thank you. >> president fong: open it up to public comment. i have speaker cards when i call your name line up on this side of the room. jennifer ma, jill astralia sustof, daniel mccarthy, john wellpachuck, scott bureau and -- >> hi. my name is jennifer ma, i live adjacent to this property since 2003, same time has the houses went on sale and i've been living there since then. what you don't see is pictures of the mess in front of my house that we constantly have to clean. i've lived there since 2003 and have not seen any of the people standing back there and i have neighbors that would be supportive of that. i want to state that clearly right now. so i live in the city most of my life, raised my kids in the house we live in now. we bought the house. we enjoyed the the look and feel of the neighborhood and want to continue to do that. we know the neighbors, my daughter is at preschool, we're vested in living in this area and we're engaged in the area, look out for each other and look forward to spending many more years living there. recently t

president fong and commissioners, i will be very brief. objective third party planning department has looked into this and they don't see anyway extraordinary privacy issues. they spent their time looking at the drawings and they did not see those privacy issues that the dr requester is mentioning. with regarding to the solar panels, they weren't there -- they added them after we proposed the project. and didn't take into consideration the project regardless at our own expense, at the request of the dr requester, we did a solar study. the reason why you are not hearing mention of the solar study because it clearly shows that it doesn't shade their panels, regardless of the fact that they used them as leverage against us to say we don't want this. and finally with regards to the stairs looking in, it would be remarkable to be able to look into a slanted bay window with the stairs. these are issues being brought up now. there was six months of silence from the dr requester where we continually asked them to talk to us and they didn't. thank

commission president fong, here. commission vice president wu, here. iana, present, boren, hillis, here, moore, hee, sugaya, here. first on your calendar consideration for items proposed for continuance. item 1, for 1856 pacific avenue, discretionary reviews have been canceled. under your regular calendar, item 12, case 2012.1183t and z amendments to the planning code for fillmore street there's a request from the supervisor's office to continue this item to january 10, 2013. we have just learned that item 18 for case 2012.0928dd and d for 2000 20th street all drs have been withdrawn. the only action in your continuance calendar is for item 12, if you so wish. >> president fong: is there any public comment on item 12 for continuance. >> commissioner antonini: move to continue. >> the clerk: commission antonini, aye, borden, aye, hillis, aye, moore, aye, wu, aye. 7-0. consenticle considered to be retoon by the planning commission and will be acted on by a single roll call vote. there will be no discussion unless the public requests in which case it will

>>> good even commissioner fong and commissioner and fong and commissioners managing sport port investors and the project s and steve is the probability magger to present the project to you but i want to say as a native san franciscoian who still lives and works here i'm possesses that our company is still able to be a part of plan and is the first parcelcele that your commission has been able to evaluate under the distribute plan in addition, we have enjoyed the collaboration with the plapping commission and the p gpa and i'll like to thank bob beck and mary and many other people in the city's family who have been helpful in the process over the last five years. >>> thank you president fong and steve shanks i'm the probability investor for the s k s prom and so if we ebbing we can get a screen out unfortunately jeffery is on at plain back to china and condition make it back tonight. specifically i would like to talk about how this project will help achieve these goals. first goal of the lan is really to create density for both office and residential density close to transit and you can s

. >> president fong: thank you. >> thank you for the opportunity to speak. my name is daniel mccarthy. born and raised in san francisco, actually raised across the street at 415 vincente. i've been looking across at the old miller house and knew the millers well and now welcome our new neighbors in a brand new beautiful house. we'd love to see the old one disappear. for a number of years now, i look sd directly across at the millers and the mas and vincente street, from the front of my house is a very dark street, gets very little light. i look across at the mas and see how they have totally blinded by these huge horrible trees that come out of 422. i know that's not your issue. but now what is being proposed is that they cut off all of the light on their north side, and put them in a canyon. and they have got two little kids that, vincente is not a good street to be playing on. it's a very busy street. and i'm sure that the kids spend a lot of time in the backyard. to put them in a dark cavern i don't think is right. as i said we totally welcome a new house

