forces, the gentrification will spell doom for the positive community, social and spiritual qualities that are diversity and character that have made our south of market neighbourhood a special place renowned around the world. unless, instead, we intervene directly now to secure affordable locations for all the community buildings, assets and homes that run [inaudible] to make our best south of market future possible. [coughing] and unless instead as a city and a community, we leverage this extraordinary growth and maximize the effective use of its enormous resources to realise the best neighbourhood possibilities it offers. to create a 21st century south of market neighbourhood that will be as special as the last one. this is the vision of our central soma community plan. it can be done. >> good afternoon, commissioners. thank you for your time. i'm joyce from the toddco development plan. we're looking for affordable housing. without these provision, market first will overwhelm soma declining the diversity that has made it the special place we all khish. thank you. >> good afternoon. john eberle, president of todco. the planned document you have in front of you details all the provisions that we believe it will take to accomplish these objectives. we want to especially highlight the empowerment and the necessity of empowering the community with a community advisory board. it isn't just the eastern neighbourhood stuff. it isn't just stabilization. it's reviewing the entire accomplishment of the entire central soma plan over the 20, 30 years it takes. that is the only way to make sure it can be done. thank you. >> thank you. so, can we have representives of the second group? welcome. >> good afternoon, commissioners. my name is karla and i am the executive director of west bay filipino multiservice centre and i'm helping facilitate the we are soma coalition. today speaking will be myself, mario demyera, connie ford and misha olivez and we're respecting the we are soma coalition. we are soma. we are a coalition of service providers and organisations that have been working with the community for over 50 years. we have decades of experience working with government agencies, the mayor's office, the private sector and community stakeholders to really make sure that the existing soma communities in an instrumental part of the conversation. we are not new to displacement but we definitely see central soma as an opportunity to learn from the past. and to bring holistic growth tots soma as a whole. i just wanted to say this from earlier, too. we're not in opposition of central soma. we're just speaking to make sure that the existing community is represented. these are some of the organisations that we represent. sorry. if you want to see it for a second longer. [laughter] laugh and the vision that we have is we drive for a soma that stabilizes, preserves and represents all of its community members and works toward the growth of a hollistic community. and we really want to work together with soma's diverse community members, governments agencies, like i said earlier, and the private sector to really make sure that the central soma plan is inclusive to the overall soma neighbourhood. the areas that are really important for us to discuss are around affordable housing, community facilities, resident services, open space and living wage jobs. and our priorities that we're going to be talking about today are around stabilization, preservation, community involvement, community control and what growth towards a holistic community really looks like. so here's mario to speak about stabilization and preservation. >> good afternoon, commissioners. happy black history month. thank you for this opportunity to speak to the commission. my name is mario demira, i'm the community development manager with soma filipinos. we're a cultural generation in the making. filipinos have lived in the south market for a century, a continue wows influx of filipino families pushed out of our homeland has formed the life blood of soma filipinos. our struggle to make home, preserve culture and build community is the story of soma filipinos. for decades, we faced and resisted displacement from institutional policies like redevelopment and various ways of tech and financial capital boons. soaring housing prices have fored many of our working families to live in substandard living conditions in. a recent town hall, a local elder talked about how as many as these familis can lives in a single room occupancy unit. korgtsz the housing balance report, we've lost 125 units with protected status. this shows that somma filipinos as well as the broader working class soma community has been impacted by unjust housing policies. we believe that, if done properly, the central soma-area plan can correct some of the institutional wrongs and not only stabilize and preserve community, but create pathways for some of the most disenfranchised people to thrive. stabilization, cultural preservation can be accomplished by developing a comprehensive strategy that protects the existing affordable housing stock while also expanding affordable housing development. we need to invest in our local workforce. as the south of market experience unprecedented growth in multiple industries, our local indigenous workforce needs to have access to living wage jobs. additionally, we need policies that support the aspiring neighbourhood growing businesses and also protect long-term cultural legacy businesses. as