teracotta panel system that we are using on our building. we source all of the products, so we do know that it's available, and in short, that's our presentation. thank you. >> president hillis: all right. thank you very much. any public comment on this item? >> sue hester. i've been paying attention to office buildings in this city for a long time, and basically have not a concern about the architecture, but a concern about the conditions that you put on the project. i'm a little cynical about people claiming uses, and this use is claimed to be medical

offices or labs. another building was approved, a large building was approved for ucsf on the south side of 16th street was sold to dropbox as their headquarters, and they are taking over a building at a location that planning thought was going to be a large medical building. and this building additionally had illegal -- it had an enforcement action against it because the tire shop owner rented to a person who used [ inaudible ] so i'm asking the planning commission to goesimpa condition that all plans for the interior improvements have to be routed to the planning department and evaluated in terms of the use as office

because i've been talking to the zoning administrator's office about their chart of office uses, and i questioned why this project wasn't on there. and they said well, if they apply -- if they change the use to be office under the planning code, they will have to get an office allocation. i'm a citizynical about that, i think that tells you that you have to be paying attention to the future uses. one, tell the owner and his successors that everything has to be rooted to the planning for tenant improvements because there's no tenant proposed. and secondarily, the planning

department looks at the plans for the uses and if they say this is a use that requires an office allocation, it has to be rerouted to the planning department, planning commission for an office allocation before people move in. that's not too much to ask for. it's just do it in compliance with the planning code. thank you. >> thank you, miss hester. any additional public comment? seeing none, we'll close public comment. commissioners? commissioner moore? >> commissioner moore: i'm comfortable with what's in front of us. i believe that miss hester's request is a reasonable one. it protects everyone, including

the owner. i move to approve with the addition of conditions as indicated by miss hester. >> vice president richards: second. >> president hillis: and that would be the condition of any condition be routed to the planning department. >> and i think that's where the planner was going when he read that into the record. >> all right. jonas? >> clerk: very good, then, commissioners. there's a motion -- i'm sorry. who made the motion? >> president hillis: commissioner moore made the motion. >> vice president richards: i seconded it. >> clerk: thank you. so there's a motion that's been seconded to approve this matter with conditions as amended with staff reading into the record as well as for any tenant improvement to be routed back to planning. on that motion.

[ roll call. ] >> clerk: so moved, commissioners. that motion passes unanimously, 5-0. commissioners, that'll place us on your discretionary review calendar, for item 15 -- >> clerk: when speaking to the commission, if you care to, just state your full name for the record. >> commissioners, we left off on your calendar at item 15, 2567 commission street, this is a discretionary review. >> the item before you is a request no, sir discretion year review, building permix 201705197190, which proposed to convert an existing ground floor space as a cafe into the

restaurant cafe. the project proposed no substantial alternatations to the exterior of the structure. petition claims in their request that it would exacerbate the gentrification of la tony working class residents in the are-- latino class residents in the area. -- [ inaudible ] -- and would not displace any neighborhood serving uses. additionally, the proposed use is not subject to a restaurant concentration finding that four uses in the immediate area would be subject to. as such the department recommends that the department does not take dr and approves the condition as proposed. this concludes the presentation and i'm happy to answer any questions. >> being on.

project dr requestor, you have five minutes. >> thank you, commissioner hillis and commissioners, good evening. my name is peter papadopolous, and i am the dr appellant on this project for meta. to walk us through what we're here for and what we're hoping we can achieve tonight, we've been in negotiations with mr. tierra of this mission street project for a couple months now, mission community groups and he have been talking and trading mou drafts, and we're disappointed that we haven't yet reached a conclusion. we feel we're very close. we feel that actually this is something that we could very easily reach this deal. this is a franchise coffee shop coming onto mission street, and we feel that an mou or something in writing would be a significant help to maintaining the character of this working class and latino corridor.

