just give it the go, let's go, and i appreciate that type of enthusiasm. i also wanted to take the opportunity to address something else regarding the wharf, in which the cac has not had an opportunity to do so. i will be referring to the design summary dated march, 2010, specifically page 6. regards to the interpretive wall concept, the interpreter of wall concept has expanded as a top feature over approximately two years, and at this point in time, the interpretive wall includes a full history of the area, starting before 1850 all the way up to current and rising tides, including japanese immigration, shipping, and also labor history.

we strongly support this type of inventing history almost any projects should we have the opportunity to do so. just want to go on record for saying that. thanks very much. commissioner fong: thank you. any other public comment on this item? we have a motion and a second. all those in favor? any opposed? ok, resolution 10-68 is approved. >> item 9a, request approval of the five-year lending its license agreement with the san francisco water taxi llc will water taxi services to hyde street harbor and pier 1 and a half. >> i apologize, i normally script my comments, but i have

got some good news, some exciting news. we have been working on trying to generate a new water taxi service for san francisco for the last couple of years. i think about two and a half years ago. we had a lot of people talking about the idea, and the rest of the economy was still going along pretty well. he gave us a chance to do a little due diligence. we hired a consultant to show us what other cities have done around the world with other taxis, gives the port a chance to put out a request to various entities that might be interested in such a water taxi service. we were able to find a local san franciscan, a small-business owner, who currently operates the ducks, who is interested in

starting up with a fledgling -- sorry. [laughter] water taxi operation that will call at two locations on our waterfront initially. one of those is pierre -- pier 1 and a half. a water taxi is defined as a vessel that is less than 60 feet in length used for transporting passengers on point to point trips, which needs to be coastguard certified or passengers for higher and has a maximum capacity of 49 people. will not be used as an excursion boat. it will not be used as a dining vessel. it is a water taxi. we have negotiated an agreement

with a company called san francisco water taxi llc, and i will introduce their founder in a couple of minutes. the agreement is five years with 15-year auction. the uses for water taxi service and for no other purpose, they will take as a percentage fees 7% of gross revenue, which is similar to other agreements on the waterfront. they have paid a security deposit. they will provide the adequate insurance, and our license has the standard provisions that are in all of the current licenses the city has that have been approved by the city attorney's office in compliance with port

law, yada yada yada. we did a couple of bombs in the road, but i think we are really close to it. -- we hit a couple of buttons -- we hit a couple of bumps in the road, but i think we are really close to it. i think it will complement ferry operations like the taxi cab in front of a bart station that will take you where the train cannot take you. with that, ask for your approval of this agreement. i will introduce john, who can talk more about his vision and his proposed operation. thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners, executive staff. i am with san francisco water taxi.

i have spent the last five years operating here in san francisco and the day, and we wanted to introduce a point to avoid service to connect the dots between the waterfront of san francisco -- point to point service. in past years, we wondered why there was not already water taxi service in san francisco. we investigated and took our time and did some research. before happened to be doing a study at the same time, and great timing, and we were able to kind of put everything together and, like i said, connect the dots. we are starting small business in the toughest economy we have seen in a long time, and we are very excited about doing so. we are really excited about how we can contribute to the port as well as complement the existing ferry system. we want to see ferry ridership

go up. they could call a water taxi if they missed a ferry, and we would like to be planned -- plan b. we look forward to working with the port, and thank you for the opportunity. >> the agreement calls for san francisco water taxes to get a boat in the water in the next six months. i know that there has been a lot of interest in terms of the personnel on the boat, and i know there has been a lot of discussion between the proposed tenet with organized labor. we think they have crafted an understanding that can move forward, and see if this operation can go forward. john has stated that it will pay

prevailing wages, and that he is interested in working with organized labor to see of some employees want to be unionized or not. with that, i will see if anyone wants to answer questions about it. >> so move. commissioner fong: i have one car here from captain raid shift in -- one card here from captain ray shipton. >> the last time we were here, seems like those shares were full, so we are missing out on a few things.

basically, we are here to say thanks to john for the cooperation we have forged over the last few months, working in conjunction with john to try to put something together. we had a few bumps in the road, and i know how to e-mail much better than i ever did before. we do a lot of meetings this way, e-mail instead of face-to- face, but again, i would like to thank john, and i would like to thank the four for this opportunity that we have -- thank the port for the opportunity that we have. that goes for my sister. we met with john about two months ago to try to put together something. john expressed his interest in helping with organized labor, and we have been going at it in that light ever since. we look forward to the

opportunity. i would like to thank you for this opportunity to speak to you. >> all right, thank you. >> good afternoon. i came today to speak in favor of this. just as a little background, i wanted to go back to where we started in 1999 on the dream of actually doing facilities that would accommodate a water taxi. we put a proposal in and made it one of our gives to the waterfront.

