This lower corner is 80 feet downhill from the upper hill in the site. Slide 6 shows the entry to the north building. 25th street to the right. Connecticut to the left. Showing how the building uses the steep hillside site. I should note that the color youre seeing is representational. Were still developing color pallets as we continue to develop the design. Slide 7, reflects the 40foot drop along 25th street. Only three stories at the highest elevation and down to the left with the existing grade. Slide 8 shows the same elevation looking east toward phase 1 at the bottom of the hill. And here you can see the attention to the attention to landscaping, articulation, trying to create a rich neighborhood experience. [bell ringing] go to slide 9. Similar story, building stepping down the hill with the areas above the 50 feet limited to the courtyard space. The building also incorporates 50 child care Daycare Centers at the center of the slide where the white van is shown in the dropoff area. Slide 10 showing articulations and landscapes that create a warm and inviting experience for the residents. Slide 11, the south most elevation. This is really only seen from 101 and 280 [bell ringing] bay shore. Just two more slides. Slide 12 is looking up connecticut at the entry to the lower building. Again, streets lining both sides of the hill and articulation and highlights the lower level. Slide 13 is connecticut street with the single garage entry. Were providing. 49 to parking ratio with the mini park just above the entry. And that concludes the presentation. And hopefully youll agree we created a dynamic active programming, landscaping while mitigating the challenges of a very steep site. All with the benefit of Affordable Housing, 57 families surrounded by community benefits, programming and activities. Were available for questions. Jonas does that conclude the presentation . I would like just to mention you one thing. Even though were showing block b, its approval is not actually before you. Planning staff is still analyzing the design of block b. And it will be approved separately under different process. That is described in the da. Of course, this height increase is necessary for that approval and that is what is before you. Thank you. Jonas so does that conclude the presentation . Yes, that concludes the presentation and id be happy to answer any questions. Jonas very good. Commissioners, we should take Public Comment. If we can go to the q a portion. Announcer your conference is now in question and answer mode. Jonas members of the public, this is your opportunity to enter 1, then 0 to enter the queue. Why dont we go ahead and take the first caller . You have one question remaining. Jonas caller, are you prepared to submit your comments . Hello, caller . Hello . Jonas yes. Yes, my name is edward hatter, executive director of the potrero neighborhood house. Ive been online since 1 00 this afternoon and i really want to commend you on your recent legislation or on racism, but this is one of the prime examples weve been talking about cultural racism. This city has not been explained to the community who will be living there. All right . Not even the ones that live around there but the people who are living there. Ive been to two Community Meetings with this new proposal for the height increase. A total of 26 people. Thats not even the amount of people they want to increase units by. I really look at this project as segregation of poverty, racism. Theyve taken the footprint of 100 units and now trying to put 157 units in half that distance. That is insane. Especially going through this covid virus now where everybody has been sheltered in place. Think about the lack of outdoor space this project is going to create. We already have 72 units across the street where theyre at each others throats because they cannot understand the need of living on general floors. These people are moving out of walkup apartments into general floor living and trying to get along with no outdoor space. Kids rolling by in bikes in the streets and up in hallways and things like that. We cannot afford to keep doing this. This will add another 75 years of the same racism weve been enduring for the past 200. I look at just the demolition work. They thought it was so important to demolish the Old Buildings that they did it while the people were confined to their homes, having all these heightened exposures with asbestos raining down on them. What kind of gesture . Please do not consider the height increase . Let them stick with the 120 units of lowincome housing. And if they really want to do justice for the poor people, let some of the marketrate housing absorb the lowincome housing units. Announcer you have zero questions remaining. Very good, commissioners, the matter is now before you. Commissioner fung im supportive of the project an do not see the height increase impacting the overall development. Would so move to i approve this amendment. Second. Commissioner moore based on the resolution this morning, i would like to ask the commission to discuss this matter for a moment. In principle, i believe that the height increase is not noticeable, except for those who have never lived in higher density housing before. We all live in i live in a building with actually 60 units. I have always lived in Apartment Buildings and im used to it. However, for people who lived in townhousetype, this may be a step up that may cause tension and i think we need to be at least discussing this before i support it. I like the project. I think its well designed. Its a wonderful challenge. It makes the project better, the 80foot height difference is helping the problem. Commissioner diamond. Commissioner diamond so in principle i agree with the goals that were stated for this redesign and i really dont have a problem with the height increase, but i am concerned about two very large lshaped buildings and what theyre going to do to make them feel like home for the people that live there. You mentioned modulation and stoops, beyond the architecture, what is it that will make it feel like noninstitutional