Hello. Yeah, now that's better. Good morning everyone and welcome to the January 8th 2019 meeting of the city of Columbia Board of Zoning Appeals. My name is Chuck Sally and I serve as chair of the board and at this time I'd like to introduce the other board members with us today. So my far my far left is Josh Speed immediately next to Josh Reggie McKnight to my immediate right is Marcellus Promise and then Jenna Stevens and George Schaefer. I would also like to introduce the staff that will be assisting the board at the table in front of us Rachel Bailey the zoning administrator and Hope Hasty the deputy administrator. Also assisting today is Andrea Wolfe the land use board coordinator. This board is charged with hearing applications for special exceptions, variances and administrative appeals. All testimony is recorded for the record and anyone wishing to speak will need to be sworn in and come to the podium to speak. No testimony may be taken from the floor. When you come to the podium state your name and please speak clearly into the microphone because this meeting is being recorded. Applicants with cases before the board are allotted a presentation time of 10 minutes. This time also includes all persons presiding information on behalf of the applicant. This time limit does not include any questions asked by the board or staff regarding the case and any member of the public may address the board and intervals of three minutes or five minutes in the event that you're a spokesperson for an established body or group of three or more people. The applicant then has five minutes for rebuttal and the board reserves the right to amend these limits on a case-by-case basis. So for those of you who plan to speak you must be sworn. So if you're here as an applicant or you're here to speak in any case, please stand at this time and raise your right hand. Do you affirm or attest that the testimony you will give today is the truth and nothing but the truth? So at this time, I'd like to turn the meeting over to Ms. Bailey. So the first matter of business, I do want to announce a case deferral. Item number 13 on the agenda. Case 2018, 0123 for 1525 Westminster that was deferred by applicant. So that will be heard in February. The consent agenda is used to approve non-controversial or routine matters by a single motion and vote. If a member of the board or the general public wishes to discuss an item on the consent agenda, that item is removed and considered on the regular agenda. The board then approves the remaining consent agenda items. On the consent agenda today, we have the approval of the December 11th, 2018 minutes. Case number 2, 2018, 0-1-1-2 at 121 Shop Road Extension. Variance to the off-street parking requirement for warehousing use. Item number 3, 2018, 0-1-1-9 for 1401 Laurel Street. This is a special exception to establish a miscellaneous personal service and event space. Item number 4, 2018, 0-1-20 is also at 1401 Laurel. This is a variance to the off-street parking requirement for the miscellaneous personal service event space. Item number 5, Case 2018, 0-1-2-1 at 505 Tyler Street. This is a special exception to permit an in-home day care. Item number 6, 2018, 0-1-2-4 for 4 Lake Point Road. This is a variance to the front yard step back requirement for a single family residence. Item number 7, 2018, 0-1-2-5 for 2112 and 2114 Sumter Street. This is a variance to the buffer yard requirement for an office use. Item number 8, 2018, 0-1-2-6 for 2112 and 2114 Sumter Street. This is a variance to the off-street parking requirement for an office use. Item number 9, Case 2018, 0-1-2-7 for 2112 and 2114 Sumter Street. That's a special exception to permit an alternative parking service. If anyone on the board or in the general public wishes to have a case removed from the consent agenda, please let us know now. Thank you, Rachel. Just to be clear, for everyone, we are getting ready to vote on the first nine items two through nine without any testimony or presentation from the applicant just based on their written application. So if there's somebody that wants any of these removed from that consent agenda, they need to speak now or forever. Hold your peace. Great. I'll entertain a motion. Have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed. The consent agenda is approved. The regular agenda. Item number 10 was deferred. That was 3624 Rosewood. So we're on item number 11, which is case 2018, 0-1-1-1. This is for 3038 Bronx Road and also a parcel on Belvedere Drive. This is a special exception to establish a towing service. If the applicant is here, they're welcome to come forward and address the board. Good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of this board. My name is Ian McVeigh and I rarely need a microphone. I'm with the law firm of Turner-Patch at Graham and Lady and I represent the applicant eligible towing in the matter that is before the board today. I have with me here packages for each of you that I think if you will allow me to approach to give them to you. Give them to Rachel, please. That I think will be informational. My intention here is just to give you sort of a brief overview of what it is that we're trying to do and I'm really going to let Mr. Elgin get down into the details of exactly what it is that we intend for this property. But just by way of a little background, Elgin's towing has been in business for 45 years and during that time period, Elgin's has served the city of Columbia with all of its towing needs. It is currently operating out of the old Dick Dyer location on Two-Dutch, about one block away from where we are. That property is on the market and Mr. Elgin obviously finds himself in need of a new location. Right properties has agreed to purchase this existing property from the owner, Mr. Fogel, and to redevelop the property for his needs. They're going to do all of the up-fit work and they're really going to clean the property up. Again, I'm going to let Mr. Elgin get a little further into exactly what it is that they intend. As y'all are aware, we'll let them also point this out, the right properties is so sure this is the correct property for this use that it is the subject of a 1031 transaction and the property's already been identified by right properties. So as you can understand time is of the essence for right properties. As you are aware, this board is charged with looking at about eight criteria when considering a special exception. The first is whether the proposal will have a substantial adverse impact on the vehicular pedestrian traffic and their safety. The second is whether the proposal will have a substantial adverse impact on the adjoining properties in terms of environmental factors. The third is whether the proposal will have a substantial adverse impact on the aesthetic character to the area. The fourth is whether the proposal will have a substantial adverse impact on public safety or create a nuisance. The fifth is whether the proposal will create a concentration proliferation of the same type of business. The sixth is whether the proposal is consistent with the character of the underlying district. In this case, this is general commercial. And the seventh is whether it's appropriate for the location and obviously the eighth is whether the proposal will adversely affect the public interest. I would submit to y'all right now that this is nothing but an improvement for this property is nothing but a improvement for the neighborhood. The character of the neighborhood is Mr. Elgin will explain to you a little further. There's already Phillips auto tech right there. Cool care heating in there. This is just a commercial space. Mr. Elgin is going to go into a little more detail and then if y'all have any questions of me at the end I'll be happy to come back up. I appreciate your time today. Thank you sir. My name is Darrell Elgin owner of Elgin's towing service. I want to thank you all for listening to me for my special exception. We would like to relocate from 3215 two-notch road which like he explained was by the block and a half up the road and we found this property. It's been vacant since the last business license I've seen was 2004. It's Highland Automotive and we'd like to move our towing service there. We don't have any adverse effect against the community or we would be entering off Belvedere Drive which is abandoned properties on both ends and it's across the street from Phillips auto tech's back lot. There is no residential areas to where my trucks will be entering and exiting and all my business will be conducted towards Belvedere Drive which is there's a residential area around that section.  We're open from 8 to 5 Monday through Friday and pretty much we do not scrap, we do not handle selling parts or anything like that. We pretty much pick up vehicles and deliver vehicles. If we have a vehicle that we've towed for an accident for the city of Columbia, it comes on the property the insurance company evaluates the vehicle and their scrap people pick it up as a total loss or we'll tow it to another body shop. Any, we don't tow any of our vehicles. If we do get one, we consider most of my accounts, not all my all my automotive accounts. I've got it set up to where if we tow it over the weekend and they're closed and I can't get it on their lot, I'll store it for 48 hours and then take it to them on Monday. That's pretty much how we conduct our business is conducted. We don't like I say we're not a scrap yard. I'm going to put new fencing up with screening with racial wiring cameras for security and just to protect our property and their customers vehicles. You mentioned in your testimony and in your written application that y'all are open between 8 and 5 p.m. Is that correct? Yes. And is there not any time when you would have someone entering the lot or closed or what beyond those hours or? After hours we do with the city of Columbia we are 24. We have to be there with city contract but I mean you usually get one city violation or one city wreck and we will enter in that part drop the vehicle only got one I got two employees only one truck's running I don't have a fleet of trucks coming in and out of their 24-7 if we do get an after-hour accidents we'll drop the vehicle and then that's it. Is there an employee on the site? I'm sorry? Is there an employee on site at all times or is it just just those hours? All the time on 8 to 5? You at nights? No.  