. >> president fong: thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i hope that this house will be built soon. i work in san francisco. and i pass by this property all the time because my church is in sunset, and also i have -- because i'm an insurance agent, so i drive around the neighborhood to take pictures of the houses. it seems this house has been vacant for so long it's an eyesore. when i pass by this house it caught my attention because it does not look good. and from the insurance agent's point of view that all the vacant houses, it has the intention to draw the squatters and interviewedders. and they -- intruders and they may go into vacant homes to do illegal activities. we hope this nice home, when i look at the pictures, it seems that it is conformed to the neighborhood and i hope that this project will be built soon so that it will not throw the bad people into the neighborhood. i feel that this nice project can improve and upgrade the whole neighborhood. thank you. >> president fong: thank you. is there any additional public comment? >>

>> aye. >> and commission president fong? >> aye. >> so moved, commissioners. that motion passes unanimously. and places you under your consent calendar. all matters listed here under constitute a consent calendar considered or routine by the planning commission and will be acted upon by a single roll call vote of the commission. there will be no separate discussion of these items unless a member of the commission, the public, or staff so requests. in which event the matter shall be removed from the consent calendar and considered as a separate item at this or a future hearing. item 5, case no. 2012.1142c, 2815 diamond street, request for conditional use authorization. item 6, case no. 2012.1327t, amendments to the planning code modifying section 726.52 to permit a personal service use on the third story and above with a conditional use authorization [board file no. 12-0880]. item 7, case no. 2012.0543t, municipal code miscellaneous technical amendments, fee changes, clarifications and corrections ordinance. that's all i have

>> commissioner borden. >> aye. >> commissioner hillis. >> aye. >> commissioner wu. >> commissioner fong. >> aye. >> that passes seven to zero will will place you under the consent calendar. all items constitute the consent calendar considered routine by the planning commission and acted about a separate vote by the items and no discussion until it is requested and shall be removed from the consent calendar and considered this or at a future hearing. there is only one at 1144-1146 castro street mandatory discretionary review. >> is there any public comment on this item on the consent calendar? seeing none. commissioner antonini. >> move to approve. >> is there a second? >> i will second. >> thank you commissioner. on that motion to not take it commissioner. >> aye. >> commissioner borden no. >> commissioner hillis. >> aye. >> commissioner moore. >> no. >> commissioner sugaya. >> aye. >> commissioner wu. >> no. >> and commission president fong. >> aye. >> so moved commissioners. that passes four-three with commissioners borden and wu and moore voting against want commissioners that places

. >> good afternoon president fong and commission. i am john harny and own sell and lease buildings in the area. i felt better but it came as a surprise to you. yesterday i sent you each a letter outlining my concerns. in a nutshell restrictions will hindzer viablity and historic resources. two, western soma shouldn't have different rules than eastern neighborhoods for fairness and consistency reasons. three, the department staff without use restrictions the sheer number of historic buildings will run the office space in western soma. it's the department itself that did that and 40% of the buildings in soma survey. the department created the stumbling block they're trying to overcome at this hearing. my experience tells me many of the historic buildings can accommodate only a few thousand square feet. there is no threat of office gold rush in the historic western soma structures. number five, last year spur wrote a letter asking for environmental review to better analyze the impactings of western soma survey and specifically reference

good afternoon president fong, commissioners. over the last seven years of the members of the western soma citizen planning task force have devoted thousands of hours of their own time to creating a new community plan, one that will preserve and enhance what is already here while making sensitive land use decisions to accommodate growth in a way that doesn't ruin what we already have. this has been an exercise in bottom up participatory democracy involving hundreds of members of the western soma community. i am grateful for the support of the planning directors going back to gerald green and including acting director larry bab ner, dean mackris and john ram. this has been a partnership and that's the key, an important partnership, with the planning department, the transportation authority, and the department of public health. i am also grateful to the board of supervisors who provided more than adequate funding so that we could engage asian neighborhood design as a partner with the planning department staff to provide research an

