Transcripts For SFGTV Mayors Press Availability 20240713

Master leasing so many buildings that might be available like the Abigail Hotel where we are standing in, where we have access to 62 new units that will help people who are formerly homeless get a great and safe and affordable place to call home without the social services , so its not as expensive as someone who might need a lot more support and wraparound services. This is what some of us call in this world step up housing because sadly we know there are people who will the goal is to understand what the challenges are. Do they need assistance with Mental Health . Do they need assistance with their addiction . Do they need assistance just to get a job and get back on their feet . Often times, if we are able to transition them out of the shelter, its usually into Supportive Housing where there is a network of people who are there to provide wraparound Supportive Services to get them back on their feet. And the great thing about the bristol in places like the abigail which we are here in today, is those people have benefited from incredible programs and are ready to move on with their lives and are not in need of the social services that they want or are in need of that is great. We have to make sure they have opportunities to move to the next level. That is what today is all about. And really focusing on providing opportunities for people to step up and be in attendance and to be able to take care of themselves is important. We know affordability is challenging. It takes a village to make opportunities like this possible thankfully here in San Francisco we are making investments in acquiring as many units as we possibly can to provide these opportunities. It does take partners like Tipping Point and daniel is here today who has been an incredible partner in raising the money and investing it and providing opportunities for people to get help. Today is an opportunity to do just that. Let me just say that its not just about the abigail where we have 62 units. We are going to be opening another place of 89 units at coast street which will be managed by the Episcopal Community services. One of our leading housing providers. And there are people there who are sadly in our shelters and will be able to transition to those units. That will make room for more people. I think that is what is great about the system that we are setting up and all the amazing partners that continue to work with us to provide these incredible opportunities, and importantly, the building owners deepak patel and sam patel, thank you so much for supporting and working with us here in the city to allow us to work with you to get access to these buildings and thank you to all the Service Providers and the tenderloin housing clinic. I know randy shaw couldnt make it here today, but he is a Firm Believer in step up housing and he has been fighting hard for a long time to make this a reality for people. So when people talk about San Francisco and the fact that, you know, theres homelessness, theres challenges of homelessness, we know that. It is not unique to San Francisco. It is happening all over the state of california. The fact is, we had not done enough to build housing so that we have what we need to get people housed. We just havent. So here in the city we are lucky because people care about making sure people are housed. The 600 milliondollar Affordable Housing bond passed by voters will be a great opportunity to invest in building more Affordable Housing , but we cant build it fast enough. So having access to the abigail, having access to the post street post street site and the bristol where there is another step up housing, those are so important to getting people housed now. So i just want to thank everyone who is here today and all of your work that sometimes escapes under the radar and people are not completely familiar with everything that goes into making an opportunity like this possible. It is appreciated, its going to make a difference for 89 people at post street and 62 people right here at the abigail. Its going to make a difference for so many people and im so grateful we have this opportunity to do just that today. How the person who has helped in our efforts to move the needle on homelessness, who probably every time i call him, and i tell him about somebody, he not only knows the name of that person, with the whole story about their medical history and family, and when they came here and everything else, believe it or not, its a tough job to manage our Homeless Department in San Francisco, but Jeff Kaczynski does it because he cares and because he knows that last year when we helped 2,000 people exit homelessness, thats 2,146 people that are not sleeping on our streets tonight and that matters. Ladies and gentlemen, the director of the office of homelessness here in San Francisco, Jeff Kaczynski. [applause] thank you, mare breed, for those kind words and thank you for your leadership to expand Critical Resources that we desperately need to help People Living in crisis on our streets. She understands that shelters are only part of the solution. We have to create housing opportunities are all types of low income households, especially for people who are experiencing homelessness. Every single night, the city houses nearly 10,000 formerly Homeless People and every week we help 50 people of permanently exit homelessness. However, for every person we help exit homelessness, theres three newly Homeless People coming behind them. Obviously we have a lot more work to do. Housing is a big part of the solution to homelessness. And thank you to mayor breeds focus on leadership on this issue, we have 1700 units of housing and housing subsidies in the pipeline in addition to those that we are celebrating here today. Theres a lot more of these openings to come. Its also really important to remember that behind all of these numbers are people. Each person with lived experience, each person who has struggled with homelessness has a unique story. However, the one thing they all have in common is resilience and courage and taking the steps to move beyond homelessness. Its hard work and its a challenge and it is a great honor for myself and for my colleagues to play a part, a small part really, in helping people overcome homelessness by bringing buildings like the abigail and the post online. Doing this work, i dont want to diminish how hard it is, because it is tremendously difficult, it takes a lot of people, a lot of leadership, a lot of hard work, a lot of funding, so in addition to the mayor, i want to thank other people that she already mentioned, but i want to thank them as well. Of course, i want to thank daniel from Tipping Point. Tipping Point Community is contributing 3 million towards opening the next 300 units of housing including these two sights. Were very grateful for the support that they have given, and also want to thank not only deepak and sam patel, the owners of the post on the abigail. There is more than 3,000 privately owned units that were masterly we are master leasing throughout the city. Theyre responsible for nearly half of the permanent Supportive Housing in the city and they are Unsung Heroes and very important partners. I want to thank them and their colleagues and all of the owners of the board for the 3,000 units that the city is master leasing. And i want to acknowledge all the amazing staff who have worked on this issue, all of my colleagues at the department of homelessness and Supportive Housing, my colleagues at the Mayors Office, the City Attorneys office, the Mayors Office of Community Development, the real estate department, all of these staff work tiredly tirelessly on these projects. Before i took this job, i spent most of my career running affordable and Supportive Housing in texas and in california and i know how hard it is to operate buildings like this and to do the work and turn housing unit into a home for somebody who was experiencing homelessness. These sites operate 24 7 and the nonprofit organizations that run them do an amazing job of helping the people who are struggling to exit homelessness or to move on from permanent Supportive Housing to be successful and to become their best selves. I especially want to acknowledge and thank beth stokes from the Episcopal Community services and everybody who is here. Tabitha and randy who couldnt be here from tenderloin housing clinic. They do an incredible amount of work making these projects happen and we are grateful to them and to everybody else who is part of this. Thank you for being here today. Thank you, jeff. Again, as i said, we cant do it alone. We are fortunate to have an incredible partner in Tipping Point, and Tipping Point provided 3 million to help make this possible, which moves this project along sooner rather than later and to speak on behalf of to think Tipping Point is daniel. Thank you. Thank you to everyone who is making this work possible. We started tipping. 15 years ago with a promise to invest in the best solutions that prevent poverty, including housing, Early Childhood education, and employment. The Silver Lining to the homelessness crisis that we outlined is we know that what it takes to get people housed. That is permanent, Supportive Housing and it works. Over 85 of people who enter permanent Supportive Housing never experience homelessness again. The opening of the post and the abigail exemplifies the role that philanthropy can play in supporting Effective Solutions in partnership with the mayor and the city department. Tipping point is providing 3 million in flexible dollars for a wide range of needs from apartment repairs to new furniture. These are funds that Service Providers can use to do whatever it takes to get units online fast. Mayor breed, thank you for your leadership and your commitment to this issue. I want also think the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development association for your tireless work on behalf of our most vulnerable neighbors. I want to thank everyone who is saying yes to solutions. We can do this, but it will take all of. Thank you very much. Thank you, daniel. Randy shaw has been a serious advocate for step up housing and im really excited that we are partnering on the abigail to make this possible. We also partnered on the bristol , and so these are two incredible properties for step up housing. Here to represent tenderloin housing clinic, since randy couldnt be here is tabitha. Randy sends his regrets. He really wanted to be here today. This is a really special project to him, a special building to him. He counts stories of the history of this building and him as an organizer in 1980 when he organized residents in this building to prevent the then owners from starting a bedandbreakfast in this building and they were successful in doing that. He has very fond memories of that project and his work with this building. We are really excited to partner with h. S. H. And the city to open some additional step up housing. This is a really beautiful building. Sixtytwo units, all bathrooms. We will have a Nice