commissioner miguel: debt afternoon. welcome to san francisco's planning commission regular meeting for thursday, february 23, 2020 published 2012. the commission does not tolerate any discussion or outbursts out of time, clapping, yelling, are cheering. please turn off any mobile devices during proceedings. when speaking, speak directly to the microphone and state your name for the record. at this time, i would like to call roll. president, commissioner miguel: here. commissioner antonini: present. commissioner borden: here. commissioner fong: here. commissioner moore: here. commissioner sugaya: here. commissioner wu: here. >> items for continuance. case 2007.0030e, 8 washington street, certification of the final environmental impact report. . schiedam2a-g, case number is 2007.0030e, c, k, m, r, and z for 8 washington street. both of those items are proposed for a continuance to march 8, 2012. item three, case 2011.1216c, 9 west portal avenue. conditional use opposition to a proposed for an indefinite continuance. item

commissioner miguel: yes. so moved, that passes unanimously and places you under your consent calendar. all matters listed hereunder constitute a consent calendar and are considered routine by the planning commission and will be acted upon by a single roll call vote of the commission. and those of the discussion at these items unless a member of the public, commission, or staff requests. in which event, it will be removed from the calendar and considered as a separate item. item five is the 2012.0016t, proposed amendments to planning code section.1179d. the commission will consider an ordinance to extend by 90 days, the period of time in which existing uses in the eastern neighborhoods area that have operated without filing an application for legitimization. item six, 2011.1059c, 211 sutter street, a conditional use authorization request. i would like to bring to your attention, for this particular case, the second paragraph under surrounding properties and neighborhood under the executive summary can be omitt

president miguel:ç thank you. defend the architect studies that are in the back of our sub middle. they are accurate. thank you. commissioner moore: i just wanted to point out that the required change in the kitchen is an improvement to the layout of the house. i do believe that there is nothing exceptional or extraordinary about what we are asked to look at. ixd appreciate that the d.r. requester implies that there is a code or rule violation, but i do not see it that way. is there anything in the code which we are not seeing? the design guidelines clearly speak to a modest cop out -- pop i]out. >> arguably, there are two code issues. the first is residential design guidelines adopted in the planning code under section 311. t(the department reviewed this d found that it complies with the design guidelines. the second issue is that of the rear yard. there is a rear yard variants for a very small portion of the structure. while they are allowed a 12-foot obstruction intot( the required rear yard, that is limited t

president miguel: thank you. project sponsor. >> hello. three weeks ago, when i spoke before the commission, i focused on my family settling into the neighborhood, are deep love of the streets and neighborhood around us. this time, i would like to speak more directly to the efforts of community outreach and my neighbors. a few days after a sign the lease on the space, i spoke to the head of the association discussing the project with his support over the phone. a few days later, i met with the neighbor upstairs and spoke to her about the project and gave her my cell phone number and the cell phone number of the contractor to ensure for comfort during the renovation process. i was available at the construction site every day in the middle of the dayç to speak with my neighbors. two days prior to the meeting, there was a request for a public meeting which was an initial continuance. at the publicxd meeting, there s overwhelming attendance. many familiar faces and many new faces. incredible support for the çprojec

president miguel: thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i am an architectural historian. i have been active in historic preservation for a long time now. for the last 10 years in san francisco, i have been active on certain boards. i oppose supervisor weiner's amendments and support the position put forth by san francisco heritage and the hpc. in general, i would favor a robust historic preservation program for the city of san francisco. i recognize there are frustrations around historic preservation processes. i also think it is a mistake not to acknowledge that preservation has worked extremely well in san francisco city wide for the last 40 years, supporting the tourism industry , and enriching the lives of the citizens who voted in favor of preservation when they passed proposition j in 2008. i hope san francisco i would hope that san francisco would follow the example of other cities that do not have as much acrimony as we seem to have here. the city of beverly hills supported more robust new preserva

çpresident miguel: is there a second?ng up with findings. -- denainial is coming up with findings. if the night, i am sure there will immediately appeal to the board of appeals. having sat on the board of appeals, mr. reed came before us manyç years ago. the board charge is to lookxd at the people and the code and try to apply what is in the code. from that standpoint, i think commissioner wut( is right. thereç is a set of standards tt these have met. if we cannot come up with a good reason, i think it may be likely that the board of appealsç will go against us, so to speak. i am not saying that what happened. but just in terms of having to make findings as to why we are denying it, i think is the rub for me. president miguel: i cannot make aç motion from the chair. i would second the motion. we are stuck. t(çóapproval with the same conditions that we put on the calendar. but we just heard. if anyone wishes to make that motion. commissioner antonini: there is the difficulty with security concerns, particularly the pro

