great opportunity that the project sponsor is going to be able to provide some of these improvements for the entire city in the neighborhood. so we ask that you support this today. thank you. >> thank you. >> good afternoon, i am maury starky, a member of the neighborhood association. i would first like to submit our petition against narrowing the dolores street at the sttop. we are not against all improvements of this in-kind. but we simply believe that a bulb out of eight feet would be adequate for pedestrians to get across. we want all the other improvements that the in-kind proposal is adding to our neighborhood. we think that the planning

department's exclaclaim that thb outs will have view on the traffic and we view this as a political proposal and we believe that scott weiner is the one pushing it. it's social engineering in our neighborhood. it will back-up traffic. whether or not they have a lovely graph on how it will not affect us. but if you live in this neighborhood and you see other places with major groceries stores. you will see the back-ups. even with the mitigation they want you to believe this will not cause problems in our neighborhood. we do not believe that. i was also on the cac's board during the supposed endorsement of this project. now we had -- the planning department gave us a proposal of

the eight-foot bulb out. the commission liked that. only until scott weiner stepped in with a letter to the cac did two of the members abstain on the next vote. so literally it came down to 3-2 approval on this as far as the 14-foot bulb out. again, we want all the improvements. we just believe this will cause traffic problems in our neighborhood. so we would like you to consider going back to the september plan that the planning department proposed. so i want to make sure you understood that the cac did not endorse this 100% basically. [bell] here are the -- petitions against -- and by the way this was done in two hours

worth of work, i got 250 people against narrowing dolores street to one lane. >> next speaker, please. if you are ready. and go ahead start speaking. >> i would like to pass this out to all commissioners. i am gidian kramer, vice president of the neighborhood association. and following up on what the last speaker said, we completely support this project with one exception. that's the 14-foot bulb outs.

and if you can pass this out and look at this. this summarizes our objection o. the idea of reducing dolores down to one lane will have only a negligible effect on traffic flow. regardless of this supposed simulation is ridiculous. there is no way you can have the same amount of traffic going through a single lane. where before you had two lanes. and think that will not have an impact. you have a huge amount of traffic coming off from freeway 101 from work, and come up to boss street and make a left on market street. and now they make a left turn into a dedicated-left turn lane to dolores street to go home or whole foods store. and they will be shuttled

through a single lane. it's not rocket science to imagine if you have x amount of traffic to two lanes, and now restrict to one lane. even if it's only that single choke point and opens to two lanes after that. that won't have any effect on traffic flow is ridiculous. just -- and another block down. all you have to do is go on a sunday and see that people are parked on both sides of the intermedian on dolores street. and traffic is reduce to practically a stand-still. that's what is going to happen here. cars will back up to bose street. and the dedicated left-turn lane holds six to seven cars. the simulation that we saw there were no cars in the left-turn lane. it's completely unrealistic. and that's the way today, with

the new developments and the new units to imagine it's not the way it is today. it will be far worse. i would urge you to adopt the original plan, which i will project now. this is the original plan, it's not easy to see. but basically it's 8-foot bulb outs from the corner of dolores and all way down. and two legitimate lanes in both directions. that's a far more reasonable plan that still preserves pedestrian safety. no worse than the other plan, the single-lane plan. and to me this is a no-brainer. i hope you reject the latest plan in full of two full lanes. >> thank you, your time is up. >> thank you very much. >> next speaker, please.

>> yes, i am william spell. and i am a resident at 11 dolores, right at the gateway, of the intersection we are talking about. i am concerned though i am grateful for all of these improvements. that it will be too constrictive. and we have we have 233 new residential units. with the whole foods property. also the 25 dolores new construction. there is going to be 32 new units. with 24 new garage spaces there. and then across the street at buchanan and market, there is 120 new residential new units in that construction going up. i believe that this great amount

of the (inaudible) boulevard, dolores, is going to be a center of gravity. but i don't want it to sink with the congestion of traffic. with 233 new residential units. right here surrounding this gateway that we are talking about. and 124 new garage spaces. that are going to be taking shape in the coming year. thank you. >> come on up, ma'am. let me call more names. tim colon and ted olson. peter henke. cruit singa. robin levet. >> good afternoon, commissioners.

