Qualified expert to weigh in on gj hypothetical past condition. Next[aqwqd slide please. First the screening analysis show the project was likely going to exceed the air district of ten excess cancers per million. Even if it wasnt an air pollution exposure zone given it is in such a zone, the cumulative affect adding the excess cancer risk caused by the project to the already elevated cancer risk is going to be a cumulative impact. All of the inputs protocols an out puts are in the file. He did it twice. Assuming that best why was still there and another assuming it wasnt. Next slide please. You have about two minutes left. Thank you. That just shows you the sources of emissions he looked at the parking lot. Loading dock and the street where the trucks are going to go leading up to that location. Next slide. Heres what he found. The health risk is significant even if you assume best buy is still there. He found output. 25 extra cancers beyond. You can see down here on farrell street thats significant effect there. Next slide. This shows you even if you assume best buy is still operating it doesnt make that much difference you still have several residents on a farrell and north across gary also experiences elevated cancer risks from the delivery trucks and customer trips. Take away. Again, can you say with certainty based on everything i have just showed you and not withstanding everything youre about to hear to the contrary can you really say there is no possibility whatsoever, that this is going to make the air less healthy for the People Living in this vicinity . We would submit to you that if you have any shred of doubt if you are like well it might cause problems, then it doesnt qualify for the commonsense exemption and our remedy is to order up an initial study and perform Environmental Review in that manner. Thank you. Sj 0d mr. President the speakers time has concluded. That was ten minutes. Sorry i forgot i wasd5fhby mg thank you very much. I dont see anybody on the roster for questions so why dont we go to Public Comments. For speakers that want to support are there anybody you have two minutes each. Operations do we have callers in the queue i believe we have 40 listeners and there are ten members of the public in the queue. If you are interested in speaking on the items 32 through 35 the appeal of determination of exemption from Environmental Review for 2675 geary boulevard. Its time to hear from the public in support of the appellant. No kalers. Nocallers. We currentlyogi< have 19 cals in the queue. Great welcome callers. Yeah how you doing can you hear me . Yes we can. Welcome. Yes how you doing . My name is james. Im a executive director at collective Impact Community center. I actually worked at kaiser where they were actually talking about building the whole foods place. I just, to be honest i got kind of confused when the, vq9 Start Talking about is there environmental findings valid or not. This was confusing what you guys started talking about when it was valid and not. I know i can just ask. For me before i was when i was approached about this conversation, about the whole foods being up there and i talked to i had a conversation with community and community was all for it like whole food being in the space and having jobs for them people that live in the area and you know, you have like quite a few housing complexes around there that would love to have a whole foods up that way where i just think its a great opportunity for jobs and you know i do a lot of Work Development around there the western addition. I think it would be great for not just you know just jobs, just somewhere where people can go and you know, kind of you know, get some Healthy Foods. We dont have a bunch of Healthy Foods around there so i think it will be great for you know just you guys kind of confused me when you Start Talking aboutay what the environment and all that other thing was going on. So thats all i wanted to say that community the ones i talked to was in support of whole food being up at the space. So i just wanted to if there is any speakers that are in support of the project, or against the appeal you will have your turn later. Asking to come forward at this point is to support the appeal. Which in essence is really not supporting the project. Okay. Next speaker. Im in support of the project. Okay then excuse me madam clerk can you explain. Sorry mr. President. To the speaker were currently taking public on the appeal. If you are not in support of the project. We will be taking Public Comment on behalf of the project sponsor in just a moment. But right now this part is for those in support of the appeal. Okay. Operations do we have another caller please. Hi. Im sorry this whole procedure is confusing. Imt us qr z line to support the project. There was no differentiation previously. So am i supposed to speak now or not . No. That back in the queue. For this item were going to have two Public Comment opportunities. The first opportunity is on behalf of the appellant. And the Second Opportunity will be for those who are in support of the project itself. So if youf,gj hello welcome. Okay. These might be a couple of other individuals who want to speak on behalf of the project. Operations just go to the next caller please. Okay welcome. Welcome. Hi. Yeah hello can you hear me . Yes we can. Hello. Okay thank you. Yeah. My name is al im president of the Neighborhood Association. Our neighborhood directly butts the City Center Mall. I have to tell you, that hardly a week goes by that one of our residents doesnt ask me when is whole foods coming . Our neighborhood is in desperate need of a local full sized grocery market. Many of our residents, myself included ared5hdo aging, some e disabled, some are unable to drive. For us, getting groceries in our home can be a real challenge. I somewhat joked when we look at this as no matter what else happens to me, if i can still walk, at least i can still eat. I believe thats all there is this comes down to. Having a Grocery Store in our seniors can get to is not a nicety, its a necessity. I also think not being considered is the fact that only a retailer that can generate a large amount of foot traffic can survive in the mall. This space has been vacant for well over three years because retailers now have difficulty to compete with online sales justs ask the good guys, best buys, toys r us, they all fails. So we need that foot traffic. We cant wait another three years to find another retailer with the right business model. We need our market and you need your tax revenue. Dont wait and let this opportunity slip away. Thank you. Okay. Thank you to the caller. I didnt interrupt you sir h÷ thought we would make this point very clear. So, if you are in line and you get unmuted, and you are in support of the appeal we do want to hear from you. But in a moment, if you get a unmuted and youre not in support of the appeal and youre supporting the project like that last gentleman was, please press 3 now and get back in line because we will take your Public Comment, but first we want to hear from the supporters of the appellant. Okay. And so, that individual was in support of the project and if you are supporting the project i will delicately interrupt you and try to have you hold onto your Public Comment until we get to your particular hearing. Minutes. Hello this is julie fisher am i coming through okay . We can hear you. Thank you president yee and supervisors forgiving us a chance to speak on this matter. Im julie fisher fromivan ufcwe lived in San Francisco over 30 years on the outer geary. And while i would welcome a good source of food, along the geary boulevard, i do not welcome amazon or jeff bee dis bezos ay he makes his money. We can do better than someone that lowers our working decent healthcare or retirement to his workers we know better in our progressive city. Pleasen5n. L reject this thank. Thank you for your comments. All right. Next caller please in support of the appellant. Hi this is kim with the San Francisco labor counsel. I am urging you to oppose this project. Clearly we can see there is a great underestimatation about the cancer risk, the amount of pollution, that this project will bring into that neighborhood. Theres a Childhood Development center nearby. And i think even worse is we know and anybody who lives near that whole foods knows about the Traffic Congestion that comes from a whole foods. You have the instar cart people, the door dashers, and everyone else always stopping there idling. Gaiu i have been by many whole foods and theres a lot more traffic in the traffic is always underestimated. Theres also like people forget that theres the muni depot that also brings in pollution. We need to make sure that the traffic]. Umdno congestion doesnt worse and City Services, and that City Services are protected in that area. This is not a good location for this project. And please, please, please, vote against this project. Thank you. All right do we have any folks in the queue on behalf of the appellant. I think we have 12 in the queue and 51 listeners. Welcome caller well set the timer for two minutes. Hello can you hear me . Yes we can. Great. I am Claire Courtney with ufcw5 and a San Francisco resident. First i would like to thank the board of supervisors for listening to us. Secondly, we have to strike on this project. First and foremost, going off of what mr. Wolf said. This is nonsensical. There has to be no possibility of Significant Impact and that clearly has not been shown. So, for that reason, we should strike down this project and also, as a union town, we have to say to arrases dents we have to say to San Francisco cans we care about companies that support fair labor practices and when we continue to allow amazon and whole foods to come into our city and not pay workers what they deserve to be paid i dont think were sending the right message to the working class here. I will not support if this project moves forward. Thank you so much for your time i encourage you to appeal this exemption. Thank you. Okay thank you for your comment. Okay. Operations do we have another caller in support of the appellant . Good evening board of supervisors, president yee. My name is tony vargas can you guys hear me . Yes we can. Sorry im driving. Im in support of the appeal. Im a member and longterm resident of uscw in San Francisco and amazon is not a fit for San Francisco a progressive town, a union town. A company that does not standby its employees in regards to covid19 health and safety precautions who doesnt provide liveable wages or good healthcare. Should not be allowed to do business in our town. They have seven locations already and i believe theres a new one coming up if stones town. I dont remember if that one has been defeated yet either, but we do not need another amazon, another bezos brand and another whole foods in our town. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Drive carefully. Okay. Other comments on behalf of the appellant please . Welcome caller. Two minutes. Hi my name is ruth. Im a proud memberrer of the unite here local 2. I organized i knock doors, i was just knocking doors in this election and in the midest of the pandemic and im very proud to be part of the union that knocks doors in reno as well to get joe biden elected. And you know i strongly support the appeal. When we look at Companies Like amazon, Companies Like whole foods especially in the midst of the pandemic as a working person, you know, its just you know we were coming off this stinging defeat that tech money and big Company Money was able to run a Propaganda Campaign around proposition 22. But as a proud San Francisco resident, i would certainly hope that you know, our elected officials dont intend to just roll over for big business. At the behalf of Union Busters like john mackey. At a time when with we need more than ever is for you know workers to come together for you know for local business to support main street and not to roll over for these Big Companies. But over time, are going to take away you know, Healthcare Benefits and tax breaks that are really going to hurt our local economy. You know, San Francisco is a historic city. And i would hate to see it devastated by big businesses like whole foods like amazon. When we have when they are run by these ceos these billionaires that dont have any intention of paying good benefits, paying good healthcare to their workers. You know and i understand the need for Grocery Stores. We can find another way. We can find another way. So i strongly urge the supervisors on this call to support the appeal, and not to roll over to the Big Companies amazon and whole foods. I appreciate your time. Thank you for your call. Good timing. Okay. We are taking Public Comment on behalf of the appellant to the 2675 geary boulevard proposed project. Operations do we have another caller in the queue . [ standby for change of captioners ] bring in something that is progressive, not regressive. We need something that is good there. Once again, this is roger marenko, president , local ironworkers 258. The inat thstacart and doordas people are going to cause huge traffic jams. If you take a look at the trader joes across the street. If you dont believe me, go over there and take a look at the traffic jam on the other side of the street. We dont want this to interfere with the buzz street because that will cause another safety issue with the traffic jam, so please take all of that into consideration. Thank you very much. Clerk thank you for your comments. Operations, do we have another caller in support of the appellant for the 2675 geary boulevard project . Hello. My name is richard miller, and i am a retired seiu member. I live in the outer richmond, and i go by this street, ofarrell, quite often. I go to trader joes, and i used to go to best buy. And the Planning Department did not look at the traffic flow when you leave ofarrell street. Ofarrell street is a oneway street leading down to kaiser. Its jammed up, but for me to go through the neighborhoods, to get back to the richmond, i have to drive by the Raul Wallenberg school, so this is going to put more traffic in the neighborhood across the street there, unless theyre going to make ofarrell a twoway street. You should reject this on the traffic flow issue because this is going to cause a lot of traffic and congestions, and i dont see how theyre going to support the people in the western additions. I dont even shop at whole foods because of their prices. Thank you for listening to me, and i hope you reject this environmental report. Thank you. Clerk okay. Thank you for your comments. Operations, do we have another caller, please . A caller in support of the appellant. Hi, supervisors. My name is john corso. Im a member of local 38, plumbers and pipe fighters. Im in opposition of the ceqa determination of whole foods at 2675 geary. Protecting workers is of the essence, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic. Whole foods and amazon have proven they cant keep their workforces safe. We cant afford to have an employer who refuses to care about their workers safety in a progressive city like San Francisco. You cant let this happen. Thank you for your time. Clerk okay. Operations, i understand we have about ten individuals in the comment queue. If you are speaking on behalf of the appellant, next caller, please. Hi. Im not clerk okay. Youre not supporting the appellant . No, im not, and i have star, threeed several times. Im in support of whole foods, so what do you want me to do . Clerk well, if its not working, i apologize, and youre not going to like it, but if you could hang up and call back and get back into the listening mode, and then, when we call your side, youll be able to make Public Comment at this time. Okay. I would have to tell you that, but this is a very bad thing. You should allow people to speak as they have gotten in the queue. This is not a good thing, pro, pro, pro, con, con, con. Thank you. I will call back. Clerk much appreciated. Thank you. Okay. Operations, do we have a caller in the queue on behalf of the appellant . Welcome, caller, you have two minutes. No, im speaking in favor of the project. Clerk okay. Same thing, sir. Please press star, three get back into listening line, and operations, do we have another caller, please . Welcome, caller. Im in the same predicament. Im speaking in clerk on behalf of the yeah, on behalf of the yes, yes, yes. Clerk thank you for trying to reach us. Press star, three. Thank you, everyone, for your patience. Operations, do we have a commenter in the queue whos making a comment in support of the appellant, please . Hi. This is jim araby speaking in support of [inaudible] locally owned businesses, and as its been states, amazon whole foods already has seven stores in San Francisco. And i know the question before the board is, you know, is San Francisco going to both grant this national nonhistoric conditional use authorization permit under perform la retail and, at the same time, allow them to be exempt from the environmental analysis and mitigation . As has been stated many times, the current analysis around the traffic doesnt take into consideration the Grocery Stores and the amount of business that would be in the future. Amazon has created dark houses that have become locations to distribute their items. I think these are things that need to be explored under the Environmental Review, and i hope that the board of supervisors does the right thing and supports the appeal. Thank you. Clerk