support commissioner moore on her aug. and sept. change, and i am for keeping the thursday's opener -- not open, but closed. not have a meeting. vice president olague: commissioner antonini? commissioner antonini: i think what i am hearing from the public is that certainty is number one. let's set the calendar as far as possible and try to stick with what we have. with that in mind, i am also hearing that it is better if something is taken off that added at the last second. with that in mind, from what i have heard about our upcoming calendar, having been here till midnight last week, i like to propose the following calendar for consideration. it that we at this time had march 31 to the calendar, anticipating all of the big projects coming up, of which there are many from what i understand.

that we go ahead that it, -- that we go ahead, in deference to commissioner moore, and we take off the three weeks and wrote, in september, and we at september 29 to the cabinet to try to make up for that day, and the last part would be that we do calendar thursday november 10. that is my motion. commissioner fung: that was adding november 10? commissioner antonini: yes. commission fung: is this a commission matter? vice president olague: it is under commission comments and questions. commissioner moore? commissioner moore: there is no second? commissioner borden: i did not.

vice president olague: i will second it. commissioner borden: i was going to propose a modification. i have a full-time job, and i actually look forward to those few thursday's which are free, which are not very many. i like to find a happy median or maybe we revisit later. it -- where it may be we revisit later. >> if i could at a way of dealing with that. i hear a lot of sentiment, and i know from staff, too, that thursday break is often welcome, but i know there are a lot of big projects. one way to think about it is that you schedule this for a single project if the need arises. so if you realize it whenever the next fifth thursday is, in march or whatever, if you really

want to schedule, it would be available for a special hearing only on one project, scheduled in advance, and we would give everybody plenty of notice. but you would not have to do that now is my point. you could adopt a calendar that does not have to meet on this fifth thursdays, but then schedule them as needed. commissioner antonini: i would accept that as an amendment from the director, at least as far as the 31st is concerned. i think we have to notice that fairly early on. that is why i was suggesting to put it on for now. >> i think the proposal is that it would not have a meeting on march 31, unless you so choose. commissioner moore: i am personally not available that day, so any large project, i would support the general

statement that commissioner borden made. in employment situations, it is very difficult to not schedule a business trip around that fifth thursday. i know that commissioner borden travels across the country, i travel overseas with the same types of issues, and i need some sort of rhythm to fulfill my own obligations. i would also ask the director, i find it a little bit rough if the public accuses the department of scheduling meetings based on the department's desire and discretions. my understanding is that the mid august break is the generalized, recognize time in city hall, since we are also in our process from litt involved with the supervisors -- are process we are strongly involved with the supervisors and it is not just

an arbitrary department, developer-driven thing. i wanted to put on the record that the mid august break is traditional, has been here probably way before i was on the commission, and there is nothing unusual about. >> i appreciate that, because it is established with discussions and consultation with staff, and there are many times when that calendar is not friendly to the liking of the developers but it is what it is because of the commission's schedule. there is a lot of discussion about the calendar with commissioner olague. vice president olague: the one thing i will hold to is the conversation we need to have that commissioner moore suggested, which i think is an example of what we do not want to see repeated is last week's hearing, where we had a 6:00 -- it was a time certain item in the sense that the understanding

was if we schedule it on the calendar for 6:00, it will not be heard before that time, which implies it could be heard at any time after. this item ended up being heard at 10:00 p.m., and that is disrespectful to us and disrespectful especially to the public. i don't want to subject the public to that level of inconvenience either. i think we need to discuss a more humane schedule here in terms of the number of hours that we put into things, and when we have a time certain item, we may need to discuss the possibility of, wherever we are on the calendar and hear the item at that time. maybe time certain should actually be a time certain. and i am happy to do that, and for the suggestion, we would look at the discussion of the rules so we get that on the calendar. it vice president olague: that sounds great. commissioner sugaya: there is a

motion and second. vice president olague: there are a couple of other comments. commissioner antonini: so we amended to not calendar march 31 at this time, with the understanding that it could be added on with proper notice as needed. but the other parts of the motion would stay intact, that if adding the first day off of september and adding the 29th day of september as a makeup day and adding the 10th of november because, in accuracy, that iran's day is on the 11th and is not on that day. -- veterans day is not on the 11th and is not on that day. commissioner borden: i would like to say in general, if we can, when we have big projects, but when we know we have eir certification, i think generally all those hearings are always very lengthy.

