immigrants, multifamily households, right? i love in a household of 15 people, and that's one out of the three households in my block alone, so i saw a slide that said we are single-family homes and that's where that fear sprung from. my next fear is when we talk about demand for housing, we're not talking about the families and friends that i grew up with. i fear when we talk about demand for housing, we are talking about inviting outsiders with money into our neighborhoods, and i know we need money, but that money that we're talking about is fleeting. what is not fleeting is the families that have proven time and time again that despite mechanisms that work against them, that they will live and stay here. their roots in the excelsior that i think in the process of development that we are not looking at, and these are deep rooted with mothers that pick up their sons and daughters at one of the 13 high schools --

13 schools in our neighborhood, right? so next thing i want to point out is that i've come to a few of the meetings and what i also see that a lot of these people that i grew up with are not at those meetings, that we are not represented, so i think when we talk about development in the excelsior, we really want genuine development for the people already living there, and that it's not enough to open the door, i think, and maybe we can talk about it later on, but i really feel we have to step outside the door and reach for the community. again, i saw a slide that said not many of our community members shop in the mission area. i don't think you've been in our -- on our block around 3:00 p.m. it is crowded, right? ca casa lucas, yung chi market. it's crowded. i hope we don't create

development for the sake of time and making it look good on a powerpoint. i hope we take the time to look at long-term answers to these questions that we have and to include the community that is most suffering. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> hi. my name is thierry. i'm the director of the filipino center, and we've been around for about 11 years. we work closely with south of market, and this is what we've been doing is activating our community that hasn't been at the table for a long time to work on these particular issues. folks have talked about the neighborhood. it's working families, it's recent families, and that's who we're engaging. what commissioners talked about, the differentiated impact in particular in district 11, the families in the household are there, the racial demographics, and

district is 1 has the highest rates of owner evictions and move-ins. as sunshine and others mentioned, not just about building housing for the folks that are coming in, but pushing other folks out. by engaging folks in this community, it's an acute crisis and problem in district 11. that's why this particular planning process is very important for district 11. it will potentially reshape the entire neighborhood. through our organizing efforts, but mobilizing youth, we got them to transfer from mta to mot housing. that's a public site. there's a provide site we worked on, the valencia funeral home, where we had 85%

affordable. some condos on the allemeny side. this is the imaginative possibility when communities work together. we had those projects with the san francisco foundation, we were we were- [ inaudible ] we're -- people are engaging limiting super efficient recent immigrant low income folks who can't access a lot of the job markets, invested in the sf foundation, and they're continuing to invest in many of our other projects to really hold the community there that's there, that's being pushed out. folks are going out to the tricity area, vallejo, and they come back. that's the community we're trying to hold you, and we're looking forward to working with

you, come out to the neighborhood. we really need to do more than what we have. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> hello. four years ago when i started talking about the alterations, my boys played a lot of sports, and they went out to these neighborhoods and played in these playgrounds, both public school and cyo, so i know these neighborhoods from that. it's a real quick bus ride on the mission bus out there from noe valley. i imagine it's a quick uber ride, too, from everywhere. i worry about this, i worry about the next phase, i worry about these blocks with -- these are things you won't see because no one will dr them,

and you'll lose housing, and it'll become very expensive. i don't know if you looked at that sfcurved website, well, they have a little poll there comparing some with excelsior. this is a great neighborhood with great housing, and very right la vulnerable. i hope you'll tighten it up so we won't see this really wonderful area of the city go away. it's not just the housing, but it's the people that live there and what it represents. and i'll say one more thing, the ted egan talk at the land use committee, i mentioned that report, he said the rents are across the board the same. so it used to be where some neighborhoods, you could go gee, i could go there and it would be a little more affordable. he said that's not the case, and i would imagine that unfortunately that's happening with the housing crisis and the pressures in noe valley and the

mission are coming there, and i think there's something that has to be done, even if it's a mo moratorium, but to protect that housing of mission street, because that's the last basstion of afford object housing in our city. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> thank you, commissioners. my name is david hooper, and i serve on the working group, and i live in mission terrace. i lived there for over 30 years. i was raised in the mission. what i'd like to say, i'd like to thank supervisor safai for getting the mayor's office of economic and workforce development and the planning department to convene the working group. i'd like to say that at the groups, members of the public have attended and have