Community kitchen and laundry room and Community Room for the residents here. I also want to thank deepak, the owner, for this partnership and h. S. H. And the mayor for providing this opportunity for the residents that will get to move into this building. And then i also internally really want to thank our director of facilities who has spent countless hours on lots of time already on her work making sure that this building is a success in making sure that this building is going to be a wonderful building for the residents that move in. Thank you. It is also really great to open up places like this because they provide opportunities, and almost every time we do it, Episcopal Community services, they are always at the forefront of not only helping with Properties Like this, but some of our shelters and navigation centers, and so we are grateful for their partnership and their work. Here to represent the organization is beth. Thank you, mayor breed. I got an email last week during the holiday week to see if i was available to participate in an announcement of 150 new homes. I was delighted. I was super excited to start the year off in 2020 with the announcement of new homes for our unhoused Community Members in San Francisco. It is a great way to start the year. Im so happy to be here for this announcement. I want to thank everybody who invited us to be part of the celebration and for the opening of the abigail and the post. Its truly a celebration of homes. I want to stress that. I want to thank the mayor for her continued leadership and unwavering commitment toward Proven Solutions towards ending homelessness in San Francisco. It really takes vision and it takes a community. Thank you. Housing ends homelessness, right we know this. Yet Supportive Housing is a proven intervention for the most vulnerable, chronically unhoused in our community. Providing needed housing and stability for folks to address theyre Overall Health and wellness. Quite simply, Supportive Housing is healthcare. I say that all the time. It effectively reduces emergency room visits, we know this, inpatient hospitalizations for our highest need neighbors who are living in homelessness today Supportive Housing works, as daniel said. Again, we really believe this and we know its proven. Power board and our staff that are here thank you for being here and we are are super excited to partner with mayor breed and h. S. H. And sam patel. Thank you. Eightynine solutions to ending chronic homelessness in San Francisco. Thank you so very much. Thank you. Today we have a resident of the bristol, mitch, who wants to talk about his experience and why this is so important. Good afternoon. Im a tenant at the Bristol Hotel and i would like to emphasize that Supportive Housing does work. I was in Supportive Housing for seven years and i got the opportunity to move to a newly remodelled Bristol Hotel. I love it. Its a home for me. I dont expect to leave anytime soon. Im very happy with the whole process. And anybody who gets step up housing like the abigail is very lucky. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everyone else for being here today and all the folks who helped to make this possible. Again, the solution, as beth said to ending homelessness, is housing. It takes opportunities like this , it takes building faster, and thinking about ways that we can get more creative to get more access to opportunities so we can get people off the streets and we can keep people who are vulnerable housed in the first place. That is our goal. That is the opportunity we are providing today, and i want to thank each and every one of you for being here. Thank you so much. [applause] [indiscernible] [ ] i just dont know that you can find a neighborhood in the city where you can hear music stands and take a ride on the low rider down the street. It is an experience that you cant have anywhere else in San Francisco. [ ] [ ] district nine is a in the southeast portion of the city. We have four neighborhoods that i represent. St. Marys park has a completely unique architecture. Very distinct feel, and it is a very close to holly park which is another beautiful park in San Francisco. The Bernal Heights district is unique in that we have the hell which has one of the best views in all of San Francisco. There is a swinging hanging from a tree at the top. It is as if you are swinging over the entire city. There are two unique aspects. It is considered the fourth chinatown in San Francisco. Sixty of the residents are of chinese ancestry. The second unique, and fun aspect about this area is it is the garden district. There is a lot of urban agriculture and it was where the city grew the majority of the flowers. Not only for San Francisco but for the region. And of course, it is the location in mclaren park which is the citys second biggest park after golden gate. Many people dont know the neighborhood in the first place if they havent been there. We call it the best neighborhood nobody has ever heard our. Every neighborhood in district nine has a very special aspect. Where we are right now is the Mission District. The Mission District is a very special part of our city. You smell the tacos at the [speaking spanish] and they have the best latin pastries. They have these shortbread cookies with caramel in the middle. And then you walk further down and you have sunrise cafe. It is a place that you come for the incredible food, but also to learn about what is happening in the neighborhood and how you can help and support your community. Twentyfourth street is the birthplace of the movement. We have over 620 murals. It is the largest outdoor Public Gallery in the country and possibly the world. You can find so much Political Engagement park next to so much incredible art. Its another reason why we think this is a cultural district that we must preserve. [ ] it was formed in 2014. We had been an organization that had been around for over 20 years. We worked a lot in the neighborhood around life issues. Most recently, in 2012, there were issues around gentrification in the neighborhood. So the idea of forming the cultural district was to help preserve the history and the culture that is in this neighborhood for the future of families and generations. In the past decade, 8,000 latino residents in the Mission District have been displaced from their community. We all know that the rising cost of living in San Francisco has led to many people being displaced. Lower and middle income all over the city. Because it there is richness in this neighborhood that i also mentioned the fact it is flat and so accessible by trip public transportation, has, has made it very popular. Its a struggle for us right now, you know, when you get a lot of development coming to an area, a lot of new people coming to the area with different sets of values and different culture. There is a lot of struggle between the existing community and the newness coming in. There are some things that we do to try to slow it down so it doesnt completely erase the communities. We try to have developments that is more in tune with the community and more Equitable Development in the area. You need to meet with and gain the support and find out the needs of the neighborhoods. The people on the businesses that came before you. You need to dialogue and show respect. And then figure out how to bring in the new, without displacing the old. [ ] i hope we can reset a lot of the mission that we have lost in the last 20 years. So we will be bringing in a lot of folks into the neighborhoods pick when we do that, there is a demand or, you know, certain types of services that pertain more to the local community and workingclass. Back in the day, we looked at Mission Street, and now it does not look and feel anything like Mission Street. This is the last stand of the latino concentrated arts, culture and cuisine and people. We created a cultural district to do our best to conserve that feeling. That is what makes our city so cosmopolitan and diverse and makes us the envy of the world. We have these unique neighborhoods with so much cultural presence and learnings, that we want to preserve. [ ] look at that beautiful jellyfish. The way to speak to students and motivate them to take action, to save the planet, they do, they care and my job is to speak to them in a way that they can understand that touches their heart and makes them feel powerful with simple actions to take every day. I was born and raised in the desert of palm springs, california. My dad was the rabbi in the community there. What i got from watching my father on stage talking to the community was learning how to be in the public. And learning how to do public speaking and i remember the first time i got up to give my first school assembly, i felt my dad over my shoulder saying pause for drama, deliver your words. When i was a kid, i wanted to be a teacher. And then when i got into high school, i decided i wanted to get into advertising and do graphic art and taglines and stuff like that. By the time i was in college, i decided i wanted to be a decorator. But as i did more work, i realized working my way up meant a lot of physical labor. I only had so much energy to work with for the rest of my life and i could use that energy towards making a lot of money, helping someone else make a lot of money or doing something meaningful. I found the nonprofit working to save the rainforest was looking for volunteers. I went, volunteered and my life changed. Suddenly everything i was doing had meaning. Stuffing envelopes had meaning, faxing out requests had meaning. I eventually moved up to San Francisco to work out of the office here, given a lot of assembly through Los Angeles County and then came up here and doing assemblies to kids about rainforest. One of my jobs was to teach about recycle, teaching students to reduce, reuse, recycle and compost, im teaching them they have the power, and that motivates them. It was satisfying for me to work with for the department of environment to create a message that gets to the heart of the issue. The San Francisco department of environment is the only agency that has a full time educational team, we go into the schools to help teach children how to protect nature and the environment. We realized we needed animal mascot to spark excitement with the students. The city during the gold rush days, the phoenix became part of the city feel and i love the symbolism of the phoenix, about transformation and the message that the theme of the phoenix provides, we all have the power to transform our world for the better. We have to provide teachers with curriculum online, our curriculum is in two different languages and whether its lesson plans or student fact sheets, teachers can use them and weve had great feedback. We have helped public and private schools in San Francisco increase their waste use and students are working hard to sort waste at the end of the lunch and understand the power of reusing, reducing, recycling and composting. Great job. Ive been with the department for 15 years and an environmental educator for more than 23 years and im grateful for the work that i get to do, especially on behalf of the city and county of San Francisco. I try to use my voice as intentionally as possible to suppo support, i think of my grandmother who had a positive attitude and looked at things positively. Try to do that as well in my work and with my words to be an uplifting force for myself and others. Think of entering the job force as a treasure hunt. You can only go to your next clue and more will be revealed. Follow your instincts, listen to your gut, follow your heart, do what makes you happy and pragmatic and see where it takes you and get to the next place. Trust if you want to do good in this world, thattttttttttttttttt welcome to the San Francisco Planning Commission regular hearing for thursday, january 9, 2020. Happy new year and happy new decade, commissioners. Welcome back from your break. Id like to remind members of the public that the commission does not tolerate disruption or outbursts. Please silence your mobile devices. And when speaking before the commission, if you care to, state your name. [roll call] we expect commissioner richardsons to be absent. First on the agenda is consideration of items proposed for continuance. Case number 2018. 