Yes sir. So you're open for business from 8 to 5 but you essentially you're accessing the lot 24-7? If need be. All right so if you don't mind let's just quickly go through you know these criteria again we've repeated what the criteria are but you really haven't explained why your special exception you know is in the case for that. You've done so in your application and if you've got that if you'd like to do that for the record just to you know go through and describe you know the ways the proposed special exception will not have a substantial adverse impact on vehicular traffic or vehicular pedestrian safety and how adequate provisions are made in the proposed exception for parking and loading and unloading. It will not be affecting anybody we're coming into through abandoned vehicles and all our business will be conducted inside the fenced in area with screening. There will never be no vehicles outside this fence there will be no business conducted outside this fence all loading and unloading will be done inside the fence so no pedestrians there's no sidewalks there's no adverse effect on traffic coming in and out because there's nothing around that area. And then number two describe the ways the proposed special exception will not have a substantial adverse impact on the joining properties in terms of environmental factors such as lights noise clear vibration fumes odors obstruction of air light or litter. No sir we will not we have all our own dumpsters for eating debris and any debris from the accident vehicles the insurance companies have to pick those up and take it with the vehicles um lighting on the no lighting and everything will be outside the area. You you attend the light the the parking lot I would assume I would assume you have lights yes beside the yes sir. And I'm assuming that as is part of this special exception you would agree that you know the lights would be placed in such a way that they do not bleed outside of the property line. Yes sir. And then three describe the ways that proposed special section will have will not have a substantial adverse impact on the aesthetic character of the area. I know you've given us some photographs that's been abandoned since 2004. It's it's but it does sound like in your application you intend to put new fencing around the property. Various existing fencing there we're just going to have to repair it where it's been knocked down and trampled over over the years and a lot of it's been phoned in and it's got overgrowth in it and the bill there's already a 400 square foot office space there with a loading dock we're going to leave that alone just put an office in so we can conduct what business from eight to five. Gotcha and um is there any uh any plans to do any anything as far as screening with the um the saxophone fence? Yes sir. So you do plan on screening the property um actually screening the the interior parking area with a solid visual screen? Yes. Describe the ways in which proposed special section will not have an adverse impact on public safety or create a nuisance uh conditions detrimental to the public interest uh that would like to result in law enforcement uh response etc. I've not proposed any of that we're going to put in safety cameras and by state requirements of the towing service you've got to have a six above fence with razor wire or three three spans of barbed wire for protection and safety for the customer's vehicles and I'm planning on like I said put cameras in and a security system. So um again that is um that that's monitored by who? The cameras. I'm going to have it set up to where what right now at Dick Dyer we have I verify I'm going to take bids and see what they can offer but I'm going to set up with a camera system to where you get alerts on your phones right things like that so when it's pinged with today's technology it can let you know if somebody walks on the lot. And you're currently operating of a lot right in the general vicinity off on to you know. It actually backs up to Belvedere community. Okay so um have you ever had you know any law enforcement response to that lot? No. Um then uh Ford described the ways in which proposed special exception will not have an adverse impact on public safety or create nuisance conditions detrimental to the public entrance um which would uh did I just do that already? I'm sorry. Um explain how the establishment of proposed special exception will not create a concentration or proliferation of the same or similar types of businesses. I'm assuming that you're going to close your existing operation on two nights? What was that I'm sorry? Are you going to close the existing operation on two nights or is that going to be an expansion? No we're closing. They've got this is the second time I've had to move and I'm just looking for a permanent place to where I can set up and have a you know a home. Got you. And you're aware of any any other tow yards you know within close proximity to this site? Uh Puff Howard's Davis towing and collision ones on Beltline on down there close where they just put the new city Columbia Water Department. We've all been on rotation for 10 years. Right. And city requirements are that you have to have a business established in the city limits for two years before you can get on city rotation. Right. Then um explain how the proposed special exception is consistent with the character intent of the underlying district as indicated by the zoning district um I think you're indicating your response that it's zone C3 um which allows for automotive service um anything else you want to add to that? That's that whole area all the way around it's pretty much automotive industry you know I mean there's a car washed backs up to it to abandon properties it backs up to philips auto tech you got the auto club two blocks or half a block up a road right around the corner. And then um describe how the proposed special exception is appropriate for its location and compatible with the permitted uses adjacent to and in the vicinity of the property. Pretty much it's pretty much automotive all around us. I mean like I just explained there's auto sales and automotive auto zones across the street it's pretty much a mechanical industry auto service industry. Is um is there any um any residences next to the contiguous to the property line? On the back part there's two on Scurry Road right across the street where I sent out letters to try to reach out to them and there's a one that's probably quarter of an acre away onto the left hand side which I posted some pictures and I think the zoning's got it also right but that's on the back part of the lot. Lastly explain in what ways proposed special exception will not adversely affect the public interest? Everything we'll have is going to be inside done to all the business and everything that we will be doing will be inside the lot not disturbing any roadways homes coming in and out of residential area everything will be performed on the Belvedere Drive. Any questions from the board? Thank you very much for your testimony. Is there anyone else who would like to come to the podium and speak for against this application? Good morning. Good morning how are you? My name is Diane Wiley president of Belvedere. Happy New Year. Happy New Year to you as well. I've been in the area ever since 75 and he called me the applicant called me and I told him I said it was a waste to come out there because we don't want any more towing services it's a lot of towing services out there and we don't need any more and where his business is going to be at the houses are right there a one going to be right in the front when they open their door they'll be seeing that towing service and as a house on the side up there I can't point that for on this side over here right next door to it and we don't even need that the communities do not want that we got petitions and the neighborhood is here some of them had to work he called me and I told him no we was going to be fighting this and we don't need this in our area and we got we at the point now we're trying to fix up our area and we got two towing services on Belvedere Boulevard right in our neighborhood and anything on two knots road and Belvedere that's fine but coming in our neighborhood no because our streets are already messed up the traffic is really bad and we just don't need that right now you know and he's saying about the the time limit would you want to live by a towing service we're a residential older neighborhood we don't want to be living by no towing service two knots road and belt line I don't have no control over that but you coming in our neighborhood off a Bronx road Bronx and our window and we have a housing development of 655 houses and these people not going for that our community is all these people right here in our community and you're supposed to fight for our neighborhood and that's what we are here doing yeah you know that that property is vacant right now is it not this is not a new house it would be better for houses not a business stay out there on and he done moved to we got we got businesses right there they're not taking care of that area we have to go out there and cut grass keep the area clean you know we're tired and the question is would you like to live by a towing service it would not be going on in in other neighborhoods like ours we are here the people are here to talk yes ma'am any question I don't have any further questions good morning my name is Florence Butler and I'm a longtime residents of the Belvedere community I live on Scurry Street right there so it his coming will impact me greatly he addressed some of the issues that I have I'm an early morning walker and my concern was the fumes of transmission and oil being in the air I like the fresh air and I didn't want to have to smell that in the morning and another concern was the property kind of slant down in the back and my concern was with all the rain we're getting and then their oil and transmission there the water what's going into our water and he talked about putting up a privacy or mesh we that's detrimental to a community I wouldn't want to get up every morning and look at a mesh around a barbed wire fence and I know there's nothing in the property now but we have a relationship with the owner when it starts to get overgrown we call him and he comes out and he have it cut the reason why I'm concerned about what we put into that place is because in the past there it was a dairy it was an automotive and it was a pallet company when the pallet company was there they brought in more pallet than they could transport out after a while the pallet started rotting there were termites and then it was just more rodents and frankly like miss Wiley said who wants to live next to a junkyard our property value for being in the city of Columbia is nowhere near other property values because we're almost and completely African-American community so the question is to each and every one of us here would you want a junkyard in your area we have to think of the property values it's not going up because a lot of the folks there are senior citizens like I am we're either dying and our children have moved away and they're renting the property out so yes putting something there would be an improvement but we have to be selective with what we put there thank you so much thank you all right with my 30 seconds yes ma'am he is speaking about Belvedere Drive we are speaking about a community he is making reference to Phillips auto tech to auto zone to other places they are on to not road we are in the confines of a residential community yes we're bound by commercial but where his property is going to be it's the main entrance to our community thank you thank you ma'am good morning good morning my name is Katie Boulder and I know Mr. Elgin said that there was another toy and service near there which was Puffhouse it's not Puffhouse thank you would you pull that in another neighborhood thank you also we do not know our property depreciate since 2015 the flood we're having problems with the streets the ditches the doughnut holes and we have been working with the city effortlessly trying to get that corrected I know Mr. Elgin said he will not be changing all a transmission fluid but if a car is wrecked and towed there they are going to be leaking these different of substance on the property also I would advise if you ever want to come to someone else's neighborhood meet with the nation neighborhood association or the home owns associates and see what they wants are and this will save the vulnerable time the person is trying to move into the neighborhood not only that if you're moving into the neighborhood I understand he's been on two nights road I guess two or three years have you ever come to our neighborhood meetings to see what's going on with our neighborhood have you ever tried support something that's going on in our neighborhood these are the people that we want in our neighborhood we don't want anyone that's coming in our neighborhood to depreciate our property not being a part of the neighborhood we welcome people in our neighborhood we just welcome you Harley in our neighborhood it's bringing jobs to our neighborhood these are the things that we want we want things to improve our neighborhood not to depreciate our neighborhood thank you yes ma'am thank you good morning good morning My name is Ron Sewell and I'm the resident of the Belvedere area for 35 years.  