eric, paul, daniel, safaio. >> good afternoon, i'm a native of the bay area and speak on the behalf of the filipino cultural heritage district and the community that has called south market home for more than a century. we like to support the lgbt and leather cultural district. our neighbors in the south of market, the filipino heritage district seek to represent the needs of long established communities that have faced continuous displacement. representatives have been working with other cultural districts to form legislation that goes to committee may 9 that provides for a framework of

establishments in the city. san francisco enjoys a great legacy of cultural celebration, support for all persons and we're glad to stand with

>> hi, thank you. my name is grailen. i'm a long time resident of san francisco. and a member of onyx which is a leather community organization for gay and bisexual male identified people of color.

as a descendant of slaves, slafrers and misplaced indigenous people, i fully understand the necessity of preserving one's culture, with whether that culture is biological or culture of citizens of a lifestyle bond. living in the time when fear and certainty and this trust of government trickles down from the highest office, the preservation of the history, lifestyle and culture of the citizens becomes even more crucial. the gay and bisexual leather communities were obliterated in the latter part of the last century, but today we're witnessing a resurgence of life as young people define and live alternative lifestyles, which many would characterize as leather. years from now, those young people, many of them people of color, will look back on this day in history and know those

who could make a difference made a difference by creating a leather cultural district that they could call home. thank you. >> supervisor kim: thank you so much. >> good afternoon, my name is ryan. i'm current president of the bay area business alliance. i came to san francisco almost 13 years ago and part of the lower san francisco is because it is what it is known for, the leather community and all the people that came together to make the community. i want to be part of the community and i helped -- i established a cafe called wicked grounds, kinky coffee shop and boutique. in this became a place for

people who didn't have a place to go, to feel safe, to be part of. i realize that the leather community is not for everyone, but the important thing about it, it accepts anyone who wants to be part of it. i very much support this and hope we can move forward as best we can, thank you. >> supervisor kim: thank you. >> my name is david, i'm on the board of the san francisco bay area leather alliance. working on this project has prompted me to think about the meaning of leather culture and what the leather folk here have built and shared with the world. just wearing leather, latex or other gear can give one new appreciation for how humans express themselves through their appearance. it has helped many to find new self-respect and the phenomenon that thrives in our bars has

been a big part of the awakening. surviving aids has challenged us to find ways to physically love one another responsibly and creatively. and clarified our obligations to protect our own health and one another's. they seem to have urge to share information, we give one another countless classes and information on safer techniques and offer life saving warnings. open openly discussing our own kinks helps others to do likewise. this strange melting pot around fulsome street continues to bring us together, to work and play and organize, despite or perhaps because of the vast and obvious differences in how we look and what turns us on. perhaps our greatest contribution to 21st century

culture, putting aside art, was the exploration of consent, that helps us appreciate our autonomy and respect the boundaries of others. it has helped people explore their gender and understand the wants and needs and likes and dislikes. many of us believe our exposure has made us more interconnected with one another. [bell ringing] i ask you to recognize the importance of having a neighborhood that welcomes us and encourages us to be our best selves. let us be a reminder that san francisco still loves freedom and embraces true diversity. thank you. >> hello, supervisors, my name is eric. thank you for hearing. i'm here representing the board of the san francisco leatherman

discussion group, we've been providing programming, information and outlet for kink-identified folks for 21 years now and we're in support of this. i'm going keep it short. i'm so proud to be part of this community and some of the things everybody has said and for you, supervisor kim, thank you very much, we're in support of it and hope everybody else is, too. >> supervisor kim: thank you. >> hello there, i'm daniel. golden gate guard since 1976. a three-year resident. i'm very much in support ever the leather district. i'm not much of a big speaker in front of people, but i'm glad to see my leather family here today. i won't take too much of your time, but the people in this room, take me in when i'm homeless and hungry, living on the street, in my car. my leather family comes to defend me every time i needed

them, talking, counseling and i made wonderful friendships and i consider all these people here in this room my family. i just want to let you know that. that's all i have. thank you. >> thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors, my name is paul, i'm a resident of san francisco, since 1993. i'm a district 6 registered voter, a homeowner, a retail business owner with head offices within the proposed lgbtq leather district. in the late 1980s i experienced a unique and vibrant leather culture of soma. this magical city drew me in to make san francisco my permanent home. more importantly, as an officer, i'm here on behalf of the association of professional services, the association of piercers is an international

