Transcripts For SFGTV Planning Commission 20240712

Clerk we should open this up for Public Comment. If you wish to speak to an item proposed for continuance only on the matter of continuance, you should hit star 3 now to be queued to speak. Can i ask why the item was continued, the brannan street one . Clerk brannan i dont believe it was proposed to be heard today. To be honest, i dont know why the brannan item is being continued. Okay. I set time to show up and we got notification by mail. Clerk the item is listed on agenda as matter of continuance on the agenda. Thank you sir. Good afternoon commissioners. My family and i live at 2843 geary boulevard. I understand that theres a continuance thats been requested to address things with the tenant. I like to voice those concerns. Clerk unfortunately, at this time, you cannot on matters proposed on continuance. We are taking Public Comment but only on major of continuance and not. Project itself. Is that 2845 geary boulevard . Clerk it was listed 2843 and its continued to october 15th. Would you like speak to continuance . No. Clerk thank you very much. Caller, would you like to speak to the matter of continuance on any of these items . We lost them. Well take the next caller. I already had a chance to speak. Clerk sorry. Commissioners that will conclude Public Comment for items proposed for continuance. The matters are now before you. Commissioner imperial move to approve. Clerk on the continuance . D clerk on that motion to continue matters as proposed. [roll call vote] that motion passes unanimously. 60. If the Zoning Administrator could opine on items 3b and 13b. I will continue the variance. [indiscernible] rhyme me of the proposed continuance date . Clerk thank you. Commissioners that will place us under your consent calendar and the only matters to have hear is by the Planning Commission and maybe acted upon by the single roll call vote of the commission. There will be no separate discussion of of this item. The matter shall be removed from the consent calendar and considered as a separate item for a future hearing. [agenda item read] members of the public if you wish to pull that matter off the consent, you need to press star 3. You did see two people in the queue. Would you like to have this matter removed from consent and heard . I isnt a letter in opposition to this item. I didnt know it was going to be under consent. Like to have it removed from consent and heard today, better if it was continuance but i dont know if thats an option. Clerk well pull it off consent and heard at the end of the agenda. President koppel lets stay with the end. Clerk very good president koppel. We will hear this matter at the end of todays agenda. Commissioners item 7. [agenda item read] any member of the public wish to speak to the minutes . Commissioners, Public Comment on the minutes are closed. Commissioner imperial move to approve minutes. President koppel motion to adopt the minutes for august 27, 2020. [roll call vote] clerk that motion passes unanimously, 60. Item 8. Commission comment and questions. Commissioner imperial thank you president koppel. As we all know, today is a very were all feeling anxiety. Looking outside our window and it is very orange outside and its really speaks for Climate Policies that we at the Planning Department has now. Im really looking forward and hearing this in Planning Commission some time this year. We need to prioritize this as well as we are looking into this that we also need to look into the budget and the implementation. As we are looking into the housing goal as were looking i understand that the bay area and the housing strategy but not so much more in terms of climate strategies. I think its a Good Opportunity for San Francisco to have that and to really have a comprehensive and in terms of looking into the budget and implementation as to what are the timeline for this. Fortunately this discussion happened five years ago. We really need to act on this. Thats one thing. Another thing that i would like to touch on as well is in terms of Community Interest when there are opposition or appeals in one particular project. To allow them to have more time to present as well. For example, the ones that happened last year where it has come from the public for us in the commission to hear additional information. Didnt have enough chance to do the presentation. I would like to actually inquire more question about the eviction. I would like for the Planning Department to provide us information when it comes tenants history. Not just evictions because there are different forms of displacement in terms of harassment. Really looking into dig into that. I know 2214 cayuga is continued as well. As commissioners we rely on the documents to be presented to us. I like the Planning Department to do more research and information when it comes to tenants that have resided in a particular project. Lastly, theres [indiscernible] i would also for us the planners to read into that. Its really shows the history of the displacements here in San Francisco. It will continue still. But at the same time, we need to do more in terms of projects coming to us. There are more stories of people. Who are the people who live here and who the people who are going to live here. Thats my comment. Thank you. Clerk seeing no further request to speak oh, commissioner moore . Vice president moore i entered my name in the wrong place. I wanted to share with you something which i hope at some point you all will be able to see and hear about. I was able to listen to a presentation yesterday by the planning director of the city of oakland. He spoke about the history of planning in birmingham, alabama. I dont want to steal the thunder, but it was such an incredible eyeopener city structure of birmingham, and it was extremely powerful. I will try to see that planning director give that presentation to the department as well as to the commissioners. It was an incredibly eyeopening and moving presentation that i hope that you all will be able to hear at some point. I will make an attempt to make that happen. Thank you. Clerk okay. Thank you. Commissioners, that will place us under department matters. Two quick items. One, im sure you read Mission Street was acquired by that developers and the city will acquire that parcel as part of land dedication for that project. It was not a done deal. It was a lawsuit and we settled and its moving forward. Also, you may have heard that john stewart from the John Stewart Company passed away this weekend. He had have been battling cancer for couple of years. I know many of you knew him and worked with him. He appeared before the Commission Many times. He was a champion of housing and Affordable Housing in the city. He was a larger than life person. He will be sorely missed. I ask that we adjourn in his memory. That concludes my report. Thank you. Clerk thank you director. Commissioners, next item 10 for the review of past events at the board of supervisors and board of appeals and historic preservation. I have no report from them. We can move into general Public Comment. I have a question for the director. Would you mind adding additional order to the timeline and what the steps will be on this great step for the city to get the Mission Project . Yes, thats part of that. It has not been transferred yet to the city. I think after its identified, theres a timeline up to six months before the parcel gets transferred to the city. So the timing of that, im not sure. But it will happen relatively soon. Another big question is, the funding for it to be developed as Affordable Housing. Obviously theres not funding necessarily identified to do that. Well have to work with mocd and board of supervisors and the mayor to make that happen. Vice president moore it is considered a priority project . Sure. Thats mocd to determine. Obviously our history here and with the hearings, its a priority of ours and the community. I believe that will be a city priority project. Vice president moore thank you. Clerk now well move to general Public Comment. This is your opportunity to press star 3 to be entered into the queue to speak under general Public Comment for matters not listed on todays agenda. Good afternoon commissioners. I hope you all are doing well with the distressing and disturbing sky and air and heat. Anyway, i isnt you some photos over the weekend of 1647, which did have a d. R. Hearing on may 18th which might be worth your time to watch. This morning, i sent you more photos of three projects on jersey street that did not have a d. R. I sent them, i think many people on the commissioner knew to the issue of the demo. I thought it was important to share the photos which i shared previously with other commissioners in the past. When it came on the market, it was the most expensive Single Family home ever in the valley. Shortly after that, 235, 237 jersey, that price exceeded the [indiscernible]. Its flat. I know they are fancy homes. Its in the flat of noey valley. I couldnt understand why. Then since then, i discovered that 168 jersey, it sold for the second time. I guess thats why they could get the 7 million for those other two. 168 jersey has a sad history but originally sold in 2012 for 1. 