activities will occur. in addition, neither they nor the traffic planner checked with muni to confirm all the bus lines which run adjacent to the store site. in addition, i think that the plan to abate so called vehicle cues which could occur while cars lineup to enter the parking garage on polk street won't work. this plan says that if reoccurring vehicle cues occur at the garage, the planning department will notify the owner in writing, and the owner will hire a transportation consultant to evaluate these conditions. this consultant will then submit this report to the planning department and will give the store owner 90 days to abite these cues. however this report lacks information about what the store owner could do to prevent cars cueing at the garage. it is almost certain that these car cues will occur because -- during busy shopping times and will slow buses and could even cause bicycle accidents. in conclusion because of the severity of traffic congestion in san francisco and because

polk is a narrow street where buses and bicyclists ride, it is contrary to sound city planning to approve a large chain store with a 70 space parking lot. thank you for considering my opinion. >> president hillis: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> hello, commissioner. i'm owner and operations manager at the jug shop at 1590 pacific at polk street. the jug shop is a family owned business that's served the surrounding neighborhoods from 52 years from three different locations on pacific and polk street. we are currently in the process of securing our official legacy business status with the city, and i am in opposition to the whole foods 365 moving into 1600 jackson. whole foods 365 plans to offer a massive selection of wines, spirits and beer that will

directly compete with our store, and the jug shop is the livelihood for my family, my team, and my team's families. you know, whole foods 365 moving just one block away poses an imminent threat to the financial viability and longevity of my business and may force us to close our doors. the polk street landscape as you know is made up of long tenured family owned businesses and a massive corporate entity like amazon whole foods 365 will also poach business from the likes of cheese plus, real foods company, and risk their closure, as well. whole foods already exist as has been said at franklin and california. they offer delivery services, so no real need in the neighborhood for whole foods or whole foods at 365 at jackson and polk will cause intolerable

increases to traffic congestion in the neighborhood for neighbors and delivery services coming out of the parking lot at polk. if we see a fraction of the traffic that occurs on franklin and california, it will completely cripple of flow of traffic in the polk area. it doesn't even consider delivery truck, noisy blocking the road. best use for this site is housing, and i'm hopeful that village properties -- >> clerk: thank you sir, your time is up. >> president hillis: thank you. next speaker, please. >> hello. my name is andrew beaker, and i work with a few different owners and developers in the neighborhood, so when they say that this project is unfeasible, i strongly disagree. we're working on a site just down the street, and we've been able to make it pencil, so i think this corner lot should be housing, and we can make it work. so thank you.

>> president hillis: thank you. next speaker, please. >> good evening. my name's chris baker. for my clarification, am i in the line of in support off opposition? >> president hillis: we're taking both comments. >> i really love the neighborhood. couple things i don't really love about it are the fact of the distance it takes to get to a large market, and also the fact that we have that grim, blighted block that's been sitting there for years right around the corner. i've seen the -- you know, the charts about how close the groceries are. basically for me or my wife to walk to one of those markets, it's a mile, and it's not a flat mile.

in terms of that mile being grim, glum, derelict, as it's been for years, i'm just not crazy about my wife or my daughters having to walk down there, and it just contributes to the quality of life issues we see with the streets in san francisco. so i hope you'll be approving this. thank you. >> president hillis: thank you. and i'll call some more names. [please stand by for captioner switch]

>> my business is a block away from the proposed site. i am too here to advocate for housing. there is no one there now and no business there now and it would not displace anyone to do so. i spent the last 13 years building up my business and we grind it out day after day making our stores the best they can be and we have created a unique place on polk street. it's hard to imagine how this big box store would plop down on the street here. there are lines out the door and customers and residents happy with that.

they turned that dank and under utilized space into something that's really fantastic. i think that at 1600 jackson the same can be said. it's not inevitable that only the big box store can get into there. we can expand our imagination into something greater with that. i have issues with amazon as most others do at some point, a small business and the wealthiest business around. [bell ringing] my time is up. i want to say that housing is the best use and in the future deny anybody else that does not come forward with a housing plan at this location. >> just for speakers you will hear a short ding which tells you that you have 30 seconds

left and then a louder, ruder ding when your time is up. >> i i am ant. >> speaker: iantointette.wholee in and improve this neighborhood and this building and provide a valuable service that the everyone want. the owner is not coming here to offer housing.