it's under dice stress from displace and gentrification, and this does include the large influx of restaurants, brew pubs, bars and coffee shops. this is one of just -- there are three coffee shops. one just opened, one around it within four blocks on mission street alone. that's how many are coming in and what's going to support this huge inflex, right, is a continued move away from community serving towards destination tourist serving and that's having an effect on our working class families in the mission and in particular on our central corridor here. so we're also greatly concerned about the concentration we're seeing in regards to it, and we appreciate the planning department quickly pulling together a concentration study even though it's not a requirement. we do think it's critical in

terms of what's happening here of ground floor use, and we don't really differentiate -- just to remind us of course that a limited service restaurant only means that they don't serve alcohol under the new planning code ruling on that. and if i could see -- have the overhead please, sfgov. and what i want to look at here is the -- we did this ourselves also extremely quickly, and we just want to think in our very kwiek rough through in the neighborhood just a few hours ago, to be honest, we're seeing quite a bit more eating and drinking establishments than mapped out in the planning department's effort to quickly buzz through it. the pink things are things that we found additionally just today in taking a quick look. so we think in fact the concentration is significantly higher, definitely over the 25% just sort of benchmark right that we often look at what's going on in a corridor. so we have a lot of concern in

that measure. so we are asking you today, therefore, to exercise your discretion as you've done before in similar projects in this case and really just encourage a healthy agreement on this project, which is really all we've been after, that we're really looking for historically what we've seen is what's important is we need to get in writing some of the key components that keep this latino and family working class corridor stable and those components are things like local hire, bilingual staff and moderately priced goods. on those things are necessary in what we feel is getting towards our end goal characterized by priority policy two, that existing neighborhood and housing quirk be preserved. it's especially important, we feel right now as we're beginning to take steps towards

mission street hopefully we anticipate becoming a cultural corridor, and as well as in the meantime, we're even seeing other protections moving forward in our planning department, as well as some discussions with the mayor's office of economic and workforce development. we think it's important that we maintain the corridor at this time while those things are in the works. we do believe we're very close to an agreement. in fact after trading many rounds of mou drafts, the community has been working in good faith to make this happen. a couple of examples being even seven weeks ago we offered to simply cut the legal clauses that mr. tierra was concerned about, but he declined, saying he'd prefer lawyers to vet it, and of course everything naturally slowed down from there, and we also went as far as to add additional language above the language we were legally comfortable with to try to assuage some of his additional concerns.

so we'd ask you to exercise your discretion and help us reach a healthy conclusion there. thank you. >> president hillis: all right. thank you. is there public comment in support of the dr request? >> teresa flandrich. i support the dr. i also applaud the attempts at negotiating this, as well as the importance of maintaining all that can be done to stablize this neighborhood. these are also coffee shops where kids in the neighborhood can go and work when they start college or mothers, grandmothers -- that's such a key in community and in stablizing a particular neighborhood, and the mission district alone has suffered so much, and so anything that can

be done in my mind should be done, so i, again, ask you to support this dr. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good evening, commissioners. the hour's getting late, so i won't take up too much of your time, but i believe what peter mentioned is important, that we are having a higher concentration of office retail coming in on mission street, considering that working class families are a key and important demographic in the community that exists along that corridor. i think it's very important that we're thoughtful about what measures we're taking exactly what's coming in and how. considering that the community has been engaging in a good faith discussion with mr. tierra to try to reach a memorandum of understanding that's going to ensure that he's not only going to be able to operate his business successfully but it's going to be accessible to the working class in the mission.

we think that it's important that the commission find that those efforts can continue and that memorandum can come to a signature at the end of the day between the community and mr. tierra and ensure that his establishment is going to maintain a cultural awareness of the community in which it resides. so if time can be permitted to ensure that that good faith effort continues, especially considering the reasonableness of the terms of the agreement, that would be best for this project and for the community itself. thank you very much. >> president hillis: thank you. mr. hall? >> i'm going to be a little scattered here, but basically just also asking for more time for the community to come to an agreement. we're not asking anything extraordinary that we haven't done with other restaurants and folks, too. but i was reading something interesting today that is part

of a -- sfgov. it's part of a study by ucla comprehensive project june of '15 entitled oriented for whom, and it kind of -- it looks at six different transit oriented stations and looks at characteristics that are changing and tries to make some recommendations for the city of los angeles. their recommendations aren't going to apply exactly to us. in fact we're doing some of what they already recommend. the thing i found interesting was that there's a whole section -- the third section of this report tries to look at changing commercial corridors near these stations, and what they -- what they did was they basically said -- they basically used coffee shops and doughnut shops as the proxy for