okay. Thank you for your comments. Operations, another caller, please. Hi, yes. My name is ryan mcgilly, and im a former school at wallenberg traditional high school. I just want to voice my support for this appeal. Both ofarrell and [inaudible] are not wide streets. Theyre difficult to cross, and the opening of target only exacerbated those issues for my fel fellow students . I believe that opening up a target in this location will make that the situation even more harrowing for the students of wallenberg, and we noticed when target opened that our bei access to muni was affected, in particular, the 48 and 33 buses. I also would like to point out that despite what the gentleman from the [inaudible] and my fellow supposed neighbors have implied, this is not a grocery desert. There are three full size Grocery Stores within walking distance of this location, including a trader joes literally cat corner to this location. To imply somehow that this is an impoverished neighborhood that dont have access to fresh grocery, that is not true. Clerk thank you. Operations, lets hear from another caller whos in support of the appellant of the 2675 geary boulevard proposed project. Good evening, supervisors. Can you hear me . Clerk yes, we can. This is jason henderson. Thank you. So im calling to support the appeal. Theres way too much parking at this site. This store is suburban in character. Its complete out of sync with the citys environmental Climate Change and transit first goals. It needs an e. I. R. , and heres the reason why it needs an e. I. R. You need to protect the bike lanes on masonic, the transit lanes that are supposed to be coming in on masonic. You need to be talking about mitigation and reducing car trips, and doing an initial study or possibly an e. I. R. Gets you into that trajectory. We need to be thinking outside the box here. Cargo bike delivery, making things more accessible by pedal bikes and electric powered bikes. Thats the way to go. The city needs to get serious about depressing these kinds of megacorporatetype Grocery Stores, whether its amazon or any other business. But the city doesnt even know how to study t. N. C. S or ecommerce delivery, so that needs to be developed in the environmental process. So i urge you to uphold this appeal in order to get the information and to inform the public of the real traffic impacts that this could make and the impacts that it could have on the green mobility modes that we need to be encouraging. Thank you, and good night. Clerk thank you for your comments. We really appreciate everyones patience in regards to the technology here. Operations, do we have another caller in the queue . Operator madam clerk, that completes the queue. Clerk thank you, operations. Mr. President . Im sorry, mr. President. You may be muted. President yee thank you for the comments, and at this point, since theres no other individuals that would like to speak in support of the appeal, then this portion of the Public Comment is closed. Right now, id like to invite our representatives from the Planning Department to give a presentation, and you have up to ten minutes. Thank you. May i be permitted to share my screen, please . Clerk i believe you may be a presenter. Being ookay. Just a moment then. Are you able to see my screen . Clerk yes. Good evening, supervisors, members of the board. I am Rachel Schutt. The site is a the project is a new formula retail use that would occupy a 49,780 square foot vacant retail space at city center, a Shopping Center located on the southeast corner of masonic avenue and geary boulevard. The project would require interior renovation to accommodate a new whole foods Grocery Store, restaurant, and coffee shop. The retail space was vacated by best buy in 2017. City Center Features 250,000 square feet of retail space on four levels, surrounded by six separate parking lots. Whole foods customers would use the adjacent lot c indicated here on the slide and also the two access lots labeled, as well. In 2020, the Planning Department determined the project was exempt under ceqa, a common sense exemption. The appellant alleges that the supervisor peskin mr. President . President yee yes, i dont see you supervisor peskin i dont want this to come out of the presenters time. Clerk ill pause the time. Supervisor peskin thank you, madam clerk. I would like to go to the original comments that i have, where i actually would like miss schutt to explain why originally a category three was submitted and withdrawn. Sure. Rachel schutt, Planning Department. We subsequently issued a common sense exemption in its place. The reason for that was actually having to do with some additional direction that we had gotten from the state water board. Im going to pause for a moment and ask if andrea would like to step in and answer this or she would like me to continue. Supervisor peskin no, hold on. Through the president , before you this gets complicated because our City Attorney represents many parties here, so miss schutt, with all city respect, i would like you on behalf of the offices Environmental Review, to explain why the class 32 exemption was rescinded. Sure. The reason that the class 32 was rescinded was not for the reasons cited in the appeal. It was actually just a timing issue. So we had gotten some additional direction from the state water board about what projects should be considered to be a [inaudible] list. Prior to, i think it was july of this year, we had been excluding closed cases, so cases where a site had been on the cortese list, and there was something that occurred. Prior to july, we had been leaving those off the lists, and those projects were eligible for section 32. The direction we got in july were cases where the project site was listed on the cortese, even those with a closed case status are no longer eligible for a section 32 status. So we rescinded the 32, and we issued in its place a common sense exemption. Supervisor peskin im a little good at this, but im not great at this. The cortese list is a list of projects that may have Hazardous Materials . Correct. Correct. It might be easier for purposes of follow up if i just finish my presentation, and maybe, we can answer your question . Supervisor peskin yeah, im happy to do that after i make this next statement or question, then i will resume the time. So what youre telling me is or telling us is that the property was on the cortese list, so a 32 exemption was no longer good, but it made common sense to exempt it . Is that can you explain that . And then, i will allow you to proceed, through to the president . Sure. Let me see if i can give you a concise answer, and i again, thanks for the clarifications on what your to direct the question a little bit further, and i think we can circle back when im through with my very brief situation. I think andrea explained this earlier. Perhaps it bears repeating. This project qualifies for some exemption under ceqa. Wed actually be eligible for several different categories of exemption. So in this case, we issued a class 32, which was an exemption that we typically issue in San Francisco, and then, later, when we found out that it no longer qualified, we looked to see what other exemptions it could qualify for, and a common sense exemption is one of them, which is why we rescinded the class 32 and issued a common sense exemption. Supervisor peskin it applied on is the cortese list, which indicated it was or was not contaminated . True or not true . I think i would like to put a little bit finer point on it. The cortese list is a complete list of sites that has never been on many different databases because there could have been conno, maamtation. Contamination. In this case, there were three tan tanks that were removed, everything that needed to be done has been completed, and the documentations in the record. What the change is is prior to july for a site like this that thats a case closed status, we would no longer consider them to be on that list. The state water board has recently clarified and said no, even if the case is closed, please consider it to still be on the list, so thats another distinction. Supervisor peskin okay. I will relynn wish the floor, but that does relinquish the floor, but that does not seem to make sense to this common citizen. Thank you. President yee supervisor mandelman, youre on the roster . Mann supervis supervisor mandelman yeah. So theres an exemption for infill projects, and having been on the cortese list is now no longer a basis for an infill exemption because presumably, somebody is saying having once been on the cortese list, theres once been a Significant Impact. It seems like that would apply to the common sense exemption. The logic that would take it out of the typical exemption would take it out of the common sense exemption, as well. President yee rachel, do you have any response, as well . The decision was from the state water board, so im not in a position to opine. Supervisor mandelman well, the state water board is saying that you cant use this exemption, 32. But this logic behind the decision of the state water board would seem to point to not being able to use the common sense exemption, either. I understand what youre saying. The i see that our Environmental Review officer would like to speak, and i wonder if we should give her an opportunity to weighin . President yee i think what id like to do is take this last question around this particular issue and have the environmental officer maybe respond, but then, im going to give you an opportunity to finish your presentation. Okay. Thank you, sir. President yee so whos responding, again . Lisa gibson. President yee lisa, are you available . I know shes been having some connectivity problems. Is it possible that we can save this until the end of my presentation and president yee yes. [inaudible]. Okay. Thank you so much. I will continue sharing my screen, and lets see here. Give me a moment. Okay. Are you able to see my screen again . President yee yes. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you. On september 11, 2020, the department determined that the project was exempt under the California Environmental quality act or ceqa under a common sense exemption. The appellant contends that the project should not have received a commonsense exemption, mainly because the waiting demand was underestimated and the in fact could address air quality impacts. The department estimated load and demand based on information provided by whole foods that reflect the number of deliveries that take place at its Franklin Place store, t the their busiest store in San Francisco. Here, the appellant disputes the methodology employed by the department to calculate the loading demand because the truck that was provided by Whole Foods Market is from a smaller store. The appellant believes instead that the number of daily truck trips for deliveries are directly related to the size of the store. Similarly, the methodology for calculating loading demand and the departments calculated loading demand is based on [inaudible] data thats more specific to the project and is more consistent with the departments environmental analysis guidelines. In addition, an independent consultant provided an analysis to be 27. 1 based on the built store size. This is also on par with the department calculation of a maximum of 28 truck trips per day. As a result, the department is concluded that the truck trips, and, by extension, the loading demand were not underestimated. More important, the ceqa impacts is focused on impacts to the rightofway. At city center, the loading facilities are completely contained within the site and are separated from the rightofway as a large parking lot. As a result, even if there was a queue to the loading docks, theres adequate room to stage in the parking lot without impacting the rightofway. Therefore, impact to the rightofway would not occur. The Planning Department determined that the project is within the apez. If that is found, both the citing of emissions and new emissions sources are reviewed more rigorously as was done in this project. [inaudible] the 28 daily truck trips anticipated for the project falls below the screening criteria for a minor low impact source. As recommended by the bay area air Quality Management district as recommended by the bay area air Quality Management district. As a result, the department excluded this result from further analysis. The commonsense exemption also noted that the project loading dock is more than 60 feet away from the nearest [inaudible] the appellant submitted a supplemental appeal brief on november 6 which included a consultant prepared air quality analysis. The project sponsor also contracted with an air quality consultant to prepare a separate analyst. The proje the department requested a third air quality consultant, peer review both reports, and perform independent calculations of the projects air pollutant emissions. The department submitted a supplemental response letter to the board yesterday, november 16, with this analysis attached. The project consultant finds that the project [inaudible] cancer risk threshold which is based on the bay area air Quality Managements [inaudible] the peer review of the appellants air quality analysis makes it clear that the consultant based his analysis on a [inaudible] air quality basin. Its based on an overly conservative missions factors which inflates the emission impact. This report included a refind health Risk Assessment. The Department Notes that the number of vehicle trips assumed in that analysis is significantly higher than what was projected in the travel demand calculations for the proposed project. We believe that these calculations are based on modelling tools rather than the project demand travel calculations. These do not align with the departments recommendations for a project of this size and scope. The departments position is that the project meets the commonsense exemption ricriter, and the department issued the exemption properly. Therefore, we ask that you uphold the common sense exemption and deny the appeal. We welcome any questions that the board may have, and if we could give lisa an opportunity to speak. President yee lisa, are you able to come on . Yes. My apologies for the technical difficulties. Im lisa gibson, Environmental Review officer. Can you hear me . President yee yes. Yes. Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the question. Previously, there was discussion of our reliance upon a common sense exemption for a project that is on the cortese site, and the question was, if we are precluded from using or relying upon a categorical exemption for a project that is listed on cortese list, then why are we not precluded from doing so for reliance upon the common sen commonsense exemption, and the answer lies in ceqa itself. The cortese list is a list of sites compiled according to a certain government code, and its sites that have had a history of subsurface, groundwater, or soils contamination, and these are sites that include leaking underground storage tanks and other released. And overtime, those get addressed through regulatory procedures, and as necessary, if theres testing done that indicates contamination, they are required to be remediates in accordance with regulations. So the ceqa statute prohibits directly the use of a callical exemption for those kind of sites. The ceqa statutes do not prohibit reliance upon the commonsense exemption for those types of sites, and we are prohibited from using a commonsense exemption when it kmls we can determine with certainty that the project would not cause a significant effect on the environment. That is the threshold requirement. With regard to Hazardous Materials, this site and this project would not cause any disturbance to the ground and the cortese project excuse me, the cortese case has been closed, so therefore, there is no potential for a significant effect resulting from that circumstance. President yee okay. Are you done with your presentation . Yes, that concludes my remarks. Thank you. President yee okay. Supervisor mandelman, were yes, youre up next. Supervisor mandelman so just to follow up with miss gibson, so theres a section of ceqa that says you cannot use a categorical exemption where a site appears on the cortese list. That is correct, supervisor mandelman. Supervisor mandelman just out of curiosity, what might that section be . Do you happen to know . Yes. The section of the ceqa ill refer to the ceqa guidelines section. It is section 15300. 