buildings . And what are you doing inside the building that will make this feel like a welcoming place for people and one they call home . If staff could address that, i would appreciate it. Especially with an eye toward this mornings discussion. Department staff. I may ask the architect to help me or bring up the plans again. You know, assuring that the buildings feels comfortable and are part of the community are certainly a huge part of what we want to make sure the project is designed. In our view, the courtyard, the ability, the different programming, theyre still working with the community to fully program the open space in the courtyard so they have amenities that they would like. You know, i think that the other thing about this project, its one of the first blocks i think the totality of the site and some of the amenities that are going to come in later phases need to be considered. Hope sf includes a park, 30,000 community center. Those arent delivered now, but we think that this portion, even though its being delivered early, is going to contribute to the totality of the hope sf project. Again, we think that the heights we dont see the height as an issue. We see the delivery of those affordable units at an earlier stage is really important. It means that more people, more residents have the ability to move into the new units at an earlier stage. And if the architect wants to contribute to the comments, that would be great. Ill just simply remind you need to share any slides that the architect needs to speak to. This is marie. Im happy to answer questions if you can hear me. Great. Yeah, ill be happy to address the question about how were adjusting this. The residents that moved into the 1101 connecticut building, the first phase that was completed, have received assistance from Service Providers that were engaging with and hope sf to make sure that the transition is smooth. And even after residents move into the Apartment Building, we are working with them, working with adjusting to apartment life versus living in a townhousestyle home. And that work has been going on for quite a while. Its proceeding as well right now even though residents moved in a year ago. And were a planning the same type of outreach work for the b building. I just wanted to also say, matt, you mentioned that were programming a lot of open space for we learned from block x, were going from 5,000 square foot open space, outdoor open space as an interior courtyard on block x to almost 24,000 of private open space, interior courtyard that is designed for the residents. And so we are trying both with the design and the layout of the interior court open space to address that. And hope that it makes it make the future residents feel like this is their home. Commissioner diamond can you address my questions about how these two very large buildings will fit in with blocks a and c so it all feels coherent and these dont stand out . Sure. Im happy to do that. So the block b building, there are two of them, will in scale be similar to the block x building that is already completed. As you saw from the master plan, theyre located adjacent to each other. Block x and block b. Block x was about 72 units. And in scale and height is very similar to each of the block c buildings and they each contain about 70 75 units. So theyre very similar in scale, height and total number of units. And the block a building which will be a marketed building located immediately to the west of block c will also be a similar height and scale as the block b building. And what about block c across the street . Block c will be across the street from 25th street. That is part one of later phases but that has a 50foot height restriction to begin with and also expected to be of similar scale than block b. Commissioner diamond one other question. Inside the building, are there Community Rooms . Homework rooms . What physical space have you included inside the buildings that allow people to feel like, you know, they have access to more than just their unit . And they encourages development of neighbors, neighborhood relationships, et cetera . Yes, thats a good question. Inside the block c building, we have a Large Community room that opens up to the interior courtyard for programming of residents. We also added a team room at one of the buildings. And we have a Community Garden that were bringing up to block b which is going to be part of the later phase. It will be acceptable to the public, but will be programmed into the space. And, yes, services that we are planning on bringing into the building will help people get settled there, but also the program will be, you know, for kids, for all residents that live there to get them situated in the new building. Thank you. Commissioner imperial thank you. I have a question. I dont know if matt can answer this or bridge, the sponsor. When the height increase was proposed, was there a Community Support or consensus on the height increase . So we conducted several Community Outreach meetings in smaller settings and then a final Larger Community meeting. And we initially met with supervisor walton to get his take and input. And got some really good feedback in terms of making sure that we keep the same parking ratio that we had in the previous scheme. And also make sure that we have more larger sized unit for the families. We made those adjustments. They were well received by all groups that we presented to, including some neighbors. And we heard some comments about about various things. Nobody really commented too much on the height. There was comments just like edward who called into the line here. And a couple of other people who voiced concerns about the density. But i have not heard comments on the height. I hope that answers your question. And what were the comments on the density . The comments were that we went from 120 to 157 units and just like the caller earlier described, that people are moving into apartmentstyle buildings which is an adjustment already. And that it will be difficult to adjust to that. And then densifying the building will make