. >> president fong: is there additional public comment? seeing none, public comment portion is closed. commissioner moore. >> commissioner moore: i'd like to put to the record that this is a mandatory discretionary review, and the issues, which the residential design team has addressed are those typically addressed in a mandatory discretionary review. i want to say that i think the review is extremely thorough, creative, and supportive of those ideas that are important to us as a commission. i want to comment taking it down from the top, the 15 foot setback from the street is something which this commission has asked the department to consistently implement. it's not 11 feet. it's not 12 feet. it's 15 feet where it occurs on the street side of a property which is larger than two stories, because this particular setback should not be seen from the front. so it's really not an issue to question, but just to accept because this commission has used this rule and over the years had the department strong implement the same 15 feet wherever that

. >> and commission president fong? >> aye. >> so moved, commissioners. >> thank you. >> that motion passes +6 to -0. >> do you guys want a break here? >> really quick. >> i think we're going to take a quick -- yeah, five-minute break. thank you. >>please stand by; meeting in recess >> this is to develop a limited financial serve is e service sterling bank and trust at 115 pest portal avenue in the west portal neighborhood commercial district. the project is not considered for formula retail, formula retail exempts financial services. the proposed branch would occupy 199 square feet at the front of an existing commercial space. the department does not support this request because a large amount of commercial ground story frontage in the retail district is already occupied by several large scale financial institutions including bank of america, chase bank citibank, first america bank [speaker not understood]. their well served by these existing banks and other financial institutions in the district. in addition, the fina

. >>> hi, i'm lotus fong. and to use the convention & visitors slogan, mr. de la sandra should be happy. only in san francisco, there's two lotus fongs. so, i'm going to take this -- i only moved here 30 years ago. i remember johnny stein from muni. i personally knew three senior citizens who were killed at geary and laguna. so, i was at the meeting to get the limited stop, okay. what i see is the city's growing and gentrifying very fast. sometimes when you do things fast, you might be a little sorry afterwards. so, i'd like to support everyone else here who feels the sense of community in the city and also whenever i'm in chinatown, north beach, downtown, my husband and i, we stop and we help the tourists. we give them directions. you get off at powell between washington, you don't know where chinatown is. okay. so, in the interest of making the quality of life and transportation in san francisco better, it seems like we need to slow down, february 1st is not going to work, and rethink this thing. and in the

come on up reverend norman fong. [applause] >> yeah, that's true. i am going to keep this short, but i also need your involvement. i was asked to do a blessing but those that know me we need to bless each other and today i just want you to say these four words. bless the central subway. say that. "bless the central subway". now, whenever i say this word "this is it" -- i am borrowing from michael jackson. then you did a blessing. okay. this has been the moment we all been waiting for. this is it. >> (inaudible). >> a community dream is being actualized. this is it. >> [inaudible] >> communities from the bay view to chinatown are being connected. this is it. >> central subway. >> affordable transportation is the life blood of all cities. right? this is it. >> central subway. >> from washington dc to san francisco we are here to accept brait a federally supported and grass-roots driven transit project that represents access for all to jobs, health care, their families. this is it. >> central subway. >> okay. a little extra. in the national play offs o

. >>> good evening, president fong and commissioners, my name is steve adams. i am the managing director of the sterling bank and trust here in san francisco. and, yes, we did try to open up a limited use bank branch several years ago and we were denied. things have changed in these last six years. first off, we are a limited use bank bran. . we are not a full bank branch. the other institutions * that were described are national banks. we are community banks. we are a community bank based here in san francisco. with our branches here in san francisco and one in burlingame. for six years i have tried to lease out this space. i have had gladys real estate and cb ellis try to rent the space out. i had one offer from a company called cheaper cigarette. and because of my neighborhood, because i get involved in other neighborhood groups, i could not lease that space out to a cigarette vendor. and, so, i've had no other offers in that many years. and then i've had no offers for the last three years since that offer and it's just sitting there vacant. i did, even befo

ann hall stead and rodney fong. i learned we all work closely as a team to get to the vision you heard everybody mention. i'm really excited today to be on the port commission because there is truly a renaissance going on up and down the waterfront including projects like this which will provide beautiful public access and all the other things that are going on. i can't think of a more exciting time to be involved with the city and the waterfront and to be on the port commission. so, i just want to recognize and thank also the port staff. there are many of them here today, monique and her staff, and we have members in the development and real estate and i think again it takes tremendous amount of teamwork to make these things happen. and i think again, that is my message to thank everybody. thank you very much. (applause) >> i'd like to also point out former commissioner fx crowley who is here, thank you president for your kind remarks. now, the mayor mentioned this wouldn't have been possible without the generosity