contributed. sometimes what you think you know, another member of the working group is talking about, when another member of the public comes in and starts adding a perspective that makes the whole idea more valuable. i'd also like to thank rachel tanner and jorge rivas for their effort in trying to corral us month after month for these meetings and make something come through. as for the mission commercial corridor itself, rachel did touch on the fact that there are vacancies, there are a lot of vacancies. a lot of buildings on the mission corridor are typically one story high. in the future, it's understood that this kind of development is going to exist when the buildings get developed. when something starts happening, they will be units above particularly newly built is seneca and mission, the

sites at 65 ocean and adjacent to it. 915 cayuga, the upper yard. we're looking at 1,000 units that are coming in, and a sizeable portion of those are going to be affordable. in the meantime, design counts. this isn't vanness avenue. this isn't the inner mission. we know it's going up much higher than what we've gone now, and i'd really prefer if not the marshall plan. we're going to have to make a real effort because the community that's there has to be able to take some pride, not just living in the buildings, but being part of the community where that is the commercial corridor. the other thing i'd like to say about development is it isn't just housing, it's jobs. it isn't just the construction jobs. if we can find a way to get anchor tenants to come in and be with employers.

for example, the market at canyon and glen park, i was there a month ago, and i said out loud, how many people work here, and the manager who was standing behind me said 106, almost all of them full-time. you don't need a big box in order to have effective, active tenants and provide jobs within a community. so i want to thank everybody who's participated in the working group and for the people who led it. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. hi. how do you do? my name's mel flores, and i'm here representing myself as a member of the excelsior active working group. i'm present in the excelsior district improvement association, as well as on the board of the excelsior action group where i serve as vice chair. i just would like to say i have concerns about the progress of this project, specifically

around the purpose project and conclusions of the working group, and i've also heard these same concerns voiced by other members of the working group. i've been in attendance at many meetings, including the small working meetings and various meetings of the public realm. i felt uneasy about this process for some time, especially after meeting with thesub group liaisons, of which i am one. during the meeting, we were presented with a document that outlined the strategies for us to review. in reality, that was not what thesub groups had vetted upon or agreed upon. when this was brought up at the meeting, there seemed to be a defensiveness about the methodology of arriving at theet strategies. when a new idea was presented by me about parking, i was told that as a city worker, i could not record that suggestion because i know it would not be approved.

another person pushed back, and then my suggestion was recorded. i have a sampling of other strategies from other folks. the community business district housing density and building height are being pushed down our throats. that was a general community member. only the voices of a few voting members are being heard. i have some others as well in my letter which i'd like to submit. while i wholeheartedly submit supervisor safai's desire to have a document to follow with regards to growth and improvement and developments in the neighborhood, given the circumstances, i find it hard to wholeheartedly endorse this process. i'd like to request that the process be slowed down and made more representative and reflective of the community needs. i would also like to request a more thorough and careful area plan for our neighborhood. i believe that this current process does not adequately

reflect the values we have fostered within our community. thank you for your time. >> thank you, mr. flores. any additional public comment on this item? seeing none, we'll close public comment and open it up to commissioner comments and questions. commissioner johnson? >> commissioner johnson: thank you to staff and thank you to everyone who gave public comment today. th we are not at the end, and i'm hopeful that the concerns were heard. particularly, i want to point out a couple things. concerns around cultural competency and language. we talk a lot about language up here sometimes, but particularly for an area like this, i think it's really important that cultural

competency go beyond that. we do have a lot of multigenerational and multifamily households. if we were to do some sort of magic wand and have a study, probably equal only to maybe chinatown or to sunset, and so i think that we need to be taking that into account when we look at how are we -- what are we wanting this neighborhood to look like? i think that the physical feel and look should reflect the cultural competency of the people who are living there, so that's -- that's slightly different than when we talk about making sure that there's, you know, interpretation and different languages. i think that's a little bit of a step beyond. so i think a couple things: one, i'm really sorry. i hate when i do this. staff, on the demographic profile, you had the unemployment rate at 8% in the excelsior district, 7% citywide. i thought it was like 2.6. >> you know, i'll have to take i look at that data again, but

