good afternoon everyone, this meeting will come to order. welcome to the april 29th, 2024 regular meeting of the land use and transportation committee of the san francisco board of supervisors. i am supervisor myrna melgar, chair of the committee. joined by board of supervisors president aaron peskin and vice chair dean preston. the committee clerk today is mr. john carroll, and i would also like to acknowledge and thank karina mendoza for sfgovtv for staffing this meeting. mr. clerk, do you have any announcements? yes. thank you, madam chair. please ensure that you've silenced your cell phones and other electronic devices you have brought with you into the chamber today. if you have any documents to include as part of any of

today's files, you should submit them to me. you can do so by bringing them forward to the rail. public comment will be taken on each of the two items on today's agenda. when your item of interest comes up in public comment is called, please line up to speak along your right hand side of the room. alternatively, you may submit public comment and writing in either of the following ways. you may email them to me. my email address is j o n period cac c a r r o l l at sfgovtv. or you may send your written comments via us postal service to our office in city hall. the address is one. doctor carlton b goodlett place, room 242 44 san francisco, california 94102. if you submit public comment in writing, i will forward it to the members of this panel and also include your comments as part of the official file upon which you are commenting. and finally, madam chair, items acted upon today are expected to appear on the board of supervisors agenda of may seventh, 2024 unless otherwise stated. okay. thank you so much, mr. clerk. we have, now item number one, agenda item number

one is an ordinance amending the park code to close the great highway extension, beginning at slope boulevard and extending south for a distance of approximately 3300ft to vehicles to allow for a multi-use trail and to improve shoreline resilience as part of the ocean beach climate change adaptation project, making associated findings under the california vehicle code. making environmental findings including adopting a statement of overriding considerations under sequa and making findings of consistency with the general plan in the eight priority policies. the planning code, section 101.1. thank you so much, mr. clerk. we have, anna roche here from the sfpuc, who has been managing this project as well as monica scott from rec park, and we have jeremy spitz here to answer questions. i'm sure, so before i let, miss roche do her presentation, i just wanted to, say a few things. colleagues, because this

is in in my district, this project, i want to note how critical this work is given the extreme impacts of coastal erosion that we have seen over the last few years. i'm grateful that we have had the foresight to plan ahead with the ocean beach master plan to protect our wastewater infrastructure for the west side into ensure that we have safe, accessible public amenities for future generations. as you know, the district i represent is within the plan and we also have other civic amenities like the san francisco zoo within the area, lake merced immediately to the west, and fort funston, to the south, i do have some remarks that i will wait after the presentation, but i just want to thank the staff at the puc, for all of your hard work, for us today and for generations to come. thank you so much, good afternoon, supervisors. melgar preston and peskin. thank you so

much for having us here today to hear about this very important project. again, i'm honored. roche, project manager with the sfpuc, who's the lead agency of this multi city agency project. i'm here today with monica scott, a project manager with rec and park, who will be pro, presenting with me, our partner agencies include sf planning, sfmta and public works. prior to being here today, this project has been approved by the sfpuc and rec and park, and the eir was unanimously certified by the san francisco planning commission. we are here today to seek approval to close the great highway extension, which will allow for the implementation of this project, which has been in development since 2012, when the ocean beach master plan was completed. so first, just a quick overview of the project location in this graphic represents ocean beach from the

cliff house at the north and fort funston at the south, fort funston being on the left side of your graphic, the dash is on the left of the slide. illustrate the location of the project, which sits along the coast between sloat and skyline boulevards. this is the first major climate adaptation project within the city, and will protect the western side of san francisco from sea level rise, so why is this project so important? in the 1990s, there were major investments into city infrastructure to protect water quality on this side of san francisco. what's in this graphic is the oceanside treatment plant, one of three wastewater plants for the whole city and which was built as part of the clean water program. at the end of the clean water program, the top picture is what the area looked like within 15 years. you can see from the bottom photo how that changed.

