tv Government Access Programming SFGTV July 30, 2018 1:00pm-2:00pm PDT
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i just had one question. i see that you and you're very adamant that they expanded the 9r to 50-foot buses which both go through the portala neighborhood. but i notice you don't call out or specify the portala as a particular focused neighborhood. and i'm wondering if that was just including it with the outter mission and just not naming it. i just want to make sure that you're surveying those residents in similar ways because there is so much congestion on san bruno and the buses are packed. both the 8 and the 9 every single day to the point where people can't get in and where especially on the 9 there are pretty much sites every single day. >> great point. the naming of the neighborhoods -- these neighborhoods -- we
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were just trying to identify rough areas. as you know, our services go through a number of neighborhoods and a number of areas so portala is just kind of -- i don't want to say lumped in, but it's the general vis valley area and we don't draw specific lines on who we're talking to. we've been working with them for a number of years now on improving the nine specifically. those relationships are developed and will continue to be fostered as part of this process. like you said, the 8s and the 99r, it's a really good problem to have as far as from a sustainability standpoint. it's great that there are so many people that want to ride that service and we have to find a way to get them better and more frequent service and reduce some of that crowding. but we heard the same comments that you just said add news nauseam, numerous times over the last six months so. >> out of curiosity.
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since you switched to the 60-foot bus on the 9s, i kid you not there was a fight. >> i believe it. so, the incidents have gone down. we get -- if an operator reports that one of the patrons calls our 3-1-1 system and tells us there was a fiesing -- there was a fight on there, we have noticed that the numbers have gone. it's self-report so ited's hard to say that definitely the numbers have gone down. but it seems to be in a downward trend, as does crowding on the line. i think those really kind of go hand in hand. if you are not face-to-face with somebody all the time, everybody can move out and tensions can decrease a little bit. not just the 9r. but we have seen less incidents over the last several months after we implemented that. >> thank you. that's all.
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>> commissioner brown? >> i see that the western edition is one of your focus neighborhoods and i was actually in supervisor breed's office as a legislative aide when this process started. and i know you were out in the western edition a lot. and community centers talking to the seniors and there were a few things -- first of all, i don't see anything on here, on your list of what you are going to do, improvements for the western edition. i didn't see it on your list. that is number one. and then number two, and then i'll let you answer the questions. and then number two, as i know there were a lot of the seniors had a lot of issues around that area. you know, we have a lot of the h.u.d. properties, senior sfrrs. we were moving bus stops at the time and they felt like walk ago few blocks for seniors was
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hard, especially if there is an increase in climb. and then the second was of safety. because a lot of the bus stops were in dark areas and they didn't feel safe going to the bus stop or being let off on the bus stop. when it was dark. can you address that and let me know what is happening with the western edition since it wasn't on your list? >> you bet. so, western edition has been really the focus -- in 2016, we implemented the 5r service in relation to the equity strategy. drastically increased ridership and reduced crowding just like on the 9-r and we've continued to work on mcallister street and fulton for that matter to improve those services. and we're looking at improving,
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making some small-captal adjustments and the 31 balboa, for example, is that on that list. it's indian daughtered with stop signs, especially outer portion of the line which throws it off getting through the western addition. one of the things we serious doing is working on improving reliability and frequency of the 31. we're rolling out new signage at our stops that include a small that include a new beacon of light at the stop of the stop sign. really am by cents light. -- ambient light. there is more safety with eyes on the street type of idea. there's probably people waiting there, that time of thing. but we don't have a program right now, at least of
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developing, you know, electrical capabilities at every stop. where we do have electrical capabilities, we've been putting in nex bus, for example, and work on putting out a new nex bus in the future with solar panels and solar way to light the next -- unfortunately that takes a lot of power. so that is something we need to find a way of addressing specifically in viz valley and a lot of neighborhoods that we're talking about. especially safety issues waiting for the bus x amount of sometime a real issue and something we need to work on. >> thank you, commissioner brown. and thank you, again, mr. kennedy s. there any public comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed and this is an information item. can you please read the next item? >> item 15, update on the district 10 mobility study.