2 henry adams. Conditional use authorization are proposed for continuance to january 30, 2020. Items 2a and b, for 1776 green street, are proposed for continuance to february 13, 2020. I have no other items proposed for continuance and no speaker cards. Commissioner koppel we have a Public Comment. Richard drury for the petitioners on 1776 green street. I and my clients are not available on february 13th. So i was going to request if the commission might consider a date of i think theyre gone for that twoweek period through the 20th. So the 27th or the following thursday, we would request . How is that . Jonas so february 20th . 27th . Jonas okay. February 27th. Thank you very much. Okay you can make the motion. Commissioner koppel motion to continue items 1a and b and 2a and b to february 27th, to the dates set aside. Jonas thank you, on that motion to continue, items 1a and b to january 30 and 2a to february 27, 2020. On that motion, commissioner diamond . Fung . Johnson aye. Moore aye. Koppel aye. Melgar aye. That motion passes unanimously 60 if the acting Zoning Administrator could continue item 2b. Continue 2b to the date specified, thank you. Jonas thank you. Commissioners, that will place this on the consent calendar. All matter are considered to be routine by the Planning Commission and may be acted upon by a single roll call vote of the commission. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a member of the commission, the public or staff requests. Item 3, 2019012131cua. 1099 colors street and 2019, 14257, 401 potrero avenue. I do have one speaker card in opposition to 1099 dolores. I assume that the person in opposition would like this pulled off consent . Yes. So lets pull it off consent. Commissioner koppel motion to approve item number 4. Jonas could you call Public Comment. President melgar do we have any Public Comment on the consent items besides the dolores Street Project . Okay, with that comments is closed. Jonas thank you. Commissioner koppel motion to approve item number 4. Second. Jonas thank you, commissioners, on the motion to approve item 4 under the consent calendar roll call so moved. Commissioners, that motion passes unanimously. Consideration of adoption of draft minutes for the december 12 regular hearing, the december 19 closed session and the december 19 regular hearing. I have no speaker cards. President melgar thank you. Does any member of the public wish to provide Public Comment on the proposed draft minutes . Okay, with that, Public Comment is closed. Commissioner koppel commissioner koppel motion to adopt draft minutes from december 12, 19 closed session and regular hearing as well. Second. Jonas thank you. On that motion then to adopt the minutes for december 12 and 2019. Diamond aye, johnson aye, moore aye, koppel aye. Melgar aye. So moved that motion passes unanimously, 60. Placing us on item 6, commission comments and questions. Seeing none, department matters, directors announcements. Commissioners, happy new year to you all. Hope you had a great break. The one thing that the new year has greeted us with is a new version of sb50. As you saw in the newspapers, i just received a copy yesterday, so well plow through that. The biggest change seems to be the new version of the bill is allowing for a local option of meeting comparable density as would be allowed in sb50. How that is laid out in specifics is still to be determined. They havent laid out what that means. Appears to allow local jurisdictions up to two years to provide plans that would be comparable to what is required and you sb50. Well try to get that to you. That is my only comment. President melgar thank you. Jonas okay. Item 8, review of past events at the board of supervisors. There is no report from the board of appeals and the Historic Preservation commission did not meet yesterday. I am manager of legislative affairs with a short report. The committee is still not in session, but i presume they return next week. The full board, the flower marts ordinances passed the second read. The academy of Art University passed the first read. And the interim activities that you heard quite a few months ago sponsored by the mayor and supervisor haney was referred back to land use so recommendations can be added to that. Thats all i have. President melgar thank you. Jonas if there are no questions, general Public Comment. At this time, members of the public may address the commission on items of interest it to the public. With respect to agenda items your opportunity to address the commission will be afforded when the item is reached in the meeting. Each member of the public may address the commission up to three minutes. I have one speaker card. President melgar happy new year. 2020, hard to believe. Looking to the future of the rh neighborhoods and the speculative projects built whether or not sb50 passes and whether or not speculative projects are tantamount to demolition or large alterations there are factors pertinent to the projects that i hope the staff and commission will consider in the future. Each factor seems to overlap and interlock with the other. In no particular order, these are the values of the calculatio calculations, full lot excavationings into the rear yard and esthetics or preservation of neighborhood character. I want to talk about these by looking at one particular project, because all five are applicable. 463 duncan is right across the street from me. Another immediately adjacent neighbor and i filed separate drs heard on december 6, 2018. The project was approved with simple changes on a 51 vote. Its 1927 mediterranean revival facade, except the garage door. The windows, front door, and kartusch are all there. Theyre a unique San Francisco style as mary brown wrote in her study. It is undeniably San Francisco vernacular and homes that look like this do not exist outside San Francisco. The facade is being demolished. The project added a threebedroom unit, but the density is gained by a full lot underneath the garage and lifting the entire structure 18 inches. My d. R. Request raised the issue of livability in the subterranean unit, but per the staff analysis, commission does not deal with excavations. This excavation and necessary shoring will obliterate the existing backyard and create an open air bunker removing soil and greenery. The two floors are the top floor with open large living plan kitchen space and the lower floor with three bedrooms. This is not an efficient use of space, given that the project is expanding 20 to 30 feet in the rear yard. There are no parking requirements. And the bedrooms could have been created on the existing levels preserving the facade. The site permit is valued by dbi for a Million Dollars which is extraordinary for a remodel. The demo calks were not finalized [bell ringing] i blame the project sponsor. One more point, after december 2018 approval by this commission, the permit went back to the Building Department and in february 2019, something happened with the plans. But ill go into that next time. Thank you very much. President melgar thank you. Any other Public Comment that is general in nature . Okay. General Public Comment is now closed. Jonas very good, commissioners. That places on regular calendar, item 3 was pulled off consent and will be considered now for 1099 dolores street, conditional use authorization. The project before you 1099 dolores street seek to demolish an existing singlefamily dwelling and construct a new threeunit fourstory residential structure within rh3 district. The proposed structure is a 5801 square foot in size and will provide three residential units. The project includes the addition of one vehicle parking space within the existing detached garage. And the relocation of the curb cut from 24th street to quane street. One unit is approximately 1538 square feet with three bedrooms and has direct access to the rear yard. Unit 2 is approximately 1138 square feet with two bedrooms and second floor terrace. And unit 3 is approximately 269 63 square feet with three bedrooms and has direct access to a fourth floor. It is class one and three exemption and general role extension. The department has received one letter of concern and inquiry on the existing Monkey Puzzle tree within the rear yard. The main concerns with the letter is the overall height of the building. The Department Finds the project is unbalanced consistent with objectives and policies of the general plan. Although the project results in the removal of a dwelling unit, the project maximizes density by providing two net new familysized dwelling units which is the goal of the city. The department find the project to be compatible with the surrounding neighborhood and not to be detrimental to persons or object properties in the vicinity. This concludes my presentation. Im available for questions. President melgar thank you. Do we have a project sponsor . You have five minutes, sir. Thank you. Im jeff gibson, the project architect. Im happy to discuss it. Let me introduce the developer, shoddy, for a second. Hello, Planning Commission. My name is shoddy. Im the project of 1099 dolores street. Thank you for giving me the time to speak today. Ive lived in San Francisco over 40 years. Im a small scale developer who has been focused on adding housing in a respectful manner in San Francisco. Im proud of being able to add threefamily oriented units in place of the single unit there today. We have worked hard with neighbors and the Planning Department to get to these support plans. Thank you so much for the time. Im just going to give you a few brief sort of overview of the project a little bit. When we start a project, we like to create an internal project objective and we hope that is in alignment with general planning goals. For this, our project objective is to create three new familysized missing middle Housing Units to replace one nonaffordable