i am a member of north beach -- north beach neighbors and north beach merchants. i went door to door to try to do the out reach that was required. one thing that i did discover was that this decision, although it is for grant avenue , has a significant impact on the whole city. that is why it is before you today. in the short time, we were able to get letters asking to deny the appeal from the alliance for a better district 6, which is jane kim's district, the mission district business improvement association, the jackson historic district association, the inner sunset group, the terrible park -- the taravel park merchant association. the city did an excellent job in the study and showed that the project sponsor met all the requirements the city has asked. there is also federal requirements that were met. this is something that is not done overnight. it takes about three years in san francisco. i urge you to deny the appeal. support the planning commission. this is a thorough and comprehensive thing. thank you. >> i am dave cruz. i am a resident of district 2. wel

telegraph hill north beach residential special use district and north beach special use district, with a 40 height bulk limit. 2000 mason street is an irregularly-shaped block owned by the city and county of san francisco, also under the jurisdiction of the recreation and park department and occupied bip the joe dimaggio playground facilities. 2000 mason street is located within a p zoning district, public zoning district, and the telegraph hill north beach special use district with an open space height and bulk limit. since packets were distributed last week, staff has received 23 emails regarding the proposed project. 16 of these communications expressed support for the project, as well as support for the e.i.r., and six expressed opposition. i have copies, if you'd like to review these. in order for the project to proceed, the commission must, one, adopt findings under the california environmental quality act, including the mitigation monitoring and reporting program. two, adopt general plan and priority poll sills of section 101.1 findings for the proposed street vacation and rezon

and north beach is our library. russian hill is kind of sandwiched between the pope corridor and the north beach corridor. but make no mistake -- it is our library, the north beach. and i feel with a passion so strongly about this e.i.r. going through. i mean, as i was crossing the street i thought, gosh, i had turkey the past two years. i was thinking of it in terms

most importantly, it has been a partnership with the north beach community and north beach neighborhood. this is one of the densest projects in the -- densest urban environments in the entire country. there are 4.5 acres of open 1000 residents. that is 95% below the city average. this truly is a dense urban neighborhood. we do not have tremendous opportunities to create more open space or to add recreational amenities in this neighborhood. here is a project that will result in a 20% increase in open space, 12,000 additional square feet of park and playground. and it has been designed in such a way that it makes the park more accessible for all -- for seniors, for people with disabilities, for parents with kids. it improve sightlines from the clubhouse and pool to the playground. it reflects the need for flexibility on the blacktop. the park is being designed to accommodate a number of different sports and activities, ranging from basketball to four square to roller hockey to soccer. it is a thoughtful design. it is a collaborative design. it is what the community has expressed loudly an

and north beach is our library. russian hill is kind of sandwiched between the pope corridor and the north beach corridor. but make no mistake -- it is our library, the north beach. and i feel with a passion so strongly about this e.i.r. going through. i mean, as i was crossing the street i thought, gosh, i had turkey the past two years. i was thinking of it in terms of holidays, how many holidays. and i hope you approve this going forward, in springtime at a barbecue and eating turkey and i'm not up here taking your time again. it's just -- i officially believe and our board of directors came up with reading is the key to knowledge. knowledge is the key to success. and success makes a lifetime. and a good environment is so important for everyone. so thank you for -- and i probably took too much time, so -- >> good afternoon. howard wong, friends of apple ton woeford -- wouldford library. i ask that the e.i.r. not be certified because it's incomplete, inaccurate and misrepresents many of the facts. the city's e.i.r.

i believe the north beach library should be redesigned. the wholesale removal destruction of it -- i see the libraries in the presidio branch and the richmond district that have not been knocked down. these are beautiful buildings that have been augmented and redesigned. also, i see tax dollars wasted. i have seen lots of different types of proposals that actually improve the original design of the building and augmented. those seem to be disregarded. what about the views of alcatraz? that would be blocked. i also work in the hotel business. granted, people are here for only five days or a week, but that iconic view will be lost forever. it looked like tennis courts for going to cover part of the baseball diamond named after the great joe dimaggio. my concern is that this project seems to be more steamrolled and thought through, as far as i have been able to observe. i encourage this project to be put on hold, at least so it can be reviewed more thoroughly, to the point where the a original building can be kept instead of being knocked dow

each district is different with respect to north beach. there are issues over there right now. we need to do something. this is a tourist town, and people come here from all over the world. although, i appreciate until midnight. i think this is very good legislation. commissioner yee riley: so should we get rid of this? open until midnight? >> we can change this in the future. i just feel uncomfortable introducing something right now with an open and to it. but in wants to get this program up and going, there is always an opportunity to revisit it. -- i just want to the this program up and going. i think really more from the direction is that our commission wants to see the green areas stayed green, and there are neighborhoods you want to pull themselves out, and they are welcome to do so. if the caveat to achieve that is we keep it at 10:00 p.m., we keep it at 10:00 p.m. otherwise, that is the first option, otherwise, another option is certain neighborhoods can save limited live performance can only be in their area until 10:00, where others may be until 11:00. does that make