2, and it is subsection e that is the exemption to reliance upon a categorical exemption for sites that are or for projects that are located onsites that are on the list that is commonly referred to as the cortese list. Supervisor mandelman and we relied on it any way the city the Planning Department and the city relied on it because they thought that how could that section of the guidelines Mean Properties that were on the cortese list where the issue has been addressed, is that right . With regards to the prior categorical exemption, are you asking that . For the class 32 . Supervisor mandelman yes. Yes, that is exactly why well, let me say this. It was based on guidance that we received from the state. Previously, we did attempt to we did reach out to the state regulators to clarify what is the meaning of what are the databases that constitute the sites that comprise the cortese list . We received guidance from the state on closed cases. Cases that are resolved are no longer on that list, and more recently, we received direction to the contrary, as Rachel Schutt indicated. So that is why we changed the determination to cite the commonsense exemption, and finding the same rationale still applied. Supervisor mandelman it just seems bizarre that we the logic that would say you cannot use an infill exemption the logic that would say you cant use the infill exemption because this property has been on the cortese list, and therefore, you have to do a deeper level of Environmental Review and you cant just call it exempt wouldnt apply as well to the commonsense exemption. We havent received a letter to that, but it seems like a logical conclusion to draw. Well, i would say that we also fiend that its a reasonable conclusion to draw that a site thats been cleaned up according to regulatory requirements and is a cleaned site that no longer has the levels of contamination or surface that could result in a Public Health issue, that that does not constitute a significant effect on the environment. In fact, our city has commented to the state that we believe that we requested that ceqa be amended in that regard to say simply that there that the exemption for the cortese list is really unnecessary because if a project is going to result in a significant effect on the environment due to Hazardous Materials, that would really be a unique circumstance, and that would be covered by a separate exemption to the use of a categorical exemption, so we think its redundant. No nonetheless, that is the law, that is the statute, and that is the basis of our work to ensure that our determinations comply with ceqa, and we feel that we have done so to the letter of the law in this case. We understand that there may be a disagreement on this point. Supervisor mandelman okay. President yee supervisor peskin . Supervisor peskin thank you, mr. President , and whether or not the application of the commonsense application makes common sense or not and by the way, miss gibson, i really want to thank you for acknowledging that the use of the class 32 exemption was inappropriate, and i appreciate the fact that, as a matter of law, you withdrew it. But i would like you to comment , if you feel that you can, on the earlier issue that ive raised twice with regard to whether or not the underlying approval should also be withdrawn. And i say that to you as a person whos been at the Planning Department for a long period of time. The Planning Commissioners relied on the class 32 exemption that you subsequently withdrew. Do you have any opinion on that as a professional planner . Supervisor peskin, through the chair, my opinion on that is that the matter that youve spoke of is a complicated one, and i actually we did consult with the City Attorney on this matter, and i accept the counsel of our City Attorneys on this. Its my opinion that there is no case law or statute that required that the specific type of categorical exemption had to have been determined and not modified prior to that conditional use vote, so therefore, you know, im of the professional opinion that it has not been voided. And i would just like to add that, on the prior point, with regard to the use of a commonsense exemption for sites on the cortese list, the state water board, that, in fact, is responsible for compiling the cortese list in writing did advise us that awhile a cadax that while a cadax may not be issued, an exemption may apply. Supervisor peskin i appreciate the latter point. Relative to the former point, what you basically said is the City Attorney advised that you could go either way, so you basically decided youd go on behalf of the developer and not on behalf of withdraw. Im trying to read the case decision in between all these comments. It seems to be abundantly clear that theres no defined case law here, and the fact case here is very different than the cases that she has presented. So it seems to me like you guys all came to the conclusion that you would err on the side of the developer . True, not true, miss gibson . Supervisor peskin, through the chair, in this regard, the decision for me as the Environmental Review officer is what was the appropriate level of Environmental Review, and the actions that i took in that regard to rescinding the prior categorical exemption and then reissuing the commonsense exemption were not at all taken with regard to favoring one party or the other. My role is as a neutral official to implement the laws of our city and our state as it applies to Environmental Review. President yee supervisor preston . Supervisor preston thank you, president yee. I was hoping for some clarification on a point raised by mr. Wolf regarding when looking at the emissions whether the baseline point of comparison is the best buy usage or the vacant space there seems like a pretty significant difference. And theres a difference mr. Wolf set forth his opinion in the materials set forth and project is submitting the best buy usage. What is the citys position are we comparing to the 2017 usage when best buy was there or in comparison to the vacant space thats been there for the last three years . [inaudible] its whats on the ground at the time. We would conclude that because best buy was not there at the time of the review, that the vacant was part of the baseline. Supervisor preston thank you for that clarification. I think there was a little bit of confusion. We did not take consideration for trips made by best buy. We just looked at conservatively, we looked at this as being a new use in a vacant location. Our consultant actually ran the numbers both ways, at our direction, so not taking credit for the best buy trips. Supervisor preston thank you. President yee okay. Thank you for the questions, and why dont we go ahead and have the sponsor of the project or its representative to present. You have ten minutes. Great. Thank you, president yee. This is mark looper from reuben, junius, and rose. Can you hear me . President yee yes. Great. And im going to start sharing my screen. Can you see my screen . President yee yes. Great. Thank you, supervisors. Id like to start by running through some of the reasons why whole foods will be a great addition to this neighborhood and then highlight several reasons why the ceqa appeal hasnt got merit, but first, some background on the site. As many of you know, the City Center Mall is unique for San Francisco. The site is perhaps the most parking friendly location in this part of the city. It has 634 Parking Spaces spread over six blocks. It is a uniquely ideal location for a Grocery Store and dedicated truck delivery in a forgiving area. The space is attractive only to a narrow band of retailers. Whole foods has its own dedicated parking lot, called lot c, with 117 Parking Spaces. Whole foods interior loading space is about 3,500 square feet within that dock, a large space that allows for efficient unloading of trucks. As would be expected, whole foods uses best practices and exceeding management. Moving on, id like to briefly discuss some of the reasons why whole foods would be a great addition to the neighborhood. First, the project would generalate 9. 6 million in union labor. Generate 9. 6 million in union labor. Next, it will create 250 new cases. 75 of whole foods employees are full time, and 62 identify as nonwhite. It will hold local recruitment events in a community workshop. Supervisor peskin mr. President , i dont want to interrupt, but are these ceqa issues . President yee what hes doing is hes doing his presentation, if its not relevant, well know about it. Supervisor peskin got it. Sorry. Sorry. Great. Well, i will move on, then, to the coalition of supporters, some of whom you heard from earlier. Pardon them for being excited to voice their support for this store. The coalition of supporters include the booker t. Washington Community Services center, collective impact and magic zone, film runners, the gea geary merchant association, and resident support. Now, moving onto ceqa. I want to emphasize why some aspects of the appellants ceqa claims just do not hold weight, given that this project is a oneforone retail replacement in an existing facility that is one of the most appropriate locations for a Grocery Store in San Francisco. Appellants in their brief raise some comments and in Public Comment about transportation. They misunderstand what drives deliveries at Grocery Stores and a sales demand. A quick but really important point. The frampg lynn street store is 28,000 square feet. Its not 15,000 square feet, like the appellants use in their brief. The proposed store sales area is 35,000 area feet, and with the 35,000 square feet, and with the back service area, its approximately 54,000 square feet. Again, size does not correspond with sales volume or, by extension, truck count. Appellants present no Expert Opinion or any industry accepted modelling demonstrating that this location would have significantly more deliveries than what is in the citys transportation analysis. Speculation is not substantial evidence. In contrast, a technical memorandum prepared by kitleson and associates used the complete Square Footage, which is what should be used. Therefore, their memo provides additional substantial evidence based on an alternative and accepted methodology that freight latinoing demand would be similar. More importantly, appellants do not identified any ceqa impact directly related to loading. The parking lot entrances to c and e are off of ofarrell street, which has no muni service and is one way from masonic. Any vehicles arriving when both docks with occupied will have plenty of space to wait, either in the 275foot drive aisle or one of the Parking Spaces, well out of the rightofway. I just want to reemphasize that the citys consultant, rambull, when it ran its health Risk Assessment, ran two variable. One, which is what the project sponsors consultant did, which is basically took a credit for best buy, and the second, which is what i have cited here at the sttop of this slide, is assuming no credit for best buy. What you can see is that rambull said that the 2. 5 concentration would be significantly below the 0. 2 threshold. Appellants contended first that using what you heard staff say politely is a tool that is not generally used in the bay area and is not meant to identify ceqa impacts but instead invite a more refined study. As miss schutt pointed out, that report had two errored that led to higher air quality figures. The e. T. F. Analysis artificially inflates potential impacts in contradiction to appropriate fast forward 1. 5 weeks and potentially acknowledging the limitation in the first study, appellants consultant rushed a new study through that purposes to be more refined. As you just heard from staff, this new study suffers from simmer rors that inflates potential impacted. Inaccurate or incomplete evidence is not substantial evidence. This shows that the project is comfortably below air quality significant thresholds. Rackbull models with and without best buy, and both studies do not [inaudible]. Thank you. And both studies do not include car trips. [inaudible] and would not push the project over a significant threshold. Finally, id like to move onto the apez issue and accumulative impacts. Adopting appellants suggested approach to communititive air quality reports in the apez would not only be detrimental to ceqa but it require any new business in the apez to have an environmental report. This could affect all other sorts of project, including affordable housing, school expansion, infrastructure improvements, and others. This would add a new store into an existing vie lant retail space. More jermaine to the ceqa appeal, appellants have not raised a credible question of factor significant Environmental Impact. We ask that you deny the appeal. President yee thank you for your presentation, mr. Looper. Can we back up a little bit for me to get some clarification in terms of the location itself. The location is going to be about 35,000 square feet . The total sales area is going to be about 35,000 square feet, and with the back area is going to be about 54,000 square feet. President yee how much of that is storage . I do not know how much of the space is storage. I do have an image that i can pull ut p on the screen if you would like to see it. President yee well, thats not necessary. Is there retail happening in the lower floors . Theres not retail happening in the lower floors. Below is a loading dock. Im sorry. Retalking about other Retail Locations that are are we talking about other Retail Locations that are in the other lot . President yee [inaudible]. Perhaps i could pull up a site plan for the entire site. Would that be helpful . President yee yes. I just want to be clear what im looking at. Yes. And thank you for looking at that. Thats part of why i tried to have a site plan at the beginning, so if you dont mind, i will okay. So i believe youre talking down here . So lot c is the president yee so thats going to remain target . Thats exactly right. President yee okay. Thats the clarification i need. Okay. President yee and then, so would the project sponsor know how much was going to be utilized for storage . The back of the space is approximately, what, 17,000 square feet . I cant do math that fast. President yee thats close enough. And i dont know how much of that is storage and employee break rooms and rest rooms and the like. President yee okay. So so the ratio of storage to retail space is typically what for whole food or other large supermarkets . I cant speak for all large supermarkets, but i can say that the ratio of backofhouse space to floor area space, at least at the franklin street store, is consistent with this location. President yee which is what . I think its about president yee two to one . I apologize. I cant do the math that quickly. Yes, i believe its approximately two to one. Dont hold me to that. I believe theres probably People Better at math than me president yee its okay. I just wanted to get a clearer idea on that. You dont actually have abundantly more storage or similar retail where the store operation would actually occur. Supervisor mar . Supervisor mar. Supervisor mar thank you, president yee. So i just had a question about the plan for this store to utilize delivery, you know, home delivery, drivers, and shoppers. I know thats been a big part of whole foods, yeah, strategy. And yeah, i noticed at the other whole foods stores that there seemed to be a growing number of drivers parked in the garage or nearby waiting to make deliveries, same day deliveries to customers. So can you explain how thats going to be a part of this project and where those drivers would be located on the site . Sure. Thank you, supervisor mar. Thats a really good question. I think id like to point out by saying that this store will not have any storage lockers. Storage lockers at this site require a separate conditional use approval and ceqa process, and the entitlement for this project does not have storage lockers, so thats one thing that i know that those storage lockers can be a primary drivers of some of those kinds of deliveries. There will be some reserved spaces for gig economy workers, but id just point out, for the most part, how how that works and id ask staff to chime in, too, is ceqa doesnt look at necessarily or care if somebody is a gig economy worker versus somebody going in and getting groceries for themselves. Theyre driving a vehicle or walking or taking a bike and by the way, this store has ten bike spaces right next to the entrance. Theyre getting whatever groceries they need, and then, theyre leaving the site. Supervisor mar yeah. I just i mean, i happened to notice at some of the other whole food stores, there seemed to be delivery drivers just waiting nearby to get a get a request to fill an order. Are these employees of amazon or whole foods or are they gig workers . I believe that theyre gig economy workers that are coming in and doing some of the shopping, but i am not sure at that point. But again, i think from the ceqa standpoint, its where are they coming and where are they going and where are they leaving after theyre getting groceries . Supervisor mar okay. Thank you. I dont have any other questions. President yee supervisor peskin, earlier, you wanted to something . I dont know if thats true, or did you . No . Youre muted. Supervisor peskin no, mr. President. I asked every question i had, and i have no further questions. President yee okay. Supervisor fewer . Supervisor fewer yes, thank you, president yee. So this store actually not in my district. But i pass a trader joes in my district, and i wonder, how in the hell did this get passed because theyre taking up 30 Parking Spaces. I fear we are going to have that same issue. I shop at lot at that target. Theres one a lot at that target. Theres one parking lot and one entrance. Ive waited on ofarrell to be able to get in that parking lot of target, and i know that whole foods is going to be a couple of parking lots down, and i think the target parking lot is lot b. I think that you are using lot c, parking lot c, and i know theres a ramp that goes up the backside that has the early Childhood Development center up there. I just think its going to be a traffic jam. I think were going to run into the same issues. Theres a kaiser emergency i know very well. I have three children. Ive gone to that kaiser emergency multiple, multiple times, and i always use kaiser street. I also think Wallenberg High School is also there, and youve ever been at wallenberg when it is time to drop off kids