right next to the academy of the art what that handout is is the land holding the academy of art is looking to build more you'll find 150 they see as their future administrative haurtdz you are headquarters a block from city hall and i submitted comments that have been considered that was before even i know about the plans to do

housing on the other side of the 0 lot line you have a responsibility to take the institutional master plan seriously where there is a housing demand from the students from the people their meeting it in a principled manner the academy handout i gave you last week showed you all the buildings occupied for their students the epitome of american people uncorroborative sfpuc constitution you've had pain also hearing on the master plan please, please, please set an informational hearing on the academy of art soon not 16

months from now not when i get around to issue the final plan we need a plan that addresses comprehensively where the arts institutions of thecy is located and housing the cca and conservatory have addressing those issues by taking over a building that is build built on 9th and mission that's great we are a city that has xhaeblg institutions we need to recognize it can set caps that are reasonable on the enrollment and provide housing for the students it is setting up i applaud that thank you. >> is there any additional public comment on this item?

>> good afternoon, commissioners my name is paul wormer i must say i'm impressed by this abbreviated plan and the impact on housing and their plans to deal with that i'm unique in the non-professional planners and related folks in the city i've looked at several i mp followed by the dental school imf or p it is interesting stuff unfortunately too many people don't understand what an i mp and what is going on in their neighborhood i know that planning department staff does can do outstanding outreach on various planning recommended issues with a series

on eco districts with sf puc getting some education of community groups on the i mp and how it helps people to understand by the way, it might raise to the for ground the big difference between an institution like the one you've heard from and the aau that seemed not to have an im p but conditions to expand for some reason no, no follow-up from the city on this i think part people don't understand what institutional responsibilities are and maybe they're not making enough noise they don't understand the impact of the institutions on the community

and how to slides through quietly and then facts on the ground which are not easy to deal with i'll encourage you to push forward through the planning department to do better understanding of the i mp and what is like to understand what is going on in our community thank you. >> good afternoon commissioner president fong good afternoon, commissioners i'm christopher marty have to commend the conservatory with the excellent job with the abbreviated i mp as the two previous speakers stated it really exposes the elephant in the room and that's the academy of art university that continues to expand it continues to have impact on housing stock

and transportation neighborhoods in the city and it's time to update that i mp certainly two years has passed and bring them into compliance thank you. >> any public comment on this item? not seeing none, public comment is closed. >> commissioner johnson. >> thank you very much i also think this is a really, really great document i thought the plans were thoughtful 33 he they were going to handle future hours and their own facilities in the future i know that staff recommended we sort of take this as abbreviated plan i want to hear this is we should have a public hearing just to sort of air out what is great about this plan people mentioned the academy of art as the elephant

in the room but one at a time this plan a good way of taking that first step we're talking about not as many students or crossing over into citywide only one neighborhood we're talking about as planning for growth but i think there are a lot of lessons we can learn if we look at the academy of art across neighborhoods we have to figure out what to develop to houses the students that is good to sort of have it conversation in a public forum although this is a fantastic plan highly supportive and there has been a good job. >> commissioner richards. >> i applauded the conservatory for having a responsible manner this is great i guess i'll ask

staff i know that - there are workshops that the department does for interested parties if there is one there's time and cabinet to do one for a master plan i'd like to attend as well. >> commissioner antonini. >> yeah. i also agree this is extremely well done we don't need to have a public hearing they've done what we've asked him to do and other institutions this certainly can be used as a example and can be instructive perhaps but don't need to put the conservatory music through a process they've done what we've asked them to do. >> commissioner moore. >> i think this is a good report if i understood

commissioner johnson correctly she wanted to use it as an examples that's fine there is good large master plans on file talking about sf general really good master plans and if there is indeed a commission desire to have an informal meeting i've actually mid-market is take this as an example by which we could indeed go back and look at it what makes a good institutional master plan i'll support commissioner richards request for that. >> director ram. >> thank you i hear a lot of interest in that larger not necessarily for the conservatory but an interest in the discussion for the master plan process and we can talk