it was within the same 15 years that the city declared three emergencies to protect the infrastructure which was built as part of the clean water program. this chronic erosion and how the city addressed it is what's being has is what has been the driving, driving the development of this project. at the blue door on this graphic is the western entrance to the oceanside treatment plant. the top image is before a large erosion event where we lost approximately 25ft of coastal bluff and the bottom image illustrates how placement of emergency rock was used to stabilize the area as i noted, the city declared three emergencies and those emergency ultimately violated the coastal act. to address these violations, the city developed the 2012 ocean beach master plan. the plan outlines a compromise that allows for infrastructure protection and restoration of safe beach access and recreation open. i wanted to

note that in 2018, the san francisco planning commission adopted these objectives into the general plan. this area is very complicated in terms of property ownership and ecological conditions. so how did we develop a common vision? the city had spur, a nonprofit planning organization, convene all of the affected agencies to develop the master plan. as you can see, the effort included multiple city agencies, federal and state agencies in the san francisco zoo. together, we developed a common vision via the ocean beach master plan process and continued to work together as we develop the project. while the work has been ongoing to complete environmental review, design, etc, we've utilized temporary measures to protect this area between the years of 2012 and

2024, we took actions seven times, moving approximately 250,000yd!t of sand from north ocean beach to south ocean beach, which is illustrated in the top photo. and in 2021, after a decade of work on an agreement with the army corps of engineers, we moved nearly 300,000yd!t of sand that they dredged from the san francisco shipping channel, and instead of placing it offshore, they placed it in this area, which is represented in the bottom photo. while those actions were temporarily protecting the area, we were developing the project that is before you today, major elements include one. permanently closing the great highway between sloat and skyline boulevards to public vehicles, including reconfiguring affected intersections in zoo parking access. this is the legislation that you're hearing today. we'll also be constructing a buried

wall to protect existing wastewater infrastructure from climate induced sea level rise and shoreline erosion. we will be removing those emergency revetments, rock and rubble and debris from the beach and reshaping the bluff and planting native vegetation. we'll be constructing over a mile of multi-use trail, a beach access stairway, coastal access parking, new restrooms, ada beach access and will be providing long term beach nourishment or sand replenishment replenishment. as this project goes into the future. now i'm going to switch over to monica, who will be presenting on the open space elements of the project. thank you anna. good afternoon, supervisor monica scott with rec and park project manager, and i'm very happy to share with you more detailed information on the public access improvements that we're envisioning to replace the

roadway of the great highway extension. as anna mentioned, the project area is a southern portion of ocean beach, with a work principally occurring in the area of the great highway extension as it runs south of sloat to skyline boulevard. this slide shows the entire project area with a multi-use path and adjacent service road running from sloat to skyline in the place of the former lanes of the great highway. this section of trail will be a part of the larger coastal trail network, with trail connections between the upper great highway trail and fort funston lake merced. the other components of this project include a plaza at sloat with a restroom, a parking lot, at skyline beach, access stairs, planting areas, and seating along the plaza and trail. due to the topographical conditions and other permitting related items, ada access to the beach is provided off site at taraval, the nearest access point without a steep bluff to navigate. however, please note that aside from the beach access stairs, the entire trail trail will be

accessible for. this is a zoomed in view showing the northern end of the project site, with a new plaza at the intersection with sloat, which will also have a restroom. the sand ramp, vehicular maintenance access that is existing and that's on the left side of the screen that will remain you. you can see how the trail will be separated from the service road, with planting areas including bioretention planters, which will be capturing the stormwater runoff off the service road is also designed to serve as the emergency vehicle access point. in this slide, it's a section perspective. you can see both the visible above grade elements of the project, and also a view to the below grade elements that anna mentioned with the low profile wall that will be protecting the wastewater infrastructure above ground. you can see the new plaza at sloat with a restroom building with solar panels. this building and the entire project site will be

completely off the electrical grid, and all power will be provided by solar. in this slide, you can see that at the top, the existing view looking south from sloat boulevard towards the national park service restroom and west side pump station. and below that you can see a rendering of the projects new restroom, coastal trail, and slope plaza. in the plaza, you'll see the art enrichment component, which is a series of sculptures by a local artist. here's the existing and proposed condition for the area looking to the north, and you can see the beautiful curve of the roof line of the restroom building and as you proceed to the south from the plaza, the trail narrows slightly, but maintains a minimum width of 15ft to accommodate pedestrians and bicyclists. the service road, which runs to the east of the trail, is designed for higher speed bicycle travel with a sharrow to allow for bicycles traveling north in the same direction as the service road, and a striped bike lane for those traveling south. here is