nonprofit organization dedicated to dissemination of health on body piercings. we represent millions around the world, in an industry estimated to be $1 billion annually. i'm the founder and chair of the body piercing archive, we collect the material involving histories of body piercing. to ensure the artifacts are available to generations. having lectured, as well as written articles for periodicals since the mid 1990s, i'm considered to be the leading or leading historian for body piercing. it is widely accepted that the industry's community's routes extend from the lgbtq and

leather communities. without them, there never would have been body piercing. much of the history takes place within the boundaries of this proposed cultural district. i have available a map of 29 historic locations with supporting documentation, many of these locations are in addition to the groups previously prepared resolution. i am also here to represent -- [bell ringing]. >> supervisor kim: thank you. >> -- considered the father of modern primitives, his intense i have ivesed -- it's imperative we protect. >> supervisor kim: thank you. >> hello. i'm a recent transplant to san francisco. i came here about a year ago and i did come here because of this leather community or in the search of a leather community

and arrived on a bicycle with essentially nothing. i lived on the streets for a time and made my way into a homeless shelter. from there, i began my quest to explore community through that. i began a gender transition from homeless shelter and this community has literally at times been the only thing there for me in the form of support. i'm now the volunteer at the exiles and our meetings are continuing to turn toward the search for a place to provide educational opportunities for people who, like me, were once new to the community. and to a part of themselves that they may have been shut out of, or are discovering. i would like to voice my

concern, that i am seeing things erode that aren't easy to replace once the beings that are here now are no longer there to maintain and adapt to the situation and maintain the opportunities that are available now. we're not going to be able to continue in this capacity. >> supervisor kim: thank you. i'm going to call a few more cards. brian, rachel, ken, rand. who i think may have spoken. dan and these are all the speaker cards, if i did not call your name, feel free to line up. >> thank you. my name is brook. i'm the executive director of nonprofit based here in san francisco called place lab. our mission is to empower

communities to create and sustain great public spaces. i am a nonprofit working with the leather lgbtq community for the past four years on a project of importance to the neighborhood and community, eagle plaza. eagle plaza will be a new pedestrian public plaza on what is now 12th street between harrison and bernice in western soma. it will provide a much needed gathering space. and will be a space to recognize, memorialize and celebrate leather lgbtq culture. we're held up in the public works department for reasons unclear to us. friends of eagle plaza who represent a broad swath of the western soma community are in support of the plaza. we have over 200 letters of support. and we all recognize that eagle plaza will be important if not critical component of the leather cultural district. we are thrilled to support the leather cultural district and i

urge you to approve the district to honor, support and celebrate the unique and special culture that deserbs recognition and protection. thank you. >> supervisor kim: thank you. >> hello, supervisors, brian with the cue foundation. we're here to speak in strong support of this measure and also to pay our respects to people who without their efforts this would not have really come through. so nate is not in the room, but his strategy behind this has been incredible and he's one of the smartest, hardest working people i know. so many others were involved in this. as you know, the cue foundation threw the first stone when we filed the first appeal. the strategy was always comptons, soma and the castro and it seems like this is

flowing and i'm happy. it's also important to know this is only begins with culture. this is not the end. this is the beginning. the strategy always included community building preservation, that through organizing and engagement with the community we also need to own the businesses in our neighborhoods, because lgbt-owned businesses are one of the best protections against employment discrimination for members of our community. also it's imperative we own the housing that is in our neighborhoods, because the data is showing we're not getting fair and equitable access to all housing resources. the dignity fund shows we're the lowest access rates in the city. we're going to own our own buildings and make sure that members of our community have access to the services and thank you all again for support.