this is a little outdated level. it's hard to get the granular data on a neighborhood as current as the citywide. >> i hate to call you out, but the only reason it's important is if 9% is accurate, but 7 is not, the difference between 2.3 or 2.6, that's kind of a big jump, so i just wanted to mention that. >> great. >> we'll figure out what it actually is. another thing -- couple things i want to say. you know, looking at this plan -- and again, how does this area differ than other areas where you may have other neighborhood plans. i would guess and maybe staff, you can jump up here if you have it. this area has a higher percentage of primary homeownership than other districts in the city. >> yeah. >> so more households own their homes than do households in other areas. >> absolutely, yes. >> okay. so that gets to my next point.

when we talk about -- [ inaudible ] >> all right. >> for just a moment. when we talk about how can we use a neighborhood plan like this to broadcast, again, it's not just the planning department that will have to call it with so many strategies. it's also our sister agencies, planning department does not do everything. how do we prevent displacement -- what do you mean, we don't do everything? how do we prevent displacement even as we look at this neighborhood in the future, and i think technically, when you look at an area, we need to focus on what are the tools for people who are cost burdened for home ownership? i think we spent a lot of time thinking about rentalsubsidy or figuring out tools to figure out displacement for people who do not own their homes, which is a different set of tools, but we don't talk enough about how do we prevent displacement for people who do own their

homes, and that is actually problematic. i think people tend to think if you own your home, you're all good, but if you're cost burdened, and the data we have here says that 40% of people who own their homes are cost burdened, meaning they pay more than 30% of their household income towards their home costs. we need to be thinking about that because part of displacement is home values go up, people already feel cost burdened, they feel like they were already kind of on the emgem edges, and so they feel like they need to sell out to take care of their families, and we should be thinking just as much about that as we do of displacement or people that are being evicted from their homes or otherwise forced out. i think that's more the case in this district that maybe is not the case in other places. and finally, the whole

confluence of talking about cultural neighborhood and retail, i think those two topics crash together in the excelsior. i understand from this report but also from other information, this area struggles with vacancies, and i think the change in retail and how ground-floor businesses are able to stay afloat with how the economy is today is something we should be thinking about. we should not only be protecting businesses that are existing and figuring out what we can do to help them stay, but especially as we have newer development going on where there presumably more ground space, how can we preserve that space? i hope we will be able to successfully solve that problem. we have a large immigration problem here, and as we think about other areas of the city

that have a stronger, sort of universal notoriety, we should be thinking about what does that mean in the excelsior, and really, not just in name only, but how does a cultural district actually protect what's the essence of a neighborhood and not just, you know, we have one, hooray, but what does it actually do to protect businesses in the neighborhood? so lots good here. would love to see future answers to some of those problems. again, really honing in on how do we have tools to protect from displacing people who really do own their homes, because that's a large percentage of people in this district. >> president hillis: thank you. commissioner melgar? >> commissioner melgar: thank you for that presentation, and not just the presentation, but the process that you've engaged the community in. i've been privy to some of the

conversations, and thank you for the respect that you've shown to the community. so i had the pleasure and honor to go on one of the tours of the neighborhood, and i would encourage my fellow commissioners to do the same. it's a slightly different angle. you know, i think that hearing it from neighborhood residents who are not usually the ones who go to the meetings and are -- or the ones who are invited, you know, and to these spaces is actually really valuable, so i think it is a different perspective, and i think it's a very valuable one. i think it yields better results, so i'm not going to go over some of the things that folks in the community said, because i think the need for affordable housing and all of that -- i did have a few questions about what you're thinking. so particularly around the commercial corridor and then transportation. so this is an area of the city that has one of the highest

proportions of children. [ please stand by ]