gentrification, and they said that's been done in other studies. they actually quote one -- another study where they -- where it was shown that certain -- that prices -- rental prices increased around the starbucks locations right after the starbucks locations came in. so the concept of a coffee shop as gentrifying is well understand by the researchers and the study. the fact that we're talking about a coffee shop is important here. it's not just oh -- thing's right across from vida. is it a coincidence that these kinds of gentrifying shops are

popping up near these kinds of market rate projects? i think not. so some of the stuff they recommend in here is simply to, you know, have community based organizations work with the developers to mitigate gentrifying things. that's all we're trying to do, exactly what they suggest. by the way, we san francisco get some kudos because along in here -- our corridors, our formula retail controls is one of the things they're recommending. thank you. >> president hillis: thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, commissioners. eric abuela with calle

callete cuatro. we have had a larger influx of businesses coming into the latino community on mission street. it's very important to have an mou especially in areas like anything else street, because of gentrification, displacement of our small businesses. it works well with the business, and it helps the community if issues are addressed in writing and in advance. it's a way to disclose the plan that the community has for the mission, like 24th street, to be better prepared. it'll prepare the business in order for it to fit in. new businesses have expectations of the area to become like a valencia street. that's something we found, and a lot of folks coming in don't understand the neighborhood and what's going on, especially if they're from outside the area, thus becoming more of a problem to add to the gentrification of the area. we saw many businesses that came in the 90's that

eventually closed because they did not understand the issues or the economics of the area in this latino working class, so this mou shows a good effort, and we have signed quite a few on 24th and mission street on our end. one thing i want to point out is the built in environment is an indication of who it is and who will go in or not. we've seen businesses come and remove murals that are historical here from the outside or the inside, hiring people that don't understand the neighborhood, have created a hostile environment for locals in the area, so we need this to protect our community. we've dealt with businesses that have signed it and working well, using english and spanish, preserving historic signs for us, lowering their prices, creating a wall for -- for the neighborhood to place art and to be part of the art

community in the area. so this is something that's really it's good for the business and the community as a whole. thank you. >> president hillis: thank you. any additional public comment? seeing none, project sponsor? welcome. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i think mr. michaelson has summarized this very well. this is a space -- the building was purchased six years ago by a landlord and it was completely renovated. he turned this particular space into a company cafe, which is not in conformance with the code as a retail space, it should be open to the public. so at some point, they realized that they could not use it as a

company cafe and decided to lease this completely built out cafe to make it available to the public and that's where i came in. so it's a very kind of a simple decision from a code perspective. i think meta griefances are more public policy grievances and have less to do with this space. it's about issues related to displacement of various essential businesses. we are not displacing any essential businesses that serves the local families. the space has been vacant for six years. prior to that, it was a bridal

shop, i believe, a porn shop, a porn studio, so taking it from a company cafe to a public cafe, you know, serves the public interest in that it brings the space into a conforming use. and i think this mou that we've been working on for the last three months, i included a copy in my packet to you from january 18th, and you can see clearly that there are violations -- actually, criminal violations, one that dictates that 80 to 85% of our employees have to be bilingual. that's a violation of the eeoc compliance manual. it's also a violation of title 7 of the 1964 civil rights act. so meta purports to be a

champion of civil rights, but in the process, it wants to, you know, violate what is the bed rock of civil rights in this country. and that's -- thank you -- thank you for having me. >> president hillis: thank you. any public comment in support of the project and opposed to the dr. seeing none, dr, sir you have a two-minute rebuttal. >> thank you. i just want to address a couple of those issues that he noted, and i'll start with the last one, which is that as i said, not only was our lawyer and meta comfortable with the legal language as it existed before, suggesting elements of a local hire and that have been signed before in the mission, but hearing his continued concerns,

