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Transcripts For SFGTV 20141206

or person per block then your service levels are different for all different facilities, streetscapes, parks. we might be coming back to you to talking about how the capital planning committee is interested in using that information to do our overall city capital plan for all infrastructure. how do we think about the upcoming residents and growth. the second piece, i think we do actually get to thinking about if bill is higher density. that bill is generating more demand for transit and contributing at a higher rate. the per square foot is a proxy for number of people or number of jobs, either residents or jobs. if you look at the eastern neighborhood fees you will see there is tiering where there is a lot of value and we allow the buildings to get very dense, people are paying at a higher rate and the financial fees ability is greater to contribute on those sites. >> okay. i think what i was getting at i got from what you were saying what i'm getting at is i still feel there is a hanging conclusion there. i think the point the consultant came to and yes there is more gross feet and more floor for a particular block of land for higher density versus not a higher building, but i felt as though they were saying that in addition to that there are multi- pliers to having the higher density districts in more ways because there is more people. having more people together is affecting the more people and having the different fees in certain neighborhood plans and certain projects versus other ones. >> yes. i'm happy to look at the report. the other thing that comes to mind is how do you service more people as they become not 24-hour but have later at night and more multiple functions. let me follow up with you. >> yes. i can follow up. second to last thing. you started my next comment on rec's and open space. i feel like the max you -- maximum supportable open space is that conclusive, is that fee, i'm going to ask the question, is that fee conclusive when you have projects that provide privately owned publically available space or is that the fee that goes to the city that gets put to parks and recreation publically available space. >> it's for the publically available space, the space that is required as part of the planning code is in addition to what we are talking about here. >> okay. i think first of all i think that distinction should be made in this report. i will just say in this report and you can figure out how you want to do that. that distinction needs to be made. my gut from reading this report that rec's and open space for non-residential development, that fee, i think the fact that it is common now for us to have privately owned publically available spaces clouds the actual level of service that needs to be provided to the people who use those employees, the non-residents who use those spaces. to back up, there was a comment in both pieces of the study that employees tend to not use open space near their places of work as much as near their homes. they tend to use near to open spaces near their home rather than places where they work. because those people tend to use the publically available spaces near their homes versus where they work, we don't need as high as a fee for that usage for employees therefore we need a lower fee for non-residential development. i think that analysis is flawed only because i think the fact that privately only publically available spaces are just as highly used if not more than highly used than publically owned and publically available spaces which indicates to me there is an opportunity to provide more publically owned, publically available spaces near non-residential development. first i would make that distinction what that was for and second, i think it would be good to address somehow how privately owned publically available spaces are used because i think that that is a screen for how much open space is really needed near non-residential development. >president cindy wu: i wanted to ask one question. is there a nexus analysis plan or is that by designated area. >> since 2008, we did do a citywide feasibility update but we focused on the project that we knew in the pipeline. that is an abstract analysis when you think about it. you will have a chance to see some of that analysis in the spring or winter. >president cindy wu: we talked about how this report covers certain categories separate for transit and housing, would the feasibility analysis cover all of those categories. >> you have to think about how much value is left to capture and it's a policy decision about whether it goes to transit or other consideration. so the analysis is available for all the different policy questions. >> okay, but then the decision on specifically which policy is prioritized kind of happen maybe in different documents still. >> along the the planning commission we do that and there is a tradition in sfrabs -- san francisco to say we are conferring value on the market octavia plan and the market depends on what we are capturing with. in general this market is unusual and there does need to be some conferns to allow the recapture in some ways. >> maybe, what i heard the director say there has been a call to relook at fees because of the economic situation in which we are in. it's not about a new area plan and a new conveyance of value. >> the question, the issue that comes up is each plan has uses the fees in different ways. some plans have a bigger emphasis on open space and some on transit. we would need to look at those neighborhoods. the feasibility, they could ask for it based on feasibility for all fees and just to remind you, the feasibility fee, maximum if you will is almost always less than the nexus. the nexus establishes the worst case scenario and how that proportion is did i dividend up by neighborhood plan. just to remind you the proxy limited to how much we can ask for affordable housing and we have to revisit that through a battle measure if -- ballot measure. what this does is gives us some foundation to do that. >president cindy wu: right. thank you. commissioner richards? >> >commissioner dennis richards: these fees make-up the impact of the cost and the other 70 percent is through the taxes generated. can you help us here? >> sure, i will also be back in january to discuss the implementation report which shows our progress implementing the various plans. for example in market octavia we secured a tlc grant to implement a major improvement to haight street and we are also working with the capital plan committee to develop a 10-year capital plan for market octavia and eastern neighborhoods and other plan areas to understand what that gap is when we start looking at what has mta and what are they planning to do and what is that gap and how can this city fill that gap. i have been working on this since 2008 and we are making serious progress. >> the short search warrant are is -- answer is we are looking at various sources. >> the impact fees are modest. that's what i hear. wow. how much should we be charging. i think that's more money on the table. fyi. >president cindy wu: commissioner >commissioner michael j. antonini: one of the things you mentioned we are going to be establishing some of the new parks in some of these emerging areas as we have the funding and the space becomes available. and one thing you are talking about is how to keep thesen livened all the time. one of the things >> as it occurs, you make sure you have the areas around nighttime uses. union square has a lot of activities but others are almost vacant at night like maritime plaza, it's nothing there after dark and it kind of depends on the type of area you are creating but it's important to have some nighttime uses around them. >president cindy wu: commissioner moore. commissioners, we left under your regular calendar on item 11. this is a zoning map amendment. >> good afternoon, commissioners, diego sanchez, planning department staff. today i'm presenting an ordinance that will amend the zoning map for the use. it's part of the bay shore blvd home improvement part of that zone commercial would rezone to pdr or rh 1 as appropriate. 1600 court land address and would rezone the property to r 1g and recommends the proposal to the board of supervisors. the ordinance intends to correct a minor variance to the ordinance and you heard early ier this year and the zone -- aligns this property. the use set is permitted and promoted in the proposed pdr 1 g district and generally afterwards the light manufacturing currently enjoyed in the ipd sud. this concludes my presentation. i'm available for questions. >president cindy wu: thank you. let's open for public comment. >> sue hester. i'm here to actively support this. when we did the rezoning we created a couple orphans and this is last one. this eliminates all the tables with the zoning on it. thank god. yes, after 8 years of work, yes, yes. thank you. >> thank you. is there any additional public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioner richards? >commissioner dennis richards: i move to approve. >> second. city clerk: on that motion, commissioners, commissioner >commissioner michael j. antonini: >commissioner rich hillis: >commissioner christine johnson: >>commissioner kathrin moore: >president cindy wu: this passes 6-0. this places you on item 12 for case no. 2014.0417. for 531 castro street. this is for conditional use authorization. >> good afternoon, president of the commission and planning commission this is for an application for 531 castro street. project sponsor conditional use authorization pursuant to planning code section 703.3, 703.4 and 303c and i to convert the existing vacant patio restaurant into hamburger mareey for conditional use. hamburger will build out a restaurant space. has a total gross foot area of 844 square feet. patio restaurant cafe was established in 1960s. it was closed in 2005. after due to the interior renovation and has been closed since. hamburger mary's it was themed and lgbt people friendly restaurant and that opened on 1582 folsom street in 1972 but closed in 2001. the proposed hamburger mary's would include other entertainment use such as live music. in the live music will be restricted to the inside area of the restaurant and sound equipment and soundproofing must be inspected and permitted by the entertainment commission prior to operation. we feel it is necessary and desirable to include other entertainment use in the proposed hamburger mary's because it will enhance the further use of the restaurant and will not affect displacement of other neighborhood service use. furthermore, allowing other entertainment use will compliment a mix of goods and services currently available in the castro street neighborhood commercial district and contribute to the economic vitality of this district and providing additional entertainment option for local residents and visitors of the neighborhood. another issue i would like to mention is the sound technician from san francisco entertainment commission has conducted a sound inspection at the project site and did not detect any sound escaping the premises which would violate the san francisco municipal police code. a further sound test would have to be performed and once hamburger mary's is in operation and live entertainment takes place. additionally, the owner and operator of the building business is the same person and owner operator also lives right in the neighborhood. so it is a local entrepreneur for this project. the represented owner has conducted a thorough neighborhood outreach and addressed all the concerns from the neighborhood residents and the neighborhood groups and therefore the project gained support from castro merchants and the neighborhood valley association and the market benefit district. those letters of support i believe are included in the packet. and to conclude this project, because this site is on the east side of castro streed between 18th and 19th street and it is a prime location and it been closed since 2005. so it is really a distraction to both residents and visitors in the neighborhood. we believe the project will convert a vacant restaurant into an active restaurant and eliminate neighborhood blight which will contribute to the economic vitality and the compliment of current mix of goods and services in the castro and will prevent the ability from other retail uses and nor increase the number of the restaurants in the castro entity. third, the project site is well served by public transit and therefore the project should have a negligible impact and available parking on the surrounding streets. no. 4, the project will create approximately 30 restaurant job openings for local residents. no. 5, and other entertainment use will not only enhance the hamburger mary's operation but performing emerging local artist because hamburger mary's does not have former place and the amount offen at the entertainment takes place in the bar restaurant area. it's good for the surrounding neighborhood and area. that concludes my presentation. if you have any questions, i'm available. >president cindy wu: thank you, let's hear from project sponsor. >> good afternoon commissioners, john with, here on behalf of project sponsor. we are excited to be here before you today where the project will finally bring back a hamburger mary's restaurant to replace the old cafe in the castro. they have spent time and money improving the cafe space. the commission approved the legalization of space since it closed to renovations. we are now requesting conditional use authorization because there are 12 hamburger mary's throughout the country and there are entertainment uses. it began in 1972 on folsom street with san francisco lgbt community. original location closed in 2001 and the project would bring back hamburger mary's and there would be a live component which will include drag performances and d j equipment. we have worked with the castro neighborhood association for operating conditions for the live entertainment. hours will be limited depending on the days of the week and guarantees have been made with the no sound leak with the noise ordinance and we have had them come out and do testing. we have cleared it and he's going to need to come back and test again before we get the live performance permit as well. we are going to be absolutely sure that we don't have sound leakage. we have widespread support for the project. as to date we have 672 e-mails of support in support of all the groups, castro merchants and castro, in closing the project will allow for castro districts with the early lgbt culture and we respectfully request your support and we are here for questions. >president cindy wu: thank you. let's open for public comment. gary wise and gill church. >> good afternoon commissioners, my name is gary white. i have a small business around the corner from the proposed site for 31 years. the current owner of the site has kept the site of the restaurant as well as next door and almost all the rental units vacant since 1999 but he says 10 years. a giant dead zone in one of the most vibrant neighborhoods in the city and more vibrant and is the demand as the major sidewalk work has been completed. hamburger mary's was very popular. in 2007, a group of men decided to open the worldwide chain of restaurants using a suburban knock off of the old hamburger mary's. as is now 12 are open around the world. in order to qualify for conditional use permit a business must prove that it's necessary or desirable. currently we have a -- bar and other businesses. it appears thereby support for many restaurants in the neighborhoods. my sense is the support comes from people that are tired of seeing the ghost area or the former combination of hamburger mary's. this will be one link in a growing chain of restaurants. if mr. natalie gets cold feet with an idea or will other businesses be open for progress. >president cindy wu: thank you, next speaker. i have more speaker cards. allen nelson. >> hi, thank you for taking comments. my name is john church and i think i'm the old guy in the neighborhood. i got to the castro when i was 17 years old. last friday i just turned 65. i think i'm the old guy in the neighborhood. i have certain memories of the both hamburger mary's and the patio cafe. hamburger mary's was an activist restaurant long before aids struck. we were raising funds with the no on bridge initiatives. the waiters would spontaneously or the wait staff would spontaneously say, all of the tips are going to the no on six kiddie jar and why don't you add some of your own. they have a long record of raising money for as an activist business hamburger mary's did likewise. hamburger mary's had something that none of the other restaurants had. it wasn't fast food, it wasn't having flat screen tv's blaring at you. it was a warm and welcoming place where you can take mom and dad to the restaurant and where they can see you made a al