the youngest to the oldest. how does our pedestrian environment serve those folks? how does our transportation environment serve somebody with a stroller and somebody with a wheelchair and thinking from that perspective. we can get to some of the small things that can make a big difference. curb cuts is a simple thing that we do across the city, with ada, but it allows people of all ages to get around easier. when we think about stores, the retail mix, what are the other services that people would want when they go with their family? is it a type of restaurant, a size, feeling welcome? what makes you feel like, okay,

this is a place i can go with my kids. some members have talked about more activitieactivities. and places to are kids to go after school, teenagers, who can maybe be more unsupervised, but where will they go to feel welcome that's safe for them? those are some of the big ideas in digging into what family-friendly can mean. childcare is huge. it's a huge challenge for the entire city. and i think it connects well with the idea of retail spaces. are there retail spaces, especially new ones, that could be childcare spaces? how do we encourage that more and incentivize more childcare spaces to locate on the corridor it can be challenge to be in that location, but mission childcare is there and they serve 225 students, young people. that's a lot of kids.

and so how do we have more of those facilities. >> i had a couple more things. >> yeah. >> i think there's a relationship between density and the health of the corridor. i do think in a lot of places it's appropriate to increase density. i like some of the comments that folks in the community said about one or one, for every affordable unit, but i do think that's where we, you know, could maximize it. i live in the omi. and that bart station is my station. and it sucks. so my kid used to go to school there and on every given morning, i'm surprised people don't get killed more. people get off of bart. they get on, you know, the k or the 29. they cross the street, where there is no crosswalk to go to city college or to take the k and then people are getting on to the freeway, 280. and then people are transferring

to go to san francisco state. and it's hoards of people. i don't know why people don't get killed more in that intersection. it sucks. we'll be adding more units to the balboa reservoir, the other side. and i know that the kids from city college -- young people from city college walk to mission street for lunch. it's five blocks. there's not a lot of commerce between. that's where the nearest commercial district is, or the other side of ocean. even though it's two different districts, it's a related corridor, ocean avenue. i think a better transportation infrastructure would be a really, really good thing for the commercial, you know, corridor on mission street, even though it's five blocks away. that's how people naturally get around. i'm wondering how you think about that in terms of the corridor. >> when we think about that, it's a starting point. even though phase one is focused on it, it's living in a plain by itself.

the two bart stations, especially balboa and the transit resources there are huge. increasing the connectivity for bike and pedestrians, especially on ocean avenue because it's a shorter distance to walk on ocean than it would be to be on geneva, can take the 29, just a few minutes between the bart station and mission street corridor. so in terms of making it accessible for people, that's a huge priority. there was a couple of years ago the planning department led a study and looking at design improvements along ocean avenue, some of which are implemented, and some need further coordination with other agencies and city college, who has been going through its own machinations of master planning. so if we're not going to limit traffic there, how do we create more space for pedestrians and cyclists. and mta has been looking at san jose and geneva, so just where the barbecue place is right now,

on the side where the upper yard will be and thinking about traffic there. >> sorry to interrupt. are there any specific improvements to the muni? i think that's the problem. there are some improvements to the bart station in the last two years and i can see that right on the street. it's the muni station that is really funky and really inaccessible. you get off bart and have to walk around the block to take the k. >> i think they did do the renovations where you can get on a muni train in the bart station now on the ground floor for one of the lines. but there is on the san jose line and the k, i think they're working on connections. i can get back to you on that. i know there is some construction under way. so you don't have people right now, running into the street to catch the trains.

and it's just a matter of time before negative things happen. >> thank you. >> commissioner richards: i've been 3 1/2 years on the commission, and i feel like i'm having an out-of-body experience. if you just scratch excelsior, three years ago, you would put the word "mission" in there. it's like i'm hearing the exact same recording over and over. now i'm hearing excelsior. we're going to talk about gentrification. people that couldn't afford glenn park went to excelsior and other places in the city. there was an "sf weekly" issue all about the excelsior about how it's arrived and that's probably two years ago. i have a friend who is trying to buy a house and saved and saved and saved and looking in the

