districts tend to fundraise for those kinds of capital improvements throughout the district where needed. and they have, again a $743,000 proposed budget annually to serve this district as a whole and right now we're in the petition phase, we're asking for your support, some of us went to the city hall preservation advisory commission and they approve -- they supported having city hall be part of this, we're also going to the library commission today and we'll be going to the other city department commission to inform everyone what's going on and also ask for your support. and then if the petitions come in, if we receive 30% support, we can ask the board of supervisors to have the department of elections send out ballots and so by the end of the

year, potentially the district could form if there's enough support from the property owners in the district. and so the city parcels comprise 24% of the district, the city parcels under the board of supervisors' jurisdiction and city civic park center and garage is one of the parcels and the assessment. the proposed assessment for the civic center parking garage is $32,000. it's our hope with increased feeling of safety there will be more patrons coming to the garage at nighttime so those revenueses will be going up and you'll see a direct benefit from ar participating in this but we also think it can help with the ice rink and other proposals you want to see happen that could be revenue-generating also for

civic center plaza. and there's some enterprise departments that are also going to have their boards vote on this, like the war memorial build, ballet, symphony, opera, they like this. the war memorial board has to take a formal vote because they own the buildings, they'll do that next week. and the p.u.c. and asian art museum, the asian art already voted yes. that's it for my presentation, i'd be happy to take your questions. and again, we hope the mayor's office, the office of economic work forest development and the many, many people on the steering committee hope that you think this is a great idea like we do. >> commissioner lee. commissioner lee: my questions have to do with permitting of the sisk center for events and so forth. how does this interact with our permitting division? is this another layer of

approvals we're going to need -- our permitees to get? >> no, rec and park permit events. commissioner lee: so there should be no impabblingt for the ice skating rink and other permitted events. >> we think this will -- maybe not in regards to the ice skating rink, we think it will increase revenue by improving the general area and the safety and thes a thetic appeal of the area, we'll see more people looking to permit the area and more visitors to the garage and ice rink and things like that. commissioner lee: i want to make sure we have full control over the permitting process, there's not another layer. >> no. commissioner lee: if our permitee wants to erect a tent, for instance, the ice skating rink if they want to put up a tent, would that have to go through a separate --

>> no, absolutely not. as a matter of fact, any of the events that originate with the -- if the c.b.d. is aproved and there is an organization that runs it, if they come up with events, they have to go through us for permits. we remain the permitting agency. commissioner lee: and they would get in the same queue as any group wanting to permit they wouldn't have any special relationship or special -- >> it's still our park and we still permit it. president buell: commissioner levitan. commissioner levitan: i think this looks great and is well presented. i know the presentation you gave us doesn't show opposition. is there anybody we can think of who is opposed to this? >> at this pint, it's too early to tell. i haven't heard of any, but that doesn't mean there won't be. we have many public hearings to go through. commissioner levitan: and outreach.

>> right now everybody in the district has received a petition and the management plan. they've been told, you know, to please vote on it to go to the website to call if they have questions, and the supervisors, if there's enough petition support, will hold two different public hearings before this could be established. commissioner levitan: good, thank you. president buell: commissioner hairson. commissioner hairson: i assume the street sweepers and custodians will remain? >> yes. president buell: we have some public testimony? >> we do. ernestine wright. president buell: no displays of emotion at this committee meeting. >> i am the first one that made a business improvement district in the city at the urging to establish it in union square.

that was the first park that had a business improvement district. out of frustration with all the urinating and what not, it was a mess. that's why i want it down at the embarcadero. this is the entry to the city, it should be done there too. anyway, i heartly approve this, hallelujah, this is the way to go. you need a marketing director, as i was telling you many times before, you've got to run this park division like a business. it's not run like a business right now. i was successful in my business, i'm telling you how to do it. very easy. lisa pagan is a saint. she should be put up to the highest levels here because this is what we need. city doesn't have the money, this is the way to go. the businesses would be happy to contribute. i don't think anyone objects to it in any area. lighting is very important, you've got to make it enticing

