December 19, 2002
SAN FRANCISCO PLANNING COMMISSION
SPECIAL MEETING OF THE
SAN FRANCISCO
PLANNING COMMISSION
Meeting Minutes
Commission Chambers - Room 400
City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
Thursday, December 19, 2002
12:30 PM
COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Shelley Bradford Bell; Michael J. Antonini; Rev. Edgar E. Boyd;
Lisa Feldstein; Kevin Hughes; Sue Lee; William L. Lee
COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: None
THE MEETING WAS CALLED TO ORDER BY PRESIDENT BRADFORD BELL AT 12:32 p.m.
STAFF IN ATTENDANCE: Gerald Green – Director; Larry Badiner - Zoning Administrator; Amit Ghosh; Miriam Chion; Ann Marie Rodgers; Jill Slater; Sue Exline; Nora Priego – Transcription Secretary; Linda Avery - Commission Secretary
A. DIRECTOR'S REPORT
1. Director's Announcements
None
2. Eastern Neighborhoods & Community Planning Informational Presentation
Amit Ghosh and Miriam Chion gave a PowerPoint presentation.
SPEAKER(S):
Diane Oshima – Port of San Francisco
- She is the manager of Waterfront Planning.
- She thanked staff for doing such a great job on this complicated but comprehensive process.
- She gave a report on the range of what can happen on port property and why there should be focus on how this area relates to neighboring city areas–from an industrial sense.
Seth Steward – Director of the Small Business Commission
- He thanked Jean-Paul Samaha on speaking to the Small Business Commission recently regarding this item.
- The SBC instructed him to speak before the Planning Commission specifically about this item and arrange for the Planning Commission and Planning staff to attend their next hearing on January 13, 2003.
- He will then appear before the Planning Commission on January 16, 2003 when this issue comes up again.
- The SBC feels that for a variety of reasons the small business community as a whole has been left out of this particular planning process but would like to be included.
Svetlana Karasyova – Recreation and Park Department
- She would like to thank staff from the Planning Department for communicating with the staff from the Recreation and Park Department regarding open space and recreation services.
- A program needs to be worked out regarding high needs for open space and recreation opportunities in the City.
- This amendment would help the land acquisition program from Rec and Park.
Swany Cho – MUNI
- As the transit agency for the City of San Francisco, they have been working with the Planning Department on the eastern neighborhoods as well as the Better Neighborhoods program.
- Staff has been doing great work.
- They are looking forward to seeing the outcomes and looking forward to working on long-range planning.
Peggy Wu – Redevelopment Agency
- The agency has been working closely with Planning staff on this item.
- She is available to answer questions.
Eric Quesada – Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition
- They became involved in the planning process out of necessity.
- After several protests and angry residents, they had a community meeting, which was attended by the Director of Planning, and a planning process was established.
Maria Poblet – St. Peter's Housing Committee
- She works for St. Peter's Housing Committee
- They became involved with the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition because the number of residents that were being displaced grew by 300%.
- There were entire families that became homeless.
- She encourages the Commission to move forward with the EIR.
Myriam Zamora – St. Peter's Housing Committee
- She belongs to St. Peter's Housing Committee and she is very proud to work with the committee.
- She became involved with the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition because she was one of the victims that was displaced.
- The housing situation in the Mission is deplorable because there are a number of people living in small units.
- Another problem residents have is that landlords resist making repairs to housing units.
- She is in agreement with the planning process.
Nancy Esteva – Families in SROCS
- Her organization is in agreement with the planning process until an alternative is found to help these families.
Dave McGuire – Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition
- He has attended all of the planning meetings.
- The future of San Francisco looks pretty dim if a planning process is not established and approved of.
Andrew Wood – San Francisco International Arts Festival – Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition
- The area plan will help the Mission District.
- The small business community has been involved in this planning process since he held one of the community meetings in his theatre, the ODC theatre.
- He welcomes everyone to support small businesses because there are a lot of empty store fronts in the Mission District. With the area plan, there are opportunities and ways to support small businesses.
Cris Selig – Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition
- She became involved with MAC because she saw there was a need for the community planning process.
- A long-term process for the Mission is a good idea.
Oscar Grande – MAC and PODER
- It is no accident that hundreds of residents of the Mission are now participating in the community planning process.
- They are also educating people on the EIR process.
Wendy Philips – Mission SRO Collaborative and MAC
- The Mission is a family neighborhood.
- They have announced at every community meeting, that the Mission needs community-serving businesses and organizations.
- They would like to have housing planned for the very low-income bracket.
James Collins – 6th Street Agenda
- He would like to have the entire community be involved in the process.