this is awesome. >> supervisor kim: thank you. >> good afternoon, i'm rachel, one of the owners of the stud which is now since the closing of the gangway, the oldest bar in san francisco. i'm so excited to be part of this group of people who are feeling passionate about fighting displacement and maintaining our career spaces, but we definitely need support from the city and, supervisor kim, you've been so helpful in supporting what we're doing, but i think this legislation is going to provide the support we need to keep these kind of spaces open. so thank you so much. >> supervisor kim: thank you and thank you for your work in saving the stud. >> hi, my name is rand hunt, thank you for the opportunity to address you. i went to high school in west texas in a place where the

nearest movie theater was 80 miles away, where everyone in town was a southern baptist and i feared for my life every day. and i wanted to come to san francisco because i knew i would be safe there. and it was our capital city. i went on to study community development and i came here right after college, it's been about ten years. i didn't intend to use my community development skills in this context. but i came to san francisco and found myself following a plague. i don't have enough elders right now. and my culture is vanishing quickly. and this isn't just my culture, this is your culture, because san francisco holds the flag internationally as the capital city. and in the ten years i've been here, i've seen it diminished. yearly. through lack of housing, through

lack of access to resources. i've seen this city preserve neighborhood character by sacrificing demographics. and i want to stand here in favor of housing. i want to use my skills in favor of housing so there is room for everyone. if we lose that capital city flag, our economy is going to be hurt. dramatically. we're here to save the city. >> supervisor kim: thank you, mr. hunt. >> hi, supervisors, don. past president of the san francisco bay area leather alliance and sister indulgence since the early 90s. i've been around the community since the 7 0es and seen it gone through many iterations. and i want to look forward with

this cultural district. it's about preserving the past, what is here now and growing for the future so we can continue to be the capital city of not only lgbtq communities, but of the leather and bdsm communities around the world. people look to us for guidance, how to produce events, they look to san francisco for how to form vibrant organizations. and educational organizations for the leather community. our organizations are struggling right now because we don't have enough places to gather. places to meet. social places, nonprofit office space that is expensive. all these things that feature into the changing economic picture of the city. starting this leather cultural district will help us in that aspect so we can work with developers and work with other property owners to ensure that we maintain our community spaces

as well as form public spaces. also, so that people moving into the neighborhood are aware of what they're moving into and are more supportive of it in general. so we don't have complaints to the street fairs and have a supportive wider community that will also patronize the lgbt and leather businesses in the neighborhood. that will ensure that the businesses survive and thrive and grow and new businesses will come and move in. making over the next 10-20 years a really, really vibrant global destination in south market area. i encourage you to support this and thank you for your time. hello, i'm the general manager for mr. s leather. thank you -- >> i shop at your store [laughter]. >> thank you very much.

i have a latex skirt i need to take care of. your employees have been kind in giving me guidance with their products. thank you. >> thank you. as you probably know, mr. s has occupied now four locations in western soma for the past 39 years. we've grown a lot in that time. staff is currently about 80 individuals. and there is a couple of things that are pretty critical for the survival of our business, employees that can afford to live in the area. and customers who want to wear our goods to the bars. the rising cost of housing in san francisco is dwindling. our resources for the former. and without a vibrant leather scene we also risk losing the latter. soma has had a rich leather

history for well over 50 years and it's important to solidify that heritage for the long-term. i'm here today in support of leather cultural district to ensure not only our business, but my personal sense of community. thank you again. >> supervisor kim: thank you. >> good afternoon. my name is angel. i'm the current president of the sf bay leather lines as well as san francisco girls of leather. i am also will, which is women's international leather legacy. i just came up from international miss leather out in san jose, so i'm happy to make it here and share our support as the girls of leather as well as the bay leather alliance in this cultural district. and to note that part of what my job was, as women's international leather legacy was to document women's history that

has been lost. and to find that. and to be in san francisco and to preserve that by having people be able to stay here and international miss leather moved from san francisco because we lost our space because it was unaffordable and to have that continuity of that history of women and people participating in our community, has had impact and i would love to see what we can do to maintain and preserve our history here. and continue to see it grow and people be able to come and for women specifically to find a safe space and support as they maneuver through the world of leather and finding out who they are and to be able to provide community spaces to do that and comradery. thank you for your time. >> supervisor kim: thank you. >> hello. i'm milo. i'm here speaking on behalf of

district 6. and we really support the establishment of this district. it's great community, we're really happy and proud to have a leather community in district 6. and it's just filled with so many inspiring, wonderful, beautiful people and it's a true treasure. so, this is -- will be great improvement to move forward with the establishment of this cult really district, thank you. -- cultural, thank you. >> i'm bob, i'm the compare of the leather group, for the leather cultural district and i chair the young leatherman's discussion group and former president of the fulsome street fair. i've been active member of the leather community for more than 20 years. and i've a long history of volunteering and fundraising in the local elect are community which is a community that i love

and the reason i moved here in 1997. i want to express my support for passage of the resolution. and the resolution will help preserve and revitalize san francisco's famous leather culture, which draws visitors from around the world throughout the year. at its peak, there were more than 30 leather businesses in the soma area. this part of san francisco's diversity is currently threatened by rising rent and redevelopment and the leather and lgbt district offers opportunity to save one of the unique features that make this a place we all love to call home. please vote for the resolution, establishing the cultural district. thank you. >> supervisor kim: thank you.

