project. and we want to look at future actions and today's information and i reviewed with you the summary of the bart plans and no action is requested today. but november 16 we'll be back and we'll have another discussion on this plan and look to adopting the plan. our presentation is done and i am here with adam and we can answer any questions you might have. president miguel: thank you. is there any public comment on this item? if not, public comment is

closed. commissioner antonini? commissioner antonini: thank you very much for the presentation. very interesting. very early to weigh in on these things. you have the choice of what to do with fulsome and i am incl e inclined towards the median rather than the sides, but either can be very inviting as long as it's maintained and i am hoping we will have the funding to maintain the improvements indefinitely as well as put them in place. >> thank you so much for the point because the part i didn't mention today which is very important is the idea of maintenance and how to make these things and not only implementing them but creating a constituency that can implement and maintain the project and the spaces otherwise if there is no maintenan maintenance, this space would not be successful. our approach to this is i believe involving community members and we feel as planning

staff that we have a pretty good relationship and a good partnership with the community at this point and we have been working with the community for over two and a half years and the mission market is an example of a project that really started from us and our staff helped set it up and now we feel that are ready to go on its own and that is a good point and having the community organizations or community leaders to take on the maintenance of the project is really important. >> one other point with regard to bart plazas and you mentioned 24th and perhaps 16th will be looked at as part of the plan. >> 16 was not looked at right now because of the renovations

that are already in place and there was a large community effort to improve and change 16th street and was also led by the nonprofit urban ecology which has the done an extensive outreach to the community. i think the strength of the bart plaza design, and just a different approach is really to integrate the alley and the plaza. and we are unable to break physically and symbolically the boundaries between the agency and we have been able to work with bart and talk about the alley and talk about the plaza. so the strength and the feature of that design would be more structural geometry than just the furniture. i expect the plaza to be similar and were also changed.

it will be done at the beginning of the new year. commissioner antonini: thank you. i think it is very important at bart stations throughout the bay area, there is a wide variety and many are not too inviting and there are some that are better and in addition to design and landscaping, security is a key issue to work with the city and police department as well as those with part to improve that situation. >> we have been always working with the police department and the closer implementation and a strong community component in gathering. the police department has been a primary in this project. so the police captain at mission street is our friend. commissioner antonini: thank you very much. >> thank you. president miguel: commissioner borden. commissioner borden: i want to thank staff and the community for a very inspiring plan and a lot of really wonderful elements and i hope it gets funding to implement all those different

things. just a few things that i have seen in the presidio they have the traffic chicanes that have been successful in the areas of a lot of housing and place centers and those are really successful. and on fulsome street, i spend a lot of time there and i do like the idea of the median coming up that area which feels so much more transformed with that and the median with the tree line and it's a very congested street otherwise, but that little bit of greenery really makes it much more welcoming and inviting and the park that's on that street kind of shine much more. and also amazing that the market actually came out of this process. kudos to everybody for putting that together. i guess i wanted to know f priorization of projects, how are we prioritizing which projects to pursue? and what are kind of what kind of ranking are some of the

projects receiving? >> right. basically the way we did it so far is the potential funding and interagency work and we really looked at we organized our ideas and see traffic coming with capital planning of m.t.a. and we have a very good working relationship with them. we work with them basically on all these projects. we also look at d.p.w. other projects and funding, for example, and the restriping of fulsome has been a way of coordinating that and came to the foreground as one project and that is one way and also looking at community interest and there has been, for example, some interest by community needs and plans on the intersection and that is the project we didn't necessarily put on the priority at first, but it seems

that it's very interested. and taking the plan and make it theirs and now they are advocating for that. it can be a mix of action. >> it depends on where other departments are already doing work and we are trying to coordinate with them when they are doing work on the street. so it is often very much opportunity driven. >> and the fulsome median would be several feet wider, too, so it will be nice. president miguel: commissioner sugaya? commissioner sugaya: it seems that the planning department is in a good position as he said to kind of coordinate it and i think you were mentioning that, too, where other departments may be moving ahead or have plans or something where they can be

coordinated with the community and after 2 1/2 years, i hope that the department can continue to engage the community because it seems that would be an extremely important part of implementing all of the aspects of the plan short term to long term. and i think it was commissioner antonini who was mentioning maintenance and that seems to me to be extremely important also. up front funding is fine, but the ongoing upkeep of the street is equally as important. last week i made a comment or was it the week before on street trees and how once they get planted, which could be publicly funded or something, it often ends up that the property owner is responsible for maintaining those street trees. and so i think there has to be continual engagement to be sure that people understand and i don't know where the lines are.

