Remarks by Joel Koppel
21 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 1
- Play at 36:54
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Planning Commission · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 57:44
“Yeah, five to six years is a very long time. I myself worked in the building for about a year. And considering how close it is to such a traveled part of town with the Embarcadero, you know, people leaving the Giants games, it still isn't accessible enough to draw in the customer base that we would think it would. It's one of my biggest pet peeves maybe for the whole department, just seeing empty storefronts anywhere. And so we need to give people tools to fill out their spaces. Again, five or six years of a vacant storefront, that there's been opportunity to fill those. So I'm not going to…”
Planning Commission · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 1:18:25
“Seeing no opposition, I move to approve.”
Planning Commission · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 1:52:46
“So last item we heard, I mentioned there wasn't any opposition. And this is quite the contrary. I do applaud the residents for coming out and voicing their opinions. And you can tell just by the emotions. These are people's homes. There is going to be dust, sound, nuisances during construction. But I don't think people should have to fear for their lives. And again, this is a great use of the land. This is a great addition to the housing stock, which in general we're always promoting. But I am not seeing enough here to make the neighbors feel comfortable with this proceeding. Is the actual…”
Planning Commission · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 1:57:05
“That's enough for now. Thank you. And again, I think there's a big difference between, oh, we helped, you know, remove a tree after it fell, but that's not good enough. I want these people to, to whatever degree we can, have them feel safe to where they don't fear the tree falling in and crushing their house in the first place. Again, I'm not expecting anything magical to happen or anything unrealistic to happen, but I can't support something with this much opposition. And it's strong, strong opposition. Again, great project. I want the added housing. And I know this is a very extreme case,…”
Planning Commission · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 2:27:01
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Planning Commission · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 2:29:06
“So again, just for everyone's insight, what capabilities do they have as far as community liaison right they can always call DBI and make complaints or request some type of maybe visit to look at some hazardous conditions or And again, we can't tell the future. This tree might fall down tomorrow from wind. We can't ever. We're never going after anybody. But we can't up here go through who's being truthful, who's not. So we do need to look at this from a third person's point of view. Did you have anything more to add on? Maybe just some suggestions? I want them to know what their abilities…”
Planning Commission · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 2:31:17
“And so we can't really look at anything outside of the actual property lines of the properties we're actually reviewing.”
Planning Commission · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 2:36:36
“Was that a recommendation for the? No, I believe that was a condition of approval. So just for the public that as much as we can do is put into the motion, this is what we want to see. It's not a suggestion or we hope this to happen. As much as we can do is put this almost as a demand included in the motion. So it shall happen.”
Planning Commission · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 14:45
“Thanks to Supervisor Mahmoud's office. And I've worked with TAPE before at TBI. It's refreshing to already see some of the positive results of Working together at times, you know, there's been a little confusion or misalignment between the two departments with a gray area to kind of like, you know, point fingers about. So it's good to see we're kind of lining things up to work a little more efficiently. So I'm very supportive. I'd move to approve.”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 38:30
“Yeah, just one question for the architect. Is the lighting on the top of the building serving as the art?”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 38:52
“Okay, great. I also think this is a great project downtown. Revitalization still needs to be a large priority. It's again like the intersection of jobs, business, commerce, and not just the the people constructing the job temporarily, but also the full-time employment of everyone who will be working in the office afterwards. And don't forget those local contracting businesses that will also be dispatching and employing those workers. This location is definitely appropriate. This is where the office belongs. This type of transit-oriented development is just going to put more riders on Muni.…”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 1:00:05
“So I'm correct. Reckon Park did approve or bless the shadow findings. Yeah.”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 1:00:20
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 1:02:28
“Thank you. Yeah. With that said, I again do want to acknowledge these developers take on a lot of risk. I don't know how many years they've been putting into the project already and how much money they've already spent to get just here today. So I want to approve both the variance and the full amount of office allocation. I was going to move to approve item A.”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 1:03:08
“No, I wanted to recommend the full amount.”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 5:17
“It's great to be back a lot of familiar faces here Thanks for the public showing up. I think it's a great sign when there's so many familiar faces from staff still here Not not the biggest turnaround So it's gonna be refreshing to continue working with you all look forward to bringing the past eight years of experience Back to the hearing room, just a little bit of professional cleanup. I have since changed employers. I still have my 24-year background working in the building and construction trades for IBEW Local 6, but two years ago took an opportunity to stay within the same industry, and…”
Planning Commission · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 54:46
“Yeah, I remember years past, one of the hindrances we had to recovering after COVID and the over-concentration of office downtown, we didn't have enough residents or customers to keep the businesses afloat. We talked about Union Square, for instance, just utilizing opportunities to put more residents with more businesses nearby to keep those businesses afloat. So glad to see that we're still revisiting this and getting ready getting rid of any of the hindrances to helping this happen Motion approved second”
Planning Commission · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 1:17:59
“Yeah, the smartest thing I think we can do to set up downtown to be successful is create this predictability. So I think that's clearly been done here, and thank you for just being clear and transparent. A lot of these developers have outlying circumstances that can dictate if and when they can start construction, and a lot of that's out of their control. So I appreciate the thoughtful work.”
Planning Commission · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 2:01:22
“I don't think you can really appreciate the magnitude of this project until you've gone down and visited the site. Privileged to be a part of this since its inception, all the way through all of the processes. I don't know how many years ago you took me on a tour, and we were on what floor of that building looking over the site before anything had ever happened. So it's surreal being here today, first hearing back. you're in front of us for what is it's almost an indescribable project. What isn't happening here on the coastline? I mean, what projects have just even this much infrastructure,…”
Planning Commission · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 2:23:22
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Planning Commission · Jul 30, 2026