that even more difficult. Commissioner imperial thank you. Im generally supportive of this height increase. But looks like there will be more Community Dialogue in terms of the community design. And in terms of the or the Design Guidelines that will probably come back to us as well. Thats where im at. I would like to add, as part of the outreach weve done, we noticed that tenants have voiced a desire to participate more in the design. So we have announced at the last Community Meeting that we will hold a Design Workshop with our residents. Well probably do that in early july to get some input from them as well. That was the desire definitely a desire around the open space programming. Thank you. Commissioner fung i think it would be also important to reflect on what was there before. To the south and west were a whole series of these twostory buildings, almost like a cookiecutter comprised predominantly of apartments that had two small bedrooms, a living room space and an open kitchen off the living room. And that was what was the nature of this of the housing that was there before. Cut very uncreatively into hillside, no landscaping, no community facilities. So i think this is vast improvement in terms of the versus the units that were there before. Commissioner moore listening to the Public Comment that was made, i have to listen to the fact that somebody considers this type of shift from townhouse to Apartment Building as being a sign of inequity. I would agree with the observations made by commissioner fung except for the fact if you call a townhouse, no matter what design it is, as your home, you are used to a certain amount of identity within your own four walls, but its different from living going to your home along similar looking doors on an extended corridor. Youre walking by 10, 12, 20 units before you get to our own door. I think within that shift from lower density to higher density is potentially an adjustment factor that is hard to explain even with the amenities and design by our standards as better. Im here to listen to what the comment was and try to figure out a way to bridge between the perception of what we think is better and what the community that has to move into this has to see as better. Better amenities, but that is not the discussion. Its a question of where you move from one home into another home but you didnt have participation in the design or the discussion about the density. Go ahead, mr. Snyder. I hear that concern. I was thinking the same thing as the caller called in. You know, i just think i think the thing that come back to is considering the development of the potrero hope sf in its totality and understanding that this is one component and the reason why its going taller and perhaps more dense is to enable more people to live in those new units. And i understand the concern, this is a different type of Living Environment than what they might be what those residents might be used to, but i think the intent of the hope sf project is to improve their lives in a much stronger way. I think the buildout of the potrero hope sf project will see that happen. Commissioner moore . Commissioner moore thank you for summarizing that mr. Snyder. I agree with what you said. Perhaps there is a transitional time of introducing people how indeed that is not a reduction but an added quality of life. We have quite a few well designed Affordable Housing projects in the city. And perhaps one should invite future residents to take a tour and talk to residents in those units of how they feel about it. I think that would be the best way, because i believe that this project is well designed. Offers a lot more than what is, but that is for those people who moving in to discover by themselves and ultimately embrace that project as their home. There is indeed a learning curve and anybody could assist in helping in that learning curve, i think that would be good planning. Thank you, commissioner moore. This is bridge housing, the developer. Id like to just add that we, as part of the completion of block x and before residents moved in, we had an open house that allowed all residents of potrero hill to look at the units and walk through them and we encouraged communication between the residents that have already moved to the new units and the residents that are expecting to move to the new units to make sure that residents are adequately prepared. We also, i wanted to mention, had the ceremony that was planned with the Community Members for the first phase that we did to mourn their loss of the existing housing. And celebrate the new beginning. And we will do that for each phase Going Forward as well. Commissioner moore i appreciate those comments. Thank you. Commissioner imperial i am no architect, but and i believe i have good taste, but in terms of and i agree with commissioner moore in terms of the having the Community Members look in the future building, however, i always think as we are trying to close for the increase of height and this will come back to us in terms of the design, that were connection of height and density. It seems like the comment earlier was the concern of density. And so if the design will be rethink in a way that it will not be cramped, i think that is something that the residents and, of course, this is something that used to happen with the residents, and with the community, so i that is something i would like to request to the sponsor in how we think of the design in density. Commissioner fung. Commissioner fung perhaps i should have qualified my statement by saying that, that was based upon my own experience. You know, since i grew up in those projects. I think my opinion is that the new housing looks substantially better, but purely my opinion. Commissioner chan i wanted to also just acknowledge commissioner fungs comment just now. You know, someone who grew up in Public Housing in new york city, modernist complex, those 30story buildings, i dont see that reflected here. I think moving forward it would be important to really consider the totality of the neighborhood. And you know the dwelling unit in rela