Single Family home on the liability. Its rh3, so were Building Three units. The three units are three bedrooms and two bedrooms, nicely scaled, not large, with private outdoor space. Theyre applicable to families and residents in the area. Were before you with the conditional use because were seeking full demolition of the existing building. We do a lot of work in the city. Youve seen my face here many times before. We know the demo cal well, we could have worked, but we want to be forth right when it suits the project. Honestly, its better to remove the existing nonaffordable, nonHistoric Building. If we didnt do that, we would probably lose one bedroom potentially in each of the units. And end up with a different project that didnt suit planning goals in the same way. Other than that, the project is fully code compliant in height. Were not seeking variances, loopholes or exceptions. We worked with neighborhood organizations, neighbors, at the preop. Several neighbors came and we listened to comments and quickly kind of integrated those things as we first initially submitted. We started thinking of this as a twounit building, but in response to suggestions from the representative from the Neighborhood Council we thought maybe we should expand it not the envelope, but the unit count, to three units. We also heard local concerns about parking. I guess parking, onstreet parking is tight in the area, so the neighbors were pushing us to include more parking. But the Planning Department also had concerns about the way we wanted to introduce a curb cut on dolores street. So we eliminated that and creatively found a way to hold onto the existing parking garage, swing the Parking Access around to quane which doesnt have onstreet parking. We had one, now well have two on site, but also added two onstreet Parking Spaces for the general public, which we see as winwin and responsive to neighbor concerns. There were concerns about height. In particular, concerns of view and the building across the street, how their view downtown might be effected. Overall, when we worked on the building, i can show you a diagram related to scale and massing, we started with initial overthecounter review with planning and then had a project review meeting. We wanted to scale our building similarly to the building on the southeast corner. So this is our building here. These red lines. Basically, we started from the building on the southeast corner of the intersection and then carried the lines across following grade and are designing the building in a similar form and massing, but slightly reduced height. There is a dialogue between the Historic Building and our building. We havent heard directly from concerned neighbors, so any comments that come up today are taking us by surprise, unfortunately, but were happy to answer questions about it. Thank you. President melgar thank you so much. We will take Public Comment on this item. We have a speaker card, but anyone who would like this speak on this item may do so now. I live in the valley close to the project location. I have three issues president melgar im sorry, can you speak into the mic. Thank you. I have three issues today, first, if you drive in my neighborhood you know that parking on the street is extremely difficult. This project will have two Parking Spaces for three family units. President melgar can you speak up, we cant hear you. I know the San Francisco does not require a parking space for each new unit built and that is a mistake, but here is a brand new construction and three Parking Spaces can be built without any major impact to the overall design. We have already lost two prime Parking Spaces across the street from this building project in front of a pediatric Doctor Office to accommodate commuter buses. Now parents of sick and newborns have more of a struggle parking. How is the volume . Okay . Second, the architect has failed in every way to be mindful to enhance the beauty of the area. The project looks like a ski lodge. I ask that you require this architect to honor the uniqueness of this neighborhood and to come up with a more appropriate size and design. As all builders, and all neighborhoods in San Francisco should be required to do. Third, the building is far too tall for the neighborhood. This is a quaint residential area with mostly two to threestory buildings. I urge you to consider a Design Change to make the top unit one level and not two. At a minimum, a redesign to bring down the height of the roof line to a more appropriate height. Ill take any questions you have. President melgar thank you, sir. Any other Public Comment on the item. Did you want to provide Public Comment . I am. I just wanted to give them a copy, so can i have three minutes, please . Thank you. I think that two conditions should be added to the approval of this. One is that unit two should have a full kitchen a fullsized refrigerator and not just a wine fridge and should include a full gas oven, electric, with a cook top, because that unit unit 2 was originally part of what is unit 3 and that was supposed to be family room area. Ive seen that happen in other projects. Thats a different story. The second condition that should be added is that a report should be sent to the staff on the information on the final sales price of the unit and occupancy to illustrate how the units achieved the project, missing middle. I also think that the trees should be considered to be safe, that Monkey Puzzle tree, its a very rare tree. I sent you a picture of it this morning. The project sponsor paid 2 million for this building. The project was conceived as adding three units to the existing structure, but it would cost the demo calgary threshold. If this had been a typical structure, it would have been easier to mask the transgression as projects with the vertical expansion have done. There was an alternative with the threshold could not have been transgressed, but the project sponsor needed to have condos to make the speculative project work economically. A different project could have had an alteration that renovated the existing unit with a horizontal popout and added a unit to the basement level, with adapting the garage. An alternative like this seems more like the form of the missing middle housing and more affordable. Also the criterion for protecting housing could have been met this way. Its not met contrary to page 8. Again, there is too much glass on the dolores quane street facade and the rendering doesnt show the actual streetlight pole on dolores which gives you better context for the height. If i could have the overhead quickly, please. See, there is the house now. There it is. And also id be curious to know about the ownership occupancy since 1985. Does this mean this project has been empty since 1985 . Im curious about that. Thank you. President melgar thank you. Any other Public Comment on this item . With that, Public Comment is closed. Commissioner moore i was actually comfortable approving this project on consent while normally we look at demolitions a little more closely, this project struck me, rh3, as a very balanced approach, particularly with new legislation in place. We have all the tools to do so. Since it is a codecompliant project, i did not see issues. We can argue about style. Unless its something where the neighborhood comes together and speaks about concerns. Nobody is here. And im comfortable really to support the project as it is proposed to us. President melgar thank you. Commissioner fung ditto. Commissioner diamond the project sponsor addressed the question whether or not there is full kitchen in the middle unit . Yes. Ill happily speak to that. I think the last Public Comment speaker was looking at an older version of the drawings posted on online. It doesnt correspond to the current drawings. All three units, there is no sham units. Theyre all full units, full kitchens, i love to cook, theyre real kitchens. Thank you. Commissioner koppel motion to approve. Second. Jonas seeing nothing further, there is a motion seconded to approve the matter with conditions on the motion. Diamond aye. Fung aye. Johnson aye. Moore aye. Koppel aye. Fe melgar. That passes unanimously, 60. Items 9 for case number 2019022569. Establishing twelve named neighborhood commercial districts. This is a planning code and zoning map amendment. To our surprise out of the 12 proposed neighborhood commercial districts, there was only one commissioner with a conflict. And in order to allow commissioner diamond to participate in the other 11, we will be taking up the gary boulevard district first. And then take up the remaining 11 later. So well need to recuse commissioner diamond to proceed. President melgar thank you. She prepared a cheat sheet for us in terms of the process. Thank you, City Attorney. So we will make a motion on the recusal of commissioner diamond first. Then well have a staff presentation on the geary ncd by audrey. Public comment on the geary and cd only. You are of course welcome to watch this commissioner diamond, you just cant participate. And well vote on the ncd geary only. When you return, well have the staff presentation on the rest. It wont be redundant because youll have hopefully heard the first and well vote on the next 11ncd. Thank you. Commissioner diamond, do you want to Say Something . Commissioner diamond i want to ask to recuse myself because i live within 500 feet of the geary district. I will be watching the presentation in the staff room. You can assume ive heard it. Commissioner johnson i want to Say Something for the benefit of the public and then ill make a motion. When commissioners live within 500 feet of a project were required to recuse ourselves with the potential of financial conflict. I also live within 500 feet of the proposed geary. In consultation with the City Attorney, however, because i am a renter with a monthtomonth lease, i am able to participate because i dont have a conflict. So just wanted to name that and then also to move to recuse commissioner diamond. Second. Jonas thank you on the motion to recuse commissioner diamond, commissioner diamond aye. So moved. Commissioners that motion passes unanimously, 60. Good afternoon, audrey merlone. I have amy here to give a presentation. And then ill give the staff presentation. President melgar welcome. Thank you so much for hearing this today. The legislation that you have before you in two separate pieces will ultimately create 12 new named districts and supervisoral districts, 1, 4, 5, 6,ing 7, 9 and 10. Item aide to supervisor ronen and so were lead, but the supervisors from each of the districts in which the named ncds are proposed is a cosponsor. So these would be added to planning code section 201 which currently identifies 30 of the named ncd and nctd. Each showcasing a distinct mix to the needs of their communities. We continue to have real concerns about the viability and continued existneance. Businesses are facing huge obstacles. Shouldering heavy burdens to keep their doors open. This will create a framework from which we can begin to make changes to promote these Small Business districts