another section perspective at roughly the midway point along the trail, heading south at the existing entrance and exit to the zoo from the great highway. at this plaza, there is seating with an overlook. the access paths you see here cutting from the service road to the trail are for maintenance and emergency vehicles. and as we proceed to the south, across from the entrance to the oceanside water pollution control plant, you can see there are beach access stairs, connecting trail users to the beach. there's also a seating area at the top of the stairs, as well as a landing on the stairs. and then proceeding to the south. in this slide you can see the beach access stairs as well. the new parking lot and the connection to skyline boulevard. this parking lot will provide an access point for the multi-use trail and will also be the entry point for the one way service access road. the trail in this area, as i mentioned, will will connect to the lake merced trail and there's a planned related project to

connect with a fort funston trail network. i'll now pass the presentation back to anna, but i'm here along with my colleagues also from mta to answer any questions. thank you. monica so i just wanted to point out that this project is or was designed to meet the city's sea level rise guidance standards and includes a design that considered sea level rise through the end of century. so i've already mentioned a couple of our major milestones. this slide identifies our anticipated upcoming milestones leading up to construction and closure of the great highway extension. again today, starting with legislation to close the great highway extension. it was initially introduced to the board of supervisors in october of 2023. we expect to go to our coastal development permit hearing in june. we expect 100% design early next year. our bid

advertisement would be approximately mid 2025, with construction starting in late 2025. we're still working through all of the sequencing of the work, but we expect that the great highway extension closure would happen in early 2026. and this is my last slide. i just wanted to touch on the, our outreach and engagement work that we've been doing since we've been working on this project. and you can see i'm not going to read through everything, but we've done a lot of extensive outreach and will continue to do so until we get into construction. that completes my presentation, and we're here to answer any questions you may have. thank you. thank you, miss roche, for that great presentation. i have to say, the restroom is by far what i'm most excited about. people on the west side are excited about the restroom we have right now is managed and maintained by ggnra and it's been closed since the beginning

of the pandemic, but people use it anyway. they they use the outside and it's just not a good situation. so i am looking forward to, not just protecting, you know, the sewage treatment plant, but also having this wonderful new park, for, as i said, generations of san franciscans to come and the upgraded facility of the parking lot that the surfers can use to access the beach, which will now be very accessible. so that's all very exciting, but i wanted to i think, talk to jeremy a little bit. if you could, because, i want to say thank you so much to, puc staff, but in particular to mta and, rec park staff and tanya peterson at the zoo, for working out our last bit of problem with this, you know, whole wonderful project, and particularly to cronenberg, who i see back there and, sarah

maitland, thank you, so one of the things that this project is doing is closing off the exit from the parking lot from the zoo. and as everybody heard, we're getting pandas, the zoo's, you know, visitors, have are back up to where they were pre-pandemic, which is a really great thing. but we, of course, want to set them up for success also for generations to come. and so, in working with all the pros and cons of you know, addressing that problem, i think that we explored a bunch of different things and we finally came up with an agreement, which is that, you know, we will build a new, or the zoo will build a new entrance to be flush with 47th avenue and use the existing entrance as the exit, and that you, the puc, will incorporate, the project and your pre-development. you'll do the pre and then the zoo will do the

construction, is that your understanding of our agreement? good afternoon. supervisor. yes. thank you. jeremy spitz with the puc. you summed it up all perfectly. i have nothing to add. that's exactly what our agreement was and what the general manager can, committed to you. thank you so much. i think that this is a really positive thing for everyone all around. so i really appreciate your willingness to engage and to, you know, solve this problem and that everyone will be better off with this project and people will be able to enjoy this for generations to come. thank you. thank you, with that, if there's no other questions or colleagues , comments. okay, well then let's have, public comment on this item, please. thank you, madam chair. land use and transportation will now take public comment on agenda item number one related to closure of the great highway extension. if you have public comment for agenda item number one, please line up to speak now and come forward to the lectern when you have when you get there first speaker, please. good afternoon,