to the extent that we can make this single-item calendars and move up the time -- because the hearing specifically to that item at 6:00, the feedback we got from a lot of people is it actually could make it earlier and maybe we could do a better job of figuring that out when we are choosing the time. because even at 6:00, if you have speakers, it gets late. >> alright, commissioners, on the motion to eliminate september 1, replacing it with september 9, adding november 10 to the calendar as proposed -- [roll call vote] so moved, commissioners. your calendar for 2011 has been adopted. i like to take this opportunity to remind members of audience

that the front row is reserved for staff. it did some of you could make room for staff to take those seats, we would appreciate it. someone has also turned in a wallet. is alexander swede in audience? if anybody knows him, we will have this wallet until the end of the meeting and will be with me at the department after that. commissioners, that places us on items 6, commission comments and questions. vice president olague: commissioners, any comments or questions? commissioner moore? commissioner moore: i just want to let the commissioners know that i walked park merced the other day at great length. it was a foggy, a beautiful day, and it really shows well the landscape setting. it is quite remarkable. ait is something one does not se

much of any more. at its housing situation reminds me very much of the development on a larger scale in amsterdam, and it was a very moving day. i would suggest everybody take a stroll there some time to see what they can see. vice president olague: i also wanted to make sure, i know what the change to february 24, market octavia, i believe chp is ready to give us some sort of briefing or status on where market and octavia plan is. >> we have not worked out a date with them. vice president olague: february 24 may be good with them, too, and i think it coincides maybe with housing element discussions. commissioners sugaya? commissioner sugaya: just to follow up commissioner moore, i

have a friend who lives near park merced. there are five, six, maybe eight store apartments in stone's town. ai was out there and i was going to go through park merced, and it was really nice because she cannot see anything because of the fog. if you want to look at park merced, pick a foggy day. commissioner antonini: in fairness to those of us on the west side of town, the fog is very unusual in the winter months. we have our share in july and august. but come out and take a look. >> commissioners, that places us under item seven, director's report and director's announcements. >> just a couple of announcements before the budget. first, there was no board of

supervisors meeting this week or community meeting this week. i just wanted to mention that several of you had asked that will look into the governor's proposal to eliminate redevelopment agencies last week. this has been in the media quite a few times this past week, plus staff is working on a memo that we will get to you this week or the week after. we're going to look at both the impact on city projects, as well as the department's budget. i don't think there's a lot of detail with respect to what would happen, if anything, would go in place or we would transition out, but we will research that and get back to you in the next couple weeks. finally i wanted to mention i will be of the office next week for a family gathering, so kelly will be in charge of the department during that week. thank you.

>> commissioners, that places us on the item 8, fiscal year 2011-2012 planning department work program and budget informational presentation. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i will be making a few initial comments on the budget memo and then turned over to tom, it will give you an update on the work plan and the budget. iand i'd like each of the managers to go of their individual work plans with you. we will keep this as short as possible. we have a budget expenditure and work plan. next time, and two weeks, we'll be talking about the revenue

situation. the very good news i have is because of our revenues stabilizing and because of the excellent work by staff with respect to grants, we are in fairly good shape this year with the budget. we did not anticipate any cutbacks in particular or any layoffs, which we're very pleased about. you will see a bit of a hole here that we're projecting, but it is one that we think we can easily feel -- can easily fill. i just want to highlight a couple of the accomplishments on pages two and four of the memo. we're pleased and happy the department has done some reorganization in the last year, and we think we have an organizational structure now that really reflects both what is right for the department as well as the expertise of staff. what you will see is a change in the budget structure, that we have added a division called