lechu, i am an architect and a member of the board of dolores association. and i second my fellow members comments. i am here to convey my concern about the proposal. i don't believe this design will really achieve what we understand to be the city's goals, which are -- i think to increase pedestrian safety, to encourage the use of public transportation and bicycles, and to discourage the use of cars. as to public safety, there are practical difficulties necking down dolores to one lane will increase congestion. you heard this. i didn't repeat but this doesn't show merging, no cars in the lanes where they merged from one

lane to two. that didn't seem realistic. and the narrowing of dolores -- oh, i did mention the bicycles. the lack of a bicycle lane in that one lane will force the cyclists to share the single lane or ride on the sidewalks along with the pedestrians. that will cause a public safety hazard for both bicycles and pedestrians. . and narrowing dolores to one lane will back up the traffic on market street and cause delays on the surface transit. the third policy which i infer to discourage the use of cars by causing congestion. i want to point out that congestion at this intersection will be amply provided by six factors and policies not related to the number of lanes. first, policy of allowing parking on sundays in the lane

along dolores makes it functionally one lane on sundays. second, the policy of quadlupling the residence on market and the parking in the area provides a two-fold increase in local cars. not counting the people that don't have garage space. and fourth, the need for deliveries of whole foods will require several large trucks a day. and the traffic on dolores, and on sunday dolores will be no lanes going south because will be completely impeded. the remedies for the artificially congestion will not be enforceable. because they are caused by a city of self-inflicted wound.

i suggest you simulate all of this before you build in concrete. okay? thank you for listening. >> good afternoon, commissioners, we endorsed this project back when, loved it. and it's rare that i come to speak on a project with approval and in construction. it's a gorgeous project and i am excited about what it does. and the reason i am here after the approvals is perhaps to correct a misconception that the housing action coalition focuses on the housing units. on behalf of my members, what we want to convey. what we are thinking about when we review a project, how does a specific project make a better neighborhood. is -- this is a terrific

example of that, the proposed improvements of a grocery store like that. wide sidewalks i expect it will be thronged with people. and the idea is to attract people. let them enjoy the space. put in bike parking and trees and amenities. as supervisor weiner said this is huge for the community. and as we watched market-octavia evolve this is what it should look like. i understand the fear about change in this area. anywhere. but to fear or to oppose this because it might cause congestion, it's really putting the cart before the horse. this is the tail wagging the dog. we should doing this and making it an attractive place to be. i think that chances like this

come along too rarely, you shouldn't turn it down. this is a great project to approve. thank you. >> come on up. >> hi, i am peter henke from the neighborhood hill association. i want to speak because dolores is an access point for us. and like the other speakers like the imp-- improvements and we oppose the choke point in areas where there is not good public transportation options. most people do use their cars to get to those places. from a traffic flow design perspective, it doesn't make

sense it make a bottle neck here. anyone who drives that road, and know that it's congested. and to make a simulated video game and it's not credible to believe that you will improve a bad situation by narrowing the traffic flow. i don't think that the city's traffic analysis has been spot-on in the past and it's wrong here. the bottom line this will create a congestion. it just -- dolores street is two lanes the entire way. why create a restriction at this point. and push traffic to other streets that is crowded. and why create for pedestrians and bicyclers alike. that doesn't make sense. i can tell the real point is to make life more difficult for drivers. that's something that supervise

weiner has advocated. and let's make this street work for everyone. make it work for pedestrians and drivers and everybody. streets should be designed in a sensible way. to be clear we support improving the cross-walk here. having the pedestrians in the middle makes a lot of sense. and the cross-walk makes sense. and you can't have turns on red. the other thing that market street is the predominant street there. the signals are long. it may be a long stretch but it's something that pedestrians can easily get across because there is plenty of time to get across. i think if you supported the proposal that the mission dolores neighborhood has shown. you can still have a cross-walk

that is very safe. finally these are community improvement funds. the design should be something that the community supports. not something that is dictated by the planning department without input from the community. thank you. >> come on up. magnes chancy. >> good afternoon, i am the vice chair of the market-octavia cac and a long member of the area. i am here to speak in support of the in-kind agreement and the pedestrian improvement to the area recommended by the planning staff. the improvements will increase safety for pedestrians at what is now a long and dangerous intersection. and also be a guide to prioritize pedestrian improvements as a part of future developments in the city's

overall transit goals. i know that it has been brought up, the key concern is the car cuing for the whole foods parking. but i think that the treatment proposed will mitigate the cuing and make the store and the area much more pedestrian safety. and the bulb outs and the pedestrian accessibility for this location. and it will send a message to motorists to slow down and drive in a safe manner. in short i encourage the support of this proposal and make the much-needed improvements in this area. thank you. >> next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, commissioners. my name is ted olsen. and i'm long-time resident of

the neighborhood. and a member of the market- market-octavia plan. cac. th that i am a member of the mission dolores neighborhood association. and i must respectfully disagree with my supervisor, the planning department. and even my own colleagues on the market-octavia cac. but before you do that, i want to praise prado, who has been a superb developer consulting with neighbors. i want to relieve the prada representative of the conditional use, because if you view the current plan, you will take the responsibility for traffic congestion and they