it is pure speculation that putting a 365 in this location would harm any other business in the neighborhood. it's also pure speculation that disproving the 365 project would save any business in the neighborhood. they may not survive anyway, but we would lose the opportunity to make the neighborhood safer, to have a retail thriving operation open for most of the day and provide foot traffic. please focus on the big picture. the benefits of the the community as a whole and not just special interest and a handful of people who don't necessarily live in the neighborhood. the residents in the neighborhood want to be able to walk, skateboard and poe go

stick to a store. >> i am carolyn roger. to be brief i am here with one clear and special message. our neighborhood supports and needs a full-service grocery, approving the whole foods 365 proposal to locate at 1600 jackson street site is in our opinion the most reasonable, feasible, and timely way to meet this need. we know this from the survey we conducted, the meetings we attended, the letters we and you received, the 160 individuals that signed a support statement and those who are here to speak on the support.

we are aware that other neighborhood associations have taken a different position. we want to assure all of you that we are distressed about increasing traffic and congestion but we also believe that more and more housing cannot be responsibly built without providing the basic services that both current and future residents need. the proposal before you is an important opportunity to meet that need in a timely and sustainable manner with a business because the resources and proven track record to serve our community for the long haul. san francisco is blessed by the vitality of its walkable neighborhoods. russian hill neighborhoods are devoted itself to protecting pre serving and enhancing our special part of the city for

almost 40 year. we have weighed the benefits and risks of this proposal and we believe that approving the whole foods project will be good for the entire neighborhood. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> my name is peter faller, i am a board member at 1500 jackson, opposite the proposed development, so our building would be one of the most negatively impacted if we believed in the negative impacts which we don't. our association has polled positive for this development. if you walk ten blocks going south, there are numerous empty storefronts and we need an anchor tenant to revitalize this neighborhood and for our part we are willing to bet that the whole foods 65 is the best way to do this in the near term. we would hate to have to live with another two years of the

blight that we have lived with for the last three year. >> my name is molly hit and i live at 1500 jackson street. this particular space has been vacant for too long and is a real problem in the neighborhood, the homelessness and trash and we need to bring development this to corridor and services that people need on a daily basis. i am all for housing development, but there has been five new residential projects that i can count within a short radius of this particular project and with housing comes the needs for services is and grocery is an essential part of that. finally, i want to note i have

worked in solar energy for fen n years an i was a partner in a sustainable business before that. i reckly attend these meetings p around the country and i can assure you that whole foods are among the top echelon who are committed to sustainable business practice. their commitments are real and long standing. these guys in terms of companies, they are the good guys and i urge you to approve this project. >> thank you very much. next speaker please.

>> my name ask lori and i have lived adjacent to this site for years now and i have seen many small grocery stores close during that time and it was not because there was a whole foods there, for some reason they didn't last, and real food company, i do not consider a competitor because i don't think it is as good. i keep hearing people talking about housing there is that we have someone who wants to work with the property as it is and turn it into a viable operating building instead of the empty place that it's been, so i would say to those people, why don't you go to big apple, which is only two blocks away and it's been closed for your fares and it's huge and it's a corner lot. you could build housing there and we could have housing at

clay and polk and whole foods 365 at polk and jackson and we could have more thriving life in that part of polk street again. thank you for listening. >> thank you. >> my name is louis jackson. on countless occasions over the last two plus years i have looked out my wi window at 1600 jackson and pondered the pros and cons of the whole foods 365 i think about preserving our neighborhood character, about what happens if the building is torn doubt and about traffic congestion and parking, and then i think about how much time and effort it takes for me to shop