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this is an information item. >> ms. hyatt. >> good morning, commissioners. rachel hyatt. rachel hyatt principle planner and this is a status report on the district 10 mobilities study which is the district 10 end tip planning project and the big picture here is supporting health and livability throughout district 10 as it grows. so a significant share of the growth in residence in the city will happen in district 10 and this is an effort to look at ways to support the mobility of existing and future residents through this growth to support health and livability by reducing vehicle miles of travel, strategis that reduce vehicle miles of travel and are independent of muni. talking about noninfrastructure strategies in addition to that
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would supplement muni service. these are recommendations that could be deployed as pilots in district 10. could be included in developer strategies, to help them meet their trick caps in major development areas or as pilots sponsored by the private sector. we are building off the needs that we know. there's been a lot of planning in transportation planning in district 10 in recent years and so we've heard a lots from the community about what their needs are. we're not starting from scratch there. we are coordinating with the studis that have been done in district 10. the equity strategies, starting with them, starting with the bayview neighborhood transportation plan that this agency conducted in 2010, working with m.t.a. and their
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parallel plan, the community transportation plan at the bayview, we're working closely together with m.t.a. on these compatible efforts. we just wrapped up outreach events in june and july, including in spanish and we partnered with the community use stror do the language outreach. and the purpose of this work was to engage residents in sort of imagining and creating a transportation sthafs would meet a need that they have. so, we drew pictures and designs with residents, a transportation service that would address a particular trip that they have. and coming out of that is about 25 different ideas. so to inspire folks going into
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exercise, we sort of suggested four types of categories. the first is emerging mobilities and on-demand transportation services. like car sharing, scooter sharing, like micro transit and we heard a lot of interest in microtransit. we heard a lot of interests in car sharing, this time of on-demand service to supplement muni for things like senior travel or for use of school or recreational travel. we also looked to gauge interest in tools that would support people's trip making, make their trip planning and way finding easier. i guess the name for these types of tools could be moenlt as a service. what that means is tools that support tripen mraiing, trip payment, navigation all through
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one interface and weave your elements of your trip together and show you different options. these can be tools on your phone, on your smart phone or on the street through a kiosk and there are photos there from chicago and from brooklyn where they're piloting kiosks that support transportation and other services. another type of strategy, noninfrastructure strategy that we're looking to gain interest in is rewards and incentives. such as bart perks but expanding that idea to other types of trip making and types of trip purposes, other travelers. we did hear one of the participants in our group was enthusiastic about a program in his workplace where he gets amazon reward for taking
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transit and there was interest in rewards. people getting rewards for local businesses, for instance, for taking transit. and lastly, and this really applies to any of the type of strategis that we're talking about in this effort, partnerships between community organizations and the entitis that would implement these strategies like developers and like the service -- private service providers themselves. like the transportation coordinators who will be designated in many development areas there. will be transportation coordinator, identified on site. is there a way to expand the reach of those services beyond the development areas. we heard interest in that in the outreach that we've just
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done. no that we've heard and created, i guess, communities about 25 different ideas. we need to screen those and identify the parties and the partnerships that would help implement them. whether it is a developer resources, whether it's private services that could help sponsor the efforts, put those teams together and work on refining the ideas. we will bring back more finite set of strategies and the teams that would help to make them a reality. and we will bring recommendations, final recommendations by the end of the year. thank you very much. happy to take any questions. >> are there any questions for ms. hyatt? i thought maybe commissioner cohen might have some questions for you, but she is off the floor.
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so why don't we open this up to public comment. is there any members or members of the public that would like to comment? seeing none, public comment is closed and commissioner cohen has no questions so thank you for your report. and with that, we will read the next item. >> item 16, investment report and debt expenditure report for the quarter ended june 30, 2018. this is an information item. >> ms. fong? >> this is typically the time when we report back on our quartzly investments and quarterly debt reporting and assets and liabilities. since we're approaching the close of june 30, 2018, we'll be reporting out our financial information later in november when we complete the annual fiscal audit. today aye like to report out how we're doing in our investments. as of june 30, 2018, we have
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approximately $43.6 million of cash sitting in the bank. 47% of the funds are invested in the city and county treasury pool. we alsos have sufficient liquidity in funds in terms of meeting our fiscal year 18-19 budget at this point in time. in terms of debt reporting, back in november of 2017, eight months ago, we issued the t.a.'s very first sales tax revenue bond. as of the first eight months, we are approximately 43% spent on these bond proceeds. this is healthy for our program and we've been spending them on the five major cash flow projects. there is a document in this packet that lists out how we've been spending these funds over the past eight months. >> thank you, ms. fong. another healthy financial report.