., open space, for the new north beach public library. is it customary to mention a specific use? or would it be better to have it say, change to p. and o.s. for public use. rather than mentioning the library specifically? >> john mallman from the city attorney's office, that's actually just a finding for the support in the change in legislation so the actual zoning map doesn't say we're doing that, that this is done for the north beach library and in fact, the finding is clear it would be for a new public library or other public use. so it's sort of an expansive observation of what kinds of uses zoning can support on this site. >> following that argument, then, can we reword the resolution on -- if i can figure out what section we're in. vacation. it says for purpose of the north beach public library and joe dimaggio master plan, can we add other public use in there? >> john mallman from the city attorney's office. technically, the street vacation legislation is not before the planning commission. you play a role in that you are getting the general plan clearance to allow the vac

in the coverage in north beach is stated as best. supervisors, either they are making misrepresentations or the -- to the planning department or the consumers regarding the strength of their voice and data coverage in north beach. which is it? if they're making misrepresentations regarding coverage, what guarantees are there that they are not misrepresenting the measurements? in july of 2010, a group of concerned residents met with representatives from t mobil to discuss the plan to install the three and 10 at in north beach within 8 to block radius. we learned a key significant facts. first, cell phone companies measure the signals of their cell phone antenna on frequencies specific to their company and not cumulative. additionally, the signal is essentially directed towards the horizon. since they are often installed on roof tops, because of the characteristic of the city of san francisco and in particular in north beach, these installations are often end up emitting radio frequency directly. yet, the radiation is measured at st. l

i've seen north beach change a great deal. and i would respectfully submit that you tank this proposal. it's doing nothing good to enhance the city besides the views and all the other stuff. i'll get off now, make time for president olague: i called a few speaker cards, but if there's any additional public comment on the e.i.r. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i'm actually a landscape architect with the city for the last eight years. but you'll here today as a neighborhood activist of 20 years in north beach and have been very active in a lot of the community projects. i just want to let you know, this has been a very long process, extremely long. i personally have been involved for over 10 years in this project. and we have studied every iteration possible. and i'm really -- i know you've gone through a lot. the e.i.r.'s this thick. everything has really been studied and change is hard, but i think this is potentially the most beneficial project to our neighborhood and for our families. so i wanted to give you an indication,

in addition to 7, which we will do all over the city, we are going to add chinatown and north beach to our city streets -- to our sunday streets. that is going to be wonderful. it is one i have been trying to oversee as city administrator, working with our liveable streets and our chinatown chamber of commerce, our chinatown merchants association -- they are all very excited, and we will be looking at the way we have been using grant avenue, all the way through north beach, from california, across broadway, so we will have more details about that, but we do not have a date announced for that. we are working out the details, and we will listen carefully to all of the needs and concerns of our merchants along the area, residents, to make sure it is successful. the nice part of sunday streets -- it is not just the physical closing of the streets. it is really the way we work with all elements of our community to make sure we bring out things that are great for kids, for families, and the merchants will have an opportunity to read prioritize the way they welcome their traditional visitors

i think everybody agrees that north beach is one such area. proside open space for neighborhood commercial districts. most times, when the city employees come up here, they start talking to you about a park. there isn't any park. there isn't any park in the plan, period. it's just a playground. it's not a park. this plan is not going to make it a park. >> good afternoon. my name is pat, i'm here to speak on behalf of the playground. there were a number of comments made earlier regarding the shrinking of the playground and the loss of joe dimaggio baseball area. currently, that space that is the baseball section of the programming now is smaller than regulation and it is not used for baseball. people go and practice hitting balls and with the current design, as you can see, that space still exists. people will be able to play just as they always have. so it's not like there was a resource of joe dimaggio baseball that is being lost. the programming was well vetted in the public process early on to see what the public wanted in that programming