Transcripts For SFGTV 20141209

upcoming residents and growth. the second piece, i think we do actually get to thinking about if bill is higher density. that bill is generating more demand for transit and contributing at a higher rate. the per square foot is a proxy for number of people or number of jobs, either residents or jobs. if you look at the eastern neighborhood fees you will see there is tiering where there is a lot of value and we allow the buildings to get very dense, people are paying at a higher rate and the financial fees ability is greater to contribute on those sites. >> okay. i think what i was getting at i got from what you were saying what i'm getting at is i still feel there is a hanging conclusion there. i think the point the consultant came to and yes there is more gross feet and more floor for a particular block of land for higher density versus not a higher building, but i felt as though they were saying that in addition to that there are multi- pliers to having the higher density districts in more ways because there is more people. having more people together is affecting the more people and having the different fees in certain neighborhood plans and certain projects versus other ones. >> yes. i'm happy to look at the report. the other thing that comes to mind is how do you service more people as they become not 24-hour but have later at night and more multiple functions. let me follow up with you. >> yes. i can follow up. second to last thing. you started my next comment on rec's and open space. i feel like the max you -- maximum supportable open space is that conclusive, is that fee, i'm going to ask the question, is that fee conclusive when you have projects that provide privately owned publically available space or is that the fee that goes to the city that gets put to parks and recreation publically available space. >> it's for the publically available space, the space that is required as part of the planning code is in addition to what we are talking about here. >> okay. i think first of all i think that distinction should be made in this report. i will just say in this report and you can figure out how you want to do that. that distinction needs to be made. my gut from reading this report that rec's and open space for non-residential development, that fee, i think the fact that it is common now for us to have privately owned publically available spaces clouds the actual level of service that needs to be provided to the people who use those employees, the non-residents who use those spaces. to back up, there was a comment in both pieces of the study that employees tend to not use open space near their places of work as much as near their homes. they tend to use near to open spaces near their home rather than places where they work. because those people tend to use the publically available spaces near their homes versus where they work, we don't need as high as a fee for that usage for employees therefore we need a lower fee for non-residential development. i think that analysis is flawed only because i think the fact that privately only publically available spaces are just as highly used if not more than highly used than publically owned and publically available spaces which indicates to me there is an opportunity to provide more publically owned, publically available spaces near non-residential development. first i would make that distinction what that was for and second, i think it would be good to address somehow how privately owned publically available spaces are used because i think that that is a screen for how much open space is really needed near non-residential development. >president cindy wu: i wanted to ask one question. is there a nexus analysis plan or is that by designated area. >> since 2008, we did do a citywide feasibility update but we focused on the project that we knew in the pipeline. that is an abstract analysis when you think about it. you will have a chance to see some of that analysis in the spring or winter. >president cindy wu: we talked about how this report covers certain categories separate for transit and housing, would the feasibility analysis cover all of those categories. >> you have to think about how much value is left to capture and it's a policy decision about whether it goes to transit or other consideration. so the analysis is available for all the different policy questions. >> okay, but then the decision on specifically which policy is prioritized kind of happen maybe in different documents still. >> along the the planning commission we do that and there is a tradition in sfrabs -- san francisco to say we are conferring value on the market octavia plan and the market depends on what we are capturing with. in general this market is unusual and there does need to be some conferns to allow the recapture in some ways. >> maybe, what i heard the director say there has been a call to relook at fees because of the economic situation in which we are in. it's not about a new area plan and a new conveyance of value. >> the question, the issue that comes up is each plan has uses the fees in different ways. some plans have a bigger emphasis on open space and some on transit. we would need to look at those neighborhoods. the feasibility, they could ask for it based on feasibility for all fees and just to remind you, the feasibility fee, maximum if you will is almost always less than the nexus. the nexus establishes the worst case scenario and how that proportion is did i dividend up by neighborhood plan. just to remind you the proxy limited to how much we can ask for affordable housing and we have to revisit that through a battle measure if -- ballot measure. what this does is gives us some foundation to do that. >president cindy wu: right. thank you. commissioner richards? >> >commissioner dennis richards: these fees make-up the impact of the cost and the other 70 percent is through the taxes generated. can you help us here? >> sure, i will also be back in january to discuss the implementation report which shows our progress implementing the various plans. for example in market octavia we secured a tlc grant to implement a major improvement to haight street and we are also working with the capital plan committee to develop a 10-year capital plan for market octavia and eastern neighborhoods and other plan areas to understand what that gap is when we start looking at what has mta and what are they planning to do and what is that gap and how can this city fill that gap. i have been working on this since 2008 and we are making serious progress. >> the short search warrant are is -- answer is we are looking at various sources. >> the impact fees are modest. that's what i hear. wow. how much should we be charging. i think that's more money on the table. fyi. >president cindy wu: commissioner >commissioner michael j. antonini: one of the things you mentioned we are going to be establishing some of the new parks in some of these emerging areas as we have the funding and the space becomes available. and one thing you are talking about is how to keep thesen livened all the time. one of the things >> as it occurs, you make sure you have the areas around nighttime uses. union square has a lot of activities but others are almost vacant at night like maritime plaza, it's nothing there after dark and it kind of depends on the type of area you are creating but it's important to have some nighttime uses around them. >president cindy wu: commissioner moore. commissioners, we left under your regular calendar on item 11. this is a zoning map amendment. >> good afternoon, commissioners, diego sanchez, planning department staff. today i'm presenting an ordinance that will amend the zoning map for the use. it's part of the bay shore blvd home improvement part of that zone commercial would rezone to pdr or rh 1 as appropriate. 1600 court land address and would rezone the property to r 1g and recommends the proposal to the board of supervisors. the ordinance intends to correct a minor variance to the ordinance and you heard early ier this year and the zone -- aligns this property. the use set is permitted and promoted in the proposed pdr 1 g district and generally afterwards the light manufacturing currently enjoyed in the ipd sud. this concludes my presentation. i'm available for questions. >president cindy wu: thank you. let's open for public comment. >> sue hester. i'm here to actively support this. when we did the rezoning we created a couple orphans and this is last one. this eliminates all the tables with the zoning on it. thank god. yes, after 8 years of work, yes, yes. thank you. >> thank you. is there any additional public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioner richards? >commissioner dennis richards: i move to approve. >> second. city clerk: on that motion, commissioners, commissioner >commissioner michael j. antonini: >commissioner rich hillis: >commissioner christine johnson: >>commissioner kathrin moore: >president cindy wu: this passes 6-0. this places you on item 12 for case no. 2014.0417. for 531 castro street. this is for conditional use authorization. >> good afternoon, president of the commission and planning commission this is for an application for 531 castro street. project sponsor conditional use authorization pursuant to planning code section 703.3, 703.4 and 303c and i to convert the existing vacant patio restaurant into hamburger mareey for conditional use. hamburger will build out a restaurant space. has a total gross foot area of 844 square feet. patio restaurant cafe was established in 1960s. it was closed in 2005. after due to the interior renovation and has been closed since. hamburger mary's it was themed and lgbt people friendly restaurant and that opened on 1582 folsom street in 1972 but closed in 2001. the proposed hamburger mary's would include other entertainment use such as live music. in the live music will be restricted to the inside area of the restaurant and sound equipment and soundproofing must be inspected and permitted by the entertainment commission prior to operation. we feel it is necessary and desirable to include other entertainment use in the proposed hamburger mary's because it will enhance the further use of the restaurant and will not affect displacement of other neighborhood service use. furthermore, allowing other entertainment use will compliment a mix of goods and services currently available in the castro street neighborhood commercial district and contribute to the economic vitality of this district and providing additional entertainment option for local residents and visitors of the neighborhood. another issue i would like to mention is the sound technician from san francisco entertainment commission has conducted a sound inspection at the project site and did not detect any sound escaping the premises which would violate the san francisco municipal police code. a further sound test would have to be performed and once hamburger mary's is in operation and live entertainment takes place. additionally, the owner and operator of the building business is the same person and owner operator also lives right in the neighborhood. so it is a local entrepreneur for this project. the represented owner has conducted a thorough neighborhood outreach and addressed all the concerns from the neighborhood residents and the neighborhood groups and therefore the project gained support from castro merchants and the neighborhood valley association and the market benefit district. those letters of support i believe are included in the packet. and to conclude this project, because this site is on the east side of castro streed between 18th and 19th street and it is a prime location and it been closed since 2005. so it is really a distraction to both residents and visitors in the neighborhood. we believe the project will convert a vacant restaurant into an active restaurant and eliminate neighborhood blight which will contribute to the economic vitality and the compliment of current mix of goods and services in the castro and will prevent the ability from other retail uses and nor increase the number of the restaurants in the castro entity. third, the project site is well served by public transit and therefore the project should have a negligible impact and available parking on the surrounding streets. no. 4, the project will create approximately 30 restaurant job openings for local residents. no. 5, and other entertainment use will not only enhance the hamburger mary's operation but performing emerging local artist because hamburger mary's does not have former place and the amount offen at the entertainment takes place in the bar restaurant area. it's good for the surrounding neighborhood and area. that concludes my presentation. if you have any questions, i'm available. >president cindy wu: thank you, let's hear from project sponsor. >> good afternoon commissioners, john with, here on behalf of project sponsor. we are excited to be here before you today where the project will finally bring back a hamburger mary's restaurant to replace the old cafe in the castro. they have spent time and money improving the cafe space. the commission approved the legalization of space since it closed to renovations. we are now requesting conditional use authorization because there are 12 hamburger mary's throughout the country and there are entertainment uses. it began in 1972 on folsom street with san francisco lgbt community. original location closed in 2001 and the project would bring back hamburger mary's and there would be a live component which will include drag performances and d j equipment. we have worked with the castro neighborhood association for operating conditions for the live entertainment. hours will be limited depending on the days of the week and guarantees have been made with the no sound leak with the noise ordinance and we have had them come out and do testing. we have cleared it and he's going to need to come back and test again before we get the live performance permit as well. we are going to be absolutely sure that we don't have sound leakage. we have widespread support for the project. as to date we have 672 e-mails of support in support of all the groups, castro merchants and castro, in closing the project will allow for castro districts with the early lgbt culture and we respectfully request your support and we are here for questions. >president cindy wu: thank you. let's open for public comment. gary wise and gill church. >> good afternoon commissioners, my name is gary white. i have a small business around the corner from the proposed site for 31 years. the current owner of the site has kept the site of the restaurant as well as next door and almost all the rental units vacant since 1999 but he says 10 years. a giant dead zone in one of the most vibrant neighborhoods in the city and more vibrant and is the demand as the major sidewalk work has been completed. hamburger mary's was very popular. in 2007, a group of men decided to open the worldwide chain of restaurants using a suburban knock off of the old hamburger mary's. as is now 12 are open around the world. in order to qualify for conditional use permit a business must prove that it's necessary or desirable. currently we have a -- bar and other businesses. it appears thereby support for many restaurants in the neighborhoods. my sense is the support comes from people that are tired of seeing the ghost area or the former combination of hamburger mary's. this will be one link in a growing chain of restaurants. if mr. natalie gets cold feet with an idea or will other businesses be open for progress. >president cindy wu: thank you, next speaker. i have more speaker cards. allen nelson. >> hi, thank you for taking comments. my name is john church and i think i'm the old guy in the neighborhood. i got to the castro when i was 17 years old. last friday i just turned 65. i think i'm the old guy in the neighborhood. i have certain memories of the both hamburger mary's and the patio cafe. hamburger mary's was an activist restaurant long before aids struck. we were raising funds with the no on bridge initiatives. the waiters would spontaneously or the wait staff would spontaneously say, all of the tips are going to the no on six kiddie jar and why don't you add some of your own. they have a long record of raising money for as an activist business hamburger mary's did likewise. hamburger mary's had something that none of the other restaurants had. it wasn't fast food, it wasn't having flat screen tv's blaring at you. it was a warm and welcoming place where you can take mom and dad to the restaurant and where they can see you made a really good decision about being the person you need to be. it's that you may even thrive as a lgbt person. look at these people having lunch together. i think i'm here as a cheerleader for this and i'm tired of the big hole in the neighborhood in the middle of the blk.