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any questions or comments from commissioners? seeing none s there any public comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. colleagues s there any introduction of new items? seeing none, is there any general -- oh, i'm sorry. commissioner ronen. >> i just wanted to make a motion to excuse supervisor -- >> i was going to get to that in just a moment. apparently, colleagues, commissioner mandelman did not realize that we were having a t.a. meeting today. so, it happens to new commissioners and with that, is there a motion to excuse commissioner mandelman? made by commissioner ronen, seconded commissioner fewer. without objection s. there any general public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed and the t.a. is
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>> all right, hi, everybody. [applause] wow, we have people here from all over the city. hi, my name is london breed, i'm the mayor of the city and county of san francisco and today i'm joined by the president of the board of supervisors and district 10 supervisor malia cohen. this is her district. [applause] and the perfect place to make such an amazing announcement.
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we all here love san francisco. and many of the people behind me are folks that are part of communities from across the city. people who have taken their personal time to volunteer to make our city more beautiful. to provide feedback to the city and the county of san francisco about what we need to do to make our communities cleaner, to make them safer and to make them more vibrant. and part of the announcement today is that we are committed to making an additional investment of $725,000 to help in that effort. [applause] now i don't know about you but if one more person asks me for a big belly trash can... [laughter]. today we're going to have big belly trash cans. [applause] we're going to have more pedestrian lighting.
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we're going to do more to make sure that we hire more formerly homeless individuals to help to clean up our streets and our communities. more fencing to protect certain areas. you know, part of the responsibility of making our city more vibrant is that we all have to roll up our sleeves and to take responsibility. and the city has to make the right investments so that we can get to a better place. it doesn't feel good to see the trash and all of the other things litter our streets. we want clean communities. we want safe communities. we want vibrant communities. isn't that right, mr. clean? [applause] [laughter]. so this investment is going to be something that we hope will enhance the beauty of our city. downtown corridors in the mission, in the communities all over our city, right here and in
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the dog patch neighborhoods and the bay point hunter's point neighborhoods, where we can make a small investment that will have a significant impact. that's what today is all about, getting to a better place. during the campaign all i heard from people all over the city is, clean up the city, clean up the city. well, i'm not going to clean up the city by myself. [laughter] all of you are an important part of helping us to clean up this beautiful city. and so not only are gheing to go clean it up but we're going to keep it that way and make sure that we all play an important role in doing that. so i'm excited to be here today to talk about this investment and at this time i want to take this opportunity to introduce your leader of this particular amazing district 10, president of the board of supervisors, malia cohen. >> thank you, thank you. [applause] good morning, ladies and gentlemen. i've got to admit that now that
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london has become mayor now district 10 is so amazing and so wonderful. [laughter] to be fair when she was a supervisor of district 5 there was a rivalry between which district was the best. but now that she's the mayor of the entire city every district is the best. so i want to applaud mayor breed for that. thank you so much. i hope that you guys are excited to be here because, you know, i think that on a surface value -- a surface look, $725,000 may not sound like a lot of money. but to the fix-it team it actually doubles their budget and doubles the size of their budget. and just to give this team some context, it started two years ago when mayor lee was also walking around the city and just saw how filthy the city was. and got together with the director of public works and they put their brains together and they came up with a fix-it team. and the fix-it team was on a shoestring budget, just enough
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to pay people to do the work. and i want at this point to acknowledge sandra who has been incredible. [applause] this is the woman, this is the go-to woman, that we all call when mohammed is not available and the second call is definitely to sandra. [applause] and as you can see from the neighborhood and the neighborhood response that this is an incredible, incredible asset to san francisco. so i want to say thank you very much, sandra. i love being the supervisor for district 10. it's one of the most dynamic districts and it's a place that i grew up in and a place that i call home and that my family calls home. so when i am walking the streets or riding on the bus or driving it does break my heart to see the trash and the litter. it breaks my heart to see young generations just trashing soda cans -- you know that i hate soda -- you know that i have a thing against soda -- and paper bag chips, paper bags.
