. >> president yee: of the 26 neighborhoods we have in west portal, it's probably the most unique in terms of a small little town. you can walk around here, and it feels different from the rest of san francisco. people know each other. they shop here, they drink wine here. what makes it different is not only the people that live here, but the businesses, and without all these establishments, you wouldn't know one neighborhood from the other. el toreador is a unique

restaurant. it's my favorite restaurant in san francisco, but when you look around, there's nowhere else that you'll see decorations like this, and it makes you feel like you're in a different world, which is very symbolic of west portal itself. >> well, the restaurant has been here since 1957, so we're going on 63 years in the neighborhood. my family came into it in 1987, with me coming in in 1988. >> my husband was a designer, and he knew a lot about art, and he loved color, so that's what inspired him to do the decorations. the few times we went to mexico, we tried to get as many things as we can, and we'd

bring it in. even though we don't have no space, we try to make more space for everything else. >> president yee: juan of the reasons we came up with the legacy business concept, man eel businesses were closing down for a variety of reasons. it was a reaction to trying to keep our older businesses continuing in the city, and i think we've had some success, and i think this restaurant itself is probably proof that it works. >> having the legacy business experience has helped us a lot, too because it makes it good for us because we have been in business so long and stayed here so long. >> we get to know people by name, and they bring their children, so we get to know them, also.

it's a great experience to get to know them. supervisor yee comes to eat at the restaurant, so he's a wonderful customer, and he's very loyal to us. >> president yee: my favorite dish is the chile rellenos. i almost never from the same things. my owner's son comes out, you want the same thing again? >> well, we are known for our mole, and we do three different types of mole. in the beginning, i wasn't too familiar with the whole legacy program, but san francisco, being committed to preserve a lot of the old-time businesses, it's important to preserve a lot of the old time flavor of these neighborhoods, and in that capacity, it was great to

be recognized by the city and county of san francisco. >> i've been here 40 years, and i hope it will be another 40 yeararararararararararararararr

>> okay. hello, everyone. and thank you for coming. my name is leosha tillman, and i am the director for t.h.p. right over there at civic center hotel. in four days, it will be my fourth day to work for c.h.p. it has been rewarding to work for a nonprofit organization which allows me to help people suffering from homelessness transition into permanent housing. the work we do here is so important, especially in this pandemic era, because we are providing shelter and housing for the let fortunate, and

because of all of -- that we do, i am very excited to be a part of this ground breaking of the colton project. today, we have a special guest to help us kick off this critical and ground breaking project. at this time, if everyone would please join me in welcoming san francisco mayor, mayor london breed. [applause] >> we are excited and grateful that she could join us today. >> the hon. london breed: thank you so much, leosha, for the introduction. thank you for all you do for community housing partnership. i've got to say, it's nice to be outside with people. we are still in the midst of this pandemic. we know that so many people are still hard at work, and we are excited to break ground on this project today. joseph p. mazzola has a rich

project in this city. today, we're joined by larry mazzola, jr., his grandson, who spear headed this project in partnership with the city and plumbers union and strata and community housing partnership to create an incredible new community. almost 600 units here near a transit rich location. 1200 jobs created in construction with this particular project, and also, not only will we be helping our formerly homeless individuals into a housing situation that is permanent, we'll be helping them with services. we'll be helping them to turn their lives around, and we know that mazzola, sr., sr. would have been really proud of his grandson and for his vision for

what this has created. the gardens that are being built and available to not only the residents of this community but available to the public will be named in his honor. this is what creating great projects is all about in san francisco. retail space, housing, opportunities for disadvantaged community members, and not to mention, there are over 60 units in south beach that were in -- that were being threatened to go from affordable housing units to market rate units after the covenants expired. because of this project, many is being invested to preserve those affordable units for the people who live there. incredible what this project has done, and we're finally getting an up-to-date modern union hall for the plumbers.

