there is more habitat for more species. people's backyards are converted to wildlife habitats as well. >> commissioners, what will this transition of uses look like? the department renewed its lease in 1996, which expired in 2001. the department will issue a notice of termination of lease. in recognition, to provide time to figure out ways to figure out how they can be involved, they will receive a 90 day notice. the department would begin demolition and cleanup of the existing site into it initiates

a community meetings to refine the design of the site and work with community partners have identified desired features. we will also create an advisory board of neighbors, partners, and community gardeners to provide oversight. the community will be asked to refine our concept plan which i am not going to ask our project manager to describe in more detail. >> good afternoon, commissioners. first of all, i'd like to begin by describing, what is a community garden? according to the policy that was adopted by the recreation park commission in 1996, it is a site that is operated and maintained

by the recreation and park staff as well as volunteers. these volunteers are assigned plot allotment in which to grow, and they are not for commercial use. they will often have a self- imposed garden and do. the community gardens program consists of recreational park apartment properties. the management of the community gardens is guided by the policy.

the 35 gardens offer almost 1000 plots. the map on the overhead shows that there is a huge part in the center part of the city. despite offering close to 1000 garden plots, there are hundreds of people on the waiting list. the waiting list can be as long as seven years. indeed, in the past few years, the waiting list continues to grow. in our first inventory done, there are currently 700, an increase of 60%.

i will go into that in my next slide. also on this list is a list of nearby gardens and just to show you the amount of growth. a surface area is defined as the extent to which the user is willing to travel to use the facility. the national parks and recreation association does not have an area defined for community gardens, but it has a surface area of the fight for community parks. and so, on the overhead, i have shown these service areas of about half a mile. they range from 25 to -- .25 to

.5 miles. in fact, the location would help provide a community garden plots for those who are untested -- who are interested. along the transit route, the surface area will go well beyond half a mile because people will be able to travel along transit routes. now we will look at the site itself. the site is located about the corner of frederick. it is located in proximity to transit, about 2/3. it is largely unpaved and includes a couple of and to read -- or a couple of

entrances. now i would like to speak about the suitability of the community garden use. in terms of sunshine and shade conditions, the site currently contains sufficient sun to grow plants on the site. this photo was taken yesterday. even yesterday, in the winter season, the sunshine as low -- the sun is low on the horizon. i just want to go back to the previous photo. we have aerial photos showing a significant amount of sun over the site. this is a photo taken of one of the community gardens.

it is located near sunset, not too far from the subject site. the relationship between the trees and the garden plots are similar to that proposed for the golden gate park site. you can see that it is a thriving garden. in regards to suitability, there is no indication that the site has a high level of toxins. as part of our planning process, we will conduct a soil test. should there be a finding of high levels of toxins, the standard construction details would holley address them. the plants themselves are to 24 inches high. most plant roots are within the top 12 inches of the soil layers. we have addressed this condition in the past at another community

garden at a site with a high level of toxins. to conform with the city's policies and the mandates that have been outlined that the department has identified angles for the site as a community garden, first of all, there is a need to address the demand for more garden plots. that is something that we would like to include in the improvements to the site. as mentioned, there is a native plant nursery at the site. this would promote the diversity of environmental stewardship. also, the department has received requests for garden materials. these items we do not currently provide to the general public,

however, we would like to include this type of material support to the general public in the community gardens program. lastly, the department would like to convert the current pavement to a new and innovative green use. on the overhead is the proposed plan. it shows two phases. the first phase would comprise those improvements that would be as i have stated that are within our budget. i will go into each one of these program areas. there are four program areas identified. first is the garden plots. the plans show approximately 40

garden plots. the proposal is to have a maximum of 75% of those plots available under the community gardens program. at a minimum, 25% of those plots would be reserved for groups or what we are calling teams. this would be groups such as community groups, advocacy groups, school groups, or kitchens. this would increase the number of beneficiaries of food security. another program area proposed is the material distribution. this is an area where there would be open bins that would be filled with art materials, such as smoke -- mulch. that could be available to community gardeners and the general public. we propose to continue certain aspects of the current

recycling, specifically the collection of cardboard. it can be used for weed control. we would also collect plastic containers. we have the tool-lending library. this is similar to a standard library. instead of issuing books, we would be issuing garden tools. this was available at one time through the library. that service is not currently available. the department of public works has agreed to work with the recreation and parks department on providing that tool library. of course, we have the native plant nursery, which would be operated in collaboration with the program.