an example, soma filipinos' night market has brougtz over 10,000 people to the old mint and has generated an average of $60,000 in economic activity in a single night. lastly, the central soma plan can potentially provide opportunities to develop partnerships that help sustain and expand community-based organisations, that provide direct services, advocacy, training, recreation, public safety and arts and culture. community on the frontlines of displacement are often asked the question -- development for whom? let us make it a just development for all. thank you. [please stand by] [please stand by] to this in the end means obtaining these goals. that is the instrument is a cac or a community -- cac. any way, we are -- in all of these organizations, support what's going on here. we just want to have input, and we, the workers, we the residents, we the developers, and we the city, if we all work together, we can make this work, so let's keep going at it together. thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners. my name is michelle olivas. i am with united playas. i am born and raised in san francisco. i have lived in soma since 2000, and district six and soma specifically have born the brunt of development in san francisco with little or no return on investment in the community. this cannot continue. we have a lot of feedback to share, but today, we really just want to make sure you hear. we are concerned that we will be involved in this process, and that we expect that the community voice is sought out, respected, and incorporated into this plan. as a soma resident, it's really challenging for me to kind of idealize this wonderful new neighborhood that's going to be happening a couple blocks away from the rest of soma, and our current community is in crisis. so we have a unique opportunity to move toward a more holistic soma, but the service that's being poured into the community have to benefit the entire neighborhood. we expect a really strong community voice and control of the benefit and impact fees so they can best be used to meet the growing needs and emerging needs as that neighborhood figures out who they are. we look forward to working closely with you are. we have been working with steve and we look forward to that continuing, but just really incorporating some of the ideas, some of the priorities that we have really working together to make sure that the central soma plan will move forward in a way that supports and builds a great soma for all. thank you. >> thank you, miss olivas. are you the last speaker? okay. great. so we'll open this up now for general public comment. i've got a number of speaker cards. if you'll lineup on the screen side of the room, that would help. aaron, kim, rochelle, lisa, jina, nora, wilma, and you can speak in any order. go ahead, ma'am. go ahead. you can speak. >> members of the planning committee. good afternoon. i live in 631 folsom, which is the san francisco view, but i'm just going to say, i don't have a view. follow street street and the lincoln building killed any view i could have, so i just wanted to get that out there. while the rapid growth of the tech industry in san francisco especially in our neighborhood has been an exciting element and an economic boone to the say, rampant development without looking at other options is a problem in an already congested neighborhood. long time residents already struggle with vehicle traffic conjustification due to the proximity of highway access ramps, the ballpark, the convention center and the ever increasing use of lyft and uber to move people around the neighborhood. increasing office spaces only increases the number of commuters that will have to come in from outside the city. those who lived in the soma since 2008 have created a real neighborhood in all sense of the word. we've established a multigenerational community over the years. now we're watching it become over shadowed but soulless glass and steel towers. please keep those of us who invest this community in mind and approve the 2013 midrise central soma plan this year. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i'm gina carriaga, and i'm here on behalf of soma neighborhoods and sf blue. by our neighborhood, i amy specifically addressing the area bounded by folsom street and i-80 twine second and third streets. i'm here asking you to consider modifying the central soma high-rise plan for this area and to adopt the 2013 midrise height limit in this area. we are a mixed use residential neighborhood with unique and historic architectural resources such as the second street clock tower and the carlyle building on harrison street. within a block of the clock tower, there already exists five residential buildings totaling 600 condos and residential units. on any given day you're going to see us locals among the workforce commuters and hundreds of giants fans walking through our neighborhood. by the way, this is one of the sunniest neighborhoods in san francisco, and we get a terrific view of the sky just as pedestrians. it's a wonderful pedestrian experience, and that will only get better with the city's second street improvement project. the central soma plan would allow buildings up to 350 feet to be built in this area. these properties are not close to b.a.r.t. and they're not close to caltrain, but they are located at the foot of the bay bridge exits ramp. extreme development here would encourage more automobile usage, not public transit. the 2013 midrise plan