for people to want to go there. this is the way to go. i'm so happy we'll have l.e.d. lighting in the park, this is going to brighten up the whole area. there won't be vandalism of trees and damage and all that that you have all over this city. that's another deterrent. worth the investment. so go ahead and do this. this is the way to go. i can't say enough. president buell: thank you. >> is there any other public comment? please come forward. >> mr. president, commissioners, i'm jim haff. the mayor gave me the title as coordinator of his civic center stake holders group, and i have been active before that and for the last six years in trying to bring some order to civic center. there has been no entity that brings the disparate parts together, in fact, you will find -- i found over the years that

the people who worked at the asian art museum and ran that, never knew the people in the public library, who ran that, etc., etc. i guess it was four years ago, i spoke to the mayor and to his chief of staff at the time, mr. ginsburg, who is not here today, and they bought into the notion that we needed to have some vehicle to pull things together and give some order to the area. he asked lisa pagan and her colleagues to undertake the studies necessary for a c.b.d. it's taken a long time, partly because it's such an odd group of properties with half of them being public and half being private. but we are very close to having it done. the entity that looks after the c.b.d. is the a nonprofit.

it is not a public agency and therefore would be an advocate for things but not in the official role of things. but let me point out this to you that when the ice skating rink came up, i'm the one that set up the meeting with the people from the state building and various parks around the plaza that some of your people did not know to have a discussion and now there is a fruitful dialogue between the supreme court justices and judges and the people working on the ice skating rink and all of that. if there was a c.b.d. i would not have to play that role, there would be somebody paid to look after those things every day. so that is why this is in my view so important for bringing the quality of life for all the employee the visitors in the civic center and pest important -- and it's important to you because you control the plaza and that needs to be worked on and you'll find in the next several weeks that there's a

proposal to replan the plaza, which is wenting its way through the board of supervisors. that will be an integral part of the c.b.d. and planning process for civic center will be worked together to improve the area. i urge you to unanimously approve this. president buell: thank you, mr. hess. >> howard. >> i certainly support you chipping in a little bit to make all of this happen, but beyond that, we have all these office edifices down there, all these similar offices downtown would have shops and restaurants and coffee shops underneath. the area is pretty dead. we go there frequently for the opera, symphony, stuff like that. it's beyond your purview but i would support livening up, in europe, you have city halls where you get the best beer and bratwurst, certainly that would -- president buell: that would be a big improvement in this

city. >> thank you. >> is there any other public comments on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioners? president buell: commissioner heirson. -- harrison. commissioner harrison: i look at this almost as a privatization of public spaces. we witnessed where people in the mission dolores park were upset about us putting vendors in their park for the parks department to generate money. under this situation, the park department will have to pay something like $32,000 we don't have. these neighbors are going to be taxed, which in my mind is a parcel tax. we're told we can't put out a parcel tax because the voters won't take it. how will these people look at this, when they're asking to give $100 or whatever it is per year for 10 years or however long it's supposed to last. secondly, or thirdly, or lastly,

or whatever, there's a whole other bureaucracy out here that's going to charge us $743 -- $743,000. and two administrators that are going to cost us $160,000. this money should come to us, we can do this. so i have a real problem with that. president buell: let me weigh in and disagree with the distinguished vice chairman. it's a parcel tax but one that's willingly entered into by a majority they have property owners. it's the kind of thing you want and if you ask the rest of the city to bear the burden, they'd say, why should we be helping out this district. so those in the district see the advantage of putting the money into it and what it will do, i think, will pay for itself in the sense that it will give

great comfort to people who go to the public events in the area and in fact increase public attendance but having that satisfaction that what they're calling diplomats or something are actually kind of uniformed people who will look like they have the authority to make you behave and i think that -- and the maintenance and sprucing up of the area and all of that will accrue to the bet -- to the benefit. while i share commissioner harrison's concern that it's going to cost us $32,000 that we wish we had more of, i think ultimately if we give this a little time, i think it will prove very beneficial. i know how hard it is to do all the legwork because you have so many people involved, so i commend mr. hess for his work and the office of work force development. commissioner lee. commissioner lee: regarding commissioner harrison's question, that raised a second question in my mind, with regard to staff who are going to be

