Five Story Buildings are completely out of character in our neighborhood and i am sure that you guys have been in that neighborhood and you know that, but the dl requestor did present you a heat map that visually describes that. The neighborhood is described as the hills and valleys and this structure does not honor the topography. Architecture that steps back before it goes back and reflect its should be a requirement of this design and i know that the dr requestor talked about the property and the context of his house, but the rest of the neighborhood is much smaller than his house, and the house across the street is extremely smaller. I thank you for listening to the impute of the neighborhood and it is our naid and i think that the neighborhood of San Francisco gives San Francisco charm and the neighborhood sensibility should have as much, if not greater priority than the sensibility of the San Francisco planning department. Thank you for hearing our position. Next speaker, and i will call a few more names but come on up. Denise kelky, mark hump rey and dale milfay and elizabeth more. I am mark and i live on the same block of the proposed development at 548 dunkan and i have lived there for 48 years and i have been convinced for the neighbors in the neighborhood even longer and just by viewing the current status of the neighborhood, that this development will be a jaring and intrusive and unattractive addition to the valley that we love so much. And one of the things that i have enjoyed is looking out over the valley and understanding the consist and this will detract from that and i love Walking Around with my dot and her son. And i have carefully considered including today, the site where the development will sit on and understanding what is proposed here and taking all of the information in, it seems like a jaring, obstructionist, and building, that will blot out some of the trees behind, and that it and has not been considered from aesthetic standpoint and so i ask the department to consider a careful review of the project, thank you. My name is susan and i live at 548 duncan street and about a block and a half from the proposed structure, much of what i want to say has been said and so this is brief. Ii moved from somo when i had my daughter to the valley that this is a place that has a lot of Beautiful Homes and i wanted to get away from kind of the big, the big, rectangular boxes and i also enjoy Walking Around the neighborhood and bruces home was actually one of the ones that actually caught my eye and i thought that it was done with all of the set backs and a lot of wood paneling and so it blends in nicely, the developer has a big, white, jaring box that he has proposed to build and that is something that i am opposed and especially that i like walking up the hill and seeing all of the nice homes. And so, this is, for several months and he kept us abreast of what the development that have been happening and he seems like a nice, reasonable person. We have also been wondering why the developer has not met with us and it seems like he has promised a lot to bruce and every time that you either disappeared or let him down, made promises that he does not keep. And so, i would like you to consider the modifications that bruce has proposed. Thanks. Hi, my name is carm en tang and i am reading this letter on behalf of denise kilky. I am currently a tenants at 643 duncan which is four houses east of the construction project. I purchased this house in 1991 after falling in love with the valley and the quaint neighborhood and the homes and the noncity, yet close to the city charm. I looked at many homes in the neighborhoods of San Francisco when i was searching for a home to buy and found this home in the valley where all relatively small in size, and which gave the neighborhood its charm with the greenry. And which was my deciding factor. I moved away from San Francisco tenplus years ago and my brother purchased this house for me for the very seem reasons that i bought it for, my brother asked me to represent him. And due to the fact that he was transferred overseas several years ago and cannot currently be here. My family and i are currently renting this house from him and have been living here for the past three years. Today there are a lot of homes being constructed and we now, and renovated in the valley. And many of my friends who live here want to stay because of the way the neighborhood looks and feels. I have not seen any homes go from a one or a two story house, to a five story one. And most renovations are transparent from the street, and are built to blld in with the structures of the other homes on the block. This proposed structure will stick out like a sore thumb and it is so uncharacteristic to the neighborhood. These types of building are being built in the concrete jungle in the neighborhood of San Francisco where all of the homes look like boxes and are taller and but since they look like that, they fit right in, hence creating a neighborhood type of its own, my brother has seen a picture of the proposed structure and is utterly disappointed and upset to see that someone would think about putting a structure like this in the neighborhood. His first words were wow this looks like a hospital in the middle of the 500 to 600 block of duncan street. He is strongly opposed to having a five story massive business that does not architecturally fit in the neighborhood it ruins the neighborhood and takes so much away from the quaintness of the valley. I hope that the city will sympathize and understand why it is so upsetting to the surrounding neighbors and neighborhoods for the structure so massive. And tall to be built. Thank you for your time. Hello, my name is gale snare and i lived on the 500 block of duncan street since 1974. I was