would allow up planning from the current 80 feet but would cap limits at 130 feet. we still this is a good compromise and would still allow for substantial development on the properties while maintaining the current midrise on the neighborhood. >> thank you very much. >> thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, president hillis and members of the planning commission. i'm courtney dankroger, and i'm here on behalf of planning the old u.s. minute. it is a singularly importance resource in san francisco and the u.s. west. as a central soma planning process progresses, it will be important toen shufr that at least the proposed $20 million retrofit funding committed to the old minute remains intact. much work has been done to date by many on the revitalization of the old minute, but the efforts must be supported by sufficient funding through the central soma plan process. this is the window of opportunity for the old minute, full and productive reuse. the old minute is an anchor to the area and thankfully its restoration is a goal of the plan, but without a strong commitment to needed funding, the old minute cannot serve as the catalyst that the central soma plan deserves. now is the time to clearly affirm the city's commitment to the old minute and cement its place in san francisco's history of culture and learning. thank you. >> thank you, miss dankroger. next speaker, please. >> ladies and gentlemen, my name is jim morshau, and i'm here representing san francisco victorian alliance. we're an old preservation group from the 70's. we are very active with over 300 members. we met last night, talking about this, and following miss dankroger's comments regarding the old mint, we're here to extend our comments as well, that this is one of the most incredible assets, and when i heart mr. wertheim say the philosophy is keep what's great, few things come to mind at least in a physical presence in this community, few thing that's can rival list. it's been on the national trust for historic preservation for several years, and it is absolutely key to preserving our heritage. it provides benefits to tourism, cultural development, community development. it's long overdue, and the cha now in charge of the site, we have every reason to believe that the funding will be well spent and hearing some other comments, you know, some of the opposition groups bought up, the filipino knight market, we've had all kinds of people coming up for history days. what we envision here is no musky underused museum doing boring things, but making this incredible historic asset into ann an enlivened, activated and preserved space so that it will find its new life and its new role as well as respecting its past. thank you so much. >> thank you. next mi . >> [ inaudible ] -- and i know a lot of work has gone into this plan so far, but if we are going to create those affordable neighborhoods, then we need a lot more affordable housing at the right level of affordablity than is in the current proposed plan. that's how we're going to get to the neighborhoods where the people who help build it get to stay where their kids get to grow up and raise their families there. where people who come for those new jobs can stay for those new jobs. we just want to continue to have deep meaningful community involvement and its continued creation and implementation. thanks. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, commissioners. my name is wilma parker, and i am here representing a no group, not even far city, who has a plan next to the mint, not even heritage, but i am a pedestrian. i have been walking past the mint for the past 40 years. of course i'm interested in the mint. it's an incredible bozart building, and it's been incredibly neglected. in the old days, i used to be able to go in and it had a children's room and you could do pottery, but then, it got locked up. i know all of asia, europe, countries everywhere cannot believe that we have such an asset as the mint and we don't flaunt it, little more than we do do. it was our eiffel tower. it was our leaning one until we got a new one. it is our coliseum, and it deserves to be more than a tourist attraction or some kind of a political distraction. the mint is an amazing asset. it's hard to know really what to do with it, but there's so much that can be done, and it is a shame that people come here and they can't really see it. i'm glad there's a night market, but 40 years a pedestrian, you won't catch me there at night. we all know the story of the mint, the men the day of the quake knew they had a we will there and water. they decided to keep the hoses on, they nearly fried to death, but when they came out in the morning, they were the only building standing. if they would have kept that up, the streets around the mint would have run with gold. they are running with gold now, with the flashing down the steps. there's been a little bit of an improvement. there's that big sneaker company, i think it was nike, i don't know. but they had that whole place relandscaped and hired a guard. that's the only real improvements the mint's got, and i would actually like to see it returned to some real use. i'm happy with the cultural use that's going on there, but however, i'm going to say something there that isn't often heard. i have a great new idea. we know there's going to be another big influx of money in san francisco. the strikes of gold put not only san francisco but america on the map. money would have