Transcripts For SFGTV 20141209

consider hamburger mary's a formula restaurant because it's independently owned and management and i think that needs to be mentioned at least once. thank you. >president cindy wu: thank you. next speaker? >> good afternoon commissioners. my name is allen nelson. i live in the neighborhood. the discussion on this project with extensive outreach, in fact we did an unprecedented thing. we for the first time ever put a vote to all the membership. normally it's 10 percent of the membership, if they show up to the meeting we base that attendance on the 10 percent. we ended up doing an online audited vote and i'm happy to say that we had 60 percent turnout about triple what our last election had and out of that election, 3-1 was in favor of this project. so that was 109 people in favor of it, 42 opposed to it and for that reason, we strongly support this project. one of the thing we did talk about was ensuring that the community had some safe guards above and beyond just the standard condition of use. so two members of our former planning committee chair and our current planning committee chair worked on -- on a set of committed use to have to the overall commissioned use. they drafted them and we negotiated and to be perfectly honest he accepted all of them and wanted one little tweak that he really wants to open the place and we have the safe guard if it ends up being a bad business owner, we have the different elements that we can actually enforce on the conditions. that's everything i had to say. thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners, i'm steve clark hall. the previous head of the commission. i'm the one who assembled the online. i think it was pretty impartial. i didn't get any complaints from anybody. i have to say the outcome was very polar e -- polarized. you would think anyone would get anything in the restaurant because it was closed. there are two reasons why it was opposed. a lot of people were upset with the project sponsor. just open some restaurant. the other one was because it's formula use. there is a big opposition to formula use under any circumstances inside the castro ncd. i started engaging these people. what if there were 9 formula stores, that would have been okay. i said what if the formula threshold were 20, we can't raise that number. that what i engaged the people is what is that business we are trying to keep out of our neighborhood and no one could tell me what that business is. so, there is, i'm off topic here and complaining that i think the threshold for formula use is too low and i know there is discussions to raise it, but i can't figure out what business are people telling me who come to our neighborhood that have 15 or 18 outlets nationwide. >president cindy wu: thank you. is there any additional public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioner moore? >> >>commissioner kathrin moore: i'm very much for the project and there is no motion attached to my package. that might have been an oversight and if that is the case, i move to approve or move with the intent to approve because >president cindy wu: the agenda says approve with conditions. >>commissioner kathrin moore: so here is the motion. it's being handed to me. times have changed. i will support it. >> second. >president cindy wu: commissioner >commissioner michael j. antonini: >> we have bases for recommendation and the decision. i only have the hard copy, not the electronic one. anyway we have it now so that's all that matters. a few comments on this, one of the items on the paperwork quoted ken garcia from the examiner who said well it's too big for a time capsule. if you want a snapshot of san francisco in the late 1970s it would be hamburger mary's. i think that speaks to the uniqueness of the place and there was a speaker who was afraid of that other outlets are different from what it was presumably, if you the wasn't like it was before, then i doubt it will get supported. that's the proof of the pooding that what goes out there will have to draw traffic and if it does that then it will do fine. i think all the other reasons for support have been brought up. the fact that food and drink percentages around 17 percent and the whole nct and cd areas of upper market and castro while retail is 25 percent, there are some vacancies around there and a lot support as mention side ---ed so i am very supportive. i also have something to say, a successful and legendary institution like this after it closed in 2001, hasn't been in san francisco for 13 years. i wondering if there was anything in the policies we have to cause it to not be here before. out of curiosity, i would like to find out but i'm glad it's coming back and it sounds like this is going to be a good project. >president cindy wu: commissioner richards? >> >commissioner dennis richards: i would like to thank chang for all the work. they worked together and i went with ms. chang. the table is really helpful especially when we have this kind of a cu and ncd to understand the level. just a few things. i have received communication from folks asking whether or not if mr. natalie decides to go to palm springs tomorrow and mcdonald's wants to come in, to kind of rest assured for the public, can another formula retail come in and can it be mcdonald's? >> the city attorney's office, there would be an in indemnification of use. it could be considered new formula retail. but it would really depend on who was applying and what the differences were from the old formula, not who was applying but what components of the application might be different. >> this is a 12-unit chain and something bigger than 12. >> i don't have all of those provision of the new formula provision to memory but there is those that see that as use. >> okay. former comments, even though i feel very old, the vibrant businesses and we have had this vacancy since 2000. i'm excited to see something finally going in there. i have mixed emotions around a vacancy being there for 15 years. we have something that is finally lgbt themed, we have a lot of gay establishments shrinking over the years, finally lately we have a few that are reopening. we have cab aret we opened recently. i guess one other quick question, the old patio space which i actually remember which i'm an old guy too was on the back of the second story on castro street is on the back area. also to mr. nelson, the operating agreement is pretty tight. thank you for agreeing to that. i would like to amend the motion to include the operating agreement as part of the conditions. could we do that? >president cindy wu: i they -- i think we need the city attorney to look at the operating agreement. >> you can move on and come back. >president cindy wu: commissioner johnson. >commissioner christine johnson: first of all i'm not that old. the second thing adding to the question that commissioner richards had, let's get this clarified for the next meeting or if people don't know. i thought the new formula retail legislation which there are some pieces that may come back to us that if there was not just an intensification but if there was a change of general of general change of use that the cu would have to come back to us. if hamburger mary's closed and mcdonald's wanted to come in there? >> >president cindy wu: we can ask the project attorney. >> under the circumstances true, in an if you retail formula comes in there are circumstances when you can avoid the planning commission but when you go to a new retail use that has more locations than the existing formula retail use then it's considered for indemnification and it needs to come back. that's the threshold. >> how about change of use, instead of hamburger mary's and it would want to be the gap? that would be a change of use. have i stalled enough? thank you. >> president luke and the city attorney's office. normally including terms of a private agreement with conditions of approval because once they become part of the city's conditional of approval we need to make sure the city has the lawful authority to impose them and enforce them. i'm really just looking through these conditions very quickly right now. some of them would be appropriate conditions for the planning commission to apply, some of them would be difficult to enforce. i think as i understand from the project attorney, this is a separate agreement between the neighborhood association and the project sponsor. if the commission, i can spend more time looking at these individually, the conditions that might be appropriate to include in the commission's motion, but it would take me a few minutes to go through this and figure out which conditions are appropriate for the planning commission to impose as the government entity. it's up to you. we can take a recess or come back. >> given the location of the project site abutting hartford street, i think we need to take the time what is acceptable if you may do that for us. i know mr. nelson has been involved with this being with other establishments. i want to get this one right because this can create a bad situation for other people behind if it doesn't work. >president cindy wu: would we be able to take the next item and leave this item open? city clerk: yes, i think we can leave this open to allow the city attorney to review and take up the next matter and hopefully by then we can come back to item 12. >president cindy wu: okay. thank you. commissioner johnson? >commissioner christine johnson: assuming the city attorney finds items that are enforceable as a government entity, this is a general question for the project attorney, what are the remedies that the neighborhood association has? there aren't any? >> what i would tell you that most of the agreement is further reemphasizing what is in the san francisco's noise ordinance already. if there is leakage that you put extra insulation or sound buffering is really inside of the noise ordinance. it's an agreement within the neighborhood. it's not an entitlement that runs with the land with mr. natalie, if we don't make it a conditional approval, it's not going to apply to the next just like the motion. >> excellent. good to know, no matter what the decision is here, if there is another project it's not exactly how i remember it, then something happens. that's an example of what is not enforceable. thank you. city clerk: commissioners, we are moving on and taking 13 out of order and public comment period for item 12 is closed. we are taking item 13. 2014-0985 also in the castro dwrikt -- district, a conditional use authorization. >> the item before you is a conditional use authorization on 400 castro street from a vacant retail space previously occupied by a formula retail establishment selling clothing doing business as "old cycle" this will provide indoor classes. it's approximately 982 square feet for 3042 square feet. it's employing 18 employees and 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. saturday and sundays. to date the project has received support for the project including castro merchants, and no letters of opposition. although the project is not considered formally retail, the establishment anticipated to become effective january 2015 expands to personal use services. once this legislation becomes effective this establishment would be considered formula retail. currently there are 158, the project does not contribute as mentioned but it will. so with the addition of hamburger mary's if it's approved, along with the next item to be heard, the formula retail grows to 13, announcing to 8. in order for the project to proceed, the planning commission must grant to personal service establishment. the department recommends approval with conditions believes the project is necessary for the following reasons: the first store dedicated to health care in the castro district contributing to the viable district and the project meets all applicable requirements of the planning code and the project is compatible with the surrounding neighborhood. this concludes staff's presentation and happy to answer any questions. >president cindy wu: thank you, project sponsor? >> good afternoon commissioners. i would like to use the overhead for illustrations. talking about cycling plan. cycles need to get to shape before you start on the street. these are people that are passionate about cycling and want to get into shape so they can cycle. it's a 45-minute intense work out. it's like aerobics on a bike. these folks are on union street. there is one in san francisco that got approved because it didn't meet a conditional use. you can see the uses above it. it's not disturbing, it doesn't make noise. the one 1 on union street. it's a retail space because it does sell bicycle equipment and outfits and accessories. it has the exercise component and retail component and this is typically what the front desk looks like. it's not a membership activity. you can walk in if you want to do it today you walk in and you can do it. you make appointments online, about 40-50 participate, maximum capacity. 6 :00 a.m. you can get up and 10:00 p.m. at night you can do it. it's 1 hour window for it. specifically with respect to the site on castro street. this is an important picture for you all. this is the bank of america building in castro and market. you have four windows here and two on the castro street frontage and people don't even reach to the bottom of the window. it has a heavy difficult classical space and difficult to use. actually someone sitting in the bank of the bank couldn't make it there. they moved to 18th and castro with a new building. look at the building today. what you see is there are le -- three bays on castro street. this is straight. this was added and i have been going past id for 40 years. i never noticed this change and then better than that because i looked at the plan and it didn't make any stones -- sense to me. again, i'm embarrassed. look at this. it's a fake front. who knew that. some urban designer said we need more presence on castro street. let's add another bay. here you are. that's the situation. it's very unique and it's a difficult building to participate in. then the market street frontage, harvey milk plaza and the entrance basically took the whole frontage off market street. even though you have a corner building, here it is again. the whole market street frontage is kind of blocked by the plaza and metro. here is the main entrance and you have the three bays on castro street with two active. it's a difficult building and san francisco is very lucky to have a use like soul cycle wanting to use it and they feel confident in being successful to staying here. they have a 5-year lease with option to renew. they are on union street and today they are opening one in downtown on fourth street. this is the other facility in san francisco. with that commissioners, that concludes my presentation unless you have other questions. thank you very much. >president cindy wu: okay. we'll take public comment. mr. beach nelson. >> i will be very brief. beach nelson. we are very supportive of this project and for a number of reasons. our planning and land use committee met repeatedly and we evaluated the project and made a recommendation to the board because of it's size. and the board had to take a vote and then we presented it to the boards position to our membership and the board agreed that the planning and land use committee because they are going to maintain the historical exterior and they committed to mitigating the noise via apparently some sound structure and it's going to be in the day and evening because it's open at night. if it had been a -- bar, most likely in the evening. it's an expensive space. we thought that was an important issue of it. we don't currently have this use in the neighborhood so it is a needed and desirable use. they are also going to preserve the painting of judy horn's house. i think they had to when they took out the window they were required to put that in. the board unanimously supported it and a quorum of our membership on november 13th or 12 supported our position on that. thank you. >president cindy wu: thank you. is there any additional public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioner richards? >> >commissioner dennis richards: it's a welcome presence. it's from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.. it's going to be great to have people going in and out of that building. i support it. >> second. city clerk: if there is nothing further commissioners there is a first and second. commissioner >commissioner michael j. antonini: >commissioner rich hillis: >commissioner christine johnson: >>commissioner kathrin moore: >commission vice-president rodney fong:, >president cindy wu:. that motion passes unanimously 7-0. >president cindy wu: i don't believe they are back yet. city clerk: we can take item 14. also conditional use authorization. 2014.1190. >> good afternoon again, the item before you is 549 castro street. the proposal is 1310 square feet tenant space occupied by coffee. the project sponsor intends to close the establishment depending upon the proposed establishment. the project includes minor tenant improvements and intends to employ 20 employees. the proposed hours of operation from 6:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. monday through friday. today the project has support from three separate groups from castro merchant and the castro upper market as well as two individuals and individual residents. one letter in opposition as to the limited space of restaurants and formula retail. i have copies of this letter but they are included in your packet. i do have the letter of opposition, print copies of this. the recently approved letter of formula retail project does not affect this project based on the second quarter of 2014, approximately 26 percent of ground floor retail uses in the castro street neighborhood includes food and befrnl -- beverages. currently there are 1150 business amounting to 78 percent and it would not contribute to the formula retail as the recent one is proposed to close down. in order to grant permit, it must grant 17.43 to establish formula retail limited restaurant doing business as coffee with the the co

Transcripts For SFGTV 20141212

because what it's trying to do is have a level service or a citywide basis in an area with lower density residents you don't need as much transit as the higher density area so when we worked on the capital planning meeting, is to affect all impact fees and if you are in a neighborhood with a high person per acre which is the term we use or person per block then your service levels are different for all different facilities, streetscapes, parks. we might be coming back to you to talking about how the capital planning committee is interested in using that information to do our overall city capital plan for all infrastructure. how do we think about the upcoming residents and growth. the second piece, i think we do actually get to thinking about if bill is higher density. that bill is generating more demand for transit and contributing at a higher rate. the per square foot is a proxy for number of people or number of jobs, either residents or jobs. if you look at the eastern neighborhood fees you will see there is tiering where there is a lot of value and we allow the buildings to get very dense, people are paying at a higher rate and the financial fees ability is greater to contribute on those sites. >> okay. i think what i was getting at i got from what you were saying what i'm getting at is i still feel there is a hanging conclusion there. i think the point the consultant came to and yes there is more gross feet and more floor for a particular block of land for higher density versus not a higher building, but i felt as though they were saying that in addition to that there are multi- pliers to having the higher density districts in more ways because there is more people. having more people together is affecting the more people and having the different fees in certain neighborhood plans and certain projects versus other ones. >> yes. i'm happy to look at the report. the other thing that comes to mind is how do you service more people as they become not 24-hour but have later at night and more multiple functions. let me follow up with you. >> yes. i can follow up. second to last thing. you started my next comment on rec's and open space. i feel like the max you -- maximum supportable open space is that conclusive, is that fee, i'm going to ask the question, is that fee conclusive when you have projects that provide privately owned publically available space or is that the fee that goes to the city that gets put to parks and recreation publically available space. >> it's for the publically available space, the space that is required as part of the planning code is in addition to what we are talking about here. >> okay. i think first of all i think that distinction should be made in this report. i will just say in this report and you can figure out how you want to do that. that distinction needs to be made. my gut from reading this report that rec's and open space for non-residential development, that fee, i think the fact that it is common now for us to have privately owned publically available spaces clouds the actual level of service that needs to be provided to the people who use those employees, the non-residents who use those spaces. to back up, there was a comment in both pieces of the study that employees tend to not use open space near their places of work as much as near their homes. they tend to use near to open spaces near their home rather than places where they work. because those people tend to use the publically available spaces near their homes versus where they work, we don't need as high as a fee for that usage for employees therefore we need a lower fee for non-residential development. i think that analysis is flawed only because i think the fact that privately only publically available spaces are just as highly used if not more than highly used than publically owned and publically available spaces which indicates to me there is an opportunity to provide more publically owned, publically available spaces near non-residential development. first i would make that distinction what that was for and second, i think it would be good to address somehow how privately owned publically available spaces are used because i think that that is a screen for how much open space is really needed near non-residential development. >president cindy wu: i wanted to ask one question. is there a nexus analysis plan or is that by designated area. >> since 2008, we did do a citywide feasibility update but we focused on the project that we knew in the pipeline. that is an abstract analysis when you think about it. you will have a chance to see some of that analysis in the spring or winter. >president cindy wu: we talked about how this report covers certain categories separate for transit and housing, would the feasibility analysis cover all of those categories. >> you have to think about how much value is left to capture and it's a policy decision about whether it goes to transit or other consideration. so the analysis is available for all the different policy questions. >> okay, but then the decision on specifically which policy is prioritized kind of happen maybe in different documents still. >> along the the planning commission we do that and there is a tradition in sfrabs -- san francisco to say we are conferring value on the market octavia plan and the market depends on what we are capturing with. in general this market is unusual and there does need to be some conferns to allow the recapture in some ways. >> maybe, what i heard the director say there has been a call to relook at fees because of the economic situation in which we are in. it's not about a new area plan and a new conveyance of value. >> the question, the issue that comes up is each plan has uses the fees in different ways. some plans have a bigger emphasis on open space and some on transit. we would need to look at those neighborhoods. the feasibility, they could ask for it based on feasibility for all fees and just to remind you, the feasibility fee, maximum if you will is almost always less than the nexus. the nexus establishes the worst case scenario and how that proportion is did i dividend up by neighborhood plan. just to remind you the proxy limited to how much we can ask for affordable housing and we have to revisit that through a battle measure if -- ballot measure. what this does is gives us some foundation to do that. >president cindy wu: right. thank you. commissioner richards? >> >commissioner dennis richards: these fees make-up the impact of the cost and the other 70 percent is through the taxes generated. can you help us here? >> sure, i will also be back in january to discuss the implementation report which shows our progress implementing the various plans. for example in market octavia we secured a tlc grant to implement a major improvement to haight street and we are also working with the capital plan committee to develop a 10-year capital plan for market octavia and eastern neighborhoods and other plan areas to understand what that gap is when we start looking at what has mta and what are they planning to do and what is that gap and how can this city fill that gap. i have been working on this since 2008 and we are making serious progress. >> the short search warrant are is -- answer is we are looking at various sources. >> the impact fees are modest. that's what i hear. wow. how much should we be charging. i think that's more money on the table. fyi. >president cindy wu: commissioner >commissioner michael j. antonini: one of the things you mentioned we are going to be establishing some of the new parks in some of these emerging areas as we have the funding and the space becomes available. and one thing you are talking about is how to keep thesen livened all the time. one of the things >> as it occurs, you make sure you have the areas around nighttime uses. union square has a lot of activities but others are almost vacant at night like maritime plaza, it's nothing there after dark and it kind of depends on the type of area you are creating but it's important to have some nighttime uses around them. >president cindy wu: commissioner moore. commissioners, we left under your regular calendar on item 11. this is a zoning map amendment. >> good afternoon, commissioners, diego sanchez, planning department staff. today i'm presenting an ordinance that will amend the zoning map for the use. it's part of the bay shore blvd home improvement part of that zone commercial would rezone to pdr or rh 1 as appropriate. 1600 court land address and would rezone the property to r 1g and recommends the proposal to the board of supervisors. the ordinance intends to correct a minor variance to the ordinance and you heard early ier this year and the zone -- aligns this property. the use set is permitted and promoted in the proposed pdr 1 g district and generally afterwards the light manufacturing currently enjoyed in the ipd sud. this concludes my presentation. i'm available for questions. >president cindy wu: thank you. let's open for public comment. >> sue hester. i'm here to actively support this. when we did the rezoning we created a couple orphans and this is last one. this eliminates all the tables with the zoning on it. thank god. yes, after 8 years of work, yes, yes. thank you. >> thank you. is there any additional public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioner richards? >commissioner dennis richards: i move to approve. >> second. city clerk: on that motion, commissioners, commissioner >commissioner michael j. antonini: >commissioner rich hillis: >commissioner christine johnson: >>commissioner kathrin moore: >president cindy wu: this passes 6-0. this places you on item 12 for case no. 2014.0417. for 531 castro street. this is for conditional use authorization. >> good afternoon, president of the commission and planning commission this is for an application for 531 castro street. project sponsor conditional use authorization pursuant to planning code section 703.3, 703.4 and 303c and i to convert the existing vacant patio restaurant into hamburger mareey for conditional use. hamburger will build out a restaurant space. has a total gross foot area of 844 square feet. patio restaurant cafe was established in 1960s. it was closed in 2005. after due to the interior renovation and has been closed since. hamburger mary's it was themed and lgbt people friendly restaurant and that opened on 1582 folsom street in 1972 but closed in 2001. the proposed hamburger mary's would include other entertainment use such as live music. in the live music will be restricted to the inside area of the restaurant and sound equipment and soundproofing must be inspected and permitted by the entertainment commission prior to operation. we feel it is necessary and desirable to include other entertainment use in the proposed hamburger mary's because it will enhance the further use of the restaurant and will not affect displacement of other neighborhood service use. furthermore, allowing other entertainment use will compliment a mix of goods and services currently available in the castro street neighborhood commercial district and contribute to the economic vitality of this district and providing additional entertainment option for local residents and visitors of the neighborhood. another issue i would like to mention is the sound technician from san francisco entertainment commission has conducted a sound inspection at the project site and did not detect any sound escaping the premises which would violate the san francisco municipal police code. a further sound test would have to be performed and once hamburger mary's is in operation and live entertainment takes place. additionally, the owner and operator of the building business is the same person and owner operator also lives right in the neighborhood. so it is a local entrepreneur for this project. the represented owner has conducted a thorough neighborhood outreach and addressed all the concerns from the neighborhood residents and the neighborhood groups and therefore the project gained support from castro merchants and the neighborhood valley association and the market benefit district. those letters of support i believe are included in the packet. and to conclude this project, because this site is on the east side of castro streed between 18th and 19th street and it is a prime location and it been closed since 2005. so it is really a distraction to both residents and visitors in the neighborhood. we believe the project will convert a vacant restaurant into an active restaurant and eliminate neighborhood blight which will contribute to the economic vitality and the compliment of current mix of goods and services in the castro and will prevent the ability from other retail uses and nor increase the number of the restaurants in the castro entity. third, the project site is well served by public transit and therefore the project should have a negligible impact and available parking on the surrounding streets. no. 4, the project will create approximately 30 restaurant job openings for local residents. no. 5, and other entertainment use will not only enhance the hamburger mary's operation but performing emerging local artist because hamburger mary's does not have former place and the amount offen at the entertainment takes place in the bar restaurant area. it's good for the surrounding neighborhood and area. that concludes my presentation. if you have any questions, i'm available. >president cindy wu: thank you, let's hear from project sponsor. >> good afternoon commissioners, john with, here on behalf of project sponsor. we are excited to be here before you today where the project will finally bring back a hamburger mary's restaurant to replace the old cafe in the castro. they have spent time and money improving the cafe space. the commission approved the legalization of space since it closed to renovations. we are now requesting conditional use authorization because there are 12 hamburger mary's throughout the country and there are entertainment uses. it began in 1972 on folsom street with san francisco lgbt community. original location closed in 2001 and the project would bring back hamburger mary's and there would be a live component which will include drag performances and d j equipment. we have worked with the castro neighborhood association for operating conditions for the live entertainment. hours will be limited depending on the days of the week and guarantees have been made with the no sound leak with the noise ordinance and we have had them come out and do testing. we have cleared it and he's going to need to come back and test again before we get the live performance permit as well. we are going to be absolutely sure that we don't have sound leakage. we have widespread support for the project. as to date we have 672 e-mails of support in support of all the groups, castro merchants and castro, in closing the project will allow for castro districts with the early lgbt culture and we respectfully request your support and we are here for questions. >president cindy wu: thank you. let's open for public comment. gary wise and gill church. >> good afternoon commissioners, my name is gary white. i have a small business around the corner from the proposed site for 31 years. the current owner of the site has kept the site of the restaurant as well as next door and almost all the rental units vacant since 1999 but he says 10 years. a giant dead zone in one of the most vibrant neighborhoods in the city and more vibrant and is the demand as the major sidewalk work has been completed. hamburger mary's was very popular. in 2007, a group of men decided to open the worldwide chain of restaurants using a suburban knock off of the old hamburger mary's. as is now 12 are open around the world. in order to qualify for conditional use permit a business must prove that it's necessary or desirable. currently we have a -- bar and other businesses. it appears thereby support for many restaurants in the neighborhoods. my sense is the support comes from people that are tired of seeing the ghost area or the former combination of hamburger mary's. this will be one link in a growing chain of restaurants. if mr. natalie gets cold feet with an idea or will other businesses be open for progress. >president cindy wu: thank you, next speaker. i have more speaker cards. allen nelson. >> hi, thank you for taking comments. my name is john church and i think i'm the old guy in the neighborhood. i got to the castro when i was 17 years old. last friday i just turned 65. i think i'm the old guy in the neighborhood. i have certain memories of the both hamburger mary's and the patio cafe. hamburger mary's was an activist restaurant long before aids struck. we were raising funds with the no on bridge initiatives. the waiters would spontaneously or the wait staff would spontaneously say, all of the tips are going to the no on six kiddie jar and why don't you add some of your own. they have a long record of raising money for as an activist business