Now Mr. Elgin claimed that it wouldn't be a nuisance, it would be a nuisance to our area. Any given day, you can see residents out there cleaning up their yards, the streets, even up in that area there. We have a fellow every two weeks probably cutting the grass along that area, that purple line there, the shrubbery there, trimming it. If you've ever been to Belvedere, I don't know if you've been there lately or not, but if you come through the Bronx Road area, we have EF Martins, a commercial air condition there. On the other side, we have Koo Air, a commercial area. Also, we have the back area of the Grand Motere, right in that same area. So it looks bad coming through there. If you come Truman Street off a belt line, the other exit entrance to Belvedere, you have Nix Automotive Car Lot, 100 cars there. You have an abandoned building, Southern Bell, nothing there, just the building. You have a rundown trailer in that area. So those two areas that you come into Belvedere, already a commercial property there. I can sit on my front porch and look straight at that area. It doesn't look good now, but we try to keep it clean in that area.  So it would be a nuisance to have a recon service there. We just don't want it. We take great pride in our area.  You live on Windover? You say you live on Windover? Sir. You live on Windover? I live on Scurry Street. Scurry Street. Yeah, that's the street facing- That's the other side of Bronx. That's the other side of Bronx. Scurry Street comes up to Bronx. Right. Right. Reading the center of that area there. I can sit on my front porch and look directly into that area. We just don't need a recon service there. Thank you for your time. Yes, sir. Is there anyone else? Good morning. My name is Jamie White, and I own the supposedly abandoned building that's coming into play next door.  If you see where the two locks are, the one on the right is Belvedere, and the one on the left is Bronx. I'm in the Brown building. I think you can go a couple more pages. I'm in that building right there on the left, the Paper Express building, and then there's the Quality Inc. building right there. Now, I bought that building in 2016 from the bank that it had been abandoned for, I don't know, eight or ten years. Now, the couple that owns the Quality Inc. building, they have been there for 41 years, and he's got sick, so now he is, they're going to shut down their business. But my concern is I've been in that building for three or four years, and in the last month I got in a car accident and I had a trailer out front inside my lot, and somebody broke through it and stole my trailer. And I do have cameras and I do have lights out there. So my concern is with Mr. Elgin, and I'm sure he's going to be a good client or a good neighbor, because I have problems already with that property with rodents. There's homeless people living in that abandoned building that I've tried to take care of. On that street, these are the only two buildings on the left-hand side of Belvedere Drive. And in the last four years, I have tried to get rid of all the semis because there's no place for people to park. They park there all the time. They're not allowed there. They leave their trailers there for weeks. And I finally got to the point where they're not coming anymore. But my concern is, is if nobody's there for me after eight o'clock or five o'clock at night, are they going to do the same thing there? Knowing that now there's going to be cars in there, are they going to take stolen trucks like they did to mine, ram through the gate, and steal the vehicles that are in there? And I'm sure he's got cameras and lights and everything, but that still doesn't detour the fact of what happens out there. And all this is going to do is bring more people driving down that road looking to see what's in there. And that's my concern. Now, would he probably be an asset? Yes, because he's going to fix up the property. And it's been, I mean, it's terrible. Now, they cut it once a year and that's it. Right now, this stuff's almost wasted high again. And that's my concern. But that's all I got. Any questions? Thank you very much. Thank you. I'm assuming anybody else? Would y'all like to come back to the podium and read the rest of your thing? Very brief rebuttal, if I may, Mr. Chairman. First of all, let me address the security issue that was just raised in the years that Mr. Elgin has been operating on two-notch road. He's never had a problem. He doesn't anticipate any down. Two, you have heard testimony today as to the condition of the property. My client is going to vastly improve the condition of the property. Right now, you just heard a testimony right now that there are homeless people living in the property. It's not secure. My client's going to secure it. He's going to clean it up. He's going to put a privacy fence around it. He is going to vastly increase or, excuse me, improve the quality of the property. You also heard him testify that we're not talking about a used car lot here. We're not talking about cars sitting for long periods of time. They are on average in and out in less than 48 hours. This is not a storage yard. I get that concern.  I get that completely. That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about very quick turnaround. This is a towing business. It's not an auto wrecking business. It's not a storage business. It's a towing business. You also heard what I don't think actually we discussed, and I believe it is in the materials that's in front of you, is there's a drawing of, and can you find that this is actual, there's a graph drawing of what the plans are for the property. I know it's in your packages. The entrance for the trucks, because I get the concept of nobody wants a tow truck coming down, clang, clang, clang, clang at one o'clock in the morning. I get that. The entrance for the trucks is in and off of Belvedere, which is not a residential. There aren't residences right there. I understand these people's concerns that live on scurry. I get that. That's not where the entrance is. The entrance is on Belvedere, right behind another commercial area. It's not going to alter what they do, and none of these trucks, and none of these customers that will be coming in and out, are going to go through their neighborhood. They're going to go straight back out to Do Notch. So the impact on the community really, truly is minimal. If anything, it is going to improve what is already there. And one thing I may, one of the residents I noticed raised the issue of whether, that my client hadn't come to talk to him. He did. He reached out to Ms. Wiley. Ms.  He wanted to come talk with her. She said, I have no interest. And so, you know, we're not here. We want to be friends with the neighborhood, but it's been very difficult for us this fall. Okay. Thank you very much. Appreciate your time today. If apartments were in the area that he's coming in on, we got apartments out there too. That street that he's going on, we got apartments. I was nice to him when he called me. I told him, this is our area. You know, you're not going to keep coming in our area, and we're not going to do nothing about it. This is our area. Stay on Toonots Rowland and Beltline. This is our area. They come in. They come here and tell you all what they're going to do. And then we have a mess laid on. We got a lady here every day, pick up paper. Pick up paper. It's apartments on that part that he's coming in. It's behind the church. It's apartments there. We not only have houses, we got apartments. And I was nice to him. I told him, no. Puff Howard gave him my telephone number. And he's my cousin. And I told him, no. That's all I have to say. Katie Bolden again. You know, when we signed for the lottery money, they said it's supposed to be used for education. Now it's used for education. It's used for everything else. Just like Mr. Elgin said, the touring service is going to end and out. But it's not going to be written in stone. If he gets that place, he can do whatever he wants to do. He can park cars there, leave them there. So this is not going to be written in stone. Thank you. piggyback on what she's saying about cars parked there at Mr. Elgin place now, even though he said there would be nothing housed there, he does have cars there. Maybe they're waiting on the insurance company, but there are cars there. Right. So I just want that to be known. And we could, we're not saying we couldn't afford a lawyer to come, but we have city council members here to make the right decision. We're not against Mr. Elgin having a business, but we just prefer for him to have it somewhere else. So I just want to make sure I've got this right, Rachel. This is, this is, this actually has frontage on Brock's road and Belvedere road. Is that right? And there's a curb cut there. Yes. It is two parcels and mine the parcels. So it would have a frontage on Belvedere and a frontage. Could the applicant approach the stadium? I have a question. The podium. I mean, so in your testimony, you stated that you would only access this a lot from Belvedere Drive. Yes, sir. And I'm assuming that you would be willing to accept that as a condition of acceptance of your request for a special exception. Yeah, the access to Belvedere. Would, would you also be willing to essentially, you know, there's a, there's an existing driveway there on your property. This goes by the fence. I mean, would you be willing to make some improvements to that back so that there was, it was screened by vegetation as opposed to just a fence along Bronx Road? Yeah, that's the plan. Yeah. The sketch I've got out, this is going to be fencing and landscaping on the back part of the area. Did I see that sketch? Is that in this package? That's optional. I mean, if it's a point, we can just go ahead and knock that off and have everything come off Belvedere because there's two entrances to the lot. I mean, we see