been found. we're going to get a new influx of gold from the marijuana industry. now, i understand the mint is owned by san francisco. the marijuana is legal now but not federally. the mint belongs to us. let's open that bank they want. banks don't want to touch that money, but we could have a bank at the mint. thank you. >> thank you. thank you, miss parker. next speaker, please. >> hello, commissioners. my name is david wu, and i live in market. a new 100% affordable housing should have an ami range of 20% to 60%. the 20% range for the separate housing is essential fore people who are on fixed incomes, such as seniors, people with disabilities and people living with hiv and aids. below market rate housing should produce a wider 30% to 90% ami. preservation of buildings and sites must also be a priority under the central soma plan. this includes actively purchasing existing affordable housing, such as rent controlled buildings and sro buildings, soft sites must also be taken advantage of and purchased. the city should actively engage in land banking to sewcure sits for future use. land prices will only continue rising especially with the passage of the central soma plan. thank you sfl thank yo thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, commissioners. my name's carol brownson. a previous speaker introduced herself as an angry milennial. i guess i'm a grumpy perennial. so you've probably seen polls that survey residents of san francisco, new residents, and residents have been here longer, saying yeah, it's not what it was, it's not going the direction we'd like to see. my plumber sums it up. the city's lost its heart, and he went off looking for a new place to live. i took a picture down the street waiting to across to the market, and then, i showed the picture to various friends and said what city do you think i took this picture in. they said umm, hong kong? well, that brings me to the mint. here, we have an iconic historic building which you've heard about very eloquently, and i would just say in a city that was founded by the gold rush, what more iconic building could you possibly have than a mint? thank you. >> thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i'm lucia bogota. i'm an architect. i was a former member of the san francisco landmarks board and former vice president of the paelzrd board, so the mint is very well known to me. among the public benefits included in the central soma plan, i urge you to include a robust program for the mint. don't let the local market forces depri forc forces deprive the city of this historic project. the day at the mint is an inspiring celebration who is mission is the preservation and historic mission of the city. the mint is the perfect venue for this event. steeped as it is in the history of the gold rush. my first visit to it was with my boss, albert linnear, it was knee deep in pigeon [ inaudible ]. much has been done since to stablize it. i urge the city finish the project to conserve and restore it. the imposing restoration of the exterior rooms shows how it was splendid. the reason the mint didn't burn down is because the army volunteers were up on the roof, and they shovelled, like, 3 feet high of hot cinders over the parapet, and of course, the well had a lot to do with it, also. it's a wonderful firsthand description of this. maybe i'll send you the link. in any case, i don't want to repeat -- i will just conclude, it has been painful to see the hopes for the restoration of the mint continually postponed. i encourage the city to commit to the needed work to make this building worthy and making it safe and functional. as an architect, i'm confident the needed work can be tailored to the budget by prioritizing the need for work that focusing on its conservation and making it safe and functional. it's a beautiful flexible building. it hardly needs to be gussied up. it just needs to be preserved, prepared. there's no need to make it anything more than what it already is. it's already wonderful. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, commissioners. mike bueller, president of san francisco heritage. we are a long time of the soma district, champion. city's businesses and advocate for the old mint. we are heartened that with the department's finding that cultural heritage initiatives are eligible for public benefits funding under the central soma plan, and we support -- strongly support efforts to fund both intangible and tangible heritage in central soma. however i'm here today to speak primarily to the need to maintain the city's commitment in support of the old mint. 2015 heritage successfully nominated the old mint to the national trust for historic preservations 11 most endangered most historic places, giving it the dubious distinction of having made the list twice. the department today is recommending that $20 million be allocated from the central soma plan towards its rehabilitation and reactivation. this is a modest sum. $20 million is roughly equal to 1% of the roughly $2 billion benefit to be generated under the plan. in our view, it is the absolutely minimum amount needed to leverage city state and fell dollars to rehabilita -- federal dollars to rehabilitate the mint. the emerging vision for the future of the mint is ex-pansive and community focused. far from becoming just a museum, the city and its partners seek to create it into a cultural commons for the neighborhood and city as a whole. indeed, the blockbuster success of recent public