Good evening welcome to the San Francisco board of appeals. We are joined by our vicepresident , lazarus and. At the control is victor pacheco. The boardss legal assistant. Scott sanchez is here in the front row, the Zoning Administrator and i would like to take this time to introduce to you the new assistant Zoning Administrator corey keith. We are also joined tonight by the department of inspection and bureau streets and mapping jocelyn king and as well as the deputy drofrment director. At this time would you conduct the meeting. The board will request that you turn off all pagers. Please carry on all conversations in the hallway. Department representative each have 7 minutes to present their cases and 4 minutes for rebuttal. Members of the public who are not affiliated with the parties have up to three minutes. 3 minutes. Members of the public who wish to speak, are asked to fill out a card. Speaker cards and pens are available on the left side of the podium. The board also welcomes your comments and suggestions. If you have questions about requesting a rehearing, board rules or hearing schedules, please speak to board staff or call the board office tomorrow morning. The board office is located. The meeting is broadcast live on San Francisco Government Television sfg tv and cable channel 78. Dvds are available. At this time well conduct our swearing in process. If you intend to testify in any of tonights hearing and wish to give testimony, please raise your hand and say i do as you are sworn in or affirmed. Do you solemnly swear or affirm the testimony you are about to give to be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Thank you. Public comment on any item that is not on agenda. Seeing none, item 2. Comments and questions. Just a reminder that i will not attend next meeting. Thank you. Any Public Comment on item 2 . Okay. Seeing none. Item no. 3 is adoption of the minutes of the boards meeting of august 21, 2013. I move to adopt. Any Public Comment on the minutes . Seeing none, mr. Pacheco please call the roll. On the motion to adopt the august 21st, minutes, commissioner hurtado, lazarus, honda . I. Those minutes are adopted. We are taking the calendar slightly out of order. The first item is item no. 6. Item 6 appeal no. 13112 lorae lauritch courtney utt, appellanttss vs. Entertainment commission, respondent 620 jones street. Protesting the issuance on august 20, 2013, to Peter Glikshtern, amendment to limited Live Performance permit amendments to existing permit to allow Live Entertainment tuesdays through saturdays until 10pm indoors only; and to allow Live Entertainment indoors and outdoors on sundays from 11am to 4pm for 90day trial periodd. Application no. Ec1172llp for hearing todaitem is item no. 6. Sf 61234 we will start with the appellants to present their case. Thank you, everybody. Jones encourages the negligent behavior that impacts our health and well being. Extending the negative hours and also i impends our behavior. For the permit process no locals have received permit information. For example i tie at 27 street and we received those notices in the mail. For the application as they pointed out in the appeal summary, where residents may not have been aware of. The neighborhood deserves Accurate Information and deserves a chance to respond. Im questioning the testing methods of the loud sound and how they were tested at jones. Was it done both inside and outside of the business from facing the courtyard, on the sidewalks, buildings across the street from the entrance and outdoor area, inside other businesses. For example around the corner can hear the noise from the outdoor space in their business. Even around the corner from the outdoor courtyard is loud. At what point was the loudness tested . 4 00 p. M. , 10 00 p. M. , the loudness last throughout the entire night through 3 00 a. M. Dbc is to measure the weight of the sound. Dbc is required by section code. If so what are the results, if not, why . Low frequency noises like base music travels and it should be recorded. Additionally tested the sound on a friday evening is an a typical type that may have led to a higher time and ambient noise level. At this time it is a week day rush hour and the garage below has a higher turnover. We suggest you make additional readings at more appropriate times for all local tenants when noise is most disruptive to tenants. They believe this area to the a very noisy neighborhood. If this permit is to be allowed with its condition after its 3month review then it will bring unwanted excessive and unvoidable noise. Again the sound levels may have been determined inside the venue but have the surrounding levels of the building been done during these events . Because the sound reverb rates outside. Hotels and businesses have had to install double pane windows in order to block noise. Okay. The owners at 620 jones could have been more conscious. Architecturally the outside patio could be less noisy and be less noisy of an environment if there was less concrete and metal fabrics and carpets to absorb the sound. If you a how me after my presentation i can show you pictures of their venue and some statistics on how noise is reflected from various surfaces. Weve been trying to have Neighborhood Outreach with 620 jones but there only seems to be antagonizing and negating of our complaint. We have a website where you can complain anonymously and this is a low Income Neighborhood and there is families that do not have access to computers and we would ask for a direct line to call to respond to 620 jones when there is something interfering with our, in our space. So over all we believe that the owners are manipulating the commission and the permit process to achieve a desired the outcome to gain full permit use for their venue to which to include not only indoors but outdoors which is six 6 days a week. So extending this permit and an allowing more noise during later hours within indoor space is fine, but however, if everything goes well, they will make a determination about extended outdoor use as well. This is where we are having an issue with this. So how can outdoor music be allowed there when its on concrete and metal and painted surfaces. Especially when there is three hotels on the sides of the space which again some of them have to have double pane windows so the patrons are not subjected to the loud noise outside. If you allow me i can show you the pictures. You dont have time. So this is from yelp. Looking down into their courtyard. These are concrete structures. This is concrete here. They have low foliage. There is a lot of metal. Big concrete planters. You can see the buildings across the street. For the last 15 minutes, i have a list of letters from four more tenants of my building, plus we have hotel so mary in apartment 304 building helped us writeup everything we wrote but she wasnt able to attend. I have a letter. Can i read it . You can do that at rebuttal. We can hear from the permit holder now. Good evening commissioners, my name is pete glikshtern. We are not categorically not a music venue. The reason we applied for this permit