an average probably six to seven. It all depends. I mean, City of Columbia sometimes do, yes, average 15 to 20. Yeah. And to speak on the oil and transmission fluid that's, I mean, usually when they get in an accident, that's already leaked out on the streets. And when by the time it gets in a lot, there's no fluids left in the view. There's no repair in this fence. That's just going to have to be pulled out and replaced. Chang Lake was screening. I have a picture here of the Bronx Road. We solicited the city for a grant and we received a grant for beautification. So there are about seven crepe myrtles along with the rose bushes that blooms yearly. And we did this as a part of beautification for the area. And that's a picture of that Bronx Road right before you get to the right after the entrance into that lot. We have a sprinkler system there to keep the foliage flowers alive. So we are trying to beautify our area. Let me ask you a question. So you've got this piece of property right here with a commercial building on it on Bronx Road with access to Bronx Road. So, you know, I mean, this could be used for any number of general commercial uses right there that don't require a special exception that could come in and be accessing Bronx Road in and out to use this property. Now, what I just heard from the applicant is he's willing as a part of this special exception to completely close Bronx Road off from having any access. Bronx Road would have no access to this property whatsoever. And to add additional screening, their vegetation screening to the site so that it basically, you know, you don't even see The aesthetics of the Bronx Road is as fine as it is. If he was there and just had the property mowed, what he would have to put up fences for is in the back where going out, because we wouldn't want anything to the front to make it look like it was a confined area. But another thing we have to look at is, like it was said, there are other companies there. And I know he said the many times he would come in and out, but it's already a traffic jam in the morning for people trying to go to work. With him utilizing the back entrance, it's still a problem because that's like a shortcut road for some people instead of going up to the light. So it will cause a traffic problems. There's buses and children going to school in the morning. So, and like we said, we know it's residential. And the pallet company that we had there, we had to come back and get City Council to help us to get that company out of there. So we don't want to come back for you all to help us to get this out. Please come up to the podium. Been there 41 years and I listened to all and I need to make it clear that Winova and Bevedere has the greatest church in our area there, the Good Ain't, excuse me, the Gunners Chapel Baptist Church. And we are somewhat the neighborhood church. And he made the statement that he would utilize Bevedere drive to make interest to his company. And I think that's a bad decision because the church is not just open on Sunday. We have funerals. We have special programs there. Traffic is somewhat crowded with when the church is going on. And we I just cannot imagine a record service pulling through there. When we've gone to the length of having our church, having that church there, whether it's on a Sunday or Saturday or Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday, whatever day it is to have them drag through there with red cars and whatever else he might bring through there. I solicit you this morning that we've said many times is more that it is a residential area. And I'm quite sure I'm quite sure every member at the Gunners Chapel Baptist Church would be appalled that we have a service or getting out of service. And there is record service coming through the middle of our church services. We're going to our cars and they're dragging red cars on Bevedere drive through our area. There is many places that he can go. Just for the record, your church is the one that faces wind over street? I'm at Good Aid Missionary about the church, but I am a worshipper as well when Gunners Chapel has got something going on. Right in the corner there went over and Bevedere and if he come off too large and he said it this morning that he would use Bevedere drive for his entrance. And that's right between parking lot here, the church is here. He'd be about a block and a half off two notch turning left and right out of Bevedere. Yes, sir, he will. I ask that you consider not only the church but the community. Thank you so much. I want to say when we come out as a community, we got our petitions and we come out here to fight and consider us. We know it will be wasting our time coming out here looking at you. This is our community. It will not happen in other communities. We do not need auto and service in our area. We got enough. This year, let's start off right now. Any further discussion here? I'm the current owner of the property in your name, Carl Alfoval. The people here want to buy the property for their use. And the gentleman that was up here before that's my adjacent neighbor, he would like to buy the property as well. And I'm just a simple electrician. And we have never had the city get involved in making us clean by threaten or whatever. We have had the grass get tall. We have tried to lease the place many different times to many different concerns. And everything that seemed to come to us was vehicular in some way.  But at times, I've thought, well, if worse comes to worse, I could sell where I'm at now and move in over here. And what if I decided to move my electrical shop in here? And from what I'm hearing, I don't have control of my own property if I were to do whatever. And that's really all I'm hearing. And I've been in there before, you know, you try to run the homeless people out. And what do you do? But this would be a wonderful way to keep the property safer. I think it would add to the security. And it would certainly be a better way to keep it safer and cleaner than it is right now until the area can find a better use. And certainly maybe they'll find a better use in a better place. But it bothers me to hear that I couldn't move into my own property and build a shop if worse came to worse. And it's already approved for the use. That's all I can say. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you, sir. Any discussion on the board? The chair will entertain a motion. I move that we deny this application for this towing service. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? No. No. Just for the record, Mr. Schaefer, you made the motion. Mr. Schaefer. No. So the motion carries. We'll pause a minute. Just as okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. You're all for coming out. That's good. Yeah, I got to use it too. Yeah. We do have some more matters on the agenda. So if everyone could just exit quietly, it'd be appreciated. The next item on the agenda is case 12, 2018 0122. This is for 7509 Garner's Ferry Road, Suite J. It's a special exception to permit a liquor store. The applicants welcome to approach the podium. I am the owner of that shop or would-be shop. Well, it's there now. A shop on True Notch Road for four years, 8712. And I was approached by the property there on Garner's Ferry that the grocery store and some of the people in the neighborhood would like a liquor store on that side of Garner's Ferry. There are lots of apartment buildings and residential area and a lot of foot traffic on that side that were happy to have a liquor store there so that they didn't have to cross Garner's Ferry, which I mean, if you're aware, there's been a couple of hit-and-run accidents where people have died on Garner's Ferry trying to cross the road. I was not aware that I had to apply for a special exemption. I did all the other things in the law, which I was aware of from being over on 8712 True Notch. I had sled come over and post the 45-day notice for people to protest or appeal. That was posted on the door. I also put a three-week ad, which is required by law, in the newspaper, the Carolina Star, and I also filled out all my applications and paid all my fees. I was made aware of this and I quickly filled out all the paperwork that I needed to fill out for this in hopes of speeding things through. So you've answered the criteria in your application. Do you have a copy of that handy? We just go over those quickly. Describe the proposed special exception. I will not have a substantial adverse impact on vehicular traffic, pedestrian safety, and how adequate provisions are proposed a special exception for parking and loading and unloading. I think you've already mentioned that you were approached by this to basically try to eliminate having people going across the road to get to a store and that you are in a fairly large retail strip center with ample parking and commercial uses surrounding you. Is that correct? Yes. Describing what ways proposed special exception will not have a substantial adverse impact on adjoining properties in terms of environmental factors, noise, light, glare, vibrations, lights, litter, etc. No fumes or anything like that in my store doesn't draw any rodents, animals, things like that. You'll be in a professionally managed shopping center? Yes. So they have criteria that they require tenants to adhere to, such as signage and stuff like that? Absolutely. Describe the ways in which proposed special exception will not have a substantial adverse impact on the character of the area to include orientation, spacing of buildings, etc. You mentioned you were going into an existing retail space in the shopping center. It was a retail space for cell phones and audio equipment and from what I've been made aware several years prior, maybe five or more, there was an existing liquor store in that strip mall, but it moved out before the current property owners purchased the property. And then describe the ways in which proposed special exception will not have an adverse impact on public safety or create decent conditions detrimental to the public interest or conditions likely to result in increased law enforcement response. Closed at 7 p.m. The doors are locked and areas are cleared away. It's the same as if I were still at 871229. Then explain how the establishment of proposed special exception will not create a concentration or proliferation of similar types of special exception uses in the area. Is there any other liquor store in that shopping center? Not in that shopping center, there is one across. Then explain how, I'm sorry, go ahead. There is a lot of pedestrian traffic on that side of the road. From the residence, the apartment buildings, lots of people walk to the grocery store, the hair salon, everything else. And they really were happy. And then six was the how is the special exception consistent with the character and intent of the underlying district that's indicated in the zoning district with apical zoning overlay. Obviously, it's in a general commercial zoned region which allows that used for the special exception. You also mentioned in your application, there's existing retail strip mall that premises were located in. Yes, there's only two vacant spaces left. There's the restaurant. There are several restaurants