recents at the mint, includetion the filipino night market and cultural his days underscores the mint's potential to serve the city. it is clear that the mint project is simply not going to happen on its own as evidenced by the litany of past failures to reroadwvitalize the buildin. we urge the commission to reassert its commitment to this spectacular community asset. thank you. >> thank you, mr. bueller. next speaker, please. >> hi. me go clarke. angry milennial, and i'm an idiot. i gave up a rent controlled apartment in order to move to soma, and now, you're going to pass this plan, and i'm terrified. you know, i like jobs just as much as the next person. i like having one. i like that our economy's growing, but this is a terrifying plan for me personally because i cannot imagine that this plan goes forward and my rent doesn't -- specifically my rent doesn't go up because i live walking distance to all the jobs that you're about to let happen. and i walk to my job currently. that's why i moved, and so i'm very much for having walkable communities. but you're actually contemplating adding 50,000 jobs and only 7,500 units of housing, and that is terrifying. and i think we should all be very concerned about that. how are we with a straight face supposed to yell at the south bay for consistently having a jobs housing imbalance if we pass this? there are many ways to fix this. you could upzone the housing parcels, you could demand that it be done in compliance with a western neighborhoods plan. that would be awesome. there are many ways to make sure if we really think that we can add this many jobs and that the economy can continue to thrive, great. but you need to make sure that we have the corresponding housing. otherwise, i would say throw this plan out because it is going to make things much worse. we can remove the requirements that a lot of the buildings specifically have to be office and allow developers who seem to want to build more residential build more residential. there are ways to make -- also increase walkablity. right now where i live, everything closes and they're only open for lunch because there's mostly office workers. i think we can think more holistically about having communities where people live and work, and i think that this plan, frankly, is a bit retro. it's a bit thinking that we're going to have an entire area that should be all one type of thing. i think if we want to have dense, vibrant communities where you can go out to eat tonight, we should have a better balance of types of things, and you can also upzone the west side. thanks. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> my name is denny leonard. i'm hearing that everybody wants the community controlled city like rent controlled. keep our culture here, and we have a place that we can all live and enjoy the soul of the city of san francisco. i'm an american indian, so when i look at the mint, i think back the history of the tribes, and i read about these ships of gold being discovered in central america and virginia, all gold stolen from the indian tribes, so we've got to have a place to put it, so the mint would be an ideal place to deposit it. i just came from down stairs, they're having the meeting on municipal banking. one of the key things for san francisco, they've got to have a place for their banking. they need to raise a very large sum of money for collaborative for affordable housing and community organizations. this is a place they can do it. i've been to several hearings on the california historical society on the use of the old mint, and this gentleman from the pill pfilipino community t about that, this can become a very large center. now, i think the signature of history this that the solid community respect and support for all the things that were originally here when san francisco grew and became a city, and i think that this is one of those places, and i'd like to see some -- and all of the communities responding to it. i'm not sure about the overall plan because i've just been working on the old mint, but it sounds like if -- if everything is done properly, and there was a good sequence and a synergy in terms of affordable and standard housing prices, you know, something positive can come out of this, so i really appreciate you taking the time, and i brought my little card of the old mint so we can see how -- you know, the california historical society is sending them out and giving them out to all of the people, and i'm 100% behind it. so thank you all for your hard work, and i hope we get something successful out of it. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi. i'm tony robles with senior and disability action. as you heard previous speakers, there are many concerns with the plan. true community input is paramount. we want dialogue, accountablity. affordable housing, the ami range. we definitely need to have it so that people that i represent and work with, seniors and disability, and people with disabilities can get into these new units. again, seniors and people can disabilities have many issues. you know, housing is -- is, you know, at the top, but there's also a pedestrians safety, street, transportation. anything going forward has to take that into consideration. from our organization, we've had about three people. two have been hit while on the street. one died in an accident, so the streets are planned, how the pedestrians, how the streets are planned and being considered, those are paramount with