excelsior and he keeps bidding asking price and keeps getting outbid by people paying over ask in cash. this is the excelsior? working-class neighborhood. it should not be a feeding frenzy, but it is. the good thing about all of this, you are kind of ahead of the curve. so before events take their course and you get overwhelmed, take the bull by the horns and figure out what you want your neighborhood to be like. and i think that's what this program is about. and i think it's a great start to build upon. and i think this effort could take a clue or a look at what the mission action plan 2020 is or isn't, so you can see exactly -- it's not just a land use solution. it's all kinds of other things. rent control, eviction. mitigation measures, all kinds of things that can help to

prevent displacement that are not typically just land use issues. small business. look at the mission action plan. it has about 600 lines of things that -- strategies they want to do to create the neighborhood that they want and we should get a refresh on it in the future to see where we ended. it's monumental. so work with your supervisor, mr. safai, to figure out what legislation will be required. it will go a lot beyond land use. interestingly enough, as residents say they want a nicer neighborhood. we want all of these little -- i call them chiclets, safety, small business, little tiles, they want a nicer neighborhood and it generates demand for people that say, excelsior is a nice place to molive. i want it move there. it puts pressure on people that

live there. and you get a gentrification spiral. it's a tricky thing of creating a balance of a great place to live but keeping the people that live there there because they make the neighborhood. so make sure you get on the right path there. all housing will not be 100% affordable. we hear this from people in the mission. there is not enough money. a lot of this is private property and we have 40-foot heights. everybody wants 100% affordable, everybody. every neighborhood does. and we -- unless we have a martial plan, we won't be able to have it, but the question is,

housing for who? you saw the continuum, but we need housing for all the people that make a neighborhood. building for excelsior is not that much different than in the mission or south of market neighborhoods. a couple of other points, mr. hooper mentioned he doesn't want stalinist housing. tuesday's "chronicle" talked about 100% affordable housing. john king is an example of design. 100% housing can look really good if you get the right architect and are able to spend some time doing it. i have to go down and look at the building there. and the last thing is, canyon

markets, buy rite, same thing. it's the same way. 100 people working there. you trip over people working there and they're all local. and that's a great thing, but other people say, it's gentrification of, we wanted it to be nice, but not gentrification. we have to figure out both. good job. i can't wait to see what the rest of it looks like. >> commissioner fong: i've been quiet today thus far, but it's interesting, and thank you, staff, for putting these things back to back, because it struck some interesting conversations and big-picture conversation about where san francisco is and about where it wants to go with the change of leadership in the mayor's office. that's a big question for whoever ends up in that seat, where does san francisco want to go? and to some degrees, we're

touching a couple of spokes of the wheel here. and in my opinion, what makes san francisco and other cities cooler multigenerational families, whether they're living all together or passed down generations and passing housing down to each other. it keeps the roots and the coolness of the city, whether it's boston, new york, san francisco or whatever. and that is what makes the neighborhoods and that's what makes excelsior a cool neighborhood. what i think is a little different, and you are right, commissioner richards, the mission was a preview of what we'll see here. it may be a little different in that there's more single-family homes and apartments. what made the mission get taken by storm are the number of apartment buildings there, bart, proximity to downtown, and so this may be a little bit different. but to the planning staff, we have to think about how it will be different. i'm repeating a lot of things that have been said today, but

one thing that wasn't said, school systems. and how important that is to whether it's new families coming into san francisco, whether it's old families in san francisco, but not being able to live in your neighborhood and also keep the kids and grow in the school system, part of the foundation, in my opinion, about the roots of san francisco. i hope that the school system is in lockstep with where we are and that people can grow old in san francisco in so many different ways. so i wanted to share that. today is an interesting conversation on multilevels. >> commissioner moore: to the cool factor, what makes san francisco a great city is activism and public participation in shaping policy and out come. and i think given that you are

