[inaudible]. >> i would like to summarize for you why this project deserves your approval. this project is about a mid size bay area company with roots in san francisco that would provide an anchor to the west lombard corridor, it is a six lane divided highway with many vacant store fronts and minimal traffic, motion lock completed a traffic study that showed union and chest nut street both have two times more pedestrians than lombard street. it has a 20 year record of giving back to the community and contributing to the local economy. this project is about creating 15 new jobs and about providing necessary and desirable serves and programs that are not currently available and with our partnerships with pets unlimited, this project is about preparing awareness and adoption opportunities. this project is about adding diversity to the mixed use on lombard street and uplifting an area that has been negligent. as you know, lombard street was celebrities as one of the 25 commercial corridors for the city's investment neighborhood program. this project is also about minimizing vacancy and blight on the one hand and providing synergy and merchants of the district in the other hand. if we can have the overhead. retail synergy is the key consideration in selecting oh occasions, a pet specialty store in the marina that hoped at third store just around the corner, we welcome them as neighbors. in close, i would like to quote a statement in the city's website in the invest in neighborhood program, every neighborhood economizerabler district is different, the lombard district has its unique challenge, we hope you will support the staff recommendation to move forward with this project so that the lombard district has an opportunity to thrive like the streets and surrounding neighborhood. thank you. >> thank you. >> i would like the take this opportunity to remind people who came in to the chambers just recently, there is an overflow room number 416, where you can watch these proceedings, if you can't find a seat, you will have to leave these chambers and watch the proceedings in room 416, when your name is kauld, you'll have ample opportunity to submit your public testimony. so, that means those people standing in front of the doors need to actually move. >> the project sponsor has 42 seconds remaining. are you done with your presentation? >> yes, thank you very much, and i'll be available to answer any questions, thank you. >> in that case, we did receive a request for organized opposition from the marina neighborhood association or community association, and that request was granted. so, you do have a 15 minute organized opposition. >> i will remind the room that when we do grant those 15 minute block, we are assuming you are representing members and sorest of this particular organization so you're speaking on their behalf and we request that each one of them doesn't come up for an additional public comment. that's more to the members of your group. >> good afternoon, commissioner, my name is ar y*el kelly and i'm the president of the marina neighborhood association, the mca was founded in 2006, we have over 500 members consisting of tenant, home owners and property owners in the marina district, the mca has an 11 member board of directors, a monthly newsletter and monthly board meetings, in 2009 when this commission denied pet free express its permit, the mca did not take a position. we felt it created a deep divide and our board decided to not take a formal position but educate our members and know what was going on. in 2009, pet food express was denied the conditional use permit but with two extremely different conditions, one, pet food express has since opened a store just one mile away on california street so any marina resident can access a pet food express store, it has been an absentee tenant for the last four years, since 2009, many neighbors have grown increasingly frustrated by the graffiti, litter and homeless chaserbacker camping taking place aon a regular basis on lombard street, we filed complaints with various city agencies but the problems were never addressed and only seemed to get worse, for three year, neighbors assumed it was vai can't or no one would lease it, but there was a tenant that had a lease, pet food express, i was contacted wi jim moore and tom sing v*its, they asked to meet with the mca board and pet food expresses along with jim moore presented to our board last september, we heard presentations from two local pet store owners, based on their, our board of directors voted 7-1 to deny pet food express's conditional use permit for this location, we are against locating a pet food express at this particular location on lombard street but not against pet food express, not formula retail and not other pet food stores in san francisco, the mca board decided we wanted to take a vote because of the dangerous precedent that this could set for the marina and other residents, if it has your vote of approval today, it sends a message, which is come to our city, buy a lease, try for a permit but if you don't get it, leave your building vacant to rot, don't be a good neighbor, don't clean up your mess and don't try for a permit, this can happen with absentee tenant, since pet food express presented to us, we tried to get them to take responsibility by maintaining their building by painting over their graffiti or cleaning up their litter but these have gone to deaf ears, with the graffiti finally painted over and the litter removed from the parking lot, we tried to get information