thank you, larry, thank you for that. it is much needed. you know, it's been a very, very challenging time for our city, but we know that san francisco is a very expensive place to life with many challenges, and just because we're in the middle of a pandemic doesn't mean we should stop building more houses. just because we stop producing housing for san franciscans. we can't continue to repeat the mistakes of the past. mazzola, jr. and i grew up in this city. we grew up in this city, and his family worked towards better opportunities for middle class families in san francisco. many people in the western addition, including my aunt, this was their first opportunity -- getting a good

paying union job was their first opportunity to take care of their families. and the sad reality is that over the years, as we underdeveloped housing in this city, those same people have been displaced from the city that they are born and raised in. that is really sad and unfortunate, and it's something that i fight to change every single day by producing as much housing as we possible can to make sure that housing is affordable for people who live here. it takes a lot of work, it takes a lot of effort, but today is a good day as we breakdown on 96 units for formerly homeless individuals. as we provide a plan around homelessness. our homeless recovery plan involves that we are transitioning people out of our shelters, out of our hotel rooms, into a permanent

situation. this is what it's all about, and having incredible partners to make us make this possible is so critical to the success of this city, so i'm really glad to be here. hell, i'm glad to be anywhere nowadays. i want to thank my partners, i want to thank larry mazzola, jr. to having the vision and to look at this as not only a way to support his members but to support san francisco. i want to thank strata for being our great partner in this project and coming up with opportunities to build new and affordable housing. i want to thank community housing partnership for continuing to invest and support the community here. i'm excited that members of the civic center hotel will also be brought back to the projects in these new units, as well, long time members. i'm excited about how we came together with the mayor's

office of housing and the state. it definitely took a village and a lot of money to create almost 600 new units right here on market street, where we have robust opportunities for people to also use public transit. and yes, mazzola, you're getting your parking because i know how your members feel about parking when they come to the union hall, but we're also creating over 100 spaces for bike, so they can get in shape by jumping on a bike and coming here, as well. thank you all so much for being here today. [applause] >> thank you, mayor london breed. next up, i am happy to do the c.e.o. of community housing partnership, rick aubrey, to share more about c.h.p. and the community housing opportunity at this site. let's welcome rick.

[applause] >> thank you, leosha. and i've got several folks to thank, so please indulge me in a little bit of a list. first and foremost, i want to thank the mayor to come out today. i think this may be the first opportunity that you've had to be with folks at an event. we're very glad that you were here. and it is your commitment and the city's commitment that has made this project possible. as folks have mentioned, this is going to be 96 units of permanent and supportive housing for folks who may be unhoused and living on the streets. this is going to get folks a key to put in their hands, some ability to stabilize their lives with dignity and choose to move forward in whatever way makes the most sense for them. our partnership with the city is deep and very wide. i want to particularly note

that we couldn't do this without the funding from the city. the mayor's office of housing and community development, which is providing substantial funding for the construction of the project. once the project is built, in order to continue to provide services in the building, we have a contract with the department of housing and supportive housing, which will make sure that over the long haul, folks get the services that they need to succeed with their lives, but it makes more than just a village to create the kind of housing that we're all about. it actually takes a nation, so part of the funding that we have in this project comes from the state of california from the housing and community development department of the state. there's also low-income housing tax credits that are part of the funding that make this project possible, which is a partnership for both the city and the federal government, and it takes all of those entities and the complexity of putting

them all together in order to get the housing that folks need to thrive with their lives. particularly, they wanted a focus on this site for not only providing folks a great place to live, but stewarding green life. we'll have rooftop solar panels on the building. it's a full all-electric building, so not only are we serving the folks who live here, but we're trying to serve the planet, as well, by thinking about affordable housing as also something that addresses the issues of global warming. thanks in particular to our architect partner david baker and associates who designed an incredible building. so not only is it environmentally friendly, but they have developed an expertise for what are the needs of folks who have been

recently living on the streets, and what are the needs that make this an inviting place, a safe and secure place, and a very thoughtful design that they've put into it really has people first, has a real human touch into the design. we couldn't do this without the money from both the investors and the lenders, so our primary tax credit investor, enterprise, which is in the business of supporting these kind of projects, despite the fact that this was going on during covid, stepped up, figured out how to get the finances in place with all the complications. we all remembered back in may, june, and july, and got it done. our lending partners, merchants capital, was a critical partner in helping us secure the deal. just a few other notes and then i'll turn it over to other folks. we are very proud that we're doing this in partnership with the plumbers union.

we are in partnership with the community housing partnership, so we're really pleased that we're doing this project with all of the plumbers union folks. and finally, but by no means least, these kinds of projects are very difficult to do, and this project is a public and private partnership, and we are really lucky that the strata development company that does huge projects really saw the opportunity to work with us, figured out how we could do an affordable housing project, and our teams have worked extremely well together just making this possible, so my big thanks to the strata community for making this all possible. thank you very much.

[applause] >> thank you, rick, so much. i would like introduce michael cohen, one of the founding partners of strata group. so let's all welcome michael cohen. [applause] >> as you can see if you look behind you, 53 colton is part of a larger project. as the mayor alluded to, we've got almost 600 units of market rate units under construction. we have a state-of-the-art new union hall. there will be that beautiful park that's really important for a neighbor that's underserved by open space, which is the joseph p. mazzola gardens, and the reason we're here today which is a first of its kind project in that 53

colton is supportive permanent affordable housing that's part of a larger development project. this project was not easy. it's got incredible complexity, a lot of moving parts, but we are immensely proud of it, and i think especially 53 colton, where through some of the unique transactional structures that mayor breed was alluding to, including us contributing the land and $10 million of private equity allow us collectively to deliver support hiv homeless -- supportive homeless housing on a super effective basis. what's unique here is there's so many partners.

we literally had the public sector, the provide sector, the nonprofit sector and organized labor coming together all working towards a common goal. first in those partners is local 38 and their pension trust fund. this is their land, and they're the people who put their faith in strata to make this project happen. you know, larry, we've been working our tails off to reward the faith that you've put in us what is now many years ago. and i'm not sure if people know this, but it was in large part because of a personal outreach by larry that the afl-cio housing trust came into this project and is part of the financing for 53 colton. c.h.p. has been with us almost as long. from the very beginning, the mayor's office asked us to

think outside the box, and that included allowing the civic center hotel to become a temporary navigation center. i don't know if that's the case, but i think it's still the only navigation center in san francisco that's actually on private property. even more important was the idea of deeply embracing that we are going to have permanent homeless housing as part of a much larger project. and, you know, in san francisco, you have to do a lot of work with neighbors. we spend a lot of time with the neighbors here, and really, one of the keys to getting the neighbors around this site comfortable with the idea of homeless housing literally in their backyard was the literacy and outreach of c.h.p. we would ask them to go and look around the local

apartments and say, tell us something that's different from the buildings around it, and they couldn't. that's because the buildings are well built, they're well designed, and well managed. the city has been a fantastic partner in the project. mayor breed and supervisor haney, i want to thank you both. we literally would not be here without your leadership. i want to specifically acknowledge the hard work and contributions of ann topier, for judson and his seam, the san francisco housing of community development, the san francisco housing department and rich sucre, who was a joy to work with, something that people don't often say when it comes to housing in san francisco. i want to acknowledge the men

and women that are actually building all of this stuff around you, and the terrific leadership of mike dinapoli who is coordinating this massive effort. both mayor breed and rick took a line that i had, and i think it's interesting that we all had the same thing, and that's that it takes a village to build a village, and that extraordinary level of collaboration and cooperation is why we're here today. i do believe that it is a testament to the foundational strength of this project that we were able to secure hundreds of millions of dollars of financing and secure the supports of affordable housing in the teeth of this pandemic. we're very proud of it as we were one of the few construction loans to proceed

during that time. this little stretch of market street between vanness and goff and where the freeway comes has been a bit forlorn for a number of years. but with the vanness b.r.t. nearing completion and other projects sprouting around us, we are absolutely thrilled to be a catalyst for san francisco's next great urban village, so thank you very much. [applause] . >> all right. thank you, michael, for your words, and for being our partner on this project. up next is larry mazzola, jr. from local 48, whose family's foresight and ownership on this project made all of this possible, so let's welcome larry mazzola, jr. >> thank you very much.