Transcripts For SFGTV 20141212

likewise. hamburger mary's had something that none of the other restaurants had. it wasn't fast food, it wasn't having flat screen tv's blaring at you. it was a warm and welcoming place where you can take mom and dad to the restaurant and where they can see you made a really good decision about being the person you need to be. it's that you may even thrive as a lgbt person. look at these people having lunch together. i think i'm here as a cheerleader for this and i'm tired of the big hole in the neighborhood in the middle of the block. i urge you to not consider hamburger mary's a formula restaurant because it's independently owned and management and i think that needs to be mentioned at least once. thank you. >president cindy wu: thank you. next speaker? >> good afternoon commissioners. my name is allen nelson. i live in the neighborhood. the discussion on this project with extensive outreach, in fact we did an unprecedented thing. we for the first time ever put a vote to all the membership. normally it's 10 percent of the membership, if they show up to the meeting we base that attendance on the 10 percent. we ended up doing an online audited vote and i'm happy to say that we had 60 percent turnout about triple what our last election had and out of that election, 3-1 was in favor of this project. so that was 109 people in favor of it, 42 opposed to it and for that reason, we strongly support this project. one of the thing we did talk about was ensuring that the community had some safe guards above and beyond just the standard condition of use. so two members of our former planning committee chair and our current planning committee chair worked on -- on a set of committed use to have to the overall commissioned use. they drafted them and we negotiated and to be perfectly honest he accepted all of them and wanted one little tweak that he really wants to open the place and we have the safe guard if it ends up being a bad business owner, we have the different elements that we can actually enforce on the conditions. that's everything i had to say. thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners, i'm steve clark hall. the previous head of the commission. i'm the one who assembled the online. i think it was pretty impartial. i didn't get any complaints from anybody. i have to say the outcome was very polar e -- polarized. you would think anyone would get anything in the restaurant because it was closed. there are two reasons why it was opposed. a lot of people were upset with the project sponsor. just open some restaurant. the other one was because it's formula use. there is a big opposition to formula use under any circumstances inside the castro ncd. i started engaging these people. what if there were 9 formula stores, that would have been okay. i said what if the formula threshold were 20, we can't raise that number. that what i engaged the people is what is that business we are trying to keep out of our neighborhood and no one could tell me what that business is. so, there is, i'm off topic here and complaining that i think the threshold for formula use is too low and i know there is discussions to raise it, but i can't figure out what business are people telling me who come to our neighborhood that have 15 or 18 outlets nationwide. >president cindy wu: thank you. is there any additional public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioner moore? >> >>commissioner kathrin moore: i'm very much for the project and there is no motion attached to my package. that might have been an oversight and if that is the case, i move to approve or move with the intent to approve because >president cindy wu: the agenda says approve with conditions. >>commissioner kathrin moore: so here is the motion. it's being handed to me. times have changed. i will support it. >> second. >president cindy wu: commissioner >commissioner michael j. antonini: >> we have bases for recommendation and the decision. i only have the hard copy, not the electronic one. anyway we have it now so that's all that matters. a few comments on this, one of the items on the paperwork quoted ken garcia from the examiner who said well it's too big for a time capsule. if you want a snapshot of san francisco in the late 1970s it would be hamburger mary's. i think that speaks to the uniqueness of the place and there was a speaker who was afraid of that other outlets are different from what it was presumably, if you the wasn't like it was before, then i doubt it will get supported. that's the proof of the pooding that what goes out there will have to draw traffic and if it does that then it will do fine. i think all the other reasons for support have been brought up. the fact that food and drink percentages around 17 percent and the whole nct and cd areas of upper market and castro while retail is 25 percent, there are some vacancies around there and a lot support as mention side ---ed so i am very supportive. i also have something to say, a successful and legendary institution like this after it closed in 2001, hasn't been in san francisco for 13 years. i wondering if there was anything in the policies we have to cause it to not be here before. out of curiosity, i would like to find out but i'm glad it's coming back and it sounds like this is going to be a good project. >president cindy wu: commissioner richards? >> >commissioner dennis richards: i would like to thank chang for all the work. they worked together and i went with ms. chang. the table is really helpful especially when we have this kind of a cu and ncd to understand the level. just a few things. i have received communication from folks asking whether or not if mr. natalie decides to go to palm springs tomorrow and mcdonald's wants to come in, to kind of rest assured for the public, can another formula retail come in and can it be mcdonald's? >> the city attorney's office, there would be an in indemnification of use. it could be considered new formula retail. but it would really depend on who was applying and what the differences were from the old formula, not who was applying but what components of the application might be different. >> this is a 12-unit chain and something bigger than 12. >> i don't have all of those provision of the new formula provision to memory but there is those that see that as use. >> okay. former comments, even though i feel very old, the vibrant businesses and we have had this vacancy since 2000. i'm excited to see something finally going in there. i have mixed emotions around a vacancy being there for 15 years. we have something that is finally lgbt themed, we have a lot of gay establishments shrinking over the years, finally lately we have a few that are reopening. we have cab aret we opened recently. i guess one other quick question, the old patio space which i actually remember which i'm an old guy too was on the back of the second story on castro street is on the back area. also to mr. nelson, the operating agreement is pretty tight. thank you for agreeing to that. i would like to amend the motion to include the operating agreement as part of the conditions. could we do that? >president cindy wu: i they -- i think we need the city attorney to look at the operating agreement. >> you can move on and come back. >president cindy wu: commissioner johnson. >commissioner christine johnson: first of all i'm not that old. the second thing adding to the question that commissioner richards had, let's get this clarified for the next meeting or if people don't know. i thought the new formula retail legislation which there are some pieces that may come back to us that if there was not just an intensification but if there was a change of general of general change of use that the cu would have to come back to us. if hamburger mary's closed and mcdonald's wanted to come in there? >> >president cindy wu: we can ask the project attorney. >> under the circumstances true, in an if you retail formula comes in there are circumstances when you can avoid the planning commission but when you go to a new retail use that has more locations than the existing formula retail use then it's considered for indemnification and it needs to come back. that's the threshold. >> how about change of use, instead of hamburger mary's and it would want to be the gap? that would be a change of use. have i stalled enough? thank you. >> president luke and the city attorney's office. normally including terms of a private agreement with conditions of approval because once they become part of the city's conditional of approval we need to make sure the city has the lawful authority to impose them and enforce them. i'm really just looking through these conditions very quickly right now. some of them would be appropriate conditions for the planning commission to apply, some of them would be difficult to enforce. i think as i understand from the project attorney, this is a separate agreement between the neighborhood association and the project sponsor. if the commission, i can spend more time looking at these individually, the conditions that might be appropriate to include in the commission's motion, but it would take me a few minutes to go through this and figure out which conditions are appropriate for the planning commission to impose as the government entity. it's up to you. we can take a recess or come back. >> given the location of the project site abutting hartford street, i think we need to take the time what is acceptable if you may do that for us. i know mr. nelson has been involved with this being with other establishments. i want to get this one right because this can create a bad situation for other people behind if it doesn't work. >president cindy wu: would we be able to take the next item and leave this item open? city clerk: yes, i think we can leave this open to allow the city attorney to review and take up the next matter and hopefully by then we can come back to item 12. >president cindy wu: okay. thank you. commissioner johnson? >commissioner christine johnson: assuming the city attorney finds items that are enforceable as a government entity, this is a general question for the project attorney, what are the remedies that the neighborhood association has? there aren't any? >> what i would tell you that most of the agreement is further reemphasizing what is in the san francisco's noise ordinance already. if there is leakage that you put extra insulation or sound buffering is really inside of the noise ordinance. it's an agreement within the neighborhood. it's not an entitlement that runs with the land with mr. natalie, if we don't make it a conditional approval, it's not going to apply to the next just like the motion. >> excellent. good to know, no matter what the decision is here, if there is another project it's not exactly how i remember it, then something happens. that's an example of what is not enforceable. thank you. city clerk: commissioners, we are moving on and taking 13 out of order and public comment period for item 12 is closed. we are taking item 13. 2014-0985 also in the castro dwrikt -- district, a conditional use authorization. >> the item before you is a conditional use authorization on 400 castro street from a vacant retail space previously occupied by a formula retail establishment selling clothing doing business as "old cycle" this will provide indoor classes. it's approximately 982 square feet for 3042 square feet. it's employing 18 employees and 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. saturday and sundays. to date the project has received support for the project including castro merchants, and no letters of opposition. although the project is not considered formally retail, the establishment anticipated to become effective january 2015 expands to personal use services. once this legislation becomes effective this establishment would be considered formula retail. currently there are 158, the project does not contribute as mentioned but it will. so with the addition of hamburger mary's if it's approved, along with the next item to be heard, the formula retail grows to 13, announcing to 8. in order for the project to proceed, the planning commission must grant to personal service establishment. the department recommends approval with conditions believes the project is necessary for the following reasons: the first store dedicated to health care in the castro district contributing to the viable district and the project meets all applicable requirements of the planning code and the project is compatible with the surrounding neighborhood. this concludes staff's presentation and happy to answer any questions. >president cindy wu: thank you, project sponsor? >> good afternoon commissioners. i would like to use the overhead for illustrations. talking about cycling plan. cycles need to get to shape before you start on the street. these are people that are passionate about cycling and want to get into shape so they can cycle. it's a 45-minute intense work out. it's like aerobics on a bike. these folks are on union street. there is one in san francisco that got approved because it didn't meet a conditional use. you can see the uses above it. it's not disturbing, it doesn't make noise. the one 1 on union street. it's a retail space because it does sell bicycle equipment and outfits and accessories. it has the exercise component and retail component and this is typically what the front desk looks like. it's not a membership activity. you can walk in if you want to do it today you walk in and you can do it. you make appointments online, about 40-50 participate, maximum capacity. 6 :00 a.m. you can get up and 10:00 p.m. at night you can do it. it's 1 hour window for it. specifically with respect to the site on castro street. this is an important picture for you all. this is the bank of america building in castro and market. you have four windows here and two on the castro street frontage and people don't even reach to the bottom of the window. it has a heavy difficult classical space and difficult to use. actually someone sitting in the bank of the bank couldn't make it there. they moved to 18th and castro with a new building. look at the building today. what you see is there are le -- three bays on castro street. this is straight. this was added and i have been going past id for 40 years. i never noticed this change and then better than that because i looked at the plan and it didn't make any stones -- sense to me. again, i'm embarrassed. look at this. it's a fake front. who knew that. some urban designer said we need more presence on castro street. let's add another bay. here you are. that's the situation. it's very unique and it's a difficult building to participate in. then the market street frontage, harvey milk plaza and the entrance basically took the whole frontage off market street. even though you have a corner building, here it is again. the whole market street frontage is kind of blocked by the plaza and metro. here is the main entrance and you have the three bays on castro street with two active. it's a difficult building and san francisco is very lucky to have a use like soul cycle wanting to use it and they feel confident in being successful to staying here. they have a 5-year lease with option to renew. they are on union street and today they are opening one in downtown on fourth street. this is the other facility in san francisco. with that commissioners, that concludes my presentation unless you have other questions. thank you very much. >president cindy wu: okay. we'll take public comment. mr. beach nelson. >> i will be very brief. beach nelson. we are very supportive of this project and for a number of reasons. our planning and land use committee met repeatedly and we evaluated the project and made a recommendation to the board because of it's size. and the board had to take a vote and then we presented it to the boards position to our membership and the board agreed that the planning and land use committee because they are going to maintain the historical exterior and they committed to mitigating the noise via apparently some sound structure and it's going to be in the day and evening because it's open at night. if it had been a -- bar, most likely in the evening. it's an expensive space. we thought that was an important issue of it. we don't currently have this use in the neighborhood so it is a needed and desirable use. they are also going to preserve the painting of judy horn's house. i think they had to when they took out the window they were required to put that in. the board unanimously supported it and a quorum of our membership on november 13th or 12 supported our position on that. thank you. >president cindy wu: thank you. is there any additional public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioner richards? >> >commissioner dennis richards: it's a welcome presence. it's from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.. it's going to be great to have people going in and out of that building. i support it. >> second. city clerk: if there is nothing further commissioners there is a first and second. commissioner >commissioner michael j. antonini: >commissioner rich hillis: >commissioner christine johnson: >>commissioner kathrin moore: >commission vice-president rodney fong:, >president cindy wu:. that motion passes unanimously 7-0. >president cindy wu: i don't believe they are back yet. city clerk: we can take item 14. also conditional use authorization. 2014.1190. >> good afternoon again, the item before you is 549 castro street. the proposal is 1310 square feet tenant space occupied by coffee. the project sponsor intends to close the establishment depending upon the proposed establishment. the project includes minor tenant improvements and intends to employ 20 employees. the proposed hours of operation from 6:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. monday through friday. today the project has support from three separate groups from castro merchant and the castro upper market as well as two individuals and individual residents. one letter in opposition as to the limited space of restaurants and formula retail. i have copies of this letter but they are included in your packet. i do have the letter of opposition, print copies of this. the recently approved letter of formula retail project does not affect this project based on the second quarter of 20