or pick up, there is a lot of traffic there. When i hear the numbers for the weekin traffic, and i hear the numbers for the weekend traffic, i think this is going to be a disaster. I think this needs to go back to planning because it also needs to have a traffic mitigation plan. Because you also do a lefthand turn onto open area there from where anza is off of masonic, and that will back up, too, if ofarrell is backed up. This is what im worried about because it borders my district. So i just have to say, as a word of caution, this is a main concern of mine, and i do think its an environmental issue. I do think the traffic jam there is going to be an environmental issue. There is i know that theres a lot of Parking Spaces there, but quite frankly, when i hear about the numbers of people and actually how large that store is, i actually think that it is going to be, yeah. I mean, the neighbors might want it until they see the thousands and thousands and thousands of cars that will be there on a saturday and sunday. They may think twice about it. I know as a supervisor of an adjoining district, im thinking twice because of that. Thank you. President yee supervisor pre preston . Supervisor preston thank you, president yee. I want to know if planning did any studies on the traffic that umm cans comes up on the Delivery Services . Is there any effort made to quantify that in terms of the traffic impacts here . Hi. Rachel schutt, Planning Department. Excellent question. I believe that theres some overlap there, probably, with the gig drivers. We do not currently calculate them separately. Does that answer your question . I see my colleague would like to answer, as well. Yes. Good evening, supervisors. Wade wickham, Planning Department staff. Rachel is correct. We assess the provide vehicle trips and t. N. C. S and taxis. We base the estimates on studies that we did throughout the city in 2017, including nine Grocery Stores, of which whole foods was one of them. And just, i want to reiterate something that rachel mentioned earlier, that the appellants estimates of vehicle trips, i believe, are about three times as much that our estimates indicate. President yee supervisor preston, are you finished . Supervisor preston yeah, that information is in that last point. But when you say t. N. C. S and taxis, are you not including instacart, every other service thats out there, which i think are not t. N. C. S or taxis . So are you trying to account for the biggest increase in the last couple of years, which is folks who would be driving to the store or someone whos replacing someone who would be driving. We designated private vehicle trips and t. N. C. S or taxis. There are ecommercetype workers that also serve as t. N. C. Drivers. So to the extent they would have a logo that would consider them as t. N. C. Trip, they would have been captured at a t. N. C. Trip. At that time, when we did that c. A. D. Reflection, we did not note the challenges in doing so. Supervisor preston just so were all working for the at the same numbers, you mentioned that the appellants estimates for these trips is about three times of what the department is estimating. Is that the same the estimate was 23 diesel trucks idling for 320 minutes a day. Is that an accepted or agreedupon figure or is that an overestimate, as well . Ill turn that over to rachel. I think shes more familiar with those numbers. President yee rachel . Thank you, president yee. The maximum in this range is 28. Thats an agreed upon number. The delivery trips, it appears to be the case in the appellants air Quality Consultants report that they might have used theres some quality numbers that come out of the air quality analysis tool that was used, and that it appears that they used some quality numbers that were generated rather than using our travel demand calculations. Should i simplify that further or further explain that further . Supervisor preston that would be great. Thank you. For the purposes of sorry. Were still in the weeds here. For the purpose of transportation analysis, we uls the Transportation Impact analysis guidelines, the departments guidelines. And so what that does is theres several inputs to that. Its based on the square foot age well, the type of land use here at the Grocery Store and the Square Footage of the sales floor, right . And that gives us the total number of trips, and we have some additional impacts for the transit authority. So in this location, its total number of vehicles and total number of transit, and other mode split. We take the total number of daily trips from the t. A. Guideline and apply the mode split thats specific to that location, and thats how we generate the number of vehicle trips. So weve generated a certain number of vehicle trips as part of what we call our vehicle travel analysis. [inaudible] and the Square Footage, and the tool will generate for you vehicle trips. We believe that probably the discrepancy is that in the way that they were calculated, so we think the appellant probably used the defaults in the tool, whereas we use the travel demand calculations that are the basis of our transportation study and are specific to the transportation analysis here in San Francisco. Supervisor preston i see. And what is your analysis estimate of the number of trips today . Ill have to have a moment to get that. Supervisor preston and maybe to get out of the weeds, and ill wrap up. Whether we are looking at 6,000 cars coming to this site or 2,000 or 3,000 or 4,000 a day, depending on where your numbers end up, and the number of trucks that were talking about ill frame it as a question, because i would say from a commonsense perspective, it is very hard to see these kinds of numbers with this amount of Parking Spaces here, a site thats designed to attract large numbers every day, with a loading zone. I understand why thats a wonderful loading dock if youre running a Grocery Store, but in terms of an environmental point of view in terms of emissions, im curious if you can speak to any comparable sites. Has anyone determined any comparable Grocery Store sites with a couple of hundred parking spots and this number of vehicle trips per day, has the commonsense exemption been used in determining them, as well . Were going from zero. The basis is its virtually no Environmental Impact. No one is driving in there; its unused, so im really trying to understand from a commonsense perspective how this would not have emissions that we would not need to mitigate or study and provide the appropriate mitigation. Yeah, supervisor. Wade wickham. We had a site visit, and we went through some of the same issues that supervisor fewer raised. We walked the site, we looked at the site distance between the inner section and where the parking lots going to occur. We figured out how many trips are going to be estimated, which i think youre right, supervisor preston, we estimated about 3,000 during the day, of which during the p. N. P. Power, less than 300. We went through our steps of what we do in transportation analysis of looking how those vehicle trips in particular could affect each of the topic areas that we analyzed, and that includes transit, that included loading, that includes emergency access. For transit, weve recently updated our guidelines, knowing its built on years of research, and weve assessed that if a project resulted in less than 300 vehicle trips in peak hours, its not likely to result in a Significant Impact. This is well below the streeting criteria that we use for that, and its, as rachel already mentioned, its not on a street that has transit. We discussed with m. T. A. About the throughput capacity on ofarrell and the ability of emergency vehicles to actually have the rightofway. So we went through each of these issues, and we still felt comfortable originally on the class 32 and then later on the commonsense exemption, knowing that the appellant would be issuing that exemption. Supervisor preston thank you. I just would say at some level, it sounds like you had this similar initial response that i did. To me, thats what the study is for. It seems like you it doesnt appear on its face to be something that is a commonsense where you would just, you know, find the commonsense exemption applies, you do some level of study to get yourself comfort, but that, to me, i do think raises the standard that mr. Wolf pointed out in terms of the bar here, where, you know, if theres if theres any possibility of impact, that i think it needs to be mitigated, that we grant an appeal under these under the situation. So ill wrap up there. I look forward to others comments. President yee okay. Thank you. Any other questions or comments . Seeing none, why dont we go to our Public Comments for those that want to support the project or is in opposition of the appeals. When youre ready to speak, go ahead and press star and then three. You have two minutes. Madam clerk. Madam clerk, you might be muted if youre trying to speak. Clerk yes, thank you, mr. President. All right. So ul callers, on behalf of th project sponsor and in opposition of the appeal, its time to speak. Operations, do we have any callers . Operator yes. We have 50 listeners and 25 callers in the queue. Clerk okay. Lets unmute the first caller, and well set the timer for two minutes. Welcome, caller. Hi. My name is alex [inaudible] and i live in the marina. Im in opposition of the appeal. I would like to point out the irony that several members and several unions are advocating for the application of ceqa which was signed by ronald reagan, maybe the most antiunion president that weve had. But more about a concern at traffic at trader joes, as supervisor fewer mentioned. I think that another Grocery Store and alternative to trader joes is going to canibalize more traffic. Its going to present more options for people that want to shop there. I also think that the argument about whether or not its better to leave a space vacant. I guess by that logic, we should present any retail space with parking be occupied or just prevent people from parking anywhere, to prevent traffic, which im sure no one is proposing. But finally, i guess looking at the operator themselves, i dont think any grocer has invested so much in sustainable methods of transportation more than amazon or whole foods has. Theyve invested billions of dollars in electric vehicles. So while there may be concerns about diesel or fossil fuel emissions, i think that whole foods is going to be a fully he electric grocer before any others. Clerk all right. Thank you for your comments, sir. All right. Lets hear from the next caller, please. Welcome, caller. Hello. My name is karen haguewood, and i live in the neighborhood. I actually live on ellis street at divisadero, and my house actually faces the back of the kaiser parking lot, which has truc trucks parking and loading constantly. I think were entitled to have our own Grocery Store. Weve been approving this project and discussing this project for more than three years, and it seems to me it had been approved some time ago. And under that, all of these studies were done at the time. We looked at the parking impact, we looked at the Environmental Impact, and we looked at what it was going to do with the neighborhood, and the neighbors were wholly in favor of it. Many of us will be able to walk to that store, which will cut down on traffic, and we are entitled to have something there. Its just a blight on our neighborhood there to have that space there. For those that dont think that theyll be able to have parking at target, they just have to walk up the stairs and be at the next level. Theres no reason not to have a whole foods there. Weve been waiting three years, which is a really long time at this point. Thank you. Clerk thank you four your comments. Operations, lets hear from the next caller. Thank you. Yes. My name is carter hemming. Im a local Business Owner with offices downtown and in the vicinity of the new whole foods that i hope you will approve. Im calling in, asking you to deny the appeal for the sake of the surrounding businesses. Each and every one of us depends upon the traffic that is generated by some of these larger tenants. We may not like everything about them, but the truth is they are an absolutely amenity in the neighborhoods that they exist because the traffic that they bring to surrounding and city center is what makes my business feasible. Since the vacancy of best buy and the pandemic, everybody has suffered, us included, because of the pandemic, and now that its reopened, business is not returning, and we need other generation in the community that will help us develop synergies in San Francisco that continues to make San Francisco a liveable city. For all those reasons and the sake of surrounding businesses, which i speak on behalf of, we need to have the strength of a whole foods grocer in this location that will generate the traffic and support surrounding businesses. Thank you for your time. Clerk thank you for your comments. All right. So we are taking comment on behalf of the project sponsor for the 2675 geary boulevard project. Hi, everyone. My name is tracey oneal, and im the owner of european wax Center Located in the city center. As a small Business Owner, i cant emphasize enough the positive impact that whole foods would have at city center. Even before covid, weve been impacted by the vacancy around us, and since the pandemic, two more businesses have permanently closed. There are only a limited number of tenants that fit in a space that size, and the rest of the tenants including myself cannot afford to have space in the city center without anchor space to come. We need the city doing everything they can to assist in our recovery, and approving whole foods would help us do that. I drive to this Center Several Times a day at all different times a day, and i just dont see traffic being an issue. If traffic was going to be an issue. I wouldnt be in support of whole foods coming into the center because it would be detrimental to my business. In addition to owning a business in the center, im also a resident in the neighborhood. I live in the western addition, and i would be thrilled to have whole foods in the center and so would all the neighbors i have spoken to. Please deny the appeal, and thank you so much for your time today. Clerk thank you for your comments. We have 52 listeners in the queue and 28 what are who ao a make their Public Comment. Operations, can we have the next caller, please . Yes, zb evening. Thank you for the opportunity to talk. I am in support of whole foods coming in. Im also a retired union person, and everyone that spoke up about the union, you know, i really dont understand it. Youve got somewhere around 6,000 union man hours going into the remodel of the space, and those are the jobs. And once the project has been turned over to whole foods, youve got 200 employees that will be full time employees. Theyd be paid the minimum wage according or more than what San Francisco requires, which is a lot better than other areas. But, you know, i lived across the street from wallenberg being remodelled for 9 million. The disappointing thing is not one resident of San Francisco worked on that project. Theyre like oh, well, the School District can do that because theyre the School District. This is hypocrisy and ridiculous. We need another Grocery Store in the area. Dont let this be another 555 haight street where youve got a building built, youve got a vacant space, and its going to sit there haveempty for five y or so because of what was ae whats going on here. All the people that talking about the toxic waste and everything for cancer, if that is the fact, then i guess we ought to shutdown geary street and 38 geary. That contributes to the pollution, also. Where do we start cutting . This has got to have some commonsense feeling to it. Please do not allow the appeal to stand. Let whole foods come in now, because all things considered, its probably going to be two years before we see it come in. Thank you for your time. Clerk thank you for your comments. Okay. Operations, do we have another caller in the queue, please . Is. Hello. My name is richard carroll. I live two blocks from the site, behind Wallenberg High School. Ive lived here 24 years ago. Ive been a union member since 1974. Im still a member of the Teachers Union in San Francisco, and im as progressive as any of the people against it claims to be, although i do confess, i occasionally order on amazon. I observed that no one who spoke against the project lives in this neighborhood, not one, with the exception of the lad from Wallenberg High School who felt that crossing the street was a problem, although there are two crosswalks. I walk my dogs there every day, and its not that crowded. [please stand by] operations do we have another caller in the queue . Welcome. Thank you supervisors for letting me in. Ii hear people talk about whats been going. That project up there, i was born and raised around there for the last 62 degrees. I was there when sears and roebuck was there. There was some kind of storefront there. When amazon and whole foods talked about giving 200 jobs to young people in the community. I appreciate that. There are some young people have housing complex and you have Martin Luther king housing complex. You have young people who probably love to have job. You have to take baby steps. I think its a great opportunity for people to get into. I did the same thing with we had four managers that came in our program. I want to applaud you supervisors, weve been on this call since 2 00. You cant have Public Comment 6 or 7 hours later. I been on this calm since 2 00. I think the community has spoken. I appreciate you supervisor for taking time out. Something else has to be worked out here. Thank you sir for your comment. Thank you for your patience as well to sticking with it to make your comment to the board. Operations, can we hear from the next caller please . I live just a few blocks from this project. Sounds like any 40,000 square foot use will have more Environmental Impacts than the use now. It seems thats what the appellant would prefer large scale retailer would have more impact and drive more traffic than any given space. I spoke at the hearing and im extremely disappointed that our neighborhood is left in waiting while the opposition groups are grasping the straws, to use a loophole to get around the previous approval when the site has been used as this use when the site has been used as large retail site for years. This is not about union labor or amazon as a business. It has been studied and approved. Please deny this appeal and serve this community who clearly want that project to move forward. Thank you for your comments. Operations. Another caller in opposition to the appeal. Welcome caller. Thiive a Business Owner. Ive been doing business in San Francisco for 25 years. In my experience, ceqa appeals are voiced by a local group that will be personally affected by development or an event. In this case, the local group, wants whole foods. Not special Interest Group out of san jose that has motivations. This is a neighborhood serving youth. It is in demand and implore you to use the term common sense in a more little fashion and realize its a 50,000foot space with 600 parking stall and Shopping Center. Whole foods will be a phenomenal use for the project. Implore you to make it the appeal and move this thing forward. I lock look forward to having whole foods. Next caller. Hello supervisors. This is jeff kerr. My family has been here for over 20 years. This is a perfect location for whole foods. The neighborhood you can see and hear we need in quality of grocer. Whats amazing close proximity to thousands of residents who will walk. We will not drive to other whole foods across town. No one is taking that into consideration. This can actually lower traffic to the other stores. Easy access to Public Transportation with numerous bus stops on different sides of the Shopping Center. 