Bill Polland – Bay West Group
- The major design districts in the world are mixed use areas.
- He feels threatened that the showplace square area is being called PDR.
- The real need for San Francisco is for housing.
Curtis Eisenberger
- The process is seriously flawed.
- He displayed a zoning map of the Mission showing how the plan has a 70% error rate.
Oz Erickson – Emeral Fund
- It is extremely important that the Commission focus on non-confirming uses.
Wells Lawson – Mission Coalition for Economic Justice and Jobs
- They have done a thorough analysis of PDR in other cities (he presented the report to the Commission).
- The City needs to look more closely at PDR and define what PDR really is.
James Lee
- He would like the Commission to review the process of how notifications are issued because this could cause basis for a flawed process.
John Elberling
- He feels that this policy is not complete and that there should be more community input.
Phil Erickson – Mission Coalition
- He displayed a zoning map of the work they have been doing that takes into account the input they have received from residents.
Fred Snydel
- He is here from the Northeast Mission area.
- He displayed a map of the Eastern neighborhoods mentioning that his organization was not invited to participate in this process.
Tania Baker – Northeast Industrial Zone in the Mission
- They are concerned about her organization not being involved in this planning process.
- To impose nonconforming use procedures that require legal representation is going to hurt very small businesses and people in the neighborhood. If this planning process is too rigid, it doesn't leave the space for the very small businesses. There has to be a broader leeway for non-confirming use.
Eileen McCort – Business Manager with Project Artaud
- They are concerned with the non-confirming uses that have been designated in the Mission.
- They were not aware of the community planning meetings.
- They would like clarification regarding non-conforming land use.
Judy West
- She has been involved in this debate for 10 years and she has always been looking out for the small business community.
- This is a mixed use district and everyone likes it that way. There is a need for housing guidelines and she does not want to ban housing altogether.
Anthony Faber – SOMA Leadership Council – Mid-Market PAC
- He feels that there were some problems with the South of Mission process. It seems like developers and land owners were disproportionately represented. He found that the meetings were too far apart and this makes it hard to keep continuity.
Ernestine Weiss
- She has lived here for many years and has never seen a smart housing plan. The result of this is economic chaos.
- Housing can be built but (we need) to build middle-class housing.
Victor Vitlin – Lyon Enterprises
- Lyon has a key interest in the zoning of the area
- He looks forward to working with the Planning Commission and staff
Jim Mecko – Chair of the SOMA Leadership Council
- He submitted a document which contains a history of the community planning efforts in the South of Market area.
Fritz Maytag – Anchor Brewing Co.
- He has been working in San Francisco for many years.
- Politics is what one does instead of shooting each other.
- He urges the Commission to think seriously about businesses that are industrial users or light industry. These companies have the kind of jobs that people work at and make the City vital.
Charles Brendinger – Engineer and Builder in SOMA
- He disagrees with Director Green statement that several projects should be reviewed under the light of future planning.
- This is freezing many business transactions in the South of Market area.
- People are reluctant to buy or sell property.
Milton Gaines
- He is a property owner in the Mission District.
- He commends MAC for their desire to provide low income housing for immigrants but he requests that the Commission give the Mission a balanced approach.
Joe O'Donaghue
- Here we have politics dictating housing models and politics dictating communities. As a result of this, there is a housing crisis.
Dav Dodt – Bay View
- These workshops have been helpful for the Bay View area.
Shawn Gorman
- He would like to commend the department on the community process for the Showplace Square area.
Tim Tosta – Steiffel, Levitt and Weiss
- He has been able to work on the rezoning in the Mission and the City of Menlo Park.
- The contrast and the similarities are interesting. He will be submitting a document regarding this analysis.
- He is concerned about how we are planning for the next generation and forecasting adequately.
Richie Hart
- He has built live/work in various areas because, at the time, it was the permitted use.
- He has never has to evict anyone.
- PDR is necessary but housing is necessary as well.
- Higher density housing is necessary.
Cristina Logie – Mission Agenda
- She is disappointed with how the whole process is being characterized.
- She feels that the Planning department has done a good job.
- If developers interests do not dominate the discussion, they feel excluded.
- In communities of color, it takes hundreds of voices to make any changes--yet developers don't need that many.
- She thanks the department for including them in the planning process for the Mission.
ACTION: Meeting held. Informational only. No action required.
Adjournment: 4:01 p.m.
THESE MINUTES WERE PROPOSED FOR ADOPTION AT THE REGULAR MEETING ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 2003.
SPEAKERS: None
ACTION: Approved
AYES: Antonini, Boyd, Bradford Bell, Feldstein, Hughes, Sue Lee, William Lee
Last updated: 11/17/2009 10:00:08 PM