Transcripts For SFGTV 20141216

worked on the capital planning meeting, is to affect all impact fees and if you are in a neighborhood with a high person per acre which is the term we use or person per block then your service levels are different for all different facilities, streetscapes, parks. we might be coming back to you to talking about how the capital planning committee is interested in using that information to do our overall city capital plan for all infrastructure. how do we think about the upcoming residents and growth. the second piece, i think we do actually get to thinking about if bill is higher density. that bill is generating more demand for transit and contributing at a higher rate. the per square foot is a proxy for number of people or number of jobs, either residents or jobs. if you look at the eastern neighborhood fees you will see there is tiering where there is a lot of value and we allow the buildings to get very dense, people are paying at a higher rate and the financial fees ability is greater to contribute on those sites. >> okay. i think what i was getting at i got from what you were saying what i'm getting at is i still feel there is a hanging conclusion there. i think the point the consultant came to and yes there is more gross feet and more floor for a particular block of land for higher density versus not a higher building, but i felt as though they were saying that in addition to that there are multi- pliers to having the higher density districts in more ways because there is more people. having more people together is affecting the more people and having the different fees in certain neighborhood plans and certain projects versus other ones. >> yes. i'm happy to look at the report. the other thing that comes to mind is how do you service more people as they become not 24-hour but have later at night and more multiple functions. let me follow up with you. >> yes. i can follow up. second to last thing. you started my next comment on rec's and open space. i feel like the max you -- maximum supportable open space is that conclusive, is that fee, i'm going to ask the question, is that fee conclusive when you have projects that provide privately owned publically available space or is that the fee that goes to the city that gets put to parks and recreation publically available space. >> it's for the publically available space, the space that is required as part of the planning code is in addition to what we are talking about here. >> okay. i think first of all i think that distinction should be made in this report. i will just say in this report and you can figure out how you want to do that. that distinction needs to be made. my gut from reading this report that rec's and open space for non-residential development, that fee, i think the fact that it is common now for us to have privately owned publically available spaces clouds the actual level of service that needs to be provided to the people who use those employees, the non-residents who use those spaces. to back up, there was a comment in both pieces of the study that employees tend to not use open space near their places of work as much as near their homes. they tend to use near to open spaces near their home rather than places where they work. because those people tend to use the publically available spaces near their homes versus where they work, we don't need as high as a fee for that usage for employees therefore we need a lower fee for non-residential development. i think that analysis is flawed only because i think the fact that privately only publically available spaces are just as highly used if not more than highly used than publically owned and publically available spaces which indicates to me there is an opportunity to provide more publically owned, publically available spaces near non-residential development. first i would make that distinction what that was for and second, i think it would be good to address somehow how privately owned publically available spaces are used because i think that that is a screen for how much open space is really needed near non-residential development. >president cindy wu: i wanted to ask one question. is there a nexus analysis plan or is that by designated area. >> since 2008, we did do a citywide feasibility update but we focused on the project that we knew in the pipeline. that is an abstract analysis when you think about it. you will have a chance to see some of that analysis in the spring or winter. >president cindy wu: we talked about how this report covers certain categories separate for transit and housing, would the feasibility analysis cover all of those categories. >> you have to think about how much value is left to capture and it's a policy decision about whether it goes to transit or other consideration. so the analysis is available for all the different policy questions. >> okay, but then the decision on specifically which policy is prioritized kind of happen maybe in different documents still. >> along the the planning commission we do that and there is a tradition in sfrabs -- san francisco to say we are conferring value on the market octavia plan and the market depends on what we are capturing with. in general this market is unusual and there does need to be some conferns to allow the recapture in some ways. >> maybe, what i heard the director say there has been a call to relook at fees because of the economic situation in which we are in. it's not about a new area plan and a new conveyance of value. >> the question, the issue that comes up is each plan has uses the fees in different ways. some plans have a bigger emphasis on open space and some on transit. we would need to look at those neighborhoods. the feasibility, they could ask for it based on feasibility for all fees and just to remind you, the feasibility fee, maximum if you will is almost always less than the nexus. the nexus establishes the worst case scenario and how that proportion is did i dividend up by neighborhood plan. just to remind you the proxy limited to how much we can ask for affordable housing and we have to revisit that through a battle measure if -- ballot measure. what this does is gives us some foundation to do that. >president cindy wu: right. thank you. commissioner richards? >> >commissioner dennis richards: these fees make-up the impact of the cost and the other 70 percent is through the taxes generated. can you help us here? >> sure, i will also be back in january to discuss the implementation report which shows our progress implementing the various plans. for example in market octavia we secured a tlc grant to implement a major improvement to haight street and we are also working with the capital plan committee to develop a 10-year capital plan for market octavia and eastern neighborhoods and other plan areas to understand what that gap is when we start looking at what has mta and what are they planning to do and what is that gap and how can this city fill that gap. i have been working on this since 2008 and we are making serious progress. >> the short search warrant are is -- answer is we are looking at various sources. >> the impact fees are modest. that's what i hear. wow. how much should we be charging. i think that's more money on the table. fyi. >president cindy wu: commissioner >commissioner michael j. antonini: one of the things you mentioned we are going to be establishing some of the new parks in some of these emerging areas as we have the funding and the space becomes available. and one thing you are talking about is how to keep thesen livened all the time. one of the things >> as it occurs, you make sure you have the areas around nighttime uses. union square has a lot of activities but others are almost vacant at night like maritime plaza, it's nothing there after dark and it kind of depends on the type of area you are creating but it's important to have some nighttime uses around them. >president cindy wu: commissioner moore. commissioners, we left under your regular calendar on item 11. this is a zoning map amendment. >> good afternoon, commissioners, diego sanchez, planning department staff. today i'm presenting an ordinance that will amend the zoning map for the use. it's part of the bay shore blvd home improvement part of that zone commercial would rezone to pdr or rh 1 as appropriate. 1600 court land address and would rezone the property to r 1g and recommends the proposal to the board of supervisors. the ordinance intends to correct a minor variance to the ordinance and you heard early ier this year and the zone -- aligns this property. the use set is permitted and promoted in the proposed pdr 1 g district and generally afterwards the light manufacturing currently enjoyed in the ipd sud. this concludes my presentation. i'm available for questions. >president cindy wu: thank you. let's open for public comment. >> sue hester. i'm here to actively support this. when we did the rezoning we created a couple orphans and this is last one. this eliminates all the tables with the zoning on it. thank god. yes, after 8 years of work, yes, yes. thank you. >> thank you. is there any additional public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioner richards? >commissioner dennis richards: i move to approve. >> second. city clerk: on that motion, commissioners, commissioner >commissioner michael j. antonini: >commissioner rich hillis: >commissioner christine johnson: >>commissioner kathrin moore: >president cindy wu: this passes 6-0. this places you on item 12 for case no. 2014.0417. for 531 castro street. this is for conditional use authorization. >> good afternoon, president of the commission and planning commission this is for an application for 531 castro street. project sponsor conditional use authorization pursuant to planning code section 703.3, 703.4 and 303c and i to convert the existing vacant patio restaurant into hamburger mareey for conditional use. hamburger will build out a restaurant space. has a total gross foot area of 844 square feet. patio restaurant cafe was established in 1960s. it was closed in 2005. after due to the interior renovation and has been closed since. hamburger mary's it was themed and lgbt people friendly restaurant and that opened on 1582 folsom street in 1972 but closed in 2001. the proposed hamburger mary's would include other entertainment use such as live music. in the live music will be restricted to the inside area of the restaurant and sound equipment and soundproofing must be inspected and permitted by the entertainment commission prior to operation. we feel it is necessary and desirable to include other entertainment use in the proposed hamburger mary's because it will enhance the further use of the restaurant and will not affect displacement of other neighborhood service use. furthermore, allowing other entertainment use will compliment a mix of goods and services currently available in the castro street neighborhood commercial district and contribute to the economic vitality of this district and providing additional entertainment option for local residents and visitors of the neighborhood. another issue i would like to mention is the sound technician from san francisco entertainment commission has conducted a sound inspection at the project site and did not detect any sound escaping the premises which would violate the san francisco municipal police code. a further sound test would have to be performed and once hamburger mary's is in operation and live entertainment takes place. additionally, the owner and operator of the building business is the same person and owner operator also lives right in the neighborhood. so it is a local entrepreneur for this project. the represented owner has conducted a thorough neighborhood outreach and addressed all the concerns from the neighborhood residents and the neighborhood groups and therefore the project gained support from castro merchants and the neighborhood valley association and the market benefit district. those letters of support i believe are included in the packet. and to conclude this project, because this site is on the east side of castro streed between 18th and 19th street and it is a prime location and it been closed since 2005. so it is really a distraction to both residents and visitors in the neighborhood. we believe the project will convert a vacant restaurant into an active restaurant and eliminate neighborhood blight which will contribute to the economic vitality and the compliment of current mix of goods and services in the castro and will prevent the ability from other retail uses and nor increase the number of the restaurants in the castro entity. third, the project site is well served by public transit and therefore the project should have a negligible impact and available parking on the surrounding streets. no. 4, the project will create approximately 30 restaurant job openings for local residents. no. 5, and other entertainment use will not only enhance the hamburger mary's operation but performing emerging local artist because hamburger mary's does not have former place and the amount offen at the entertainment takes place in the bar restaurant area. it's good for the surrounding neighborhood and area. that concludes my presentation. if you have any questions, i'm available. >president cindy wu: thank you, let's hear from project sponsor. >> good afternoon commissioners, john with, here on behalf of project sponsor. we are excited to be here before you today where the project will finally bring back a hamburger mary's restaurant to replace the old cafe in the castro. they have spent time and money improving the cafe space. the commission approved the legalization of space since it closed to renovations. we are now requesting conditional use authorization because there are 12 hamburger mary's throughout the country and there are entertainment uses. it began in 1972 on folsom street with san francisco lgbt community. original location closed in 2001 and the project would bring back hamburger mary's and there would be a live component which will include drag performances and d j equipment. we have worked with the castro neighborhood association for operating conditions for the live entertainment. hours will be limited depending on the days of the week and guarantees have been made with the no sound leak with the noise ordinance and we have had them come out and do testing. we have cleared it and he's going to need to come back and test again before we get the live performance permit as well. we are going to be absolutely sure that we don't have sound leakage. we have widespread support for the project. as to date we have 672 e-mails of support in support of all the groups, castro merchants and castro, in closing the project will allow for castro districts with the early lgbt culture and we respectfully request your support and we are here for questions. >president cindy wu: thank you. let's open for public comment. gary wise and gill church. >> good afternoon commissioners, my name is gary white. i have a small business around the corner from the proposed site for 31 years. the current owner of the site has kept the site of the restaurant as well as next door and almost all the rental units vacant since 1999 but he says 10 years. a giant dead zone in one of the most vibrant neighborhoods in the city and more vibrant and is the demand as the major sidewalk work has been completed. hamburger mary's was very popular. in 2007, a group of men decided to open the worldwide chain of restaurants using a suburban knock off of the old hamburger mary's. as is now 12 are open around the world. in order to qualify for conditional use permit a business must prove that it's necessary or desirable. currently we have a -- bar and other businesses. it appears thereby support for many restaurants in the neighborhoods. my sense is the support comes from people that are tired of seeing the ghost area or the former combination of hamburger mary's. this will be one link in a growing chain of restaurants. if mr. natalie gets cold feet with an idea or will other businesses be open for progress. >president cindy wu: thank you, next speaker. i have more speaker cards. allen nelson. >> hi, thank you for taking comments. my name is john church and i think i'm the old guy in the neighborhood. i got to the castro when i was 17 years old. last friday i just turned 65. i think i'm the old guy in the neighborhood. i have certain memories of the both hamburger mary's and the patio cafe. hamburger mary's was an activist restaurant long before aids struck. we were raising funds with the no on bridge initiatives. the waiters would spontaneously or the wait staff would spontaneously say, all of the tips are going to the no on six kiddie jar and why don't you add some of your own. they have a long record of raising money for as an activist business hamburger mary's did likewise. hamburger mary's had something that none of the other restaurants had. it wasn't fast food, it wasn't having flat screen tv's