150 jobs badly needed jobs can be made. The homework has been done, the research has been done. I was so impressed by the city planner and thank you all your work. Its been done. Were ready. Its taking way too long. The neighbors want it. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. We have 51 listeners and 27 callers in the queue. I suspect youre all in support of the project sponsor and in opposition to the appeal. The floor is yours. Next caller please. Ill set the timer for two minutes. Thank you for hearing from me. Im tony murphy, i live in the neighborhood. I lived here for about 15 years. I really think its a shame that we have such a large space being vacant for so long. Our city struggled with revenue. You see all the ballot measures for various things. We forego some tax revenue down there. Theres been lot of talk about Environmental Reviews. Callers talking about commuting and how we need to go in that direction. Theres not a better site for a store like this given the amount of Public Transportation certainly around that building. We have 38 geary and balboa stops there in the morning time. Theres not a greater place that has transportation. If we were talking about a place like this knirl else, the discussion will be Public Transportation in a city like San Francisco. We have a bike lane that plenty of enough stops at the mall and i do recall that when the initial estimate went in, it was to cost over 10 million. We have a bike rental place thats outside the mall. This isnt the perfect place. I really do hope that you reject the appeal and i like to thank president of the board, yee and board of supervisors for staying up late for keeping your meeting going. I know its been a long afternoon and evening. Thank you sir. Operations, do we have another caller in support of the project sponsor and in opposition of the appeal . My name is jim grossman. Can you hear me . Yes. Im a longtime resident. Were located right next to the city Shopping Center where whole foods like to lease the vacant best buy space. Im excited about whole foods providing new Employment Opportunities for over 200 people. 72 employed full time and 67 identified nonwhite, average wage 19. 49 per hour based on whole foods current employee. As a pay, Union Construction labor in San Francisco, totaling 31 million for 2020 and 2021 and complying with the California Environmental quality ceqa act. The Union Personnel that are isnting the appeal are doing so, whole foods employees are nonunion but theres no basis for ceqa problem. The construction of the buildout is with union people. Im strongly in favor that you reject the appeal and approve the whole foods project as soon as possible. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Operations, do we have another caller on behalf of the project sponsor in opposition to the appeal. Hi. My name is meagan, im strongly in favor of the project here. I like to say that i had a baby at kaiser just down the street. I strongly believe the area needs a place for doctors, hospital employees, patients and visitors to get healthy snacks and foods they can walk to without needing to drive. The coffee component will be incredible and having whole foods will elevate everyone experience coming in and out of kaiser which is great for the city and neighborhood. Young families need healthy and affordable easy access to Grocery Stores. Multiple callers noted, another Grocery Store in my opinion, would only help with all the Environmental Concerns and traffic concerns. I also agree that this space is anybody takes the space, its going to be as bad if not worse Environmental Concerns. I want to note that we want to keep everyone in the city, seniors, young families, local store owners and operators, i dont know if is, im having multiple conversations with friends and colleagues that are making huge life decisions. So many people working from ho home. I strongly believe that a fresh new whole foods and coffee shop and restaurant is an appeal to existing restaurants and people olooking for place to live as well as creation of jobs that will be great. We want to keep everyone here and whole foods rather than a vacant building with a huge parking lot will be an appeal for so many people deciding what to do. Thank you for your comments. Next caller please. Hi. I live on we have the honor to assist our youth to finding internships and Workforce Program and Employment Opportunities. When i heard about the whole foods on geary, i was overwhelmed with hope and joy because i knew there will be opportunity for youth to work there. Our young black and brown folk need jobs. They are essential to uplift our community. We need more jobs for our people so we can be included economically. Historically, weve been excluded. Target and ulta are making significant changes for black folk. Give us a chance to make it in this abusive economy. The unemployment rates are frightening in Todays Society and Development Like this is the optimism we need to keep dreaming. Thank you. Im in support of whole foods being on geary. Thank you, supervisors. Thank you for your comments. Operations, next caller please. Assuming operations touch on couple of silent lines. Were circle back at the end. Im christy johnson. Ive been here around 15 years. Seven years ago we got rid of our car because we felt thats kind of what the city was leaning towards, they had wanted residents to do. It will be really nice if we had Grocery Store that was within walking distance. Im not sure if you guys are familiar with the geography of our neighborhood, were sitting on top of a hill which makes a little bit more difficult for grocery shopping. If you go down, the hill there is steeper than it is on california street. The other Grocery Store for us is luckys half mile away. This will be a great thing for our neighborhood and at the same time, we had meetings with our Neighborhood Association when target went in. We all agree it will be on good thing for the neighborhood. Even with increased track, it was something that we were willing to accept. I hope you guys will approve it going through. Thank you for your comments. Operations, lets hear from the next caller please. Hi, im laura barr. There are lot of cars heading to trader joes, because theres so many people in the area in need of healthy and affordable grocery. We need whole foods. This is a larger business but that scale allows for healthy food to be provided to our community, create much needed jobs and retailers who spend money on marketing help to provide traffic to local businesses. We all know theres a significant amount of vacancy in the area. We are in dire need of filling whats already bleeding our failed tax revenue to fund what is essential to keep this city running. We all know that is heading in a precarious direction. As many pointed out, theres no alternative to this pennant and will not be for the future. It happens to be a wonderful use for the city at any local person on this call say for one mention, they want to hear. They want it in our community both for food and jobs. We got lot of retailers who love to be in 46 and the community that wants them here. This is the kind of process that can send those away, those kinds of businesses that will help boost local businesses which are one of the most important thing to the character of the city of San Francisco. Absolutely, vote to move this project forward and thank you for your time. Thank you for your comments. We have 49 listeners and we have 21 callers in the queue. We are taking Public Comment on behalf of the project sponsor and in opposition to the appeal. Lets welcome the next caller. For member of the board and thank you for taking my call tonight. Im sure is very long day. I appreciate you all sticking with it. My name is dan brooks. Im San Francisco resident for the better part of the decade. Im calling in tonight to support this project for three reasons. One, simple jobs. There seems to be some disagreement as to whether this will provide union jobs or would provide union jobs. This project will provide jobs. Weve heard from developer that this project will provide union jobs. I dont think theres any argument here. The second some callers mentioned, vacant storefronts. I live cross from i live across from large retail lot for years. Its a blight. We need to fill these spaces. We need the sales tax revenue. We need to revitalize our city. As i i think everyone on this call, everyone in the state of california will agree, something weve learned from the past eight or nine month, data matters and science matters. Forget about the appellant, trust your City Planners. I listened to this entire hearing. They reviewed it and they come to conclusion that this project is a go. It shouldnt be a question even. Trust your City Planners and approve this project. Thank you for your comments. Operations, next caller please. Thank you supervisor for taking the time on this. Im strongly in favor of this project. The benefits of this project far outweighs the negative. They will be reduce or reverse Environmental Impact by approving this project. At least some 50,000 residents who live in immediate voting precincts all within walking distance of the Shopping Center will not have to drive to get organic groceries across town weekly. So we can reduce carbon missions from 50,000 residents. Which is what the appellants want. They dont talk about that. I will not tell others how they should lead our lives so that they dont harm anyone else. I should have a greater say in my own community than those who do not live here. If the unions have something against whole foods, i support them for boycotting whole foods, dont work for them and the wages will go up. You can oppose the project where you live but not in my neighborhood. Especially not take away my right to choose. Also to address previous caller about the muni that houses thats nearby, causing more pollution. That depot houses electric buses. No pollution there. I dont know where they bring that up. This location cannot be filled by small business. We have witness with no difficulty for students across Wallenberg High School. All of us can attest to that. Target and trader joes dont carry the variety of organic people that older people in the community require. Thank you for your call. Next caller. Good evening to the San Francisco board of supervisors. My name is christian anderson. Im calling today in support of the Whole Foods Market project and supporting local union workforce. My company is Third Generation family and women owned general contractor. Weve been building Grocery Stores in San Francisco for 75 years and proud member of a union. I want to share our positive experience with whole foods and their strong support of the trade union. Whole foods partnered with us for 30 years. Theyve not only supported my company but this supported and advocated for other unions and unions that contractors trade. Over the years, whole foods have contributed millions of dollars to little businesses and have provided hundreds of local Union Construction jobs. Geary boulevard project will do the same. I cant share enough how much we respect whole foods as a trusted client that contributed to our success as well as to the benefit of the local community. Please deny this appeal. Thank you for your time and be satche and well. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Do we have any other caller in support of the sponsor and in opposition to the appeal . Hello. Im in support of whole foods and hope you will deny the appeal. Im a San Francisco Real Estate Broker that specializes in neighborhood leasing. There are very few sites that work for Market Operations in San Francisco. If this site doesnt work, im not sure where there will be another site for this market. Im absolutely baffled why San Francisco would choose blight over a neighborhood supported market since covid, there very few large space users looking for space in San Francisco. Im also a local resident and i want market choices for myself. The options seems to be more about the union, the opposition, pardon, versus jobs or what the community really wants. We need taxpayer dollars going back into our system, given all the recent vacancies in the city. I hope you give the people in the neighborhood what they want and i hope you will support whole foods. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. We have 18 callers in the queue, we have 45 listeners. Next caller please. My name is patrick oconnor. I lived across wallenberg. Im calling in support of the project for whole foods and denial of the appeal. I went through the target store opening up. We were concerned about traffic. That has been well managed. We an update on masonic boulevard with new traffic lights, etcetera. I want to compliment the City Planners on the intersection that are right around that shopping mall. We have a protected left turn so its making traffic better. Just calling to vote my support for the project and the denial of the appeal. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next caller please. Good evening, thank you for your time. Im Courtney Griffin and i work in San Francisco. I will keep this short. Im echoing the many great speakers i have deny the appeal. I support this project moving forward. Its a great amenity for the neighborhood resident and it will help the customer traffic to other retailers. I think it is very important to emphasize especially at this time, the value that whole foods creates with new jobs for contractors and employees which will in turn help with our local, economic recovery. Once again, please deny the appeal. Thank you for your comments. Next caller please. My name is jim welder im a long time resident. I never been in inconvenienced by traffic or trucks it entering oar leaving the site. I cant imagine that whole foods would make the difference some of these dire projections are calling for. As a Senior Citizen whos looking forward to Grocery Store with walking distance, i want that store. We dont need another hearing. Lets just open the store. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next caller please. My name is kim moore. My family and i have been living in neighborhood for over 10 years. Were so excited for whole foods. Its an incredible store with Healthy Options for our family and its a Great Community partner. Couldnt be a better retail or Community Partner to go in this space. It will be huge plus for our neighborhood and nearby neighborhood. Im confident that theres plenty of parking and traffic for people to manageable and acceptable. This has been a sad vacant lot for so long. We as a city, need some happiness. We need more jobs. We need whole foods to move in and we need it to move in fast. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next caller please. Hi, im a mom to two young kids. We use to walk to preschool and theres never been any like traffic concerns. I wanted to express my support for the whole foods. I live a building im not concerned about the environmental or the traffic implications for those in support of the appeal. We live in a city. We trust everyday im personally commit to staying in the city and raising my children here. Theres only been more vacancies as well. Starbucks and panera is long gone. Theres really isnt much there beside target. Whole foods will serve by the city center and bring back activities this that neighborhood need. Grocery stores generate economic activity. I wanted to reiterate what a boone whole foods will be to this area. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your comments. Next caller. My name is cameron byrd. Im in support of whole foods on geary. For three years, seem like this has been working its way through planning. San francisco is struggling with business. Listening all the callers and its all the neighbors in favor of the whole foods going in here. Mostly opposition is for political purposes. Seems like abuse of process when these particular groups who are satisfied with whole foods processes, such as union labor or amazons policies are using this forum in order to oppose a whole foods store, which seems like it would benefit the community. Im in favor of the whole foods. I think it will be great for the neighborhood. I think it will revitalized the center and hopefully drive additional retailers and choices for residents and neighbors alike. We like to see it open there. Thank you. Thank you for your comment, sir. Next caller please. Hi everyone. For those who dont live here we have incredible views of this great city. Im looking out my window with a giant red heart, love San Francisco. Feeling very confused who has our city best interest at heart. I fully whole foods. Im not concerned about fabricated cancer risk, too much parking and bike lane or any other excuses tossed against the wall. Traffic jams are not environmental issues. Those are Civil Engineering issue and can be solved but not here. I dont believe further Environmental Reviews warranted, based o on the info presented here. As the city said, this is common sense. Were talking about bringing large retail into a space that is designed for large retail that includes, roads, parking and Public Transportation. This appeal is simply another tactic of grocery unions to stop whole foods. Its a shame. Look at the shutter businesses arent the city. We have a retailer begging to do business in our city. We need to stop putting up barriers that dont make sense and let the businesses resume for the sake of our city, economy and workers. Mr. Wolf and his supporters seem to have personal beef with whole foods and jeff bezos or big corporations. If we follow their guidance, the space will sadly remain empty forever. Please take note that the only people calling in in opposition are mostly those who represent the unions or other false interest but not this neighborhood. Not my community. I am pro business, pro labor and pro San Francisco. I keep hearing were a union town. We need to be a survival town and not be so selective, open your eyes and look around. Theres no real environmental risk here. Make decisions that will help the city survive. Supervisors, implore you to deny the appeal. We have 11 callers in the queue and we have 40 listeners. Next caller. Were taking Public Comment on behalf the project sponsor and in opposition to the appeal. Hi. This is sarah, i live in the outer richmond. Im calling to say that i strongly support the project. I currently drive right past this project site to go to the whole foods that have on franklin street, an extra two miles each way. In terms of Environmental Impacts, i would drive four miles less for my weekly grocery shopping. Im sure there are many others in the richmond will do the same. I strongly urge you to deny the appeal and allow the project to move forward. Next caller please. We probably hit several silent lines. Hello, welcome. My name is matt holmes. Basic tenants of solid urban planning is transit. Mayor breed and m. T. A. Adopted the geary rapid project in spring of 2019 and put approximately 70 million of public funds into making geary an outstanding transit corridor. Part of making it an outstanding transit corridor is to allow density and to support Neighborhood Services around the transit corridor. Theres 56,000 riders a day on geary at the geary lines have somewhere to go for their Neighborhood Services. Lets not forget about the work, essential services. Grocery is an essential service. This attempt by mr. Wolf to make this a cancer risk is really disgraceful. Mr. Wolf, go to whole foods buy some kale and broccoli. Thank you. Next caller please. Good evening. Thank you everyone so much for being there. You are such troopers. [indiscernible] the city has done their due diligence. I support the project. I only shop there. I think lot of the customers there, they are a different market share. Theyre not the competition to target. Even trader joes. Thank you and i look forward to seeing this moving forward. Thank you for your comments. Do we have another caller in the queue . Were taking Public Comment on in response to the sponsor, in opposition to the appeal. My im is roger allen. I live in the neighborhood. I went to high school here not too far from this neighborhood. Businesses in the area. Were really excited about the whole foods. My friends and all the neighbors in the area cant wait for the whole foods to come in. I hate having to drive over to franklin street. I feel like all the people in the neighborhood have to drive over to franklin street, that will cut down on pollution you guys are talking about. Please approve whole foods. Were excited to just walk to whole foods and not have to drive. Thank you for your comments. We have 39 listeners and 7 callers in the queue. Next caller. Hello. I have been on hold since 3 00 p. M. , its now almost 9 00 p. M. Im virginia snow a resident who live in the the neighborhood for over 40 years and one block from the proposed site for whole foods store at city center. I agree with so many of the comments made tonight. Major Grocery Store chain is a prime Central Location for shopping, it will be a Great Service not only to our neighborhood but benefit thousands of San Francisco residents. I really support it moving forward. Unions have a purpose, theyre ongoing opposition to whole food, city center because they object to amazon hr policy is a separate issue. Would the union be objected to Environmental Impact if whole foods was Grocery Store chain adhere to their Union Employees desire. Reject the Environmental Review appeal which i see biased by union and others to deny a whole foods Grocery Store and essential business. Im a resident and i tried to im doing all of this Delivery Service and amazon and whole foods has been able to deliver more food and things that i desire than other stories. I really appreciate that you consider that this is not an issue what the unions want and what we need in San Francisco. Were all in this together. Everyone whos still hanging on to make Public Comment, were so proud of you. Next caller. Hello. I was born and raised in San Francisco over 55 years. I live at Martin Luther king. I strongly favor the whole food stores for the community and seniors in the area. Thank you very much. Next caller. My name is dan flanagan. I want to talk about my neighborhood that lived here for now 24 years. I dont think i need to repeat some of the great and brilliant comments made over the past hour. I urge you to listen to couple of things. Your department of planning has done brilliant job and the homework. It will be a real shame at tragedy if you did back your own scientists to find the data, went into detail. They decided this was something that is necessary. I am a nonprofit in San Francisco. I know on a personal level how incredibly serious the city is facing reduced sales tax. You heard from the homeowners in this area who stayed on the phone for many years. There are many others who given up. I want you to seriously take it on and Pay Attention to the needs of this neighborhood. We all believe this is a really important move. Not only for our neighborhood but for the city. Thank you very much for your patience and the time you spent on the subject. Thank you for your comment. Thank you for sticking with it. Next caller. Hello, good evening. Thank you supervisors for the time that you have spent. Im chris shelton. Im director of operations at booker t. Washington Community Service center. Im definitely for whole foods wholeheartedly. We have partnered with whole foods and had the opportunity to speak with their upper management and we have tangible commitments that will help support our people for years to come. We support our transitional age youth. More than that, we have k8. We partnered with whole foods. We are planting a garden, which will be great to grow organic food. We have talked about chef. We talked about the volunteers. We have a commitment, to making sure seniors have employment. Were block and a half away from where booker t. Washington is celebrating 100 years of service, which is right about block and a half away. We are a partner with whole foods. Whole foods has helped sponsor our 1 behind year 100year u. We are definitely in support. Our motto is, nurture, we can nurture our souls body and mind, inspiring and empower. Thank you for your comment, sir. We have 36 listeners, and we have 5 callers in the queue. Were going to take this group to the very end unless some of the 36 listeners press 3 and hop over to call irside. Let hear from the next caller. Good evening. Im julie taylor, im in support of this project at whole foods. I been so impressed. San francisco has one of the hardest hit economies in the nation. Retail vacancy skyrocketed in the city an. This space has been vacant for other three years. We need to fill these retail vacancies. Whole foods will create over 200 retail and food service jobs. Working in retail offers tremendous career path. The ability to check out other retail workers expense to consider blocking the store and 200 local jobs is unfathomable. We should be rolling out the red carpet for hard foods whole foods. Thank you board of supervisors. Thank you for your comments. Next caller please. Thank you. I lived here 18 years. I all the opposition seem to be union and not local. Heard some things about kaiser and emergency access. Im also vegetarian, trader joes has great options. This why are we trying to fight somebody who wants to come nain provide an essential service to the community. Great question. We want this in our backyard. We want whole foods in our neighborhood. This is kind of nonsense that were just dragging this on that doesnt need to happen. We have 6 callers in the queue, 33 listening. Hi, my name is tiffany hall. I was born and raise here. Im 100 for whole foods to get approved and come in our community. I strongly believe that it will bring more job and opportunity, especially everything we have going on with covid. Unemployment rate is back up. Almost all of us know someone whos job or income has been affected by this pandemic. I want to say that i hope this plan is approved and me and my family welcome whole foods in our community and thank you. Thank you for staying on with us so late. Next caller please. I lived in the neighborhood for more than 30 years, whole city center was one big sears store. It was distraction walk to a store to buy things. Sears fell out of touch with the times. Theres been lot of turnover at large space. We have vacant eyesore with no major services. I wanted to stay on to register my support for the whole food store because we know that the neighborhood and the residents would all enjoy having a store that we can walk to that will be convenient. I know that for every one of us willing to stay on the line for this long, many of us given up. I almost did. I wanted to register my support. I would invite the board supervisor to look at this is a great space for a Grocery Store. Thank you very much thank you for staying on so long and other callers on the line. Operations, next caller please. [please stand by] they listened to our suggestions. Therefore, i think you need to go with the homeowners who pay the property taxes this time, okay . Thank you very much. Clerk thank you for your comments. Okay. Operations, lets hear from the next caller, please. Hi. My name is shane, and im a resident of San Francisco. Im in support of the whole foods and was very excited to hear there was going to be a new one at this location in San Francisco at was approved earlier this year by the Planning Commission. Im a regular customer of the whole foods on franklin, and i dont think we have enough of them to support the population as evidenced by the lines that i have to stand in when i go to any store in the area, and it would be highly beneficial to San Francisco to reduce the lines that people have to stand in. As was pointed out, theres lines of cars waiting to get into stores. By having more stores in San Francisco, it will it reduces the burden on people to drive far miles, idle their cars and burn extra gas that produces Greenhouse Gases in the world. Please dont derail this project. Thank you. Clerk and thank you for your comments, and staying with us up so late on this hearing. Okay. Operations, do we have another caller, please . Hello. My name is mindy, and im a resident of San Francisco over five years. I want to say that im in full support of this project and denial of the appeal. I also showed support for this project when it was approved by the Planning Commission this something. This site is currently vacant. The site is zoned retail, and retail is going into the space. Why is this project even a question, and why is ceqa even being disputed . Next, the pandemic has amplified how important Grocery Stores are. Its important to go into them because there arent enough in the city. Lets approve a project that the city needs and what the people want. I also want to note that the union, most of them not even residents of San Francisco, is using ceqa to curtail an already approved project. This is not what ceqa was created for, and unabling the unions in this manner to defeat the purpose of ceqa. Ceqa review was already conducted before the Planning Commission and should not be brought up in this manner. Supervisor stefani, you have heard from your neighbors. Do the right thing. Clerk maam, make your comments to the entire board, please. Shes the representative for that neighborhood, but yes, im just calling on her to do the right thing. Clerk thank you. A final thing was you guys need to fix this queue system. I had no point where i was in the line. You need to fix this. Clerk thank you very much positive your comments. Okay. Operations, lets hear from the next caller, please. Hello, board of supervisors. I have lived in the Richmond District close to this location, and i desperately wish that well, im extremely prounion. I wish this was a unionized Grocery Store, i really do. However, this is a spurious ceqa appeal. Its not relevant. I wish it already was a whole foods, but thats just the way it is. Clerk okay. Caller, thank you for staying up late with us. Operations, do we have another caller, please . Operator madam clerk, that completes the queue. Clerk okay. Mr. President . President yee okay. I want to thank all the comments from the public. Since there are no more comments to be made, then Public Comment for this segment is now closed. Lastly, i want to invite the supervisor stefani, i see that youre on the roster. Did you want to Say Something or ask a question before i hand it over to the appellant for rebuttal . Supervisor stefani actually, no, president yee. Ill wait until after the appellant. President yee okay. Sorry. Lets see where im at. So why dont i invite the appellant or his representatives to go ahead and give their rebuttal. You have three minutes. Thank you. Mr. President , before the clock starts, can the clerk pull up my previous powerpoint slide, if possible, and go to slide number ten . Clerk yes. Thank you. Clocks starting. I just wanted to point out, because i heard from both the applicants representative and from the staff that we had somehow inflated the number of car trips coming to the site and that the actual number is much lower. I just want to be very clear here where these numbers came from. These came from mr. Loopers november 6 letter submittal in support of the applicants review. If you go to page 104 and page 134 of his pdf, you see these numbers. I dont know where these came from, but we didnt make these up. These came from the applicant itself, and i would represent that these are the most accurate numbers of what the vehicle trips would be. 3,000 trips to whole foods in a day, 3,000 customers, that seems entirely plausible to me. 5,000 trips on a weekend, that seems entirely plausible. If you could go to the next slide next slide, im sorry. Thats what were looking at here. The staff has acknowledged that the baseline is zero because theres nothing going on here. Youre going from zero to 23 or actually, we heard 28 trucks with a. R. U. S idling for 270 minutes a day. When youre challenging when youre dealing with the commonsense exemption, the burden is on the city to prove that theres no possibility that there might be a Significant Impact. Ill give you the legal cite in case supervisor peskin is interested. Its 41 cal4 Supreme Court case at page 486. So the question is, have you been convinced, have you been shown beyond any doubt that you can say with absolute certainty that adding all of these new truck trips, all of these new customer trips, not to mention the cortese listing that we heard earlier, that theres no possibility whatsoever that this might have a Significant Impact . Again, were not saying say no to whole foods forever, were saying do the studies that were necessary. And frankly, if the studies that were done had been circulated for Public Comment instead of put in at the last minute to support the appellants position, wed already be dealing with that. Thats all ill say for now. I appreciate all of you staying so late and giving us the opportunity to present these points. I know its a difficult case, but we would urge you to uphold the appeal. Thank you. Clerk time is concluded. President yee thank you. So right now, i just want to say the ceqa review is filed. Supervisor stefani . Supervisor stefani colleagues, im thankful for the questions that youve asked. Weve been meeting over the last week, 1. 