instrumental in lobbying when mayor masocon i propositions jay to get the open space across the street. The duncan new Berg Association has worked hand in hand with almost every developer in our neighborhood to work with us to put up things that are appropriate, where people have bought and lived as original owners, people have been living in this neighborhood and i have been there almost 40 years, across the street from me was empty space we worked with the developer to make the building, where susan ku lives set back and keep one of them as r1 so it does not obstruct a Single Family next door, we met the developer that built the person who is requesting the dr. This is the first developer that has just turned a blind eye to us. Five stories and the building is taller than his. On a 25foot lot is just not right for our neighborhood. It belongs in south of market and it will set a precedent to change the neighborhood to what it is to a concrete jungle and so i urge and and i dont know in the old days, 1987, the Planning Commission would do a site visit on the houses across the street from this one where the developer wanted a 12 unit condo, and discretion review allowed three Single Family houses that now go down the hill and are all owned by the original owners, so one turned over this year because of a divorce, this is a ul and he is not building it for himself. We are a neighborhood and 350 signatures must show how adomant we are opposed a 4 Story Building will still give him a huge profit. If you have not come to look at our neighborhood, then come and actually look at the neighborhood, and this is a concrete jungle that we dont need. Thank you. Brian stecland . Next speaker. Hi my name is brian steclan and i live at 1500 diamond street and i have been there for 15 years, i apologize for being a little bit late for the meeting i have driven in from san jose and this meet sg important to me. I actually go to go back to work, and i want to be sure that the people who could not be here from work in the area had a voice here. Do i want to say that i think that preserving the character of the valley, is appropriate. And there is a lot of stuff in the media about whether or not this is a third story or a five Story Building. If this is not a five Story Building, the house that i live in which i consider two story, would have no stories. So i believe that in terms of the character of the neighborhood, you know, reducing the story is an absolute must of the Ongoing Development of this effort. Set backs, if i read through the Design Guidelines and throughout there he mentions the set backs and preserving the character of holding the privacy and light in the rest of the neighborhood. This is not just about the individual neighborhood, but a lot of bruce and his partner who has put a lot of his effort in pushing through this and it is also the character of the entire neighborhood and set backs as it should continue to go back and into this building and would hopefully put this thing, better in perspective and in scale with the rest of the neighborhood. We are not against the development, and we have had a lot of stories, and a lot of houses that have gone up in the last five years, but there does come a point where too much is four the neighbors that preserves its own character. Thank you so much. Are there any other speakers in support of the dr . Come on up. My name is gralin braille and i live at 615 duncan street and i would like to start by making a comment and i dont know how many of you are native san franciscans and i am not. I moved here 50 years ago and i originally lived in russian hill and i think that we would all, if you have been in the russian hill, i am sure that most of you have, you will recognize that it is a high density neighborhood and it has a different player than the valley does. The valley is most of the people here have talked about definitely has the charm of more of a Single Family or a family orientation. And it was what has been stated before, this is currently a eclectic neighborhood where there are a lot of homes, if you look on new berg street there are a lot of deco and you have victorans and in bruces case it is a more interesting more modern building that has definitely fit in with the way that it fits into the nature of the neighborhood. This particular building that you are looking to decide what you want to do today, is something that just kind of crosses the line the fifth story takes it to a place where it does not fit in with this neighborhood, and it is intended to live. And i think that most of us have lived there for some time already. I want to you look at it from that perspective and a comment was made earlier about, if you have not seen this neighborhood, or you have not looked at what the plan is and in actuality, what it looks like there, i invite you to come to the valley and we are more than happy to show you, that because i think that it makes a huge difference and thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Im elaine gorson and i live on 24th street and not anywhere near where any of the neighbors that have spoken today. But i do live in the valley, and i have lived there for 20 years and my heart breaks for these neighbors, because i know how i feel, about the valley and i know how most of the residents feel, and they feel that it has a very near and dear charm and that is why most of us live there. And so i hope that you will listen today to bruce, and the rest of the neighbors and not allow this building to go forward. And i thank you very much for your consideration. Any other speakers in support of the dr requestor . Seeing none, project sponsor . My name is robert admonds and i am the architect working on behalf of the project sponsor and i want to thank you the commissioners for the time and