37 out of foreclosure. I hope you get to look at the photos in the email i sent. Make your judgment about the demos and how it relates to the issue and projects. I will add, theres two more projects that also have what i like to call squishy demo that are coming online. Goodbye, take good care, be well, be safe. Thank you very much. Clerk thank you georgia. Thimembers of the public this is your opportunity to press star 3 to submit general Public Comment. Go ahead, caller. Hello. Im a tenant in district 8. In regard to commissioner imperials comment on building history and whether they are tenants in buildings. This is something that we , the public, brought to the Planning Commission maybe two years ago. There was an outcry. Since theres only like two commissioners left that were added to that discussion, it was a Budget Discussion the commission overwhelmingly decided that somebody could be allotted as a resource to do this type of investigating. Then it turned out that it didnt get implemented by the director. Now it seems that once again, it has been dismissed in this budget cycle. Its really critical that you know, say for example a project coming up for d. R. That has buyouts, not the actual buyout but declaration of buyouts on file from the previous owner before the sale and the current owner also wants to do a buyout. Which means a discussion may take place. This is a tactic used by landlords and developers to empty out a building. If theres no final buyout agreement filed required by law, sometime its used to circumvent the law. These little tactics happen sometimes as owners are just bluffing and buyout is used as a tactic. There are also cases where the unit is totally demolished and like a where was the tenant. They wanted to obliterate the fact that a tenant was there. These things need to be looked into by Planning Commission. Clerk thank you. Good afternoon commissioners. Commissioner imperial, thank you so much for bringing up a very important point that should be taken seriously by the Planning Department. Im glad you brought this up. This reminded me of a case that is going to be before you in couple of weeks. We actually do have a letter to the assigned planner in the Planning Department is warning the assigned planner about the existence of tenants at this location. Im specifically talking about 350 san jose avenue. Nobody looked into it. What do you know, one of the tenants happen to be a senior who used to be an aid nurse. Shen he when she retired to enjoy what was left out of her life, she was hit with eviction or threat of eviction. Unfortunately this tenant died while negotiation on her eviction was in process. Even at times when the planner is assigned sorry, is alerted to the fact that there are tenants, particularly longterm senior tenants, they dont do anything about it. We need to have a better way of protecting our most Affordable Housing stock, which according to the general plan, this is not what is ozzy is making up, this is the San Francisco general plan. The most Affordable Housing stock is the rent control housing stock. Were not basically in the business of protecting 64 of the San Francisco population, which happen to be tenants. Once again, thank you so much commissioner imperial for bringing this up. I want to thank commissioner moore for bringing up this interesting presentation that actually piqued my interest. I hope the Planning Department would invite this person to give an informational presentation so the public will have the opportunity to hear it. Thank you very much. Clerk last call for general Public Comment. Members of the public, you need to press star 3. Seeing no further requests to speak under general Public Comment, commissioners, we can move on to regular calendar. Item 11. This is an informational presentation. Is staff prepared to make the presentation . Im here to make my presentation. I will just share my screen. I will also make this full screen. Here to provide update on shared Spaces Program. Commissioners, i wanted to note that i am here on representing a large team that is delivering this project for the city. Pardon me why i sort out this auto advance situation. This is a large Interagency Team with staff from the Mayors Office, the office of economic workforce development, sfmta, department of public works as well as digital services. I apologize for that commissioners. I really want to acknowledge all of the talented energy that the departments are contributing to make this Economic Recovery Program possible for the city. For today, just a quick overview of the goals of this program of the Economic Recovery Task force set up by mayor london breed. Quick snapshot of program statistics. Where we seeing the shared spaces leveraged and showing up across the city, what kinds of projects are we seeing. Then ill close with focus on equity and Sustainability Strategy for the program. Commissioners may know that shared Spaces Program is one of the key outcomes of the Economic Recovery Task force. This allows our local merchants and locally one the businesses to operate safely outdoors where they couldnt before do so indoors turning over the public realm in order for them to conduct merchandising, conduct Outdoor Dining and the like. The other benefits to this program arent just economic and commercial, this is also part of our citys overall resilience and response to our social and our psychological well being. There are many different parts of the public realm that shared spaces help facilitate operations in. Those are in the public rightofway. Place like sidewalks or curbside or parking lanes. Sometimes from curb to curb there will be a full roadway opening as i like to recast it. We work with the folks over at the recreation and Parks Department as well as the port to leverage open spaces in those jurisdictions for commercial activities to support economic recovery. Last but not least, properties under the Planning Department jurisdiction and private lots these are things like surface parking lot, rear yard and cart yards and deep front setbacks. Theres a range of commercial activities that can happen in any of these settings. We can temporarily reregulate use of the curve to allow for white and yellow zones for contactless pick up like groceries and medications. Theres outdoor retail and merchandising. For example, outside your neighborhood, produce market, be able to reserve parts of the sidewalk to allow patrons as they are waiting to enter the establishment to distance adequately from one another. Probably most notably with Outdoor Dining and personal services. Theres a lot of creativity that we see and ingenuity on the part of local merchants to figure out how to make the parts of the public realm works for themselves. Out on 16th street, between valencia and mission. Also in the sunset between 19th and 20th and on grant street in chinatown. How we do in terms of statistics . In the short four months of the program has been active. Constituent received almost 2000 applications from project sponsors large and small. Some of these are individuals some of them are groups and some of them seeking to operate a large street closure or surface parking lot. You can see on the graph on the right, the sheered numbers as well as the percentage proportions of those different kinds of projects that were seeing in our shared spaces population. Little bit different way of looking at the numbers. Theres a bell. Three quarters all the applications have been submitted have been approved. Well talk about what the application and approval timeline looks like. Here in on the map you can get a sense current geographic distribution of shared spaces across the city by application status. This information also available to the public at our dashboard. This is an interactive platform set up by Planning Department staff for the public to be able to not only understand what geographic distribution looks like across the city but for anyone to be able to click on the data point and understand where that project is in terms of its place in the approval pipeline. Some other ways of looking at some of the statistics, youll see here that the program does continue to grow, demand for shared space has not slackened. Weve added new types of opportunity, roadway closures as well as those for surface parking lots. Were seeing more and more demand as local merchants see this as a lifeline for survival. Its really important for the Economic Recovery Task force and Mayors Office and this city at large to lower as many barriers as possible for participation in the program. This is a fee free program. Were not engaging any Cost Recovery through the charging of any fees for this. Making it as easy as possible for as many people as possible to participate. The splash page, web page shown on the right is where anyone can go to get not only Technical Assistance information but also apply. Currently, the mayors executive orders or the declaration set the program to expire at the end of december 2020. In terms of good governments and trying to relieve or remove as many stressors as possible or olympic, w applicants, we tro make this simple as possible. Theres no application fees. Weve removed many standing requirements that we would have asked in a noneconomic and Public Health emergency. You are expected as an operator to selfcertify that you will comply with a. D. A. And you carry the insurance policy and the like. We arent asking applicants to submit a dimension site plan and whole bunch of documentation. Were trusting that folks will be operating respectfully and doing so in a safe manner thats a. D. A. Accessible for those who coming to attend and passing through the neighborhood. Sometimes that means encroaching little bit in front of your neighbors frontage, which is totally fine as long as you can furnish consent, proof of consent from that neighbor. Were working closely with 311 on our enforcement. Currently enforcement is complaintdriven. We are trying to transition to a little bit more of a proactive monitoring and enforcement strategy. Ill talk about this later in Sustainability Strategy, resourcing is almost out of thin air. As our population grows larger and number of cases increases across the neighborhoods, we recognize that compliance work is going to be more and more critical to the program success. That will of course, require deeper more dedicated resources for the program. Of course, revocation is really always a recourse if an operator is behaving egregiously. Thankfully we have not seen that. All of the merchants participating in the program are showing lot of grit and perseverance but also respectfulliness and leadership in their neighborhoods. No enforcement issues to speak of. Takes about 72 hours for the city to turn around an application. This is a very aggressive item. The goal is to get as many of these folks up and running as quickly and as soon as possible, having to do deal with minimum red tape. We revised the way that the city approves roadway closures so theres a much more streamline process. Its the urgency that we have to getting her assistant merchant s and constituents, to ensure life safety considerations are taken into account as part of the design and approval. San francisco is a hilly place. We know that shared space isnt always going to work depending