about the details perhaps how that can happen i suggest it better in an inner formal instead of a fulfill blown hearing with respect to the academy of art we'll bring that an update on the eir process and the proposed process for how we propose to bring the action for the facility we'll update that in the fall as well. >> commissioner moore. >> i think that would be a good primer to have a workshop beforehand and perhaps after the summary hiatus that is good. >> commissioners we'll move on to item 11 ellis street this is

an informational presentation. >> commissioners secretary is handing out a staff memorandum from july meeting good afternoon. commissioner president fong nick foster dispatching this item before you is for informational purposes to fulfill the design plan for the case before you motion number 18954 no action by the commission is quid it is on

i was ellis street the 8 thousand plus secret is located in the district with the height and bulk district in the downtown area in mason district project involves the construction of a 11 story hotel with a hundred and 56 tourist hotel rooms on a site with a surface parking lot the project was originally approved by the planning department with the approval of the conditional use authorization downtown project theoretician and with was extended on 13 in may of 2015 the hotel purchased the property pursuant to the refined plans the new

project sponsor has made minor sdrien modifications those modifications are listed on page 3 of our staff memorandum the program includes the ground floor retail use in lieu of the anticipated ground floor basement without impact to the tourist hotels overall the department finds the final design companions with article 11 with relation to the market sutter conservatism district and requests the architecture review committee as outlined in the revised drawings as investigation 2 the department requested the ar c to consider the following the scale of the version two design the preferred ground floor bulk head and tells yesterday the july

hearing the commission found the updated are in conformity with the skrooert with the mason sutter conservatism district this that concludes my presentation. >> thank you project sponsor please. good afternoon, commissioners with reuben, junius & rose representing the here on behalf of the project sponsor the hotel we're happy to be here to provide an update we recognize as a commission you've seen this project before by the prior owner and project sponsor today, we're here for a different reason on behalf of the hotel developer and operator they've purchased this two months ago we

moving forward as fast as we can and fulfilling the sites plans we went to the arrest or ar c to show the updated refinement and here to show you the design as the design was approved some years ago i think from a policy prospective we all recognize there are not enough tourist hotel rooms in the city since the adaptation of the tourist hotel conversion ordinance the baseline in 2009 in terms of the number of hotel rooms in large hotels has remained static at the same time the occupancy rate was 84 percent compared to 2011 it was 61 percent so in summary we're proposing to start the

construction on the project and get to the site permit process on the approved project that eliminates an existing surface parking lot and brings the much preferred hotel project we also have a motivated project sponsor that is looking forward to getting the project built with that i'll let the architect go through the updates and hear if the project sponsor as well. >> good afternoon commissioner president fong and commissioner great to be here sorry to hear about evan rose my dloelgz dlolgz to his colleagues i've worked with him before we're excited about the project 72 ellis if i can get the the monitor what is important that is an example of photo there is

a big gap what is for the textures of the neighborhood we have historic building as well as new buildings the four seasons and a new building we have the humboldt bank and the combination of text turns in the area your role to take the original design and update it to be conforming to the area and change the program somewhat again, the mid block site anchored by two buildings a hotel on the left-hand side of the grammar and 6 story on the right-hand side and across the street the flood building it is hundred and thirty feet tall this is another example of the area the context as you can see we have quite a bit of architecture styles throughout the district some modern some 70s and again, some historic

presence there we took a couple of shots what that building might look like if a distance the most paramount view is humming bottle it disappears in the context of the area another important issue this is a really important slides the retail concentration as you can see farrell street as the concentration as does polk on ellis street what happens for the first thirty feet and it device off because of parking garages and not that much retail activity what that building does it will start to drive that retail activity down to eric street and be a much more activated street

we've provided the - similar to other streets around o farrell and powell this image shows you that two retail floors and 9 stories of hotels with the open terrace at top the amenity planned view we contained not parking but the ground floor we have a majority of retail about 5 thousand square feet and have an indigents lobby to the hotel we've decided to do as you can see on the second-story is our main lobby for the hotel is on the second floor a more of a sky lobby and rooms above that at the very top the building hundred and thirty feet a sky terrace that has incredible views west and east and a