for groceries because i have to go outside my neighborhood and i am at piece with my concerns about the con. i cannot thank whole foods enough for all it's doing to bring a very basic service to our neighborhood. i think polk street between california and broadway is in worst shape than it was two years ago. i see many empty storefront. i think their strength means it will be there for a long time and not go out of business such as other businesses have such as big apple market. i kind of get confused by this process and i kind of think the way it works is that you depends on a group of very smart people who have a lot of education and experience to spend countless hours hashing out the details of this proposal project, and that group of people, the planning department makes a

recommendation to you, and it has recommended approval of the foal foods 365 project. it is not adjacent to property, it will activate a vacant storefront and increase foot traffic in our neighborhood. thank you. >> thank you. >> good evening commissioners and thank you for taking the time to listen to all our concern. i recently acquired real foods, the store that some of the people don't like here. [laughter] >> just one person so far. >> i got involved in the market store about 18 months ago when that store was having problems, and that brought me to this part of town, and i frequented polk street and i started liking it more an more every day and got

to know the neighbors, the residents and some of the merchants, so when the situation came that i saw an opportunity to acquire a company that i -- i went into it. i believe that housing is important because many other people say it's impossible to find anything here and i also think the notion of big box retailer or amazon coming in have stopped many of the small businesses in their track. they couldn't do anything. it will end up becoming a pub pb soon and will kill the fa fabrif this community that everybody is trying to build. belle. they only need a 20% loss in

their revenue to be completely damaged. in the past target has tried to come in. i think the community is much better served with what these people have proposed. >> thank you. >> my name is greg car and we live in an apartment on fabric street about six blocks north of the project. i am asking you to please allow them to put a grocery store there. there is a couple of gourmet stores anstores and all of them expensive. we don't have a general grocery store. we used to have several and the last one closed three years ago

so we are 73 and 78 years old and we do our shopping on foot. the closest grocery stores are far away. there have been a lot of housing by the way, tall apartment blocks some of them you can see along van ness. those people who are in those need support now. this project will preserve and reuse a still very useful 1908 converted concrete garage that fits in well with the neighbors and fits the height and scale of the buildings around and keep part of our history being torn down and wasted and having this occupied will bring more life to this part of polk street because in cities activity breeds activity. we know from experience hayes

valuvalley and other places it't easy to bring in a store into a small neighborhood. i ask you again to please let us have a grocery store. please don't let them kill it, i am begging you, please let us have a grocery store. >> thank you mr. carr. next speaker please. >> my name is michellburg, i have been a business owner on polk for 16 years and in the neighborhood for close to 20. i am opposed to the amazon on polk street. i don't think they have adequately explained how the upstairs will be utilized and the plans for lockers and the ability to use the space for a

hub. the merchants are small independents that have been negatively impacted by amazon and whole foods, does it make sense to allow them to have a presence on our street. why would they not locate on van ness to serve the area? amazons and whole foods is predatory and practices a business model that destroys it's competition. makes no sense for them to be right next to a multitude of small businesses. the city the in dire need of housing. why would whole foods be pre mitted to take the space of a parking lot. how fair is it that businesses all over the city have seen the removal of their parking with the b babehemouth being able toe

that over. let's keep small business wrong and avoid congestion and traffic for our neighborhood and ask them to find a more appropriate place for their neighborhoods >> thank you. >> hello, i am julie besolo. i don't own a car like most of my nob hill neighbors and russian hill friends, we walk and take the bus. i am so in favor of this store because it will help me that gt

groceries that i can't get at trader joe. i buy cheeses on saturday at the cheese store and i like to spread my money around to the merchant. i walk to my office every day at california an van ness where i am a commercial real estate agent. i haven't put a tenant on over 4.5 years because of the shottity condition that it's in. these tenants want an anchor, so bringing 365 to our neighborhood will help us build this neighborhood up. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> along with the great majority of may neighbors i strongly

support the conversion of the old lombardis to a whole foods 365. the opponents talk about the need for housing, but there has been a lot of growth of housing within the least few year. within five or six years and within a three block radius of the site there has been 213 units added in four different large scale apartment buildings that have been built. rumor has it there are three other sites within two blocks of the site being eyed by developers right now. i know the middle polk neighborhood association which does not represent the majority of residents in this regard has characterized this as a once in a generation opportunity to build housing, but that housing is already going on, so this is

not a rare chance to build housing, this is an extraordinary opportunity to repurpose an existing build in a way that will greatly benefit the current and future residents of the neighborhood. >> thank you, next speaker please. >> my name is chandra. i live di di at 5100 jackson, am here to support the whole foods 365 market on the proposed site. the major reason there is no general purpose grocery store in the neighborhood. that is just the way it is. there should be one.