with a nice array of services and retail and small offices and bars and restaurants and housing. What we all want to see on the corridors near our homes and near where we work. These code amendments open this opportunity to work with the merchants and work with community, but there are no changes to the underlying code controls at this time. We want to make that very clear. So encouraging Property Owners to keep store front occupied is essential to this vibrancy that were looking for. And in march, the voters are going to be asked to vote on the store front vacancy tax. And these planning code amendments are being moved forward as a package. Very quickly, in order to ensure that if the voters do pass the measure this is up to the voters the ncds will be in place at the time of the election so this tax strategy can be a i applied to these districts as well as other districts throughout the cities. That is what voters expect and we want to deliver that. I want to thank its been quite team work to get to this. And its fairly simple, but very complicated piece of legislation. Audrey merlone has been amazing to work with. Thank you, aaron star, dan, the team of City Attorneys, judy, plunged into this. I want to say thank you to all of those folks for making this possible. If you have any questions ill be here. President melgar thank you very much. So again, audrey merlone, Planning Department staff. This item is to consider the establishment of the geary boulevard ncd which i have a map for. If i could get the slide projector. The geary boulevard would encompass properties along masonic and 28. The stretch of parcel is currently zoned nc3. The ordinance is not proposing any changes to the current zoning controls, but if the geary boulevard continues to evolve in the future and decides they would like to make changes to the zoning controls in the future, they can do so without having to change all nc3 districts. It would require separate legislation. The department has not received Public Comment regarding the proposed ordinance. I want to mention there are several nonsubstantive text amendments to the original text that planning needs to be made. The nonsubstantive changes to the legislation are just to conform to the zoning tables in the amendments you voted on in the code corrections ordinance. Just to make those consistent. But to illustrate that the first would be just to conform it to the again, nonsubstantive amendments made to all the nc tables, simply with changing the residential to r and requoting of code sections. And the second is to conform our footnote for fringe Financial Services languages that are in the nc tables. We did consolidate the language to try to make it simpler in this original text ordinance, however the code corrections ordinance that you all approved also edited the code language and we think that is the better, more clear way to go through with this. But neither of them are substantive changes to the footno footnote itself. But im happy to answer questions on that. The department recommend that the commission approve, because continuing the viability of the neighbor commercial district is dependent on the ability to provide required services. The succeedful district provides a variety of goods and services. Establishing the geary boulevard neighborhood commercial district will allow the corridor to identify the specific needs of the district and fit the needs in the future. That concludes our presentation. Thank you. President melgar thank you, audrey. I have no speaker cards. President melgar do we have any Public Comment on this item . No speaker cards. Okay Public Comment is closed. Commissioner moore. Commissioner moore im delighted to see that the supervisors are stepping together and starting to curate their neighborhood corridors, particularly in a time when were all concerned about not only Small Business, but effects of vacancies in the corridors. This will not only give protection of the nc designation, but also allow each neighborhood as time goes by to shape its own destiny in a more kind of direct way, rather than being generically called, you can now be specific and address what really makes your neighborhood special. I was talking with amy about the matter, thinking about what happened with me in the neighborhood was the corridor which became quite a few years ago a neighborhood commercial district that created its own protections and its one of the first corridors with its own neighborhoodspecific guidelines. I think its a wonderful opportunity for all of the others to follow. Im in full support and ask that we move to approve. Second. Commissioner fung my comments are not necessarily directed toward this specific code change, but more in light of as i analyze each of the criteria and the constraints and opportunities within these neighborhood commercial districts, it appears that theyre vastly outdated. That there is no ability within the way its set up to incentivize the filling in of vacant store fronts. To allow certain types of uses that are prohibited there, some of the designation of uses between multiple floors doesnt make sense. I think some of the commissioners have already heard this from me, but i would like to, in the near future, bring this forward for our commission to consider the process for creating the neighborhood commercial controls that are a little more opportunistic. President melgar okay. So i will also say, thank you to amy and to supervisor ronen for working on this. I wholeheartedly agree with commissioner fung. I think we have a lot of work to do. And you know, as we have spoken about in the commission repeatedly, retail has just changed so vastly in the last 10 years. And you know, we not only need to adapt, we also need to look at our codes and see whether what we have on the books is what we intend to have. And whether or not they work. And i certainly have heard about how many of the funky things in our code are outdated and not as intended. So i fully support your comments commissioner fung that we need to look at this. That being said, we need to get there through. I appreciate this will be a good tool for the corridors to do what they need to do with our support in the future. Thank you. Commissioner koppel just a little more context. I view the filling of these ground floor retail spaces as kind of a multiplier effect. Its not just going to bring in business for that business, but its going to bring foot traffic and people are going to bring families and attend and patron the other businesses, too. So it will steam roll and multiply for the whole neighborhood. Jonas nothing further, there is a motion that has been seconded to approve the matter. On that motion commissioner fung aye. Johnson aye. Moore aye. Koppel aye. Melgar aye. So moved. That motion passes unanimously, 50. And at this time, commissioner diamond can rejoin us. President melgar come back, commissioner diamond. Jonas and consider the remaining 11 named neighborhood districts. President melgar welcome back, commissioner. So the next action item is to consider the establishment of the other 11 districts. If i could have the slides again. So the first is the inner balance bow street along 2 and 8th avenue. The outer balboa street generally including the properties along balboa street between 32 and 39. The bayview including properties along 3rd street from yosemite to cortland avenue. The Mission Bernal generally including the properties along Mission Street between chavez and randall. The san bruno avenue including the properties along sn bruno taken hale and only stead. The Lakeside Village ncd generally including the properties along ocean avenue between Junipero Serra boulevard. The lower haight including properties along haight street between webster and steiner. The poke, from geary to golden gate with frontage on geary boulevard, golden gate avenue and other side streets. Finally the inner taraval ncd generally including the properties along taraval street. No proposed changes to the current zoning controls. We have not received any Public Comment. And we will be making the same nonsubstantive text amendments recommended for approval in the code correction ordinance to fix the inconsistencies with the zoning control tables, but theyre nonsubstantive. Were recommending approval for the same reasons we recommended approval for geary boulevard ncd, but were happy to answer questions. President melgar do we have any Public Comment on this item . Tom, executive director of livable city. I think generally were in support of these ideas of customized neighborhood commercial districts and weve worked on creating a few. Fillmore and divisadero. Were sorry it didnt come from the department, but were happy its happening. All of the comments are apt as well. A lot of the zoning controls are pretty outdated and weve been working with supervisors Zoning District by Zoning District. Upper market came before you recently to say, lets allow a lot more uses on the ground floors in the neighborhoods, lets open them up to institutional uses, but thats doing work with the community. So i urge you to do two things. One, if you support this today, i urge you to propose Something Back to the supervisors where you say, let us work with you to talk to the community about what the existing controls are, what we recommend in terms of code changes and start that conversation. We havent had a neighborhood plan come out of this department for about a decade. And its time we did. So you can engage on the zoning question with these different corridors and say, lets do these one by one, have the conversation and do it. You can do this in conjunction with cleanup. Mr. Star did this with chinatown. It was cleanup, but he was able to have a conversation with stakeholders. He said heres what we want to tweak. When it was brought back to you, it was clean up and substantive changes recommended by the community. So we definitely urge you to engage in that process. And just be proactive about the corridors. I think there is a lot of potential to fill the store fronts, to promote small and local businesses, services, arts, nonprofited, et cetera. But its just going to require work on the part of this department. Thank you. President melgar thank you. Any other Public Comment on this item . Okay, Public Comment is closed. Because i havent spoken, i echo so many of the things my fellow commissioners said and the comments of the last speaker. I think just having this piece of legislation be the start of a conversation and opportunity to do deeper engagement, have more nuanced conversations and solutions that are Community Driven to the future of the commercial corridors are important. I know that several supervisors who engage their communities ahead of this legislation are already thinking about how to continue to engage their communities. So i would move to approve. President melgar commissioner diamond. Commissioner diamond i wanted to add my voice to the chorus. Even though i wasnt here, i did hear the comments by the fellow commissioners and in particular commissioner fungs suggestion. I think