from pet food express express, the facilitator of the merchant's association who works for jim moore about what their mandatory community meeting would take place, but we never received any information to inform our member, we found out after the fact that the so called community meeting did take place about a mile away in pacific heights, maybe pet food express was confused to invite the community over to their proposed location on lombard street for their meeting. thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioner, any name is nick davis son, i'm the vice-president for the marina association, it was established in 1929 and is the only merchant's association recognized by the san francisco planning, and i would like to read a letter that was addressed to supervisor farrell, thank you for your continued support of our neighborhood and your ongoing [inaudible] of the marina, by a vote by the mma general membership, we are asking for your support in denying a conditional use permit of pet food express in the marina, after attending many meet, speaking directly to the pet food express own e we have concluded this business is not something that the maer chant's agreement can agree with, we feel the merchants have spoken and we are asking support from you on this issue. sincerely, mike [inaudible], the secretary of the mma, myself, nick david son of the mma and alex, our past president from the marina merchant's association. >> good afternoon, commissioner, my name is keith jerdano and i have resigned? the marina far years, in our planning code regarding formula retail state, the formula retail in the commercial business areas if not monitored and regulated will have a diverse retail base with distinct retail and personalities compromised with a mix of businesses, pet food express's conditional use application would be a complete disregard of the section, pet food express has attempted to paint a picture of a general local business merely trying to serve the community and serve animal welfare, pet food express purposefully utilizing their because. at the same time, they have whether intended or not created an extremely decisive caustic at mot fear and employed questionable tactics of this project. first, pet food express recruited pets unlimited to be a partner in this application, but pets unlimited -- but the pets unlimited portion of this partnership will consist of 4.6% of the available square footage, i ask you to consider when does charity when achieved to ceasing *f seize self-interest goals have a desired function, their first application in 2009 for a conditional use permit at this location, pet food express began buying multiple pages of advertising in each issue of the mar wraen na times making them the largest buyer of ad space in the paper, they testified in favor of the project and offered a series of one sided articles for pet food express in our paper, for months, regular pieces have been written vilifying our pet stores and our owners which have been incorrect and nasty and unbias, the fact is that pet food express has intentionally or not abetted the behavior which has been harm f to the community. in october of 2012, the marina community association informed pet food express they would impose the [inaudible] on lombard street, from sf weekly yesterday, pet food express has been instrumental of the lombard merchant's business association, an organization which appears to be to support their project. one of the first orders of business of this organization was to take up cause amongst the small business commission, i hope you will send a clear message that this kind of manipulation in pursuit of a permit will not be rewarred or tolerated, according to the planning department recommendation, in 2010, the commission made a find hating the pet food express should work with city in order to identify neighborhoods, there would be no negative impact on existing local businesses. i question how exhausted that search could have been if after it, their answer was to once again try to open on lombard street. a location which was roundly rejected by the community just three short years ago, deny the request for conditional use, thank you very much. >> thank you, as a reminder, the commission will not tolerate any outburst, applause, hisses, this is obviously an item that's of great interest, but we'll try to keep a very civil hearing, thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioner, my name is bobby whiles and i'm the owner of the pet store george, i'm presenting over 32 pet stores in our san francisco coalition, pet food express has 50 stores all located in the bay and surrounding bay area, most importantly, pet food express is the fifth largest pet supplier in the u.s., as the fifth largest supplier in the country, they use their significant buying power for their 50 stores and warehouse their projects in their 150 square foot distribution center located in oakland. this means they can buy for substantially lower prices in the san francisco independent store, they can sell their products for what i can buy them for which leads to a direct impact to our community. i'd like to read an excerpt from a letter of a store that went out of business in part because of pet food express. my name is liz pack, i'm a san francisco bay manufacturer and until february, 2013, i owned a pet store kauld chingu on union street, i urge ewe to deny pet food express's application for a conditional use permit on lombard. my opposition to this lombard street location is based on my