we even went so far as to considerably rewrite them even more in a way that we felt was well and beyond anything that could be questioned, and you can see -- i only have one copy, unfortunately, but if people want to take a look at it, you'll see extensive language written in, so it would erase any legal doubt in order to assuage his concerns. i want to point out that we are here how our land use unfolds is our public policy and they are one and the same. they determine the outcomes of our community and the ongoing policies as we go forward. this was additionally -- i mean, we do -- we want to know, this was not known as a cafe. in the public meaning, this was an office that nobody knew was a cafe behind frosted glass for

many years, so this is yet another conversion, a coffee shop will yet be another public coffee shop. all that said, we haven't even been trying to stop this project. i want to note very clearly, we've just been asking for the very similar mou's, and i think mr. arguello can tell you, a nearby cafe signed a similar mou with callente cuatro, and that the community stands ready to sign away. if mr. arguello would sign the deal, we h'd all go away. >> mr. tierra, you have any rebuttal? >> the changes that mr. papadopolous is talking about only happened on the 30th at 10:00 p.m. that's when i received the

e-mail. we had been negotiating on a document that i still believe is unlawful. last night at 8:00, i got an e-mail from the executive director of meta, luis granados, who -- that -- it says here bo, at 8:00, do not contact us again. i am asking for a system to no longer accept your e-mails. so contrary to what mr. papadopolous is saying, i don't think they've acted in approximate good faith, and i think that the commission should listen to mr. christiansen, his analysis is spot on. it's also lawful and what meta is requesting is -- is really to hold up my project for their larger grievances. >> president hillis: all right. this closes this portion of the hearing. we'll open it up to commissioner comments and

questions. commissioner richards? >> vice president richards: so we're getting two opposing stories here: good faith, not so good faith, sign the mou now, no, don't sign the mou now. i don't think we can make a decision here based on an agreement being signed, and we've been here as a commission many times. it seems for the coffee shop to be a good neighborhood, i don't think you'd get any that's a bad idea, besides around the

theatrics, do you think you're close to coming to an agreement? >> president hillis: you need to speak into the mic. >> i've been contributing to the mission since year 2000, scholarships for commissimissis students. my wife is on the board of the city college foundation. she's a director on the foundation. when you -- when you become a director, they don't make you a director because they want to, you know, make you director for the heck of it. they make you a director because you are expected to be, you know, the -- kind of the lender of last resort, so when new programs get initiated, they go to the directors to cede their programs. and in year 2000, we ceded a

program with the founder of kinko's to provide child care for women who wanted to attend city college to pursue a nursing degree because that's one of the impediments is lack of child care. in 2009, we teamed up with the osha family to provide assistance, so i have been contributing to the mission district for 17 years, and i will continue to contribute in a positive way. i own businesses where i -- i have a business where 100% of the employees are hispanic. and i hire people of all sorts, so i will be a responsible businessperson in the mission district, and i've communicated that to them, but they don't seem to appreciate that i've actually, you know, been contributing to the mission

campus for -- for that long. >> vice president richards: so your saying your word is good based on -- >> absolutely. >> vice president richards: okay. >> in fact, i intended to do this all these -- i think there's a better way -- i understand they have these grievances. this at the end of the day is meaningless, because if it's not lawful then it's not something that is going to sustain itself. so i think a better way to do this for meta is to -- is to talk to the merchants, build a program that will channel training and jobs, so if somebody wants to come in, they're looking for a job as a bartender, they can create some kind of a platform where various businesses can train that person to be a bartender or whatever it might be. i think that's the better way to do it, and i have these

ideas where i intend to do that. >> vice president richards: so i'd hope you'd partner with meta to do that. >> i can do that. >> vice president richards: so you're close to signing the agreement. >> yeah. >> president hillis: commissioner melgar. >> commissioner melgar: thank you. so the issue for me is not whether the project sponsor is a good person and a member of the community and contributed, you know, to the commission campus. thank you so much for doing that. i think that's really great. i mean, the issue for me is whether this specific project will have an effect on the neighborhood corridor and how it is -- it is a commercial corridor under intense gentrification pressures. i think that, you know, what's different about meta for me about any neighborhood group or neighbor is that they specifically have the knowledge of the commercial corridor. in fact, they have a contract with oewd to do the work with

