19. ( CITYWIDE STAFF )
PRESENTATION ON EASTERN NEIGHBORHOODS - Status report and discussion on the Eastern Neighborhoods project and the environmental review process. There is also possible Commission action to establish the Commission's preferences regarding alternatives.
Preliminary Recommendation: Establish Commission preference regarding alternatives.
SPEAKER(S):
My Do - Mission Economic Development Corporation
- Production, distribution, and repair businesses in the City provide essential employment for residents of San Francisco. And in particular, the Eastern Neighborhoods.
- PDR businesses provide income to the City.
- It is important to include in this document, the creation of industrial preservation districts as well as buffer zones since these are vital to the City's economy.
Luis Granados - Mission Economic Development Corporation
- When there is talk of planning for the Eastern Neighborhoods, it includes about 68,000 working class people and about 4,000 businesses. So when the Commission considers this document, it is important to take these facts into consideration.
- He supports the plan and suggests moving it forward to the CEQA process.
- He suggests asking staff to include socio economic impacts be included in the document in order to look at who benefits and what alternatives there are.
- He asks staff to develop policies to control development in the interim.
Eric Quezada - Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition
- He began this process about two years ago. He has participated in organizing planning department workshops and focus groups in order to determine the needs of the residents of the Mission District.
- He has consistently advocated at community meetings in order to ask the department to move this document forward.
- They recently had a protest at the panning Department in order to express their feeling of importance on moving this forward.
- He would like the Commission to clarify what direction they will take with this document so they [the community] can be prepared when the EIR process comes about.
- The housing element is tied to the Eastern Neighborhoods plan.
Charlie Sciammas
- He invited Director Green and several Commissioners to come to a community meeting in the Mission. The Director mentioned that the work MAC has been doing in the planning process was grass roots at it's best.
- He urged the Commission to move forward in this process and to move as quickly as possible.
Sue Hestor
- She urges the Commission to move forward on this.
- It is evident that there should be a major transportation component done very quickly.
- There are traffic lines that don't work because there are certain areas that are designed for trucks.
- There is certain information that is not described in the document. For example, how will it be paid for? Also, making sure it is online at the same time the Housing Element is online.
James Haas - Rincon Hill CAC
- When the Eastern Neighborhood began, they began to develop some guidelines.
- He has participated extensively in the South of Market process.
- He has a desire to build a more residential area in the east of 4th Street area.
- He would like to proceed with the EIR.
- This has been around since 2001 so the talking stage should stop and we should move forward with the EIR, at least in the east of 4th Street area.
Bill Poland
- He is very pleased to have been involved in this process. It has been very valuable and it is pretty clear that everyone would like to see mixed use in the Showplace area.
- Even when the Commission moves forward with the EIR it will not jive with the work they are currently working on.
- There are certain areas that are ready to go and this document should not be stopped just because there are some areas that are not.
- There is some tweaking still to be done for Option B.
Joe Girimonte
- He is a resident of Potrero Hill.
- He invited the Commission on a tour of the Potrero Hill area.
- There was a desire to upgrade the housing, businesses and safe parking.
- He supports the Planning Department's option B for the Showplace Square.
Mary Murphy - Farella, Braun and Martel
- She read a letter from Julie Milbourne who is the Facilities Director of the California College of the Arts. Ms. Milbourne is in support of moving this document along as soon as possible.
Ms. Murphy stated the following:
- It is important to take a look at outdated policies and strategies.
- It is important to try to create neighborhoods.
- The four changes to option B that the Department has proposed permitted an active street front eliminate; the 1 to 1 SAR requirement for PDR; higher heights at 65 feet; and 1 to 1 parking so as to not displace the current parking.
Mel Beetle - Senior Action Network/Homeless Senior Task Force for the City
- Social and economic impacts should be included in the EIR document.
- The amenities, which will be coming forward, should be taken into consideration.
John Melone - Homeless Senior Task Force/Permanent Housing Committee
- He is very concerned about the homeless seniors.
- They have prepared a resolution, which they will be forwarding to the Redevelopment Agency and the Mayor's Office of Housing.
- Twenty-five percent of the housing should be designated for seniors.
- Although there is senior housing being built, it is only a "drop in the bucket." More housing for seniors is needed.
Mark Klaiman - Bay View Industrial Triangle
- He urges the Commission to balance the needs between jobs and housing.