its important to do that in conjunction with each neighborhood. I would like to second the motion. Jonas seeing nothing further, commissioners, there is a motion seconded to approve the name changes of the remaining 11 neighborhood commercial districts. Diamond aye. Fung aye. Johnson aye. Moore aye. Koppel aye. Melgar aye. So moved. That motion passes unanimously, 60. Item 10, for the sb330 housing crisis act of 2019. Informational presentation. Good afternoon, commissioners. Thank you for your patience while we get set up. Planning department staff, and im here this afternoon to talk about a piece of state legislation that passed last year and came into effect on january 1st. The senate bill 330 from skinner, the housing crisis act of 2019. Well be talk can today about the overview of what the bill has and focusing on implementation in San Francisco. The key thing to note, the overarching structure, the bill declares a housing emergency period effective on january 1 for five years, so through 2025. It has provisions that apply to jurisdictions, spoiler, we are an urban jurisdiction, so all of the provisions of the bill apply to us, so we can skip that. There are basically three buckets if you will of what are in the bill. The first relates to limits on zoning actions taken by the city that will refer to as down zoning actions and the it type of deadlines. The second bucket is related to the application review process. There is a number of things. There is ability for the project to be locked through the zoning controls at the time they file what is called a preliminary application. The second piece is that there will be for local landmark designations, article 10 and 11, that designation will be need to be made prior. And finally, there is a limit of five public hearings for not all, but many, housing projects. Ill talk about that piece as well. Very relevant to this body. Finally, the third category is there are a number of provisions related to replacement housing, replacement units for situations where new housing will demolish existing units, including relocation and right of first refusal benefits. There is a lot going on in sacramento and the director mentioned. There is another bill that came back this month. I want to remind you what is not in sb330. There is no new ministerial approval procedures. Throughout the entire bill, it specifies that the coastal act and ceqa are not superseded in any way. Other jurisdictions that dont have rent control ordinances, those can be implemented in other jurisdictions. Fire hazard zones are exempted and there are ability to put exceptions for Public Health and safety which is narrowly defined in state law. Zoning action and design stts. In terms of zoning actions, essentially as of january 1 of this year the city is prohibited from taking zoning actions. That includes the actions by the board of supervisors and the voters. It does include voter initiatives as well. What is the prohibition . Were calling it down zoning. We cant do any zoning actions that would reduce the zone capacity for housing as compared to what it was at the beginning of 2018. That baseline, its a little confusing. Thats the benchmark were using. If housing was allowed in 2018, thats the benchmark. The prohibition only applies to actions taken in 2020. Thats a little bit of a mind game there. But what are the actions . Its very expansive. It could be reduction of height or density or f. A. R. Increased lot size or setback, minimum frontage requirements, any kind of moratorium on housing approvals, caps on the housing approvals, population caps all finds under this. There is one major exception, you can take these kinds of actions which with erefer to we refer to as down zoning if current actions are taken. Eastern neighborhoods where many sites were zoned where no housing is allowed, but it was a major upzoning in terms of housing. This was put in to allow that kind of balanced comprehensive planning. Thats the please idea there. But its meant to prevent spot down zoning if you will. Lab zoning actions. Design standards. Starting in 2020 we cannot adopt any new Design Standards that do not meet the definition of objective Design Standards under state law which is what you think it is. Luckily, in San Francisco, because of our diligence of the design team, john francis and others who worked on getting these queued up for us, urban guidelines are good to go, residential guidelines. A number of area design guidelines, such as japantown can still be implemented and applied to new projects. Historic properties that are not ceqa resources. Those are all in effect. Also we can apply any Design Standards whether objective or not to nonresidential projects as well. We have an effort that we may be gearing up on in the new year related to historic guidelines. Because that falls under the ceqa umbrella as implementing ce ceqa, those will be adopted and applied to projects. So we in San Francisco are in pretty good shape on Design Standards luckily. Second category is, in terms of applications for new Housing Development projects. So just so were all on the same page, a Housing Development project is two or or more units, twothirds residential in the case of mixed use. The first item under this is this preliminary application. So this is a new type of application created by state law. It is no the same thing not the same thing as a Development Application. In San Francisco, we have created a version of this, were calling it the preliminary Housing Development am caig to be as clear as possible and making clear its for the purpose of the state bill. What does it do . Its meant to be an early point in the review process where the applicant can put in the application, that is not the same level of detail as the Development Application, and essentially they get locked in. The zoning standards and the subdivision standards and the fees as well. There are important caveats. First of all, you can file the preliminary application, but you have to file the Development Application within six months or we start over. You cant do this and three years later say i want this. Once the project is approved, it has to be under construction, commencing construction within 30 months, twoandahalf years after the approval and the approval is the issuance of a site permit thats a little later than the planning. The project cannot increase in size by more than 20 . State density bonus accepted, so it can increase by virtue of the state density bonus. But not more than 20 . So if they increase that sort of freezing of the rules goes away and they would be subject to the rules of the day. Finally, during this, even if they have the preliminary application in effect, the fees can still be indexed annually, its if we were to adopt a new fee program all together, that cannot be applied to that project. We have an application on the website january 2nd in time for the bill. What were doing in San Francisco is saying that a new project coming in, they can submit that along with the project application, their Development Application. If a ppa is required, they can provide it as a supplement to the ppa as well. Projects before 2020, they will be able to submit the preliminary application starting this year, but the rules theyll be locked in on are the rules of that day. January 3rd. Not the day they came in. Thats the preliminary application. Related to the local landmarks which in our case is article 10 and 11 for conservation districts. We can still do designations of landmarks and districts but not if its going to be on a property that has an application in the door. You have to do this before the application is deemed complete. Its not possible to do a landmark designation in the 30day window. If youre not designated as 10 or 11 resource, its not going to be available while that project is under review. This is not the same thing as ceqa. Ceqa again, totally off the table in the bill. So we will still be doing review in terms of historic resources, evaluation, application is required. We will require it, review it. If new information comes up throughout the review of the project, we can pause and say we need to do h. R. E. So it really is very narrowly just the article 10 and 11 designation. Someone could designate a property on the National Register and that could be grounds to reevaluate. It could happen. Its just the actual designation that the Historic Preservation commission has to happen before there is a live project. Finally, the bill busy will put a limit for code complying housing projects only. Ill talk about that. A limit of five public hearings. These are public hearings for the entire jurisdiction. These include informational hearings, appeal hearings, continuances of hearings. So its expansive. What are code compliant projects . These are projects that are not seeking any exceptions from the planning code. We often have a downtown exception, eastern neighborhoods exception, a pud, planned Unit Development where theyre seeking exceptions. Those are not code complying. There is a development agreement, variance, anything that involves a rezoning. Projects that give exception to the state density bonus are code complying because the state law makes that clear. It does include projects that may need a cu in front of the Planning Commission, but because of the size of the lot for example, they dont need the cu to get exception, they need the cu as a procedural matter, those are still considered code complying. Were going to see a number of projects in the bucket. And these projects are limited to five hearings throughout the entire jurisdiction. What were going to be doing in Planning Department is adding to the templates for case reports and all of the letters back to applicants, that okay, this is going to be subject to the fivehearing limit and were going to basically, at the Planning Department be the accountants of this and note in the motion how many hearings have occurred so that information is out there. It does include appeal hearings as well. That is a piece of information that will need to be considered by the Planning Commission and other commissions that have to take an action related to the approval of the project. Joint hearings can count as one hearing. And as i mentioned, again, this is not apply to any hearings related to ceqa actions. Finally, related to the replacement of existing units. So if we have a project that comes before the Planning Commission with a 317 conditional use authorization to demolish or merge unit, there are a few conditions that are going to apply. First of all, if any existing units whatsoever are going to be demolished, the replacement project has to replace at least that many units or more. Thats just the blanket rule. Secondly, there is a category of units termed protected units. These are units that were below market rate. The restricted units, section 8 occupants or any unit occupied by a lowincome household in the past five years, whether it was rent controlled or bmr or not. Any unit by 80 under ami is one of these units. When i say past ten years, the five and ten years