the merchants to keep up the health of the corridor. so if i were going to ask, you know, who would i ask -- who would be the technical expert on, you know, what kinds of mitigations, what kinds of things we would want to see for a new business opening up to fit into the neighborhood to be a good player, it -- it would be meta. that's what they do. they do business development, technical assistance for new businesses. they have a specific expertise of on the corridor on mission street. so i'm reading these things in the mou, and to me, they're not outrageous. they're actually pretty run of the mill standard agreements so i'm not really sure where the communication we want wrong here. i was listening to testimony as i was walking over here on my phone, so i'm not really -- something happened in the relationship, and i don't know what it is. but i would, you know, support

this project after you come to a signed agreement. i think it's not, you know -- it's not that much. you know, as far as your ideas of a program to train folks to have these jobs, in fact, meta does have that program. it is funded by the city. it's a workforce program at meta, and trainings that being hoos people up, and they have relationships with the businesses along mission street to do that. so you know, i think it would behoove you to have a good relationship with these guys. i don't know where the relationship went wrong, but i think it would be beneficial to your business, too, to have a good relationship with your neighborhood, so that's how i feelt about t feel about the project. >> president hillis: i think i would like to have a good relationship, and something sounds like it went wrong in the discussions.

the use is fine. it's a moderately priced coffee shop. we even heard folks say it's not something -- it's not an overpriced coffee shop. it's not a starbucks or a chain. i think the use is fine. i think it's hard for us to take dr on this project. there's nothing we can take dr on, so the question is do we use this as leverage to allow you two to talk? it seems a little heavy handed to do that. i think we just have to understand, it's a changing neighborhood. we're trying to do things to kind of maintain the commercial corridor. these are things being passed up in good faith. i don't know where the past seemed to go wrong or the interpretation of it seemed to go wrong, but i don't see -- there's nothing extraordinary about the use. there's nothing that would inexpii inspire me to take dr.

it's a good project. you should understand where each is coming from and support the project. i couldn't support taking dr. the question is do we continue this and allow for more talking. i think you should just go forward and understand. i have the confidence that you go forward and figure it out. it's a decent use, so that's what i would move to because i don't really think we have the ability to enforce this agreement. i don't really think it's that enforceable of an agreement to begin with. it's kind of an understanding amongst the parties. commissioner moore? >> commissioner moore: i believe the project is approvable, but i would prefer to see the relationship to be supportive enough to understand each other's points, and since we have really been strongly supporting the mission and the very precarious situation they have been subjected to for now a number of years, i would encourage that the two parties

speak some more with each other. hopefully can do that without a lawyer, trying to make it too difficult because that's when it gets difficult, and resolve that. it implies that it's a memorandum of understanding. understanding is a big word here, and that would be my position here. >> president hillis: commissioner richards? >> vice president richards: so i think to commissioner moore's point and the project sponsors that he would sign the stated agreement, i would continue this for one week and then come back and just not take dr and approve the project. >> president hillis: commissioner fung? >> vice president fung: i think -- i think the project stands on its own and is worthily of supporting today. naturally, we'd like those commitments when they're working with neighborhoods and meta and these groups. sounds like they're in communication with each other. i have difficulty getting in the way of private property for

the sake of encouraging a conversation that's not -- can't back it up legally. i can -- we can encourage it. i'm -- you guys might want to take a vote to continue. i will not support that. i will make a motion to continue negotiations and meta is doing great work. if someone is thinking of opening a business, they can get an idea of what meta's goals are and with a good handshake agree to keep those agreements. >> president hillis: i'll second commissioner fong's motion to not take the dr and encourage the parties to work together. hopefully, you guys can work it out in the haul after tll afte

meeting. commissioner koppel? >> the one part that makes me most uncomfortable is reading the responses from the project sponsor to the request and seeing it in certain cases that they're legally saying that they cannot fulfill some of these requirements based on equal opportunity language and civil rights acts, and i mean how -- i don't see on a project this size that we can make him do this. and that -- i'd be amenable to approving and even maybe a check back later onto see where we're at, but i -- i do think that he -- he will be operating in good faith and doesn't want to sabotage his business before he even gets started. >> clerk: commissioner, there's a motion that's been seconded to not take dr as