on where you live in merchant or Small Business is located in the city. We do endeavor as a team to try and help you find a way to get operating. That might mean operating nearby, not directly in front of your own brick and mortar frontage. We see that as well. Heres an example some of the Technical Assistance documentation this planning staff put together helping merchants and other operators understand how to deploy their spaces thats in manner of a. D. A. Compliant. I will skip a little bit ahead just so we can close and have discussion and talk a little bit about equity and Sustainability Strategy. From the very beginning, inception of this program, we knew an equity strategy will be a core and driving component. Not only how the program was designed and how well deliver on it. We work closely with our partners to try and understand how through this program, we could ensure that we were helping to address neighborhoods, communities, demographics that were already vulnerable before covid. We werent replicating the structural inequities that were already present through the program. There are number of inputs that go into how we prioritize neighborhoods and projects for get Technical Assistance. We looked at the neighborhood area and cultural district, other areas like the communities of concern as well as equity zone. This helps us figure out on sort of geospatial way where we have been and continue to target additional resources. Theres some really exciting projects that have come out. There are street closures, bay view, chinatown and couple of spaces in the sunset. We will soon have shared spaces, roadway closures in the mission as well as in the excelsior. I want to shot out our citywide partners who have been absolutely instrumental in helping to deliver this program as well. We are looking to get deep in the equity strategy and leading it with all the ways the program is operating and showing up in neighborhoods. This looks like more outreach to ensure were reaching our immigrant and english second language demographics. We are also looking to more deeply resource some of our preexisting community partners, leveraging their expertise and street closures and Community Engagement and a project operation. Were also investigating the materials grants at this time, shared space operators, big and small, have to produce their own furniture, traffic diversion barriers. The city is looking into offsetting some of those costs for materials. Well shortly be launching impact surveys so we can start measuring what the true benefit and impact has been to Small Business community. Please stay tuned for more data on that front. Quickly in closing, our Sustainability Strategy. I mentioned earlier that this program is part of the citys Emergency Response to both the pandemic as well as the economic crises. We pulled it together really quickly and got the program up and running and weve noted that in order for this program to continue serving through the end of the year and perhaps even beyond, there are certain things we want to make sure we put in place in order to make it sustainable. These are the goals of our Sustainability Strategy which is to be efficient as possible and quick as possible in helping folks get up and running. We want to remove those barriers whether they are financial or process barriers. We want to ensure compliance with especially our health directive. We want to track stories based on data were collecting about the project performance. Those four goals have a number of different potential actions that the city could take to bring the program to a longer term of sustainability. Ill focus little bit today on the three that are circled here. I mentioned materials grant earlier. Its weird looking at how folks are doing this, we noted its actually an investment for these merchants and Merchant Groups to operate shared spaces. On top of being distressed economically already, while the city is helping to make public realm Assets Available to merchants, were recognizing that theres outlaying involved. We want to address that. We also noted that theres a lot of process that can be streamlined. Heres a case study for example on valencia. One of our first projects and one of our banner projects, roadway closures. In the order of thousands of dollars as well as significant contributions from the Merchant Group collectively to operate these sites. We come up with some calculations for what it might mean for the city to start assuming some of these costs. We are moving forward with identifying funding to be able to provide these materials to communities. With that, i will close and take questions from the commission. I want to thank robin and the team from planning as well as the city wide team. This was a huge undertaking to create this program. As you can see, its been enormously successful with nearly 2000 applications. Its really been a lifeline for Small Businesses. Huge emphasis on equity and reaching out to underresourced communities to ensure they can benefit from this. Small Business Commission and the Economic Recovery Task force are looking at extending this. I wanted to recognize the effort thats been put in. Its been a big success. Clerk thank you director hillis. Commissioners, i do see one commissioner requesting to ask a direct question. Would like to do that now or after Public Comment . Thank you for that excellent presentation. Super helpful. I wonder if you can address further before it goes to Public Comment. Whats the process to extend some of these permanently. Many people thought the sidewalk, restaurants have added enormously street life and have been a silverlining during this period. I wonder what that process is from the Planning Department and the commission perspective to allow this to continue as a permanent use as opposed to temporary use. Im guessing there might be a number of Public Comments about that. I thought it might be helpful you can address that. Certainly. I think i can speak a little bit to that. I believe director hillis can also. Thank you commissioner dime. There has bee commissioner di. Theres been lot of success. Many neighborhoods across the city and demographics and communities i think theres kind of irrefutable and resounding enthusiasm for continuing this program or its provisions that we allow it to do in some form in the longte longterm. There are at present, maybe two main potential mechanisms for doing so. Should we continue to be in emergency of Public Health, Emergency Program was created Emergency Declaration by mayor breed could be extended. The other possibility is through legislation. Because of the interjurisdictional nature of the program, the place that shared spaces occur and all of the different dimensions to it, entertainment, public works, code, transportation code there would need to be a pretty wideranging legislative effort to pull all those pieces together and codify the program. Commissioner diamond i think thats important to know. Its not just the planning side, we probably take a little bit of backseat i think weve seen what it can do and theres momentum to carry it forward. Its a topic of conversation with the Economic Recovery Task force. We can certainly bring this back to you. I think thats very helpful to the extent theres interest across the commission. I think we want to be part of this. Clerk thank you. We should open this up for Public Comment. Members of the public, if you like to speak to this matter, please press star 3 to be entered in the queue. This is kim stevens with San Francisco department of public works. Ive been trying to get in touch this program in that same area. We need to coordinate [indiscernible] thank you, i will be in touch. Clerk thank you. Members of the public, this is the last call to be entered into the queue to speak to this matter. Seeing no further request to speak. Commissioners, the matter is before you. This is only informational presentation. There is no action that needs to be taken. President koppel i have witnessed a really beneficial opening up in the sunset neighborhoods out on 19th and irvin. Its been a great way to bring some life to the neighborhood enable the businesses to have more tools to succeed and bring back some of the neighborhoods. Thanks again. I share the sentiment of other commissioners. This is a good step in helping the Small Businesses, especially [indiscernible] it will take some money for someone to invest or to put up some furniture. Theres one on 19th, i can see they use their own money to put some barricades. Thats a lot. I would hate to see them go. Another thing in terms of the question about the permanent process, i think this is looks like the surveys that will be happening is something i would look forward to in terms of the effectiveness of it and the enforcement. We will need more comprehensive study on this before its a permanent process. Im looking forward to see that as well. One thing that i liked is also the enforcement, how to be proactive and we are starting to think of that. Not just complaintdriven. Sometimes when complaintdriven goes through, many of the complaints will be about homeless, how the homeless folks are being interfering at the same time, theres housing crises. Thank you very much on this presentation. Vice president moore outstan ding, you would like to suggest program to win an award for all the aspects that has mastered in that time. Its an amazing program. Think its exemplary for other cities to learn. I walked from home through chinatown, jackson street, washington street the other night. I was relieved to see animation on our sidewalks. Its not just shared spaces but variety of shared spaces is what struck me. There were othe there was pee who used topography and do something fancier. [please stand by] and that theyre not they dont in any way impede emergency access, right, or the ability of First Responders to, you know, leave the ground floor of the building facade and understand how to leave and access quickly. So some finetuning thats happening there. Canopies and wooden breaks and so forth are thinking that were very much thinking about providing better guidance for. Vice president moore it was interesting last night. I felt really bad. There was so much ash in the fire, it was an impairment