prior to the application coming in. So if there are protected units being removed, we cannot approve the replacement project until theyre replaced in equivalent size, meaning bedrooms and comparable affordability. Finally for the protected units, existing tenants there at the time, they get a right of first refusal to return to the replacement units. There are relocation fees that must be paid. We do have higher relocation payments in San Francisco and we can modify them as time goes on. Those will apply. And the tenants in the protected units have the right to remain in the unit up to six months before construction commences as well. So then finally, i wanted to zero in on when i said the protected units has to be replaced for the unit of comparable affordability, a little bit complicated, but we think we figured it out and all of this is in director bulletin on the website. If you have a protected unit and we know that there was a lowincome household in the unit, we have to do a replacement unit. There needs to be deed restricted bmr grurnt 55 years, at the income category that corresponds to the prior tenant. The state has 50 , 80 of ami. We had existing tenant, unit is demolished, they were 70 ami, that is unit required for each one of the units as condition for the reapproval with the 317 approval. If we dont know the income of the prior units or it was vacant, we are to assume the same ratio of affordability that exists in the city. So based on a specific set of data from hud. The most recent data shows that in San Francisco 48 of all the Housing Units were occupied by households below 80 of ami, so well be going with 48 . If youre replacing two protected units, and one of them we dont know the income of the units, one of them needs to be 80 bmr and the other would be market rate. There is a provision related to rent controlled units which can be occupied by residents who are above lowincome. If its a rent controlled unit and the occupants are above lowincome, the city has an option. The unit can be replaced by a new rent control unit, starting out at market rate, or could be replaced by a lowincome bmr unit. In the absence of clarification in the planning code, that decision will be with the Planning Commission on a project by project basis. Finally, the state law does allow for jurisdictions that speak to their inclusionary units. To allow for these replacements unit to be in addition. Here in San Francisco, section 415, we specify when you replace lowincome units, the units are above and beyond the inclusionary units, so well be able to keep with that under the bill. Im going to pause there. Im sure there will be questions. Well be available. You guys didnt get all that . Thank you very much. President melgar thank you. We will now take Public Comment on this item. Do we have speaker cards . No . Thats amazing. Sort of a stupid question. Today on the calendar, you had continuing items, will those be counted . Those will be counted. Even if you plan ahead of time not to hear them. The other point is kind of what i said about 10 1099 dolores. The point of this from senator skinner, she wants to get more housing. I understand that. But i think we have know what were getting when we get it. Thats why if youre granting this right to develop, to developers, it would be nice to know how much the housing is cogsing people, whether its market rate housing to understand. Like the condos in knowy valley, i think thats information that you need to know if youre approving either demolitions or remonetary polici remo remoo remo remode remodels. President melgar thank you. Any other Public Comment on this item . Good afternoon, commissioners. Obviously, there is a huge amount of information that has just been release and were all digesting. As a project sponsor here in town, im very confused right now about the status of applications. It sounds like there are three applications required, different timing requirements. If the projects change, do the applications need to be change . If the project is in the pipeline, do we submit the new application immediately . There is lots of questions in terms of timing and guidance, i was hoping to get a better understanding of what to expect. President melgar thank you. Any other Public Comment . Okay. Public comment is now closed. Commissioner koppel just a quick question for staff. Just a little clarification. I heard you say regarding the five hearings that were jurisdiction, does that mean the jurisdiction of San Francisco city and count. Any hearing body related to the approval of the project for San Francisco. Commissioner koppel if the project went to the h. P. C. And then the rec and park, thats three. Thats three. Commissioner koppel and we cannot foresee how many appeals might be after us, correct . Thats righted. Commissioner koppel but five is the limit . Correct. Commissioner fung and ceqa appeals . If the hearing is just for purposes of ceqa thats right. Commissioner fung my question was different. Is there a differentiation between public and private land . No, this is about the housing potential on the site. So you can have a public site that allows certain type of housing or privately owned site that allows housing. Does it allow housing and what intensity . Whether its publicly or privately owned doesnt matter. Commissioner johnson okay, so i have three questions. Also this was wonderful to read. So thank you for taking a very complex thing and making it enjoyable. And understandable. And helping us kind of figure out how to navigate this. Of course. Commissioner johnson my first question, am i to understand with the neighborhood special area design guidelines, the ones that we put into place before the new year are great, but were not able to do any new ones in the next . Right, we can do new design guidelines, they just have to meet the standard objective. We dont have to argue about what objectivity is, state law defines it. Thank you. At least theyre clear about it. So objective standard is one that is a design standard that involves no judgment by public official. Available and knowable by the applicant and proponent and the public official before submittal of application. So that is a fairly high bar. It means that it needs to be things that are quantity tative. It cant be a broad concept such as, you know, compatible with the neighboring structures. It could be needs to have a certain type of articulation. It needs to be a certain height, certain materials. It has to be verifiable, quantifiable, and objective. Well have to go by those standards with any future design guidelines. Okay, next question is related to the replacement units. There is a lot there. To just talk me through, again, wi b. Units, people can choose to go with, but what happened to rent controlled units . Rent controlled unit that would be demolished . Yeah. So well look at it if the unit is rent controlled by 80 of below, thats a lowincome household and that falls under the requirement that you have to replace it with a bmr at the equivalent income. For rent controlled only, that is the only instance where we have the discretion to either replace it with a new rent controlled unit or bmr. That is the project sponsors choice . Thats are all things that will have to be conditions of approval on the cu to demolish, so its the discretion of the commission as well. The city could choose to specify in code what route were going to take, but up until that point, its project by project. And then the last question. What is the plan to help everybody now navigate these new rules . Yes. We did publish a new directors bulletin. Number 7. Its been on the website since just before the new year. It does walk through each of these areas. And it gives a bit of overview and gives specific implementation for San Francisco. In addition, we have posted that preliminary Housing Development application that has some instruction as to what that is and how it works in the document itself. Well be updating the demolition, section 317, cu application to ask for all the information. We need to know about the occupancy in the past five years. If you dont give it to us, dont know, this is what is going to happen. Well be updating the templates when we respond back to ppa, applicant, to include standard verbiage that explains to the applicant and the public whether any of this applies and how. Were doing as much as we can to integrate all of this into the documents that we do, the applications we have. And the directors bulletin will be the guidebook that we have. And we do expect, i should say, some guidance from the state at some point, although in the experience, the state, it does take them time to catch up. As more information comes out or as we learn from implementation, the way we do it may evolve, but for now we have a fairly clear statement how were going to implement this that is available now. I encourage everyone to take a look at that. Commissioner diamond so it seems like we need to reserve hearing capacity for appeals. And in light of that, im wondering if it would be reasonable to request staff to try even harder than they already do to resolve neighborhood differences before they bring matter to the commission for approval, so we dont end up trying to decide whether we can afford to continue it while the issues are resolved. Is there plan about addressing that issue . Weve been communicating to staff and were going to continue the presentations. And i think that folks are becoming aware we need to be more cautious about when something is ripe to be scheduled for hearing. And the type of backandforth youre referring to falls into that bucket. We need to do as much as we can to ensure its calendared so we dont find ourselves in a situation where we have to count the continuances and be concerned about the appeals. A couple of things. First i want to thank jacob and kate and the City Attorney office. This actually was an immense amount of work. As often happens with these state bills, there are lot of elements that are not very well defined. So weve had to make some assumptions and create as jacob said the state will provide guidance with more detail, but i dont expect that for two years and in the meantime, this law is effect. Were the first jurisdiction in the state to implement this ordinance. The second thing, and im not sure if it was mentioned, because of the provision that allows projects to have their code requirements frozen at the time of application, it puts a lot of onus on us to do Record Keeping as to what the code was along the way, because the code changes twice a month or more, on average. Could you talk about that for a minute . It will be a whole new Record Keeping system well have to implement in the department . Yes, luckily, m legal, the company we contract with to provide the municipal code online does have a feature that allows for archiving for past versions of the code, so were going to be activating that feature. You can choose which month of which planning code to look at. Were figuring out the details on how frequently this archiving will occur, at least monthly i