there. Two that have bars. There are the grocery store, you know, the duty salon, rent a center. Then how would this proposed special exception be appropriate for its location and compatible with the permitted uses adjacent to and in the vicinity of the property? Well, it serves to improve or help with the existing business to save a lot and the two restaurants that have bars. Also, it's been, I've heard nothing but positive response from the neighbors, my neighbors, that there's something there that we clean up, we keep things clean. And also, you know, it's not an empty storefront anymore. And then finally, how will this special exception not adversely affect the public interest? It was requested by the customers and by the Savalot grocery store as an accessory to them. Thank you for your testimony. Is anyone here to speak in favor against this request for special exception? I think that's probably the best location we've ever had come before us for a liquor store. Exactly. I move that we approve this request for special exception based on applicant's testimony and written application and subject to all comments by staff. A second. All in favor say aye. All opposed. Okay, motion carries. Item number 14 on the agenda is case 2018-01-2-8 is Garnersbury Road, TMS 16315-0202. This is a special exception to permit a multifamily development. The applicant is welcome to come forward. Good morning. My name is Kevin Connelly. I'm with Connelly Builders in Development. I am a lifelong resident of South Carolina. My office is in Lexington. We have built many apartment communities around South Carolina. We currently are licensed in four states, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Virginia. We have worked with many municipalities on providing workforce housing in those municipalities all over those states, including the City of Columbia. We've worked with the city's non-profit on providing workforce housing. We've also worked with the Columbia Housing Authority on a design build at the Rosewood facility, their elderly facility over there. The property that we are proposing to develop is seven, roughly seven acres out of the 14 acres that is shown in your package. The property has been vacant for over 30 years. Currently, unfortunately, it's got trash on the property. When we went and investigated the property, there were several homeless folks living on the property, which is not a good situation. But we're proposing 48 units, which is not a large development. It would fit nicely on this infill site. We would have on-site professional management, intermark management that is located here in Columbia, manages all of our properties. I currently have over 40 properties in our portfolio. We have a build and hold business model. I still own the first development that I did. Started back in the late 90s, and we still own all the properties that I've developed. I think also in your package, you can see some elevations. I've got some additional photographs on the thumb drive here if you want to see them of the site as it sits today with some of the trash and the homeless. I couldn't tell. Was there a site plan in your application on this particular site? We should have been. We had examples. Didn't see an actual site plan. But what you see on the screen there is that's a similar project up in Greer, South Carolina that's under construction. But the elevation that was on the prior slide, if you could pull that up for me. That's a similar elevation to what we do. We've got two different designs, and we plan on working with the city. On that design, we can do either a more residential look or what we call a semi-urban look, which is much like you're seeing today with the lower pitched roofs with the parapet fronts. There will be a clubhouse that will have meeting rooms for the residents. We have computers that are provided for the residents for after-school programs and job search for residents. The clubhouse has meeting space with kitchen and restroom facilities for meetings and activities for the residents. I mentioned we had on-site management. We also own all of our properties. We put camera systems and we work with all the local law enforcement and have access to those camera systems. We think this is a great use. This provides much less traffic than other commercial uses that might utilize the properties already zoned for commercial use. So the residential, we think, would be a good buffer between the existing commercial all while providing our residents a walkable community to also cut down on traffic. It would be helpful with us if you would mind, if you've got your application handy, just going through the special exceptions there so that we can just get that on the record. Okay. Starting with item one, describe the ways in the proposed special exception will not have a substantial impact on vehicular traffic or vehicular and pedestrian safety and how adequate provisions are made in the proposed exception for parking and loading and unloading. The properties located within distance to services that many of our residents would walk decrease the amount of daily traffic in the area. Development will meet all applicable code requirements for parking. The proposed parcel is located off a main traffic corridor which the residents would use as secondary road for exiting and entering the development during peak hours and there's also an existing light already at the intersection. So your your access to this site will be off Daphne road, is that correct? So there's an existing stoplight there at Gaffney and you won't be interfacing with the other multi-family development there that has access on the next interchange down. That is correct. Very good. Item number two, describe the ways the proposed exception will not have a substantial adverse impact on adjoining properties in terms of environmental such as noise, lights, glare, vibration, fumes, odors, obstruction of air, light and litter. I'll address each one of those noise. It's a residential community. There's no loud noises and as I said we have on-site management that monitor and maintain that situation. Lights, we use down lighting in all of our communities. They're energy efficient lights. Glare, again there'll be no glare. The buildings don't have a lot of glass just other than the residential windows that are required. There's no vibration.  There's no odors and certainly no obstruction of air, light or and then in litter we have on-site maintenance that constantly monitor the grounds. The proposed development has no adverse conditions on the surrounding properties. As mentioned our management and maintenance staff is there to properly monitor on a daily basis. The property to the rear is a park zoned by the city. To the left is existing commercial. To the right is existing multifamily and the front is vacant that is also currently zoned commercial so we think it fits well as a blend in that community and a buffer between commercial and residential. Item number three, describe in what ways the special exception will not have an adverse impact on the aesthetic character of the area to include a review of the orientation and spacing of the buildings. Again we plan on submitting the plans and specs when they are completed. We have the two different elements but the buildings will be organized in a manner that will have very nice curb appeal professional landscaping and will be maintained. We also have a with our clubhouse we have a playground for the children and we always try to locate the playground in the clubhouse central to the community so that the children are safe inside the community. Item number four, describe the ways in which the exception will not have an adverse impact on public safety create nuisance conditions detrimental to public interest or conditions likely to result in increased law enforcement response. We have over 35 affordable properties in South Carolina and North Carolina and we have on-site management staff as well as the camera systems that I mentioned and we also have a screening process for all of our residents we have a zero tolerance policy on crime and drugs in all of our communities. Because of that we have a 97 occupancy on all of our properties in our portfolio. We believe that if you have good residents then other people want to live with good residents and when you have bad residents that's not the case. Item number five, explain how the establishment of special exception does not create a concentration proliferation of the same types similar types of special exception use which concentration may be detrimental to the development or redevelopment of an area. The area is mostly comprised of commercial development as I stated adding multifamily would provide a mix of housing and businesses in a walkable community. The land is currently heavily littered with trash and occupied by homeless. The community will offer residents affordable and safe housing for the area. The adjacent property we recently developed Abernathy which is also another affordable community. It is 100% occupied with a waiting list. Those residents now enjoy a safe decent place to live and because of the program rules we have there's a utility allowance so with our units being built new we have the most energy efficient units available for the residents. Number six, explain how the proposed special exception is consistent with the character and intent of the underlying district as indicated in the zoning district description with any applicable zoning overlay district goals and requirements. Again the surrounding area is large commercial businesses providing multifamily on infill acreages and ideal use of the land and it serves as a buffer between the commercial and residential. Item seven, describe how the proposed special exception is appropriate for its location and compatible with permanent uses adjacent to the vicinity of the property. The special exception is appropriate because the parcel is located off of main traffic corridor. It's an infill lot. The parcel is located to adjacent neighboring apartments with close proximity to services and in addition to the park at the rear. Item eight, explain what ways the proposed special exception will not adversely affect the public interest. This development will provide much needed workforce multifamily housing for the residents while providing access to many walkable services in the area. Thank you for your testimony. Is there anyone here to speak in favor or against this application? Is there any questions from the board? Discussion? Thank you, sir. I just want to put on the record that any development on this parcel, the multifamily development, it will go to planning conditions for site family review, so there will be formal site family review. Understood. So basically this is just a special exception because the property is on C3 and multifamily is allowed in C3 with a special exception. That's the only thing we're determining here. I'd like to make a motion that we approve this request based on the applicant's testimony and written application and subject to all comments by staff. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed. Much carries. There's no other business on the agenda today. I hereby call this a meeting adjourned. Adjourned.