the seniors and disabilities. and also, the integrity of the existing community in soma. and again, you've heard people from the community that have come and spelled it out a, b, c, and d. and you know, looking forward to making this happen and to have a dialogue and true community input and accountablity. thank you. >> thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners. carl shannon. we represent three of the major sites in central soma. we're simply here to say the city's been working on this for eight years. we have a real bond funding deadline at fifth and howard with the ndc, that if we don't meet that, we will lose the ability to go forward with this forward, so this is $2 billion of public benefits. we represent two sites that would bring 1200 units into the neighborhood between creamery and fifth and howard. so now is the time to bring this forward. i know there's a lot of political discourse in the city, and we're hoping that the commission can be a steady hand in that time and bring this plan forward. thank you. >> thank you, sir. next speaker, please. >> commissioners, good afternoon. my name's mario udidia from the hotel and restaurant workers 2. we would hope that any plan under discussion here today is going to come to this community and ultimately be supported by this community and be structured to bring the kind of benefits that the community has asked for. our union has been following the central soma plan for some time now, and we will continue to raise the concern about the kind of jobs that will be created by the plan. at the moment, there are nine -- no less than nine proposed hotel developments within the boundaries of the central soma plan, proposing just about 2,000 hotel rooms and anywhere between 500 and 1,000 permanent hotel jobs. of these nine projects, only one developer, the developer for 744 harrison street, has made a commitment to guarantee th that these jobs will be good jobs. of those projects, however, not one has yet signed a commitment to build those projects with union labor. we are working with allies in the building trades to secure that these hotels will come with a guarantee of good jobs for construction needless to say when the hotels are actually built. the this proposes to raise hotel room counts, raise height limits and change zoning, but who precisely is going to benefit from those changes. if there's no changes to good jobs, we think those changes may well be a mistake. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> i'm going to bring that energy. good afternoon, commissioners. my name is matt haney. i am a commissioner on the san francisco unified board of education. first of all, i just want to say thank you for your thoughtfulness that you're taking to this plan. this is critical to our neighborhoods and also to the entire city. i also want to thank you for taking the feedback that was given by the community today. i hope you can take close consideration of this when you make your decisions around this plan. in particular, we have a huge opportunity to increase the amount of housing in our community, and it's critical that this housing is available to people who most need it right now. i -- i think the points that were made around increasing the amount of low income and middle income housing in this plan is critical. i think if we're going to make sure that the people who are in soma right now benefit from this plan, that will be a huge part of it. we have done demographic analysises at the school district, and actually over the next five years, we're expecting to see the largest growth in student enrollment come from this part of the city. we need to make sure that they have stable and affordable places to live. bessie carmichael, our school in soma, one out of every eight students in soma are homeless. we need to make sure that there are homes in soma, and the benefits go to the families who most need it in central soma. bessie carmichael needs to be taken care of in this plan, and also the families in central soma. they should be the hub of how we think about community benefits in this plan. again, i thank you for your diligence. i know that this is a tough process. i'm usually on the other side of the table taking public comment, so i appreciate the way that you all are listening to this, and i know that you all will make sure that this is the huge opportunity that we know it is for our city. thank you. >> thank you, mr. haney. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, again, commissioners. cory smith on behalf of the san francisco housing coalition. three points to make as mentioned by a previous speaker, there is a timeline on lot of this stuff to deliver the housing that we all desperately want, desperately need. part of that community process and the process that we go through does have to end at a certain point in time so we can do the stuff that we're planning. that is absolutely essential. secondly, we are happy -- this is the first time that i've heard steve from the planning department talk about our amendment -- recommended amendment to that housing cap, we can get 500 additional units or so that work within the eir. we will keep beating that dead horse until that amendment is actually formally introduced, but we are excited that this is now at least a regular part of the conversation. and then, i think perhaps looking a little -- also very excited to hear that supervisor kim is encouraging the use of the state density bonus, and as long