this is an opportunity to get one there. second and as important, the sites been vacant for years now. to tear it down and build mixed use housing, i don't get it. i just don't get it like what's going on here. another how many years and the air pollution and the dust pollution and the noise pollution to what end? finally, there is a lot of conflation of issues all of the sudden whole foods 365 has become whole foods, it's not it's a line extension of marketing. it's the new way that whole foods want to operate. it's a new thing and there is just 12 of them in the country. second, there is this, amazon is

a bad person, what there is a guy in washington, d.c. who is saying these things, is that what we have come to? [laughter] thank you very much. please vote yes on 365. >> next speaker. nick. >> good evening my name is diane and i am a resident and owner at 5100 jackson street which is across the street from the proposed site. i want to just reiterate what a heard from nick who spoke a few people before me, which is i also go to all the other stores that are in the neighborhood. i believe that the whole foods 365 store as an anchor tenant

would improve our neighborhood and i don't know that it's going to put people out of business. i really think there is a lot of fear going on here that is not based on what i feel is going to happen. these are specialty stores, the whole foods 365, is a whole purpose grocery store and we need this for our neighborhood. i am very much for it. i have lived in this neighborhood for 32 year. [please stand by].

>> i see it as at least ten years. the existing structure which previously before lombardi sports -- sporting goods was a volkswagen service center. it is ill-suited for conversion to housing. it would involve razing the existing structure, creating serious environmental problems and disruption to the residents of our building. the -- the second floor residential tenants are excited about the possibility of having a full-service grocery market within a short walking distance, so we have several elderly people who don't have access -- >> clerk: thank you sir.

your time is up. >> thank you. >> president hillis: next speaker, please. >> good evening. my name is lorenzo rios, and i work at -- in russian hill on polk street, and i'm here to urge you to vote no on this today. first of all, i worked for whole foods with many years. i've worked with rob. we've met many times. whole foods is a great company; i just don't think this is the right location. there is a whole foods on california street, and i just heard amazon is going to offer free delivery for prime members within two hours, and i would ask why do we need another whole foods market so close? it is going to directly impact all the small grocers in the area. by the way, i think 365 is a

line extension of amazon. chinatown is very walkable. as you know they have very fresh fruits and vegetables in addition to all the small markets and services in the area. and i'm afraid that after working for whole foods what a new store does to a neighborhood, it brings tons of traffic, tons of people, and it's already crowded over there, you know? we're already looking for parking, we're already looking for safe bike riding, safe walking, things like that. so again, i would surgery you to -- surgery you to vote no and definitely yes for better housing. thank you. >> president hillis: thank you, mr. rios. >> my name is nick, and i'm speaking in support of whole foods 365. unlike most opposing the project, i live in the neighborhood. i live in the same intersection as the proposed development and i've lived there for 20 years. if you have any doubt if the

vast majority of residents are in favor of a neighborhood store, go to my building, buzz them, and ask them. i'd like to thank the planning department for its common sense recommendation to allow this inoffeni inoffensive, mid-sized. high quality grocery store to open in my neighborhood. i hope this commission will follow suit. thank you. >> president hillis: thank you. next speaker. >> thank you, commissioners. my wife and i in 1992 bought a condominium 591650 jackson street, so we are adjacent to the building. we are totally in favor of the whole foods. our unit, number 705 faces jackson street, so we are totally aware of the potential problems in food deliveries. my wife and i, we spoke to whole foods about this, and my

wife and i were extremely impressed with their tenderness and sensitivity to our issues, their ability to compromise and most importantlily saying out a plan for deliveries on jackson street. double parking and truck idling will strictly be disciplined at the highest levels. there will be no deliveries in the rush hours between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. we are confident that they will do as they say, and i spoke to rob, and he told me that if we don't, give us a call, and we'll take care of it, and we believe them. i also wish to say that as a concerned neighbor, i was part of the creation of the middle polk association when don tenant and frank tanaka started it. for many years my wife and i were very active in that association. we no longer belong to it, and

