Business. I urge you to make a wise decision and support this business unanimously. 100 . Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Hi, how are you doing, hi everybody. Im the neighbor of saba store, the one in oak oakland. Its less than 100 feet, the same block. In three years i never noticed anything from them, no noise, so clean. And we have no problem with them. I want to say youre ok, come visit the place in oakland, youre going to see. Everything is ok. We enjoy every day eating fresh halal, thats it. Nothing untoward about it. Come check. My address is 807 kennedy street. Im next door to that place. Thank you for the comments, next speaker please. I feel so happy today. I waited 42 years for this. And to have the halal food in San Francisco, we are so happy. First time the halal food, no frozen food, all fresh. And cheap. We just go over there, have the fresh food. Everybody is going to be happy. I appreciate the shop in San Francisco. Its for the community of San Francisco. Thank you very much. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Hello. Im resident of oak land. Im labor with saba poultry in oakland and im a good customer of them. I go there almost every week to buy for the whole week because i like the way they kill the chicken and how the blood go out so it will be really healthy for me and my family. So i enjoy buying the chicken and eating it and make sure where i buy my meat from, so i can enjoy it. I support them to open one in every city. Thanks. Next speaker, please. Hello. Im a resident of San Francisco and in the bay area. I wanted to thank you and thank you god for being here. And actually weve been waiting for a place like this to open in the city. I used to travel to spartan, modes tow, sacramento to get fresh meat. I love the place, i love the product. Its great. Hopefully we see this place open soon. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. I grew and lived in San Francisco when San Francisco, i love San Francisco. Saba life brought us a good service and i just want to briefly say that saba is not only for muslim and the word halal. When i go to saba in oakland, 80 of the customers are nonmuslims. Latin americans, africanamericans. This business supports an serves all community. I just hope that you support all our community in San Francisco and the bay area. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Thank you. Ive known saba live since they started in oakland and known them dearly and the family. Since they started in oakland, as the previous speaker, it is a communitybased business. Most of the people there, like he said, nonmuslim. This is not just catering to muslims. Yes, we as muslims like the kosher meat, halal meat, we like to be clean and slaughtered in a respectable way as well as all the meat that it has, they cater for us, its not something we always go outside. People travel to all different cities. Ive been knowing them for a while. Since they opened the store in oakland, theyve been working very hard as well as they are they havent had ive never there have been no complaints, nothing whatsoever. They meet all Health Regulations as well as they meet all the standard codes. Again, they are Community Based store, a family business, and its always sanitized and very clean. We like to bring that to the San Francisco community and i hope you guys see that. We welcome that, because us as muslims, we look for, very fresh and slaughtered meat, kosher meat, that we look for. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Hello, everyone. Im here to support saba halal meat. And the best in the store, when see people from all different countries, like different faces, not just muslim. We communicate over there. The place is clean. The meat tastes so good. Im just one of the people here to show some love and support for great quality business. And opportunity for the others. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. I have been customer for saba halal meat for a long time. They are good. They are very sanitized, very nice. In oakland, i wish they have a place in San Francisco. Every time we go there, not just for muslim communities, its for all nationalities, they see a lot of people from the different nationality, so i recommend it. Its very nice. I hope you guys will be in favor and support of this business. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Im here to support saba livestock because its an opportunity for us to buy our kosher food. Its the same as every culture we know it doesnt sound good, but its nice and healthy. I go to the one in oakland and i see customers from asia, all over the world. We would appreciate it if you give us this opportunity to have it here close to us in San Francisco. So we wont have to travel far. And i thank you very much. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, supervisors. Board president. Im with the ciu local 87, i represent the janitors in the private sector. Im also tsecretary treasurer, members in the room, stand. [laughter] thank you. So, for us, in the 21year history of my career, ive never had to get up before any board of supervisors or any Commission Meeting to talk about meat and the accessibility to it. Our members and our obligation to them has never just been the contractual obligations we have for them. Shhh. But also, it goes beyond how the communities are affected, both immigrant and the inclusiveness of the communities everywhere. The comments we heard earlier, we were sitting we have a whole other group of members, 50 folks . In the other room, being here in support of saba live. We hope you understand that the Environmental Impact is none whatsoever, its a small business, familyowned. Its created a lot of jobs in oakland and other cities as well. But the accessibility being about having halal meat in San Francisco has been nonexistent and the signs people see, its not fresh meat. Im