i mention this to president miguel.is his desire the commission here the islands -- hear the items and consider continuance after you hear the items. further on your calendar, item number 17, 721 beach street. both sides on this case are requesting or agreeing to continue its of this item until march 8, 2012. commissioners, i am not aware of any other items on your calendars being proposed for continuance. president miguel: is there any public comment on items proposed for a continuance? >> good afternoon, commissioners. speaking to item 721, i am representing the sponsor. the sponsors purchased the property about two yearsç ago d have been working to craft the project in a way that will meet their needs and allay any concerns of the neighborhood. they want to create a project the community can feel good about and everyone is happy with. they have been doing extensive outreach with the neighborhoodr and some additional dialogueç s needed at this point. we have scheduled a tentative meeting with that aquatic park late

president miguel: are there additional speakers? >> my name is mary, and i am here to support the project sponsor. personally, i love to go to japan town with my friends and we love to go there. we love puddings and smoothies. the other dessert place are mainly selling crepes and yogurt. it doesn't offer crepes or yogurt. it does not create any direct competition to the shopping center. thank you for your time. president miguel: are there additional speakers in favor of the project sponsor? if not, d.r. requester has a two-minute rebuttal. >> i will be brief. i have heard nothing really that this use the information we provided to this commission that mr. liu is in direct ownership base k is aobe the bent -- of the kobe bento chains. the excerpts from the website were intended to show the permeable relationship with which he is associated. he says he is independent, but we have seen nothing to anything else that indicates he is nothing but trading on the relationship with the chain. that is precisely what the formula retail restrict

president miguel: aye.ails on a 3-4 vote. president miguel: is there any other motion? if there is no motion, then it is disapproved, right? commissioner moore:i] could you say it louder? i cannot hear you. >> if there is no substitute motion, what stands is what you approved last time, 32 spaces. commissioner moore: thank you. commissioner antonini: let's try another one. 39 parking spaces, which would be two less. okwe will keep all of the -- we need the car share and we need the commercial, but we only go with two tandem, trying to give them something rather than nothing. if there is no new motion, the can -- the can and cannot be used as parking spaces, is that correct? president miguel: i will again second although i am disappointed theç previous motn failed. i definitely believe there was confusion in the entire process. i do not think it was handled properly. the number and the count were in opposition to each other. the definition of tandem, i do not believe was clear. okthe changeover from maximum

ç president miguel: commissioner sugaya?er sugaya: yes, maybe staff couldñ $elp me understand this. on page 3 of the memo, under evictions it says about 1% are 95 units of citywide owner movins were in the eastern neighborhoods and says another 80 units in tau!eastern neighborhoods were also subject to the alice act, which is about 10% of the city total. so if i make some calculations, in the city that were subject to owner move-in and to ellis act over a five-yearç period. is that right? or approximately 200 a year? >> i don't have the numbers here, but it was based on theç five-year reporting period. >> commissioner sugaya: ok. that seems a little alarming to me. i don't know. 200 a year -- more than that. anyway, 2,000 over five years seems like a lot ofi] housing loss. and i don't know if this statistic is -- you know, if%q we'd been made aware of this previously or not. it seems like a lot of units being lost to this kind of activity. the other thing is in all the reports there is a table of unitst( lost in san franc

president miguel: thank you. >> thank you. >> hello, commissioners. i am tony kelly from the neighborhood association. i believe we were the last ones to actually create a historic district. i am speaking in support of san francisco architectural heritage and the amended compromise coming from the historical preservation commission. three points in particular -- first, about owners and occupants. we are definitely in support of that. we are doing research in our neighborhood association about soft sites after finding in the aftermath of the eastern neighborhoods, houses are being built. i do not know if you know this, but what you consider to be family housing really is not in practice, and we may have to come back to you about that at some point. we have had to be proactive and our own research about what kind of sites we are talking about so we can get to those owners before the developers do. what we are finding, especially in the sites that have been owned by the same person for more than 20 years, is that a substantial portion of the owners are o

commissioner miguel: john? i had mentioned prior to your coming in that i had the pleasure of being at your retirement party yesterday. i thought it was a great outpouring of appreciation for 20 years of not just work for the department, but of involvement in the improvement of the department and particularly the number of comments around the side and publicly of the mentoring you have done in 20 years in the department. that is something that does not always come out at retirement parties. it was a very great to hear. we have a resolution that, while you are standing there, i would like to read, from the commission. a resolution is thinking john billovits for 20 years of dedicated service within the city of san francisco, whereas john billovits is a proud of london said the university of california, santa barbara, with a degree in geography and a master of city planning from the university of california los angeles. prior to joining the planning department, john work for an archaeological company and was inspi