5 weeks, and also before that on this project. Also want to thank those who called in on both sides, both for the appellant and project sponsor, and apologize for some of the technical difficulties that we have. None of us enjoy meeting like this, and thank you to all of those who waits, and we respect your opinion. I also want to say that in many ceqa appeals, i have to be honest, these are pretty much my least favorite things to do, and why . Because you feel like youre picking one side or the other. For me, its where i have to be very guided by the law. I was thinking about it because i see people in my district and the surrounding districts wanting something in that location, which i completely understand, and if i didnt have the law guiding me, it would be other than occasion o the playground picking who i want. Ive said in hearings that the law is free from passion, and in these hearings, its the only thing i could rely onto guide me to a decision where i can feel okay. And i also want to say, too, that, you know, theres a lot of interests, too, in both sides in terms of appellants and project sponsors. Really easy for someone to say, those supervisors are crazy if they dont do this because theres a lot of selfinterests involve, and its really easy to convince people that when we follow the law and its not always the way that people want it to go, that somehow, we are [inaudible]. So i want to emphasize when i make these decisions, i do this as a quasijudicial member, not be on only as a member of the board of supervisors but as a member of the state bar. The ceqa seeks more environmental analysis for the proposed project at 2675 geary boulevard based on three main issues. First, the appellant argued that the freight moving impacts of the proposed project would be significant. The project sponsors conservative estimates find that the maximum loading demands would be 28 freight vehicles and could be c accommodated by the two existing loading bays over eight hours. If, as the appellant has suggested, three times the loading trips would be required, the demand would be still met by the two loading bays. Moreover, under ceqa, the Impact Analysis related to loading is focused on how loading impacts the public rightofway, and at this location, the loading facilities are completely contained within the project site and are separated from the public rightofway by a large concrete apron used as a parking lot. As a result, even if the loading facilities did not provide adequate capacity to meet the loading demand, for example, if more than two trucks were present for deliveries at the same time, any resulting truck queues would have adequate space to stage within the parking lot and would not spill out onto the public rightofway. Second, the appellants argued that there would be a significant construction traffic impact associated with the proposed project. Transportation analysis appropriately concluded that further analysis of construction traffic beyond what was already provided in the projects transportation coordination memo is not warranted. The proposed project is a change of use. A new retail use would occupy an existing building that was previously occupied by another retail use, which we all know was best buy. Although this required use would require interior improvement, there would be no exterior improvement and no excavation. As a result, the project would not involve the types of activity such as excavation, grading, and horizontal and vertical construction that could lead to construction impacts. In addition to ceqa, the construction potential impacts are evaluated on potential impact to the rightofway. Here, the loading dock is separated from the rightofway by an area that would serve in a parking lot to the proposed project. Third and finally, the appellant claimed that the projects would result in emissions from delivery vehicles that would expose nearby sensitive resept ors to significant levels receptors to significant levels of toxic air contaminants. This might seem that its gratuitous to others, but at the same time, its the law. Yesterday, appellant submitted Supplemental Information from their expert that refined their Risk Assessment to toxic air contaminants caused by the project. With the new information submitted yesterday, i do have serious concerns about the commonsense exemption being used for this project. Under ceqa law, commonsense exemptions can only be used when it can be seen with certainty, and were talking certainty, that a project will not have an impact. We are bound by ceqa law. Given the different information regarding air quality, i do not believe it cannot be seen with certainty that the project will not have Environmental Impacts. Therefore, a commonsense exemption does not seem to be appropriate in this case, and for that reason, i will be voting to uphold the appeal on this narrow issue and send this project back to planning for further analysis to further evaluate the use of the commonsense exemption in light of the conflicting information on air quality issues that will occur due to an increase in delivery vehicles at the site. And with that, president yee, id like to move items 34 and 35 forward and to table item 33. Thank you. Preside president yee [inaudible]. Clerk muted, mr. President. President yee is there a second . Supervisor peskin, did you say . Supervisor peskin yes, sir, mr. President. My name is on the roster [inaudible] and i agree with the motion made by supervisor stefani. President yee okay. So let me are you done, im sorry, supervisor peskin . Supervisor peskin yes, sir. President yee okay. I personally id just like to say a few words here. I want to thank all those the people from the public who came out. It was very moving. I dont generally see people coming out from the Community Supporting a project like this. Then again, the center would also be able to i think the nonprofits would be able to work with in terms of the people that theyll be hiring, so it seems like therell be quite a few local hirings. So theres a lot of things about this project that i really like. You know, again, i theres several people from the public that mentioned sears, which was there at least when i was growing up. So i remember the days that i was actually old enough to buy anything, and i had to drive over there from chinatown and buy tires and everything. It was the same issue, although not always, that i was driving my car up there, and i couldnt find parking in the parking lot, and i had to wait around for a little while, so in many ways, i see a repeat of that. I in regards to to the the you know, the grocer, its really unfortunate to me. Theres some issues that have been brought up by the appellant in this appeal, and also, its mixed in with labors warning issue that this whole foods or amazon would be unionized. I support that sentiment, but thats not an appeal issue. So im having im struggling with this because i i see the support from the community on this, but i think what is ultimately going to sway my vote on this is this confusion im having, and really not clear with the c. U. Versus the versus the other thing what is it again . The issue that theyre using to allow this project to go through. So that was a little confusing for me in terms of how that happened, and i think when it comes to commonsense, thats what its commonsense, im a little bit with supervisor stefani on this, is this does this really meet the bar or not in terms of the commonsense, and i havent been convinced that its reached that bar in regards to determining that it is commonsense. Im hoping that that i will probably be supporting supervisor stefanis motion, but i have to say that this one more than many of these appeals is a tough decision because i see the positive elements in this, and hopefully, you know, the neighborhood will get this the supermarket that they want, that can serve them, and a supermarket that can hire locally. Thats again, i would love to see that happen. It wont be on my watch, but its certainly something that we all need to support in the future. So with that, ill hand it over to supervisor mandelman. Supervisor mandelman yes, thank you, president yee. I just want to thank supervisor stefani for digging in on the law and focusing on the ceqa here. Weve heard a lot thats not ceqa. Weve heard a lot about the potential benefits of having a Grocery Store there for the neighborhood. We have heard, and i have heard quite a bit about, you know, whole foods history of having shutdown Unionization Efforts across this country for many years, long before they were acquired by amazon. I think we all are aware of the impact that amazon is having on employers around the world. But none of that is relevant to ceqa, and i think that supervisor stefani has identified some problems with using the commonsense exemption here. And i just i do think that the conversation that we had about the city had determined that it couldnt use the categorical exemption that it originally used based on the letter from the water board, and yet, that analysis it seems to me wrong that that analysis, although not strictly required by the statute, wouldnt apply to the to the commonsense exemption, as well. It seems it doesnt make sense to me that it wouldnt, and i dont think using the commonsense exemption was appropriate here. So with that, those are my thoughts. Thank you. President yee supervisor preston . Supervisor preston thank you, president yee. I want to echo some of comments that my colleagues just made. I will be supporting supervisor stefanis analysis of the law, particularly with her assessment of the commonsense exemption, which i dont think applies here. This is not a decision whether there should be a Grocery Store at this location. This is not a decision whether there should be a grocewhole f at this location. This is exactly a ceqa situation, where we on the board talk and fight for our city to be a leader in fighting Climate Change and Environmental Impacts. Were going to have thousands of car trips a day, idling trucks. Theres no question in my mind that theres at least the possibility of Environmental Impact. And what ceqa offers and frankly, i wish the exemption had not been granted and that the study had occurred, and that things would have moved along further in the process because what ceqa offers if theres Environmental Impact is the opportunity to modify that impact. Theres a lot of who lives in the neighborhood and whether they dont and what their motivations are. Frankly, im not terribly interested in the motivations of the appellant, and i dont think its relevant here. I think they raised and have standings for a legal issue with ceqa. They identified potential Environmental Impacts that i think are significant, and that gives rise to an appeal that we, as supervisor stefani has stated, i think quite well, a legal issue that we resolve. This goes back, and if theres Environmental Impact, theres opportunities for us to look at this through the lens of Environmental Impact. Thats what ceqa is about. All due respect to the architects who built this place ive been here. This is two blocks from my district. This is car culture. Were encouraging driving. Yes, there is transit nearby, but if there is Environmental Impact, there is an opportunity in the mitigation to look at how, instead of 1 what is it . 190something parking places and ten bike spots, maybe part of the mitigation we dont need to get ahead of ourselves. Maybe part of that mitigation is to actually figure out ways to encourage use by bike, cargo bike, electric bike. There were some callers who commented on that. There were opportunities to actually address an Environmental Impact, so i think this is exactly what ceqa is for. I will happily be supporting this appeal, and i would say to those who are excited about a supermarket in this location, this does not end that, and hopefully, if it does come, it comes in a way that is far better for the environment that we live in. Thank you. President yee supervisor peskin . Supervisor peskin thank you, mr. President. Weve spoken about this for quite a number of hours. I just want to reiterate for the third time that the underlying approvals were, i believe, and if i have to pass a law, i will introduce it, were vacated when y. When you exempt a matter, and then, you vacate that exemption, the underlying law is vacated at that time. We spoke to the deputy City Attorney, with ye spoke to the Planning Department. Let me be clear as a matter of our role as the board of supervisors, the underlying conditional use was vacated. I want to say that for the record. President yee okay. Anybody else . All right. So theres a motion on the floor to approve 34 and 35 and table item 33. Madam clerk, could i have roll call. Clerk on the motion as stated by the president , table 33 and approve 34 and 35 [roll call] clerk there are 11 ayes. President yee okay. Without objection, then, items 34 and 35 are approved, and item 33 is tabled. Madam clerk, we are going to our next 3 00 p. M. Special order. Can you please call items 36 through 39 together. Clerk items 36 through 39 comprise the public hearing of persons interested in the determination of exemption from Environmental Review under ceqa issued as a categorical exemption by the Planning Department on april 8, 2019, for the proposed project at 617 sanchez street, to demolish an existing two story, one family house and construct a new four story singlefamily dwelling approximately 30 feet in height residential house, zoning district, and a 40 x height and bulk district. Item 37 is the motion affirming the determination by the Planning Department that the proposed project is categorically exempt from further Environmental Review. Item 38 is a motion conditionally reversing the determination, and item 39 is the motion to prepare the findings. I believe you may be muted, mr. President. President yee i believe these items were continued to a later date. Supervisor mandelman, did you have any remarks . Supervisor mandelman yes. I did not anticipate we would be continuing this today. Weve continued it several times. Yes, this has been pending for us for sometime, initially, it was delayed because of shelter in place. More recently, we have continued it a couple of times because of the because of health issues. The counselor for the appellants is sue hester, who i think folks know, and she believed that she would be able to present and participate today, and then turned out, for reasons beyond her control, that she would not, but she promises that she will be available if and will not ask for any further continuances if we continue this to our december 1 meeting. In fact, the appellants have also raised a couple of issue does in s in the last week that we think would be helpful for planning to take a look at before we hear this, and so i am going to make the motion for a final continuance of this item to december 1. But as i have said to miss hester and her clients, i think it is we are at a point where we shouldnt be granting more continuances beyond that, i dont think. President yee okay. Is there a second . Supervisor fewer second, fewer. President yee second by supervisor fewer. Supervisor peskin . Supervisor peskin i just want to start by saying i have immense respect for miss hester. This item has been continued any number of times excuse me but this cannot go on, so i just want to be very clear with supervisor mandelman that this is the last continuance. There are many people who think that ceqas being abused. I actually think that we adjudicated last matter very fairly, very impartially, but there are those who want to increase the barriers to entry on ceqa. I say that as somebody who actually brought a ceqa appeal to this board of supervisors as a civilian on treasure island, and some of my colleagues would like to incompeterease the bar to government decisions, which i profoundly disagree with. But relative to the incident case at 617 sanchez, through the president to supervisor mandelman, i would say if, for any reason, theyre not ready to hear this on 1 december 2020, they should substitute counsel. President yee okay. All right. Nobody on roster. Lets vote on the continuance. Madam clerk, roll call. Clerk mr. President , i believe you might want to take Public Comment on that continuance first. President yee oh, yes, thank you for reminding me. Are there any Public Comments on the continuance itself . Clerk operations, do we have anyone in the queue, and i will just say, if there are any listeners on the phone and youre interested in speaking on this item specifically to the continuance, press star, three now. Operations . Operator