In arizona nevada and texas and opened three more in recent weeks but in San Francisco theres only one remaining so why is the sam women shop doing so well outside the Sandwich Shop outside the city . Permitting gridlock made sf too expensive for Small Business owners. Most Small Businesses cant endure a year of paying rent or waiting for permits before allowed to start making money. Another problem is by San Francisco standards, it is considered formula retail. This triggers additional red tape such as 30day comment period. It took two years to open, i know what im doing, he said, if it wasnt for the city i could have opened in 60 days and i know that because we opened in oakland in 60 days. He says the system is set up so only formula brands like starbucks can withstand a year of rent without generating revenue. In other states they are having issues with vacancy so they are making it easier. San francisco is doing the opposite. I was going to say all these things and i realized i read an article that said the exact same thing. Please dont take this discretionary review. And support the flying falafal. I just had one coming in and it was delicious. Next speaker. Ill try to be fast because its late. I ask you to approve the project. I assume you will because this is unexceptional. I shall not be here. [indiscernable] more red tape. We hear theres a retail crisis. So i ask you please stop the discretionary review process so i dont have to come again next time a business opens. Thank you. Have a good night. Thank you. Next speaker please. My name is sam and i support approving this project. First and foremost, the new restaurant on castro street will be a big win for the local economy. It will create jobs at the restaurant and among its suppliers that will raise tax revenue for the city to use on education healthcare and fighting the homelessness crisis. It will create more choices for consumers and generate foot traffic for the other businesses in the neighborhood. But more important than any of those things approving this project sends a strong message. The zoning code is supposed to protect people from congestion, pollution and unsafe building practices. Its not supposed to be an excuse for special interests to seek out their own narrow concerns. And yet the only reason we are here tonight is because a business is trying to keep a competing business off its turf and we should stand up to that and rather than wall off our neighborhoods we should welcome businesses eager to invest in the community. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker please. Good evening commissioners. Steven. Weve built a system of government thats undemocratic, uninformed and fully captured by special interests. This discretionary review is an abuse of process thats supposed to serve underrepresented members of our community not Business Owners who want to keep out the competition. I support flying falafel because i believe in entrepreneurial america where Small Business people can pursue their dreams. An america that doesnt foster bad behavior, that welcomes shops on every corner. I urge this commission to say no to capitalism, special interests capturing the regulatory process. Instead say yes to competition yes to Small Business, say yes to capitalism that serves the community. Thank you. Next speaker please. Im Jeremy London from liberal. Im a proud San Francisco resident of 15 years. Im a homeowner here. And i think we need to allow for more in our economy. While there might be reasons to require these kinds of reviews for certain things, i think its obvious that this isnt one of them as my associates spoke earlier, i want to cosign on their comments about how this is a abuse of the process. But speaking more broadly and i think most of you know our economy is transitioning away from a as much retail i think we all know, we are overretailed. Why . Because we know the economy of retail is moving more and more online, especially for the types of residents who tend to live in neighborhoods like the castro. We need to allow for this kind of flexibility to allow our businesses and our space to accommodate for how the economy changes. We cant letting away economic change or growth nor should we. We shouldnt mandate retail when retail might not be viable anymore. We shouldnt mandate full Service Restaurants when full Service Restaurants might not be viable anymore. And many of the reasons why full restaurants arent viable anymore because of labor cost which is tied to our housing crisis. We should enable businesses to adapt to the challenges that businesses face. Its hard to own a Small Business in San Francisco and requiring months and hours and months and hours and people waiting here to give Public Comment just so you can open a business is simply unjust. Thank you. Next speaker please. Please approve this project so we can achieve our dream of falafel shops on every corner. I would like to submit this into the Public Record as evidence of the future that we want. So Small Businesses have it hard in San Francisco. Small businesses are being hit from all sides with skyhigh commercial rents the highest costs of living in the country and an insane permitting process. This created a problem with vacant storefronts in many neighborhoods including the castro that threatens the vitality of our commercial district. This discretionary review is completely bonkers. Theres nothing special about two middle eastern restaurants on the same block. Thats just called a city. Transparent self interested anticompetitive behavior should not be tolerated. Our policies should not be abused for private practice. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker please. My name is gupta. What all my friends before me have spoken about the economic reasons why the shop should be allowed to go ahead. I support all of those. But i would also like to speak about the benefits of having the flying falafe which is a store that i am a patron of for a number of years. Im a vegetarian and have been for a while now. And at the same time, i love middle eastern food and Mediterranean Food which stands to be extremely meat heavy and i havent been able to have a good gyro in a long time. They have the kind of options that are not available at most gyro shops. They have options that include meat substitutes as well as falafel and they are all extremely delicious and i very often have picked up a pita with fake meat, which is almost as good as the real thing from the flying falafel in berkeley. A year ago my brother visited me from seattle bringing his oneyearold daughter, my niece who at that age was not able to eat many things. She was very picky doesnt like things with odd textures. So we were trying hard to figure out what it was she would enjoy eating so we walked into the restaurant in berkeley and picked up a huge box of every one of their available options and that day she sat down and ate each of them. She didnt leave a single scrap on the plate. So for my sake and for the sake of my niece please approve, let the flying falafel open another shop. Thank you. Anyone else want to publicly comment in support of the project . Seeing none, dr requester, do you have a rebuttal . Jeremy on behalf of gyro express. Falafel got this case here but its not about falafel. We welcome the flying falafel to the neighborhood. Theres a vacant food Service Place right across the street. I hope they choose to open there or somewhere down the block. What this case is about im going to quote one of the speakers in opposition to this dr. He said, we shouldnt enable retail when retail is not viable anymore. Im not willing to accept that. That is what this is really about. Is retail viable . If retail is viable its going to need quality retail spaces for them to go into. This space at 463 castro is the last really good retail Space Available on that block. And it needs to be preserved for a retail user. And we welcome the flying falafel to be it it fourth falafel business elsewhere on this block. Thank you. Thank you. Sponsor would you like a rebuttal as well . Okay. Well close that hearing. Commissioner richards. In the six years ive been on this commission, weve only heard two change of use drs. The other was filed by a woman who you may know named sonia. She filed it on the laundromat on octavia market. That business had closed and started questioning this whole change change of use stuff. I think asked the director after weve been talking about this retail thing for many, many years now. In fact, 13 years we do need to look at how and what the process is to have businesses go into our neighborhoods. Because what worked in 1978 i think when the last real code was written probably needs to be updated or refreshed for 2019. I met mr. Asaf in castro. Let me just back up. The castro used to be a place where a lot of people went shopping. I mean a young gay boy, i would drive up from san jose and go to Retail Therapy and all these places that are no longer there. Retail therapy is now a wells fargo bank. There used to be skin therapy which is now a Human Rights Campaign fund. The list goes on and on and on. I sat on the Community Benefit district had a task force on retail landscape in the neighborhood. And i left that endeavor in 2014 when i actually came here on the Planning Commission. Our neighbor this is my neighborhood. I live a block and a half away. I eat falafel a lot. I like rossys now that mr. Paul suggested i eat there because i talked to him about this. But our neighborhood is probably one of the worst places to go for any Retail Experience. The only Retail Experience left is cliffs. And i pretty much know everybody by name. And i say to staff, im back here for another fing trip to cliffs. They own the building and thats great because they are going to stay, and the family wants to stay. The rest of the retail landscape is im having a hard time thinking about where else there is retail. Theres a rollo on market street. And i dont know, am i missing any . Is that all thats left . Okay knobs across the street. So i guess the question i have is we look at north beach. North beach has a high vacancy rate. We are supposed to have a 20 percent concentration of eating and drinking establishments which is the recommended number. We get something for north beach and i think theyre at 75 percent eating and drinking establishments. I went to original joes recently, i said lets go into a store and get something. We walked on grant street, green street. The only thing we found was city light folks was the only retail place left in north beach. That kind of thing is happening in the castro. I mean we are a retail desert, becoming a retail desert at this point. The neighborhood is in a death spiral. I think flying falafel would help us get out of the death spiral. I firmly believe we need it to come into the hood. I met mr. Asaf for a cup of coffee at starbucks, one of the only formula retail we have there. Before the voters decided we need to clampdown on it. And we talked. Could you come up to the podium, please . When we talked, you indicated that you need a 100 square foot store. And after we had coffee at starbucks i said lets walk around the neighborhood and look at all the available 100foot little places that are available and vacant. We went across 18th street for the shoe store used to be. Walked up 18th street where the eyeglass shop used to be and then we found a place next to where you want to go in a parking driveway next to parkitos. If you want great food, try it. We had this conversation and you said these other spaces probably would be better because they are probably smaller maybe cheaper. One is already retrofitted for a restaurant. It was a restaurant and its no longer there. And we talked about what you needed the subject property address. And you made a couple of calls to the folks that had available for rent signs were in the window, correct . And i said, well you probably need to call your real estate agent. He said she didnt find these spaces and they are literally right next door. Do you recall this conversation . Yeah. And i said i walked into the Clothing Store that was in the all american boy and it seemed to be thriving. And i said to you why not sublease the place to the person whoever had that popup store. It was pretty crowded. It was almost like all american boy was back. But it was all american everything womens and mens clothes. What was the situation around the popup store because it looked like it was successful and it looked like there were probably better locations. So can you tell us what happened to the popup store . I offered them to potentially continue. Okay. And they didnt want to. They didnt. Yeah. One of the reasons is i think some houseless person i think may have attacked one of their employees. Im not sure. Oh, really . Yeah. So one question i dont see anybody else on the roll. If we i mean, planning and zoning serves a purpose. So north beach is just kind of dead because its got too many restaurants and no retail. I want that to happen to our i dont want that to happen to your neighborhood but i think flying falafel would be a great addition. If we were to approve your not to approve your project today would you still move into the neighborhood . I would try. I would try to find a better. More appropriate space. Another space. Okay. Do you feel there are enough other spaces that you could choose from . That i dont know. Its not as straightforward as just picking a vacant space. Sure. So theres we would definitely try. Okay. Great. And i think the merchants would probably also assist, because i think you would be a great addition to the neighborhood. I also think some type of retail space in that location should stay because its one of the last Retail Locations we have left. And i would love to hear what any other commissioners think but im starting to formulate we can have both flying falafel and a remaining retail space in the neighborhood, and we can all win. Commissioner moore. I have a question for you. Just looking at scenario that was just discussed between the two people couldnt the falafel store of that kind, that size be more quickly approved under a Small Business application . This could be done in weeks right . Not really. This is a discretionary review based on a project that. Can you turn the mic on . Im saying if this wouldnt get approved in this location, he could come back and facilitate without dr. Assuming he goes into another location that is permitted use by right as he is here, if it requires a change of use, he would go through 311. If it is an existing limited commercial or limited restaurant space he could go in without going through the notification process. And he could basically proceed. But he would have to find another location with the same use. This is a change of use. Its permitted by right. Its different from normally we are taking a use like this, its a conditional use authorization, there are particular findings we are making. This is an unusual situation. This is a change of use 311 notification rarely are these are discretionary reviews filed on these. So in essence, it is a permed use by right permitted use by right. Would anybody like to make a motion . Commissioner richards. Im not sure how commissioner fung feels. He hasnt weighed in. Ill wait to chime in after him. Theres a lot of empty spaces. If he signed a lease, im supportive of it. So what would your motion be. I want to be on the wrong end of a motion. I make the motion to disapprove of the change of use. Is there a second . I second that. I want to see where it goes. Commissioners on the motion to take the dr and disapprove. [roll call] the motion fails 31 with commissioner fung voting against. Is there an ultimate motion . Can you explain if there is no alternative motion it is approved. Thats right its a principally permitted project. You could entertain another motion. I couldnt in good conscience continue this because he is paying renton this place. I dont want to renton on this place. He is being harmed financially. Well take up the matter for 20141063 at 633 folsom street. This is an informational presentation. Good evening commissioners. Planning department staff. The item before you is an informational item about a public art component 633 folsom street. It is associated with a 12story Office Building under construction which is expected to be completed in 2020. The project sponsor selected our project downfalls in a sculpture which is proposed in a space along folsom street. He is here to provide more information on the art and artist. This concludes my presentation. Good evening commissioners. Im jody from art Source Consulting in San Francisco. Im pleased to be presenting to a Planning Commission the public art for 633 folsom street. Excuse me, maam. Those persons leaving the room if you could do so quietly, we would certainly appreciate it. Go ahead. Our submittal which you have reviewed includes detailed background on the artist, a comprehensive budget zoning maps and information on the materials and fabrication. So today ill present a brief overview. The company the project sponsor retained my company to retain public art requirement for 633 folsom street. This is a renovation project adding five stories onto an existing building. The project architect has completely redesigned the facade and its street level presence. Construction is underway and on schedule. The building is topped out the facade is currently being installed. And the completion is scheduled for 2020. While the company has a requirement for public art the company will be investing 450,000 to realize this exciting piece of public art for the city of San Francisco. I wanted to bring your attention to exactly where the site is. There was some question about where it is on this site. As you can see on this slide its highlighted in gree