to successfully operate, and on these colder nights, people will need to have heat lamps, as you already said, there may be other things that may be helpful to Start Publishing a little collection of pictures on your website because its creativity of individuals that met the specific challenges where they are, and i think it would definitely help them to inspire others. I would note if anyone visits sfgov. Org sharedspaces, theres a gallery, and we are adding images all the time. Its been a resource to our counterparts in other countries that weve been working with and been in regular communication about in terms of Program Development and exchange. Vice president moore i will send you a couple of pictures to add. Oh, great. I will add them to the gallery. Vice president moore thank you. President koppel thank you. Commissioner chan . Commissioner chan thank you for your dedication to this program. I also want to say that i appreciate the dashboard. I was clicking through it, and i think its a really great resource for the public to see the services and limitations. My one comment, you had mentioned future impact surveys and reports,. I would be very interested in that in hopes that you could share this information with the public, especially in regards to the demographics and space in the neighborhoods, but thank you so much. Great work. President koppel commissioner imperial. Commissioner imperial i just have one last question for robin. In terms of partnership, it says your organization is partnering with other organizations in the city. Is there a chance for others to partner with you and the city, as well . Absolutely. I actually only mentioned a few of the partnerships that have been helping us on a citywide level. Folsom street just opened up, the valencia corridor merchants association, the Chinatown Community officer, so theres lots of opportunity for deepend partnerships across the city. And are they the ones that identify the city or what are the terms of the partnership . Theyre very flexible. The city has advocates and proponents of all shapes and sizes, and we see our role in the program to facilitate those groups desire to activate and help support their businesses and communities. So folks have done some local organizing to apply to the program but there were other teams that we helped did evelo. On the compliance, enforcement, and monitoring, we would love to work with groups that do the ambassador work, for example, so that we have folks on the ground, you know, in our especially our larger shared spaces, reminding folks to, you know, about Face Covering and physical distancing and getting off your bike if youre coming through the roadway closure. So i think there are many different opportunities for, really, all of San Francisco to pitch in to help make this successful. Commissioner imperial and one last question, sorry. In terms of material grants and im assuming that will be a grant through oewd. And in terms of how accessible in terms of applying for those grants . I just want to make sure that its accessible for Small Businesses. Absolutely. So with the budget that was just passed, we are working with the city budget. We are working with oewd to identify how we would disburse those material amounts and so forth. So we should know probably within the next six weeks precisely how we would do it. With all the roadway closures that have been to date, especially roadway closures would receive materials, so folk that are renting their barricades will no longer need to rent those, for example. So to be determined precisely how well roll that out, but were also looking at our equity neighborhoods and our priority neighborhoods as a place to start when it comes to materials, grants, and other Technical Assistance. Commissioner imperial yeah. Thats why also head of nonprofits submitting applications and submitting invoices sometimes can be a deterrent in terms of applying for a grant. I hope that oewd can be considering eliminating the barriers, as well. Thank you very much. Thats all. Thank you, commissioner. President koppel commissioner moore, do you have anything to add . Vice president moore i just wanted to ask one question about the labor. Has there been any discussion about more labor . Sometimes it involves removing certain types of barriers coming upstairs. Has there been any discussion about that, as well . In terms of labor operators [inaudible]. Vice president moore thats correct. You know, this would be a Good Opportunity for us to investigate this with a participant survey. I think our colleagues at oewd may be able to speak a little more authoriatetively at this point. You know, we would like to inquire how many people were you able to rehire back to their jobs . How many people are back earning to support their families. Maybe we can follow up offline specifically about the labor question so i understand that correctly and we can get some data on that. Vice president moore there was some confusion on my part the other day. [inaudible] people showing up and stepping into a restaurant. The exchange of money was in an open unprotected spaces and issues, and there were other slightly different ways of doing things, not to talk about the mandatory sanitation and wiping, etc. , etc. It was a little more stress and a little more intent and shifted emphasis here. Certainly, our Small Business community is having to adapt. How do we change it . Folks are pivoting their Business Model or partnering with other neighboring merchants in order to navigate a shared space, and were placing a whole different set of expectations on server staff and in terms of how they are not only serving but helping to manage topics in open space, so it is a range of adaptation for everything. Vice president moore and i appreciate the information that youre giving on everything. Thank you. Clerk okay. Seeing no further questions from commissioners, we can move on. Thank you, robin. Commissioners, that will place us on our discretionary review item as item 12 was continued, as was 13 a and b. [agenda item read]. Clerk this is a discretionary review. Is staff prepared to present . Yes. Good afternoon, commissioners. Matthew chandler, Building Department staff. The following item is a discretionary review to convert two ground use spaces to a. D. U. S. The project also proposed facade and interior alterations, including the addition of common lodging facilities for the building tenants, and its filed in conjunction with the mandatory soft story permit. One of the commercial storefronts at 990 filbert street is vacant and had been left vacant by an Artist Studio when they vacated the premises in april 2020. Betwe the d. R. Requester is dina caprini on behalf of tons of bubbles laundromat, and its concerned that the renovation will result in the loss of a laundromat for the city. The project is enrolled within the local a. D. U. Program which does not permit the illumination or reduction of active ground floor spaces in the neighboring districts or chinatown or basis retail district. The property is located in rm1 Zoning District. The subject property is required to and has been issued the necessary permits to comply with the department of Building Inspections mandatory seismic retrofit programs to offset costs and i know crease housing supply. The department does not have any Firm Policies regarding to the laundromat or l. C. U. Conservation in place. The staff finds that there are no controversial or extraordinary circumstances resulting from this proposal and recommends the commission to not take d. R. And approve the project as proposed. This concludes my presentation. I will be available for questions, and the project sponsor is also in attendance. Thank you. Clerk thank you, matt. Is there a slide presentation for the d. R. Requester . There is not, but they are prepared to speak. Clerk okay. D. R. Requester, you have five minutes. Hi, commissioners. Im deanna caprini fusch, and i am the owner of the laundromat. Do you want me to speak . Okay. I have been the owner of tons of bubbles laundromat since 2004. I have owned and operated five locations in the area, four of which are in the bay area. Clerk im sorry, maam. Im going to interrupt you. Do you have your computer speaker on or your Television Speaker on . Its creating an echo. Okay. Clerk ive paused your time. Im sorry. Is that better . Clerk yes, thank you. [inaudible] above me called, concerned about this potential rumor that he had heard. This call prompted me to research, and there it is in black and white. Prior to this call from the tenant, i noticed that 990 was suddenly vacant. I emails the landlords in midapril and mentioned how i would love to expand tons of bubbles in that space. They replied, we do not know what we want to do with this space, but they do know, and they lied to me. Only a handful of businesses have been allowed to remain open when the pandemic struck in march. Mine was one of those allowed open. Not only am i considered essential. Sanitation is important during normal times, but during these times, it is critical. This is the only laundromat in the area for all of the residents to go. The closest is in a 4. 5 distant hilly blocks, which is the missing sock on polk and hyde. Most of the residents dont have the physical reserves to lug laundry 4. 