zoning administration and compliance to reflect the fact that division has a separate, somewhat into the function within the department that includes both the zoning administrator sophist out as well as code enforcement. as i mentioned, we have received more than $9 million in grants this year that we have been responsible and bring to the city, and almost $3 million of that comes directly to the department. that is actually more than 10% of our budget, which is very significant. you will see on page 3 and number of the projects that were completed this year, the eir's, the work with the district, the completion and adoption of the better streets plan, and we will within this fiscal year be bringing to you the completed housing element and associated eir. as well as the various a historic surveys, which will be pretty much wrapped up this fiscal year. last week we talked about the

department's action plan, bringing that to a close, with the rollout of the new development process. i feel pretty good about what we have done this past year. that has been a fiscal year that has seen some disruption at the department, but also rebuilding and reorganization and i feel pretty good about that. in terms of the upcoming work plan for the following fiscal year, starting in july, there is a big item for us which is the new health-care master plan. we met with the department of public health on this several times and with supervisors today, and we are scoping out a schedule and cost estimate that works. it will be scheduling with you, speaking of calendars, not at least one, there will be several more joint meetings with the help commission on this topic in the coming two years. america's cup, we will be responsible for the eir for that and urban design work for that. that is an important item in our upcoming work plan.

the plummeting the action plan. the grant i mentioned will be covering a number of public activities, noted on page 4. and we think with respect to jefferson street, that the america's cup is a great opportunity to get that bill. we are almost complete with the informal review, so we're very excited about the possibility of that project moving forward and the next two years -- we are almost complete with the environmental review. then we are starting on the fourth street plan, which was kind of separate it from the easter neighborhood in recognition of that neighborhood with the for street subway, so we're starting that worked very soon. that was the subject of a grant which we received from caltrans to do that work. ia couple of other projects, the original work with the high- speed rail project, another

grant project at the civic center resource district center , as well as the completion. but those of the highlights of where we're going a share. now tom will go over the details of the budget and the work plan. thank you. -- those are some of the highlights of where we are going this year. it >> good afternoon. i will review the proposed work plan at a high level. at the department, what we're proposing for our work plan represents an overall increase of 15 full-time equivalent positions, work equivalent to that. the majority of that, as you can see, is a city-wide planning and mea.

as john mentioned, the department has been successful receiving a large number of grants, and about half of that is represented by additional work load limits and additional grants on workload funding. one of those positions as related to a planner position that was moved there to provide architectural review services, and the remaining is the america's cup and the health care master plan, the other upcoming projects that we have included that are a requirement and our work plan. 3.5 positions related to america's cup and the additional work that the department will have to complete next year. as tom also mentioned, we have created an office at zoning administration compliance. the assigned program is changing

by one. i will ask kelly to go over neighborhood planning. >> good afternoon, commissioners, kelly, director of neighborhood planning. i will just quickly run through the numbers for the of n.p. section. the story for neighborhood planning is one of relief as we have seen the volume of neighborhood permits flow when. we're very happy to have the revenue we have had this fiscal year. this story is one of maintaining existing staffing. we continue to devote almost half of our fte's to application review and processing. historic preservation service and increase of a battle over -- historic preservation service shows an increase of a little

over one staff position to one specifically devoted to ceqa. that is in response to the demand for that type. it is the shift in preservation staffing. we mandate presentation to the store preservation commission yesterday and gave more detail, described in your memo -- we made a presentation to the historic preservation commission yesterday and gave more detail, described in your memo, including survey work at the end of this fiscal year which will free up people to devote themselves to other special projects, some of which have already been mentioned, such as america's cup. we received exciting grants that will allow us to spend time on the markets. as far as the other pieces of neighborhood planning, we expect