asking everyone here in the board of supervisors to vote yes in support of saba live and allowing members and our families to shop in the city they live in, to have access to halal meat. Thank you. Ill just remind the public that if you are in support of what the speaker is saying youre welcome to give supportive fingers but no audible sounds of support, please. Good afternoon. Im here to support the saba live poultry. The main reason im here is i work about 5060 hours in San Francisco and it would be more convenient to have a location here and shop my meat produced from them rather than going to oakland. I live all the way in the north bay. San francisco will be more convenient for me. Thank you. Thank you. Before mr. Duffy speaks, ill ask if there are any other members of the public who would like to speak in opposition to the appeal. Im mr. Duffy. Could i get two minutes . Thank you. I hope you will all consider this item independently and not rely on one supervisor as the law provides. I hope you will consider what the law provides and go where the evidence leads you. Thats the strongest way to support pluralism. Thank you. Madame president. President breed thank you. Are there any other members of the public who would like to speak in opposition of the appeal . Supervisor, for 33 years, i am here fighting for the homeless and community activist. I wish you open your eyes and hear my muslim friends talk about, we dont accept any discrimination against any one of us. And i said that to let you get wake up and understand that we are strong and were going to fight until our death for no discrimination. Enough is enough. Thank you. Are there any other members of the public who would like to speak in opposition of the appeal . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. We will have up to three minutes for rebuttal from the appellant. Thank you, supervisors. Christina again on the behalf ott animal Legal Defense fund. I would like to repeat the points and echo some of the Public Comments. Id like to emphasize that the project sponsor here has misstated the legal standards that apply. I explained in my presentation. Like to emphasize that we support consumers having stronger connection to the food, as discussed earlier, just to dispel the implication there are dubious alternative motives. Our appeal was limited to environmental effects alone and most of the comments you heard in support of saba today regarded the merits of the facility, which were not addressed by the Animal Defense Fund and the merits of the facility are not at issue here. I would like to emphasize that. The scale of the facility, 146,000 animals are killed annually. I should say are transported, confined indoors and slaughtered, which breaks down to an animal per minute being slaughtered. This is not the extremely small operation that the project sponsors would like you to believe that it is. I would like to emphasize that ceqa does complicate effects on animals as agriculture resources and i appreciate supervisor cohens questions, but i would emphasize two things. First that the again the proper forum for those questions would have been in the ceqa process before the conditional use permit was granted and i would submit that nothing that we heard today addressed the concerns with regard to animals, the animal Legal Defense fund raised in the appeal. Those are still unaddressed on the record. Lastly, i would like to say that the projects sponsor attempt to reference other businesses that it seems none of us have ever stepped foot in and using letters from residents in oakland that purport to know how the San Francisco facility will function, is exactly the type of speculation that cannot form the basis of a ceqa determination and using the states own records from state inspectors of the oakland facility, they have documented issues, like excessive moisture and sanitation problems. I would urge you to use those records as the basis of or to demonstrate how the oakland facility operates. And so again, we urge the board to remand this project to the Planning Commission to the environmental effects can be considered before it is granted a conditional use permit. Thank you. Thank you. This hearing has been held and is now closed. This matter is in the hands of the board. Supervisor cohen. Cone supervisor cohen just a few closing comments before the vote. I want to thank everyone who came out, the people that met with myself and the staff in the office. Takes a lot to come out and part pate in this process. I want to close the hearing by saying that i took the allegations of the environmental injustice and evasion of necessary ceqa considerations incredibly seriously. We are talking about the Bayview Community which experiences disproportionate levels of harm with quality of water, air pollution, there is no doubt and no mistake. But there is one thing i definitely want to correct on the record, that is that San Francisco in the southeast, dog patch and baby was known as the slaughterhouse. It was butcher town because thats where these types of businesses that served the city and county of San Francisco and yesterday, were operating. And over time, community began to buy into and build up a neighborhood around these types of industrial and Light Industrial businesses. So i dont want the record to reflect thinking that people have been living here and these industrial businesses popped up. It was quite the contrary. The businesses were there first and then people, because of the land being cheap, because of red line and because of racism and people racism that prohibited people from getting large loans to purchase a home, they had to go where the land was the cheapest. But to say that you will, i stay to say i take all of the Health Outcomes extremely seriously and want to be sure that any business that we consider placing in the neighborhood would not compound any of the