is this fun or what? it's a lot better than my last two days, talking about ferris wheels. anyhow, let me get this little speech here that matt haney wrote for me. i want to thank everybody that spoke before me and all the kind words that you all had about local 38 and myself and my family in particular, and mayor breed, you gave me a lot of credit for this whole thing coming to fruition, but the credit goes to people who were before me, my grandfather and all the people that served on the board of trustees in the 1970s when they bought all this land. i don't even think if they were here, they would envision what this has turned into. i guarantee you they did not envision that, and they would be super proud that their

envision back then turns out what it's starting to look like in the near future. we're very excited. we're proud to be a part of it, we're proud to be a part of the community as we always have been to help the homeless and help the city, like mike cohen has just said. it's going to be a great partnership. it already has been, so i just want to say the members of the board of trustees are excited to be a part of this and be the decision makers and see this come to fruition. unfortunately, they couldn't all be here because of covid, but i'm sure soon they will be. it's great for the community and the surrounding area and to be able to help the lower income and formerly homeless people into some supportive housing is something we're --

that's vitally important and something we're proud of. this is one of the only jobs that's kind of got started during covid. we're proud of that, and i want to thank all the union trades, building trades, construction workers. i see some of them over here. i want to thank you for everything you do and the great job you do every day. 53 colton will be a top rate supportive housing project, and we're proud to help provide that with the partnership of the city and c.h.p. we're equally proud to partner with strata and suffolk to design a state of the art development. this whole octavia area is going to be a city within a city with all the construction you see going onto your left, to your right, and behind you. we're proud to be part of that history, and we're proud to be

part of the future of this great neighborhood and this great city, and i couldn't be more happy today with the partnerships that we've all formed, and i think this is one of the better partnerships going in san francisco. i think it's going to be better involved for san francisco as a whole. we're very proud to be here today, and we thank you very much. >> all right. thank you, larry, for joining us today, and thank you for those words. finally, i'd like to welcome district 6 supervisor, matt haney. matt has been a great supporter of community housing partnership and our mission to provide safe supportive housing to all san franciscans, and we're glad he's able to join us today, so please help me welcome district 6 supervisor haney. >> supervisor haney: thank you, leosha. now that larry has given the speech that i wrote, i have nothing to say. don't worry.

he didn't write mine, so you don't have to worry about that. this is, for the first time in a long time, an opportunity for us to actually be here in person for a ground breaking. thank you so much, mayor breed. thank you to c.h.p., to strata, to larry and the plumbers. we have done a number of ground breakings all over the last year, all virtual. this is the first one that i've done in person in some time, and this is the right one. this is such an important project for our city. it is going to be a part of a larger transformation of this neighborhood and the area all-around us. i know that, for a lot of san franciscans, when they hear about colton street or colton alley, they probably wouldn't hear anything that rung a bell. the reality is the future of this alley is thankfully going to be one of housing, of

hundreds of units for people in our city, especially people who are in need, who are formerly homeless. when my staff told me it was on colton street, i had to think for a moment of where that was. we think of our areas as lots of constituent requests and concerns. in the future, i'm looking to working with them and representing them and being a part of a larger transformation of this neighborhood. larry and c.h.p. and strata and the mayor have been working on this project for years. larry, i'd see him on thanksgiving at the horse races across the bay, and even years ago before i was a supervisor, he'd come over and bend my ear and say, do you know what's happening with the union hall? do you know what's happening

over there? i'm so excited about it. i'm so happy for him, i'm so happy about all the jobs that will be created. i'm so happy for our city and the hundreds of people who will be able to call this entire village home. lastly, i really want to -- and other folks did this, as well -- thank the workers who are here, thank the folks who are out here, building this project. thank you so much for your hard work. we need the housing, we also need the jobs. all of it is going to lead to a transformation not just of this alley, of this street, but of the entire city. all right. [applause] >> thank you, supervisor haney, and thank you to all our speakers today as well as our many partners on this project, all of whom have played a vital role in helping to bring this project into fruition. community housing partnership

looks forward to welcoming 96 residents to 53 colton in spring 2023, moving forward in our mission to providing homes to people experiencing homelessness. thank you, everyone, for being here today. [applause]

>> clerk: welcome to the san francisco historic preservation hearing for march 3, 2021. on february 3, 2020, the mayor declared a local state of emergency related to covid-19. on may 19, 2020, the mayor's office authorized all commissions to reconvene remotely. this will be our 18 remote hearing. remote hearings require everyone's attention, and, most of all, your patience. if you are not speaking, please mute your microphone, and to enable public participation, sfgovtv is streaming this hearing live, and we