next speaker. >> i actually lived in north beach. i leave my house from north beach sometimes, too. all you have to do it is crossed into chinatown. like the lady said earlier, your call will drop. you will find dead zones within chinatown. we are talking about a continuous signal, a cohesive signal between cell towers. we are not going to go out and throw away our cell phones because somebody wants to go back to drums and sending carrier pigeons. they are demanding environmental impact reports. the city is in a financial crisis. to do eir's on projects like this is irresponsible. we have america's cup 2012 coming up. where is it going to take place? along fisherman's wharf, along north beach. you are going to have the upper class tourists coming. if they are here trying to use their cell phone and they're smart phone and their laptop and we get system busy, are they going to recommend that their friends come to san francisco and bring us tourist business? i do not think so. we all know what happened when we had the giants celebration downtown. we had dead zones. people could not ca

that meets the needs of the north beach neighborhood. this is a diagram which shows the existing site conditions with the existing library and location of the children's playground at the busy intersection of greenwich and columbus, and the tennis courts located at the center of the site at a distance of about eight feet below the children's playground. this shows the proposed phase one, which would include the construction of the new library, the closing of one block of mason street and the completion of the new park block. phase two would include future park improvements, including the new children's playgrounds, to be relocated at the center and heart of the site and also, the relocation of the tennis courts, so that the whole park block becomes connected and the library is now integrated into this new full park block. the 701 lombard site actually offers great opportunities. it's at the crossroads of north beach with incredible views to the coit tower, st. peter and st. paul's church, the crooked part of lombard street and transameri

from that, i will state that i do own and manage my own business in north beach. i also live here in san francisco. i actually still do have a land line. i do not actually know the number to it even though i have been there for five years. and never give up the number. but i have to call out on that number when i am at home. otherwise, on my cell phone, it drops immediately, randomly at any time. and i find it very embarrassing that in san francisco, the backyard of silicon valley, we are still coming across these challenges. we should be at the forefront of technology and should not have problems with having our cell phones drop on a regular basis. thank you. president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> my name is jose ricardo. i have a collection of 500 letters from various organizations, from the san francisco mission business improvement association, the after sunset merchant association, and north beach neighbors. that is from local residents and merchants. >> i just want to say one thing. president chiu: i am sorry, but you have already spoken. thank you very

i am a homeowner in north beach. i am surgeon on the emergency call to sf hospitals and real- life ont-mobile telephone service and to respond to life- threatening emergencies. >>signs are not permitted here in the chamber. it is a list of names of folks that support t-mobile here. >> i request that you facilitate the improvement in the network so that i might provide for my patients. the think that i might miss a life or death call the city bureaucracy hinders the network is unacceptable to me. thank you. >> and next speaker. >> good evening, supervisors. we support the micro cell antenna proposal. we urge you to deny the appeal. this appeal was sent in for the neighborhood and citywide. we need the cell

it looks like a box store, which by the way are not allowed in north beach. throughout this process, i keep wondering why "the chronicle" voices oppositions for landmarking in any of the city's buildings. now i know, if i were the chronicle in a herself corporation, i would have been against landmarking as well. they stand to lose millions of dollars under developmental efforts downtown if any of their buildings get landmarked. one of the three neighborhood meetings, the developers architects said the north beach library could not be rebuilt there because it was seismically unsafe. as all of us were late persons, no one questioned that -- laypersons, no one questioned that statement. no one spoke at that time the elimination of a baseball field, which was also part of the plan. also the friends of joe dimaggio keep pushing for a change of the playground that ends up reducing the joe dimaggio baseball field and actually making the playground smaller. joe's friends would never have allowed the baseball field to be eliminated. these so called friends are not rea

again, for north beach, that maintains what they currently are right now with conditional use. but when you're talking about the ocean avenue, our mission, you know, the lower 24, outer sunset, where there are cafes that are really looking forward to having this, there was one cafÉ that incurred an ada lawsuit. and i think about the commercial corridors where they're struggling. so i wanted to look and see. if we change the legislation from what we originally intended to look at just what is currently permitted. did i answer your question, commissioner riley? commissioner yee riley: sort of. that is going to be kind of expensive. president o'brien: commissioner clyde? commissioner clyde: where you need a c.u., since that is a different thing than limits in live performance, that is why we want to go with the option to allow -- north beach has an embarrassment of issues. there is so much going on. it is an issue, allowing flexibility within that very dense community. it is an issue. but the fact is, there is a lot of it now, and much of it happens later and into the evening. we