as we push up to that threshold of what the eir is so we don't have to go redo it, we want to push up to that to maximize the units. then taking a little bit more macroand trying to understand the benefits of the plan itself, obviously, the jobs housing balance is something that we play attention at a local and regional level. it is important. it has to be part of the conversation. at our now departed commissioner johnson, it is really difficult to generate revenue in order to build subsidized affordable housing. the federal government does not give a dam about us. that's just the reality. we're working hard at the state level to get additional funding sources. we're working at the local level to get additional resources for subsidized affordable housing, but one of the most efficient ways that we can take care of it ourselves and add the affordable housing units we need is to add market rate units and have those market rate units pay for it. it is a market solution that is somewhat jaufded in order to fix or system and housing structure here. i also want to add that every single home that we do build within this area does alleviate some of the pressure on other communities within the city and within the region as a whole. it's a complicated plan, and i know you all are juggling a number of things with it, and we do appreciate your hard work. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, commissioners. peter cohen, council community housing organizations. we are very supportive of the we are soma coalition efforts and thank you for giving us some extra time today. we've been working a bit and providing some technical input to that group and they've come up with some great ideas, and of course the toddco vision is very comprehensive. it feels little bit of an odd day, in 2018, but i want to associate my comments to the earlier yimby speaker who was complaining jobs and housing and this plan falling short on the housing. that's absolutely right. probably we would look at it from an affordablity lens, not just the numbers. there is a framework that we've been using for the last year or so called jobs-housing fit. if you recall we came here in december and presented to you an analysis of the city's commerce and industry report about what the jobs-housing fit should be if we were to really accommodate or workforce over the last ten years. we need about 66% of the all new housing to be at various levels below market to fit this workforce. we did that for brisbane, for pier 70. it's not rocket science, and one suggestion we would have is that the planning staff actually look at the job projections for central soma and calculate what that housing need to be at the various income levels to house the workforce. it's fairly trade forward. we'd be happy to help. it's straightforward methodology. it's all open source. we know the suggestion from the toddco k is a floor. i would argue you're probably going to find your -- certainly, that's a good starting point. and lastly, once you get your numbers figured out, what the right number of housing levels and what the affordable levels are, the really important thing in this plan is figure out to how to bake that in as a real implementation program. where are those sites, can you identify those, what's your super inclusionary is. i'm just a middle aged housing activist, but i've been through all of these neighborhoods, and one thing that we didn't do well enough in any of the other plans is actually bake in our aspirations into real programs that we know that can actually happen. dollars, sites, numbers, obligations, and so you have a chance here to take it to that new level. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, commissioners, and thank you for the opportunity to speak here today at the people's palace. my name is rachel a 1id mosa, and i want to talk to you about a proposal for a filipino multimedia arts and cultural complex. the history of filipinos in san francisco is over 100 years, but there's difficulty with sustaining our assets and documenting our narratives for many reasons, but one of them is because of the lack of space. soma filipino's mission is to promote culture and responsibility within san francisco but we can't do that without preserving the existing communities that also exist. supporting the working class immigrant families through social and economic justice, as well as developing and improving the living conditions of our community. so nard to support our community -- in order to support our community, we would support coalition members such as carney street workshop, as well as bindle stiff studio, which is the only filipino american black box theater in the country, and also organizations like coal arts, whose executive director just received the first legacy award throughout the san francisco arts commission. the thing that's in common with these three organizations is they don't have space, so either their lease is up so they're sharing spaces with other organizations. so like the african americans arts and cultural complex and the mission cultural complex, our community is in need of a place to how's or assets and provide alternaculturally appr programming. aside from threater, dance, and visual arts, we would propose broadcast communication and film and photography studio workshops, and this would after the public to develop workforce and training skills in digital media and being able to offer workshops and projects relevant in a digital age to people without any access. the scope for this wouldn't just be for soma but with the california arts designation, it would be state, national and international communities through artists and student residencies, and we really want this location to be highly visible among other art spaces. we look forward to partnering with capable developers and working with the planning commission to implement culturally competent and accessible space. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon. my name's kevin burke. i'm a tech worker and resident in soma. i'm trying to save up to buy a house here. just want to recap the history since 2010. it's been fantastic at adding jobs. the unemployment rate in san francisco is 2.3%. a rate that many cities in the country that would kill for. unfortunately, adding more jobs means you're adding commuters. the peak traffic like the busiest that -- b.a.r.t. and caltrain get is bringing people to san francisco in the morning, taking people out of san francisco at night. adding more jobs and housing has increases competition for apartments in and outside of san francisco. i'd also like to remind everyone that affordable housing includes people that are renting market race ute un. there are a lot of low income residents that are in market race units. every new job taker bids up the price of rents in town. there's not much else that people my age talk about. given those stats, i'm not sure why we're planning on dumping 40,000 more jobs on soma, when it only houses about 20% of the jobs that it will generate. [ inaudible ] housing for 20% of that workforce. if that plan goes through, you've essentially won the hq 1 lottery, but other cities are planning on adding housing for that element. san francisco isn't. [ inaudible ] i don't think that's really fair. it's going to increase strain on caltrain and b.a.r.t. increasing the number of commuters is going to increase crush on the system as peak times. before you vote on this, i'd like to try a simple exercise. take ten of your friends, go to montgomery b.a.r.t. at 5:30 p.m. you and all of your friends squeeze onto a train in a single door. that's essentially what you're doing when you add 40,000 new workers. it's really bad and it's going to get worse. we should be focusing on adding more reverse commuters, as people that leave san francisco during the day. that would be the better thing for transit and for the entire region as a whole. please consider zoning the region for mixed use, and adding more housing for people who come here for the jobs. thank you. >> my name is fernando haro, with community housing organizations. i want to add my voice about the need to match housing to jobs. as we're increasing this incredible amount of jobs that we have already seen occur in san francisco and occur in silicon valley, confer he talkihe -- we're talking about adding a lot more commercial space in this one particular area of the city. we need to be able to match housing to match those jobs within the south of market. how do you do that? well, i know this isn't my get rich quick talk, but i'm going to try out my get rich quick talk with you guys. you get a parcel that's worth -- let's say you can build 85 feet on it, and you fit through while the planning department rezones your parcel to 200 or let's say 400 feet in height. so now, you can build three, four, five times as much as you could when you originally got your piece of the plan. so you got rich quickly, and all you had to do was wait for the planning commission to pass this plan. i'm going to turn this around and say because you're not market rate developers and you're not interested in getting rich quick, how do you pay for housing quickly? you recapture that value. you recapture that value by requiring developers who are going to build to those great heights to dedicate land for affordable housing, to build on-site units for moderate income housing, to pay jobs housing linkage fees much higher if they had not just had the value of their land incompetent crease by three, four or five times. how much money do we need and how many sites do we need? i haven't heard yet factualexaw we're going to identify the sites or getting the sites that we need to build the affordable housing for folks that we need housing to match jobs, they'll say we need housing to match the wages of those jobs across the whole range of wages so that we have those sites, and we can have those sites either through land dedication, or if your staff goes out and actually surveys those sites and then identifies them, and then you as a city creates a right of first refusal so they don't turnover and become more market rate housing or commercial development, and we never get a chance to build the housing. and those of us who sat through the eastern neighborhoods, we saw how that worked out. we had lots of great plans. the planning staff presented great hopes and aspirations how we were going to reach a housing balance and look at us now, so it's time for us to look seriously at housing and funding and the great richness that we're going to create through this plan. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> first of all, i'm generally in support of you moving this plan forward. it's got a lot of good aspects and deserves to move forward. there's two sites that i'm working on where there's details of the plan that i think are really in danger of endangering the housing development on those sites. the first is a provision in the