Hello, my name is Bob Scheibel. I am the chair of the organization main voices for Palestinian rights The mission of MVP are is to support the Palestinians in all of their non-violent efforts to achieve their rights and their dignity as human beings. I am Pleased to say that MVP are Uses its Energy primarily to educate the people of Maine about this effort We are very pleased to welcome to Maine our guest on today's program Nora barrels Friedman Nora has come here to talk and To further educate us which is part of our mission Nora is the author of this book in our power US students organized for justice in Palestine Nora traveled across this country Meeting with many different students on college campuses to find out about their efforts in Forming the various chapters of students for justice in Palestine. I Want to tell you a few things about Nora Nora is a journalist. She is an editor She's a radio broadcaster, and she's a musician and she's a mother Nora has worked for the Historic or does work for a historic Pacifica radio network, which is the oldest Audience supported public radio station in America, so it has a long and honored history and Nora has worked there For some years for eight years She was the senior producer and co-host of a program called flash points and This was an investigative news magazine broadcast which was beginning to cover the Conflict in Israel in Palestine and for eight years Nora made several different trips a year Into Gaza into the West Bank where she was reporting on the ground About events there, so she's been there some 20 or 30 times and she knows her way around Nora is currently an associate editor of the electronic intifada Which is an award-winning and widely read and acclaimed news agency For people who follow the Israel Palestine Conflict they know electric intifada is one of the most reliable and professional sources of on-the-ground information She Produces a regular electronic intifada podcast and she contributes Investigative stories and blogs for electronic intifada. She also has written for numerous print Publications by the way for our listeners who may not know the word intifada. That means rising up or shaking off and The Palestinians have had two Intifadas though. There's electronic intifada. She also has contributed stories for Al Jazeera English for truth-out left-turn magazine Nora today lives in Oakland, California with her husband who is an educator and a writer and a teenage daughter So Nora welcome to Maine. Welcome to Portland. Thank you so much Bob. Let me Begin by asking you What led you to decide to write this book how did that come about so I've been a journalist covering Palestine issues for 13 years But in the last maybe five six years I've been focusing more and more on Solidarity efforts here in the US. I used to as he mentioned I used to go to Palestine two or three times a year and and cover on-the-ground reports about human rights abuses and and Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation but It was becoming more and more clear to me as a reporter that that it's also important to to really figure out how solidarity movements around the world are also organizing and specifically in the US, you know, I I you know, I live in the Bay Area and around 2010 Berkeley was one of the kind of these main focus points of of student activism where students were Really self-organizing into these incredibly powerful coalitions working with local communities and local activism groups to to really campaign for Palestinian rights and so I started covering it just because it was something that was Really exciting that was happening in my local community and then those stories kind of led to following the trail of student activism around the country so This book is kind of a culmination of a lot of the reporting that I've been doing over the last You know few years, but also really trying to to put this help put these students on the map when it comes to Solidarity organizing because they don't exactly get a lot of mainstream media coverage do they not at all Yeah, and you know like in the great traditions of civil rights and social justice movements You know the students are at the forefront of organizing They're really, you know, they're the ones who are making the most noise and and being not heard Wasn't that true of the South African? Yeah, I think it was Hampshire College. That's right in New England first student organization 79 They're a first one of the first in this particular effort BDS effort That's right There were the first college in the States in 1979 to implement divestment against apartheid South Africa and 30 years later in 2009 Hampshire College again became the first college to implement divestment against Israeli apartheid so it's really That's kind of a very Yeah, and so students are really rising up around the country and and they're forming these incredibly powerful Groups called Students for Justice in Palestine chapters They're they're linking up with other local community struggles and they're growing this campaign Day by day. It's it's really what tell me I Think they've run into some obstacles haven't they through some headwinds. Can you tell us some about that? Yeah, well it's it's not easy to campaign for Palestine rights for Palestinian rights and There's a very strong resistance to campaigning for Palestine By outside Israel aligned political organizations who are really trying to censor speech critical of Israeli policies and are trying to brand this movement of solidarity as one of Antisemitism which is of course absurd and there are many many Jews and Israelis involved in Palestine solidarity organizing and You know that that that attempt to to conflate criticism of Israeli policies with Antisemitism is really a very desperate attempt to try and shut down I think you would agree with this. I think that's getting More and more transparent. It is isn't it? It is when they first started doing this Maybe some people in the thing and these people are really anti-Semite. Yeah It's more and more Jewish students and Jewish leaders are coming out that efforts getting more and more transparent It is and it really goes to show, you know, how they you know, Israel aligned organizations can't debate the facts So they're resorting to these very troubling pernicious tactics to try and and censor speech critical of Israel. So, you know despite that Students are are running up against these sort of obstacles where administrations are under pressure by Israel aligned organizations to stop student activism on Palestine issues. So students are actually having to Really negotiate with university administrations They're having to run through these bureaucratic obstacles where administrations would rather there not be direct action or events That that talk about Palestine on on campus Which is a violation of the First Amendment? Students have a right to assembly. They have a right to organize. They have a right to free speech Especially on college campuses where academic freedom is you know, it's something that's very Deer and precious to one would think that administrators would be a little more attuned to that, right? University campuses and there are some great attorneys working on this issue who are reminding university Administrations that there is no Palestine exception to the policy of free speech and academic inquiry There's also no Palestine exception To the right to organize in the right to hold divestment resolution hearings where students are demanding that their administration pull tuition dollars away from portfolio investments in companies that do business with Israel's occupation and that's part of the BDS yeah boycott divestment and sanctions Yeah, well, glad you said that goes for our viewers who made it do not know what BDS stands for and it was the same kind of Movement BDS as was successful. That's right with South Africa. That's right. So a lot of lessons Learned from the anti-partite movement in South Africa are being employed once again 30 years later here on college campuses There's many similarities between, you know, what's happening in Palestine and what happened in South Africa, but it's thought but there's also a lot of differences and so really using the you know The lessons learned from history is really important, but it's also you know a very Serious situation in Palestine and and students are Are able to really organize around the central tenets of boycott divestment and sanctions which Demands that that international communities that international civil society that world leaders Isolate Israel because of its human rights abuses and violations of Palestinian rights economically culturally politically academically You know just just as was done to partied South Africa And and it all has to do with really the grassroots power of activism where students civil society activists human rights advocates are all Pulling together and becoming part of this global movement To hold Israel accountable because our international community world leaders won't yet. Yeah. Yeah, yeah And I think that's an important part. Yeah, you know, I have From time to time heard people who are Opposed to this movement Say oh You can't compare the Israeli apartheid to the South Africa and that they were different and there when they say this They don't go into much detail, but they seem to be using it as a way to undermine the apartheid claim for Against Israel and yet I've read and and I've heard things to indicate indeed. They were different in some ways They're much worse the Israeli That's what Desmond tutu has said. Yeah, and I was list. I was watching a program recently in which one member of the Africana class of South Africa is saying to us look we didn't have 12-footer fighter jets. We didn't have them bombing our home. There's one difference for you That's in some ways the apartheid that Israel is engaged in is worse than the one there. Yeah, it's not just bureaucratic It's lethal. Yeah, it's genocidal. Yeah, and you know Just look what happened in Gaza last summer, you know, it's an entrapped population of 1.8 million Palestinians 80% of whom are refugees from villages that are on the other side of the boundary in Present-day Israel who used to live in what is now places like Ashkelon, right who they can see them Yeah, you know from their rooftops and they never go that used to be their homes until they were pushed out by Some pre-Israel during the alakba, but then I think even after the state of Israel was formed. Yeah, they were further There were there were many many ongoing Purges absolutely absolutely so so we're looking at a population that's trapped on all sides Which like unlike other countries or places where when they're attached to people can flee that's right They cannot they're not able to flee in fact, Richard Falk who's a wonderful scholar. He was the Former special rapporteur for human rights on the occupied territories for the united nations and he said That that Israel went when it commits these acts of violence and terror against People in Gaza, whether it was in 2008 2009 in 2012 and again this past summer Israel's committing a new kind of war crime. That's what he said Because of the way in which they sealed the borders so that nobody was able to leave during this last attack on Gaza this past summer Israel would would launch these so-called roof knocking missiles at people's houses That didn't explode sometimes they did but that they were meant to really Warn residents that their house was going to have a live missile Fired upon it at you know in whatever two minutes five minutes ten minutes And they were supposed to leave and they try to present this as look how human we are we warn people But where are they supposed to go so families were we're leaving their house going to their neighbor's house going to their relative's house Those houses would also be systematically targeted and then they would show up at un You know united nations schools and shelters those united nations schools and shelters were bombed Repeatedly hospitals were bombed offices were bombed clinics were bombed universities were bombed A hundred thousand homes were bombed water purification. Everything everything. So we're looking at Four million tons of rubble that was created by Israel's systematic bombing campaign 51 days of unrelenting attacks um And you know as as Richard Falk said a new kind of war crime and not only that but but israel Has has also used new weapons technologies every time it bombs gaza And then immediately after these these invasions and attacks israel's weapons manufacturers Sell their prop their new products to global markets Promoting them as being field tested or combat proven So really using gaza and the west bank and lebanon as as weapons laboratories on living people For it's it's it's sick. And so the international civil society You know has has really galvanized In support of the boycott divestment and sanctions movement You know more than ever right now well, you know From time to time we will hear in defense of israel And what their armed forces do and the reason they have to kill all these civilians is that the Hamas fighters will frequently used as is to claim Palestinian civilians as shields and yet The two most