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and so i just wanted to recognize that these fat-belly cans, it will make a difference, madam mayor. thank you so much. and i want to close my remarks by saying that i served as the budget chair. and this was my second year of service and i had an opportunity to oversee an $11 billion budget. this particular year's budget crosses what is different. we passed a series of resolutions stating where our policy goals were going to be. so the purpose of that was to take out the politics that sometimes is in the budget but to stay more focused on the policy. this policy discussion without a doubt, the fix-it team priorities rose above every single policy that you heard, homelessness and clean streets. so it's a great privilege to be here. you know what, it's another privilege to recognize our organizer by the name of bruce hewey, the dean of the dog patch.
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or the mayor of the dog patch. this is an absolute treasure to san francisco, he is my friend and my compadre and i'm happy to bring him up to say a few words. thank you, bruce. >> madam mayor, board president cohen, thank you so much for extending this opportunity to work with sandra and her team. she's made a dramatic impact over the past two years in dog patch. our population doubled like other parts of the city and this type of program is sorely needed. so thank you for this expansion of funding. [applause] >> you know, in addition to the big-belly trash cans and the fencing and the people that we're going to hire to help us to clean up the streets, we also are going to help to purchase lots for many of the merchants, i have a number of complaints and i see karen slide here from union square where they've had a number of complaints. so this is an incredible
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opportunity. and, again, the goal is ultimately to keep our city safe and to keep our city clean. i want to also acknowledge and bring up the person who manages the fix-it and keeps it going and who focuses on communities all over san francisco. sandra, come on up. [applause] >> thank you, everybody. hi, i'm sandra, the director, and i wanted to thank mayor breed, president cohen, and bruce and especially behind me about 40 residents from 15 different neighborhoods across the city who i have worked with for the past two years. thank you, guys. and the city agencies who are here. we have public works we have the police department and p.u.c. and the department of public health and the department of recreation and the department of homelessness. so we work to strategize and to get things done for the residents of the city and all of that takes a lot of teamwork.
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i'm really, really honored to be here both with mayor breed and president cohen today. i'm so grateful that mayor breed put trust in us and in the community and some of the concerns that the residents had. and she's provided funding so that we can do creative things, different things, things that will really impact neighbors. since fix-it started about two years ago we didn't know if we would be successful or what would happen or if the residents would catch on and like us or not but i'm super proud to say that to date we have met with 1300 residents in their neighborhoods. and we've started 3,800 fixes and completed 3,800 fixes across the city in 29 different neighborhoods. [applause] i myself have facilitated with my team cathy and ronnie and lydia, so we have facilitated 55
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community meetings and 55 walks in neighborhoods and we're just on the ground really listening. we're listening to our residents and finding out what they care most about and how we can help them. so i'm so thankful and i'm grateful for mayor breed, again, for her investment in things that we know are going to work. we have our downtown streets team coming to help the mission and we're going to put lights -- yeah... [applause] we're going to put lights all over san francisco and pedestrian lighting and solar lighting and we have funding for about 450 lights coming in so every neighborhood will be lit up so that the pedestrians feel safer walking on the sidewalks. we'll start with president cohen's district and work on hudson avenue. but more details to come. so, anyway, i wanted to just say thank you all. great place to start, right. so we're excited and we're excited to fix more stuff and we're excited to get to work so,
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again, thank you all for coming and thank you all -- especially to my residents and the city agencies, we can't do it without any of you. our resident engagement is the most important part of the fix-it program so a big thank you to everybody and, of course, mayor breed for this very important, very needed investment in our city. so thank you all. [applause] and one more thing -- sorry -- we're going to end now but i wanted to just let you know that i started working in patrero a year ago and we put in staffing to help with the street cleanliness and we forgot to change around the trash cans so we got that fixed today. we have new trash cans, and we are going to have mayor breed help me to unveil one right here on the stairs. so i will take her down there. thank you. [applause] and last but not least make sure that you call 311 because that
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july 30, 2018. to my left is supervisor ahsha safai, and our clerk is erica major. madam clerk, are there any announcements? >> clerk: yes. please make sure to silence all cell phones and electronic devices. copies of any items to be included in the file should be submitted to the clerk. items acted on today will be included in the august 6 meeting. >> supervisor tang: thank you. will you please read item number 1? item 1, planning code - massage establishments - union street neighborhood commercial district. >> thank you.