consideration on this project and i would like to thank the staff who we worked closely with over the last couple of years on this project. As i mentioned it has been a couple of years, and we have met many times with the dr requestor, and we have also had all of the required identifications in terms of the preapplication meetings with the neighbors and also the 311 notification. We have not had any contact at all with any of the neighbors except for the dr requestor, and over the last couple of years in this project. And as of late, the dr requestor has drummed up support from the neighbors, for this, or for his first cause and i think that in many ways he has misrepresented the project and in order to tell you what the project is, first i want to tell you what the project is not. The project is not a five story home, contrary to what he is representing. It is a four story house. It is four floors over a garage, and it is four stories over a garage. And in fact i think that another key consideration here is that this is a steeply sloped lot. And that is important because that differs from the flat lots and in fact, in terms of the way that the Building Code would determine this property, would actually be a three Story Building, with two subbasements this is very, very different than the described five Story Building that they are talking about. And another aspect to the project is that because it is a steeply sloped site, we have gone to the efforts to terrace the project up the hillside, the project is in a 40 foot high limit because of the slope of the site and the average height is roughly about 35 feet and it is actually not 54 feet as represented by the dr requestors material. And another key aspect to our project, that should be noted, is that with the terracing of the hillside the project is never two more stories above the adjacent grade and we have been deliberate of the design and 40 percent of the floor area is underground and a substantial portion of the building is buried underground to limit the mass of the building. As, as noted from a lot of people, this is an unusual property. And to the east, is the dr requestors property, which is a doublesized lot and it is a 50foot lot and our project is 25 and to the west of us is a nonconforming lot. And the dr requestor, again, continues to represent our project as almost 5,000 square feet is true but that is also ininclusive of 1,000 foot of garage which is 90 percent khf is underground and so in terms of the actual living space, we are talking about a house that is nearly 3700 square feet and of that living space, 35 percent it is underground. With regard to the set backs, we have maintain the cocompliant 25 percent of lot in the rear and we are matching the 25foot front set back that is matching the neighbors and is identical to the neighbors and when we had the initial discussions with the dr requestor and he was actually surprised that we were not taking the average between the two properties and so in his mind he wanted to take the average of his property with regards to the house that is to the west of us. And that actually will have required us to have a 42 foot floor set back, which will really be quite impressive and the other key thing that i would like to mention is the fourth floor, and the controversial fourth floor. The fourth floor is set back, 46 feet from the Property Line. And it is barely visible from the street, and it is really not quite that noticable. Our approach to the design of this project was to carefully address the facade and we were concerned about the size and the scale of the project. And so what we have done is a series of voluntary set backs and not just up the front facade to articulate it and we are setting the garage back four feet. And we are also voluntarily matching the eastern property adjacent to the dr requestors house to some released to him. And other aspects that we are very careful to consider, is on the Property Line, walls, we are articulating those with the Property Line windows as well and the joint patterns. Sir, your time is up. Thank you. Calling now speakers, that are in support of the project . Good afternoon commissioners my name is elizabeth moore. I own a house to the west of the project on the other side from the dr requestor. And i dont live there at the moment i have a tenant who is also in support of the project. I met with the architect a number of times, and the project as it is now, considering the changes that have been made, i feel that it is reasonable. And i am happy with the results. So i would like to just go on record as supporting the project, thank you. Thank you. Next speaker please . Support of the project . My name is Rebecca Isenberg and i am a neighbor who lives one block away and i strongly support the construction and to be here and i dont know who the developer is, and it does not matter to me, that the developer wants to make money. In his background and i am one of the stroller moms and we bought a home ten years ago and we had to scrimp and save to buy this house and the neighborhood has changed over the years since we bought it, it has changed in very good ways and we are very grateful for the changes which have increased our value and some day might help us to afford college for our two children, but lets be very clear about what this dr request is about, it is about the request for one person to preserve his western views. And this one person spent 6 million to buy a mansion, unfinished about five years ago. He bought it next to an empty lot. Might i ask for consideration, why anyone would buy a home next to an empty lot in one of the most quickly aappreciating neighborhoods in the city and not consider buying that next door in order to preserve his views rather than purchasing the lot, is something that is