president miguel: thank you. [reading names] >> good afternoon. first, i would like to comment on the gentleman who -- president miguel: your name? >> mike boyd. i am not connected with any organization. the gentleman who referred to 200 trucks and then 400 trucks -- i used to drive a 10-wheel dump truck and trailer -- president miguel: that is not on the subject, is it? >> ok. i worked at new college california school of law. we inherited a building under a surplus building federal grant act. it had been owned and operated by the city and county of san francisco. they pretty much trash it. i was the superintendent. we spent a year bringing it up to code without any money. we later ended up selling the air rights to the building next door so that we could have funding to continue to develop the building. i believe it is a historic building. we bought a hotel on fillmore, also a historic building. reconstructing that to house 200 law school students at below market rent for the oldest -- i guess the only public interest law school in the country. w

president miguel: commissioner boarden?ard work. we only passed the eastern neighborhoods in 2008 so we're looking at data that precedes thatç and we can see some uptas -- upticks ofç what happened i 2009 and 2010 but we won't really know some of the results until we see the next report, which is kind of the challenge i think in judging the success or theñrç failure of easternçi] neighborhoods. i think some important points have been made about looking for new industry and the way we define space very rigidly but we also got into that situation because ofç that it's an interesting quandary to be in if we were able to predict the next best great industry, we all might not be sitting here. but an interesting note in the business times today, the san francisco metropolitan area has the largestç self-employment re in the country. so that's abouti] 10% of the population and i think that's a whole other dynamic when you're talking about space because you're not talking about commercial space but residential space or a hybri

president miguel: thank you. danielle kirshenbaum, jim siegel, katherine wittgen. >> in the past, i have represented the pacific heights residents' association. i am a co-founder of the neighborhood network. today, i am only speaking for myself. however, i am sure i am not alone when i commend all the effort and diligence that has gone into the proposed amendments. it seems to me that all of this energy and effort would be far better spent under the leadership of a visionary who can unite us rather than divide us. for one example, perhaps supervisor weiner can invite historic preservationists like me to sit down with developers, rather than turning us into adversaries, where i feel compelled to appear here in a negative way. i am gratified that the supervisor has adjusted certain parts of his proposal. the process up to this point, though, has left too many of us suspicious and resentful. i am putting my money where my mouth is. i have two weeks before my next job begins. during that time, i am available to anyon

presidentç miguel: project gsor?

president miguel: thank you. is there any public comment on this item? >> sue hester. other than developer's attorney, and probably the only one who reads these requests and tries to read the files. i applaud the deadline. i think the deadline for taking out a permit is needed and is really appreciated. here are my observations. the staff work on this is very uneven. there is a tendency to take as gospel that which is submitted by the developer. there is less of a tendency to actually pull all the permits. i have made repeated attempts with ddi -- dbi to have an explanation of what the term "office" uses in a building permit. factories always tend to have an office, and the offices tend to be remodeled in to take out a permit. that is extraordinarily spotty checking of actual plans. the building permit office was a 200 square foot an entire floor. i am getting tired of being lead detective on all of this stuff. it is derek expensive for me to pull up records, because staff can pull them up for free, but the publi

president miguel: i will open this up for public comment. paul werner, suzanne rucher, sarah karlinsky. >> good afternoon. my name is paul wermer. it is hard to communicate intelligently on a document undergoing multiple revisions one does not have time to review. i will point a little bit and say i strongly endorse the positions taken by san francisco architectural heritage. i feel they have paid a lot more attention to what has happened in the past few days, and urge you to follow their recommendations closely. thank you. president miguel: if i have called your name, come forward, please. >> good afternoon, commissioners. my name is richard. i worked in historic preservation for decades. i understand and support supervisor weiner's comments and amendments, including planning commission input in the process. there are those who would have you believe the amendments are not a bad thing. i will speak to a few of the points. they say the amendments impose a high bar for our strictest denominations. i say there are those who advocate historic p

p&e%ei president miguel: thank you. is a combined schedule where it has very itsç. we w

president miguel: thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i am not going to opine on the process for establishing historic districts, but i want to focus on what comprises the sort of elements of character when a historic district is established or when there is the conversation about creating one. one of the aspects about the proposed amendment that strikes me as being particularly difficult to understand and kind of absurd is this notion that it is only character-defining if you can see it from the street. it is sort of a museum of superficiality, which i can kind of picture in my head. that does not make a district. it does not make a community. it does not define history. what i would like to suggest is that the definition of what character-defining features are be part of the process. whether that is the eve of your roof -- i am not an architect or historian -- or whether that is the character of the open space or even the interiors, whatever they may be, the point is this is a tool to be able to preserve those characteristics of histor