Transcripts For SFGTV 20141216

warm and welcoming place where you can take mom and dad to the restaurant and where they can see you made a really good decision about being the person you need to be. it's that you may even thrive as a lgbt person. look at these people having lunch together. i think i'm here as a cheerleader for this and i'm tired of the big hole in the neighborhood in the middle of the block. i urge you to not consider hamburger mary's a formula restaurant because it's independently owned and management and i think that needs to be mentioned at least once. thank you. >president cindy wu: thank you. next speaker? >> good afternoon commissioners. my name is allen nelson. i live in the neighborhood. the discussion on this project with extensive outreach, in fact we did an unprecedented thing. we for the first time ever put a vote to all the membership. normally it's 10 percent of the membership, if they show up to the meeting we base that attendance on the 10 percent. we ended up doing an online audited vote and i'm happy to say that we had 60 percent turnout about triple what our last election had and out of that election, 3-1 was in favor of this project. so that was 109 people in favor of it, 42 opposed to it and for that reason, we strongly support this project. one of the thing we did talk about was ensuring that the community had some safe guards above and beyond just the standard condition of use. so two members of our former planning committee chair and our current planning committee chair worked on -- on a set of committed use to have to the overall commissioned use. they drafted them and we negotiated and to be perfectly honest he accepted all of them and wanted one little tweak that he really wants to open the place and we have the safe guard if it ends up being a bad business owner, we have the different elements that we can actually enforce on the conditions. that's everything i had to say. thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners, i'm steve clark hall. the previous head of the commission. i'm the one who assembled the online. i think it was pretty impartial. i didn't get any complaints from anybody. i have to say the outcome was very polar e -- polarized. you would think anyone would get anything in the restaurant because it was closed. there are two reasons why it was opposed. a lot of people were upset with the project sponsor. just open some restaurant. the other one was because it's formula use. there is a big opposition to formula use under any circumstances inside the castro ncd. i started engaging these people. what if there were 9 formula stores, that would have been okay. i said what if the formula threshold were 20, we can't raise that number. that what i engaged the people is what is that business we are trying to keep out of our neighborhood and no one could tell me what that business is. so, there is, i'm off topic here and complaining that i think the threshold for formula use is too low and i know there is discussions to raise it, but i can't figure out what business are people telling me who come to our neighborhood that have 15 or 18 outlets nationwide. >president cindy wu: thank you. is there any additional public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioner moore? >> >>commissioner kathrin moore: i'm very much for the project and there is no motion attached to my package. that might have been an oversight and if that is the case, i move to approve or move with the intent to approve because >president cindy wu: the agenda says approve with conditions. >>commissioner kathrin moore: so here is the motion. it's being handed to me. times have changed. i will support it. >> second. >president cindy wu: commissioner >commissioner michael j. antonini: >> we have bases for recommendation and the decision. i only have the hard copy, not the electronic one. anyway we have it now so that's all that matters. a few comments on this, one of the items on the paperwork quoted ken garcia from the examiner who said well it's too big for a time capsule. if you want a snapshot of san francisco in the late 1970s it would be hamburger mary's. i think that speaks to the uniqueness of the place and there was a speaker who was afraid of that other outlets are different from what it was presumably, if you the wasn't like it was before, then i doubt it will get supported. that's the proof of the pooding that what goes out there will have to draw traffic and if it does that then it will do fine. i think all the other reasons for support have been brought up. the fact that food and drink percentages around 17 percent and the whole nct and cd areas of upper market and castro while retail is 25 percent, there are some vacancies around there and a lot support as mention side ---ed so i am very supportive. i also have something to say, a successful and legendary institution like this after it closed in 2001, hasn't been in san francisco for 13 years. i wondering if there was anything in the policies we have to cause it to not be here before. out of curiosity, i would like to find out but i'm glad it's coming back and it sounds like this is going to be a good project. >president cindy wu: commissioner richards? >> >commissioner dennis richards: i would like to thank chang for all the work. they worked together and i went with ms. chang. the table is really helpful especially when we have this kind of a cu and ncd to understand the level. just a few things. i have received communication from folks asking whether or not if mr. natalie decides to go to palm springs tomorrow and mcdonald's wants to come in, to kind of rest assured for the public, can another formula retail come in and can it be mcdonald's? >> the city attorney's office, there would be an in indemnification of use. it could be considered new formula retail. but it would really depend on who was applying and what the differences were from the old formula, not who was applying but what components of the application might be different. >> this is a 12-unit chain and something bigger than 12. >> i don't have all of those provision of the new formula provision to memory but there is those that see that as use. >> okay. former comments, even though i feel very old, the vibrant businesses and we have had this vacancy since 2000. i'm excited to see something finally going in there. i have mixed emotions around a vacancy being there for 15 years. we have something that is finally lgbt themed, we have a lot of gay establishments shrinking over the years, finally lately we have a few that are reopening. we have cab aret we opened recently. i guess one other quick question, the old patio space which i actually remember which i'm an old guy too was on the back of the second story on castro street is on the back area. also to mr. nelson, the operating agreement is pretty tight. thank you for agreeing to that. i would like to amend the motion to include the operating agreement as part of the conditions. could we do that? >president cindy wu: i they -- i think we need the city attorney to look at the operating agreement. >> you can move on and come back. >president cindy wu: commissioner johnson. >commissioner christine johnson: first of all i'm not that old. the second thing adding to the question that commissioner richards had, let's get this clarified for the next meeting or if people don't know. i thought the new formula retail legislation which there are some pieces that may come back to us that if there was not just an intensification but if there was a change of general of general change of use that the cu would have to come back to us. if hamburger mary's closed and mcdonald's wanted to come in there? >> >president cindy wu: we can ask the project attorney. >> under the circumstances true, in an if you retail formula comes in there are circumstances when you can avoid the planning commission but when you go to a new retail use that has more locations than the existing formula retail use then it's considered for indemnification and it needs to come back. that's the threshold. >> how about change of use, instead of hamburger mary's and it would want to be the gap? that would be a change of use. have i stalled enough? thank you. >> president luke and the city attorney's office. normally including terms of a private agreement with conditions of approval because once they become part of the city's conditional of approval we need to make sure the city has the lawful authority to impose them and enforce them. i'm really just looking through these conditions very quickly right now. some of them would be appropriate conditions for the planning commission to apply, some of them would be difficult to enforce. i think as i understand from the project attorney, this is a separate agreement between the neighborhood association and the project sponsor. if the commission, i can spend more time looking at these individually, the conditions that might be appropriate to include in the commission's motion, but it would take me a few minutes to go through this and figure out which conditions are appropriate for the planning commission to impose as the government entity. it's up to you. we can take a recess or come back. >> given the location of the project site abutting hartford street, i think we need to take the time what is acceptable if you may do that for us. i know mr. nelson has been involved with this being with other establishments. i want to get this one right because this can create a bad situation for other people behind if it doesn't work. >president cindy wu: would we be able to take the next item and leave this item open? city clerk: yes, i think we can leave this open to allow the city attorney to review and take up the next matter and hopefully by then we can come back to item 12. >president cindy wu: okay. thank you. commissioner johnson? >commissioner christine johnson: assuming the city attorney finds items that are enforceable as a government entity, this is a general question for the project attorney, what are the remedies that the neighborhood association has? there aren't any? >> what i would tell you that most of the agreement is further reemphasizing what is in the san francisco's noise ordinance already. if there is leakage that you put extra insulation or sound buffering is really inside of the noise ordinance. it's an agreement within the neighborhood. it's not an entitlement that runs with the land with mr. natalie, if we don't make it a conditional approval, it's not going to apply to the next just like the motion. >> excellent. good to know, no matter what the decision is here, if there is another project it's not exactly how i remember it, then something happens. that's an example of what is not enforceable. thank you. city clerk: commissioners, we are moving on and taking 13 out of order and public comment period for item 12 is closed. we are taking item 13. 2014-0985 also in the castro dwrikt -- district, a conditional use authorization. >> the item before you is a conditional use authorization on 400 castro street from a vacant retail space previously occupied by a formula retail establishment selling clothing doing business as "old cycle" this will provide indoor classes. it's approximately 982 square feet for 3042 square feet. it's employing 18 employees and 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. saturday and sundays. to date the project has received support for the project including castro merchants, and no letters of opposition. although the project is not considered formally retail, the establishment anticipated to become effective january 2015 expands to personal use services. once this legislation becomes effective this establishment would be considered formula retail. currently there are 158, the project does not contribute as mentioned but it will. so with the addition of hamburger mary's if it's approved, along with the next item to be heard, the formula retail grows to 13, announcing to 8. in order for the project to proceed, the planning commission must grant to personal service establishment. the department recommends approval with conditions believes the project is necessary for the following reasons: the first store dedicated to health care in the castro district contributing to the viable district and the project meets all applicable requirements of the planning code and the project is compatible with the surrounding neighborhood. this concludes staff's presentation and happy to answer any questions. >president cindy wu: thank you, project sponsor? >> good afternoon commissioners. i would like to use the overhead for illustrations. talking about cycling plan. cycles need to get to shape before you start on the street. these are people that are passionate about cycling and want to get into shape so they can cycle. it's a 45-minute intense work out. it's like aerobics on a bike. these folks are on union street. there is one in san francisco that got approved because it didn't meet a conditional use. you can see the uses above it. it's not disturbing, it doesn't make noise. the one 1 on union street. it's a retail space because it does sell bicycle equipment and outfits and accessories. it has the exercise component and retail component and this is typically what the front desk looks like. it's not a membership activity. you can walk in if you want to do it today you walk in and you can do it. you make appointments online, about 40-50 participate, maximum capacity. 6 :00 a.m. you can get up and 10:00 p.m. at night you can do it. it's 1 hour window for it. specifically with respect to the site on castro street. this is an important picture for you all. this is the bank of america building in castro and market. you have four windows here and two on the castro street frontage and people don't even reach to the bottom of the window. it has a heavy difficult classical space and difficult to use. actually someone sitting in the bank of the bank couldn't make it there. they moved to 18th and castro with a new building. look at the building today. what you see is there are le -- three bays on castro street. this is straight. this was added and i have been going past id for 40 years. i never noticed this change and then better than that because i looked at the plan and it didn't make any stones -- sense to me. again, i'm embarrassed. look at this. it's a fake front. who knew that. some urban designer said we need more presence on castro street. let's add another bay. here you are. that's the situation. it's very unique and it's a difficult building to participate in. then the market street frontage, harvey milk plaza and the entrance basically took the whole frontage off market street. even though you have a corner building, here it is again. the whole market street frontage is kind of blocked by the plaza and metro. here is the main entrance and you have the three bays on castro street with two active. it's a difficult building and san francisco is very lucky to have a use like soul cycle wanting to use it and they feel confident in being successful to staying here. they have a 5-year lease with option to renew. they are on union street and today they are opening one in downtown on fourth street. this is the other facility in san francisco. with that commissioners, that concludes my presentation unless you have other questions. thank you very much. >president cindy wu: okay. we'll take public comment. mr. beach nelson. >> i will be very brief. beach nelson. we are very supportive of this project and for a number of reasons. our planning and land use committee met repeatedly and we evaluated the project and made a recommendation to the board because of it's size. and the board had to take a vote and then we presented it to the boards position to our membership and the board agreed that the planning and land use committee because they are going to maintain the historical exterior and they committed to mitigating the noise via apparently some sound structure and it's going to be in the day and evening because it's open at night. if it had been a -- bar, most likely in the evening. it's an expensive space. we thought that was an important issue of it. we don't currently have this use in the neighborhood so it is a needed and desirable use. they are also going to preserve the painting of judy horn's house. i think they had to when they took out the window they were required to put that in. the board unanimously supported it and a quorum of our membership on november 13th or 12 supported our position on that. thank you. >president cindy wu: thank you. is there any additional public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioner richards? >> >commissioner dennis richards: it's a welcome presence. it's from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.. it's going to be great to have people going in and out of that building. i support it. >> second. city clerk: if there is nothing further commissioners there is a first and second. commissioner >commissioner michael j. antonini: >commissioner rich hillis: >commissioner christine johnson: >>commissioner kathrin moore: >commission vice-president rodney fong:, >president cindy wu:. that motion passes unanimously 7-0. >president cindy wu: i don't believe they are back yet. city clerk: we can take item 14. also conditional use authorization. 2014.1190. >> good afternoon again, the item before you is 549 castro street. the proposal is 1310 square feet tenant space occupied by coffee. the project sponsor intends to close the establishment depending upon the proposed establishment. the project includes minor tenant improvements and intends to employ 20 employees. the proposed hours of operation from 6:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. monday through friday. today the project has support from three separate groups from castro merchant and the castro upper market as well as two individuals and individual residents. one letter in opposition as to the limited space of restaurants and formula retail. i have copies of this letter but they are included in your packet. i do have the letter of opposition, print copies of this. the recently approved letter of formula retail project does not affect this project based on the second quarter of 2014, approximately 26 percent of ground floor retail uses in the castro street neighborhood includes food and befrnl