>> hi. i'm steven. i'm strongly in favor of this cultural district, it's essential that government acts to protect cultural groups in the city from being displaced. and as we continue to grow the city and welcome new people, it's important to have districts like this to ensure that these cultures are not lost and that there is room for everyone to participate and come here if this is where they -- where you need to be to be your true self. i'm glad it's happening and strongly support it. >> supervisor kim: thank you. >> hello, i was wondering if preserving existing spaces might lead to allocation of tax revenue toward subsidizing long

existing bars, restaurants, et cetera and if that is an appropriate way to expend tax dollars. also may not subsidy lead to new market, experiencing distinct advantage in light of the former government subsidies and might this lead to more empty store fronts and less business formation over time? >> supervisor kim: thank you. is there any other members of the public that would like to speak on item number 2? all right, seeing none -- oh, yes. if you'd like to speak, come up, otherwise we may close public comment. and we don't want to do that before everyone speaks. >> sorry about that, good afternoon. i moved to san francisco in 1978. during that time, i met my husband south of market, we were able to get married, establish

our home together, and today, is the anniversary of his passing. so i had to come up and speak on his behalf to encourage this movement. i was also fortunate to meet my fiance south of market at the fulsome street fair and we were engaged in a fair. so i have a long connection to the leather community. and i would encourage you all to move this effort forward. thank you very much. >> supervisor kim: thank you. >> good afternoon. i'm blade. i've worked in the leather community for decades. first in arizona and now in san francisco. as you can see, i'm a member of the leatherman's discussion group. i'm on the board as well as being an active mentor in the mentor program. i'm not going to take up a lot

of time, you have been so patient in hearing everybody's views on everything and their passion, which you can see from the room, it's full. we have businesses, and all different members of this diverse community urging you. so all i ask is that you please go forward with this and support this resolution. thank you. >> supervisor kim: thank you. any other members before the last speaker? >> my name is tina. i'm in the process of -- i'm in the process of trying to find a new place to live right now. and it is really hard. i came here because this was a place that i felt my heart was to. i had to leave several years, i

came back, i work two jobs, over full-time, and just seeing this district come together has been an amazing experience. i co-chaired the governance committee in the middle of writing the bylaws. i've helped write mission statements for the cultural district. this is my home. so i urge you to keep this a home. thank you. >> supervisor kim: thank you, tina. [applause] seeing no other members of the public that would like to speak, if we can close public comment. public comment is closed. i just want to thank members of

the public for your incredibly moving testimonial and the immense amount of work you put into being here today. as i mentioned, it's not easy to contemplate a completely different type of cultural social district, one that is more than plaques and statues. we don't just want to commemorate the past, we want the diversity of our communities to continue to live in the south of market. and i think that work is so much harder to do than just recognizing our history, which we could have just done and walked away from. but i think, tina, your story about struggling to live in the city that you feel that you're a part of and you feel safe in and embraced you is a big conundrum in san francisco today. it's great to be a progressive city, liberal city, but what is the point of having the best policies in the world if people

can't afford to live here? this district is just one of the tools that we're trying to create. really trying to create something that doesn't exist, to protect what we love about san francisco. we don't want san francisco to be a city of just the rich and very rich and look monolithic. we made the city and all of you have been deeply embedded in the creation of the culture that makes people want to come here and create jobs here and open businesses here. and has been this beacon for so many americans. you came here because you believed san francisco was the city, where your accepted for who you are, love who you want to love and choose to love. so i just want to thank you so much for the moving testimonial. i cannot reiterate enough our thanks and gratitude for the