proposed with the emphasis as stated by the commission. shall i call that question? >> jonas, real quick, if you want to add that to a motion, a one year look back or six month look back just for informational purposes. >> clerk: i'd be more comfortable with six months. >> is that approvable? >> president hillis: sure. >> so commissioners, there's a motion to take the dr as proposed, with a check back in six months. on that motion. [ roll call. ] >> clerk: that motion fails, commissioners, 3-3. is there an alternate motion? >> just so everyone's aware, there's a split vote on the continuance, it doesn't get continued, and if there's no

alternate motion, the project simply gets approved. >> commissioner melgar: i would make a motion that we apply for a motion to continue on this project and check back in one week. >> we have a motion. is there a second? >> second. >> thank you. on the motion to continue that matter to february 8th. [ roll call. ] >> president hillis: and hopefully, we won't have this, and it'll be withdrawn next week. thank you. >> clerk: very good, commissioners that passes 4-2 with commissioners fong and koppel voting against. commissioners, that'll place us on our final item of your agenda for 16 a and b for case numbers 201608920 ap for 33 and 5 aladdin terrace. you will continue the discretionary review and the

zoni zoning director will consider the variance. >> -- of the existing three story residential structure containing two dwelling units. a project proposed to remodel the existing 2800 square foot building adding 1600 square feet of living space to be distributed amongst the two existing dwelling units. to accommodate the one story vertical addition, the existing floor plates would be lifted approximately 3'6", creating a new fourth floor. the project would add a two door garage and two doors measuring 8 feet wide. a new roof deck with a roof hatch is also part of the proposal. the project requires a rear yard variance from code section 134. a portion of the horizontal and vertical addition would encroach into the required rear yard by approximately 6'8".

at the conclusion of this hearing, the zoning administrator will request that -- will hear that request. the dr application was filed by jim and mary ann brady of 30 aladdin terrace. they're located across the street to the north of the subject property. the dr request or's concerns are as follows. the existing conditions are not suitable for additional vehicles, citing that the limits street space provides limited vehicle maneuverablity. the addition of a garage would have a negative impact on aladdin terrace. the proposed project does not meet the general plan objectives for four of the urban design elements. the residential design advisory team reviewed the dr application and did not find there to be an exceptional or

extraordinary circumstance associated with the project and that it met the criteria established in the residential design guidelines. the team found that the scale on the massing of the proposed project was compatible with the prevailing scale and massing of the buildings found along aladdin terrace. eight letters of support are in your packet. i also have five additional letters of opposition which i will pass forward. the department recommends the commission not take dr and approve the project as proposed. i'll get them in a second. sorry. and also joining with me today is dave winslow, the department's manager of the residential design advisory team. he'll be available for questions, as will i. this concludes my presentation. thank you. >> president hillis: thank you, mr. llewellyn. project -- no, dr requestor.

welcome. >> overhead is on? >> president hillis: it will when you put something on it. >> my name is jim nickis. obviously, i am living across the street from the subject property. aladdin terrace is a narrow alley on the eastern slope of russian hill development on the block is very dense due to excessive rebuilding after the earthquake and fire in 1906 and because the block is partially sub divided by two cul-de-sac alleyways, aladdin to the west and kent street to the east, as a result most properties on the block have very little private open space. aladdin aa pedestrian enclave extending from tailor. unlike many dead end alleys that are dark, uninviting, and

steep, aladgen is open on both ends, allowing light to penetrate the narrow confines of the space. for the most part, the alley is a level surface, allowing the placement of informal seating and plants at the midpoint, offering an am ambiance that softens the environment. the standards, policies and objectives challenge us to honor the past, celebrate the present and plan for the future. accordingly, three significant elements regarding the subject project are urban design, housing, and transportation.

