president maxwell: welcome to land use. i am it chairs sophie maxwell, and i am joined by supervisor david chiuy. -- chiu. madam clerk: please turn off your cell phones. president maxwell: all right,

item no. 1. madam clerk: approving a street encroachment at lake merced. >> good afternoon. i am john from the department of public works. what we have is a request to install a sign on lake merced boulevard. currently, there are signs that are placed within the property not. what the owners want to install is a corresponding sign that will mimic the sign they currently have in the right of way along the boulevard. this has been reviewed by city agencies, the planning department, in your commission,

and they of all approved it. it is now left for board review and evaluation. president maxwell: all right. thank you. you know why they want more signage? >> this is just more to identify that community. president maxwell: all right. thank you. colleagues, any comments or questions? any public comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed, and if there is no objection, we will move this forward without objection. madam clerk, and number two. madam clerk: the california environmentall quality at findings for water system

improvement program habitat management action. >> good afternoon. we are here to request that you adopt the ceqa findings and the reporting program to implement the habitat reserve program mitigation actions for the sites. this is to benefit a number of water system improvements, projects, in alameda county, which i think you're basically familiar with. i should have said water system improvement program. i know i should have said it that way. the first thing i'd like to mention is that the puc -- it is basically a very innovative program, an innovative way of

providing compensation for habitat impacts, and this is a much better system for the environment and is fully supported by the state, local, and federal agencies, which have to give permits for construction of the project. those are the u.s. army corps of engineer, the u.s. fish and wildlife service, california department of fish and game, and the regional water quality control board, all of whom need to issue permits in order for us to go to construction, and this approach is as follows. instead of developing small mitigation sides, et they recommend mitigation. what we have found is to say let's consolidate all of these

small pieces for different kinds of habitats and come up with a really nice large piece of land that is basically habitat compensation, and the agencies all support this approach and are working with us to develop the specifics of these. so to go to the specific sites, the walk site is in the upper alameda creek, near the upper of the meeting creek. -- upper alamitos creek. -- alamitos -- alameda creek. it also has the creation of new seasonal wetlands.

what grazes there? cows. president maxwell: who do they belong to? i have the project manager. >> good afternoon. will lease the land. president maxwell: we are upgrading some of the improvement? >> we are upgrading it for a good habitat for endangered species and create the new seasonal wetlands, which would not be possible if you have the cows running around. president maxwell: ok.

>> and the goldfish pond is actually in the southern part of alamitos county -- alameda county and near the calaveras creek. we have enhancements and also creation of new habitat. so to summarize, because of the clear environmental benefits of doing compensation in a consolidated manner to allow for endangered species to have clear corridors to move in, and to allow for plants and wildlife to disperse over large areas, we suggest these.

the project manager is here as is the deputy manager for the program. if you have any other questions. president maxwell: supervisor mar? supervisor mar: what are the species? >> the related fraud and another. president maxwell: there is one that is around sharp park. -- the red legged frog. the grazing land, do they plan that? is it natural? every time i go there, there is this: we light stuff. a plant. -- this golden weeed-like plant.

>> supervisor, no, we do not do that at this time, but we are planing to combat non native weeds, and that is something we are proposing. president maxwell: cows do not each non native weeds? >> there are certainly weeds out there that they do not eat. they prefer natural grasses and european grasses that have been imported. president maxwell: ok, and that is 640 acres? >> it is about 670 acres. it is part of an 1,100 acre grazing unit, a portion of what we would still have. yes. president maxwell: how much land to release for grazing in that area -- do we east -- lease?

>> i will have to get back to you on that number, but it is tens of thousands of acres. president maxwell: do you know roughly how many acres we own in that area? >> again, if you would like a precise number, i would have to come back to you. president maxwell: thank you. colleagues, any comments or questions? thank you. why do we not open this for public comment. seeing none, then public comment is closed. colleagues, without objection, we will move forward with that recommendation. thank you. items three and four. madam clerk: item 3, the lease of a real property, commonly

known as parcel l, and item number four, sublease of real property, otherwise known as parcel boak. >> good afternoon. this is for two of the osteen view boulevard parcells, -- octavia boulevard parcels, k and l. they had been beneath the freeway. there is a large component of affordable housing and ground- floor retail. after the economic crash, there

were unfavorable market conditions. the office of economic and work force development released an rfp asking for proposals on interim projects to bring in some modest revenues into the city coffers. there was a proposal for parcells k and l. one is currently used for parking. this is at the corner of octavia. this has been transferred for affordable housing development. it will not be developed for several years. parcel l is a smaller uninhabited parcel also directly

jason tv green. there is no buyer at this point -- directly adjacent to the green. assuming your approval of these leases as well as various approvals from the planning and building departments. the representative that i have here will do much better job of describing the project, so we will leave that to him from proxy in a few minutes. before you are two resolutions to approve the interim releases for these. the purpose, as i mentioned before, is to activate these parcels and bring a small revenue stream to the city for several years while we wait for the real-estate market to come back and permanent above and to occur. the proposed lease for parcel k

has an initial base rate of $5,000 per month with a three- year term. for parcel l, that would commence on october 1, 2010, with a base rent that is less. we are offering rent abatement for the first two months of the lease term to help cover permitting and titling fees, and this is consistent with current transactions we are seeing today. in conclusion, i would just like to note that we believe this proposal is a really innovative response to the slow real-estate market. we are seeing more and more discussion around the city of how to make use of vacant pieces of land, greening, urban farms, temporary commercial use. we think this is an issue that will confront us for a couple of more years at least, and we are pleased to move this forward as one resolution. at this point, i would like to