honorable supervisor, mayor preston and peskin. my name is donna uchida, and actually, this is my first day working for the san francisco zoological society , so i am probably not speaking from great expertise, but chris connors, who has been working on this project, his flight got delayed. and so he's not able to be here. so i am i was elected, i did want to raise a couple of issues and, tonya peterson has submitted a letter to the chair, but if you would, honor my request, i would like to at least read a few, pieces of that letter. okay. you have one minute and 16 seconds left. okay. basically, the zoo does have some issues about the great highway closure in essence, it

would eliminate the entry and exit loop exits to the zoo parking lot from the great highway and they are the primary access points. the fear is that the 47th street and slope boulevard, they're not going to be enough, especially with the pandas coming, apparently one day of the pandas and their previous visit, logged 14,000 visitors and now it's about a 4000 to 5000 a day visitor rate. and that doesn't include zoo camp, which is upcoming. so, what i would like to leave you with is that, the changes to slope boulevard will be problematic for the zoo, and they would like to continue to be in discussions with some solutions. thank you. thank you, donna yoshida, for sharing your comments. can we have the next speaker, please? hi. good afternoon. my name is laura walsh. i'm with the surfrider foundation and i live on taraval. really close to the

project, i'm our california policy manager, and surfrider is working on dozens of coastal resilience projects throughout the state preparing for sea level rise. and we consider this one, you know, potentially an enormous poster child for what we can do to actually prepare for sea level rise. so we support the legislation and the retreat of the great highway extension and appreciate everyone who's been a part of it , this is an erosion pinch point at south ocean beach, and we can't just wait for the ocean to take over here, sea level rise is only going to make things worse. i do want to say, however, that, we've been the community has been envisioning a climate adaptation project in this area for a very long time. and since the ocean beach master plan has been in place for a decade, the county and the city have maintained a goal of protecting the beach in this area. so surfrider does plan on remaining involved to advocate for a minimization of the gray infrastructure aspects of the project, and for a setback of the seawall and further analysis of how the seawall is

constructed to make sure that it's not just sitting there eroding the beach in a way we can't avoid. thank you. thank you for your comments. can we have the next speaker, please? hi, supervisors. my name is lucas lux. i'm a resident of the outer sunset, and here, on behalf of friends of great highway park, we're an all volunteer nonprofit that wants the city's coastline to be enjoyed by everyone for generations to come. this legislation before you is before you, because ocean beach, south of sloat, has been eroding away for decades, and the roadway is literally falling into the ocean. the legislation simply acknowledges the facts on the ground. nature is already closing the roadway. the climate change adaptation project has already suffered multi-year delays at the cost of continued erosion to our coastline. approving this legislation enables the project to move forward to protect our coastline for future generations to enjoy. approving the legislation is also compatible with the continued improvements to the details of the project, like the reduction in armoring that our friends at surfrider would like to see. this legislation is

simply the needed next step to start the vital work to protect our coastline for future. future generations. so for these reasons, we urge you to move the legislation to the full board with a positive recommendation. thank you. thank you for sharing your comments. let's have the next speaker. please hello. good afternoon, supervisors. zach lipton, i'm also a volunteer with friends of great highway park in support of this legislation. unfortunately for all of us, this is not a debate on the long term future of the much debated stretch of the great highway. none of us have time for the public comment that would get this legislation helps implement the ocean beach master plan by addressing great highway extension, the small stretch of road that's actively crumbling into the sea. climate change induced coastal erosion hasn't just destroyed the road, it threatens the lake merced tunnel critical infrastructure that we all rely on to carry the city's wastewater. climate change is real, and we must adapt to sea level rise to protect this infrastructure and preserve the beach for future generations. we welcome the suggestions from

surfrider foundation to ensure a more natural beach with less shoreline armoring. passing this legislation now will allow the roadway to be addressed immediately as sfpuc continues to work with all coastal stakeholders on plans to both fulfill our infrastructure protection and ecological goals. the plan to reroute vehicle traffic from great highway extension has been adopted. part of the city's general plan, for over six years now, and it's finally time to take this next step. to prepare the city for sea level rise. we ask you bring this to the full board with a positive recommendation. look forward to working with city agencies in our mission to create an accessible and joyous oceanfront for all. thank you. thank you for sharing your comments. next speaker, please. eileen bogan, coalition for san francisco neighborhoods speaking on my own behalf, strongly urging the committee to continue this item, the closure of part of the, ocean beach was part of the ocean beach master plan, which was released in 2012. however, since 2012, the world