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supervisor jack gallagher with supervisor stefani's office. we made two changes that needed to be made by today, and other than that, we don't have anything further. >> supervisor tang: thank you, mr. gallagher. any members of the public wishing to speak on item one, please come up. item one, public comment. >> i'm here as peace -- peace in the middle east. i'm here speaking on and not really supporting or not supporting, but on the issue of the union street neighborhood commercial district. as you all know, i come up here to speak regularly, and my specific issues are what's happening in the fillmore. all of these districts and all of these programs have been played upon for a number of
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years. it always seems like it's put in the western addition and it fails miserably. and then they put it in the rest of the city to see if it's going to work. see, they put it in the fillmore and all the efforts start in the fillmore so you can get away with what you're doing in the fillmore. supervisor safai -- i won't do that. i also came here to make notice because i read in the paper some shall bey leadership in our community on housing. my mind regulated, and i went back in my archives, and i said wait a minute. now i know where i know a certain supervisor from. it was on the housing authority commission, a failed commission, a failed commission that failed our whole community, black community. so we going to have to sit down and talk. there's some thing we're going
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to have to sit down, my brother -- tack tang can we keep the comments -- >> you know, i'm like trump. i started this station here, the p.e.g., the community station -- >> supervisor tang: all right. mr. washington, i'm going to have to cut you off because this is about the washington. >> i know, supervisor, you're the lame duck, i know you need to stop it -- >> supervisor tang: i'm sorry. the time has to stop because this is the union street and the massage establishment, okay. were at the beginning, but now, you are not stopping. >> all right. so 40 seconds. start it. i'm here talking but it's a parallel. we're going on in the city by the bay -- oh, my gosh. >> supervisor tang: all right. thank you. any members of the public who wish to comment on item number one, please come up. all right. public comment is closed. [ gavel ]. >> supervisor tang: all right. colleagues, can we get a motion
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on item number one to send this forward to the full board with a positive recommendation? >> supervisor safai: i'd like to make a motion to send this out of committee with a positive recommendation. >> supervisor tang: all right. thank you. we'll do that with a positive recommendation with supervisor kim absent. all right. madam clerk, can you please call item number two? >> clerk: yes. item 2 is a plan to review the six month report by the planning commission item 2, hearing - interim zoning controls - conditional use for restaurants and storefront mergers. hearing to review the six-month report conducted by the planning department, for the interim zoning controls for conditional use for restaurants and storefront mergers in the mission interim controls area, enacted by resolution no. 006-18; and requesting the planning department to report. >> diego sanchez with the planning department. today i want to provide a report on the interim controls in place in the mission district. the interim controls require documentation from the planning
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department for two thingsz. one any new restaurant use serving alcohol or two a proposed storefront merger resulting in 2,000 square feet or greater. these control right side in place for the area generally bounded by cesar chavez street, potrero avenue, and mission street. the interim controls note there's a rapid increase in the number of restaurant serving alcohol in the mission neighborhood may crowd out other restaurants. the interim controls also note that smaller sized commercial spaces can be leased atloer rates due to their size and are found in the neighborhood's retail corridors. losing these would be detrimental as well to the existing cultural and exec diversity of the neighborhood. so to address these concerns, the planning department along with oewd, mohcd, have been working to generate land use controls as a response.