- Not everyone is intended to work downtown. PDR provides jobs and economic development to the City.
- PDR are not necessarily bad for neighborhoods.
- Non-conforming uses are not the answer.
Kate White - Housing Action Coalition
- Move forward with the EIR.
- There has been a lot of work that has been done already.
- The Coalition feels very strongly about considering projects that stay within two or three of the options.
- She submitted a letter
Vicki Hart - Flower Mart
- She has come to workshops and has written letters regarding having commercial/residential uses in the area.
- Although they are a small group and are not as organized as other groups, they are very vocal and are willing to help out as much as possible.
Jim Meko
- They have no desire to stop the Mission or the Showplace Square folks from taking their rezoning into environmental review, but understand that the $127,000 that Director Green mentions for environmental review is SOMA money. The only reason that the money has not been spent is because Supervisor Daly has put it on hold.
- The legislation authorizing this entire process spoke of community-based planning.
- The process the Department began was called community planning and now it is called rezoning.
- SOMA was rezoned 13 years ago after an exhaustive comprehensive planning process. Frankly, he would opt for the zoning changes made in 1990.
Fred Snyder
- His property in the NEMIZ is part of the NEMIZ rezoning.
- He agrees with the previous speaker.
- They have created a document regarding all this that he will be submitting to the Commissioners.
Edward Lortz
- He would like to have the Commission direct their plan to go forward as part of the EIR and interim controls with the use options A and B as starting points.
- Their plan is the only community generated plan that includes preserving PDR, housing, and mixed use.
Lisa Schiller - Urban Planner - Potrero Hill
- She has helped to design the Potrero Hill community plan. This plan ensures that rezoning of the Showplace area remains a vital part of Potrero Hill and San Francisco.
- The plan includes open spaces in the public realm where others do not.
- She was happy to see the Planning Department public benefit zoning memo and is glad to see that many of their concerns are being considered.
- Option B does not have the elements required, but their plan does.
Kepa Askenazy - Potrero Boosters
- They have taken a look at the section of the Planning Department's height suggestion and they are very disturbed by it.
- They presented a model of the scale of buildings determined by the height suggestion of the Planning Department.
- They are very concerned about any lack of design guidelines.
- She displayed photographs of buildings in the area that have either good designs or bad designs.
Tom Myers - Real Estate Appraiser
- He lives in Potrero Hill.
- He is concerned that it may fall short if the height requirement is not approved.
- The corridors on 17th Street and highway 280 provide the transit for the added traffic so that will not be a problem. There is still a problem with housing, especially for moderate income and seniors.
- He hopes the Commission will not approve interim controls.
Jaime Guerrero
- Every speaker has mentioned community, which is a good thing.
- Many of the community organizations are in agreement that housing is important.
- It is vital that this place be a nice place to live.
- What makes a nice residential neighborhood: - transit, jobs, parks, cafés, trees, street lighting, etc.
- There is a lot of housing in the Northeast Mission.
- Please adopt zones that specifically include housing.
Anthony Faber
- He does not know how an environmental study can be done on something that has not been decided yet.
- Although most community organizations like the Mission are ready to go, there are some that are not ready to go.
Cris Durazo - Market Street Community Network
- A comprehensive community process is essential.
- They have done a tremendous amount of work trying to explain to people zoning, planning etc. when they are in a need for survival.
- There are very basic things that are important so a comprehensive plan is quite vital.
- They want the Commission to start the EIR yet it is important to start a social impact process as well.
- They should not be split from SOMA.
Cindy Mendoza - South of Market Employment Center and Mission Hiring Hall
- She agrees with moving ahead on the EIR but include a social and community impact review.
- She works with Mission Hiring Hall and it is important that the industries that are included take into consideration low incomes, immigrants, and young people.
- She wants to ensure that the jobs are here and that the ones that exist are maintained.
Marie Ramos - SOMA Immigrant Committee
- She would like to have further time for community planning.
- She would like to continue to sit down and have further dialogue in the SOMA community in order to build a community consensus.
- That the social impact that will be built into the future EIR and the public benefit from zoning principals are strongly adopted.
Jeffrey Leibovitz - Rincon Point/South Beach CAC
- They have been at this since 1998.
- The Eastern boundaries that he would like to move forward would cover the areas from 4th Street to the Waterfront to the South Beach Redevelopment Area, from Stillman Street to the north, to the Ball Park.