has changed in fundamental ways. the ocean beach master plan was narrowly focused on environmental issues. the ocean beach master plan didn't focus on public safety, even though all segments of the upper great highway are part of dpwh's emergency priority routes map. the ocean beach master plan also didn't focus on economic vitality for small businesses, immigrants, and minority communities who need to access education and job opportunities, the ocean beach master plan didn't envision that over a decade later, the giant pandas would be coming to san francisco zoo, the zoo has been contacted by ksfn as to how many are, yearly visitors they expect once the pandas arrive and how the visitors currently travel to the zoo at the sfpuc commission meeting on october 10th, 2023, when the commission was hearing the ocean beach climate change adaptation project, the ceo of

the sf zoological society stated on the record that the zoo had once used the upper grade highway between skyline and slope as an evacuation route. she went on to say that permanently closing this section of the upper great highway would impact future evacuations. thank you. thank you for sharing your comments. do we have any further comment on agenda item number one? please come forward to the lectern. if you're here for public comment on agenda one. and, madam chair, it appears we have no further speakers, thank you so much, that public comment on this item is now closed, i just wanted to address the last speakers comments because it was it is my understanding that that road will still be open to emergency vehicles. isn't that is that the case? i see you nodding, but can you? yes, that's correct. it will still be emergency egress from the parking lot onto the great highway service road that will be in place, running to the

north. okay, great. thank you so much. okay, colleagues, with that, i would like to, make a motion that we send this item out of the committee with a positive recommendation to the full board and allow the puc to go to the coastal commission in june on the motion offered by the chair that the ordinance be sent to the board of supervisors with the recommendation of the land use committee, vice chair, preston i. preston i member peskin, i, peskin i chair. melgar i. melgar i madam chair. there are three eyes. okay. that motion passes. thank you so much , let's please go to item number two. agenda item number two is a hearing to discuss the status of the san francisco tenant right to counsel program, which guarantees that any renter facing eviction has access to free legal representation on. okay. thank you so much, supervisor preston, thank you so much for calling this hearing. the floor is yours. thank you. chair melgar, and i do have some , opening comments on this

before we hear from, mayor's office of housing and community development and as they are preparing their their slides diligently, they're, by way of background, in in 2018, i wrote a ballot measure backed by the democratic socialists of america, san francisco chapter and the san francisco tenants union, and despite opposition from the san francisco apartment association, the san francisco republican party, and the san francisco chronicle, voters passed it by a 12 point margin, establishing san francisco as a right to counsel city for tenants. the groundbreaking measure guarantees a universal right to counsel to any tenant in san francisco facing eviction from their home. it is the most comprehensive right to counsel law in the nation. we were guided by a simple principle in advancing this ballot measure, and that is when renters have access to legal help, more will

be able to stay in their homes. we now have data that proves this to be the case beyond a shadow of a doubt, the data that you will see today shows us that the tenant right to counsel program is now directly saving well over 1000 households, consisting of an estimated 1700 people from losing their homes annually. when we add in all those who aren't able to stay in their homes but are able to find replacement housing and stability through settlements, the number is even higher. it's over 1600 households, consisting of an estimated 2500 people saved from homelessness annually by the tenant right to counsel program, saves people from homelessness, deters bad faith evictions, saves the city exponentially more than it costs, and has been a resounding success with evictions on the

rise and with some gaps in the program. now is not the time, however, to rest on our laurels. now is the time to double down on this program, to bring it to full capacity and rise to the challenges our city faces with exorbitant rents, increasing consolidated corporate landlord ownership of rental property, expiring eviction protections, and dwindling rent relief funds. the day after i was sworn in as supervisor, in my first act as supervisor, i called for a hearing to review the initial data from the program's first six months, and that hearing was held in february 2020, just before the city shut down due to covid 19, and at that time, we learned that two thirds of tenants receiving full scope legal representation were able to stay in their homes,