SAN FRANCISCO
PLANNING COMMISSION
Meeting Minutes
Commission Chambers, Room 400
City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, CA 94102-4689
Thursday, January 9, 2014
12:00 p.m.
Regular Meeting
COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Fong, Wu, Antonini, Borden, Hillis, Moore, Sugaya
THE MEETING WAS CALLED TO ORDER BY PRESIDENT FONG AT 12: 06 P.M.
STAFF IN ATTENDANCE: John Rahaim – Planning Director, Aaron Starr, Jon Swae, Susan Exline, Sharon Young, Casey Noel, and Jonas P. Ionin – Commission Secretary
A. CONSIDERATION OF ITEMS PROPOSED FOR CONTINUANCE
The Commission will consider a request for continuance to a later date. The Commission may choose to continue the item to the date proposed below, to continue the item to another date, or to hear the item on this calendar.
1. 2012.1427E (K. ZUSHI: (415) 575-9036)
SHARP PARK SAFETY, INFRASTRUCTURE IMPROVEMENT, AND HABITAT ENHANCEMENT PROJECT - The project site is located within Sharp Park in the City of Pacifica, San Mateo County - Appeal of Preliminary Mitigated Negative Declaration for: 1) the construction of a perennial pond, approximately 1,600 sf in size, located approximately 400 to 500 feet southeast of Horse Stable Pond (HSP); 2) realignment of a portion of an existing golf cart path located west of the fairway for golf course hole number 14 and east of the tee box for golf course hole number 15; 3) removal of sediment and emergent vegetation within HSP and the connecting channel that links HSP with Laguna Salada (LS); 4) construction of steps and a maintenance walkway approximately 4.6 feet in width at the existing HSP pumphouse; and 5) replacement of a wooden retaining wall near the pumphouse with a concrete retaining wall at the existing HSP pumphouse. The proposed project is being constructed in accordance with a Biological Opinion issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and is separate and independent from the proposed Significant Natural Resource Areas Management Plan (SNRAMP), which is currently undergoing separate environmental review.
Preliminary Recommendation: Uphold Preliminary Mitigated Negative Declaration
(Continued from Regular Meeting of December 12, 2013)
(Proposed for Continuance to January 16, 2014)
SPEAKERS: None
ACTION: Continued to January 16, 2014
AYES: Fong, Wu, Antonini, Borden, Moore, Sugaya
ABSENT: Hillis
2. 2013.1166T (S. HAYWARD: (415) 558-6372)
AMENDMENT TO THE PLANNING CODE SECTIONS 303(I) (FORMULA RETAIL USES) 703.3 (NEIGHBORHOOD COMMERCIAL DISTRICTS: FORMULA RETAIL USES) [BOARD FILE NO. 130788] - Ordinance introduced by Supervisor Mar to expand the definition of formula retail to include businesses that have eleven or more other outlets worldwide, and to included businesses 50% or more owned by formula retail businesses; expand the notification procedures for formula retail applications; require an economic impact report as part of the formula retail conditional use application; and adopting findings, including environmental findings, Planning Code Section 302 findings, and findings of consistency with the General Plan and the priority policies of Planning Code Section 101.
Preliminary Recommendation: Pending
(Continued from Regular Meeting of October 24, 2013)
(Proposed for Continuance to January 23, 2014)
SPEAKERS: None
ACTION: Continued to January 23, 2014
AYES: Fong, Wu, Antonini, Borden, Moore, Sugaya
ABSENT: Hillis
3. 2013.1663ZM (A. STARR: (415) 558-6362)
Amendments to the Zoning Map and Map 1 of Downtown Area Plan, for 133-135 Golden Gate Avenue (APN 0349/12 & 13) [Board File No. 130999]. Ordinance amending Zoning Map ZN01 and Map 1 of the Downtown Area Plan, to rezone the subject parcel from RC-4 to C-3-G in order to provide for eligibility to sell transferable development rights for property at 133-135 Golden Gate Avenue (St. Boniface Church and Rectory); and making environmental findings, and findings of consistency with the General Plan, and the eight priority policies of Planning Code, Section 101.1.
Preliminary Recommendation: Adopt a Recommendation for Approval
(Proposed for Continuance to January 23, 2014)
SPEAKERS: None
ACTION: Continued to January 23, 2014
AYES: Fong, Wu, Antonini, Borden, Moore, Sugaya
ABSENT: Hillis
B. COMMISSION MATTERS
4. Consideration of Adoption:
· Draft Minutes for December 12, 2013; and
· Draft Minutes for December 19, 2013.