working for the community benefit district. how are they going to interact with our staff? we have gardening staff, custodial staff and so forth. what is the chain of command, per se, with respect to their duties and the overlap between the two functions? >> with your permission, plcht, i'll try to answer that. the model i think we can look at practically speaking is union square. this arrangement is already in place there as has been previously mentioned. we work with the bid employees that are down there, whether it's m.j.m. or otherwise, that do the ambassador, the custodial and share the -- it's a coordination effort, basically. and it is working in union square currently so i think we can look at that as the model

and see it replicated here in civic center. president buell: commissioner harrison. commissioner harrison: do we still have gardeners at civic center? >> yes we do. we do all the gardening and we get help from custodial from the red jackets down there, but the gardening is ours. president buell: seeing no other questions, entertain a motion. those in favor. opposed. one no. >> item number eight, kezar parking lot.

president buell: are we having mechanical problems?

>> good evening, commissioners. i'm with partnership resource development. i'm here to discuss about -- to talk about discussion and possible action item to approve new monthly residential and commercial parking lot. it's a new lot, opened 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. a rate increase for monthly customers was aproved by the commission and implemented on july 1. at that time, residential rates were raised to $140 from $115 and commercial rates from $140

to $165. each was raised -- >> is that monthly? >> monthly, that's correct. gross parking revenues for the last fiscal year were $682,000 -- $682,800. as you probably have experienced, parking rates have been increasing in san francisco over the last three years, rather precipitously. our board of supervisors approved a rate increase to $200 per month at the music concourse parking garage which is nearby and nearby st. mary's garage has a rate of $191 per month. we are proposing raising our fees to $160 per month for residential rates, that's a $20 rate increase, and $185 for commercial rates, again a $20 increase. even at the proposed increase rates, parking at the kezar lot will be less expensive than neighboring parking facilities

and should the rates be approved they would be implemented in january. the projected gross revenue for the remainder of our fiscal year is $43,200, and for next year double that, $86,400. for outreach, we posted a notice on the lot on september 8, approximately a month ago. fliers were handed out to all customers, specifically those using monthly parking passes as they entered the lot. notice fliers were given to kevin cox in charge of parking services at ucsf and has approximately 216 staff with parking places at kezar we notified the management of a nearby business and a nearby park association. there were no objections to this action. president buell: i have a question for you. the financial impact, july 2009 to june 2010, the gross revenues were $682,849 and with this

increase, they somehow at $792,200, only -- that's $110,000 but we realize $84,400 out of that. what's the difference? >> that's a math mistake on our part. i don't know which one is the accurate number. >> i think the difference would be the park. -- the parking tax. it's about 20%. president buell: who gets that? >> m.t.a. >> can we charge them extra for their parking? ok, i understand, thank you. i don't have any other questions. >> we have public comments. howard stasner and paul robbins. >> howard strasner of the sierra

club, i want to speak in support of this minor parking increase. it's city policy not to encourage commuters to drive and you're doing it. last year, when i was looking at this, there's a waiting list for these spots. to me, that means you're not charging nearly enough. maybe your fees should be much higher. and i notice also in looking at the paperwork that there's a discount for seniors, did you drop that? i hope you did. i wouldn't want -- that would be a terrible travesty to charge less for seniors. and one would have to question why is there a special reduced rate for residents? what is this? aren't you supposed to maximize for this? here you're taking a piece of park and using it for parking, at least do the best you can to raise more money. of course this also -- i must also comment on what happened to

dolores park, all that discussion we may approaching the time that raising money from parking may be easier and sweeter for you to do. president buell texas pot -- president buell: it's not easier or sweeter to raise money for anything. >> i want to support this thing, i don't know if it's enough, why should you be less than anybody else, especially if there's a waiting list for the parkers, you know you're probably not charging enough. thank you very much. >> is paul here? paul robbins? would anyone else like to comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. president buell: is there a motion? >> i make a motion. president buell: those in favor? opposed? hearing no opposition, it's approved.