already existing health issues. And i believe that this would be the case with the proposed saba poultry butcher facility. Ladies and gentlemen, i have truthfully not learned anything new from the presentation today, nor through the work that my office has done over the past few weeks that would compel me to overturn the Planning Commission decision to approve the conditional use and stop this butcher facility from moving forward in the process. Frankly, im happy to outclient reasons. The project site is outside of the area pollution exposure zone. You heard comments about the freeways, and about particulate matter. The bottom line, this site is isolated and it is outside of the air pollute ant exposure zone for district 10. There is little to no debris that is projected to go into the sewer. We heard from the expert over the puc, thank you for being here, to share your expertise. In fact, the waste will be hauled offsite to a facility less than two miles away. At the end of the day, were talking about replacing a towing company, a towing company that had far more adverse impact on the environment. It yield would a substantial amount of emissions and instead of bringing free ainge and organic poultry options into district 10. The bayview, many of you already know, is a food desert. That means access to healthy food is very difficult. And so, i believe that this project, would be an added benefit to the neighborhood. Not only to our muslim neighbors who can only eat halal meat, but to the hundreds of residents who prefer to buy fresh poultry over chain retailers. The halal meccaed is different, not method is different, because of the how the waste is collected and disposed of. The majority of the work is done manually. Of the machines used, saba uses electric, not dieselfueled machinery. Lastly, i want to be clear this is not just a this was not simply expedited permit for approval and want to assure people this was not that thoughtful consideration was given, but this project must go through must still go through additional review and get more approval beyond this conditional use. San francisco is a Culinary Destination from farm to table, where many of our restaurants pride themselves on the freshness of their food from the produce, to the meat. The i believe this business gives additional options to neighbors and restaurants alike. I like to see there is a true benefit to the city. I want to say on the record im truly reticent that some of the things im hearing with regard to the effort of the appellant. Im concerned because i think there was attempts to mislead constituents. I was told that aldf made attempts to seize on peoples fears Walking Around talking to people, knocking on their doors, telling people their Property Values will be halved if they dont oppose this facility. I want to assure the constituents in the southeast that are going to be the near the facility, that Property Values will not be disrupted. If this were a traditional slaughterhouse with diesel machinery and more variety of the animals being slaughtered, i might feel compelled to challenge the ceqa exemption, but this is about poultry, processing operation, located in the correct industrial zone. So with that, colleagues, i ask that you join me in supporting the Planning Commissions decision. Id like to, madame president , make a motion that we approve item 25 and table items 26 and 27. President breed supervisor cohen has made a motion to approve item 25 and table item 26 and 27. Seconded by supervisor safai. Supervisor peskin. Supervisor peskin thank you, madame president. First of all, i want to associate myself with the comments of mr. Duffy, which is that this should be decided as a matter of ceqa and not as a matter of halal or as a matter of animal rights. I believe a category one exemption has been correctly issued. The primary argument from the appellant is really an argument around transportation. And i dont believe that there is any evidence in the record that could lead this board to actually come to the conclusion that there is an unusual circumstance or that there are transportation impacts. Quite frankly, if this were before us as a conditional use appeal, it would be an entirely different matter. But as a ceqa appeal, i believe that a categorical exemption as a class 1 exemption was properly issued and agree with supervisor cohen and will vote in the affirmative on her motion. President breed thank you. Supervisor safai . Supervisor safai thank you, madame chair, president. I would like to associate myself also with the comments of supervisor cohen. For a community that doesnt often come out, one that is working often in the late hours of the evening, many of the folks in the audience are januaitor janitors, they dont often januaitor janitors, they dont often present in the hearings. I want to first recognize them. I understand the frustration on resident when they hear arguments that are based on traffic and flow, and waste and so on. But at the end the day, this is a Land Use Decision and this does not rise to the level of ceqa. In terms of the categorical one exemption. So id like to commend supervisor cohen for balancing out the issues at hand. But also addressing what is real and that neighborhood and it is a food desert. This is a healthy option. And this is something that i fully support and agree with her argument wholeheartedly. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor tang. Supervisor tang thank you, colleagues, i felt compelled to speak, because i often associate myself with the comments and thoughts of the animal Legal Defense fund and really appreciate their work. So i did want to explain that you know, today b the core us, ceqa determination that we are voting on and, yes, as supervisor peskin said, if this were a conditional use permit appeal before us, i would be voting a completely different way. That standard would be whether this