objectives of the urban design element include emphasis of the characteristic pattern which gives the city and its neighborhoods an image, a sense of purpose, and a means of orientation and two, conservation of resources which provide a sense of nature, continuity with the past and freedom from over crowding. as shown in these images, aladdin terrace has been a pedestrian environment that could serve as a prime example of the objectives included in the urban design element. in the absence of provide open space on most properties, the alley has functioned as a supplemental form of midblock open space, a shared community resource with informal gatherings for residents, neighbors, and visitors for decades. children have uses the alley as a play space after school and on weekends. residents and visitors enjoy the opportunity to get together, coerce and enjoy and photograph the view to coit

tower and visit the city's various attractions. this is very much in keeping with objective four of the urban design element, recognizing that measures must be taken to stablize and improve the health and safety of the local environment, the psychological feeling of neighborhood and opportunities for recreation and other fulfilling activities and the small scale visual qualities that make the city a comfortable and orch exciting place in which to live. aladdin's greenery, its natural light and seating space up lift the spirit. more garages and more cars do not serve this purpose. in effect, an additional garage at entry point midpoint of aladdin represents one more step towards a de-fafact defac privatization of urban space. it also includes conservation principle 12 stating street space provides an important public open space, especially in areas of high density that

are deficient in other amenities, and the better neighborhoods program comments that much of san francisco housing is clustered in the older, more urban neighborhoods in and around the downtown. these areas are relatively dense and support a wide variety of retail and neighborhood services. they also enjoy relatively frequent and reliable transit service. together, these amenities make it easier to live with few you are cars. our city is in a continual state of evolution. however we believe that change can be accommodated in a manner that balances historic patterns. the decipher of individual property owners and the city aspirations for coordinated development all in response to the rhythms of the surrounding context, the many components of the city's general plan are intent to guide these changes that ensure the qualities that make san francisco unique are enhanced.

however departmental review of small scale such as 33 and 35 aladdin appear to impact solely on the specific property with insufficient consideration of the impact -- >> clerk: thank you, sir. you'll have a two minute rebuttal. >> president hillis: i'll take comment in support of the project. you can lineup on the screen side of the room. you know who you are. >> good evening. my name is willis bigelow. the housing is an important component of the plan. the key objectives are to promote new housing in a way that is protective of neighborhood identity and the creation and retention of affordable housing. it is widely recognized that garages increase the cost and

scarc scarcity of housing. in searching of the garages on the south side of the alley began in 2005. the next set of garages was added in 2005 at the corner of awilledian and tailor. three rent controlled units were transformed into three market race condominiums, and an existing with three garages entering from tailor war turned into a six car garage. unfortunately, residents on aladdin were not sufficiently alert to the possibility that these projects could be symptomatic of future proposals. the owner-developer for the condominium and six car project on tailor and aladdin is the same firm providing services for 33, 35 aladdin and an adjacent property at 870 union. the garages included in these projects kpemp will i identify concerns addressed by the housing unit. because of the narrow dimensions, only 12'4" from curb to curb, moving vehicles

in and out is very difficult and can result in damages to nearby buildings. use of garages in the alley requires a lot of back and forth maneuvers, producing noise, exhaust, and delay to anyone needing to enter the alley on foot or by car to pick up or delivery. two more spaces at 3335 aladdin represents a 25% increase in private garages, kpas waiting an already difficult situation. the city struggles to balance the impact of private garages on their established neighborhood character. however we do have the transit first policy, a set of principles that underscores these commitments to prioritizing travel by transit by bicycle, by foot over private automobile. in order to maintain a desirable living and business environment in san francisco, use of mass transit, ride sharing, walking and bicycling must assume a high priority to

ensure mobility tfor commuters and residents alike. public transit should achieve the priorities consistent with the city's transit first policy. these guiding principles address the issue of automobile traffic at all levels of urban development since 2005, with the slow awakening by neighbors to the implication of garage additions, the livablity of the 18 residences on aladdin have been severely compromises. >> president hillis: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> good evening, commissioners. my name is john barusso. aladdin terrace is a half block long cul-de-sac with a mere 12'4" from curb to curb. housing 18 flats from the

narrow alley, all constructed between 1907 and 1939. with little to know rear yards over time, the street itself has come to serve as midblock open space for neighbors and visitors alike. just like many similar midblock alleys and dense parts of russian hill, north beach, chinatown and soma. a de facto pedestrian space in the middle of this quiet alley worked well until recently when the benefit of this community zone of plants and seeding and human interaction was interrupted by some neighbor's desires for off street parking. in a similar setting on the east side of columbus avenue, this was recently addressed by implementing the telegraph hill residential use district. this limits the installation of garages because of the increased traffic and pollution, impaired pedestrian use of narrow streets, and because adding off street parking is clearly associated with a loss of affordable