it is a fabulous opportunity. we have worked for that many years -- 10 years, i think we have spent. it hundred thousand dollars the first time building new water taxi, and another $100,000 to rebuild it -- it hundred thousand dollars the first time building the water taxi -- 800 the -- $800,000 the first time building a water taxi. we work to get landings. the port staff has adopted a mission of requiring landings as each project is built on the waterfront. the jury would be one day to get from palo alto to sausalito -- the dream. this is a fledgling, a duckling, a little faint. we are delighted that john has

been recommended by the staff. we hope you will adopt the resolution. just to say, people like monique can figure out how to refinance here -- pier 70, and with all the ingenuity, we hope everyone here can figure out ways to support this endeavor. we appreciate your favorable consideration and the recommendation. thanks. commissioner fong: thank you. any other public comment? for the record, i believe it is bay quackers. the operator is easily confused.

i just wanted to make an oral comment. san francisco is due for a water taxi system. i am proud to get this through and start on something. as simon spoke about, even big things start small, so i wish the operator of the best of luck. on that, let the water taximeter begin running. we have a motion, a second. any other discussion? all those in favor? oppose? ok, great. resolution 10-65 is approved. >> item 10a, informational presentation regarding joint planning with the water emergency transportation authority for the downtown ferry terminal expansion. >> i'm here to introduce this item, which is an informational

presentation, to update you on work that port has been doing in cooperation with the water emergency transformation authority. in a minute, i'm going to turn the podium over to jonathan stern, who has a short presentation. i just want to review the recent background to put this presentation in context. in late 2008, almost two years ago, this commission authorized staff to enter into a memorandum of understanding with weta to allow the agencies to work together on the expansion of the downtown ferry terminal. as you know, but just to remind us all, weta is a new agency that was created just a few years ago by state legislation to expand ferry service on the day and also to provide -- to be able to respond in the case of

disaster that may cause disruptions to the bay area's bridges and to bart service, so that is the emergency part. weta is not yet operational, but they are in the process of becoming a major new ferry operator on the day, and you can imagine there's a new agency that goes into it from the ground up, and they are busy preparing in their service. one of the things that they need to do is to develop the facility's need for bearing the ferries and loading and unloading passengers. let's see. so in addition to the actual terminals, there are a set of related physical improvements that are required, which

jonathan will talk about in more detail, but things like passenger waiting areas, emergency staging areas, and the like. for the first years since receiving authorization from the commission and from the weta board to enter into the mou, not a lot has been done other than drafting the agreement itself, which was finally executed earlier this year in february, i believe. again, it provides a framework for the two agencies to jointly plan for the expansion of the downtown ferry terminal in this area, and i do have a slide here. this slide shows what we are calling a project area. it really extends all the way from pier one on the north to the pier 14 breakwater and

public access on the south between the embarcadero road way and out into the bay. since entering into the mou, the project has gained some momentum in the last few months. we just hired two consultants teams. for the past few months, port and weta staff have been working with the development teams to provide the concepts that will essentially be used as a starting point for this project. these concepts are the subject of a presentation that jonathan will go through with you. they will be used to inform the stakeholder outreach process that will help shape for design

and development of the terminal expansion. key project areas stakeholders that we will be consulting with early in this process starting a little later this week include tenants with long-term these older chips within the project areas such as equity office properties, tenants with shorter term lease interest, releases such as the ferry building tenants, and d port's agriculture building tenants. regulatory agencies. bcdc -- agencies like bcdc. that is kind of where we are at this point. stakeholder out beach is about to begin with initial interviews later this week. the process will take a few months. i would like to go through the planning process that will

inform that process. >> my name is jonathan stern. we are excited to be working with weta staff. they could not attend because they are transitioning from what started out as a very small agency to one that in the year were to will be operating most of the ferry traffic on the day. we are excited to be partnering with them. i wanted to bring up some of the key issues of what is going to be happening, both in the planning context and other areas we will be looking at when we do joint planning. the two agencies, there are two separate objectives. weta is trying to expand the ferry system and bring more votes from all of brown -- bring more boarts from all around the bay.

