Rightofway they frame geary. Geary ask a boundary in the back. I think there is interest in having it more a boulevard where they would face across and be more connected. That is a conversation point with the community. I made add to that. I think our bone zoning boundaries our zoning boundaries are in the center of the street. Early on when we looked at the geary project they did evaluate filling in the pit of geary, unfortunately, the costs were astronomical. It will keep the there and we are forced to deal with that for some time. What do you do in light of the fact it is not going away . That is something over time we have to look at. I agree with you. I just want to say that this makes me very, very happy. I feel like your department is doing outstanding work. Thank you, director. Shortly after seeing and understanding the process that you went be through to get the guidelines down as well. I think this shows such a deep understanding of the community, but also a Good Relationship with the community that you guys have fostered. Thank you very much. Okay. That places us on item 11. Case 2016013312. You commissioner koppel you were absent and diamond you were not seated. To participate you need to acknowledge you have reviewed the previous hearing and materials. Yes, i did. Yes, i did. Good afternoon, commissioners. Warm welcome to commissioner diamond. Department staff. So this was the october 17th continued to today. A quick overview of the project. 61 story tower 750 feet, 800 feet with the rooftop. Three uses Residential Hotel and office. Which would be 155 dwelling, 189 hotel rooms and 275,000 square feet of office space. This is not adoption. This is a general plan to allow for height and bulk on two parcels and to rezone the western edge of the site. This cannot go forward until this is adopted. There is 30days from todays date. If you adopt this today the first available date would be january 9 in the next year, 2020. The gpa details if you wish. I will note about the shadow which was heavy topic last time. One of the parks in chinatown per the 1989 memo had no shadow. Zero. In 2012 as part of the Transit District plan, the Planning Commission and the rec and Park Commission together as joint commissions voted to adopt increase acl for seven parks one was willy park. The acl increased from 0 to 0. 3 . This would add 0. 1 one budget to the park wh within that rang. The specific shadow was very limited and limited in both time 8 15 a. M. To 8 30 a. M. Also late november to early january. Low angle winter sun. I am happy to elaborate if the commission desires. I will close. I believe project sponsor is not given time to speak. If you choose to hear from them, they may have an update about community outreach. Thank you. This is the second hearing on this matter. Generally Public Comment is limited to one minute. If that is the case lets take Public Comment on this item. No speaker cards. If you have Public Comment, come on up. Thank you, commissioners. Cj higley. Land use council. As mr. Foster mentioned. The action is to initiate consideration of the general plan amendments to ensure consistency between the downtown and zoning including zoning changes that we will propose when we hopefully return in january. I wont repeat what nick said, we are also happy to discuss the shadow in more detail if you would like. I did want to mention that the sponsor has been working closely with a number of community be organizations in chinatown since we were here in october and before that as well. I am happy to report the conversations are very productive. We have made Great Strides there, and i think that when we return in january we will have the full support of those organizations. At this time we request you initiate the amendment to proceed to a hearing on the mer merits. We are here to answer any questions. Next speaker. I am ted webker. We support the Hotel Project parcel f project. As the Union Representing the hospitality employees it is the utmost concern that. Jobs lift up the community by providing leading wages and working conditions for the hardworking people working in the city hotels. Hotel developers have supported the creation of good jobs by agreeing to remain neutral and present no encumbrances to form a union. These agreements ensure the jobs will be good jobs and the developer has worked with the union on such an agreement and as such it is setting the standard for other developers to follow. We are pleased to support this project. Thank you. Any other Public Comment on this item . Okay. Public comment is now closed. Commissioner koppel. I have been looking forward to hearing this project. It is a missing tooth on the transbay terminal. This is where we want the taller buildings near the transit, people walking to work. This is what the subway is being built for. I am in support of the project. Glad to see the Community Groups were met with and had agreements. Commissioner moore. I am in support of the project. It is a good addition to the tower. I would like to hear more about the shadow issue. Last time the community was here speaking about the effect of shadow. Today that issue is not at least being raised by the community itself. I would like to hear more about it. It will be at some other point. I am interested in hearing about the high ratio of cars added to this projected. The Transit Center has not arrived yet, it may at the future. 