work. the work is not easy. the dialogue is not easy and coming together is not easy, but we're doing it because we believe in it and this is just the beginning of the establishment. i see supervisor ronen wants to make a comment. >> supervisor ronen: thank you. i just wanted to briefly express my support and incredible enthusiasm for the leather district and to thank supervisor kim for bringing this forward. i am the author of legislation that is pending right now around all the cultural districts in the city. putting kind of a form and function and sort of official nature to these cultural districts which really are sort of this new creative tool of protecting these rich communities in san francisco that are under siege. and to just see the alliance that has formed between the

latino cultural district, which is in my district 9 with the cafeteria, with the filipino, with the leather district and japan town and we know there is more coming is just a beautiful thing. it's all the parts of san francisco that make our city, our city, and make it special and unique in the world. and to be creating a tool to preserve our uniqueness and richness of these cultures that define our city is exciting. so i just wanted to thank you for all your hard work and express my complete support and enthusiasm. >> supervisor kim: thank you, senior ronen -- supervisor ronen. i would like to move this out of land use committee with positive recommendation. and we will do that without objection. [gavel] thank you, supervisor kim. [applause] all right.

madame clerk, item 3? >> item 3 is hearing to clarify time lines for starting construction on seven affordable housing projects in district 9. >> supervisor tang: our supervisor ronen. >> supervisor ronen: i just wanted to start out with a few opening remarks before turning it over to touch director dan adams. i wanted to mention that we do have dan dan, dan lowry and representatives from puc, the mayor office of disability and the fire department here listening to this hearing. as we just heard in the testimony and the legislation before us, the creation of more

affordable housing in the city is critical, because the diversity of san francisco is being decimated or devastated by displacement. and the mission is particularly hard hit. the statistics are sobering. we have the highest number of no fault evictions and continue to lose rent-controlled units every week or month. we've lost 20% of our low and moderate income households and for many tenants, their only hope of remaining is the affordable housing lottery. this has not had any new affordable housing built, new units, in nearly ten years. thanks to the fierce community advocacy this is changing. there are seven 100% affordable housing buildings in district 9 predevelopment pipeline. that is 778 units on the way for families and seniors, transition age youth and people exiting

homelessness. we are so fortunate to have mission bay's nonprofit housing organizations like mission housing and meta in our neighborhood who combine grassroots activism with sophisticated development skills and who participated with other community organizations fighting hard for the land and funding for the seven projects. and many of the city staff are working diligently to move the projects along but we have not broken ground on one project. we need to know why it's taking so long and need to come up with ways to move the projects more quickly. i've been trying to get clarity on the implementtation of two recent mayor directives. the first 1301 identified 100 affordable housing as the city's priority and created task force.

in february, 2014, the task force released a set of recommendations that emphasized priority processing for 100% affordable housing projects, providing a budget person, planning at dbi to shepherd them through the routing process. these to me were sensible solutions but it's unclear to me, which of these has been implemented if any. and then in 2017, the mayor issued -- or the late mayor lee issued a second executive director prioritizing production of all residential development and diluting the intent of the previous directive. the latest report shows we have a pipeline of market rate housing that is double our projected means through 2022. i'm not against the development, but i cannot find any

justification for prioritizing development for a segment of the market that is already oversaturated while affordable housing waits in line. why would we do that? >> i want to be clear, there is a lot of talk about removing local control, how housing is built, some claiming that doing so would speed up development. i do not subscribe to this school of thinking. we know there are aspects of the development process that we cannot control locally, but there are parts of the process that we can control. and we commit significant local funding affordable housing and we use that to squeeze every last drop out of sources, but the city leadership has not been clear about the priorities and has sent conflicting direction to departments and staff. if there is a will, there is a way. and we need to treat each one of those projects, not just the

seven and the mission, but any 100 affordable project in the city as life and death. we need all department heads to be pushing the projects forward, like the late mayor lee and i did when there were 260 tents that were very dangerously in the mission, we started a new navigation center that was up and running in a record months. that's the kind of urgency we need. we have the directive, but clearly that has not been enough. we need to set in place guidelines, direction and procedures that ensure that affordable housing is the number one development priority for my district and the city. i'm not interested in finger pointing, blaming, i want to be forward looking and work

together to move projects faster. and i'm looking forward to the presentation and comments today. with that, i will turn it over to you, unless my colleagues have opening comments? nope. deputy director from the mayor's office of housing and community development. >> thank you so much, supervisor ronen, for calling the hearing and this committee for allowing time to focus on this really important issue. i could not agree more with the opening comments, this is life and death situation for many people. the conversation that happened and the comments that happened with the previous item really are perfect segue into this topic for so many of the folks speaking in support of the cultural district. this was as much about affordability and affordable housing as it was about cultural continuity.