sometimes they may continue to be maintained by the public and in another instance it may be the private property owner, so that needs to be taken into consideration also. but on traffic calming devices when i was growing up and had my license as a young kid, we had two street trees in the middle of our avenue. and they're a good traffic calming devices but always had fun, if there weren't any cars coming in either direction to go around the other side and do an s this way or whatever. anyway, you have to be a little careful here. >> just answering your point about involvement of the community, it is our intention in the future from now on we release a plan to keep the community dialogue going and we want -- we express the community that we are available for

presentation or working with them on specific projects. that is when the service plan was already released. president miguel: commissioner moore? commissioner moore: there is a strong piece of work and goes hand in hand with the better streets plan that got a lot of praise the other week. the one thing which i am concerned about and not what i don't see in your work but the interface with public transportation. muni, d.p.w. is currently in the middle of implementing the major bus shelter program which much to my horror is creating absolutely untenable situations and actually taking it away from well designed, well coordinated pedestrian realm into it's got to be here and take it or leave it. and i hope that you will be able to stay on top of not letting that happen. and the ideas really are bringing streets into the realm of people and neighborhoods and

car driven corridors and i see something at this point in three instances that does exactly the opposite. i hope that you will be able to coordinate that and be in the driver's seat. >> it is a very good point because as i was mentioning at the beginning the related planning efforts going on. one is the effectiveness program that's been led by the m.t.a. and it's going to affect some of the mission. so one way we approach it is to take that idea into consideration and left this flexible enough to have a future collaboration about the major corridor. one would be 16 and the other is mission and our interest could be to work with them to have a design strategy. that may be what you are saying. president miguel: i would like to compliment you on this,

particularly the cd, makes it much easier to go through it. and the work that has been done on valencia works very, very well as well as some of the other streets. i appreciate your efforts and the idea of prioritizing what opportunities with other city departments and boshg that's being done and this is not traditional in pedestrian until more recent years. commissioner antonini's remarks regarding center rather than side as far as greening, i like the idea of the side greening, but i have found that maintenance on side greening falls by the wayside whereas maintenance in the center works much, much better. we have some instances in san francisco of very old boulevard situations -- i am thinking in

the richmond district and presidio boulevard which is a state highway that is part state, part parks department, part m.t.a. and no one has ever wanted to take responsibility for it until a community group did and do monthly and sometimes semimonthly work program on it and constantly have to pester the different city departments in order to get even dead trees out of the place. so this has been a constant problem in san francisco and maintenance is by far one of the biggest situations you will have to deal with and plan for in the design as well as the community involvement. >> i think the center median is a good way to go for the boulevard. the other option is also

interesting but i agree and the maintenance will start with the community and the community challenge grant that allows communities to apply for money. >> i want to thank the staff who are here and worked for hard and closely with the community and this shows me the advantage of having the plan and getting the grants. clearly the grants would not have been achieved if we hadn't had the plan in place, so the plan resulted in several million of capital dollars flowing into the city that otherwise would not have happened. so thank you, all, for that.

president miguel: the shovel ready concept. thank you, appreciate it. ave secretary avery: commissioner,er ready to start item 10, 2010.0323d shotwell street. >> we are pleased to introduce a document that has been produced in response to the commissioner request in two previous hearing commissions. in the fall of last year you heard a presentation on bird building collision and this past february the san francisco lights out program that aims to reduce building lighting during the migratory season if topic of how wildbirds relate to our

environment has been getting more attention locally and nationally. we have had it with 555 washington as well as the buildings before the port commission and naturally there is a pending bill that would mandate bird safe design for all federal buildings as well as local controls that have been adopted in toronto and chicago. today we are announcing the release of the document and seeking your guidance, commissioners, in how to proceed. staff recommends with today's hearing we open public comment for the remainder of the year and staff would return with the revised draft for you to consider in early 2011 but before you proceed, i would like a summary of the document presented to you joined by the local option and from the audubon society to describe ou bird vision differs from human

vision as well as a bit about the local setting on the pacific. after that presentation, we will be treated to a national expert and she presented to you last year and is returning today to describe the causes behind bird-building collisions as well as a bit about what is happening on the topic nationally. ms. shepherd's present, i'll conclude with a brief review of how these could be applied in san francisco and our recommendations on this issue. first let's begin with what birds see. >> good afternoon, commissioners. some birds, such as many hawks

or raptors are considered to have the most -- avery: could you state your name for the record? >> i am noreen wheaton. while humans share binocular vision, like most bards, vision acuitier to ability to distinguish details of some bird spee 2 1/2 to 6 times better than hue mans and to know how our vision compares with that of birds is difficult and we must use anatomy and behavior to compare bird's ability to see with our own. also, each species vision has evolved differently depending on the environmental conditions in which it survives. so how are other eyes different? for one, most species of birds have huge eyeballs. some raptor's eyes are 15 times the size of ours.