183 cars in the highly congested sets is of concern to me. Commissioner diamond. I wasnt at the last hearing. I did review the tapes. I, too, think the addition of the building is a good idea. I was quite concerned about the comments raised by the communities in chinatown. Even though park and reccommission approved unanimously the addition of shadow which is very important. I believe 2012 resolution required the architect to do whatever they could to minimize if impact of the shadow i would like to know what was done to anybodyize it and what it would take to eliminate the shadow and what impact that has on the design. Commissioner moore, did you want to add in . I would like to add that i would like clarification if the time when the shadow increase was approved the building heights were the same or have things become taller. I think they are taller. I think that is the rub. Did you have answers to these questions . So regarding commissionner moores question. Is it if the building is taller since the 2012tcdp . Yes. I dont believe that is the case. What was studied was a building that comply with the 750foot Zoning District as well as the additional 50 feet allowed for mechanical screening. This building is more slender. The upper tower has smaller floor plates than the straight vertical that was studied under tcdp. The Transit Center plan zoned it for 700 feet. The reason this is in front of you today is the building is shifted slightly to the east. It is the same height. That is why the amount of shadow is not increasing. The location of the shadow is increasing on the park, if that makes sense. I did want to address commissioner diamonds question as well. You know, the reality is the site is incredibly constrained. The location of the building on the site is really the only place that the building can below indicated on the site. The reason why it has shifted as the director mentioned is because of the location of the subgrade train box, which allows for access for caltrain and the highspeed rail into the new Transit Center. From is only so much structural load you can put over that. The building is cantilevered over that portion of the site and the remaining volume of the building is toward the southeast of the site. As i mentioned, what was initially under the tcdp would be a tower of the same height but 100 commercial with larger floor plates. One way that the shadow has been minimized or reduced is by proposed a more slender building. Residential floor plates are approximately 15,000 square feet, and they do present legs of a less of a shad do impact but it doesnt eliminate the shadow on chinatown. The visual screening at the crown architectural screening is completely transparent. It casts a shadow, it is diffused. It is clear glass. Again, it doesnt eliminate the shadow. In fact, i guess the bigger point is that in order to eliminate the shadow, the building would have to be reduced by 23 floors. Essentially the entire top of the building where it reduces down would have to be removed to eliminate the shadow. The tcdp envisioned the building at this height. It was the basis for the sale of the land which is going to fund the Transit Center and basis of the project we with proposing. Commissioner koppel. Just again seeing this is one of the first steps. We are not approving the project. This is the general plan amendment i make a motion to initiate and schedule the hearing. Is january ninth a good date . On or after. We have it penciled in there. Okay. Second. Thank you. On that motion then to adopt the resolution initiating general plan amendment and scheduling a hearing on or after january ninth. Can i add a comment . You want to provide a comment . Yes. Go ahead. I do think it is a good idea to move forward with the general plan amendment with the initiation. I hope by the time you come back in january that you and the groups that were here expressing concern about the shadow will have reached a resolution and be able to report on the results of that resolution. Commissioner fung. roll call . So moved. That passes unanimously 60. I want to Say Something that i should have said. My brain is moving slowly today. I wanted to wish commissioner johnson a very happy birthday. Thank you for being here, being a trooper for a long day today. Thank you. Happy birthday. Item 12. 2018016625dnc for 50 post street. Downtown project authorization. Good afternoon. The project before you is downtown project authorization for the crocker retail galleria 50 post street. It is a three Story Building with vaulted glass ceiling. In addition it is fronted with a small third frontage on the west side. The galleria and project also including the three story retail building located between the main portion and the ad jaysant adjacent hotel. It was approved in 1979 and constructed in 1983 as part of a larger project which included a tower and 25 montgomery and 111 sutter. That is all into the new galleria. The project today only involves the building itself and no modifications to the office tower. The original project called for open space in two main areas first on the roof of 1 montgomery and second above the three story retail building between th the daller ria. It includes increased tables and seating and movable seating. The proposed project consists of interior and ex steeria alterations and no building expansion except for elevator extension on the sutter street side of the building which allows for existing elevator to be brought up to the rooftop open space. The Square Footage would decrease slightly due to creation of new grand stair and public seating between second and third floors. It would replace 14,000 square feet of retail use at the third floor with office use which is a permitted use here in the Downtown Office district. On the proposed design the department supports the modifications proposed as they improve accessibility to the rooftop open space and result in Greater Transparency to the galleria and improve the sidewalk adjacent to the galleria. The project received very little Public Comment much of which was received in may. At that time the exists tenants expressed concerns how this might impact the dennis lease the tenants lease. They will resolve the issues. Staff received a letter of support from the galleria merchants. A letter was sept yes sent yest. The Department Finds the project is on balance consistent