- Since this process has been moving forward, there have been a lot of people that are disturbed by the process. In his neighborhood, they are not. They have consensus on moving forward.
James Collins - 6th Street/Mission Agenda
- He urges the Commission to pass this plan and start the EIR process.
- The community needs this. It is quite vital.
Shawn Gorman - Architect
- He grew up in the Showplace Square area.
- He looks forward to this process moving forward.
- He does not want this to follow the Central Waterfront Plan.
- Option B is a very good option because there are a lot of compromises.
- Maintaining the existing heights would allow for more housing.
Robert Meyers - City Planning Consultant/Eastern SOMA
- Including the South of Market area and the eastern part near 4th Street should be included in the EIR process.
- This part of SOMA has a general consensus of what they want in regards to planning.
- There is also a consensus that the current SLI [service, light industrial] zoning has failed.
- They are ready to move ahead and work with staff to work out the details.
David Wilbur - SOMPAC/SF Tenants Union
- He became involved in the planning process recently.
- He urges the Commission to include some of the social and economic impacts in the EIR process.
- There are a lot of important issues that still need to be taken into account related to rezoning.
- SOMPAC area should be included in this process.
- A very intensive comprehensive plan has been done.
- Exactions need to be required when rezoning takes place. Fees should be included to start building affordable housing and transit.
Judy West
- She lives in the northeast Mission area.
- She is familiar with the concerns from both sides regarding pressures from land use.
- Rezoning needs to move forward that takes into account housing.
- Transportation planning, 16th Street corridor, etc. needs to be taken into consideration.
- She is nervous about moving forward.
John Elberling - SOMA
- He has been a worker and landlord in the South of Market for many years.
- When he sees the Bay View and the work they have done, he sees comprehensive planning. Now they are moving into the zoning process and the Redevelopment Plan adoption process.
- When he sees the 6th Street PAC plan, he sees a developed comprehensive plan that is ready for zoning and redevelopment for implementation.
- A neighborhood requires comprehensive community planning before the zoning is done.
- SOMA needs the comprehensive planning process. An EIR process is not the same thing.
Phillip Lesser - Mission Merchants Association
- He commended the Commission for being involved in the process.
- The Commission has done a tremendous job.
- He looks forward to an EIR. It is a fallacy to think that because we are so rich with public transportation, there is no need for parking.
- It is imperative to consider public parking.
Jason Born - SOMA West Neighborhood Group
- He is here to talk about the planning process that missed the mark.
- He displayed a planning map of district parks planning.
- There is a reason that everyone is here today. If the Commission takes the decision to approving this, it would be like having the cart before the horse.
Ada Chan
- She encouraged the Commission to move forward with this plan.
Charles Range - PAC
- He is a member of the South of Market Project Area Advisory Council to the Redevelopment Agency.
- He is a little bit confused. He has been working for the last five years on this and one of their responsibilities was to deal with the Plan Amendment for a small geographical area that the Redevelopment Agency's South of Market PAC is responsible for. They have been pushed by the Redevelopment staff to complete the Plan Amendment. It has taken them four or five years to do it and they have finally completed it. It had to go through the Redevelopment Agency legal process. The legal process reviewed it and kicked it back to them because they had to be sure that the things they were asking for fit within the law. So it came back to them. They reviewed it again, met for many times, and finally approved it. It went back to Redevelopment. In this process they interfaced with the Planning Department because they were told that Redevelopment had relinquished their responsibility in some type of agreement with the Planning Department as it relates to the redevelopment area. In their plan, there are issues that deal with zoning, etc that are the responsibility of the Planning Department. They met with staff from the Planning Department and also attended various meetings. Now the issue is that they are ready to move forward, but where do they go now? There are limited funds. This is why he is confused.
ACTION: Following public testimony, the Commission President closed the public hearing. No action by the Commission was taken. Director, Gerald Green and Acting Director, Larry Badiner, informed the Commission that they intend to initiate the environmental review process for the Eastern Neighborhoods to include:
THESE MINUTES ARE PROPOSED FOR ADOPTION AT THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE PLANNING COMMISSION ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2003.
AYES: Antonini, Feldstein, Hughes, S. Lee
ABSENT: Bradford Bell, Boyd, W. Lee