SPEAKERS: None
ACTION: Adopted as Corrected
AYES: Fong, Wu, Antonini, Borden, Moore, Sugaya
ABSENT: Hillis
Adoption of Commission Minutes – Charter Section 4.104 requires all commissioners to vote yes or no on all matters unless that commissioner is excused by a vote of the Commission. Commissioners may not be automatically excluded from a vote on the minutes because they did not attend the meeting.
5. Commission Comments/Questions
· Inquiries/Announcements. Without discussion, at this time Commissioners may make announcements or inquiries of staff regarding various matters of interest to the Commissioner(s).
· Future Meetings/Agendas. At this time, the Commission may discuss and take action to set the date of a Special Meeting and/or determine those items that could be placed on the agenda of the next meeting and other future meetings of the Planning Commission.
Commissioner Moore:
For my own reference, I would like to ask, as to, whether or not the revised Commission Rules, which we approved on December 19th, would come back to us to see the revisions. If I recall correctly, I think Director Rahaim, you stated, I listened to the replay, that once the Commission adopts the new rules and regulations with references to the Plan Submittal Guidelines, that the Department would return with these revised Submitted Guidelines to the Commission for our approval. So, I just want to ask we stay on track with doing that and wanted in the record.
Commissioner Antonini:
I would agree with Commissioner Moore and would like to kind of see if we could talk a little bit, about some of those issues regarding the calendar that she was discussing, because I have had the same comments from people who, you know, are questioning the policy in regards to taking a fifth Sunday or fifth Thursday off, when we're already off on of the other Thursdays during that same month. But anyway, on some other issues, I thought there was a very interesting article, and well written article by Chuck Nevius in today’s Chronicle, and dealing with a lots things we deal with, basically, the jist of the article was, he talks about, you know, people complaining, but not really doing anything positive about some things that are going on, he brings up some hypocrisy about the fact we have the issue of tech buses, which I think is being dealt in the right manner, and, you know, they’re being a asked to pay something for occupying bus stops, but when you’re thinking about transporting people around it's a lot better to have one bus with two hundred people than two hundred individual cars going through the City, so, if you want to put people in mass transit that makes sense, and then, he also brought up the area -- issue of housing in regards to a project down on Valencia, which was something that had been before us, but it was reversed by a decision at Permit Appeals and ending up having affordable housing units eliminated, because they cut the number of units down, sometimes it’s kind of ironic, that some of the rules that we have, end up working in the wrong direction, but there are a lot of other issues involved. But the one thing, I think we can agree upon is that densification in the City is a good thing and having people living near where they work is an excellent thing. I'm reading a book now called One Summer 1927 by Bill Bryson, and he talks about how the growth of work forces in American cities in the 20’s and he mentions that in the 20’s we had five hundred thousand people working in San Francisco, which is about what we have now, even though we now have a Bay Area with seven million people, instead of one million people, as was the case then. Virtually everyone who worked in San Francisco lived in San Francisco and used public transit to get to their jobs in those days. And certainly, one solution, which will work very well, I’ve mentioned it before is the more companies realize many of their employees live in San Francisco, the vast majority in most cases, and many of these companies locate more of their business functions here makes total sense. We have the transit and we have the ability to move people easily around San Francisco, which doesn’t exist in suburban campuses. Secondly, I just wanted to mention, again, that I am unfortunately, going to be undergoing surgery on the 16th of January and I won't be here that day. And I’ve been advised that I won’t be able to attend on 23rd of January too, but I will be back for the first meeting, which will be in early February, I think it's the 6th.