there's so much that has already happened that we have to really think through all the planning issues. maybe not every single square foot of land or structure, but what is going to happen here? many of the things we are concerned about, improving some of the areas, think about the historic status of the agriculture building, etc. the ferry building area when it had a freeway in front of it, is transformed quite a bit. a lot of things have happened. eop has done a wonderful job inside the ferry building itself, and the farmer's market has become an anchor building outside of it. there is a lot going on, and there is a lot that still needs to happen. right now, this is an area that i think we have already improve in the area.

there has been a lot of improvement that has happened. there is a lot already under long-term leases, something we need to consider. there is a lot of public usage. a lot of pedestrian and public access flows, but there are things that need to be added. there is a continuation of the walkway behind the building that we should think about. we should think about through connections that connect the whole area, and more eastward connections that need to be made to bring people to the water, especially bring new ferry passengers out to the water. finally, as i mentioned before, there are italy will areas in for condition. -- there are two areas in poor condition. that said, i'm going to talk about the landside improvements

first and then talked a little bit about the ferry building. this iswhat we call sketch conc. we want to engage with the board and the public about these things. on the north portion is pier 1/2, and there is a question of what will be left for public usage. there are also areas surrounding the ag building. i am going to start with very plaza. we have a wonderful walk with your about half of the area. there is an orange area that does not have the same area and connection. a lot of pedestrians moved through that space. it is often occupied by other important area uses and allowed usage, to load and unload things going on in the ferry building. ferry plaza has suffered somewhat. as the beginning thought,

extending that walkway for pass- through uses could relate activate that building and extend the connection you were talking about. the next area we are going to look at is pier /12. -- 1/2. under the current land use plan, this should be used for ferry use for public access, and that is in all our vision, but what configuration? will its rectangular format be demolished and returned to the day? of the configurations are something we are considering. -- returned to the bay? other configurations are something we are considering. the ag building and the lagoon at next to it -- i have an arrow of carry riders moving right through that. i think that will be where people will embark or disembark

for treasure island. that could be very many people once it is fully built out. we will need to solve the that is done. finally, the ag building itself has a number of issues related to its historic restoration, not least of which is that even without sea level rise it is a structure which currently floods, which inhibits our ability to maintain it. if you see the red area around it, we are talking about moving its lightly and raising it so that flooding issue will be contained. there are probably as many parts of the building that are really important with preservation and maintaining its historic values, but there are certain parts shown in the back portion that give less to the overall historic fabric. whether those are renovated, demolished, or replaced with things, we will study as part

of this preservation strategy. moving on to the ferry service, the shows were current services are. gates c and d are doing their own work, planning work and engineering work to renovate the water site facilities. we are not really working with them fully. gates d and e services on the north and south. thinking forward, in yellow it shows a number of services that staff has identified 2 bad from treasure island and ready city on the south basin, and a number of services for the north basin -- berkeley, richmond, hercules, martinez, and antioch are under consideration. berkeley is the furthest along. the locations have to do with

where they are in the planning process and how the actual physical connections are. those boats are coming from the north bay or the south bay. this is where we are today in terms of ferry service. the primary dates are gates -- gates are gates e and b. a future phase built between 2012 and 2013 will add gate a, which is currently pier 1/2. we do not know what will remain of that, but what has to be there. gate e will be joined by gate f as part of the new treasure island service. this shows the lagoon being filled, a new concept. it is needed both for circulation issues to get people out there and also emergency gathering issues. if there is an emergency and we

need to activate this, where are those people going to wait in a safe manner as they get out during the workday? president fong: kenya toggle back and forth? >> i am going the wrong way. president fong: before and after. >> ok. here is existing. here is face to. phase three ads on -- two things change to phazese three, 2015to 2025. that is protected once treasure island is built out with these front loading boats like the staten island ferry, very large boats. you can open the gate and many people can get on and off very quickly. that is one reason why we are considering are those people are going to go and how the

circulation patterns are going to work. another gate will be added to the south, behind the ag building, to accommodate existing services for the duration. the ag building will be moved back slightly to add for a plinth that allows for delays in did of circulation space in front of it. these are zero considerations for when we move forward. -- these are considerations for when we move forward. the more dairy passengers there are in -- the more ferry passengers there are in san francisco, the more we have to make trouble attractive. one thing weta has considered is whether protection -- is weather protection so that you can

travel during the winter or the rainy season. we're talking about conceptual ideas of how you provide that protection. the provided on the float, -- do you provide it on the flow come off the flow, or attached to the building? -- do you provide it on the float, off the float, or attached to the building? finally, this takes us back to the concept, we are calling a sketch concept starting point as we reach out to the commission and the weta board as well as the public interest groups and tenants in the area. >> questions, commissioners? president fong: