things that people are concerned about, and knowing this, we have to make sure we communicate, so thank you. all right, colleagues, without objection, so move. item number 04. clerk somera: item number four, a hearing to discuss the parkmerced project located at 3711 19th ave. chair maxwell: there will be lots of opportunity for you to give input and to have this unknown. supervisor elsbernd. supervise elsbernd: today is

purely an informational meeting. this will go before the full board and, of course, the planning commission. this is just the first of what will probably be a series of meetings about parkmerced. we also have the project sponsors that are going to make a presentation. if we could, i see the director of planning is here. john, would you mind taking things off? -- kicking things off? >> thank you. we have been working with the mayor's office and others on this, for a long time. primarily because of the scope of this project. while this project is a single

private development, it is as large as many of the re- deployment plans that you have been seen recently, in terms of the size of the acreage and the number of units and so on. it is comparable to doing a large neighborhood plan. because of that, we have been working with them on a number of things that you will hear from staff about. we have also been working closely with mta on transportation issues and with the mayor's office on issues related to the development agreement. we anticipated that because of the scope of the project and the size of the fact that is -- it would best be developed -- accomplished -- through a

development process. what the supervisor asked us to do was accomplished a few weeks ago, and, of course, it includes parkmerced, and then you will hear more specifics about the planning department's role as we move forward. thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors, committee chair maxwell. i with work force development. again, thank you for the opportunity to provide this information presentation today. just briefly, after i speak, i am going to cover what the process is and the way we have structured the city family interaction so far with the project sponsor, and then a representative from the sfmta

will give a presentation, fogg load bysophie -- followed by sophie and others. just briefly, the project encompasses a 116 acres site on the west side of san francisco. when complete, it would include approximately 8900 units. it has a clue about period of 20 to 30 years. this is a very long-term project, and in addition to the residential units, substantial neighborhood retail, commercial, open spaces, storm water will be included. as the director mentioned, we are proposing a development agreement as organizing for the main permit for this project. for those of you who are

familiar with development agreements, it is essentially a legally binding contract between the city and a private party. it guarantees a measure of security but also of stability for the city and for the developer. for the city to seek greater public benefits and can be accorded under conventional land use regulations and ordinances. it also allows us to be much more creative in negotiations in terms of the public benefit package. supervisor chiu: excuse me, michael. do you have a copy of the package for us? >> i do. supervisor chiu: it is hard for us to see on the screen. >> that will be arriving shortly. i am sorry. this development agreement will also be accompanied by a general plan amendment and a special use district, so there will be a substantial package that will

work its way through ultimately to this committee and to the full board. to be pro-active in this process, and just recognizing the scope and scale of this undertaking, the city drafted a cooperative agreement with a memorandum of understanding or mou with the project standing. this was executed with plans, fmta, sfp uc, the department of dpw and others. the first purpose is to reimburse the city staff for any time and expenses that they expended on the preparation kit, or if you will the pre- application, of this development agreement. the project sponsor has extensive conversations to get input ahead of submitting an application or drafting a develop an agreement to get the scope and scale. the mou also said its board

rules and responsibilities for our staff and determined the scope of the development agreement and establishes a project management role similar to treasure island or hunters point shipyard and other large- scale projects, but we are working very closely with the director's cut, particularly sfmta, because that is a key component of this project. and just quickly, before i turn it over to peter albert, we are looking at the schedule. the deir, the draft environmental impact report, this was done in 2010. there was a hearing on june 2. there was a public hearing on the planning commission on june 17, and the public comment period closed on july 12, 2010,

and planning staff -- mr. cooper is here if any of you have any questions about the ceqa process. we hope to be before the planning commission for eir certification, planning code amendments, and the developing degree and approval sometime in the fall of 2010, and, of course, will be coming to this body and the full body, ideally by late fall 2010 for approval of the general plan amendment and the developing amendment. so, unless you of any questions, i would like to invite peter from the s.f. mda. -- sfmta.

>> good afternoon. i think the most important aspect i can bring to this conversation, even before we talk about parkmerced, is to talk about the corridors and to get an idea of of the transportation network works in this part of town, so to be able to do them together is an especially important resource for mta. this map on the screen shows two different colored as loans, and the pink zone represents what we call a pda that is an agreement with the city of san francisco which says if you are working with transportation planning pitch in this part of town, and you are working with the community in working with the city agencies, we will prioritize regional funding to help you solve your transportation problems in this part of town, so with the help

of the supervisors and the transportation authority, we were able to get this part of san francisco on the radar screen as a pda. the pink plus the green area represents everything, and we wanted to look at transit and the pedestrian networks also, and what we also wanted to do was to look at major developments that were at one point or in the near future proposing major changes, and that includes san francisco state, which reasonably concluded its master plan process and was involved with the mta. it includes several areas, and we paid attention to those numbers. for what we know about that, we wanted to make sure we took the most possible growth that could exist. because this was close enough to

the zone, and then, of course, parkmerced, and that is why this is like this, because we wanted to show you the big your areas. bob we wanted to break it down into five different -- we wanted to break it down into five different tiers. we needed to know what was our baseline. in tier 2, we added just the numbers. just the numbers to help us. then we put tier 3 on the radar

screen. coming out of the city, coming out of caltrans, and even coming up on note -- out of bart. the buyback plan, the traffic calming plan, these were projects that we layered on a tugboat -- on top of tiers one and two, and then we added tier 4. princetons, you will hear today about -- for instance, you will hear today about parkmerced, how they are solving some of transportation issues, andti then, er 5. -- and then, tier 5.

they have this view of where the system is going. we then will use our best professional judgment to fill and the gap and thai networks together to make even the areas that the project proposed before or the improvements the developer could not fix, we will recommend big fixes that go through the corridor, so if i walk you through that, we will start with pi r.e. -- with tier 2. san francisco state and others. no, we laterlaya -- er tier -- we layer tier 3. and then, we also layered on top of those other things, like

running the shuttle, other improvements we wanted to see to get more efficiency of the transit network. . -- tier 4, bringing the san francisco -- everybody getting off of that streetcar was already on the west side. intersection improvements, unjamming the area. these were some of the proposals that came out of the discussion. one very important one was bringing this up of 19th avenue and into -- out of 19th avenue and into parkoce -- parkmerced. we would bring it or the

identity is because people would have a short walk. one of the benefits recognize is the pedestrian safety benefits. more than 85% of people getting out of the streetcar want to be on the west side, and another operational benefits that we of look debt that has made it into the project is what you see at the end there. you can see a two or three-car train. this gives us flexibility. if the train is disabled, we can take it out of the system, and it does not have to block the other trains. this gives us more flexibility.

these, i think, are the hard copy of the presentation i am walking you through, if you would like time to get one. so while you are looking at that, we finished the 19th avenue corridor study for tiers one through 4, which means we know how they work, and if i can have the screen back on, one of the things that i would like to call out is that in this study, what we are showing here are some of the level of service analysis, but i can tell you there is a lot more than just level of service for automobiles. there is pedestrian safety, reliability of transit. these are all things that are not really cabled -- for motley. i do want to show you some of the findings of the corridor

study. a full red circle means unacceptable. white means acceptable. these two. that part has trouble. when we project out 30 years, tier one, waswhite -- what was white in some areas is red or half red. if we let it grow, this is what would happen to the corridor. paul a few intersections become worse, because we have added all of these jobs. when we add tier 3,

interestingly, some of the improvements do not show up in the matter because they are not intersection models, but there are some. some intersections actually get better. between tier 3 and tier 4, they build more options for cars so they do not overwhelm the intersection. the results of those intersections, you can see what happens over time. we started with the existing in the morning and 11 in the afternoon. they get worse as the tiers go up. an improvement -- chair maxwell: we have a k9 visitor, and we are going to see how this works.

i do not think he wants to visit. >> yes, should i -- chair maxwell: thank you. >> i will keep going. the point here is that you do get some benefits with the improvements proposed by the project sponsor. what i would really like to talk about though, if i could, is the process. with tier 5 -- chair maxwell: excuse me. we have another location, if you would like to sit in my office or another supervisor's office and watch it on television? >> thank you. >> the tier 5, as i mentioned,

we did this on the other tiers, and now, what we as city agencies can do to make the whole system better, and our proposal was to work with the community. korea already had won it community but we have already had won a community meeting. -- we have already had one community meeting. this is not just about bringing caltrans and bart on board.