don't have to worry about that. i would like to speak to the safety rational. i don't think there is a significant problem there. the long lights do indeed allow for safe crossing. as i mentioned before, i think that a superior solution would be to raise a slightly raised plaza there in the triangle. with that raised and a different color, would alert any motorists from either way to showdown and encourage pedestrians there. and we need not -- slow down, and need not worry about the fire department. going to the academy of sciences i cross such a cross-walk into the entrance there. i am sorry, i have seen greg's simulation many times now. and i find it implausible and i

believe that neighbors and commuters would do so as well. i was very concerned about the inconsistent plans i have seen back and forth. but i am relying now on what i see most recently presented by the staff. i still do believe that there is going to be possibility for clogging up buchanan and market. i think that you and your responsibility should consider what you are going to do in that case. as somebody before we said, the importance here is creating an improvement for the neighborhood. improving the neighborhood. i ask you to consider what your plan "b" is. one thing that is suggested, if you decide to go ahead with this idea of the extended bulb out. you might want to try as a pilot project with an asphalt

extension you can remove -- >> thank you, your time is up. >> you should be concerned about that. thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i am robin levet, i live six blocks from this area, and i am on market-octavia cac that supported this project. and i very much support the proposal. i want to thank supervisor weiner for his leadership on this. and i want to thank the staff for trying to address the concerns of the immediate neighborhood there. the cac did support this project. for many reasons. first of all it's consistent with the market-octavia plan. which calls for improvements to this intersection. it enhances the historical nature and importance for

dolores street as a gateway. not only on dolores street but a gateway to the mint across the street. it's a beautification improvement. which we very much support. it improves pedestrian safety. so there is really not much not to like about this project. the one concern i do want it raise and i hope that the planning staff will look at this more carefully. the potential conflict between bicyclists eastbound on market street with people, drivers eastbound on market street making a right turn on dolores street. with that intersection necked down, you may want to take a look at that. it's an important improvement. i am very much in support of it. this project is characterized as

necking down dolores street. but i see it as expanding dolores street. making it for friendly for all users. than just making space for drivers. so in general i support taking, making our public realm more pedestrian friendly, safer for pedestrians. and when possible reducing the amount of space for automobiles. so i am very much in support of this project. and i hope you support it as well. thank you. >> good afternoon commissioners, i live a few blocks from the project in the beautiful dolores neighborhood. i want to thank supervisor weiner and the staff for a great

job on the proposal. and i am glad they spared no expense with the graphics. the video was something else. i wanted to address a couple of points made. first of all, the 14-foot bulb out will slow traffic down. and when you are talking about pedestrian safety, that's the important thing is slowing people down. slowing people down by a second might seem like an inconvenience to the people driving, and perhaps that is true. but it enhances pedestrian safety. the cdc did a study of our pedestrian safety in our city and what they found was that if everybody slowed down by 5 miles per hour, you would see a reduction in pedestrian injuries and fatalities by half. so every little bit counts. there is some questions about the traffic analysis. i don't know if mr. reasons

analysis is correct. but i do know that he probably is the single person in this room that knows this stuff better than anyone. i would believe him over our random neighbors, including myself. it should be pointed out that (inaudible) street over a decade ago was reduced from two lanes to one lane for the length. not just for market, and no adverse affects have been seen. and i want to address the issue of bicyclists. coming eastbound on market street and wishing to get south of market in some manner. likely will make a right turn on the intersection before dolores. as 14th as a bike lane and

dolores does not. that turn is probably not that high. and thank you for your time. >> good afternoon, president fong and commissioners. i am peter tanning. and my husband and i have lived in our house on 14th street, just the second house down from dolores for the last 30 years. we are one block south of market and dolores. and i am retired transportation planner working for fda and currently a member of the san francisco transportation authority citizens advisory committee. i am here speaking on my own behalf as a concerned neighbor. and i don't often comment and have to sit here for four hours waiting for the item to come up, now that i am retired. i felt this was important enough they wanted to be here. and i suspect all the elements

of the agreement, including reducing the number of lanes at do llores and market. it will calm traffic and improve pedestrian safety. and as the staff report said it will only reduce the level of service by one second during the week and four seconds on saturday during the peak hour. and the impacts will be negative. and i have heard that some neighbors are concerned about a traffic bottle neck and the significant negative impact. and they question the objectivity of the analysis done. but it was my experience working with the city for the last 14 years. i can vouch for the integrity of the transportation and traffic analysis. the last speaker mentioned valencia street. and i was involved in valencia street and reviewed the

analysis. and it was analyzed it would work and history has shown it has worked. i wanted to mention a few things, and some people were concerned about bicyclists riding on the sidewalk. but as a bicyclist and dolores is downhill, and bicyclists can easily ride in the traffic lane with the traffic. and the left turn from market now is only one lane. so which would people coming off of market in one lane need to get on dolores with two lanes. restrained by the exist of that left-hand lane. and i don't know that the "q" would interfere as it's been the tracks. they are not going to be on the tracks. in summary i think this agreement conforms to city's approved plan. and specif