to maintain that staffing, as well as our department agency activities. the point there is to increase the somewhat unfunded allocation for the health care master plan. we continue to maintain our commit at to process management and performance review -- we continue to maintain our commitment to process management and performance review. as you heard last week, we completed the action plan, but have a lot of work to do to keep that going. there is the shift in code enforcement and general revenue out of neighborhood planning into the separate administration, and clerical management. those numbers, if they look different to you is because we have allocated roughly 50% of our clerical management time to work that is embedded in the rest of the program because we have improved our billing

system. that concludes my section 4 neighborhood planning. if you have any questions, i am here. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i am the acting director of city-wide planning. especially pleased to me commissioner fung today. i look forward to working with you. we have a number of changes from previous years. there are some on the table that you are looking at now, i will go through each of the program separately. regarding the general plan, with the completion and adoption of a number of planning elements, the housing element, but recreation and open space element, and the community safety element. that allows the focus on new

general planning efforts. the proposed major effort is the update to the urban design element, and beginning discussion to start the update to the transportation element, probably starting the fiscal year following that. in the community planning program, but the work is supposed to be focused -- the work is focused on community planning efforts because we anticipate that we will complete several plants that are under way, including the transit center district plan, and that allows us to take on new community planning efforts. this will increase the density of the fourth street corridor in anticipation of the central subway and the civic center resources district, which is a work order funded by sfpuc. the materials are a bit

understated, and hopefully we will revise that to more accurately reflect the work that is done. that is currently shown on the chart as staffing at previous levels, but it should be known the work is greater than those figures suggest that permeates the other work efforts. the implementation program approved staffing of several neighborhoods, monitoring and implementing the adopted area plants, participating in capital planning activities, the capital planning efforts, and the work of other agencies, and bear have been a couple of times where we have had considerable success in grants and work orders that are directly related. to or a. efforts but -- to our implementation efforts.

this is not represented in the chart, certainly. it's speaks highly of the efforts of staff in winning those grants. the citywide plans and programs activities focus on major initiatives that result in products that are other than area plants. among them are the support for the america's cup, the health services master plan, in coordination with the california high-speed rail, the sustainable development strategy we have been working on, included in this work. in addition, we're proposing to initiate a dialogue of improving existing neighborhoods, which is envisioned to be a community dialogue or discussion and established neighborhoods, in recognition of their role as viable and valuable about how

such neighborhoods might be strengthened through policies and even through public realm improvements. the city design group has enjoyed outstanding support from sister agencies in terms of work orders and success in winning grants. -- from outside sources to augment the work it does and urban design and public realm and public life and work. with the completion of the better streets plan, the anticipated completion of mission streetscape plan that is before you today, and the fishermen or if plant -- and the fisherman worth plan, we suggest they move to a new public realm plant south of market to look at the south of market issues not currently addressed and think about some of the changes that may be coming in and integration of mission bay and the city primarily as a result of high- speed rail. we also propose to begin grant

funded work on the urban forest plan and continue work on the broadway street redesign and work that extends the better neighborhoods plan that was initially done. i would also note the department instituted the result -- the design review process, including activities as well. major ongoing work continuing, most notably the better market street program, the design for market street, and the chavez design from the freeway to the water park. success wiping sufficiency of the facility has allowed the information to expand its analysis and reporting capabilities and take on new demanding monitoring requirements as a result of these plans and to take on an enhanced socio-economic analysis program without expanding its overall staffing levels. this group is also expected to have quite a role in support to

the health sciences master plan. it should be noted that the work programs presented here include staffing levels that are 11 > that presented in the current fiscal year, reflecting the fact that we have a different accounting of staff this year. much of the work that has been made possible by the grants buit goes toward staffing, so those are some of the major reasons for the change and staff. it if you have questions after the presentation, i am happy to its of them. -- i am happy to answer them. >> commissioners, i am the environmental review officer. our work is organized differently, but the type of work that we do. 90% of our work