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as part of the effort, the following groups have been engag engaged in talks about the possible use of controls. throws include mission merchants, central mission neighborhood association, calle 24, mission delores association, there have been in person visits with mission street merchants. we've reached out to the c.a.c. and we held a general community meeting at the women's building. so all of this has helped set a set of land use controls that will do the following. they'll preserve existing and promote the creation of new smaller sized storefronts. three, they'll help protect long-standing and character defini defining legacy businesses and they will allow for nonprofit
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stories that allow for offices along the mission street corridor. it is anticipated these will be introduced very shortly, so this concludes my presentation and i'm here for questions. thank you. >> supervisor tang: okay. thank you for that overview. supervisor safai? >> supervisor safai: if you could come back up. i couldn't really hear everything that was said. you did the community outreach, met with community stakeholders and now there's going to be a proposed set of permanent controls? >> yes. >> supervisor safai: okay. thank you. >> supervisor tang: okay. thank you. any members of the public who wish to comment on item 2, please come up. all right. seeing none, public comment is closed for item number two. [ gavel ]. >> supervisor tang: has had a
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which might mayor might not prohibit them from being able to utilize home-sf, our local density bonus program is a legislative set back. this is a really interesting case because i think between the city attorney's office and other staff, as well, at planning looking into the history and how it is we're supposed to change this legislative set back, it was very interesting. i will note that it is my understanding that there are many inconsistencies in terms of legislative set backs, especially on the west side of town. for me, what i would really like to achieve out of this despite some of the reservations i heard at planning commission and from the staff report is for us to be able to proceed with this
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amendment so that potentially this project sponsor will be more incentivized in using home-sf to building more affordable housing on this particular corner or where they're going to be merging together several parcels. so with that said, i would like to bring up mr. aaron starr from the planning department and get their feelings on this. >> thank you, supervisor. the planning commission heard this last week on july 26. during the hearing, some new information was revealed about a bulb out along 19th avenue. the staff's recommendation was to approve the ordinance with a modification to not remove the nine-foot set back. this was in order to help protect the pedestrian realm of it. during the hearing, we couldn't verify one way or another if the bulb out was actually going to be approved, but we did get confirm mission from sfmta that
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it will be. so the commission's recommendation is to approve the ordinance as is, and this was because we confirmed that the long bulb out would be in front of it, and that concludes my presentation. >> supervisor tang: wonderful. that's great to hear. as you all know it's potentially impossible for us to get new housing on the west side and especially on a transit corridor, so we wanted to at least preserve that option. all right. any members of the public who wish to comment on item three, please come up. >> irene berkowitz, speaking on my behalf. [inaudible] >> -- particularly, lot 33 at 2121 19th avenue and lot 31 at 214519th avenue. the current zoning is inconsistent with the current
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uses. the report has not been updated to reflect the comments that were submitted. those comments have yet to be responded to in the environmental document. caltrans district four has been contacted about the bulb out. the response from caltrans is inconsistent with comments made at the planning commission. the assessor's name also appears on federal documents. thank you. >> supervisor tang: thank you very much. any other members of the public who wish to comment on item three? okay. seeing none, public comment is closed. [ gavel ]. >> supervisor tang: and i will just note this lemgs lation is try to, again, incentivize the utilization of home-sf, however there is still quite a lengthy process that if the project sponsor wishes to pursue, they would need to engage in with the community in terms of what their project would look like and have that dialogue with their neighbors. this is just to again, setup a potential situation but there's still a lot of work ahead to be
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done with our neighbors. okay. so with that said, any other questions or comments on this one? >> supervisor safai: no. >> supervisor tang: supervisor safai? >> supervisor safai: i did want to say that we have a few of these in my district, as well, and it's a little bit unclear exactly what they exist for. in this situation, it seems pretty clear that there might have been a reason for pedestrian safety, and i do appreciate the comments of the public speaker, but in this instance, we have a really viable spot that potentially would be for dense development, which is what we're trying to encourage along transit corridors, so thank you. >> supervisor tang: all right. thank you, supervisor safai. so with that said, can we get a motion on item three to send forth to the full board with a positive recommendation? >> supervisor safai: right, so i make that motion. >> supervisor tang: all right. we'll do that without objection. [ gavel ]. >> clerk: and as a committee report. >> supervisor tang: oh, and as a committee report.