>> item nine. >> i'm here to for the discussion and possible action to approve the selection of twirl and dip soft serve to operate at big reck in golden gate park. i do want to tell you a little bit about twirl and dip's menu. they offer three flavors of soft serve ice cream served daily in cones and cups, the flavors change based on seasonal availability. to promote the product, they will use their own website, chowhound, facebook, twitter and yelp. they will hand out stickers of their very cute logo to folks. they do use the following local suppliers for their products,

all organic and sustainable, pacific gourmet, cho chocolates, blue bottle coffee and restaurant depot. operationses. they'll have a mobile food truck, some sare kitchen facility at eclectic facile and storage. the truck is equipped to store the generator needed and tables and chairs for customers. they propose to operate tuesdays through sundays from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. they also propose to operate a mea radio in a green -- at marina green on sundays from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., we'll present that next week with some other vendors at marina green. president buell: can't wait. >> equipment they own a full size truck which is 24 feet long and seven feet wide, two soft serve ice cream machines, a milk shake machine, three machines

for making ice-cream cones and miscellaneous kitchen equipment. i won't go through all the flavors, but if you look at the flavors, you'll see they are all incredibly original, very fresh, based on seasonal products, using organic ingredients, it's a unique and delicious product, i've had the flash of trying some. >> and nonfattening, i hope? >> not a calorie. for just this location, they propose a minimum base rent of $6,000 per year at 10.5% per year but they have provided a proposal for a minimum base trend of $12,000 per year and also 10.5% of gross sales based on the two locations, marina green and big rec. we're presenting big rec today because we'd love to get started on that. we anticipate earning $14,500 per year, or $7,225 from just

the big rec location. we did all the outreach we do, including place an ad in the "chronicle," upon the issuance of the r.f.p., posting materials on the website, posting in the city's office of administration and emailing notification to our database and other interested parties including folksed in the area. in addition to the ample media coverage we've received about food carts in magazines, newspapers and blog we did contact the following individuals on this list to give them information about the twirl and dip proposal we did this on september 17, it includes the haight ashberry improvement council, the inner sunset merchants association, supervisor mars, and ray holland the president of the planning association of richmond. we also posted information on the kiosk in the vicinity.

we've receive unanimous support from selection panel, support from the office of economic and work forest development, the convention and visitors bureau and the chamber of commerce. next steps include coming back to the commission with a permit if you do approve the selection of twirl and dip today and they will immediately become an active community partner, joining merchant associations, organizing neighborhood cleanup with ice cream rewards and making charitable contributions including ice cream coupons to at-risk youth. president buell: commissioner harrison. commissioner harrison: what is happening with the vacant key yosk that used to have a coffee shop and sandwich shop. >> this is at big rec? >> yes. commissioner harrison: it's overlooking the stands. >> the kiosk there, that's a

gardener work station now. we do storage and it's a garden work area. commissioner harrison: is there any plan for renovating that? >> none that we know of. >> no but if someone would like to come to us with a proposal, we'll entertain it. commissioner harrison: i appreciate seeing this outreach on page form like this and you've done wonderfully on publicity and outreach and articles and blogs and everything and you contacted the various groups but i saw no public meetings with the neighbors. were the neighbors in the immediate area notified? were there fliers? i see you had some phone conversations with so i see you had some phone conversations with some folks, some individuals. >> we chose this case because it was a location within the dark that was a little isolated from the immediate neighborhood. we contacted neighborhood associations and asked them to

put out notification of the initiative on our behalf. we do not have an e-mail list of all the neighborhoods. we did put a flier on the kiosk in the vicinity. >> any response? >> no response. >> one might assume if they had issues that would have gone back to you? >> that is correct. we did have a community meeting at the yacht club. there were concerned neighbors in the immediate vicinity. commissioner lee: you are looking at their annual revenue for this $7,000. >> for the two locations, 50% of the time the truck would operate. for the two locations, which is 100% of the time, it would be $14,500. commissioner lee: but the marina has not been awarded yet.