authoritative studies of cast lead which is 208 209 By the um, oh, what was the south african jurist named who did the Goldstone the goldstone report and amnesty international Both of those reports said that they found no evidence whatsoever that hamas was using human shields They said they did find people quite willing to criticize hamas for political purposes But none of that on the other hand they did find direct evidence including testimonies from israeli soldiers That israeli army Used human shields absolutely And there was many reports since last you know during the attacks last summer Um of international journalist palestinian journalists um documenting The use of of palestinian human shields by israeli soldiers including israeli soldier, you know israeli army units Handcuffing palestinian youth teenagers and and putting them in harm's way As human shields in in gaza during the invasion And you know, so this has been documented Over and over and over and over again um, and and I think You know it we Along with boycott divestment and sanctions Um international war crimes tribunals are are also a necessity at this point. Yeah we'll um Will you tell us a little bit about? um Say can you give us a specific instance where there's been an obstacle thrown in the way of students on campuses who are trying to Organize or to advocate for the palestinian cause sure Um, there's so many um, I can think of again. Let me say to our audience You can find more of this information in this book Thank you. Um, so just a couple of weeks ago. For example, I covered a story From southern california Out of pitzer college And students there were trying to organize an event During israeli apartheid week and israeli apartheid week is a global series of events intended to spark discussions about israel's policies and also Bolster that the boycott divestment and sanctions movement So these students as part of their israeli apartheid week events Wanted to bring a mock apartheid wall on campus as a direct action and to spark conversations with other Students and the apartheid wall again for our viewers who may not know Is this huge wall which snakes in too much of palestinian land in the west bank mostly into palestinian land in the west bank And uh, while israel has presented it as a wall to protect them from suicide bombers It's really more a wall to steal Land and to keep people. They don't want out. Yeah, and and also to even keep palestinian villages from their own farmland right to keep the villages from neighboring villages It's a very insidious Absolutely, right and the international court of justice in 2004 ruled that it was illegal and must be torn down immediately That was the wall you're talking about with the students wanted to put a mock copy. So go ahead So they have a they have a wall. Um, that's been traveling around uh different campuses in southern california That's 60 feet long 10 feet high and has multitude of Artwork and facts and statistics and statements of solidarity from other student organizations Plastered all over these wood panels and 10 foot high is about a third Of the actual wall exactly. It's a really powerful moving visual representation Um of you know, what palestinians are subjected to As an oppressed and occupied population in their own homeland And so pitzer students for justice in palestin wanted to bring this wall on campus. They applied like, um, you know to To the administration to have this wall displayed The administration referred it to the aesthetics committee Which wanted the students to jump through numerous bureaucratic hoops file numerous papers have numerous meetings with them Didn't even tell them Some of the other requirements that were that were needed to to have this wall approved And so the students were Prohibited at the very end. They denied the permission to have this wall on campus Because they didn't know about these other requirements. So it was a very kind of convenient and manipulative Way to have this this wall action shut down The students knew that their rights had been violated that actually even though the aesthetics committee, you know ostensibly was You know in power of approving or disproving This wall they knew that this was actually a matter of free speech that that other students get to You know display other things on campus without even having to go through these kinds of bureaucratic measures And this wall wasn't going to be up for a long time. It's going to be up for one day Oh heavens, and I mean if they talk about a permanent wall, then you say well aesthetically This is pleasant on our campus. This was a one-day Non-permanent display And and the students knew that their rights had been violated um, and they also knew that um pro-israel groups on campus and off campus had been pressuring the administration to not let this happen um, so students Called palestine solidarity legal support, which is a wonderful organization. It's a national organization um of attorneys who are working to advocate on behalf of palestine solidarity activists, especially on campus And palestine solidarity legal support attorneys said of course your rights have been violated This is a free speech violation They reminded the university they wrote letters to the university reminding the university that free speech is still a thing that exists Especially on campus, especially when it comes to academic inquiry and and sparking conversations and debate Um, and the students said okay fine if even if we're prevented from from showing this wall, we're going to do it anyway So they did they did it anyway. They defied these academic threats of of suspension and and um Suspension of their student group and they did it anyway, and now they're they're waiting for the backlash This this happened last week, but the students told me in an article that I wrote for the electronic and de fata that That they're prepared to to go through administrative proceedings as necessary to defend their rights to free speech And defend their rights to uh to organize on behalf of palestinians So it was it was very moving and it also points to the ways in which palestine solidarity activism is really being um trying There are attempts to have it silenced and attempts to squash and crush dissent on campuses We have just a few more minutes, and I wanted you just to say briefly about um recently or i'm not sure if it was recently but you went to a college campus After the students had failed in their efforts to get a maybe it's override as veto For divestment and you went to where they were meeting expecting to find them really just upset and despairing Tell us about that. Yeah, this was in 2010 This is actually one of the instances that sparked me to write this book So this this happened in in berkeley at uc berkeley campus And in 2010 the students actually passed a divestment resolution demanding that the university of california system Pull its investments in companies that profit from israel's occupations. So we're talking hulet packard raytheon Lockheed martin Caterpillar all these there's many many Which has been right in the west bank. I think responsible for something like 25,000 homes bulldozer. Yeah, I it's it's really Unbelievable and they're profiting off of the violations of human rights and international law So these students passed this divestment resolution that the divestment was vetoed And students instead of being defeated and saying they're not going to do it anymore They're like, okay, we're going to come back stronger next year and the next year after that and in 2014 They passed a divestment resolution and that sparked a wave of other divestment resolutions around the country I think that you will find this book filled with stories like that And oftentimes we are Maybe feeling that we should despair not so there's a lot of energy among young people in this country For this cause and let me say it's a cause For justice for palestinians, but it's also a cause I think in my view for jews and for judiism because in the long run Justice for the palestinian is in the best interest of jews all over this planet. I agree Let me tell our audience about a couple of events coming up on May 14th here in portland anna balzer who is I believe her title is national organizer for the us campaign to end the israeli occupation She's going to be here speaking in portland and on may 20th dr. Mona el farra Who is from the gaza strip? She is a physician She is very much Connected to the middle east children's alliance mecca She's going to be speaking here in portland on the usm campus Which is where anna will also be and she will be here on the 20th of may For those of you who are anywhere close to the lewiston area on april 30th That's this month april 30th the one woman play. My name is rachel quarry will be performed at the on bates college campus and the film called Flying paper, which is a delightful little film On the kids of gaza who got together to set a new ginnis world record for the number of kites flying in the air from one location Simultaneously and they did set that record. It's a delightful little film And it's going to be shown at guthrie's which is a little coffee club a food club in In lewiston that will be on may 5th Thank you for listening to our program and thank you norah for coming to main. Thanks so much bob


Thanks. So we're going to look at the global distribution of hash rate, how the development of ASICs led to hash rate being centralized like we see today, and how that trend has been changing in recent years. And then we're going to look at the long-term sustainability of Bitcoin mining and the interaction between Bitcoin and renewables. So if we look at the global distribution of hash rate today, we'll see that most hash rate is concentrated in China. In recent years, we've seen this trend reverse a little bit as miners have chased cheaper power and political stability in other regions in the world. One interesting thing to note about this is that miners have moved even to hotter climates as technologies like evaporative cooling and proper airflow management enable miners to operate profitably, even in hot climates. Bitcoin derives value from being able to operate without a centralized authority. And having too much hash rate centralized in any one place compromises its value proposition. So it's critically important for the future of Bitcoin that we see a globally distributed hash rate. And that means both having hash rate in the West and the East, having hash rate too concentrated in any single location means that investors from other parts of the world aren't going to be comfortable investing in that asset. And in order for Bitcoin to truly be globally valuable, hash rate has to be globally distributed. So in order to understand why we see such a concentration of hash rate in China today, it's helpful to look at the history of Bitcoin mining. So when mining started out, it was done on home computers, CPUs, people eventually wrote programs where you could use graphics cards, GPUs, and then more and more specialized equipment until people eventually made ASICs, which are specific computer chips made to only do one thing. And they made ASICs for Bitcoin mining. And when they did that, they originally used older underutilized semiconductor processes. So this allowed for rapid prototyping and rapid scaling, but led to a very quick generation cycle where a new generation of ASICs would come out every couple of months that would basically make all the rest of the ASICs obsolete. This meant that whoever had the closest access to manufacturers and have the best supply chain had a massive competitive advantage. And because most of these were produced in China, being located in China with close relationships to those manufacturers meant that you had a significant competitive advantage. Over time, those processes have caught up to the same processes that are used in mainstream computer hardware, phones, tablets, everything else. And with that, we've seen a generation cycle lengthen and we've seen ASICs become more commoditized. With a longer generation cycle, the game became less about who had the best relationship with the manufacturer and more about who had the lowest cost of operations. In today's era of Bitcoin mining, the most important things to consider are that prices volatile and that hash rate will follow price. Prices volatile in Bitcoin, that has been the case over its whole history. That's unlikely to change in the future, at least in the near term future. And any Bitcoin mining operation has to be able to weather low price environments because they will come. Hash rate follows price. This makes intuitive sense when price is high and incentives for mining are high, miners build out more mining farms. And conversely, when price is low and mining rewards are low enough, then higher cost miners are forced to turn off, which alleviates pressure on lower cost miners. So the key to mining profitably over the long term is having large scale, low cost power that enables you to be in that low cost miner category. If we look at the price of Bitcoin over the last decade, we've seen about five orders of magnitude of price appreciation. And with that, you see significant volatility. We've seen every couple of years, a 