with the policies of the downtown and supports the approval with conditions to have the project sponsor continue to work with staff on final signs and finding to further guide Public Access to the rooftop. That concludes staffs presentation. I am available for questions. Thank you. Is there a presentation from the project sponsor . We do. Hello. I am sig anderson. We have been involved for a number of years. I was not here in 1983 when the project was completed. I understand it opened to great fanfare with solid base of retail tenants. Over the last 10 years, as most people can see going to the galleria today, there is a shift. There is a shift in where retail learns are located. More activity around union scare has changed that. They have struggled to retain retailers, we started to explore several years ago a number of options for how we could retenant the project and how we could modify some of the function that today is obsolete. Things like access off the street with the fairly dangerous steps going to the lower level and we looked at ramping to allow to solve ada access and enhance the Customer Experience to the project. Our architect will provide detail what that looks like. We have been working over the last year with existing tenants. The letter speaks for itself. Be. [please stand by] access across site. And really creates a destination for the community who visits, lives and works in the area. To achieve this, weve doubled the size of the Public Entrances on post and sutter. Weve designed large doors that open to the sidewalk when the gallery is open. And weve sloped up the ground floor to meet the sidewalk to eliminate the series of stairs and elevators that constrict and confuse the entrance today. In addition, we would like to extend a new elevator to the renovated space on the roof to also increase the access and public use of this space. Weve also reconfigured the existing dish on the post and sutter street elevation to bring it up to building code. So now the fair stairs exit on to the sidewalk, which is a much safer exit path in case of an emergency. At the exterior entrance, we have chosen to highlight the buildings greatest asset which is a glass barrel vault that connects the elevations. Weve made it the primary feature of the facade itself. And weve complimented that on either side with the scallops you see in the rendering. Its a ground and polished dfrc that resembles the look of stone with this texture you see. Weve also added seats and planters down at the base so the street is more active. And its also to engage the entrance more effectively. On the roof, we are proposing improvements to the space. We are, in addition to extending the elevator im sorry, we have opened up the stairs that connects to the roof as well that lead the public up to the roof and made it more accessible and transparent. We are also working with the planning to design the signage as andrew mentioned, to make it a prominent and feature the space for the public and for the site itself. You can see that we are also planning on renovating the roof, pavers, more landscaping, about three times the amount of seating. Some of that is fixed and some is flexible, to give the diversity of uses and programs up on the roof for the public as well. With that, i thank you for the time. Thank you very much. Do we have any Public Comment on this item . Okay. From supervisor peskins office is here. Good afternoon, commissioners. I wore gold today just for commissioner johnsons birthday. Hes not here so i thought i would wish her happy birthday. I am here in my capacity as supervisor peskins chief of staff. The project in question is located within district 3s c30 Downtown OfficeZoning District. Our office became aware of the proposed conversion back in april of this year after several longtime merchants operating in the galleria expressed concerns their leases were not going to be renewed in order to make way for new office space. So we became concerned, we got involved. Over the course of the last several months, those tenants organized themselves. The supervisor ended up convening meetings with the project sponsor as well as the Tenants Group. And i really want to acknowledge that folks did spend a lot of time and energy discussing those concerns. Given the potential for any conditional use authorization to be appealed to the board of supervisors, the District Supervisor holds neither a support nor oppose position. I did want to be on the record the Tenants Group confirmed that the project sponsor addressed the collective and individual concerns of the 20 plus Small Business tenants in the building, including the farmers market. I did want to make one note for the record. The supervisor did take issue with representations made by projects council in the letter to Planning Commission president melgar on october 10 of this year, calling out the supervisors c3r controls as a significant factor in the projects alleged delay. This is a little surprising, given that she was engaged in providing input to that particular legislation, and we all know the current project in question was not and is not actually inside of the c3r, and it is not subject to the conversion fee, it is not subject to those controls and should not, for the record, be attributed in any way to the delay of this project. So i thought that was notable. But thank you so much for your considerations in this matter. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is richard lee from wakefield, commercial Real Estate Organization internationally. Im a neighbor. I work in the district. I frequent the galleria frequently. In fact wakefield was the managing company for many years of this project but not currently. But i am in short in support of this modification, this change in use, if you will. I will frequent it. I certainly do, in fact, today i was there for lunch, and of course there was a c