seating area and entertainment area for the hotel guests this is a view of the elevation of the building and the sort of scale and proposition that we dwiefrd from the previous design more a grain for the building and the proposition have to do with the previous design this is views of context images what we see in the neighborhood of the existing sort of union square architecture and our interpretation of how that architecture can now become contemporary in nature but keep the scales of the historic buildings in the area this is a rendering of the building looking east along ellis street as you can see two second floor retail with a canopy line that picks up on the line of the because of other

existing buildings in the area the first floor is 20 feet the second floor is 16 feet there is plenty of space for retail we thought that was important to have that canopy line at the top of the building an open crown which will be again outdoor space for the night life that will illuminate a choer line similar to the humboldt bank the majority of the material is a light colored lime store terracotta and the system is champagne topaz we have a dark expression at the entrance to the lobby area using a dark

limestone here's a picture of the retail storefront on the right and left hand and the entry lobby on the left-hand side to the hotel and here's a final prospective looking west along ellis street that concludes my presentation. and if you have any questions i'm open to discuss. >> thank you there maybe questions. >> opening it up for public comment i'm sorry the hotel sponsor thank you. >> good afternoon. my name is a john i'm the vice president of the operations the west coast for the high gate hotels we're excited and commented to this it project san francisco is a great city for hotels we operate 4 properties at the moment stanford and park central and

union square hotel we have you know high gate hotels is a developer and owner and an operator located in the headquartered in new york with offense in dallas and london we currently have 60 hotels that are all over the united states and europe and currently have 3 developments in the process at different points new york los angeles and one in london and also last about a year ago we opened up a hotel that we started from the ground up and 20 thousand square feet of retail space can't tell you how excited and condominium to this project thank you. >> thank you. >> okay hello marilyn morgan i

wanted to point out the original project approval was in 2001 i'd like to see this design be more respectful of the architecture and blend in a little bit more and more appropriate the union square area has a lot of historic preservation it is a very successful urban design heavily used and thought of this to me is not belinda's in as well as should i'm familiar with the architects work i'd like to encourage the commission and the department to ask them to relook at this design thank you. >> is there any additional public comment? >> sue hester my address is 8 sfgov market street the entrance it across the street from this

hotel in the middle i looked at all the pictures they haven't been taken in the past two years because ellis street is blocked off the big thing happening on stockton street the street pattern is changed because of the central subway the eir that was done talked about circulation that existed in 2000 this is 2015 heading to 2016 i'm scratching my head and saying what information does the planning department operate on which is dramatically different in 2015 into the 2016 from what you evaluated this is different from the design issues you may have issues as commissioners but

i know this site every time i go to any office i go by it i don't use the market street entrance such as the ellis street and right now i really it has a traffic pattern and the fact they especially\bother taking health insurance company or pictures of the site as it exists now is a question they're not acknowledging things have changed and they're changing because of city policy to change the transit city pattern thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners my name is paul wormer i don't have a comment on the specific design presented so

much as a concern about what appears to be an approval granted in 2001 based on data that clearly predates 2001 bill quite a bit carrying through for 14 plus years with no understanding of how things have changed. city's land use are in large use experiments they're based the conditions at the time you're planning the experiment when wru you have a 15 year gap like in san francisco are you - do you really understand this is i think a general comment i've seen a couple of others buildings that are approved that are only now getting started are they the right things to do

given the context that's a question i'd love to hear answers somehow or another thank you >> is there any additional public comment okay public comment is closed. >> commissioner moore. >> i'm glad the orphan found a parent as almost a decade and a half it is nice to see a parking lot be occupied by a building it raised a number of questions i called the city attorney's office and the rectify officer for the vice president and conserved ever asked her what does the commission do in 2001 and before that was pretty much a undefined area of the city i'll express myself carefully the building or the central subways sfwau was having a

revitalization of mid market and on and on and the historic preservation commission we have gridlock raised the bar of buildings in that area i'll ask the da to perhaps give us a little bit of give you a little bit of background the conversation i had with kate stacey and perhaps ask the director or the zoning administrator to talk about the environmental review this is a bar that project has to be reviewed. >> deputy city attorney mirena burns so i think you framed it this way you're asking two separate questions what the standard for performing environmental review on a project when you have approved that are much later than the eir was done that's