experience as a past pet store owner and as a small local manufacturer, i opened my shop on union in october, 2009 and my sales increased until pet food express opened in 2011, it hurt my sales and contributed to my decision to close my retail business. when i had the choice of whether to renew my lease or not on union, i knew pet food express could come in on lombard and i could not afford the financial risk stays open knowing they could possibly open up another location close to my stores. stores on union and lombard will close if pet food express opens on lombard. if you open other pet food stores, you will contribute to the demise of the independent pet store ins the city and the demise of other businesses like my manufacturing company. the city must realize by now the domino effect of the closing of independent pet stores in san francisco's neighborhood, end of letter. this is a current one mile radius map of the five independent pet stores in which chingu used to be the sixth store but since no longer since pet food express opened up, lastly, i believe it's important to note the planning department's executive summary square footage of approximately 7 thousand square feet is a discrepancy from the 9514 square feet from the sf tax assessor's report. this in part is due to the lack of the disclosure to a basement with a walk-out and exit area to the back of the building which could be used for additional storage facility, this could be used for storage, thank you for your time. >> good afternoon, commissioner, my name is susan land ri, i am with the animal connection on chest nut street, 27 years of unfailing service to the marina community, we are an integral part of this community, the store has served more than one generation of customers and we have watched our customers grow old. we deliver food to the elderly and if we have not seen them for a while, we check on them to make sure they're okay, catnip and bones which has been on chest nut street offers the same personal service as well. in a reflective moment while at the store last week, i looked out the window to the two businesses across the street from me who closed their doors this past may, it made me sad to think that in a short while, our store front may have the very same vacant look. commissioners, our customers are asking us what will happen to part of the heart and soul of chest nut street if pet food express is granted their conditional use permit, how i will answer that question is in your hands today. thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners, my name is evan goldman and i am also a resident of the marina, you have already heard from the marina community association and other presenters opposed to granting the conditional use permit for the proposed project. i wish to echo these views and add a few points of my own, i have lived for over 8 years in the marina and i am deeply concerned about preserving the stores and other independent businesses, i am not alone in my views, the numbers as presented by the planning department shows that 3555 residents and associations oppose the project, and we have already been through this process once before in 2009 when the commission denied the first pet food exprez location for the first lombard location, have the things changed? just the opposite. in 2009, the neighborhood continues to overwhelmingly oppose the project, second, pet food express is now even more formula retail than before, this fast growing change has over 50 regional stores including opening the third san francisco store on california and presidio just one mile away from the project, the digital california store has ample parking, why would there be a need for another store on lombard. third, in the present application, it tries to make a case for itself by offering non-profit operated cat adoption and for a fee, pet washing services, it is only a small percentage of the square footage of the proposed project and similar services are available in the area including pet washing shops such as foggy doggy, in addition, as i have seen myself, the spc has prided pet adoption services on chest nut. >> thank you, sir, your time is up. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> you're welcome to submit that if you want and submit your notes if you wanted to. typically when the supervisor is here, he or she is here themselves or has a representative that wants to speak, we grant that and there is a request from victor lim from supervisor mar's office. >> thank you, commissioners. here's the statement first. commissioner, good afternoon, my name's victor lim, i'm one of the legislative aids to supervisor mar and i'm here to deliver a statement on behalf of the supervisor, many of you may be aware that pet food express has attempted to open a store on lombard street four years ago, this committee voted 5 -2 based on the competitive advantage of retail, i urge you to consider the concerns of a business model that has had a se vaoefr detriment impacts on small businesses. there are currently over half a dozen pending policies and ordinances that seek to address the proliferation of formula retail in san francisco, this indicates that as a city, we are concerned that we are not being fully -- sufficiently careful in the way that we regulate formula retail. according to planning staff, 75% of the conditional use applications are approved. i'm sure in some cases, the applicant businesses is appropriate for the neighborhood they seek to move into. the other case, i do not believe the commission examines