Transcripts For SFGTV 20141231

prevent the ability from other retail uses and nor increase the number of the restaurants in the castro entity. third, the project site is well served by public transit and therefore the project should have a negligible impact and available parking on the surrounding streets. no. 4, the project will create approximately 30 restaurant job openings for local residents. no. 5, and other entertainment use will not only enhance the hamburger mary's operation but performing emerging local artist because hamburger mary's does not have former place and the amount offen at the entertainment takes place in the bar restaurant area. it's good for the surrounding neighborhood and area. that concludes my presentation. if you have any questions, i'm available. >president cindy wu: thank you, let's hear from project sponsor. >> good afternoon commissioners, john with, here on behalf of project sponsor. we are excited to be here before you today where the project will finally bring back a hamburger mary's restaurant to replace the old cafe in the castro. they have spent time and money improving the cafe space. the commission approved the legalization of space since it closed to renovations. we are now requesting conditional use authorization because there are 12 hamburger mary's throughout the country and there are entertainment uses. it began in 1972 on folsom street with san francisco lgbt community. original location closed in 2001 and the project would bring back hamburger mary's and there would be a live component which will include drag performances and d j equipment. we have worked with the castro neighborhood association for operating conditions for the live entertainment. hours will be limited depending on the days of the week and guarantees have been made with the no sound leak with the noise ordinance and we have had them come out and do testing. we have cleared it and he's going to need to come back and test again before we get the live performance permit as well. we are going to be absolutely sure that we don't have sound leakage. we have widespread support for the project. as to date we have 672 e-mails of support in support of all the groups, castro merchants and castro, in closing the project will allow for castro districts with the early lgbt culture and we respectfully request your support and we are here for questions. >president cindy wu: thank you. let's open for public comment. gary wise and gill church. >> good afternoon commissioners, my name is gary white. i have a small business around the corner from the proposed site for 31 years. the current owner of the site has kept the site of the restaurant as well as next door and almost all the rental units vacant since 1999 but he says 10 years. a giant dead zone in one of the most vibrant neighborhoods in the city and more vibrant and is the demand as the major sidewalk work has been completed. hamburger mary's was very popular. in 2007, a group of men decided to open the worldwide chain of restaurants using a suburban knock off of the old hamburger mary's. as is now 12 are open around the world. in order to qualify for conditional use permit a business must prove that it's necessary or desirable. currently we have a -- bar and other businesses. it appears thereby support for many restaurants in the neighborhoods. my sense is the support comes from people that are tired of seeing the ghost area or the former combination of hamburger mary's. this will be one link in a growing chain of restaurants. if mr. natalie gets cold feet with an idea or will other businesses be open for progress. >president cindy wu: thank you, next speaker. i have more speaker cards. allen nelson. >> hi, thank you for taking comments. my name is john church and i think i'm the old guy in the neighborhood. i got to the castro when i was 17 years old. last friday i just turned 65. i think i'm the old guy in the neighborhood. i have certain memories of the both hamburger mary's and the patio cafe. hamburger mary's was an activist restaurant long before aids struck. we were raising funds with the no on bridge initiatives. the waiters would spontaneously or the wait staff would spontaneously say, all of the tips are going to the no on six kiddie jar and why don't you add some of your own. they have a long record of raising money for as an activist business hamburger mary's did likewise. hamburger mary's had something that none of the other restaurants had. it wasn't fast food, it wasn't having flat screen tv's blaring at you. it was a warm and welcoming place where you can take mom and dad to the restaurant and where they can see you made a really good decision about being the person you need to be. it's that you may even thrive as a lgbt person. look at these people having lunch together. i think i'm here as a cheerleader for this and i'm tired of the big hole in the neighborhood in the middle of the block. i urge you to not consider hamburger mary's a formula restaurant because it's independently owned and management and i think that needs to be mentioned at least once. thank you. >president cindy wu: thank you. next speaker? >> good afternoon commissioners. my name is allen nelson. i live in the neighborhood. the discussion on this project with extensive outreach, in fact we did an unprecedented thing. we for the first time ever put a vote to all the membership. normally it's 10 percent of the membership, if they show up to the meeting we base that attendance on the 10 percent. we ended up doing an online audited vote and i'm happy to say that we had 60 percent turnout about triple what our last election had and out of that election, 3-1 was in favor of this project. so that was 109 people in favor of it, 42 opposed to it and for that reason, we strongly support this project. one of the thing we did talk about was ensuring that the community had some safe guards above and beyond just the standard condition of use. so two members of our former planning committee chair and our current planning committee chair worked on -- on a set of committed use to have to the overall commissioned use. they drafted them and we negotiated and to be perfectly honest he accepted all of them and wanted one little tweak that he really wants to open the place and we have the safe guard if it ends up being a bad business owner, we have the different elements that we can actually enforce on the conditions. that's everything i had to say. thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners, i'm steve clark hall. the previous head of the commission. i'm the one who assembled the online. i think it was pretty impartial. i didn't get any complaints from anybody. i have to say the outcome was very polar e -- polarized. you would think anyone would get anything in the restaurant because it was closed. there are two reasons why it was opposed. a lot of people were upset with the project sponsor. just open some restaurant. the other one was because it's formula use. there is a big opposition to formula use under any circumstances inside the castro ncd. i started engaging these people. what if there were 9 formula stores, that would have been okay. i said what if the formula threshold were 20, we can't raise that number. that what i engaged the people is what is that business we are trying to keep out of our neighborhood and no one could tell me what that business is. so, there is, i'm off topic here and complaining that i think the threshold for formula use is too low and i know there is discussions to raise it, but i can't figure out what business are people telling me who come to our neighborhood that have 15 or 18 outlets nationwide. >president cindy wu: thank you. is there any additional public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioner moore? >> >>commissioner kathrin moore: i'm very much for the project and there is no motion attached to my package. that might have been an oversight and if that is the case, i move to approve or move with the intent to approve because >president cindy wu: the agenda says approve with conditions. >>commissioner kathrin moore: so here is the motion. it's being handed to me. times have changed. i will support it. >> second. >president cindy wu: commissioner >commissioner michael j. antonini: >> we have bases for recommendation and the decision. i only have the hard copy, not the electronic one. anyway we have it now so that's all that matters. a few comments on this, one of the items on the paperwork quoted ken garcia from the examiner who said well it's too big for a time capsule. if you want a snapshot of san francisco in the late 1970s it would be hamburger mary's. i think that speaks to the uniqueness of the place and there was a speaker who was afraid of that other outlets are different from what it was presumably, if you the wasn't like it was before, then i doubt it will get supported. that's the proof of the pooding that what goes out there will have to draw traffic and if it does that then it will do fine. i think all the other reasons for support have been brought up. the fact that food and drink percentages around 17 percent and the whole nct and cd areas of upper market and castro while retail is 25 percent, there are some vacancies around there and a lot support as mention side ---ed so i am very supportive. i also have something to say, a successful and legendary institution like this after it closed in 2001, hasn't been in san francisco for 13 years. i wondering if there was anything in the policies we have to cause it to not be here before. out of curiosity, i would like to find out but i'm glad it's coming back and it sounds like this is going to be a good project. >president cindy wu: commissioner richards? >> >commissioner dennis richards: i would like to thank chang for all the work. they worked together and i went with ms. chang. the table is really helpful especially when we have this kind of a cu and ncd to understand the level. just a few things. i have received communication from folks asking whether or not if mr. natalie decides to go to palm springs tomorrow and mcdonald's wants to come in, to kind of rest assured for the public, can another formula retail come in and can it be mcdonald's? >> the city attorney's office, there would be an in indemnification of use. it could be considered new formula retail. but it would really depend on who was applying and what the differences were from the old formula, not who was applying but what components of the application might be different. >> this is a 12-unit chain and something bigger than 12. >> i don't have all of those provision of the new formula provision to memory but there is those that see that as use. >> okay. former comments, even though i feel very old, the vibrant businesses and we have had this vacancy since 2000. i'm excited to see something finally going in there. i have mixed emotions around a vacancy being there for 15 years. we have something that is finally lgbt themed, we have a lot of gay establishments shrinking over the years, finally lately we have a few that are reopening. we have cab aret we opened recently. i guess one other quick question, the old patio space which i actually remember which i'm an old guy too was on the back of the second story on castro street is on the back area. also to mr. nelson, the operating agreement is pretty tight. thank you for agreeing to that. i would like to amend the motion to include the operating agreement as part of the conditions. could we do that? >president cindy wu: i they -- i think we need the city attorney to look at the operating agreement. >> you can move on and come back. >president cindy wu: commissioner johnson. >commissioner christine johnson: first of all i'm not that old. the second thing adding to the question that commissioner richards had, let's get this clarified for the next meeting or if people don't know. i thought the new formula retail legislation which there are some pieces that may come back to us that if there was not just an intensification but if there was a change of general of general change of use that the cu would have to come back to us. if hamburger mary's closed and mcdonald's wanted to come in there? >> >president cindy wu: we can ask the project attorney. >> under the circumstances true, in an if you retail formula comes in there are circumstances when you can avoid the planning commission but when you go to a new retail use that has more locations than the existing formula retail use then it's considered for indemnification and it needs to come back. that's the threshold. >> how about change of use, instead of hamburger mary's and it would want to be the gap? that would be a change of use. have i stalled enough? thank you. >> president luke and the city attorney's office. normally including terms of a private agreement with conditions of approval because once they become part of the city's conditional of approval we need to make sure the city has the lawful authority to impose them and enforce them. i'm really just looking through these conditions very quickly right now. some of them would be appropriate conditions for the planning commission to apply, some of them would be difficult to enforce. i think as i understand from the project attorney, this is a separate agreement between the neighborhood association and the project sponsor. if the commission, i can spend more time looking at these individually, the conditions that might be appropriate to include in the commission's motion, but it would take me a few minutes to go through this and figure out which conditions are appropriate for the planning commission to impose as the government entity. it's up to you. we can take a recess or come back. >> given the location of the project site abutting hartford street, i think we need to take the time what is acceptable if you may do that for us. i know mr. nelson has been involved with this being with other establishments. i want to get this one right because this can create a bad situation for other people behind if it doesn't work. >president cindy wu: would we be able to take the next item and leave this item open? city clerk: yes, i think we can leave this open to allow the city attorney to review and take up the next matter and hopefully by then we can come back to item 12. >president cindy wu: okay. thank you. commissioner johnson? >commissioner christine johnson: assuming the city attorney finds items that are enforceable as a government entity, this is a general question for the project attorney, what are the remedies that the neighborhood association has? there aren't any? >> what i would tell you that most of the agreement is further reemphasizing what is in the san francisco's noise ordinance already. if there is leakage that you put extra insulation or sound buffering is really inside of the noise ordinance. it's an agreement within the neighborhood. it's not an entitlement that runs with the land with mr. natalie, if we don't make it a conditional approval, it's not going to apply to the next just like the motion. >> excellent. good to know, no matter what the decision is here, if there is another project it's not exactly how i remember it, then something happens. that's an example of what is not enforceable. thank you. city clerk: commissioners, we are moving on and taking 13 out of order and public comment period for item 12 is closed. we are taking item 13. 2014-0985 also in the castro dwrikt -- district, a conditional use authorization. >> the item before you is a conditional use authorization on 400 castro street from a vacant retail space previously occupied by a formula retail establishment selling clothing doing business as "old cycle" this will provide indoor classes. it's approximately 982 square feet for 3042 square feet. it's employing 18 employees and 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. saturday and sundays. to date the project has received support for the project including castro merchants, and no letters of opposition. although the project is not considered formally retail, the establishment anticipated to become effective january 2015 expands to personal use services. once this legislation becomes effective this establishment would be considered formula retail. currently there are 158, the project does not contribute as mentioned but it will. so with the addition of hamburger mary's if it's approved, along with the next item to be heard, the formula retail grows to 13, announcing to 8. in order for the project to proceed, the planning commission must grant to personal service establishment. the department recommends approval with conditions believes the project is necessary for the following reasons: the first store dedicated to health care in the castro district contributing to the viable district and the project meets all applicable requirements of the planning code and the project is compatible with the surrounding neighborhood. this concludes staff's presentation and happy to answer any questions. >president cindy wu: thank you, project sponsor? >> good afternoon commissioners. i would like to use the overhead for illustrations. talking about cycling plan. cycles need to get to shape before you start on the street. these are people that are passionate about cycling and want to get into shape so they can cycle. it's a 45-minute intense work out. it's like aerobics on a bike. these folks are on union street. there is one in san francisco that got approved because it didn't meet a conditional use. you can see the uses above it. it's not disturbing, it doesn't make noise. the one 1 on union street. it's a retail space because it does sell bicycle equipment and outfits and accessories. it has the exercise component and retail component and this is typically what the front desk looks like. it's not a membership activity. you can walk in if you want to do it today you walk in and you can do it. you make appointments online, about 40-50 participate, maximum capacity. 6 :00 a.m. you can get up and 10:00 p.m. at night you can do it. it's 1 hour window for it. specifically with respect to the site on castro street. this is an importan