5 steep city blocks. As you can imagine, riding a book with a weeks worth of laundry isnt feasible. As we enter into the winter months, there are blankets and comforters that need to be cleaned, and how are these customers supposed to do this . They have the least resources and physical abilities to take on such a loss. For years, laundromats have been forced out of their spaces for other businesses to come in that are nonessential. My very first store at 1498 fulton street is just that. Assi it is no longer a laundromat. I see it happening allaround me, leaving residents in a bad situation. Our neighborhoods need them skpr, and so does the residents. I support that San Francisco has a housing describe sis, and i am completely on board for that. However, i dont believe that removing an essential business makes sense. I ask you, commissioners, to try and put yourself in the residents shoes. If this was your neighborhood laundromat or if your parents resided near it and used their services, what would you do, and how would that make you feel . I have presented a compromise to the commissioners in my d. R. That i believe would appease everybody. The landlord making an a. D. U. Unit at 990, which would allow housing in San Francisco, allowing the laundromat to stay an essential need and servicing the community. I think my time is up. Clerk that is your time, but you do have a twominute rebuttal. These laundry mats are my passion. That is what i do. Ive been doing it for 15 years. Clerk that is it for you, maam. You will be prepared to make a rebuttal. Project sponsor, are you prepared to make your presentation . Yes. Clerk okay. You have two minutes. Okay. My name is chris. A brief history of 2100, 2102 jones street, which includes 998 and 990 filbert. It was built in 1912. In 1958, my inlaws and two others purchased 2100 jones street. Over the years, all owners of 2100 have passed away, with the last, my fatherinlaw, who passed on in may. All ownership is now held in trust, with all decisions now being made by the original owners children or relatives. In 2019, as we were finalizing plans for the mandatory seismic work, we were made aware that the majority of the work would involve construction in 998 and 990 filbert. 990 is vacant as are the other location where seismic work is to occur. The lease at 998 filbert where tons of bubbles is located expired on july 31, 2020. On may 27, 2020, miss foose was notified by our attorney that her lease would not be renewed, and she would have to vacate the premises by july 31, 2020. Miss fooshs refusal to leave has created a hardship for the contractor and has also compromised the safety for our tenants. After discussion with owners, the decision was made to convert 998 and 990 to a. D. U. S. Some of reason that decision was made to convert the spaces into a. D. U. Safety for tenants. Under mandatory seismic work, 990 and 998 do not have to be brought up to code. When converted, they will have to be brought up to code, including fire sprinklers and electrical. This will benefit the safety of all of our tenants. Because of the danger of build up of lint in the laundry and exhaust events, clogged laundry vents were noted in my last walk three, as shown. We will be able to recoupe the cost within 20 years if we convert to accessory dwelling units. Our a. D. U. Project was okayed by blight on march 4, 2019, both on issues of neighborhood conformity and use. Submission of permit was on january 7, 2020. We are now in our ninth month. Our residential tenants are not being disadvantaged because the owners are installing a laundry facility within 2100 and also in 2120. These will serve approximately 28 tenants, and in light of covid19, is a safer environment for our tenants. The owners are also furnishing hand sanitizer. Miss foosh stated in her d. R. That the nearest laundry mat is 4. Laundromat is 4. 5 miles away, the missing sock. That is not true. It is. 3 of a mile away. To date, we have spent 17,000 on plans, engineering, and. Commissioner perez and permits. The building located down street at 2169 jones street built about the same time as a Grocery Store with apartments above. That building was torn down, and a modern rental unit took its play. This is a safety and business decision [inaudible] commissioners, i thank you for your time. Clerk thank you. We should take Public Comment. At this time, members of the public, youll need to call into the 415 area code number and press star, three to get into the queue to speak. Through the chair, you will be afforded one minute. Well take the first caller. Good afternoon, caller. Good afternoon, commissioners. Lee hefner with commissioner peskins office. Weve received dozens of emails from nearby residents who are concerned about the removal of the laundromat. In tandem, and it is fitting, our office has undertaken a study around the need of laundromats, which in the era of covid19, theyre needed more than ever. They tend to serve neighborhoods that are more racially diverse and technically diverse. Lastly, there is, i understand, a prohibition on a. D. U. S if they would remove active special space in neighborhood commercial districts. I think our office is prepared to extend that prediction to kpeshl uses, which would protect 998 filbert street to address this aspect of the citywide a. D. U. Program. We do not have that prepared today, but i think it would be a good policy to have in place and would have an impact on planning staffs recommendation in this regard. I think that we are sympathetic to the needs of the laundromat. In the event that the d. R. Is taken and the application is denied, i think our office would be interested in pursuing technical services, including negotiation of a new lease. Thank you very much, and thats all ive got to say. Thank you, mr. Hefner, so now, well open it up for Public Comment, and ill remind members of the public, youll have one minute. Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is kevin fusch. I am an attorney representing tons of bubbles, and i am also the wife of dina fusch our daughter would like to speak. Clerk oka. Ozzie realm request the San Francisco land use realm with the San Francisco land use coalition. This is the heart of the matter that everybody is talking about, which is racial and social justice. Laundromats are very much needed, particularly in this area of town. This is one of the most dense spots in the city of San Francisco with a lot of tenants who dont have [inaudible] in their units, so i urge you to take d. R. And do not let something for the benefit of the public to be converted into something thats only for the benefit of the owner of this building. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Incom next caller, go ahead. Hi. My name is rico, and my wife and i nancy consider tons of bubbles to be an essential business. Our landlord does not allow washing machines and dryers in our units, so we frequent tons of bubbles. If we have to drive to other laundromats, then theres just simply no place to put a car, andtice aphysically impossible for us to take laund rry to anywhere thats close by. Clerk thank you. Its physically impossible for us to take laundry to anywhere thats close by. Clerk thank you. Just to let members of the public know, if you would like to enter Public Comment, press star, three. Go ahead, caller. My name is james reese, and im a longterm resident of north beach. Ive lived here 33 years, across the street from tons of bubbles, and its just a wonderful place. This one is definitely the cleanest and the nicest. The problems about the homeless and all of that stuff, i havent really encountered that, and any way, its just a Great Service for me and my wife, and my brotherinlaw and sisterinlaw, and we all live in this neighborhood. So we really would appreciate if it could stay open. Thank you very much. Clerk thank you. Okay. Members of the public, this is your opportunity to submit your Public Comment. I see no other callers requesting to speak to this matter, so that will conclude Public Comment. Commissioners, and we should take rebuttal. D. R. Requester, you have a twominute rebuttal. Thank you. Kevin fusch, tons of bubbles. The lease does have a fiveyear option, which was timely exercised. Tons of bubbles has never received any complaints from the landlord about any transients, any defecation, anything like that. We know when theres a problem with transients because the customers notify us, and we have never, in 15 years now, received any complaints at that location. The north beach laundry, quite frankly, its always been there and was for sale and closed down about a year ago now. The area has always needed and supported two laundromats, and without that, my daughter would like to speak. Dear commissioners. Without the laundromat, people would not be able to wash their clothes, and how will old people walk to another laundromat carrying laundry to another laundromat carrying laundry . There are a lot of people in this area. How can people carry all their clothes . I cant do that, and ive been seven. Dont do that. Thank you, commissioners. Clerk thank you. Through the chair, weve received a couple more requests to speak under Public Comment. We should take these calls now. Go ahead, caller. You have one minute. My name is justin. I live around the corner from tons of bubbles. They provide a Great Service. Its clean, and i dont see any problems with transients. Its a Great Service for myself, my wife, and my threeyearold son. Please keep the service. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Hi. Im louise miller, and ive been a patron over 30 years of the laundromat. I think the young girl spoke before and encapsulated it most eloquently. I havent seen transients, and i think its a service that we need in this area. Thank you sorry. Clerk go ahead. Okay. Thank you. Members of the public, this is sort of final call for Public Comment. Seeing no additional requests to speak, project sponsor, you have a twominute rebuttal. Yeah. Can you hear me . Clerk yes, we can. Okay. In regards to miss fuschs husband, there was an adem dde signed to that contract 15 years ago. She signed it. There is no fiveyear option. Its over, and this is an item that our attorney is currently aware of and will be handling. And when i i have to emphasize that we are following the act guidelines set by San Francisco, and like i said, its been nine months of permit, and over a year of planning back and forth with the city, and we have followed every single instruction we have gotten. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Commissioners, i believe the Public Comment portion of this hearing is closed. Closed, and the matter is now before you. President koppel commissioner moore . Vice president moore i consider [inaudible] is a reasonable metric in these city neighborhoods to find one. That said, i would like to briefly comment on a. D. U. S. I do not consider a. D. U. S as a solution for every level. A. D. U. S have to be separated from the street to have the proper ground. If there is no possibility because of the room height, at a minimum, there should be a fivefoot set back from the sidewalk. This particular property will sit right at the sidewalk on the sidewalk level which will not allow any providecy whatever and will require privacy and will require tenants to have their curtains drown all day and night. These units do not have access to the laundry room, they do not have access to any kind of amenity, i. E. , going to the garbage can. They have to go onto the street to do so. For those and others reasons, i think these units are not a zashl unit. I think they also need operable windows to qualify as an occupiable space. I am not supporting a. D. U. S in this location unless they are designed differently in this location. I feel we cannot continue just to allow approval of a. D. U. S in order to our responsibility is increasing the most focused on creating liveable units no matter who lives there, in an a. D. U. It doesnt matter. Our obligation is to look for liveable students, and i do not consider whats in fron t of u to be one. Thank you. President koppel so i wanted to chime in, and i agree with commissioner moore. This being a corner spot in the neighborhood, id rather see the effort made to keep the existing businesses there in the building. Im always going to be in favor of a. D. U. S taking the places of garages, but i took a look at the site. Its on a corner. It looks like it should be a commercial retail spot to me, so im siding with commissioner moore today. Commissioner imperial . Commissioner imperial thank you, president koppel and commissioner moore. I also agree with moores observation regarding this particular review. I think all of us use laundromats, and particularly for me, i live one block away from another laundromat, and another block away from another laundromat. Even though the project sponsor mentioned that there is another laundromat a block away, it can be hard. Laundromat services can be filled, and depending on how many Washing Machine Services are there, that doesnt mean that the actual neighborhood it can be less than the other neighborhood, and especially in this neighborhood, it looks like its going to be a hilly area, so thats already going to be a challenge, going up. And then carrying those loads, depending on how much loads you have. From my own experience, and thats in terms of the laundromat service. In terms of this particular project, the landlord did or the project sponsor did mention about the seismic work, and it looks like the that the d. R. Requester can work around, and it should not be seen. The only question here is the lease, and it looks like supervisor peskins office is willing to negotiate or facilitate the negotiation, and i hope the project sponsor would be going that. I am not in favor of evicting a Small Business right now, especially if this is something that is helpful to the neighborhood. So i also share your sentiment, and if i reflect theres other people commenting on this, as well, but i would take the d. R. And not approve and deny the project. President koppel commissioner chan . Commissioner chan thank you, fellow commissioners was that a motion . Commissioner imperial yes. Commissioner chan i just want to say that i live in this neighborhood, and speaking from personal experiences, it is very common in these parts to not have access a laundromat in a building. The neighborhood in these parts is something we should consider. Something appearing to be a block away can be separated by a large hill, and it be very difficult to tack a load of laundry there. From my pertech tiff, there are many circumstances at this particular site that perspective, there are many circumstances at this particular site that warrant not taking d. R. And approving the project. I also think we should be looking at this issue from a racial and social equity lens. President koppel commissioner diamond . Commissioner diamond i have a question for staff and then a question for the City Attorneys office. Staff, is all of these requirements in compliance with all of our regulations and rules . It is. Commissioner diamond it is. Okay. Question for the City Attorney. Im having a hard time understanding what the desired result is here because can we as a fee force the landlord to continue to rent to tons of bubbles or any laundry and operate a laundry here under our current city rules . Kate stacey, City Attorneys office. Commissioner, the city could not specify this particular tenant. There is state law prohibiting individuals participating in rent control, including specifying that the landlord allow specific tenants in the lease. When the commission disapproves a project in its entirety, theres no ability to impose conditions on that disproval. If your intention is approving one a. D. U. But disapproving this a. D. U. , i think theres a condition whether a laundromat be retained in this space is a reasonable condition to impose on the other a. D. U. Another question for staff, i had understood that there were some waivers being requested for these a. D. U. S. I dont know if these waivers aplay to one or both of the a. D. U. S or how they factor into the Planning Commissions discretion, but there may be also some state law that might apply to the approval or the citys ability to consider discretionary review of a single a. D. U. Im just not sure of all of the specific factors as to this property and how they apply, so maybe staff can help with that. I hope ive understood your question. Commissioner diamond maybe staff can weighin, and then, i have a comment. Staff, can you weighin on what the City Attorney said . Yes. [inaudible]. Commissioner diamond im really struggling with this item, commissioners. I do believe that theres a need for us to look citywide at the loss of laundromats. They do serve a critical need for many people in many neighborhoods. But at the moment, we dont have a policy around that. There is nothing adopted, and we have a project sponsor, that according to the city staff, is in complete compliant with the law and is doing a seismic update and putting in additional housing, which we are in favor of. At the moment, i would go with the staff recommendation but would very much hope that the Planning Commission would commission and the board of supervisors would adopt legislation Going Forward that really examine how we can craft legislation that requires laundromats citywide. Thats my current thinking, and i would go with the staff recommendation. President koppel commissioner [inaudible]. Commissioner fung the i understand the needs of some of the renters, although this is not necessarily a lowrent district. The question, though, is whether we are, in essence, asking for spot zoning for this particular site, and im not in favor of that. Additionally, the Property Owner does have certain rights an , and i think its acceptive of the staffs recommendation . President koppel commissioner moore . Vice president moore i just wanted to ask staff as to whether or not the proper separation of this unit being elevated from the sidewalk or having an alcove which plays into something when we look at a. D. U. S. I am also trying to have the Commission Look at the quality of the units as part of the discussion thats in front of us. Thank you, commissioners. [inaudible]. So the design of the a. D. U. S is [inaudible]. Vice president moore im breaking up. I can barely hear you. Im not sure what it is. The design of the a. D. U. Is something of a Design Department jurisdiction when we review the proposal. In this case, the property is an essentially a historic resource, so we do have guidelines for designs of these units, and we also need to make sure that they comply with the ceqa environments. So in order for this project to be categorically exempt, there is a need to keep the special spaces while [inaudible]. Vice president moore i appreciate your answer, and i think we may have to put that question back to our legislators because there are privacy issues that we need to address just when commercial space becomes residential space. What are the questions, what are the limitations, and i think you answered that question very, very well, and i appreciate it. However, i think these particular units in the general layout do not meet any standards of liveability that i consider to be essential to approve them. But your comment is very well taken and, i assure that our legislators will be reminded that they need to take this up as they move along, and theres a motion on the floor. President koppel i think commissioner imperial might want to chime in again . Commissioner imperial thank you. Thank you, president koppel. As this is in front of us now, i understand there is logistics legislation thats going to come up before us. But as for this particular project, i put a motion on take the d. R. And deny the conversion of commercial space to a. D. U. S because there will be an eviction happening of a Small Business, as well, and that is considering a special service for the neighborhood. The other thing about Small Businesses, they need to have lower or no protection or limited protection when it comes to eviction, as well, and our city needs to be really proactive in keeping Small Businesses from being evicted. Weve seen that, and we do have the small legacy business legislation, but even then, that protection is not enough. In the Planning Commission, we should be proactive when it comes to Small Businesses, especially when it comes to neighborhoods and staying in the neighborhood, so thats my comment. I move to take d. R. And not convert the commercial space to an a. D. U. Vice president moore second. Clerk okay, commissioners. Seeing no further comment from commissioners, there has been a motion to take d. R. And disapprove the conversion of the commercial space to a. D. U. S. The exceptional or extraordinary circumstances that i heard was the exemption of a Small Business that provides an essential service to the neighborhood, neighborhood topography, density, and the provision of service to lower income and racially diverse neighborhoods. On that motion [roll call] clerk so moved, commissioners. That motion passed 42, with commissioners diamond and fung voting against. Commissioners, the lone consent item, number 6, was pulled off, and we will take up that matter now for case number 2016800330 drm at 2440 bayshore boulevard. This is a discretionary review. Is staff prepared to make their presentation . I