all involved, even if you have certain reservations, to have a skilled voice, to participate, and shape policy, even if certain parts of the process don't exactly reflect what you are looking for. don't give up. practice your voice and practice participating in the outcome. i believe that the department is very skilled in the process, that the department is very skilled, in dealing with diverse opinions, with opposition and content. and i believe that you are in the fortunate position to not just react. reaction, as in the mission. the outer mission still has the ability to look ahead and shape and participate. mission 2020 plan is a reaction to what already was extremely difficult situation. it was close to the titanic sinking. in your case, you are observing

and you can, indeed, use this time to strongly move forward and i wish all of you luck and i'm interested in continuing to be updated and i thought the presentation was very, very good as a structured piece. >> president hillis: agreed. thank you for the presentation and the public comment. there seems to be a little bit of a gap as what is here for the aspiration and some of the comments we heard from people who are living there. it's not everybody who participat participated, but there could be more of an emphasis in the aspiration on preservation of neighborhood character, maybe not starting with the change, but we recognize that everything is changing. and we don't see much development in excelsior, but it's facing pressures of affordability and maybe it could be tweaked a bit to focus on

displacement and preservation of the neighborhood, as i was reading that. we'll see more of this as it develops and comes in to strategies and where we're going. i think interesting questions about how housing is expanded in that neighborhood. is it different there than in other neighborhoods? we faced this a bit -- is the zoning off mission rh1 primarily? >> yes. mainly rh1. there's a little bit of rh2 and rm. and then on the commercial corridor -- there's some commercial and then it's 45 on the ground floor and some areas 65. >> president hillis: primarily residential areas are rh1? >> yes. >> president hillis: and i think we want to be cognizant of how

that housing stock can be expanded and, you know, we've seen special rules for neighborhoods. maybe this is the type of place for this. so the renting -- the folks that rent are proimary -- primarily renting single-family homes. it's easier to evict or ellis act a single-family home. so maybe that leads to a policy discussion and how you preserve the rental affordable housing stock even though it's single-family owned. so i think the great thing in the excelsior, one, it's a great neighborhood. i spend a lot of time there, is that large percentage of home ownership. that will help as strategies develop and move forward and we look forward to hearing more.

>> commissioner moore: one additional comment. i hope that this particular presentation will be on the web with families to look at and be able to retrace steps on the web, i think that's very powerful. and to the teacher that spoke, i hope you can incorporate some of what is being discussed with teaching children in all levels of the school system. >> president hillis: thank you very much for the discussion and the public input. >> commissioners, that places us at item 11, 2017-013096map, burnett avenue and burnett avenue north zoning map amendment.

>> good afternoon. audrey butkus. proposed would proposed part of the street rm1. it would allow lot 36 to gain access through two rezoned lots. the owner lot 36 filed a lawsuit against the city and neighboring properties seeking access through easements and the sale of city parcels. the parties have reached a settlement agreement that resolves litigation and allows lot 36 to have access to burnett avenue. the department has received several letters and calls in opposition to the proposed rezoning the majority of the concerns

revolve around potential development on the three lots rather than rezoning the parcels themselves. several questions why the parcels were not offered for sale through a public process before being sold to the appellant. the rezone of the two city-owned parcels is consistent with surrounding zoning and land uses. other options such as constructing the remaining paper portion of burnett avenue north or copper alley or establishing an easement are not feasible. the sale and rezoning of the parcel and burnett north provide an economically feasible solution to the filed lawsuit. >> so no project sponsor on this? >> the project sponsor is technically supervisor sheehy's

office, because it's taking place in his district. >> okay. are they here? >> they are not here. >> okay. so we'll open it up to public comment. and i see you are all ready. i have a couple of speaker cards, ross woodle, glenn wyatt and danny merino, but you can speak in any order. welcome. >> thank you, mr. president, and commissioners. yes, i come here to ask for your consideration to not approve the zoning change for these parcels of land. i know it's in regard to wanting to settle a lawsuit that's been going on for a while. but i do not think that it is in the interests of other homeowners in the area. i personally live at 320 greystone terrace and have lived

there for 27 years. the parcels of land that are up for rezoning to rm1 are immediately behind my property and we -- we are very concerned that if it is rezoned and then the street of burnett street north is built, it will destabilize the entire hillside, which is at a very, very steep angle behind our property. and we do not want to destabilize that. and there are several owners here that worked -- we're from one place, but there are owners from many buildings in that area that would be directly impacted by a street in this sliver of