introduce douglas from proxy development to quickly go over the proposal with you and, of course, we are available for questions. >> ok, i am douglas, the project sponsor and the principle of envelops architecture and design, and the newly developed proxy development for this project. our office was selected as part of an rfp from the mayor's office for development for a temporary uses on these octavia freeway lot. we have been working on this for over a year. we have been in the neighborhood three times and twice in front of a wider audience. our project, our proposal, is a temporary constructs of two

blocks with a vibrant focal point for commerce and the community. we call it proxy because it is envisioned as a place holder for a more permanent situation. tents, scaffolding, shipping containers, a cohesive project that knits itself into the fabric of the neighborhood. currently, lot k is all parking. atlot k it is bound by hayes on the north edge, octavia and linden. there is zip car parking in daily use parking, so a flat fee, $10. lot l is currently vacant.

we are planing to develop the project in two phases. first, that these be occupied by temporary habitations of retail, restaurant, art gallery, and community-based units that add to the richness of the valley. in phase one, it includes the portion of each site with a variety of food vendors. in phase one, they retained the city car parking on lot l while removing the daily parking -- excuse me, on k. phase 2 adds an art gallery on linden alley and a very small

temporary housing use it, also on the alley, and it also creates a covered exterior space and a series of pop-up retail spaces that face both octavia and hayes. president maxwell: what is a temporary housing unit? what does that look like? >> it is a two-store unit. somebody from our office is interested in both funding and occupying it. she would and of being really beside supervisor, so there will always be a presence, a kind of side manager, if so we are interested in at very small housing units -- a kind of site manager, so we are interested in a very small housing unit. this could become something that you could convince people that

you could live in a small footprint. it president maxwell: is it prefabricated? >> these are all fabricated essentially off-site and plugged into different utilities. i have just a little bit more. the local businesses that are currently a part of the project includes a neighborhood german restaurant, an ice-cream store, a new san francisco startup, delphina pizzaria, and a san francisco company. there will be no former retail -- formal retail as part of the project. it will all be local in phase two also. and then, i just have a few images that are more renderings. this is looking this islot l,

looking to the north -- this is looking at lot l. this is the art gallery piece. this is now moving further up octavia, and this is looking at kind of the second food garden with the ice cream store on the corner and the pizza korea -- peter korea vote -- pizzaria over there. then there are these very small- scale retailers, 8 x 8, and the idea for the project is the reason we're using containers is that they can essentially brought to the site and dropped on the site and can be easily removed.

president maxwell: how about the maintenance of all of that? >> there will be ongoing maintenance, and they would be responsible for that, but there is a maintenance fee as a part of the project. president maxwell: supervisor mar? supervisor mar: this is a really innovative idea. is there going to be plumbing for bathrooms on the two lots? >> we are planning to have bathrooms that are fully plummet -- plumbed, and we are looking at others to be brought in as needed. so a mixture. but we definitely plan on it. supervisor mar: i really like

you connect the arts and small businesses and non formula retail. i know there are a lot of families. there is a climbing structure that is very close by. what a great spot. >> thank you. president maxwell: are you finished? >> yes. president maxwell: done? this made me think of a spot on third, and we can do a pop up here and it popped up there. i think is great, those pop ups. >> the retail is intended to actually change and be something every quarter, every couple of months. there could be something new there. president maxwell: can people get a long-term lease? >> yes, they can. president maxwell: but it is

flexible enough. are you going to have a waiting list? how are you going to choose and determine who gets into the space? >> the current vendors are almost all people that we know because there are clients. we are architects of delphina. we did a project for the coffee, but the mayor's office of action connected us up with the others. essentially, wheatfield all calls. i think it needs to be quality establishments -- wheatfield all calls -- we field all calls. .we were recently written up in an architecture magazine from washington, d.c., and we were

the only ones trying to bring in retail and restaurant uses. there are a lot of gardens and parks but not a lot of be brought in, so it is definitely a novel approach. president maxwell: this works great there because there is a lot of energy there. >> that is right. this is a neighbor that is asking for it. there are so many vacant lot. president maxwell: and there is a lot going on around there. >> yes, pedestrian traffic. president maxwell: all right, why do we not open this up for public comment? seeing none -- oh, i am sorry. we have cards. robin, come on up, robin. >> hi, there.

i am a small-business owner. we are a new food startup, but we emerged from the food culture. we have been involved with emobile food cart around the city -- with the mobile food cart. it is incredibly san francisco and in its thoughtfulness in nature. -- san franciscan in its thoughtfulness and nature. in terms of creating a new center and helping the city make this land more valuable for future use, and the ability to

advance micro enterprise, which is so very san francisco, as well. so as a small-business owner, i just wanted to say that this is a fantastic path for the future, and we're very excited to contribute. president maxwell: well, good luck. i plan to get some ice cream. >> hi, i am jim, and i am here representing the neighborhood association transportation planning committee. about one year ago, we had a presentation that was brought to was for alternative uses on the parcels, and the hayes valley farm and other projects were represented. all of them were very, very enthusiasticallyr