they certainly did not poll anybody at 1650 jackson street to the best of my knowledge, and we do not -- they do not speak for me. the density in our neighborhood has completely increased a lot. it was mentioned four buildings within a few blocks away from us, and that's a fact. we lost the only other full service grocery store in the neighborhood with the -- with the big apple, and so this whole foods store is definitely a yes as far as we're concerned. >> president hillis: thank you. next speaker, please. i'll call some more names. >> hi. my name is leslie bull, and i live at 1650 jackson street. i've lived in san francisco for over 20 years in a variety of neighborhoods and specifically in russian hill for over 13. i've also survived the many downturns san francisco is definitely known for boom or bust. i'm in the tech industry, and over the last two years, we've seen a tremendous amount of

layoffs in san francisco, specifically auto desk most recent laid off 1100 people. microsoft, linked in, twitter, uber, social living, snapshot, benefit, hp, gap and levi's to name a few. i think what we need to keep in mind is the bigger picture. i know we have a severe housing crisis, but we need development in t -- we have had development in the polk area and we have not increased businesses. we really need an anchor store to help bridge the two communities. they are quite different. russian hill is thriving. middle polk and down south is a disaster. so if we can get an anchor store in there and then focus middle polk district, the neighborhood and the city council to help find creative ways to reduce the current

vacancy, that's what we should be focusing on. we have a ton of vacancy. the last thing we need is more housing and mixed use, and putting more small retail in that corner versus focusing on the current vacancy that we have. i think there's a great opportunity. it's a lovely neighborhood. i shop at teas plus, and the jug shop, but i also think we need a full scale grocery store. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. mr. koernl. >> good evening. steven colonel with the polk street merchants. let's look at whole foods at franklin and california. it has three entrances to parking lots. it has at least two lanes of traffic in each direction on both corners. it has constantly backed up traffic on both california and on franklin street. it has no muni lines, it has no like lanes.

this whole foods six blocks away is only one lane of traffic in either direction. there's a major bus line on both streets. there is libike lanes -- yeah, and bike lanes. the new proposed building is supposed to have at least 70 deliveries per week. where are they going to go? put them on a yellow zone? have double parking like the one on franklin and california? it's just going to add to congestion. congestion is a big, big problem along with housing in san francisco. this is going to be a major increase in congestion. please vote no on this. thank you very much. >> president hillis: thank you. next speaker. mr. schulman. >> honorable commissioners, chris schulman representing lower polk neighbors today.

when lower polk neighbors first started discussing this 2.5 years ago, this is in the middle polk neighborhood. miding polk neighbors first approached us a few years ago when target was first considered for this property, and we 2.5 years ago said housing should be prioritized. we're not looking at things like this is going to turn into an amazon distribution center though we are cognizant of that fact. we are looking at housing. what we have here today -- i have some documents for you. i apologize that i just got these today about an hour ago. it's from a respected developer who's developed thousands of sites. these are numbers that say this pencils out. i want to read this into the record: chris, we have performed a cursory review of our own internal cost numbers and have determine this had this site is not only feasible for a mixed use housing opportunity site. this said we have presented a

base model to our financial partners who have expressed a keen interest should you deliver this property to us for purchase. i can't, but as you know, we have zoned and developed thousands of units across the country, self-performed all construction in house. please keep us posted on the results of this. fits well within our acquisition criteria of in-fill properties. tached is our current financial model for your reference. the developer did give me permission to provide you a summary sheet, which i have eight copies for the commission and the secretary. i did apologize. we only found out a day or two ago that the owner said this is not feasible for housing, which we vehemently disagree with. we think this is ang outstanding opportunity site. i think the middle polk association said the low hanging fruit is gone. we have to start looking at these single story buildings

for housing. thank you for your time. >> president hillis: thank you. next speaker. >> commissioners. i'm here today to speak on behalf of the vanness corridor neighborhood coalition. we're a nine member group, and i'd love to say that we were unanimous in our opinion here. we're not. seven are in strong opposition to your endorsing this. one group abstained, and as you've heard, russian hill neighbors are strongly opposed to it -- for it, excuse me. so they are the opposition to the position that the group took. you've heard a lot, and you know, it's been sitting vacant for three years, and it's derelict and it's horrible. well, one went out end of 2014.