Commissioner Borden:
I participated in a meeting earlier this week, I was there along Jay Nath the Mayor's Chief Innovation Officer, two members of Supervisor Farrell's staff and some of the Mayor’s Office, at the Internet Archive, I don’t people familiar with that, but the archive of the entire internet is in San Francisco, located at 300 Funston at Clement Street and they bought an old Christian Scientist Church and turned into their facility and they are actually cataloging everything that happens at the begin of time, every single web page on the internet, they are scanning books, they’re a free open library for people. What’s really interesting about it, is they were the largest employer for Jobs Now, when this money came out they hired 150 people and they have a lot of people that they hired to work at the facility and one of the challenges that they noticed was actually housing because the people are not highly paid professionals, that people are paid above minimum wage, but definitely not high end salaries, so what they did, is they actually bought a building, housing, across the street and they plan to turn it into nonprofit housing, and they're putting forth this idea, of looking at getting nonprofits together to do nonprofit housing, and basically what it would be is that, they will buy the building outright, because the biggest cost of housing is debt service, and they'll buy the building outright, and then people employed for those nonprofits live in that housing. They loved this idea of an ambitious approach of getting 5% of the housing in the City for nonprofit workers that would be bought and owned by nonprofits. That would have – that they would all share, in being able people to have people live there. It's an interesting concept of what they’re working on, but they really -- they have been talking to the City of Richmond, for doing something similar there as well, but they have really been kind of, great forward thinking in this concept around how you to take the costs of housing and debt services, obviously is the biggest portion of the costs, and something they are looking at. The other thing, that is very powerful, is that they’ve been utilizing the wire that’s underneath the fiber underneath the City and they are actually providing high-speed internet to all the housing projects, the public housing projects in San Francisco. And, we talked a lot about making sure, that we’re better coordinating as we do Central Subway, working with the PUC to put conduits down, so that people could utilize the fiber that already exists, or put their own fiber in, to have a super-fast network, in their mind for free, not for the purpose of propriety use, but for actually for free. Anyway, Brewster Kahle is the gentleman who is kind of putting forth this foundation idea, and his website is Brwester.Kahle.org. It talks at lot about the foundation and this housing notion and reaching out to other nonprofit partners and anybody that wants to hear, but I think it’s a fascinating development, there are obviously a lot of unanswered questions around that sort of housing because it is tied to employment, which is different than the way housing functions typically, but you know, I definitely invite anyone who is interested to connect with Brewster, and I think this can be a really interesting model for a City looking at interesting models. I think it would be great.
Commissioner Moore:
I'd like to share a comment to follow-up on Commissioner Borden's very interesting concepts, with an idea that I copied Commissioner Wu on, and that is basically crowd funding for affordable housing of a model which is been experimented with in other cities. I will forward the article to the Commission Secretary for all of you to get a copy including the Director, including perhaps Mr. Kahle, because with these ideas coming together, I think everything is possible.
Commissioner Sugaya:
I wasn't going to mention this, but many of you may or may not know that former Commissioner Christina Olague’s house had a fire and she lost a lot of her possessions. She fortunately escaped, but one of her best friends did not. There is as onsite – I don’t have the link here, but there is onsite fundraising effort and there’s also one at the El Rio on Mission Street this coming Sunday between 3:00 and I think 8:00 or something like that. So, if you want to express your condolences or perhaps even make a donation I'd encourage you to do so. Thank you.
Commissioner Fong:
Jonas, correct me if I am wrong, but as far as the Rules and Regulations we'll likely bring that on the calendar when we have a full quorum on February 6th.
Jonas Ionin, Commission Secretary:
For the rules and regulations?
Commissioner Fong:
Right, or sooner than that.
Jonas Ionin, Commission Secretary:
The Rules and Regulations have been adopted, I believe what Commissioner Moore was referring to was the update to the Plans Submittal Guidelines.
Commissioner Fong:
Got it. Okay. Thank you.
Jonas Ionin, Commission Secretary:
So, the Rules and Regulations were formerly adopted on December 19th and they are actually in effect now.
Commissioner Moore:
With the amendments, which the Director basically acknowledged, will be coming back to us.
Commissioner Fong:
I also, just want to clarify, per our rules Officer Elections are to take place January 15th or later or no sooner than January 15th.
Jonas Ionin, Commission Secretary:
That's correct. Your rules state that election of officers is to take place on or after January 15th or another date you continue the matter to.
Commissioner Fong:
Just for our own education, since there will be some absences, myself included on the 23rd, with Commissioner Antonini out until the 6th, it looks like our next full quorum is February 6th, just as a note.
Commissioner Moore:
I just wanted to comment on what you just clarified, that in the absence of Commissioner Antonini for health reasons that we wait until he's back.
C. DEPARTMENT MATTERS
6. Director’s Announcements
Director Rahaim:
Commissioners Happy New Year! A brave new year, I think it will be a good one. Just one announcement today, and that is, next Wednesday the 15th we are hosting an open house at the LGBT center on Market Street to release the draft of the Urban Forest Plan, that we’ve been working on with several departments for quite some time, that is January 15th 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the LGBT Center at 1800 Market Street, next Wednesday evening, and that concludes my presentation. Thank you.