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i apologize. all right. madam clerk, item four, please. >> clerk: item number four is an ordinance allowing the planning code to allow payment for an inlieu fee for an a.d.u. street tree requirement. >> supervisor tang: thank you very much. this is another one of our items and we had already gone over the a.d.u. legislation at the full board but had just severed out the portion regarding the street tree planting requirement because of a notification or notice issue at land use committee. but that was the only reason why and so the only portion before us today is that piece. so i don't know if you had any comments, supervisor safai. >> supervisor safai: well, i did, in general. i know we've had this conversation, and you and i unfortunately can't have conversations about this 'cause we send it to committee, but we've tried to have some dialogue publicly. i -- haven't worked at the bureau of urban forestry, i am
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a big proponent of planting trees, as i know you are, but this is incentivizing the coming on-line of these as quickly as process to incentivize the housing process. so whatever way facilitates the a.d.u. process to move forward, i will say -- and we did have this conversation on the record, that doing the inlieu fee is actually more expensive than planting the tree, so i would encourage the public and those project sponsors to take advantage to plant the trees, but know that if you pay the inlieu fee, the city does have the option to come back and plant that tree if it's possible based on the undergrounding. i did ask the fire marshal to come today. i did want to have a conversation with them in general about the process. >> supervisor tang: is there a -- yes. >> supervisor safai: okay. great. and forward, we are going to be duplicating the overall a.d.u.
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file at the full board and we'll be sending it book ack t this committee and then to the full board. we did talk with some of the other commissioners their desire to further that conversation. so mr. starr, we will be sending the file back to this committee and making amendments so tend it back to the planning commission for further conversation. but thank you, mr. fire marshal, for coming today. wanted to have a conversation about we have heard some general -- and i did convey this to you, some general concerns from project sponsors. and if you can speak a little bit about the fire code as it pertains to single-family homes versus multiunit properties and what the difference is. >> so with regards -- first of all, dan decostio, fire marshal. happy to be here. that's a good point to make that designation, where you have -- differentiate between
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an r. 3 which is a single-family or two dwelling units or a multifamily dwelling unit which is three or more units, which is more like an apartment building. so if it's an r 3, a single-family dwelling unit, and you're adding or proposing an a.d.u. for your home, an in-law unit, let's say, that does not fall in the jurisdiction of the state fire marshal. my role and my job -- >> supervisor safai: excuse me. so what does that mean in terms of the ability to add that a.d.u. are we talking about sprinklers or what are we talking about? >> so that falls under building department jurisdiction if it's two units or lessor fewer, building department jurisdiction. once you become a three-unit or more building, greater, now, you become an r 2, multifamily dwelling unit and dwelling, condo, etc., that now falls under the jurisdiction of the
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state fire marshal. as such, the state codes as adopted by the state fire marshal are enforced for that application. >> supervisor safai: and so what does that mean in the instance of multiunit properties because we've heard differing things from project sponsors and others in the field that relates to fire rating and egress, as it relates to springlkler system. what is the main difference? >> i think the main difference is springler requirement. so if you're r 3 -- there's been an interpretation -- there's actually an information sheet that the state fire marshal put out. if you're -- that does not apply to apartment buildings. for apartment buildings, if you add an a.d.u. -- and there's fs 05 which we signed on with the building department, sprinklers
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are required for that new unit and that the egress path out to the public way. >> supervisor safai: but not for the entire building. >> not for the entire building. again, with our fs 05, i welcome anybody on-line watching this to go look up fs 05, and it outlines the requirements to what extent you sprinkler a whole building. >> supervisor safai: well, if you had to springler the whole building, you'd be talking about displacing residents, while you do the whole building. you have decks and the cantilevered portion of a property. in that instance, you have to have two forms of egress if you just have -- i'm sorry. >> what we're seeing, and again, this is prescribed in