the recreational park department invites hank to continue participation at the site. i would like to thank hank and greg for meeting with me. in regard to implementation, there are $250,000 available for improvements on the site. the assignment of garden plots would be done with the assistance of the san francisco garden research organization, which is a community garden advocacy group in the city. it would assist with organizing the management structure. once the site is up and running, it will be managed by the recreation and park department. it would -- there would also be volunteer opportunities. in the future phase, this would

be vertted -- vetted out in the planning process. we would include ideas the community would like to propose. >> commissioner, thank you for the opportunity to share the information about the project. we think we have an exciting potential use for golden gate park that has many opportunities for partnership with hank, other community gardens, the neighborhood, and a broad set of stakeholders interested in urban agriculture across the city, who i think would really welcome this use. with that, we would be happy to take any questions. president buell: thank you.

let's hear public comment. then we will weigh in. >> i will call several names off. if you are in the overflow room, please come up. [reading names] please come forward. >> good afternoon. my name is marilyn. i hope the press notices that the department was given 45 chances to -- 45 minutes to give their presentation, yet the public is being given one minute each. i was at a public meeting was held on very short notice because, as usual, most of this was prepared in secret two days

ago. 90 people were present. jane, could you stand up, please? jane chaired this meeting. this meeting adopted a resolution unanimously, which said that we here assembled call upon the recreation and park commission to allow hanc to continue to operate. >> next speaker, richard. there is another one. ok. michelle? dennis, kelvin.

>> commissioners, my name is dennis. i am a native san franciscan. if the recycling center is closed, before you establish a location in the same zone, you are out of compliance with state law. since the rpd has no park land recycling program, we urge you to partner youhanc -- urge you to partner with hanc. rpd does not have the funds to operate its facilities. it wants to shut down a recycling operation that helps recycled refuse -- recycle refuse. there are complaints about homeless people, not about a need for community gardens.

we urge you to delay any eviction. [tone] don't end it. amend it. >> i remember of the neighborhood council board and i am chair of an advisory committee. i was stunned to hear the testimony of your staff. i have been a member of the committee since the beginning. never has a complaint been made about the recycling center. i am here principally to state that the wreck and park department has totally failed in meeting its own requirement in any kind of public outreach effort. we had the general manager handing out a statement, the biggest outreach he has done since he has started. your staff has refused for over 10 months to meet with hanc, to

hold a community meeting in either the inner sunset or the haight ashbury. we urge you to hold this matter until there has been a community progress that in any way resembles the one you have announced in the outreach policy, the community garden policy, or the requirements of prosac. i understand i have made substantial charges against your staff. president buell: thank you. >> next speaker, please. >> i am a member of the haight ashbury labor council. hanc was one of the parties involved in drawing up the master plan. it will eventually be phased out. phasing out is not the victim. it is intelligently thinking,

what will replace the recycling services we offer? your staff has not done that. we had a meeting two days ago. i'm disappointed to see the president was not at that meeting. it was illuminating. essentially, hanc has complied with what the master plan requested, cutting down on recycling from across the city. we focus on neighborhood businesses and local recycling. we complied with what is in the master plan. we are more than willing to work with rec and park to phase out over a period of time the services that are not complying with the park. we provide a service. you get rid of us, and there will be fines of $30,000 per month for not complying with the california bill. this has not been considered by your staff. do the community input.