7. Review of Past Week’s Events at the Board of Supervisors, Board of Appeals and Historic Preservation Commission
LAND USE COMMITTEE:
· On Monday, the LU Committee heard the ordinance to transfer child care facility oversight to the newly created Office of Early Care and Education. This ordinance is sponsored by Supervisor Yee. This commission recommended approval of this ordinance on the consent calendar on Nov. 21, 2013. This week the LU Committee recommended approval to the Full Board.
· Also at LU was the Fulton Street Grocery SUD. Supe Breed. This request is associated with a development project located at 555 Fulton Street that would demolish the existing building on the site and construct a new mixed-use project with residential uses and a ground-floor grocery store. The project was originally approved by the Planning Commission in 2010. On October 3, 2013, the Commission approved entitlements to extend the performance period for this project, with minor revisions to the design and program of uses that were previously approved. The SUD was initially adopted in 2008 specifically to enable a mixed-use development containing a grocery store at this site. The SUD expired under its original 5-year sunset date in April of 2013. Therefore, the extension of the SUD term is necessary in order for the project to move forward. At their hearing on October 3, 2013, the Commission recommended extension of the SUD for an additional five years. The Commission also recommended several amendments to the SUD. 3. The SUD was initially adopted in 2008 specifically to enable a mixed-use development containing a grocery store at this site. The SUD expired under its original 5-year sunset date in April of 2013. Therefore, the extension of the SUD term is necessary in order for the project to move forward. At their hearing on October 3, 2013, the Commission recommended extension of the SUD for an additional five years. The Commission also recommended several amendments to the SUD. At the hearing on Monday, Planning Staff described the commission’s recommendations including: 1) working with staff on language to enable formula retail uses at the site, provided that the future grocery store tenant would provide food that is affordable to the neighborhood 2) increasing the allowable size for commercial uses to increase the flexibility in potential tenants; and 3) increased signage controls. Supervisor Breed noted that she is still considering whether formula retail should be permitted at the site, but that she wanted to enable the other facets of the development. She recommended that the Committee accept the Commission’s recommendation for more strict signage controls[i]—and these were approved by the Committee. This item will be heard again by the LU committee next week and is expected to be considered by the Board on the following day.
FULL BOARD OF SUPERVISORS: None
INTRODUCTIONS:
· 140009 Housing Code Amendment. Supe Farrell. Ordinance amending the Housing Code to allow the storage of tenants’ personal items other than automobiles in the garages of homes, apartment buildings, and residential hotels.
· 140021 Hearing - Code Enforcement Policies and Procedures. Supe Wiener & Cohen. Hearing directed to the Housing and Building divisions of the Department of Building Inspection, the Planning Department, the Department of Public Health, and the Fire Department. These agencies will report on inspection and enforcement of city code violations. Topics to be covered include: 1) internal departmental procedures for inspections, pursuit, and referral of violations; 2) examples of problematic cases; 3) requirements for referral of cases to the City Attorney’s Office or departmental committees; 4) description of types of cases, including examples, being referred to the City Attorney’s Office or departmental committees; 5) number and percentage of cases not being referred for enforcement and whether lack of referral for enforcement results from the merits of the case or other factors such as budget concerns; 6) yearly statistics, including the number of cases received, the number of referrals made, the number of cases closed; and record-keeping practices, including ability of the public to track process of violations; 7) whether legislation is needed to ensure better coordination on code enforcement and more consistent enforcement and referrals by the various departments.
BOARD OF APPEALS:
No Report
HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION:
No Report
D. GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT – 15 MINUTES
At this time, members of the public may address the Commission on items of interest to the public that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Commission except agenda items. However, for items where public comment is closed this is your opportunity to address the Commission. With respect to all other agenda items, your opportunity to address the Commission will be afforded when the item is reached in the meeting. Each member of the public may address the Commission for up to three minutes.
SPEAKERS: Jordan Engle – 493 Broadway owner, 143 years - liquor license moratorium
Stephen Castellano – Broadway moratorium
Anastasia Glikshtein – Herbicides
E. REGULAR CALENDAR
The Commission Hearing Procedures provide for presentations by staff; followed by the project sponsor team; followed by public comment for and against the proposal. Please be advised that the project sponsor team includes: the sponsor(s) or their designee, lawyers, architects, engineers, expediters, and/or other advisors.
8. 2013.1517ET (J. SWAE: (415) 575-9069)
Urban Forest Plan - Informational Presentation - Staff briefing on the Urban Forest Plan (Phase 1: Street Trees) being developed in collaboration with the Department of Public Works, Urban Forestry Council and Friends of the Urban Forest.
Preliminary Recommendation: None – Informational
SPEAKERS: + Dan – Project introduction and support
+ Carolyn Johnston, President, SF Forest Alliance – Fantastic, invasive trees
= Sue Hestor - Let a thousand trees bloom
ACTION: None - Informational
9. 2010.0641M (S. EXLINE: (415) 558-6332)
2013 RECREATION AND OPEN SPACE ELEMENT UPDATE - Consideration of a Resolution to Initiate amendments to the San Francisco General Plan - Pursuant to San Francisco Charter Section 4.105, Planning Code Section 340(c) and Section 306.3, consideration of a Resolution to Initiate amendments to the General Plan, a proposed revision of the Recreation and Open Space Element at the hearing, the Planning Commission may consider adopting a Resolution to Initiate amendments to the General Plan, and schedule a public hearing to consider adopting the proposed General Plan amendments.
Preliminary Recommendation: Adopt a Resolution to Initiate
SPEAKERS: + Dawn Comolavin, SF Rec. & Park – Support for the document
+ David Pilprey, SF Port – Port open spaces regional perspective
+ Caroline Johnston – Schoolyard availability
+ Walter Paulson – ROSE song
+ Trudy Garber – Trust for public land
+Rachel Norton, Parks Alliance – Additional suggestions to the visionary document
+ Matt O’Grady, Parks Alliance – No extension to comment period, but will submit additional comments
= Trish Schafer – Broad group seeking consensus, policy – action
= Dennis Moscoffee – PROSAC, still needs work, definition of high needs
= Catherine Howard – Needs additional work
= Sally Stevens – Important changes to strengthen the document
= Robin Shane – Urban forest, natural areas native plants
= Anastasia Glikshtein – Ban of cutting healthy trees and use of herbicides
- Sue Hestor – Active recreation, extend comment period
ACTION: Adopted a Resolution to Initiate; extended the comment period to January 25th, 2014; and scheduled a hearing for February 27th, 2014.
AYES: Fong, Wu, Antonini, Borden, Hillis, Moore
NAYES: Sugaya
RESOLUTION: 19055
10. 2013.1663ZM (A. STARR: (415) 558-6362)
INTENTION TO INITIATE DEPARTMENT-SPONSORED GENERAL PLAN AMENDMENT RELATED TO THE REZONING OF 133-135 GOLDEN GATE AVENUE - Pursuant to Planning Code Section 302, the Planning Commission will consider a Resolution of Intention to initiate amendments to the General Plan and schedule a public hearing to consider the amendments. The amendments are intended to modify Map 1 of the Downtown Area Plan to include 133-135 Golden Gate Avenue (APN 0349/12 & 13) also known as St. Boniface, in the C-3-G. The subject parcel is proposed to be rezoned from RC-4 to C-3-G as part of Board File 130999, introduced by Supervisor Kim. The proposed General Plan Amendment is required to ensure the rezoning is consistent with the General Plan should the Board of Supervisors approve the rezoning of the subject parcel.
Preliminary Recommendation: Adopt a Resolution to Initiate
SPEAKERS: None
ACTION: Adopted a Resolution to Initiate and scheduled a hearing for Janaury 23rd, 2014.
AYES: Fong, Wu, Antonini, Borden, Hillis, Sugaya
ABSENT: Moore
RESOLUTION: 19058
11. 2013.1464C (S. YOUNG: (415) 558-6346)
2071 UNION STREET - south side of Union Street between Webster and Buchanan Streets; Lot 016 in Assessor’s Block 0541 - Request for Conditional Use Authorization, pursuant to Planning Code Sections 703.4, 703.3, 303(c), and 303(i) to establish a Formula Retail Use within the Union Street Neighborhood Commercial District and 40-X Height and Bulk District. The proposal is to convert a vacant ground floor commercial space with approximately 3,500 gross square feet of floor area (previously occupied by “Rugby”, a Formula Retail apparel store concept of Ralph Lauren) into another Formula Retail Use (d.b.a. Nike). This action constitutes the Approval Action for the project for purposes of CEQA, pursuant to Section 31.04(h) of the San Francisco Administrative Code.