still open to the dr requestor, he has spent his money on attorneys and now i am an attorney, and i like to make money too. But in this case, i leave that it is a waste of tax payer money to have you all sit here for a long time listening to his attorneys and the neighbors try to convince you that the home next door, the developer, that bought the home and the lot next door does not have a right to build a home almost as tall and half the size as his home. It is absolutely ludicris to say that it is out of character with the neighborhood when it is half of the size of the dr requestors home additionally the well researched and thoroughly report which i thank the commission for creating makes it clear that there is a home almost identical to the proposed home three doors to the right, you will see a white home that looks almost exactly like the proposed construction if norton that report and see it also by walking down the street. Mostly, i thoroughly object to the aesthetic objections that the neighbors here have made to the proposed construction. Might i point out that the developer, is building this house to sell it and to make money. And i highly doubt that an ugly home would make money for the developer. Even in our quickly changing neighborhood. At the end of the day, in conclusion, i urge, this commission to approve the home as is, in its already negotiated form, as very clear report makes it clear, and that it is already, you know, if it is already given concession and please i urge you is if we can consider dr reform so that the mission that may not go through this again, thank you. Are there any speakers in support of the project. Okay. And if not, dr requestor, you have a twominute rebuttal. Commissioners as my wife likes to say you can tell when the lawyers are speaking. We want to just point out a couple of things in response. One, this is, this dr is not about the dr requestors home, it is already built for the record he did not build it, he did not have it constructed. He bought it asis, so he came to the building. The second is that, given the numerous opportunities to attend the project sponsor did not attend the neighborhood meeting. I dont know what went in and i know that the schedules are complicated and we are busy but if it were my client i would urge him to be there and in fact i have done that when i was been on the other side. Many references to the Building Code and how the stories are counted and i just remind everyone that this is the Planning Commission and not the building commission. And the project starts 6 feet below the adjacent home, the dr requestors home and rises to a level four feet above it so it is actually down the hill from the dr requestors home. And which and it is still yet taller, at the end of the day. And lastly the planning code may be met. But the residential Design Guidelines have not been and we have laid it out clearly in our brief, we are here if you have questions. Project sponsor you have a twominute rebuttal. We have worked wither closely with staff over the last three years and we have worked closely over the dr requestor over the last three years. All of the neighbors sentiment has come at us in the literally the last two weeks and we frankly dont think that it is fair. We have, the project has been reviewed by the Residential Design Team on three occasions and it is code compliant and with the residential Design Guidelines and, we hope that you will approve the project as designed. Thank you. Okay. The public hearing is closed. And opening it up to commissioner comments and questions. Commissioner antonini . Thank you. Interesting discussion and a couple of things that i think are pretty clear. Never really concerned about the number of floors, we are looking at the total height or the relationship of one building to the other and you could have a situation where one building is 6 floors and the other was 4 and they are virtually on the same level. And i think so, it is just symantics how many floors you are going to say this new project has. And a couple of things, i am a little concerned about the presentation of the project just because while the dr requestors home has been keeping with the rest of the neighborhood, sort of differentiated between the concrete look on the lower floors, and more of a wood, and metal features on the uppers, the project sponsors building seems to be a little bit boxy and stark, so i would like to see, if not, a change in the design, at least maybe, a little bit of a change in the materials on the upper floor. And but, i dont really see any kind of large impact that the new building is going to have on the dr requestors building other than the fact that is might cut out a little bit of the view. But some changes could be appropriate to the project and we will see what the other commissioners have to say and perhaps setting back what labeled as the third floor might make sense and all glass fronts and i am not sure presents it is best for this. And i think that there are aesthetic concerns in my mind that should be addressed by the building but i am not sure that it is form is out of line as far as size is concerned. I think that ask i ask the response or a question, just about the front and i am a little confused as to kind of, that westernly wall, does that stick out father than the actual building . The front of the wall alines with the 15foot set back. And the living space on the second and third floor are set back beyond that. There is a front balcony that is 30 inches deep and so the actual, is set back on the glass line is actually 17 foot, 6. And kind of the side line wall alines with the glass . No the front is pulled forward to the front set back and that 15 feet and so we have done that to articulate it. And could you put up a picture of the front facade