and gives weight to the financial impact that is these businesses have on small locally owned business thaz are the true life blood of our neighborhoods, i respectfully ask that you take neighborhood and merchant concerns seriously in your deliberations. thank you. >> thank you. we're going to go ahead and open it up to public comment and i think i have over 120 cards here. we've also received hundreds, plural, of e-mails from you over the past two, three weeks so i think many of us understand both sides of the issue. we're going to go ahead and call names. if you find yourself repeating maybe some of the thoughts that a previous speaker has, you can sort of get to the point, then call yourself either in opposition or support and we'll get through this hearing, so i appreciate that. and for simplicity, i think the best is if i call names, if you can line up on that side of the room. if i've called your name, go ahead and come to the microphone, two minutes, correct, (calling speaker names). any of these names ring a bell? >> commissioner, president, some of these people may be in the overflow room. >> they may be and we'll give them time to get up here. >> if your name has been called, please feel free to approach the podium and give your testimony. >> hi, i'm ferries prodom, a business owner and part of the merchant's association. name david son hasn't been on the board or the mma far year and a half, he's been asked to resign from ryan fuller and myself, back then he accepted the resignation, he hasn't been to a meeting since then, ryan fuller who signed the unauthorized letter has been transferred to palo alto, so he's not a businessman in the marina, so unfortunately, there are not very nice things going on, and i'm only here as a businessman to say that vacant store fronts don't do anybody any good, it doesn't matter if it's on lombard or chest nut or union, we're not separate, we're all part of the same group, and if lombard is an improved -- it's not going to help chest nut or union, and i mean, it's just simple, i mean, i'm not going to get into the politics and the dirt, it's really sad, this has gone on a long time, i wish bother parties that had been here for a long time had reached some kind of an agreement, but a good store front is a good store front, and it only makes things better for everyone. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker, please. >> thank you, my name is jane tobin and i'm here to support pet food express as an exemplary business merchant for the marina district, i am the co-president of friends and san francisco care and control and we are a non-profit that supports san francisco animal, control and care, which takes in almost 10 thousand animals a year, pet food express has been an incredibly generous supporter of san francisco animal, care and control and of our organization and they do that in a number of year, they don't just give money and walk away and say that's enough, what they do is they offer the cap satellite adoption facility and i agree it is a small footprint in the store, but in that small footprint, 5 thousand cat and is kittens have been adopted in the past 10 years and that's a significant improvement to our euthanasia and live release rates in animal control, in addition, they do support us through community event, they allow us to use their space for adoption, outreach events and they have also increased our profile in the community. they have consistently referred people to us, sent us to adopt animals through us, they've made people aware of us who had never heard of us prior to their efforts in the community, so i will say they do in fact support the community outside of the marina district and i hope they can do the same for the marina as well. >> thank you. >> president fong, commissioners, my name is harold hugasian, i am a past president of the district merchants, i served three separate terms as the president, i've been doing business in the marina for 36 years, as a property owner on lombard, we do need a lot of help, we really do, a vacancy like that is really detrimental. the big box is a herring, it's a red herring because there are only i believe two other spots on lombard street that are even large enough to even consider a big box and really not, but my personal family situation is that my wife started buying supplies on west portal when this company first started and we've maintained two and a half generations of cats over the course of the last 30 some odd years. business is hard to do nowadays, and as a property owner, i have to say as a rental property owner, i would say the pet washing facility is a tremendous asset because i'll tell you, it's difficult for folks to find places for pets to be washed. i know nowhere on my property can they do it except out in the parking lot and it's tough enough, but i ask you to support business in san francisco, paying these gentlemen as some corporate entity is a misnomer and i ask for your support to making a decision for the future of san francisco by approving the application of pet express. i was on the phone with a friend of mine, i told him about this process and formula retail and he said, really. >> thank you very much. >> hello, my name is j. . the collins, i'm in support of the pet food express and i wanted to say i have been a shop owner, i shopped two doors down of the proposed location and wanted to say that with the businesses that has been happening inside of the lombard street corridor, it's disheartening to try to run a business there, i have noticed