presume. The idea being that both an applicant and planners and anyone in the public needs to be able to go back and look at the relevant set of rules that were holding a project to perhaps two years after they came in with their application. So that will be available in m legal and then it will be on us and all of the ppa responses, in the plan check responses, in the case reports to the Planning Commission to make clear whether this is a project that is under a preliminary application and, if so, what is the date were talking about. So were going to be sure we have a clear way of doing that in all of our documents so we know what were going by. Well all be learning as we go, but the lucky thing, we have the Technology Available so we didnt have make up a runaround. It will be there and we need to know which one were going by. Commissioner moore does this require staff training . And do you have a core group which is a Clearing House in the beginning . Yes. As often, we have our special projects and policy team that have pieced this together. And we are making the rounds among staff to do trainings. Were putting up director bulletins. The templates are available. Thats another flag for them. This is going to be an effort, were going to be working on this throughout the year. As projects come forward, well be learning by experience as well. I should mention as i failed to, on the note, that the replacement unit requirements, all of that applies to projects in 2020. Youll be seeing projects over the next coming months that does not apply to. Its not as if we have to shift immediately, but other things like the preliminary application, projects are welcome to file that today. Were doing the training based on as things kick in. Is the state auditing you . Not to my knowledge. But like i said, the housing and Community Development agency of the state will be putting out guidance at some point. In our experience with other state laws such as the density bonus and others, that is the entity that would reach out if they had any concerns, may issue further guidance. And that is the entity to which people may file a complaint if they feel the city is not following along correctly. President melgar i also had several questions. So on the appeals, does this include im sorry hearings does this include other jurisdictions besides San Francisco . So if a project needed a hearing from the regional air Quality Management board, is that one of the five . I dont believe so. It appears to be five per jurisdictions. Okay, what if a project has, say, you know, four hearings and then they get their Building Permit and they go and they screw up. And there is violations. And then there is directors hearings to correct the violations at dbi. And it puts them into five, six, seven. Thank you for asking that question. Yes, this is five hearings from the application to the approval of the project. So any post approval hearings of which there are all kinds, including that situation where the project comes back to life due to violations, those are okay. So we can have i believe its unlimited once the project is appro approved. Those can still continue. This is five to get you from the application to your approval from the city. Your initial approval. So that is important clarification. Often times in this body, we have had requests for postponement of hearings or rehearings from the developers, the project sponsors, because in the longterm strategy they want do this or the other. Does that count for the five hearings . I believe. Any time that the commission acts to continue, that counts as one of the hearings. As long as the hearing occurred and you acted to continue, then that counts. President melgar so my last question is, what are the repercussions . What the remedies if there is more than five hearings . It falls under the bucket of the state being perhaps not as clear as it could be as director ram mentioned. The state law is clear that there can only be five hearings and one of the if five hearings, action to approve or disapprove must be taken. After the fifth hearings, no hearings should occur. And thats it. Well be filling in the blanks. [laughter] president melgar several things occurred to me, because i worked in different departments, government. So there is d. P. H. There is all sorts so im wondering who owns this from the city side . So if there is, you know, like a restaurant that wants to open and you need fire who is going to be doing what you do for us in terms of the city . Because its going to take a lot of its not policies, its procedures, and someone who can marry both and have enough power over the bureaucracy to make it happen . We should be clear, it is public hearing. So there could be a number of types of, you need to go fire. President melgar it happens before. Someone has to be think being the strategy before it comes to the hearing. Right. So like i say, well step up planning to at least in our documents be kind of tracking how many hearings have occurred. We are in touch with the under the executive director on housing, this housing Coordinator Group was created. A staff member appointed at all the agencies that have permitting authority over housing, including mta and others. We have sent the information to that group and will be discussing their regular monthly meetings of the housing Coordinator Group. That will be the first touch for us to share information about what we understand it means to planning and we need to coordinate on this starting right now. So that will be our group and then those folks will be the point people within the agencies and im sure over time, well they may assign other staff to be on top of this. In the meantime, what weve been asked is that all the housing projects coming in, check in with the housing team at planning so we can do a look, see what the history is see what the project may be subject to, to highlight it up front. Say this is a project that looks like it needs the following three hearings, so be cognizant of that in how you choose to approach the project. And well be having conversations with other strategies as well. But now, planning is taking the lead and working with the housing Coordinator Group to disseminate this throughout the rest of the city. President melgar thank you. I have a couple more questions. The next one, if you could define what is a down zoning . Right before the break, we had a project, a twounit building, that we allowed to become the Community Music center expansion. Is that a down zoning . This is related to legislative action by the city . If youre doing conditional approval on the project, thats fine. The housing accountability act applies. We have all of that. This is related to prohibitions on new growning actions that would zoning actions that would change the capacity. I believe if it was a condition that the commission opposed on the project that is already in, that is not covered under this. That is simply going to be a housing accountability act question that i presume was resolved in that case. [please stand by] [please stand by] president melgar and, you know, do a bunch of stuff. And ongoing monitoring for 50 years or whatever. So im wondering, does this bill come with state moneys to help us do this . But i should say we have had other projects, and what our practice has been is if youre going to talk about a b. M. R. , youre going to follow the inclusionary housing models, and mohcd track of number of projects every year, what theyre expected to see, and we make sure it all gets recorded. And once it gets to mohcd, that theyre talking to the owner about the leasing for the units. So if were talking about b. M. R. S, were going to put them into the existing program because otherwise, it would be very difficult to keep track of. So that would be the approach as in other cases. President melgar yeah. I have no doubt that we have other cases, its just going to take us time. One of the things about the hearings is there are things that require multiple hearings, like projects that have a shadow impact. Their current procedure requires them to have one direct hearing to the capital Park Planning Committee and one before the commission. So obviously were going to have to work with them to get it down to one. Thats not required by law, but it does count as two of the five. Thats one of the things that were going to have to figure out how to stream line the hearing process a bit. I had one other thing that i was going to say, and i completely forget. Thatll do it. President melgar thank you. Commissioner diamond . So dall the tangential thins that go with the project, wed quickly use up the five. The phrase is hearings in connection with the approval of the project, so a white zone, a tree removal. It is, as you said, ancillary. The shadow hearings are in the planning code. Certain hearings, p. U. C. , water supply assessment, falls under ceqa implementations, so thats fine. I think as we go forward, were basically going to need to inventory the different types of hearings that happened, but i think those examples are going to fall outside of it. President melgar were going to need a chart. Oh, yeah, were going to have charts. President melgar commissioner jemoore . [inaudible] president melgar i will just end by saying that im surprised that we have such outstanding staff. You guys rock it. You did this very quickly, very thoroughly, and i appreciate it. Clerk commissioners that will place us on item 11, for the sustainable city framework informational presentation. President melgar hi. Good afternoon. Happy new year. Lisa fisher, your resilience and sustainability lead. Simply put, everything we build today either supports a vibrant, healthy, and futureproofed city or can accelerate global heating and can be a costly retrofit tomorrow. We are excited to share the sustainable Neighborhood Program of framework instead of tools to support Climate Resilience, equity, and quality of life on any project scale. Its a rich collaboration and i wanted to take a moment to thank my colleagues, especially adam and director rahaim and maya, josh, all the teams that have worked on the major developments that weve been piloting, as well as my colleagues at the department of environment, the p. U. C. , and the Mayors Office. I appreciate your patience while i try and summarize a comprehensive and a little bit wonky effort in a fourpart agenda. So what were up against, what were doing about it both as planning and with our fellow agencies, and specifically the sustainable Neighborhood Program and its tools and some next steps. And then, i would like to end some of our colleagues wanted to be here today to make statements, but they got caught up, but i have a few statements to read of their support before we go to Public Comment. So the first two sections actually created for the city Climate Resilience program and Climate Emergency hearing . So sorry to make you wait five minutes for the punch line, but i think itll set some important context for the drivers for this. So as we know, the Climate Crisis is already here, already impacting our businesses,