Preliminary Recommendation: Approve with Conditions
SPEAKERS: + Tom Noyner, Nike Rep. – Project description
ACTION: Approved with Conditions
AYES: Fong, Wu, Antonini, Borden, Hillis, Moore, Sugaya
RESOLUTION: 19059
12. 2013.1420C (C. NOEL: (415) 575-9125)
2168-2174 MARKET STREET - north side of Market Street between Sanchez and Church Streets; Lot 017 in Assessor’s Block 3542 - Request for Conditional Use Authorization, pursuant to Planning Code Sections 186.2, 733.21, and 303 to allow the expansion of the existing Restaurant use (d.b.a. Café du Nord) to all four floors of the existing multi-story building. The Conditional Use authorization would also allow a use size above 2,999 square feet. Café du Nord currently occupies the basement level as a Restaurant and will become the single tenant leasing all the above floors as a single tenant. The proposal will involve interior tenant improvements. There will be no expansion of the existing building envelope. The proposed project is located within the Upper Market Neighborhood Commercial Transit District and 40-X/50-X Height and Bulk District. This action constitutes the Approval Action for the project for purposes of CEQA, pursuant to Section 31.04(h) of the San Francisco Administrative Code.
Preliminary Recommendation: Approve with Conditions
SPEAKERS: + Enrique Landa – Project description
+ Ted Olsen – Improved revenue
+ Victor Gonzalez – Next door lot development
ACTION: Approved with Conditions
AYES: Fong, Wu, Antonini, Borden, Hillis, Moore, Sugaya
RESOLUTION: 19060
F. DISCRETIONARY REVIEW CALENDAR
The Commission Discretionary Review Hearing Procedures provide for presentations by staff; followed by the DR requestor team; followed by public comment opposed to the project; followed by the project sponsor team; followed by public comment in support of the project. Please be advised that the DR requestor and project sponsor teams include: the DR requestor and sponsor or their designee, lawyers, architects, engineers, expediters, and/or other advisors.
13. 2013.1002D (C. NOEL: (415) 575-9125)
23-29 KRONQUIST COURT - east side of Kronquist Court between 27th and Cesar Chavez; Lots 024 and 010B in Assessor’s Block 6582 - Discretionary Review, pursuant to Planning Code Section 311, of Building Permit Application No. 2013.0508.6422, proposing to merge two single-family dwellings into one single-family dwelling. The project also includes two small additions to the rear of the buildings. The addition to 29 Kronquist, will in-fill a notch at the rear of the second floor level. The addition to 23 Kronquist will extend the north half of the second floor back four feet four inches for a width of 12.5 feet. The addition will not extend beyond the rear wall of the building at 17 Kronquist Court. The property is located within a RH-1 (Residential, House Single-Family) Zoning District and 40-X Height and Bulk District. This action constitutes the Approval Action for the project for purposes of CEQA, pursuant to Section 31.04(h) of the San Francisco Administrative Code.
Preliminary Recommendation: Do Not Take Discretionary Review and Approve
SPEAKERS: - Adrian Polak – DR requestor
+ Karla McIntosh – Sponsor representative
+ Hiroki Asai – Project description
+ Dr. Frank McLaughlin – Support
+ Jan Gregroy – Support
+ Anne Hedges - Support
ACTION: No DR, Approved as Proposed, finding that the merged buildings are
AYES: Fong, Wu, Antonini, Borden, Hillis, Sugaya
NAYES: Moore
DRA: 0347
G. PUBLIC COMMENT
At this time, members of the public may address the Commission on items of interest to the public that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Commission except agenda items. With respect to agenda items, your opportunity to address the Commission will be afforded when the item is reached in the meeting with one exception. When the agenda item has already been reviewed in a public hearing at which members of the public were allowed to testify and the Commission has closed the public hearing, your opportunity to address the Commission must be exercised during the Public Comment portion of the Calendar. Each member of the public may address the Commission for up to three minutes.
The Brown Act forbids a commission from taking action or discussing any item not appearing on the posted agenda, including those items raised at public comment. In response to public comment, the commission is limited to:
(1) responding to statements made or questions posed by members of the public; or
(2) requesting staff to report back on a matter at a subsequent meeting; or
(3) directing staff to place the item on a future agenda. (Government Code Section 54954.2(a))
Adjournment – 3:57 p.m.
ADOPTED: January 23, 2014