madam clerk, we have no callers in the queue. Clerk okay. Thank you. President yee okay. Seeing no commenters, Public Comment is now closed. Madam clerk, lets now take the roll. Clerk okay. To continue items 36 through 39 to december 1 [roll call] clerk there are 11 ayes. President yee okay. Motion to continue these items to december 1, 2020 passes. Okay. Lets see. Lets go back to item 20. Clerk item 20 is a motion to reappoint patricia spaniak to the aging Advisory Council term ending january march 31, 2021. President yee okay. Roll call, please. Clerk on item 20 [roll call] clerk there are 11 ayes. President yee okay. Without objection, then, the motion to approve is unanimous. Madam clerk, lets go to item number 21. Clerk item 21 is a motion to reappoint Steven Currier to the park, recreation, and open space advisory committee, term ending february 1, 2022. President yee okay. Go ahead and call the roll. Clerk on item 21 [roll call] clerk there are 11 ayes. President yee okay. Without objection, the motion is approved. Madam clerk, lets go to item number 22. Clerk item 22 is a motion to appoint kiana sezaw Kiana Sezawar Keshavarz to the sugary drinks distributor tax advisory committee, term ending december 31, 2022. President yee okay. Madam clerk, go ahead and call the roll. Clerk on item 22 [roll call] clerk there are 11 ayes. President yee okay. Without objection, the motion is approved. Madam clerk, lets go to item 22. Clerk item 23, mr. President . President yee 23, please. Clerk okay. I believe its item 23, mr. President. President yee correct. Clerk okay. Item 23 is a motion to reappoint mario paz, residency requirement waved, celine kennelly, and nima rahimi, terms ending june 6, 2021 to the immigrant rights commission. President yee okay. Madam clerk, go ahead and call the roll. Clerk on item 23 [roll call] clerk there are 11 ayes. President yee okay. Without objection, the motion is approved. Madam clerk, lets go to item 40, Committee Reports. Clerk apologize for my scrolling. Item 40 was considered by the land use and Transportation Committee at a regular meeting on monday, november 16, 2020. It was recommended as amended with the same title as a Committee Report. Item 40 is an ordinance to amend the administrative code to temporarily restrict landlords from evicting commercial tenants for nonpayment of rent that was not paid due to the covid19 pandemic and to allow certain tenants who are unable to pay rent to terminate their leases. President yee supervisor peskin . Supervisor peskin i recommend this to you colleagues. We all voted on this last week. This was a minor amendment that was in committee yesterday, and with that, colleagues, i hope you will all vote for this. President yee so this is first reading. Okay. Supervisor peskin right. So we already voted on the second reading on the underlying legislation. This is a very small tweak that has come to this board based as a Committee Report from yesterdays land use meeting, yes, sir. President yee got it. Okay. So roll call, please. Clerk on item 40 [roll call] supervisor fewer please add me as a sponsor. Clerk okay. We will do that. There are 11 ayes. President yee okay. The ordinance is passed on first reading. Madam clerk, introductions. Clerk first on introductions of new business, supervisor haney. Supervisor haney submit. Clerk okay. Thank you, supervisor. Supervisor mandelman . Supervisor mandelman thank you, madam clerk. Colleagues, im requesting that we adjourn todays meeting in memory of nico diman who died from complications of surgery in greece. He participated in the fillmore rise in new york and queer uprisings in San Francisco, as well. He was a video artist and writer who documented the early lgbtq Rights Movement in more than 30 novels and memoirs. Nicos was born on november 1, 1936 in San Francisco. He spent stints in los angeles, paris, and new york before returning to San Francisco in the mid1970s. He was an avid geneaologist who leaves behind a brother, a sister, and a niece. May his memory live on forever. The rest i submit. Clerk thank you, supervisor mandelman. Supervisor mar . Supervisor mar colleagues, today im just introducing a third back to work emergency ordinance. This will continue this policy which has already helped hundreds of san franciscans get rehired through a fair process on an emergency basis while this body considers codifying it through a regular ordinance which i previously introduced. The rest i submit. Clerk thank you, supervisor mar. Supervisor peskin . Supervis supervisor peskin [inaudible]. Clerk okay. Supervisor peskin, well circle back. Supervisor preston. Supervisor preston submit. Clerk supervisor ronen . Supervisor ronen thank you, colleagues, i just wanted to wish my eightyearold daughter a very happy birthday. Since i couldnt celebrate with her, i thought id at least put it on the record. Clerk well make a note of that in the minutes, supervisor ronen. Supervisor safai . Supervisor safai submit. Clerk okay. Thank you. Supervisor stefani . Ste supervisor stefani than you, madam clerk. I have two in memory memoriam, and the first is sam [inaudible] throughout his career, sam opened 30 restaurants and in San Francisco and was known for always pitching a new idea. Sam was passionate about food and even more passionate about creating experiences for his guests. With every restaurant, sam had the ability to combine these passions, creating so many places we loved to eat. His restaurants were always more than somewhere to grab a bite. Sam created restaurants that took you away from your daytoday and brought you into a new all encompassing experience. Sam is survived by his daughter, soninlaw, two grandchildren, and exwife. I loved reading in the chronicle that just a few months before he passed, he was already talking about new restaurant ideas in the city, including a new paella restaurant. He is terribly missed, yet i know his passion and legacy will continue to live on in our community of restauranteurs. I would like to close todays meeting in memory of a dear member of our district two office, alice long. At the age of 77, alice passed away from a. L. S. , or lou gehrigs disease. When i was appointed supervisor, i was both thrilled and honored that alice continues to serve the needs of district 2 residents. Up until city hall closed in march, alex was coming in each week to help me and my staff. While his time serving district two is just one of his many accomplishments on january 16, 1943, alex was born in new york, new york. His parents were both doctors and quickly immersed him in a world of exploration and curiosity. Alex spent much of his time with his mother on the campus of columbia university, where he was encouraged to interact with the Schools Research community. From an early age, he was captivated research. His coming age coincid of age with the computer age. While alex made strides with his studies and experiments, its where he met the love of his life, alison bowers. He went onto cofound expert e systems, a Software Company that pioneered the development of a graphic user incident face to support engineering model and analysis. Alex also shared many of our concerns with the help of our planet, in particular the impact that energy use has had on our environment. In 1992, alex founded environmental components. Throughout his time in the district 2 office, alex worked with countless constituents and city employees. His modest yet persistent drive to solve any problem that came his way always served an incredible role in the office. Alex put up a fight against the m. T. A. And won, we all know thats not an easy thing to do. A few years ago, the m. T. A. Had planned on ut canning the [inaudible] jackson bus, yet alex might it abundantly clear that cutting this bus to downtown was a big mistake. After rallying and gathering signatures, alex convinced the m. T. A. To keep the route. To my aides and supervisor farrells office, he made the struggle worth every ounce of effort. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his son, and loving extended family. After a life of service to improving the world around us, alex chose to spend his retirement constantly looking for new ways to serve. Its not often you find someone so humbled in their determination to serve others. His drive has been an inspiration for my own work. I cant imagine the countless others who feel the same way, but i also know that alex would never expect my praise or the praise of anyone. If theres anyone who truly embodies the naming of public service, it is our dear friend, alex long, and the rest i submit. Clerk thank you, supervisor stefani. I will miss stopping to speak with him at the front desk whenever i would go into your office. He was a wonderful person, and im grateful for his service to your office and to the city. Thank you. Supervisor walton . Supervisor walton submit. Clerk thank you, supervisor. Supervisor yee . President yee than we could get thebu businesse. More adverse during a time when families are in desperate need of their services. Just as most of you may be know, there areju many, many forms of child care or preschool or Early Education organizations where they are based in a mall or licensed family childld care hos serving six to eight or larger ones which serves 12 to 14. There are coops that people never talk about. There are 14 existing coops in San Francisco serving another 600 families. Similarly, the education organizations we see the federal Paycheck Protection Program ppp. Child care home providers licensed in San Francisco, very few,ar if any, received any funding. In San Francisco we are fortunate to receive 1 million donation throughec the gift to f fund to provide some relief for Family Child Care home businesses. Itho helped a handful of them bt not all of them. Health orders have severely restricted the number of children that can be served in a limited space. Several factors are calling child care businesses to shut down and many are closing. Thesend include more space becae of social distancing. Increasing staffing to serve the same number of children prepandemic, adjusting to work sizes because of health orders. The ability to raise rates when families are struggling. Families choosing not to bring children to the program reducing the number of families they are serving. Many staffc members are in their vulnerable age category. Child care centers are a serving thehe same number of children increasing the cost or serving fewer children which decreases revenues. Programs that have government contracts r like state funding and or city funding are served the low income families are better off than those programs not receiving any support. It is not to say these governmentsupported programs are on us, the contracts up to now have been fully honored. Other providers that did not receive government funding are in much more restraints. Many closed or are months away from closing the doors. There isin already a child care shortage in San Francisco, and with these private providers closed, itit is forcing the cris we are in. The San Francisco Economic Recovery Task force report recognizes that the city cannot have a quick economic recovery without a robust child care system in place w. We have a onetime opportunity to allocate funding to help not only state or child care systems from collapsing but to also strengthen it. The San Francisco earlier this month to unlock 500 million of baby prop s dollars prop c to assist the child care system. Not just those under our current existing Early Learning scholarship system, which are contracts to entities, to different organizations. The board of supervisors will be approving the spending plan for babybe c, which is a Budget Appropriation Committee tomorrow. We i know our directive is clea. We are to unlock the funds and stabilize the work force who have been severely underpaid and help increasece access to qualiy child care slots for low income families. Income the system the pleaing out and we need the dollars to be more effective. Today i am sharing an effort by the office of Early Education to work with the City Attorney to establish the Early Education Economic Recovery Program to provide grants and also possibly zero interest loans for child care providers serving 0 to 6 years of age that will be eligible. It will be licensed child care family providers in San Francisco serving at least four children atld any given time. All nonprofit child care and coops serving children 0 to 6 years of age. Those for profit licensed Child Care Centers based in San Francisco with no more than two sites in the city. We are crafting the details of the legislation. This with youe because ine the past few weeksi have been meeting with child care providers outside of the system w iho are often unseen ad unheard. It was loud and clear of the differen meetings that they need help. I want to bolster Something Else connected to this is friday, novemberr 20th, world childrens day in recognition of the United Nations convention of the rights of the child. We need to be treating Early Education as a basic right. It is the earliest intervention for a child and also provides families with stability to work or advance their education. I hope that the new White House Administration will make strides in advancing this work. For now, lets continue making these important local investments. I also want to talk i didnt have time to do this. I want to mention this. I am going to ask that we draft a resolution to urge u. C. S. F. Let me back up quickly. It wasnt that long ago when the School District didnt realize they had the opportunity when the redevelopment happened. I was on the school board and part of that discussion at the time 30 or 40 years ago. I reminded them they had this opportunity. It was over 10 years ago. They are quickly trying to come up with the concept of building a school in the mission bay area, and it is moving fairly slowly. U. C. S. F. Has a parcel of land that they have been negotiating with the city to capture so that we could build the right size school there, and they have been very slow in their efforts. I really want us to do a resolution urging u. C. S. F. To get on their horse and get off their whatever and maybe work quickly to get this done. This is no time to stall. This is an opportunity for us to prepare for all of those people that will be entered if they havent so far. Thank you, mr. President. We will accept the rest of your submitted items. Next on roll call for introduction is supervisor few fewer. Thank you, supervisor fewer. I dont see names on the roster. I believe thank you, madam clerk, mr. President. I am sorry i missed it. I am getting ready to submit something for our outgoing president , but i will put that in my back pocket, and the rest i submit. Thank you, supervisor peskin. Mr. President. You want me to start, mr. President . No. Okay. Next. We will go to Public Comment at this point. Thank you, mr. President. At this time the board of supervisors is hosting and welcomes your general Public Comment. The telephone number has been streams on the television and website it is 4156550001. When you hear the prompt 146 7382415. Pound twice and you will join as a listener and to get in the queue to speak press star three now. Operations, do we have callers in the queue, please . Yes, we have one caller in the queue. I see there are four listeners there. If you are interested in speaking this is your opportunity to press star three. Public comment may evened if we only have one caller in the queue. Welcome, caller, you have two minutes. Good evening, supervisors. Jason crude, resident of district one. I am disappointed with the board tonight and wondering how many times the board of supervisors is going to play Charlie Brown losing the football. How many times does the poa need to be exposed. We are sorry, we are turning over a new leaf to move forward only to go and do it all over again. We stop believing them. We want to do reform we need more time and money. Goes straight back to dragging feet. I am going to pause your time there for one moment. You cannot speak about the m. O. U. Or the contract with the poa. If we have to redirect you again, you have forfeited your place in line. Speak generally about those issues. I am starting your time. I am speaking about the general relationship between the board and poa. Dont talk about those issues. All right. I ask again how many times does the chief of police get to come before you and lie to your places before you stop inviting him. It was a few months ago he came before the board and lied about the journalists and protesters. Today. [ inaudible ] sir, dont mention individuals at the hearing. You have mentioned chief scott, they were at the hearing. Please continue. Generally. The poa for the murder of george floyd and the people on the streets. [indiscernable] it leaves me wondering how naive is board of supervisors is when they come before you, keep being bullied and lying, you keep giving them the benefit of the doubt. Please stop accommodating these people. Thank you for your comments. Operations next caller, please. Good night. This is barry toronto. I would like to rephrase my comment from several weeks ago that one of your supervisors attacked me for. I want to say that some of the decisions that torn is making is dwighting the taxi industry rather than uniting us. The problem is the exclusion of the classification of the airport is dividing us and not going to make the purchase medallion holders richer. The numbers dont lay it out. The number