we can only see a small portion of the bird's eyes on the surface. if our ice were proportionately the size of owls, they would be as big as baseballs and weigh 2 to 3 pounds. in both hue mans and bird, the innermost layer of the eyeball is the retina which consists of light sensitive cells, the rods and cones. eyes consist of large pupils and highly curved cornea that provide a bright image to the retina. unlike human eyes, the retina has no blood vessel to prevent shad dose and light scatter. this is a unique avian structure composed of blood vessels and connective issues. and protection is the attached to the optic nerve and the function, al know well known is probably to supply nutrients and oxygen to the record and to aid

navigation. acuity or resolving power depends on close, compact thing of the bright light sensitive cone. the packing of these cones in birds is two to five times that of the human eye. in bird that are active during the day known as diurnal birds t cones are superabundant, but only partially function in dim light is relatively few. in nocturnal birds, light night owls, rods predominant. where nocturnal birds are color bind, diurnal are able to see color. humans lose our color vision in low light or darkness. they have specifically -- they have special oil droplets that

function as filters altering the color sensitivity and the same manner as a human wearing a yellow, pink, or another color of sunglasses. humans have only three light sensitive cone pigments and nothing like the oil droplets. many birds qeyes are not spherical but flattened, fix and strengthened by a bony ring. two sets of muscles attach to the ring to control the curvature of the cornea and the lens. the lens is relatively far from the retina, givering birds a large, in-focus image. humans and all birds have a central phobia located on the retinal surface. ridges are formed on the phobia and it's a concave depression and is lined with very dense concentration of cones. several types of birds have a

second phobia and this specialized avian eye structure provides binocular vision and allows them to judge distance and speed quickly which is essential for rapid flight. two phobia may allow birds to see two images of the same object at the same time giving the bird a 3d picture. birds have super fast vision. the ability to assimilate detail rapidly. this is essential for the quick flight. flicker fusion frequency describes the refresh rate of our eyes just as in flicker or old movies. raptors refresh rate is 75 per second compared to humans which is only 25 per second. also, bird hormone levels change so that in situations requiring

rapid reaction, the refresh rate increases and the hearing improves. some hawks, like the cooper's hawk, are use used to veering through tight forest spaces focused on prey, yet these birds migrate through san francisco unfamiliar with the human built environment. hummingbirds, songbirds, gulls and some hawks, maybe all, can see in the ultraviolet range. and in test drill this is allows the birds to see rodent urine allowing the birds to hone in on the best hunting opportunities. mice use urine to mark their trails which they feed upon. and in other birds this allows them to feed plumage or feathers that makes for appropriate mate choices and communication. birds also have a third eyelid which is the part closest to your nose in humans. this helps clean and protect the eye in high-speed flight

underwater and when diving into vegetation. in addition to the tear gland, most birds have a second gland which is developed in falcons like the perigrin to moisten the cornea during breathtaking stoopses that are the falcon's trade macintoshing. many birds see the world very differently from humans because of the placement of their eyes in their head. when eyes are located in the front of their heads, like ours, objects are seen with both eyes simultaneously, representing in binocular vision. when eyes are situated on the side of the head like this short bird, monocular vision allows the birds to see in front and behind them at the same time and as much as 340 degrees. owls with their amazing binocular vision can see only

70-degree field of view. these fantastic evolutionary adaptations are not entirely surprising when considering the demands of vision while flying through the open air at 20, 30, or 40 miles per hour. yet collisions with human made objects, especially collision with glass, causes many millions, and up to a billion bird death per year in the united states alone. birds are not able to perceive glass and so are at risk for collision. birds may collide with the reflection during mating season when they are protecting territory and chasing off competitors or when flying to find a place to feed, rest, or roost. dr. christine shepherd will discuss this shortly in more detail. although no studies are currently underway in san francisco, this month a hawk was reported dead a kre lent dump

and these bird deaths reported by the public appear to have been due to bird-building collisions. during the two annual migration periods our resident population experiences an influx of migratory birds. these migratory birds seek seasonal food sources, breeding grounds, warmer climates or longer daylight hour. during migration, particularly on foggy or stormy nights, birds that navigate by the stars and moon become disoriented by light pollution and those that follow the coast can be thrown off course by the effects of glass in the urban environment which may result in bird-building collisions. san francisco is in the midst of the pacific fly way, one of the major migration ways in the

united states for songbirds, water bird and shore birds that move from as far north as the artic to as far south as p patgonia. birds need to travel and rest along the way. according to the conservation and development cooperation, over one million depend on san francisco bay each year. the u.s. fish and wildlife service stated that 50% of the birds spend some time in or around san francisco bay which includes the city of san francisco. and most biologically significant stopping place along the way of san francisco bay is the largest concentration of wintering water birds. they can be seen at ocean beach and along the southern waterfront of san francisco from the springs with sandpipers,

marvel godwits, willets and black neck stilts. the san francisco bay region is classified as the class of highest importance in the western hemisphere reserve network. more than half of the diving ducks, sea ducks like the scooter and the northern ducks like the mallard come to the pay for the whole winter. san francisco is important within the pacific flyway and we have the opportunity to see many kinds of birds. the birds that have been shown in this presentation are by a san francisco photographer and are birds that are seen in the city. next, dr. christine shepherd be discuss the dangers of glass and lighting and preventing bird-building collisions and the

standards. president miguel: thank you. >> commissioners, good afternoon. thank you for allowing me to address you. i'm here to talk about what birds and what they mean and why they are important secretary avery: have k you state your name for the record? >> chris teen shepherd. birds have been part of human culture and have been used to represent some of the best qualities of human nature including freedom, peace, fidelity, and of course, the bluebird of happiness. birds are incredibly important to ecosystems. they have a number of different functions. on the left you see a cedar waxwing eating a berry. without birds,