land. we feel it would not be both economically sound, nor would it be environmentally sound or structurally sound. we also feel that, as someone had raised, that these parcels of land should have been offered for sale to other people rather than just giving one developer a railroad to build a private street for his use or her. my main objection, as i said, is to destabilization of twin peaks, which is in many people's interests. i live in twin peaks and would rather not end up in upper market. so please reconsider the

recommendation of city attorney guerrera and reject this change in zoning. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> hello. my name is danny marino, i'm here on behalf of myself and my partner, who just spoke. thank you to the planning commission for having this public hearing and allowing me to express my concerns about this passionate issue. ross and i are property owners living at 320 greystone for 27 years. we want to be very clear about what we want. we don't want the adjacent property to be rezoned and have any type of construction on that property. our concerns are construction building will destroy nature in

its natural beauty. for me, it's very therapeutic to look out the back windows to see nature racial than a slab or buildings or vehicles. a street on that lot would create vehicle access, poor air quality from vehicle pollution. and the other issue that i would be concerned about is unsafety to the neighborhood and to us. the city already protects green areas throughout the city. there are many parks that i noticing. there's a mini park at clayton and corbett, 367 corbett avenue, and another at danvers and market. these are close to where we live. so i'm not sure that -- these seem very similar, so i would like to just ask the planning commission to do the right thing and keep this area green, protect this area like you

protected the other green areas for the appreciation of all people concerned and not one individual that can profit from this. please do the right thing. no rezoning or construction. thank you. >> president hillis: thank you. next speaker, please? >> hi. i'm ben wyatt. i live at 322 greystone terrace, adjacent to the proposal of the rezoning. i want to state my opposition to the rezoning. this is the first step in the sale of the land to a neighbor. this will cause a loss of habitat and possible hillside erosion, which will cause the hillside to slide into my building and possibly down the hill. i understand the running for the sale of the land directly behind my house, i don't understand why

it wasn't offered to me for sale. and just to the other developer. and if the city does have to sell the land, i feel it should be offered to the affected neighbors. this land is directly behind our house. if i look up, it's right there. i don't understand why this would -- it's directly there, like it should have been offered. i can walk up to it. so i ask the commission to change their preliminary recommendation from approve to disapprove, so there's more of an opportunity for us to -- if the eventual sale is going to happen, there should be an opportunity for us to have a sale with what's happening to land directly touching our property. thank you. >> president hillis: thank you. next speaker, please.

>> good afternoon, commissioners. my name is david priest. i am -- pardon me -- the president of the homeowners association of 275 burnett avenue, which is a development that is just slightly to the north of the proposed area of the -- proposed merging and sale of the proposed properties. we're two properties north. we're not opposed to the sale and merger as proposed, but we do have one suggestion and observation about the geography of the property. and that is, there's a paper street immediately to the north of the three parcels in question. the paper street is copper alley. it's undeveloped at this time. and our suggestion and our hope as you consider the merging of

the properties, the parcels, as a concession to the neighborhood and the public good, that the development of copper alley into a staircase that connects burnett and corbett, be linked to the approval of this proposal. that's because there is a 1/2-mile distance between the vertical distance and that would be right in the middle of that, providing much-improved access of neighbors along burnett and for downward access towards muni and up to twin peaks. so our strong suggestion is, as you consider this reasonable proposal to link the three parcels into one for purposes of sale, that you also link it to the development of this staircase for the public good.

thank you very much. >> president hillis: thank you. any additional public comment on this item? seeing none, we will close it to public comment. ms. butkus, can you put up the map of the parcels? >> absolutely. >> president hillis: so the dark area is the owner with the agreement -- >> right. the outline in dashed lines is the proposed vacated portion and the crescent-shaped the one owned by sf-pac.