>> i have it measured in terms of transit, pedestrian pedestrian, and cars. let me go ahead and prepare a memo for that. >> and overall, how many people will get into -- i'm sure the growth, but i would like to know what year. >> i would. actually, what we know, if we get into those tier 5 improvements, for instance, take the street car and don't ride just on the west side of san francisco state, is it possible that the street car could run the west side, in front of san francisco estate? what would that do, it would shift more people out of cars and into ridership and that would change the numbers you are talking about. look at the ability of grades separating? we can do it in two places, and

then separate the street car from the traffic on 19th avenue which brings tremendous oop rating -- operating bits. if i leave with one important impression, the more certainty we get with tiers 1, 2, 3, and 4, the more comfort i have working toward tier 5 knowing that these are certain to make a much better corridor. i'd like to be around to answer -- i will be around to answer more questions, if necessary. >> good afternoon. i'm sophie hayward. i'm from the planning department. i'm working under the guidance of john ram as well as david alenbach. i wanted to summarize the

planning department's coordination with the department thus far in the development of design standards and guidelines for building designs, the treatment of the public relevant many, and land uses for the project. and the planning department formed an internal review team that includes representatives of the city-wide policy development group as well as the implementation of permanent review teams to review the draft standards and guidelines prepared by the project architect. draft copies were submitted to us in june this year. after reviewing the design standards, planning responded just last week to the project sponsor with fairly extensive comments and will continue to work with the partner team to refine the design standard in order to come up with a final document that aligns with the policy goals and also can be

used when individual building permit applications are submitted by the implementation team. that's a two-part process. while the department has worked extensively over the past years, these remain draft documents, and the department will continue to work with the design team to finalize that. by way of timeline, as you have heard several times today, following the certification of beir which may happen in the fall of this year, we will present the general plan amendments and planning code amendments to first the planning code commission and then the development agreement will also be presented to the planning commission, and that includes a request for approval for the development, and we anticipate that will go forward in the fall

of 2010. following the review of the planning commission, that full package will be sent to you, the board of directors -- the board of supervisors, in the fall of 2010. i'm here to answer any questions you might have. >> good afternoon. my name is seth. i was born and raised on the west side of san francisco and i still live there. park merced has owned that property since 2005. when the property was purchased we recognized early on the need for immediate fixes and repairs. deferred maintenance had suffered for years without significant improvements or upgrades. that is important for us to have monthly meetings with the residents to understand their

operational concerns with the property, as well as getting feedback for short-term fix to the property. that is through those meetings we started to discover here different challenges with the operation of the property. they couldn't be materially fixed with short-term improvements being proposed. it lent us to believe that a greater solution was necessary. in the meantime, we have spent about $125 million or so doing moderate improvements. it includes repainting the property, providing emergency power systems to the powers, fire alarm systems, elevator lobby renovation. so on and so forth. it really was a chance for us to improve everyone's life that exists at park merced today and show we are committed to the community ads a whole -- as a whole. this made a difference in people's lives today.

it has made a difference to the property as a whole. one of the things we did early on, when we recognized the need for a solution, we came forward and represented to the residents if this was going to become a greater solution, we would make sure all the wrezz dents were protected throughout this process. what that meant to us, what i'm showing on the board now, is that all residents affected by this construction, would be moved once. they would move into a grand new apartment, and they would pay the same rent control apartments . the units would be brand new units. they would be more efficient, they would have washers and dryers. basic amenities would be provided to them, and they would only again have to move once. it was important for residents

to know, don't be afraid for your homes. this is our chance to make park merced better. a lot of what we heard in terms of people's safety, it had more places for people to hide where there were no services or amenities on site. the idea of creating community was the thought here. in that, we wanted and needed resident impact critically to this plan, as you are going to see today. community outreach was important to us. not only in residents, but in neighborhoods. we started and worked on extensive out-reach program for the last several years that included over 275 meetings with different neighborhood groups, city and state agencies, to really understand fundamentally from the start what people needed from the area and what were the issues of the area, and how park merced could fit into

those fixes and challenges. one of the things we recognized is that the community feedback has been critical. we have tried extremely hard to make sure everyone knows about the project. that they have questions or concerns they are informed and can talk about it. to summarize some of the top 10 comments from those meetings, there is no place to have a cup of coffee on site. the idea of having youthful open spaces is something they really liked. better parking and transportation. certainly one of the big topics we've heard all the way through. and obviously address some of the maintenance issued and challenges with an older property, how those could be fixed. and obviously, improve security.