Transcripts For SFGTV 20130706

in the neighborhood. and they sponsored having the civil rights academy spring fling and they want to give back and be part of the neighborhood and trying to be good neighbors. as far as the big bad ugly formula retail goes, they are really the kind of negotiations that we want to see in form law retail they besinger want to be a good neighbor and resource locally and give back to the neighborhood. and for that they should be congratulationsed. as men have said, that corner is a hard place to stay in business. every single restaurant that has been there has gone bankrupt and we really, really need to see it filled with something that is sustained and help the neighborhood. thank you. >> i will call the last batch of names. >> david troop, dylan macavin. >> dennis richards. and allen nelson. >> and my name is gary wiess and i am the president of the heights neighbors and on the planning committee sxim also the owner of a small business on market street, two blocks from the site being discussed. and i have owned and operated my flower shop for 30 years now. san francisco, is a very popular destination and millions of people visit each year and come for the beauty and uniqueness, the castro upper market neighborhood are visited by hundreds of thousands each year, and those people come to see a vibrant neighborhood with the businesses that don't exist anywhere else and they do not come for the same stories. and each formula retail business that moves in, dilutes our uniqueness. formula retail establishment cans and do afford to pay as much as 4 times when the non-formula retail business has been paying at the same location. >> property owners see this opportunity and frequently are content to leave the buildings vacant. as there is no rent control no small business will be able to afford the leases. the rents will remain at a more affordable level and i want to make a couple of corrections from the things that people have said, one is that of all of the vacantcies in the area, there are a number of those vacantcies that are in discussions to be leased. that is number one, and number two is my first visit to san francisco is in 1967 and restaurant was there, burks, and it was in business for many years before going bankrupt and also the john frank, and later, the same ownership were in business for many, many years before going bankrupt. boston chicken went bankrupt. very quickly and that was a chain store, so i don't see that having a chain store is the answer to a viable business in that location and the last thing that i want to say is that allen beach the president of the valley association had to leave, and i just wanted to say that our... the board as well as our membership supported, and it was definitely opposed to this coming in, thank you. >> thank you. >> commissioners, good evening, my name is dennis richards and i am the former president of the bose triangle association and also the sitting member of the market citizen community advisory committee and i have to tell you that i love chipotle. i love their lime chips and i love the burrito bowls and i am the one wanting to go to chipotle across the street in oregon and my staff says why chipotle every time because i love chipotle, unfortunately it is not about the burrito bowl it is about whether this is necessary or desirable. it is part of the upper market and i want to you look at it, to look at it from the church street subportion and there are nova , vacantcies and people are coming in and spending money and it is a destination. i don't think that adding a chipotle there is really going to add anything to the neighborhood, i don't think that it is necessary, it is probably not even desirable because in fact if it puts the other restaurants out of business what is the net employment gain when you lose 13 and 12 and gain some, they have incredible financial and campaign to get the supporters on-line and a big size matters and at the local bay and i think that size matters sums it up, they are going to put the other restaurants out of business these are their words not mine, i take exception to mr. genus's characterization of the vacantcies, 2223 market, he flashed too fast, it is already rented out, and the associates rented it out to peske and they are opening up another restaurant on market street and our neighborhood is happening and under construction, trigger bar is going to become bow and the owner of the edge bar have rented that out and you can see the construction is happening there. there is 7 vacantcies from what i can tell and how many? what is the percent and let's put that in context. i think that mr. serina was dis enginueos, i was sitting at the restaurant and after the dot com bust that was not a business model that was going to work and then home took over and they were there until 2011 and after the second dot com bust and the rate recession they went out of business which is kind of obvious, it was hard and a lot of restaurants went out of business and so those two restaurants were there 13 years total. it was not like they were open and closed in six months. >> if you look at the letters of opposition, all of the neighborhood businesses would house the fish, and inspiration, all voiced their opposition and all have jamba juice, two starbucks and the gnc. that is what this will do, thank you. >> good afternoon, maybe good evening, commissioners, my name is david troop. and i am lived in the triangle for 13 years and i am on the board. there are more reasons to disapprove this project than i have time to talk about and many of them have been covered, the existing mexican restaurants within a block of this location, the dramatic impact that formula retail has on neighborhood character and on setting expectations for land lords, and encouraging them to hold out for these credit tenants and yet the commercial real estate is a cycle business it is not reasonable to think that you can rent the space and you will have the same tenant for 30 years or ten years, if you do you are lucky. but a certain amount of turnover, it is just the nature of that business. the point of market is literally the gateway to the castro and the market, whatever we put in that spot sets the tone for the whole neighborhood. and putting a fast food chain in that location, and chipotle is a wonderful fast food chain as fast food chains go, i eat there myself sometimes. it is a national chain and you can find it anywhere. and it won't attract people to the neighborhood and it will not attract people from other san francisco neighborhoods to the neighborhood because you can go anywhere and find a chipotle. >> and it was interesting to note that on the petitions that were gathered chipotle did not have too many more signatures than the opposing petitions, despite the act that they ran these ads and ran to sign the on-line petition. anyone that comes in there is going to clean up that location but the lease was locked up over a year ago by chipotle and so, you know the potential other restaurants since then have not had an opportunity to vie for it and i hope that you will make the right decision for the neighborhood and disapprove this proposal. >> are there any additional speakers for public comment? >> if not, public comment is closed. commissioner antonini? >> well, thank you, very interesting discussion. i have a few thoughts on this issue a number of things that were pointed out and there are a few comments that this would be the formula retail and the signage will be like everything else and the project sponsor made it clear that it is understated and custom built squ not be in the same mode as all of the other chipotles i think that is an important issue for me. it seems to be understated and there is another speaker that talked about the parking and the parking existed since it began and chipotle is eliminating three parking places so it is less parking and so i think that there is a need for parking in this particular situation because it is the kind of restaurant that i don't prefer, i like to go into a place and sit down and relax, and maybe have a drink and at least spent a few minutes looking over a menu and then leisurely order and be served and eat there. there are instances that i do take out food, that happens. but i don't often go to swat and gobble for the same ren that you have to make a choice in line and you have to make this choice and you get the food, brought to your table and some enstances you have to actually bring the food to your own table so it would not be my first choice which leads me to my position that everybody points this out to be competitive that it will drive the other mexican restaurants out of business. i don't really see this happening. i would assume and i have not been to them, i think that they are very good from what i have heard and everybody speaks highly of them. and although many of them do have take out, i am sure that all of them allow people to go in, order, sit down and order and be served. that is an entirely different model than what chipotle is presenting. so, i don't really see it being a situation where they would drive people away in a blieted corner and crime and things like that drive people out of the neighborhood. but having another business there does not drive people away. the other thing that i want to talk about is this business about the 20 percent. and i also wins when they say it was unanimous and i thought that i could not have voted for that but i did because i was assured by the staff that the commissioners could vote otherwise if they felt that the benefits of the particular proposal out weighed the 20 percent, but now, as i look at it more, i think that it is really a poor matrix to use. i still believe that you have to look at the entire district from octavia to castro and see what kind of a concentration of formula retail you have when making a decision not just a real isolated area and it is even worse in this enstance because a lot of it is parking lot, and a lot of it is unused space, and so, it looks a lot worse than it really is in terms of the concentration. one speaker brought up the point that she felt that there was a huge concentration of formula retail within the entire district upwards of 30 percent. and i have been told that there are only 12 formula retail establishments total in the district. and it may be two different things and we both may be right, the number of the establishments in the square footage of the establishments it could be that upwards of the high 20s of square footage might be formula retail, and some of them may be larger, and i am not sure that is correct any way. but at least, whether we permit this or not, i think that the matrix that we are using is not a good one with this 300 foot radius because you could have a situation where all of the formula retail is in one area and there is none throughout the rest of the district and you know you have to look at kind of the big picture. i have heard about the vacantcy and that concerns me. but the other thing that is more important is we are going to be bringing all of the units on-line, we have at least 7 new buildings that are being built with housing. and some are condo and some are rental and it does not make it any difference, there is going to be over 1,000 new units almost all of them have ground floor retail and now what should be done and i am not sure whether we as a commission did this, but, these areas should be restricted to divide up the retail space into smaller spaces that are more appropriate for local businesses to be able to pay the rent, and to thrive, where they don't have a huge piece of land that has been a problem for a long time. and these triangles have been problems as long as i can remember, many of them eliminated the problem by being demolished and now there is housing built on those. but normally, they were businesses that did not last too long. and they were not that successful, and where there were gas stations. but, as far as putting a small independent business in there, you have more space and you will particularly if parking is more restricted as it will be in the market plan and you will have a lot of land that you will not have a use for, it is going to be hard especially with the restaurant to use up that much space. i think that a better way of looking and another way of looking at it might be that if you take the block, that chipotle would be on, and look at just the stores along that side, which would be the northern part of the block, between i guess that it is church and sanchez if i am correct. and there are only two formula retail, if you consider state farm insurance one of them and the other as sterling bank. and so, on that particular block on the north side, there are very few. they have talked a little bit about their philosophy as an organization and i was told that the founder a man was originally at stars and went through the san francisco culinary academy and he certainly has the right credentials to run a business that is done responsibly. it has been said that the rent will be same as what home was paying three years ago, which is pretty amazing in itself. and i think that these are the main points on this particular issue. there are a couple of other things that i wanted to mention. there is always the possibility if you don't support something just because it is there, it does not mean that you have to patronize it and it gives choices to those who do want to patronize it for a variety of reasons and there might be nights when someone goes to chipotle because they are in a hurry, or it is daytime and they are in the middle of work and they want to come in quick and get something and they want good quality food. but at night they want to sit at one of the other restaurant and relax and have a nice meal or some of them may try chipotle and say that i liked it but it is not the style of dining that i like and i am going to go to these other places. i don't think that it has to be competition, and so i am in favor of the proposal, but we will see what the other commissioners have to say. >> commissioner hillis? >> thank you all for commenting, we have actual hi leder a lot about chipotle and a lot about this site and it is similar to what we heard about starbucks a couple of weeks ago. i mean the reason that we are here is because the citizens of san francisco voted yes on prop g, when kind of set a high bar for formula retail and i think rightly so, you know, we want san francisco to maintain its unique neighborhoods and its unique neighborhood character. that is why the voters passed it pretty overwhelmingly and that is why we are here discussing this. and i don't think that this is necessarily about chipotle and whether it is a good chain or a bad chain. i don't think... i mean, you think back to when and i was here when boston market here and when home was there and it was a very different feel for that block. when home was there as opposed to the boston market and both of them did not work out and they were there for a while and i don't think that this site, we can argue that this site works better for formula retail, or a independent restaurant and both went under and there was a vacantcy for both and so the argument about vacantcies is suspect and it was vacant because the formula retail as well as independent restaurant after a years of operating. it is vacant because we are in this process and because it has been trying to get the support on working on this process and we heard that it has tied up the site for over a year and i think that it boils down to neighborhood character and preserving our neighborhood character and kind of what the balance is for chain stores, prop g set the bar high, for formula retail and the policy that we adopted for upper market set the bar higher, and is it a signal to those who want to open formula retail establishments in this neighborhood to go and talk to the neighbors, and in the neighborhood groups and make sure that it is an appropriate fit, which i think that cvs did and we approved that. and i just don't think that we have made the case that this is appropriate use for this site, which i agree with one speaker which is kind of the gateway to the neighborhood and so i am not supportive of this cu. >> i would like to ask a question of the staff and if they would try to address the argument about the 19 percent verses 20 percent and if in fact the parking lot of the safeway falls into the radius, and i guess that i have a question of whether it is maybe not retail there, if that parking lot is zoned for retail, or not. >> the calculation is based off of commercial frontages and frontages occupied by the commercial uses and for calculating and for in regards to telling the parking lot that it is considered a special lot situation and that parking lot and that serve for parking. and formula uses. and that counts toward that, that frontage calculation and for in this case, there were a couple of parking lots and there are a couple of lots that operated as parking for the shopping center, so they do count. they do count towards getting the 20 percent, or the 27 percent calculation for existing. we are counting the parcel and there is formula retail in that parcel. yes, what we counted at that shopping center serves safeway and starbucks and jamba juice. they do count, we are counting it for a policy for the calculating. >> i have a couple more questions if you want to follow up. >> that one point that i made a note to myself because it seems to me that the staff is correct. and in using that approach it is similar to when the commissioners have conflicts on properties within 500 feet. i will give you the example the auditor um on california and you pay the ticket and you sit in the auditor um that subpoena on the higher end of the block the property that masonic is 500 feet and my condo is not within 500 feet but it is the property that counts and their driveway and their loading zone comes all the way down to pine street. and so i am my property, and it is within 500 feet of that property. the fact that it encompasses the property that also has a number of formula retail establishments. >> i actually had church at chipotle, you do run a good operation and a great business and it is different from other restaurants and other restaurants in that category. i am going to stick with the policy that this commission adopted and that is the 20 percent rule and i appreciate the argument that it is 19 percent, if it is property line to property line, i could maybe see, i am going to have to depend that staff is accurate and that calculation in this particular case. and so, i am supportive of following the recommendation, and so as far as two things, 20 percent rule may not be the ultimate tool. and we have had the discussions last week about that. and i think that we are also reminding our heads that it is one tool and there may be others but it is the one in front of us right now and one that we have agreed upon for the moment and that may change and flip and maybe be different from a different district or a different part of the city but i want to send another message out to the larger community that san francisco alone many case and what gets the ink is that formula retail is not wanted and there are certain parts that it is need and desired a grocery store in particular and basic services that we need this particular location is nearby fantastic mexican food and i don't know if it is the best by comparison but there is great food to be had and it is a food mecca for san francisco. and the best thing about san francisco is that we keep rotating in the district scenarios and the neighborhood of san francisco as far as food and this is the hot spot right now and so i think, let it alone, and let it cultivate the way that it should and maybe in time we will look at this very differently and that is the place to put a formula retail but at the moment i don't think that it is necessary and i think or i know that i am not going to approve it. >> commissioner borden. >> i live six blocks from this location and i have thought a lot about it since home closed down and i have seen the building and i do feel for the property owners and the challenges that you face and i don't want to cause the dir res, this is a key lot at the corner of church and market and it is the gateway as you head to the castro and to have that lot which is across the street from safeway and a whole foods being built at this moment and jamba juice and all of those things sets the wrong tone for what is the castro or what is san francisco? and what is upper market? and i understand why the space with a tenant that is credit worthy and i am not dismissing that because that is an important thing. when we talk about the neighborhoods and the vie tal streets it is all about the feeling that a neighborhood creates, the streets and a vibrant, thriving street and it does not have a single other than a chase bank at the one end and it does not have a single formula retail along the way. if every storefront and there is more demand for more storefronts and the neighborhoods that are thriving are not the ones with the form law retail all over them, it is the ones that don't have that. i think that we are seeing, you know, there is a lot of it is interesting because i would mention earlier in the hearing that i was at this presentation for a retail analyst guy and one of the things that i thought was interesting is that he said that mellimials want to live in a place that is unique, and not cookie cut and her not loyal to the brands they are loyal to the experiences. and the community is about the experience and what is growing in the retail market and chipotle by the nature of being a fast food rest it is not an experience, i eat and i leave, but for this lot and size, the nice thing about a full service restaurant where the people linger and have dessert is a different kind of place and vitality and activity that provides the neighborhood that a quick grab and go kind of location does not provide. and i think that is one of the key things that we look at when we talk about cvs and they provide something that a lot of other businesses can't provider don't provide, they do. the pharmacies are not the small businesses any more and they provide something that in a lot of ways that walgreens does not provide. and it was a different kind of business, and we also talked about it as an office store where the people will go from all over the city and places to go to an apple store because people buy apple products and chipotle is not a destination as someone said, people are not going to go from all over the city to go to chipotle and if they wanted to they have nine other locations apparently. which is definitely shows that there is no shortage of chipotle if you would like some. the other thing is that i am so familiar with chilango, i love your carnitos and there are great mexican restaurants while i don't believe the game chipotle verses the other restaurants, i do think that there is, that there is an impact in terms of you know, the type of people that you want to attract to a neighborhood and what you are trying to present the neighborhood to be about. when you invite some of those other kinds of things in. we also heard i mentioned earlier that orchard supply that came to us not too long ago filed for bankruptcy and now secured by lowes and boston market and filed for bankruptcy, and chipotle is doing well and we don't expect that to happen. but the point is that this is a thrive and fail for a vote variety of reasons, that i think it should be a mixed use lot, part of it is the configuration of the large, one story buildings, i don't think that they are profitable kinds of spaces that work well and that is just probably what a lot of the analysts would tell you. so, i actually think that the best thing that you probably could do for that lot is explore some sort of mixed use development that would make the retail more affordable and actually will be a ef

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