we see this as a city-wide issue. with that, i will endeavor to be brief. i want to give you an update on the pipeline. you mentioned the numbers. i want to do a little level setting with the typical time line. we want to do things faster, but let's talk about what we generally see in terms of time lines. talk through some of the challenges, you made reference to those already, what are the opportunities and highlight the partnership aspect of the work. again, as you mentioned, 778 units in the pipeline, these will start construction before the end of 2019. so is it enough? no. we need many more across the city, but we're excited as compared to our work city-wide, we're developing today, more housing in the mission than any other single neighborhood. your reference to this has been a long time coming, so there is a pent-up demand and need an we're excited to move the

projects forward in the future. as i mentioned, a little bit of level about what it takes to build affordable housing. we look at five-year time line. first year in terms of site acquisition, predevelopment work, developer selection. the ceqa reviews and zoning approval. year 3 is building permit and then two years to build. what i would love to do is have us make this four years, three and a half years. and there have been some efforts toward that, the executive directive, old and new. other kinds of state level tools we can have that are specific to affordable housing. how do we make those work as well as we can here in san francisco? some of the challenges, a lot of them have to do with cost. we see volatility in the tax credit market because of the recent president. that has meant a real challenge

for us, programming and planning our work. that reduction in tax credit equity means more subsidy on the city's part, so we have to jostle to accommodate that. we have to hold projects so they're set up for application to state funding. that's the program that has two funding periods or one each year. so sometimes we're in programs where we need to key up a project and put it on hold so that it can apply for $10 million in state funds and that will elongate the development time line. then we're in a super high construction cost environment right now. part of what will talk about in the future, cost containment. sometimes that means value in engineering processing, going back and challenging our subt

subcontractors to find ways to bring things in under budget. we seen changes in our local power provision. the switch from pg and e has meant confusion what the requirements are. pleased this body is focussing on this, but the coordination is not just affordable housing issue. it's across other city projects, but it's critical to work on. we, like other projects, we get appealed and that can create delays. and every project has a story. what do we want to look towards? >> streamlining for affordable housing. how do we move this faster? the executive director that you mentioned, we want -- it's primarily for focus on large projects, at least in the current iteration, but how does

that help us move forward? we're active in coordinating for 100% affordable housing developments, looking at ways to contain costs. we have a working group working on this. we'll be convening with other partners to bring down costs. and finally, we're always advocating at the state and federal level for more resources. welcome opportunity to talk about other ways which we can move projects forward more quickly. finally, with this, i'll close. i want to recognize our partners. we don't develop any housing directly ourselves, we work with the nonprofit developers. those listed here are partners in mission work and i want to appreciate their efforts and their team work in moving these projects forward and if to the extent there are questions about

specific projects, i want to refer to my colleagues to address. happy to open it up for initial questions and comments. thank you. >> thank you. sorry about that. so the recommendations that came out of the first mayoral directive 1301, are those in place? and if so, are they saving projects time? in this five-year process? >> my sense is and i want to recognize that we have representation from a number of our infrastructure agencies and entitlement agencies, who may

want to offer comment on the efficacy of the directive. i think the answer is complicated. i think it's definitely been a success. my understanding is that agencies prioritize 100% affordable housing to the top. some agencies are better able to do that with their staffing capacity than others, so we're kind of a client in this. our agency is trying to move projects along, facilitate the pre-approval process. we're not infrastructure approving agency. but i think what we've seen is definite improvement based on that executive directive, but still room for making improvements. i do know that planning department has dedicated staff that serve as a liaison and representative for affordable housing and that has been amazing. we really appreciate that staff capacity at planning to help address issues on a project by

project basis. >> supervisor ronen: are those planning staff -- feel free to come up from planning or dbi if you're able to answer -- is done here? -- dan here? there you are. dan, either dan. feel free to come up if you're better suited to answer these questions. >> sir, if you could approach the mic. >> nearly all the staff today are named dan. so it might get a little confusing. >> dan lowry of dbi is not here. my name is james. i'm the housing coordinator for the two housing executive directives and our plan review manager gary is also here available to answer your question. >> supervisor ronen: i'll start with dan and then move onto you. so, dan, are these positions

considered ombudsperson position that the task force had recommended? >> supervisor ronen, thank you for calling the hearing. in a word, yes. we have one ombudsperson and we brought on carly drove is here with us today to assist with this significant undertaking, but critical important. >> supervisor ronen: these two individuals for each 100% affordable project, are they sort of the person that leads the project through and interfaces if there is issues with dbi, p.c. or any other department? >> carly and kate, are ombudspersons, our facilitators and work with the project planners in the various divisions to make sure we're delivering.