>> president hillis: and those pieces will be sold -- >> will be sold if the settlement goes through. >> president hillis: is the settlement contingent on this zoning change? >> yes. >> president hillis: and right now, that parcel has no access to a street? >> correct. burnett avenue north portion that's been built is a private driveway to the north. and the portion to the south has not been built. there's a very steep slope on that portion of the land. so simply connecting it to burnett avenue would create a steeply sloping lot that would require some very crafty engineering solutions. >> can you point that out? >> sure, absolutely. so to connect this portion of burnett avenue north has been built, but it's a private

driveway owned and managed by the hoa right here. so the original proposal was to have the property owner connect to the private drive to then off access to burnett avenue north. it's such a steeply sloping portion of land that to connect with a short driveway extension, first of all, the hoa was against that. and second of all, it would create such a steep slope it would prove almost engineeringly impossible for a car to access that driveway. only feasible way is to cut into burnett north and crescent-shaped parcel. >> commissioner koppel: to what extent could this parcel be brought out to or what is rm1 and zoning in this parcel

specifically. >> what the zoning restrictions are for rm1, it's no more than three units, three dwelling units per parcel or one per 800 square feet of lot area. so it would be held to the same restrictions in addition to the neighborhood notification, whether they conduct a lot merger or not. >> commissioner koppel: so you could separately build or is the intent to merge it? >> the intent was not made clear by the appellant, so the appellant could move forward to merge the parcels or they could keep them separate. >> commissioner koppel: what is the maximum build-out? >> it will be dictated by many factors including residential design guidelines. there would be a 40-foot height

limit and 3-unit per lot and/or one unit for 800 square feet. >> president hillis: how big is the parcel -- if you combine the three parcels? >> the appellant's current parcel, the gray slice, is before 2,291. the crescent-shaped parcel is 4,500 square feet. and i don't have an accurate measurement on the paper portion of burnett avenue. >> president hillis: were the neighbors consulted with how this could impact? >> i will leave that to the city attorney's office since i was not involved with that. >> rob capla.

the suit was against the city and the neighboring hoa. they've signed on to the settlement agreement. >> but some of the neighborhoods were from greystone. >> correct. >> so currently we're tasked with -- we're not approving a lot merger -- >> correct. all you are voting on today is whether or not the two parcels should be zoned to rm1. any lot merger or development would have to come back to all the appropriate bodies afterwards. >> what happens to copper alley? >> it's unaffected. >> it remains a public paper street? >> a portion of copper alley is built as a stairwell. the other portion is not built. so it would not be affected.

>> it doesn't look like it goes all the way up. >> it does not. >> it doesn't? >> no. >> i don't think that's correct. i think it goes up. >> it goes up to the paper, which is being sold to the neighbor. >> commissioner johnson: i read the report and i'm a little -- i have two questions. the sale of paper burnett and the puc site will be done how? is the sale to the appellant part of the settlement? >> correct. >> okay. >> the settlement is contingent on the rezoning of the partialles. the appellant has agreed to buy the parcels to have access. >> sorry. the report said sold to a private property. it didn't say, sold to the

appellant. the other thing, what was the analysis behind the zoning to rm1? >> sure. so the appellant's current parcel, the one that he currently owns, is rm1 already, therefore, it would be most consistent to zone the two parcels he will be purchasing to the same zoning that he has on a neighboring property. i have a zoning map here if that helps. >> commissioner johnson: that's helpful. there's one in here, too. >> so rm1 zoning is consistent with this area, as you can see. >> commissioner johnson: so -- i see it. before this then, the zone public was sort of not really in keeping with a lot of the land in that area? >> the sf-puc parcel -- correct. it was zoned public, but i believe 20 years ago it was determined by the sf-puc not to

use that land for whatever public purpose they had for it before. >> commissioner johnson: okay. i'm still -- i feel like -- and that's the analysis of the only options. i know in the case report, it sort of says that the staff looked at how else to achieve the goals of the settlement and one was to -- can you explain those again? it was unclear to me why there was a couple of options and you said it was unfeasible. if you can go through those options again. >> absolutely. the first option looked at was installing an extension of the staircase or the public sidewalk along copper alley to connect burnett avenue to greystone terrace. unfortunately again, the slope of the lot