50 plus percent pullback in Bitcoin price. And I think that that trend is likely to continue into the future. So any mining operation has to be able to operate in those environments where you have a low price to where you're not one of the higher cost miners that's forced to turn off. We've seen a lot of mining projects that fail because they're forced to turn off when you get that sort of low price environment. This is a chart of Bitcoin price and hash rate. This is actually a seven day average of hash rate, which helps make it a little bit more clear where the trend is. It makes intuitive sense that hash rate follows Bitcoin price. This may not be immediately obvious when looking at this chart from a pure statistical standpoint. So you'll see that even though throughout 2018 Bitcoin price was falling, hash rate continued to grow. In order to understand why this is, it's really helpful to look at incentives to miners. So the primary cost for any mining operation is the cost of electricity. And other costs can be denominated in dollars per kilowatt hour terms. And so can revenue to miners. So the orange line here is a graph that uses 16 nanometer revenue. So this is using an S9 representing the 16 nanometer generation and an S17 representing the seven nanometer generation in the blue line. So this is looking at what are rewards to miners in dollars per kilowatt hour terms. And if we zoom in on this graph, what we'll see is that even though Bitcoin price was falling in 2018, mining rewards were still quite high. If we overlay hash rate with this graph, we'll see that it wasn't until mining rewards fell below about 10 cents per kilowatt hour that we started to see hash rate come offline. And we saw it come pretty quickly offline after that. So you can see, even though you have a pretty major drop in Bitcoin price, profitability doesn't drop by nearly as much because these lower cost miners are insulated by the miners that drop off. We've seen three major events like this recently. The first two were from significant drops in Bitcoin price, where we saw miners respond. And the most recent one was from the halving, where mining rewards were cut in half. And once again, miners dropped offline. What's interesting here is what you'll see is that as mining rewards fall, miners come offline. And conversely, as those mining rewards come back up, that hash rate comes right back online. So hash rate follows price. And it's important to control your cost of operations to be in that low cost category where you can be insulated by the miners rather than being one of the miners that has to turn off. The keys to achieving that low cost are cost of power and scale. Cost of power is the biggest line item in any mining operation. But there are a lot of other factors that are also important. And these also see significant economies of scale. So for example, a mining operation is going to need a security guard, whether it's 10 megawatts or 200 megawatts. But if you can spread that cost over more power, you can have a much lower cost of operations. Now, in order to enable large-scale mining, you need large-scale capital. And in order to have capital that is comfortable making large-scale long-term investments, that means you need to have institutional capital. And institutional capital requires institutional quality. This is something that wasn't even possible until recently in Bitcoin mining. With institutional custodians like Fidelity stepping into the space, it's finally possible to provide the security that institutional investors require. Projects also need to have a level of compliance, auditing, reporting that's appropriate for a large industrial business. And this is something that's been lacking in a lot of Bitcoin projects to date. And the third critically important piece here is location. And this doesn't just mean not investing in countries that have sanctions on them. There are a lot of Bitcoin projects that have failed because they went into areas where their supply of power was controlled by somebody who could simply vote away their power or vote away their cost of power. We saw that happen time and time again, where miners would come into an area. Some locals may be upset that there's a lot of electricity being consumed. But the power company might be upset that they might have to make some upgrades. And people's power could be taken away. So this is untenable for any large scale investment that's looking at making a significant size of investment over a five or ten year horizon. You need to make sure that you're in an area that's actively pro-business and where your power isn't simply controlled by one person or a small group of people that can take it away from you. To summarize here, there's really good reason why Bitcoin miners are chasing power in the West. With lower cost of power, it's possible to be competitive, both in higher price environments as well in low price environments. And this is crucially attractive. As well, political stability in the West allows miners to make longer term capital investments that pay off in the long run. Price is going to be volatile and hash rate will follow price. So the key to mining profitably is having that large scale low cost power. And the key to enabling that is having institutional Western capital. The second part of the talk here, we're going to look at the interaction between Bitcoin and power grids and the interaction between Bitcoin and renewables and the sustainable energy future of Bitcoin. So a quick overview on how power grids work. In any power grid, you have to have the same amount of power being fed in as taken out at any one time. If you feed in too much or too little power, you can burn out lines, you can damage equipment, and this can lead to loss of property or loss of life. So it's crucially important that grids stay balanced. Now, in the conventional model, what would happen is that you could not control demand as people would turn on or turn off devices as they had their own individual demands, but you could control the supply to match that. Renewables throw a wrench into this model where in addition to demand being variable, supply now becomes variable. There are some different technologies that you can use to help solve this. So from the supply side, the main technologies are peaker plants, batteries, and then supply side curtailment. So peaker plants are essentially power plants that are built to just run a few hours out of the year. These just are running to match, to balance the grid at those times when production doesn't match up to demand. The disadvantage of this is that you have to spend all of the resources and energy that's necessary to build a large power plant, and you only get to use it a small percentage of the time. So you have a very high embodied energy cost and a really low utilization. And one of the results of that is that in addition to having to spend so much energy on those plants, you can't afford to make the investments in fuel efficiency that you can in plants that run at a much higher rate. An alternative to this is batteries, but batteries are also incredibly resource intensive and lack the scale necessary to balance large power grids. The last thing that power grids will do from the supply side is curtailment of renewables. So when renewables are producing more power than the grid is willing to consume, renewables often have to be curtailed, which essentially means that the energy is just wasted. And this is both a waste of energy and lowers the returns of renewable projects. So a lot of renewable projects don't get built because they can't realize the economic value of the energy that they would produce. From the demand side, there's three different strategies for this, and this is sort of an order of preference. The best thing that you can do is have a controllable load. So a controllable load is a load that can change the amount of power that it's consuming based on the amount of supply that's available on the grid. So this allows you to match up in real time the supply and the demand on the grid. The next best thing that you can do is have a flexible load, which is a load where you can reschedule from one part of the day to another part of the day or from one day to another. Now flexible loads are limited in renewable grids because when you're looking to reschedule that load, you may be rescheduling it to a time where that power production may not materialize. So this limits the amount that you can do with flexible loads. And the final thing that grids will do is curtailment, which is essentially triage for power grids. So grids will shut off power to two different areas in order of looking at what will cause the least amount of damage and the least amount of loss of life. So this is a situation that you wanna avoid. There are some technologies today at large scale that will do this sort of flexible load, this grid balancing. So for example, there's an aluminum smelter in Germany that does this, but the development of renewables is limited by the amount of flexible capacity that we have with systems like this. So there are some other interesting ways that you can do this. One way you can do this is using computers. So traditional compute does this today. Processors can change their frequency and voltage in order to change power consumption. And tasks can sometimes be shifted from one part of the day to another part of the day where you might have more renewable production. The limitation of this is that most computing tasks today have to be served immediately. And when you're loading a webpage, for example, you can't just wait until there's enough sunshine or enough wind in order to load that page. So this limits the use of traditional computers as grid balancers. Bitcoin miners can also perform this same function. And some Bitcoin miners do this today. Now, the beauty of Bitcoin mining is that no single location is essential for the functioning of the network. Since you have this distributed network of miners, every single location has the ability to balance the grid where they are. As any location can shut down and the network will continue to function. Now, the limitation of this is that Bitcoin miners can only be used to balance grids that have low-cost power, as low-cost power is still the driving factor in Bitcoin mining. And another limitation on this is that the economic value of this curtailment or of this grid balancing is really limited to locations where you have significant amounts of intermittent renewables. So wind and solar. With those types of grids, you see a lot more variability in power production and that increases the value of this grid balancing service. To wrap up here, there's a great incentive for miners to move into the West. And the key to unlocking that is enabling large-scale low-cost power through Western institutional capital. A globally diversified hash rate is going to be critical for Bitcoin becoming a global financial asset. We see this trend today and this is going to continue in the future. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter. My handle is at Jesse Peltdown.


I think we ought to talk further about Kenner. He's coming to lunch today. Yes, I think so, and I think we might just have him in and meet him. I'd rather think we ought to have Clark there today, too, Clark Clifford. You have rather a big meeting if you're going to talk names of people. That's the only worry. But still, they're all trustworthy. I think Kenner has the alcohol problem, and that's all I believe it worries me. And it means we take on NBC. And I don't know whether we can take on New York Times and NBC. I don't know whether you can ever beat the times in this country, because not a couple of times does it in New York or Washington or what it does all over America. Every person that I know from the Marianne means to the Bill White, to the country weekly read it, and then sit down and rewrite it as their own. Now, they don't always, Bill White doesn't agree with it.  They don't big out these things, and then they take them and read it, and that's what we're getting. And I think we're getting a terrible beating on NBC and CBS every day. I want you to be very careful, man. There's no question what's samurai is very much against us. There's no question what the Cronkite is very much against us. I didn't think there was any conviction on anything. There's no question, my judgment, what Paley is, let the boom down, man. There's no question what Sarnoff and my judgment is against Asia. And what I'm terribly concerned about is all the Jews are. That's why I'm really worrying about them, because they're looking.


Looks like the wait's over and the Canadian Rockies has granted us of you inside the black-rich facility And what we see is a direct threat a weapon that cannot be allowed to continue to operate Today's mission is urgent. You will travel to the base along with our allies then secure all sectors on site We will set things right Looks like the wait's over the Russians have been drilling Antarctic oil for years Today is the day we cut the supply You will work with other task forces to bring the facility under us control Russian troops are on site so expect heavy resistance. Get your gear sorted transport is waiting