they began discussing it 2015, and it's been derelict, so let's suddenly roll with whatever they want because it's been derelict all the time they've been negotiating it. i find that a little bit odd. we do feel as mr. schulman just said, that this should be developed as housing. we've seen even, if you want to look at amazon and -- or whole foods, a market in valencia, when we were in the middle of a housing downturn, they could be quite proactive and good in getting a project done. what we're looking at here is not something that can't pencil out. we need a sharper pencil being used. mr. isaacson is an experienced developer. if he had a sharper, better pencil, ecohe could do this, a

we'd certainly like to see a better project with housing in this location. thank you. >> president hillis: thank you. next speaker, miss morgan, please. >> hello, commissioners. elaine morgan, president of cathedral home neighbors, cochair of vanness quarter neighbor coalition, and vice president, coalition for san francisco neighborhoods. two of our organizations have sent letters in support of the community alternative to the conditional use and the coalition which is a 30-member group citywide has passed a resolution in support of mixed-use housing over ground floor retail. so you've heard a lot about this. you're going to hear a lot more people talking about this. i think it's contrary that lea were to as a city look at our own personal philosophy that we had just had a conversation on senate bill 827, this would be

the poster child for development. transit rich corridor, we could have housing on-site, transit service businesses. we have bicycle safety, walkability. we have everything that makes this a wonderful building and supports the vanness corridor tremendously in support of its housing and transportation. one comment i would make is the coalition for san francisco neighbors is very anxious to work with whole foods in supporting a new whole foods store on masonic and geary, and so i look forward to getting the business cards of the gentleman here before midnight tonight so we can broker some meetings there to talk about a whole foods in that location which is a perfect location. it is an abandoned retail site that has been a public nuisance. it can become a new whole foods. >> president hillis: thank you. next speaker.

welcome. >> good evening. my name is rick carp. i am the president of cole hardware here in san francisco, and also the executive director of the san francisco locally owned merchant alliance, a group that represents approximately 300 retailers across the city. this project is a trojan horse. amazon's ownership changed the nature of the game. amazon currently, with their two-hour prime service in san francisco and their general on-line business, is basically raining and pillaging retail in san francisco. to allow them to have a pickup spot, a future rooftop for their drone delivery service or whatever they come up with is inappropriate. they specialize in putting local businesses out of

business. you all know what they did to the book store industry, and ironically today, they are circling back and opening book stores nationwide in well-off neighborhoods. they will do the same to cheese and wine and much more. they are currently many locations in san francisco of whole foods, and they're going to have more. they're going to open in stonestown. that's probably going to come before you and many others. basically, they are circling our city with future amazon distribution centers, and that is going to bode very ill for the character of our neighborhoods. thanks very much. >> president hillis: thank you. next speaker, please. >> thank you, commissioners. my name is jennifer fair i say. i've lived in the polk village

district for 20 years and i've owned a business for 15 years. my business is located in a beautiful mixed use building which was completed just a few years. mr. isaacson, i can introduce you to the developer if you want to do the math. the place was sold out before it was even completed. i am deeply concerned that the whole foods project will really damage the fabric of our neighborhood at a time when we're facing a massive housing crisis, you have residents and businesses in the neighborhood begging you to look at this as a housing opportunity. why you would not do that is a mystery to me. san francisco is one of everyone's favorite cities, not because of the retail but because of the vibrant small business communities. why would you say no to that by letting a giant retail store enter into the pole