is to be able to facilitate corporate clients having entertainment during their events. Corporate events are closed to the public. They are invite only and usually are done and over by 10 00 at night. We also would like to provide some background music for our sunday brunches. Those run from 11 00 a. M. To 4 00 p. M. We would like to extend that until 5 or 6 in the evening. The pictures that the appellants flashed, the last part of their presentation was before we opened. All of the foliage has grown in and there is a huge essentially oasis and a ton of vegetation. All of that does quite lawsuit to mitigate noise from speaking. The other thing that the appellants failed to mention is that we really dont have entertainment on a day to day basis. We play background music like most restaurants do, but we do not provide entertainment as part of our basic business structure. We are a restaurant and a bar. The issues that they are having are with the fact that we are a fairly large venue. But we do a very good job in terms of controlling crowd noise and making sure there are that our customers are aware of our surrounding neighborhood. I will let jordan speak as well. Good evening, my name is jordan, manager at part of it is we dont have a way for our neighbors to reach us and that is not true. Every neighbor has my number and i have tried to work out situations that they are having concerns with to make it as to more livable and comfortable situation for all of us. Some of our neighbors are had are tonight and we have six writers that live directly in the building in support of what we would like to do. I made 11 copies. Are we allowed to give those out at this point . Anyone like to see the letters . Okay. Excuse me, are these the same ones that are provided . They are the same thing. Its basically folks in support of our cause. Now, one of the things that the appellant, we didnt write them. Its not a form. One of the things that the appellants, one of the points that the appellants tried to make was that, for example, in their brief, was that the hair salon across the street was actually opposed and didnt appreciate our presence in the neighborhood. We have a letter from the owner in this latest package of the hair salon from across the street supporting our application. One of the things that the appellant you should probably be more prepared for this than i am. In the 6 months trial period that we had this period operational there being a total of two noise complaints. One of them came on gay pride sunday wherein the entire city was going completely bonkers over the Court Decision to allow gay marriage. We feel like given the fact that there is such incredible density in our area demand 6 months weve had all of one complaint from our operations. We feel like we are doing a very good job in relate together neighborhood. Im looking for the letter from here we go. So this is a letter from Juanita Moore who produces the gay pride sunday event at our venue. It the official after party for gay pride and juanita is actually in new york performing this week, but she did send us this letter that i would like to read into the record. To whom it may concern, for the past four 4 years i have raised over a Million Dollars for local nonprofit organizations. I have repeatedly attended these events. Im extremely passionate about all of these issues. All of their issues. Next year i plan on supporting open house, the lgbt housing. The housing demands. Too many of our communities and lgbt seniors are being displaced. The new venue will bring back hope to our community. These are the people that have helped to fight for gay rights, and built our community in San Francisco. My partnership with Peter Glikshtern and jones has become a great union. They understand my drive to give back to the community. While i understand that they are running a business. The neighborhood that surrounds jones is also a neighborhood that i live in. We plan much consideration to the neighbors. Juanita moore. We can hear from the department. Good evening. Im the executive of the Entertainment Commission. Im here before you tonight to brief you on the commissions actions regarding Jones Restaurant located at 620 jones. Before i outline the events proceeding the appeal i think its important to animal acknowledge that this location is a fairly noise i location. The zoning is mixed use residential and commercial and allows for a rooftop. Its true that residents have to endure more noise to the city however it should not be a bridged. The role of the commission much like the board of appeals is to try to best balance the needs of the residents in every instance. I believe the commission did that in this case. Additionally i would like to clarify for the board that what is being discussed is a Live Performance. Commonly known as an l lp. That has previously been a subject before you. It was created in the last 4 years to allow restaurants and other businesses. Llp limited in space the entertainment is allowed and the hours of operation. The llp is required to end by 10 00 p. M. By definition as well as the llp was indoor only. Now after a change in legislation, the definition includes semi spaces and court yards. Jones applied for llp in january 2013. Having applied previously for several outdoor sound permits and after having receiving excessive noise in Entertainment Commission decided to condition the limited further in recognition of those concerns and an allowing only entertainment until 8 00 p. M. After 6 months, the appellant returned to the agendaized public hearing to attain these conditions. The applicant requested to be calendared and the day was set for the 6th of august and also to make sure there was adequate notice as well as a chance to do a sound test. The applicant agreed to push that to august 20th. As reported on page 5 of our brief, our sound inspector recommended sound level of 6dba indoors and no louder outdoor. The permit condition was to allow entertainment tuesday through saturday until 10 00 p. M. In doors. And allow Outdoor Entertainment on sunday only from 11 00 a. M. To 4 00 p. M. Only at ambient or lower. The commission uses experience and knowledge to find a balanced approach to a mixed use area. The Entertainment Commission act appropriately and followed a careful two face process before issuing the permit that is being an appealed tonight. The commission followed all the the procedures and weighed the neighbors concerns carefully and the problems are not associated with the activity. The appellant complaints are legitimate and concerning general patron behavior of jones patrons of other bars and restaurant. And during hours outside those considered by the commission. A denial of this permit change would not address nor alleviate the complaints allowed by appellants. We ask you uphold the action taken by the Entertainment Commission. Thank you. You can take a Public Comment on this item. Anyone would like to speak on this item. The first person wants to step forward, please do. Im sorry, before Public Comments i would
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