housing. in fact an early review of the legislation by this commission recommended the off street residential parking requirements of the special use district be applied to a larger area which would have included aladdin terrace. the proposed extended boundaries were bay street to the north rkts polk street to the west, california street to the south, and sansom street to the east. the sponsors wish to add two garage doors opening onto this constricted alley. just like in the nearby special use district, the addition of a private garage here detracts from precious pedestrian space, shifting more of the street's use from the community to benefiting only the sponsors. because the proposed construction extends into the required rear yard, a variance is required. in this case, the addition of private parking is detrimental

to the public's long-standing use of aladdin terrace. it is a front yard and social space for residents. for this reason, we is that as the variance be denied and the off street parking be eliminated from the project. thank you for your consideration. >> president hillis: thank you. next speaker, please. >> previous speakers have addressed the overall negative impacts on the proposed project on the character and intimate quality of aladdin terrace. i would like to discuss a few specific negative impacts in greater detail. first, the extent of the excavation that is required to hsu horn in the proposed garages. the entire site will be excavated as much as 13 and a half feet below the existing grade plus some additional depth for the foundation. this will result in the creation of an uninhabitable

open space at the rear of the property. the 190 square feet of virtuallisub trainian open space will be covered and darkened by a deck and further diminished by the insertion of a required exit stair. this so called open space must better serve as a drainage pit. furthermore, the deck and stair are continuous with the south property line and are constructed entirely within the noncode compliant required rear yard set back. next, the strange arrangement of the below grade first level places the proposed garage on aladdin terrace in the master bedroom suite behind it, without rear access for the elevator installed for ageing in place. this elevator will face the new drainage pit. it features a window that might

be big enough to meet emergency egress requirement, but does not meet the standard for kwiert light and ventilation. and they call this a master bedroom? i think not. all of this adds up to the creation of substandard spaces with compromised livablity and a deck request exit stairs that exacerbates an already substandard and noncode compliant rear yard. these are not the types of spaces that will enhance the city's supply of housing and do not merit the type of variance requested. please deny this project. >> president hillis: thank you. next speaker. >> good evening, commissioners. my name is paul travis. san francisco, we all know it's striving hard to be a transit served city with walkable neighborhoods. here, we have a moment to practice those theories. many residents of aladdin

terrace have no access to existing rear yards. 35 and 33 aladdin terrace and many of its neighbors have fenced off yards that are only 8 feet deep and at the bottom of three story -- that are towered over by three story buildings. for many of them, aladdin terrace is their true front yard. of the exi the existing apartments have existed for years without garages. san francisco has significantly improved its public transit and there are new forms of private transit like car sharing with more forms coming. but here, the proposal is to build garages, locking up potential living space and diminishing the public space for the next several decades, if not for over 100 years. instead of a garage, a living space should be placed at the front of the building.

this results in two significant improvements. the project would reinforce and contribute to human uses on aladdin terrace, rather than compromising them, and two, the interior would benefit from significantly better light, air, and accessiblity. it would become a great space for multiple generations. such a human presence on aladdin terrace is also featured in a new four story building to be constructed fronting aladdin terrace in the adjacent property at 870 union street. it took direction from the planning commission but in a dr hearing in october 2016, the proposed construction of a two car garage was denied, and the project now includes a family room in place of the garage. the scope of the project at 3335 aladdin terrace is extensive, providing many opportunities to configure the building. it's short sighted and self-centered that the sponsors

are choosing to bury a master bedroom and diminish aladdin terrace with garages, a variance enabling the creation of a such a space should be denied. thank you. >> president hillis: thank you. next speaker, please. >> thank you, commissioners. my name's jordan bowen. i'm a resident of aladdin terrace. there are four construction projects in various stages of preparation that will directly impact aladdin terrace and residents on union and tailor. the subject of this project and one at the eastern end of the alley at 210-12 aladdin. nearby residents have had their fill of being in a nonstop construction zone, and aladdin is in a constrained space for one project, let alone with