neighborhood. at a time when we spent years working with the mta on bike lanes, pedestrian safety, build outs, why would we put a giant traffic anchor in the middle of polk. there's tons of places in the neighborhood where you can buy food. at this point, i'm really unclear about what the neighborhood and the city gains from approving this c.u. thank you for your time. >> president hillis: thank you, miss fanext speaker, plea >> good evening, commissioners. i just want to start out by saying i'm a little offended by people saying middle pope being isn't thriving. i'm a small business owner, and we've been there for six and have a lease for another seven. just because miding polk doesn't look like upper polk, that doesn't mean that it's not thriving. i also live in the neighborhood, four blocks fl the proposed site, and i've watched a lot of my friends

have to leave the city due to higher rent, and obviously there's no silver bullet that's going toful solve our housing solution, but i do think we have a great opportunity to build a house in an ncd on a site like this, and it's absolutely necessary for the future of san francisco. it's not going to happen overnight. this is a -- you know, i don't envy anybody involved in the building of these types of developments, but it's important, and i think it's for the long-term viability of the san francisco and affordability, looking at sites like this that may not be in soma or mission, but every neighborhood has to participate and just hunker down and tighten their belts. in the long run, it's better for our city to have housing and mixed use on the ground

floor. thank you. >> president hillis: all right. thank you. next speaker. >> my name is steven taber, and i live in russian hill, and i'm on the russian hill coalition of neighbors. the neighborhood badly needs a full service grocery store. we don't have a full service grocery store nearby, within a mile, and it is a very attractive project for our residents. this is not a competitor to other businesses on polk street. in fact i don't think many people actually come to polk street to buy groceries. polk street is largely an entertainment street. more than half the businesses on polk street are eating or drinking establishments where the goods are consumed on the premises. it has a few small specialty stores, but you don't do your grocery shopping at small specialty stores. the -- the project would help small businesses, in fact, in that you would come to do your

grocery shopping and then go to the specialty stores. i do that myself when i shop at trader joe's, and i go a block down the street to buy some food at the british food specialty store. i wouldn't go to the british food specialty store just to buy a meat pie and some bangers, but when i'm at trader joe's, i'm going to go and buy what i want. it does help the entire -- the entire neighborhood and the commercial district to have a full-service grocery store. russian hill neighbors, i just want to point out something regarding the vanness neighborhood coalition. russian hill neighbors is a member of that coalition. it is the largest organization and probably has, i would guess, as many members as all the other groups put together, and so i think that its weight is -- should be hedged accordingly. we strongly support this project. thank you. >> president hillis: thank

you, sir. next speaker, please. >> my name is sarah taber, and yes, i am married to that guy who just spoke. i would say like three-quarters of this people who are against this grocery store, we actually live in the neighborhood. we actually want a grocery store. >> clerk: excuse me, folks. if we can refrain from the clapping. >> i want -- i want a grocery store. i was going to talk about that, and i do want to mention that all this housing talk was not what originally the middle polk neighbors who were against it were talking about. they nesaid initially they wer against formula retail, all formula retail. they had some terror that fo formula retail is going to ruin

their businesses. i think it's going to be a wonderful anchor store, and it will bring more traffic in the neighborhood, and more traffic will mean more business for all the stores there. i am more than -- this housing thing, yes, it is a big thing. it is the issue now. they figured if they argued formula retail that they would not manage to kill the project. if they argued housing to plead to you people, then -- then you would listen. there are many other sites that could take housing. this is a beautiful building. it is perfectly suited for a grocery store. it's ready to go now. it would take years and years and years to put new housing on that site, and i don't want to wait that long. i don't want to be in a wheelchair before i have a grocery store close to me. thank you. >> president hillis: thank you, miss taber. mr. holms. >> hi. i've been doing retail in san francisco for about 26 years. san francisco short on office

buildings, short on transit solutions, short on affordable housing. the only thing we're not short on is divergent opinions, which this has come to light tonight. 365 is not amazon. 365's not whole foods. it's a completely different store, and i'd really like to bring up other neighborhood areas -- noe valley's a perfect example. 24th street cheese company has been thriving for many years, before and after whole foods' existence. there are three liquor and wine and spirits stores that are so closely attached to whole foods, i think they're about to tackle whole foods. noe valley wine and spirits, and others all exist in a healthy