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the code, i'd like to make a quite point here. earlier, i was sitting here and taking this all in with -- we're amending the planning code, and you have that authority to do that as this board, this body. the fire code, the state code, and so does the building code. and as the local jurisdiction, we do not have the authority to waive state requirements on building and fire code requirements, so i think that's very important for all of us to understand that. and the other thing to understand is those codes and those requirements are there for the safety of the occupants of the building and for firefighters responding to the building. and those codes have been developed over decades at great loss of life sometimes, and so they are there for a reason. so we cannot be less restrictive than what's prescribed in the -- in the california building and fire code for fire and life safety. setting that aside, with that
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understanding, there are times you cannot meet the letter of the code. if you are land locked, if you have zero lot line set backs, etc., we have the local authority to come up with equivalencies, offsetting measures and enhancements that mitigate that deficiency in that design, and therefore, in our opinion, rise to the level where it's equally as safe as it would have been as prescribed. so with -- getting to your point on our biggest challenge is when the applicant wants to utilize the pseudo code exception in the code. and it says for a designer to utilize a single exit exception, the building has to be fully sprinklered. that's state code. we cannot be less restrictive on that. so what do we do? well, we've come up -- fire department, i've put a team together with two captains, a
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lieutenant, and an engineer, offsetting measures, equivalencies, what can we do in lieu of sprinkelering -- we have a one hour separation. >> supervisor safai: one hour separation of a fire rated door? >> we're trying to think outside the box, come up with alternatives and to not just say no, you can't build this, but some solutions that we feel increases the safety of the building to where we are as safe as if you went to the letter of the code. >> supervisor safai: since you put this working group together, have you seen project sponsors utilize some of the suggestions that you have? >> yes, we have. and just as recently as last week, we have about 60 -- if my memory serves me correctly, 60 a.d.u.s in the cue, waiting for our review. >> supervisor safai: just 60? >> 60, 61, i think it is. the process is it comes through planning, starts through planning, and that's where we need to get in early on this.
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if you're going to use a single exit exception, maybe you'd bring in fire early to have that discussion way down the road. starts at planning, then it's routes to building, and then it's routed to fire. sometimes we get it way down this plan where a lot of money is sunk into the design, etc., etc. and i think as an owner, you're caught off guard thinking wait a minute, it's not feasible. to the point i was trying to make earlier, we put a team together, we did a sampling, it was either 12 or 13 a.d.u.s last week, and the biggest challenge -- >> supervisor safai: with the single exit. >> with the single exit, right. and with our draft proposal -- and i was hoping to bring the building department on board. i'd like the building department input as well. i think if we have both departments signing off on equivalencies, offsetting measures, i think it not only
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expedites the measure, it increases the safety for all. >> supervisor tang: i'm going to jump in really quick. just because you just mentioned this one point about trying to get both fire and d.b.i. to sign off on i guess a policy that both departments can live with. and again, none of us are asking for any departments to relax any sort of standards, especially when it comes to life andi safety, absolutely not. but i think what we're hearing is project sponsors hearing different things from different departments at different parts in the process. last i heard, there still hasn't been that signoff from fire and d.b.i. so what is the hold up at this point? >> the way it typically works, you go through planning, intake through d.b.i., building department to irrelevanter. we look at the plan, we review it. do you meet the prescribed code? no, you do not. it goes back to the designer. the designer comes back and says okay, how about if we implement this or add this to
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our design? will that offset those equivalencies or the responsibility of coming up with solutions is on the designer, typically. we're doing this a little bit backwards, given that this is a priority of the city that we want to partner with -- with other agencies within the city and we're on board with affordable housing, but we want safe affordable housing. we've jumped ahead and come up with these equivalencies on our own that we would accept. but to your point, supervisor, those are only as good as if -- if both sides aren't on board with that, it doesn't do us any good. so if it's good for fire and not good for building, we're still as an impasse. that's why we're wanting to meet with building together to come up with a document together that we can all sign off on for consistency and to represent the review process. >> supervisor safai: so what i'm going to ask for when we duplicate the file to come back tomorrow and make amendments, when it goes to planni
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