president miguel: any speakers in support of the d.r. requester? >> and good evening, commissioners. i am the director of programs and community affairs. i will keep this short period based on the evidence provided in your packet, the link being 75% partner, being the owner currently here in the city, this makes it pretty clear that the cafe could really just be kobe bento in disguise. i don't mind the new business in japan town, i think that good business is great. it is something we need for the future, but by using the less deceptive nature, excuse me. using deceptive measures is not my idea of good business. it doesn't set a good precedent for japan town or the city. there are and goals of the time. it supports that fabric instead of working against its. i would like to know that new businesses moving into japan town would have the community's best interested in mind instead of finding ways to avoid its. i strongly support the discretionary review. president miguel: thank you. >> good evening, commissioners adnd director. i'm a member of the ja

(vo)and miguel insisted it was time to end the interview. >>the question on our mind is, is that guy fine with the way this whole thing went? >>miguel, how do you think that whole thing went? were you nervous at all during the interview? (vo)as we drove away from the interview, eerily, almost immediately, we came upon another murder on the streets of juarez. >>looks like a typical hit. the guy was shot while driving. >>what do you think happened? >>oh this is normal for juarez. this is the same scene, only change the bodies. (vo)had miguel looked through the lens of our camera, he would have recognized that this was not just another one of the killings he sees everyday. the victim was, in fact, his cousin mario, an american citizen who worked as a supervisor in a factory in juarez. he was killed in either a kidnapping attempt, or carjacking, gone tragically wrong. (vo)miguel learned of mario's death the following morning when he saw the photos in the newspaper >>i just can't believe that we were there last night filming this and we had no id

president miguel: i agree with that. commissioner borden: i think that is good. >> a question -- you said that for 1,006.6g and h -- i was not sure what changes indicated. commissioner borden: we said we would strike the taxpayer, but maintain the number and substitute new language. we want to keep the economic hardship in the title, but we want to have a new section substituted after it is figured out in land use. president miguel: we encourage them to write a section to cover that. >> just to clarify that, this is commission legislation. it will be introduced with a blank section that just has a title in it. commissioner antonini: could i interject? my thinking with the general language -- something like "study the hardship issue on these, with the goal of making needed restoration's more affordable," language to that regard, which is what the goal is any way. >> i would recommend, maybe, if you are not ready to draft language at this point, that instead of having a section that is just blank, that in your cover letter

president miguel: thank you. you can submit that in writing. your time is up. >> thank you. >> your time is up. submit it in writing. >> i submitted it. >> other people have to be allowed to speak. >> if you allow me to -- president miguel: i cannot. the rules are everyone gets the same amount of time. three minutes. i'm sorry. we've already had your comments in writing, we will consider it. it is still open for other people for public comment. >> i'm so sorry. we'll have to turn to -- president miguel: is there additional public comment on this item? in that case, public comment is closed. commissioner antonini: thank you. i'm surprised there isn't more comment, but i have questions for the project sponsor for the staff, maybe. the first part of this was the shadow allowance. i was reading this over, and i'm not saying this is a very good project, but we have to analyze all projects equally. if i am reading this correctly, they say that this will increase the shadowing about 5.4% of the total potential sunlight annually on the buchanan street

president miguel: is there additional public comment?if not, public comment is closed and so is this meeting. >> good afternoon. now like to call the january 24 meeting of the public utilities commission to order. secretary, would you call the roll? [calling roll] i expect vice-president torres to be joining us shortly. >> we will go into closed session at the beginning of the meeting. any public comment on the items listed in closed session? he none, can have a motion? >> so move. a-- seeing none, can i have a motion? >> conference of legal counsel anticipated litigation is council of bill legal counselor. conference with legal counsel existing litigation as defend iant fontana v city and county f san francisco. government code se >> we are now live. [inaudible] president moran: we are back in open session. the commission met in closed session and took no action on items 5, 6, and nine. the commission did approve settlements on items 7 and 8. can i have a motion as to whether disclose discussion during closed session? >> motion not to d

president miguel: thank you.ternoon, commissioners. a couple of items from yesterday's historic preservation commission i would like to share. the architectural review committee, which is a subcommittee, that yesterday. yesterday, to review the proposal for the new mission theater, which isç -- overall, the project was well-received, and they believe the project sponsorçó is applying best reservation practices. most of the discussion was related to specific areas on the landmark interior that the project architect should study or clarified by the time the project is before the full committee for its full certificate of appropriateness. the planning commission will review the full project, which also includes a mixedç use development adjacent to the historic theater. the planning commission will review the environmental çdocument requests for conditional use authorization as well as exceptionsç under sectn 304 of the code in the fall of this year. ñrthe second item was the hpc consider theç initiation of land