we have a number of staff to satisfy each of the technical requirements with the housing staff making sure all the pieces come together. >> supervisor ronen: is there priority processing at planning? >> yes, there is. and we have a director's bulletin revised in early 2014. that prioritizes 100% affordable housing above everything else. it is our top tier priority. that was supplemented a couple of years ago. by priority for other projects that provide enhanced affordability, beyond what the planning code requires. those are given greater priority than a regular project, if you will, but again, 100% affordable projects are top billing. >> supervisor ronen: how much time would imagine that phase of the project, 100% market rate project? >> it's a little bit of art

rather than science. we have for the seven projects that we're talking about today, we have entitlement periods ranging from 4 months to 18 months. each project has different processes. i would speculate -- i want to emphasize it's a rough guess -- we're taking these affordable projects through at twice the clip of the market rate project. >> supervisor ronen: i would love to see a study on that, and compare the time line. so can you walk me through what the priority processing, literally walk me through it, it means project is submitted and jumps to the top. >> it does mean everything you said, but what is critical here, the first thing that happens, our staff and the staff from our colleagues, sit down, months, years ahead of the projects, actually becoming application and they coordinate and they

understand what is happening and what needs to happen and how to staff it appropriatedly. it's that collaboration that starts from before we have an application on our desk that tees things up to move forward. when these projects come in, they get top billing. they drop what they're working on. and they put it into front of them. for all the things we have to do from the regulatory perspective. having said that, there are as we know, issues that can arise in the entitlement process with appeals and review. we do everything we can to make sure the go-to commissioner come before you as quickly as they can, but because of the way the codes are written, that is a process necessary and time consuming. >> supervisor ronen: >> supervisor ronen: at dbi, is there someone that dealings with

100% project that you work together and coordinate? and do they stay on the project until all entitlements are granted? >> good afternoon, my name is james. i'm the senior engineer as well as the housing directive coordinator under the mayor's two housing directive. like or colleagues at planning, we do prioritize to the top of the review and approval process. we color code it, all the affordable project, affordable housing projects so they can be immediately identified. and move up the reviewing queue as well as the permit issuance

process. >> supervisor ronen: and can you walk me through similarly to how planning walked through, what is the process for an intake of an affordable housing permit? >> ok, under the current mayor's housing directive, 17-02, we -- in order to shorten the approval process, we have worked with the planning department to come up with a parallel plan review process that means even before the project can go through the lengthy entitlement process, our reviewer can start reviewing them. that's number one. and secondly, as i elaborated before, the minute they come into our department, we will

identify them with the color coded process. so that they cannot be missed. now, i do want to address, supervisors, that there could be some misperception that our department sit on the project without acting on them or reviewing them and approving them. the reason is being -- is because they have to go through a different series -- reviewing -- to enforce the building code, the mechanical code and all the california building code, we are obligated to make sure that each of the

permit application come in, complying with all the respective code. now, it does take time. we have -- in our department, meaning that because of resources restriction, we cannot review them the minute or the day or the week or even the week, they come into our department. that means sometimes it does take currently our regular times 3-4 weeks -- >> supervisor ronen: even with the priority processing? >> well, i'm talking about non-prioritized projects. >> supervisor ronen: i'm only -- you said every 100% affordable project is prioritized, so if it is prioritized, there is still a delay of 3-4 weeks --

>> probably not up to 3-4 weeks, but still, we are dealing with more than one at any given time, it's possible we deal with multiple priority projects. we also have different type of priority. we have the fee base. we have premium review. we also have the -- have to issue a bulletin dealing with 100% affordable housing project. so that is what gives us the ticket to move up the 100% affordable project. to the top, but still we have