>> i will read a few more names. [reading names] >> commissioners, i am a longtime neighborhood resident in the haight. i am an open space advocate. i served as a member of the golden gate park master plan advisory committee. in the 1980's, i was on the community garden task force, at which point the final recommendation was that we should have 200 community gardens in san francisco. we are a long way from that. i support the proposal for this reason. i think the one agreement we can all make in this room is that new open space is very hard to come by. rarely is a huge need for community gardens. -- clearly, there is a huge need for community gardens and other types of open space. i urge the department and

commission to think about the larger space, the triangle, to even add to this idea, to have a larger urban garden and farm at the site, and even think about the parking lot. [tone] i will leave the rest for later. >> next speaker, please. >> commissioners, my name is kevin. i am a neighbor to the site and a staunch advocate for community gardening in the city. i oppose the approval of the preliminary concept design for a new community garden. i support more community garden plots on rpd land and support the presence of hanc. the site is not optimal for the following reasons.

the soil toxicity is a concern. solar access, you can see in the satellite image from september, she is on at least 50% of the site. evergreen trees would have to be removed. in my opinion, it is fiscally responsible for the department when this staff and commission is being forced to find sources of revenue and eliminate cost to replace a rent-paying tenant when there are other places you could put a garden to replace the cost center. i feel it is irresponsible to make the approval. it is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. another site for a community garden in the area has been identified by the commission and approved by this commission, according to the meeting notes from the special meeting in october of 2009.

the map shows where the watit lists are. there are other places you could put this garden. >> if you are handing documents to the commission, please hand them through me. thank you. >> commissioners, i am from the san francisco parks trust. we support this project in collaboration with our colleagues at the neighborhood parks council. we believe this is consistent use of open space as recommended by the community master plan for golden gate park. we support the greenscape. thank you. president buell: thank you. >> my name is jim and i am treasurer of the haight ashbury neighborhood council. i was a little stunned by the opening remarks.

i think a lot of that was over- stated or simply untrue. we provide 10 green jobs for folks who probably would not have a job if it was not for the recycling center. it is a cost of $165,000 per year for us, plus full health and dental insurance. native plant sales are about $20,000 per year. we paid in the last 10 years $50,000 in rent. we are in income producer for the recreation and parks department. we contributed almost $5,000 the last two years to neighborhood grants. going over your commission minutes, on october 15, one of the lines says, the commission approved funding for community garden outside mclaren lot. that is a far better site than the recycling center. the soil was better. you would remove the lawn and

you could put a garden right outside the general managers window. >> i will read a few more names. [reading names] >> hello. my name is richard. i have lived in san francisco for 40 years. my wife and i have been going to hanc for 30. it is a wonderful piece of the fabric of san francisco. i am proud of the job they have done in terms of organizing things. the thing we really value as a community resource is it is an interface between people. it is a chance to be with people who are disadvantaged who can help of the organization. if there are objections to things like noise, there are ways to alleviate that.

if you want a community garden, i have nothing against that. it seems to me there is a parcel of land that is just to the west of the site. it is probably about the same area. maybe it gets more son. -- sun. hanc should be commended for the things they do. i urge you to keep hanc. i am on a limited income. it helps me when i can recycle. thank you. >> next speaker, please. >> my name is martin. i wanted to briefly address the issue of neighborhood impact. i have spent a lot of time in that area. as far as noise goes, i have never really noticed that. it has never hit my consciousness. a block away, it is like an

airplane going over. you cannot talk for 30 seconds. there might be rattling in the background. it is brief. you don't really notice it. the other thing that this major is that this came out of left field. what was said earlier about phasing out, if people come to the decision this is something we want to phase out, that should be done. it should not be a sudden, 90 days, you are gone. thank you. >> [reading names] >> my name is kevin. i am a retired city employee. i spent 20 years as a park sections supervisor.

in my experience, we have no good experience with hanc recycling center. they initially flew under the radar with us because they put up an anti-war banner during desert storm. i was asked to go over and have it removed. they gave me a lot of static. i ask for rental agreement. there was none. they were swapping on the property. the drugs in the area, they are like the biggest enablers in the area. the people come in, get their money, and by their drugs. we come in in the morning and we have to deal with kids dying from overdoses. there are assaults in the area constantly. there are threats to employees that we have to deal with every day. they never did anything positive. >> next speaker, please.

>> i am ed dunn. i wanted to speak against proposal for a preliminary concept design for the garden resources center. hanc is the best recycling center in the city because we're the only one to support community garden. we have a native plant nursery on site. we support community gardening projects around the city. the recycling center is out front on the community gardening issue. it shows what kind of a smokescreen this proposal is. that is one point. the other point is that recycling centers are still necessary. curbside recycling does not replace recycling centers. there is a requirement to have centers located conveniently around town. this recycling center