antonini, hillis and fong voting against. so i'm want to go make a motion for 113. commissioner sugayaa. >> yeah, i would like to include some language that -- but i do not want to support the language that says we support continued evaluation and the one that is supported by staff and i'm perfectally willing to acknowledge that the process is under way and that we recognize that this process is under way. >>> second. >> commissioner antonini. >>> i would prefer staff language and i think if i'm not missustain, it was objective one 1.5 is that correct? language that makes it quite clear that there is a process already gone gun and that is one that we should be focusing on and while we are improving the shrinkage or down zoning of that area in this plan that we have our eyes forward to that and it doesn't say it's a preferred option and it does talk about it being out there in the future and so i would not be supportive of this particular one, i prefer the other. >> commissioner hillis. >> yeah, i prefer the objective one 1.5

>> aye. >> and commission president fong? >> aye. >> so moved, commissioners. that motion passes 6 to 1. >> the commission is going to take a short break and we will come back. >>please stand by; meeting in recess like to welcome everybody back to san francisco's planning commission hearing for november 29, 2012. i'd like to remind members investment audience to turn off any mobile devices that may sound off during the proceedings. commissioner, we left off under your regular calendar for the benefit of the public item 15 has been continued which places you under item 16, case no. 2003.0527u, 1000 16th street (daggett park) in-kind agreement. >> good afternoon, commissioners, steve [speaker not understood], department staff. i'm please today present to you an in-kind agreement for 16th street daggett park. it is the mile steyn towards a new park in ship place square [speaker not understood]. this agreement reflects over a year in coordination and collaboration between the city, the developer and the community including the pl

family who can do nothing but wait, watch and hope. >> we're the fong family. we want to provide a home to just at least one boy from russia and, you know, we have a home, we have a lovely family. we're hoping that all this can move forward and this will be the last christmas he's alone. >> reporter: clearly a very emotional issue for a lot of families. and in reference to this back, the u.s. state department spokesman released a statement saying, quote, it is misguided to link the fate of children to unrelated political considerations and said that 60,000 children have been adopted from russia in the u.s. in the past 20 years and if this ban lasts, if it gets signed in, this could affect thousands in the future and allen the advocate we talked to today said, you know, these children will be in orphanages in russia. very sad. >> tens of thousands of children in the future. thank you. >>> president obama set to meet with congressional leaders tomorrow to address the "fiscal cliff" crisis. it's coming down to the wire only five days until we tumble over that clif

i have two cards to start with, richard fong and then paul manning. there were cards on the table. if not,, if you just want to get in line as we have two cards. richard, come on up. >> good morning, commissioners, commissioner fong speaking again, i had the pleasure of attending the palace of fine art community meeting on the 12th and i thought they were going to do pretty good work, so in retrospect, i look at it and i don't quite agree with the layout, so i don't know what that's going to do, so through the chair, commissioner, allan low, i think you're on the committee as such, i would like to see if i can bring in some recommendations that might enhance the development. we had a list of different people, jan was there, she's the executive director, there was a lot of people there, very high dignitary people, even jim lazarus was there, when i took a look at what they had planned out, they had architects where the explore tor yum is going to leave, so the planning that would be looked at, they want to open up the middle of that building, it's like a part of a hanger, so they we

have a message for the russian people. >> we're the fong family. we want to provide a home to just at least one boy from russia, and we have a home we have a loving family. we're hoping that all this can move forward and this will be the last christmas he's alone. >> reporter: but the fongs and hundreds of other american families may lose the chance to share their love with a child from russia. for "cbs this morning," john blackstone, san francisco. >> could you imagine if you're a child waiting for this and a family waiting and this goes on for years and years and years and you're just caught in the middle of that system? >> such a good point. all of those orphans in russia who could have had >>> we are going to see on and off rain throughout the morning into the afternoon. here's live look at conditions over san jose. we will see brief dry breaks as you can see but our hi-def doppler still very busy. let's zoom in on a heavier pocket right now, looks like it's moving over the richmond/san rafael bridge. moderate to heavy rain in portions of mill