am, jonas. Good afternoon, commissioners. Michael christiansen, department staff. This proposes to amend the existing conditions of approval in discretionary review action 500 to allow a cannabis business to operate between the hours of 9 00 a. M. To 10 00 p. M. Daily. The existing location is located at 2442 bayshore boulevard within the nc3 Zoning District at the existing ground floor space of the mixedstory mixeduse building. The project was approved by the Planning Commission at the january 26, 2017 hearing through mandatory discretionary review, which was the required entitlement for medical cannabis dispensaries at that time. The initial application submitted to the department by the sponsor indicated hours of 9 00 p. M. To 7 00 p. M. Daily. Because the hours were adopts as a condition of approval, modification requires a new discretionary review action by this commission. Prior to publication, the department had received a total of three letters and 145 petition signatures in support of the application. Since packet publication, the department received a total of four emails in opposition to the project, opposition citing concerns bringing persons outside from the Visitacion Valley into the Visitacion Valley area and the impact to other businesses in the area. The department reviewed the operation and is in support of the request. The underlying nc3 district does not set limits for commercial uses, and its intended to provide a mix of goods and services to the immediate surrounding neighborhood. Generally, medical cannabis dispensaries in the city have been historically limited to the hours of 8 00 a. M. To 10 00 p. M. Daily, as is the standard limit under article 33 of the health code. If the space were occupied by a general retail use, there would be no limit to the hours of operation, and no notice or application would be required for 247 operation as a retailer. In reviewing the immediate context, its difficult to find a comparable set of hours due to the very high amount of vacant storefronts. Properties to the south of bayshore boulevard are the schlage lock site, which is being redeveloped into another business site. The Department Finds that the standard hours of operation for medical cannabis dispensaries from 8 00 a. M. To 10 00 p. M. Is appropriate for this location. The Department Recommends that the commission take discretionary review and approve the project as proposed, further, draft a discretionary review action memo which was drafted with the staff report to limit the hours of operation to 8 00 a. M. To 10 00 p. M. Daily. Thank you. This concludes my presentation. Clerk thank you. Is the project sponsor prepared to make their presentation . I dont see the name or phone submitted to us as the project sponsor, so please, press starthree to raise your hand, and ill start taking callers to see if theyre the project sponsor. First caller, are you the project sponsor . No, im not the project sponsor. Clerk okay. Im going to come back to you. Caller, are you the project sponsor . No, im not the project sponsor, but i can pretend to be. Clerk no, that would be fine. Thank you. Project sponsor, this is your last chance to make a presentation by raising your hand, pressing star and three. Okay. We will move onto Public Comment and see if the project sponsor rejoins us. Go ahead, caller. You have two minutes. Hi, yes. My name is angela white, and i am the equity for Industry Program manager at Success Centers. Elevated San Francisco has been very instrumental in working with equity and being an equity business themselves, and so i am very much in support of them maintaining or getting new hours so they can compete with the rest of the storefronts that are administering or retailing cannabis. I am so very thankful to have their support. They have made it support for many of our applicants here attempting to go through the pipeline to learn about the newances of business, and nuances of business, and so i am so very proud of their efforts that they have put forth. Thats all i have to say, and please grant them what they are requesting. Thank you. Hello, commissioners. My name is russell marine. Im in opposition to changing the hours at this time. I think its telling that the project sponsor is here. No one representing them directly is here. Another little small note, when the notice went out, it was the wrong address on the notice. Lets not do this today. I think the word of the day was equity. I heard the word several times. This business was not popular coming in. Theyve done something to keep the promises to the neighborhood. They havent done the outreach or reaching out to community to say hey, were struggling. I dont think they are. I dont think its equate for the neighborhood or the other businesses in the neighborhood that cant open. The planner said the feel of the neighborhood, the Business Hours, if you go to leland hour at 8 00 p. M. , theres nothing out there. If this one business closes at 7, this is when the other businesses in the area close any way. This is not north beach. So my concern is the owners didnt do their outreach. They should do some more outreach. Theres a compromise here somewhere, but because they havent reached out to the community, they dont know what the community would say. Theres a compromise out there, but today is not it. Thank you, and i hope you had the chance to read the letter that i submitted. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Go ahead, caller. Caller, are you prepared to submit your Public Comment . Yes. My name is angela walker, and i am the president of elevated. Elevated has been true supporting of the minority community. This business provides jobs to the community. It helps to support much needed services for medicinal uses, as demonstrated by the number of petitions that were submitted by individuals supporting the increase in hours. San francisco is a city that should have access, as other cities do, to business. They have been a True Community steward, a true steward of equity in San Francisco, and we support their extension of hours providing services to the community of San Francisco. Thank you. Clerk thank you. My name is victor. Im the project sponsor. We were having technical difficulties over here. Clerk okay. Victor, why dont you go ahead and make your presentation. You have five minutes. Okay. I just want to say, good afternoon, president koppel and distinguished commissioners. Elevate was opened in 2017 in San Francisco, and we are a big supporter of social equity. Our partnership with the Success Center has been a success and is proven by their support here today. A few other organizations that we support are the way project, united playas, San Francisco junior 49ers, naacp, and the rose pak foundation. We have considered extending our Business Hours to further serve the neighborhoods that we are located in. I ask that you approve my request. Thank you. Clerk that concludes your presentation. Well go back to Public Comment. Go ahead, caller. You do have two minutes. Hello. Im the director of the way program, also the director at mercy youth teen center. Im for them opening and extending they hours. They have kept they word from day one with giving back to the community. They have also given back for backpack giveaways, christmas parties, and turkey giveaways. Also participated with events with kids, coming out here and being very active with the community, which a lot of businesses dont. Even though theres a lot of businesses on leland, none of them have come up here to sunnydale and participated with the youth or the organizations or with families. Elevated has done more than a lot of businesses in our Community Just coming back and participating with giving out turkeys and giving out toys with mercy. We give out over 1,000 toys during christmastime. Theyve done that for the past three or four years, and they also help buy bikes for young kids, underprivileged kids, and family in the communities. So we all for that striving business. Maybe thatll be the first of one of the businesses that we have going up and down leland so we can make our business more like the dogpatch. My name is drew jenkins, and im all for them extending their hours. Clerk thank you. Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is rudy corpus. Im the executive director of united players. Im calling in 100 of elevated. Elevated has been very, very supportive and instrumental in our gun buy backs in San Francisco, where were getting thousands and thousands of guns off the street. Im a gun supporter, but im all for getting violence off the streets. Elevated has been one of the first dispensaries that supported us in the begun buy back, giving really back to the community, so i just wanted to call back and ask you to extend they hours. Thank you, stay safe, and keep your masks on when youre outside. Clerk thank you. Go ahead, caller. Caller, are you prepared to submit your public testimony . Okay. Well take the next caller. Okay. The caller hung up. Well, it looks like theyre back. Caller, are you prepared to submit your testimony . Yes. Can you hear me . Clerk yes. Yes. Im unless, and i currently oppose the business to extend their hours. They incorrectly listed their address. If you compare the 2017 and todays, there was two different large groups on both sides in support and against. I think that impacted the opportunities for future views to be expressed. Secondly, currently, what i noticed, it doesnt serve our community. Theres a lot of out people coming in, and this doesnt serve the local district, pr e primarily the local community. The locate the residents usually go home around 7 00, 8 00. Thirdly, they talked in the past. They said they were going to contribute 50,000 a year to the community. I dont think that ever happen, so some of their ramospromisesy never came through. Parkings are scarce, and thirdly, the hours that was agreed upon by the Planning Commission, and four, was to reflect the communitys environment. Its a small commercial district that people dont usually linger past 7 00 or 8 00, and thats what the hours were set for. I think they should reflect the hours of the community, not the hours of visitors. Thank you, and have a good day. Clerk thank you. Go ahead, caller. Thank you. Can you hear me . Clerk yes. My name is floyd trammell, director of the naacp. I want to say that elevated has been an Ardent Supporter of the naacp, and i think considering the pandemic, with so man i think with the pandemic, so many businesses struggling to keep themselves open, i think it would bode well for the fellow commissioners to vote in approval of the staff recommendation. In particular, as you know, governor newsom, our governor, just signed a bill in supporting Small Businesses, so i think it would be good to support this Small Business and making sure they can do good and thrive in our communities. Thank you. Clerk sorry. I was on mute. Last call for Public Comment. Press star, three to raise your hand and to submit Public Comment. Okay. Seeing none, commissioners, the matter is now before you. President koppel so before i wait for the other commissioners to chime in, i just wanted to put in my two cents. I hope people realize what it was a big deal for somebody like rudy corpus to call in in support of this project. We often hear that people are afraid of higher crime rates and more accidents, and their will being affected by the approvals of certain dispensaries. I think its to the contrary, and what were seeing is here, a group that gives back to the community and is an assess and has a lot of support. So ill be supporting the proposal today. Commissioner imperial, youre next. Commissioner imperial looks like commissioner moore is first. I would Vice President moore no, go, please, ahead cleerl cleerl okay. Thank yo please, ahead. Commissioner imperial okay. Thank you, Vice President moore and president koppel. I did have a question about how you did the outreach or in terms of outreach. Hello. Id like to introduce elliott sack sackelman whos been helping me on this. My name is elliott sackelman. Your question was about outreach. The outreach has been limited because of the pandemic. The outreach is submitted to the office of cannabis along with verification. We donation 50,000 a year to vario various charities in the area. Security is big to us. Well have more security, and more cameras, so more eyes there. We do do outreach as part of our regular basis. Do you have a second question . Commissioner imperial yes. Now that we are in pandemic or covid19 time, how are you operating your business now . Are people coming into the store or are you doing deliveries . Whats the nature of your business or how are you operating . Exactly. Were doing it both ways. Into the store, and we also have received approval from the city and state in terms of delivery, so that has increased, as well. We have to keep our workers safe, and to our clients and patients, we have to stay safe, as well. The service is a combination of store and delivery service. Commissioner imperial so if the business continues until 10 00 p. M. , thats also delivery, as well . And in terms because, you know, there are i reviewed the last 2017 video, you know, and it looks like, you know, there was a lot of comments about the commissioners back then for you to engage in the community or that neighborhood. Are do you have a Committee Liaison right now . Specifically, we dont, but were a small operation, under ten employees. We try to encourage everyone to become Good Neighbors. We think weve been a Good Neighbor since 2017. Weve been reaching out. Theres not a lot of businesses there, but i think through them, we have a certainly level of outreach. Commissioner imperial thank you very much for answering all of my questions. Im generally supportive, however, i would like to hear more from other commissioners whether you know, whether we would need some sort of a support back or whether the time allowable, you know i mean, it looks like right now, its allowed up to 10 00 p. M. , but i would like the other commissioners opinions, as well, in order to weighin. Clerk commissioners, before we go further, there are a couple more callers that would like to submit their public testimony. Would you like me to go to those now . President koppel yes, jonas, well go to the callers, and then well go to the other commissioners. Clerk okay. Caller, you can present your Public Comment. Originally, i posted this project badge in i opposed this project back in 2017, thinking this business would be a nuisance to the community, but theyve proved me wrong. I am concerned about the retail space not just in this area, but its all over the city. And with that in mind, i do support the project sponsors request, but to limit them to the allowed hours, which is it sounds like exactly what theyre asking for, which is 8 00 a. M. To 10 00 p. M. Again, this is rex flora. I do appreciate being able to speak here today. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Caller, have yyou have two min. Caller, are you hello . Clerk yes, go ahead. Yes, i spoke before, so unless you have some questions about the opposition, im here. They havent done outreach. Clerk commissioners, we should go back to commissioner deliberation with commissioner moore. Vice president moore mr. Christiansen, if you have anything else, i would like you to speak first. Sure, commissioner. The business is considered an essential service, so under the business order, because they do provide a medical service, they are allowed to remain open with a lot of limitations to ensure public safety. Generally, when the Commission Hears cannabis cases, a standard condition of proofing for Community Use thofgss is to designate a community liaison. That was not authorized for this project previously, because it had gone through mandatory discretionary review, but it is within the commissions option to add this as a condition of approval tho th to this project if we would like to make sure that a person is available to answer any questions. Vice president moore thank you, mr. Christiansen. Having not heard any complaints about it, i would support the application as is. [please stand by] at least in the number of months that i have been on the commission we imposed that condition fairly regularly to ensure that theres a person that can be easily reached if there are neighborhood concerns. So i would be very open if other commissioners were interested in also imposing that condition. President koppel is that a motion . Commissioner diamond yes. President koppel , second. Commissioner moore . Commissioner moore, youre muted. Vicepresident moore thank you for reminding me. I would like to avoid this becoming a burden. An encouragement for more Community Oriented engagement. Im sure that you do not want an added burden, if theres a phone number and somebody is identified, that would that suffice . So what is important to me is that theres an identifiable person for the community to reach out to, that it doesnt go into voicemails and its days before they get a call back. We have been using Community Liaisons as a way to address that issue. I also feel that is a standard condition in the modern world, mr. Christensen, of how we deal with the Cannabis Retail requirements, then i would be very open to having that applicable here. I dont want it to be a burden, i agree with you, commissioner moore, but i dont know how burdensome it is to have a liaison who is responsible and works with neighbors on resolving issues. Vicepresident moore mr. Chretiensen do, you have comments on that . It is a standard of approval, not just for cannabis applications but for any conditional use authorization that is generally presented in this city. It does just require that a specific person, along with contact information, is provided and registered with the Zoning Administrator so that the members of the community can contact them if they have concerns with the operation. Vicepresident moore thank you so much, in response to that, commissioner diamond, im in full support of that particular motion. Commissioner diamond thank you. Vicepresident moore and i second the motion if nobody has. Clerk if theres no further deliberation theres a motion that is seconded to take d. R. And approve the extended hours of operation with the condition that the business operator provide a community liaison. On that motion [roll call] commissioner fung, youre muted. Commissioner fung . Aye. Thank you. Commissioner imperial. Aye. Commissioner moore. Aye. And Commission President koppel. Aye. So moved, commissioners, that motion passes unanimously 60 and that concludes your agenda today, commissioners. And well be closing in the San Francisco is surrounded on three sides by water, the fire boat station is intergal to maritime rescue and preparedness, not only for San Francisco, but for all of the bay area. [sirens] fire station 35 was built in 1915. So it is over 100 years old. And helped it, were going to build fire boat station 35. So the finished Capital Planning committee, i think about three years ago, issued a guidance that all city facilities must exist on Sea Level Rise. The station 35, Construction Cost is approximately 30 million. And the schedule was complicated because of what you call a float. It is being fabricated in china, and will be brought to treasure island, where the building site efficient will be constructed on top of it, and then brought to pier 22 and a half for installation. Were looking at late 2020 for final completion of the fire boat float. The historic firehouse will remain on the embarcadero, and we will still respond out of the historic firehouse with our fire engine, and respond to medical calls and other incidences in the district. This totally has to incorporate between three to six feet of Sea Level Rise over the next 100 years. Thats what the citys guidance is requiring. It is built on the float, that can move up and down as the water level rises, and sits on four fixed guide piles. So if the seas go up, it can move up and down with that. It does have a full range of travel, from low tide to high tide of about 16 feet. So that allows for current tidal movements and sea lisle rises in the coming decades. The fire boat station float will also incorporate a ramp for ambulance deployment and access. The access ramp is rigidly connected to the land side, with more of a pivot or hinge connection, and then it is sliding over the top of the float. In that way the ramp can flex up and down like a hinge, and also allow for