students and families, and a reduction in services or functionality of the library would not be acceptable to the community. the library work closely with our architects to develop and consider numerous options for renovation of the existing building. our project architect is an aia fellow with a great amount of experience, and she is here to answer specific questions you may have. we looked at a number of options. the two-story option. the impact to library functions and a reduction in program rooms, the adults and teen areas, also a low a level that is underground with little natural light, and in terms of functionality, the increases library staffing costs in order to provide services on two levels.

a. no. expansion was examined. -- a northern expansion was examined. this necessitates that the addition would continue downward. creating an even more levels to the building accessible through lifts or elevators. eastern expansion wraps around the tennis courts and displaces the existing children's playground. it creates an l-shaped library, and it is still on four levels. our project architect is here if you have any questions. from the perspective of the library, each of these options has the effect exacerbating problems of the existing building, resulting from the extreme constriction of the site and the extreme great change. for a busy library moving thousands of items and people

everyday, these functional layout issues are very and have full -- very impactful. the cost of operating services on multiple levels would create a direct impact on the services we can provide the community. the finding that the building has historic integrity in the report means it has not been changed or renovated. it is important to note that the reason it has not been renovated is because renovation would yield a subset of library and negatively impact the surrounding parks, which leads to our fourth reason for opposing a landmark status. every expansion option also impacts the job the maggio playground on which the library is located. -- the joe dimaggio played ground on which the library is located. that was important that we create a plan that benefits the community by improving both the library and the park.

these were the project goals. to this end, the library and recreation and parks department entered into a six-month master planning process that examine a number of locations and configurations with the library and playground. public meetings were held in may, july, and august 9, 2008 and resulted in a recommendation to place a new library on the triangular parcel to accommodate a new 800 -- 8500-square-foot library and to redesign the playground to not only retain all the amenities of the playground but to enhance the layout, improve the top lot and children's playground, and at 12,000 square feet of open space and greenery. to achieve this plan, the existing library would be demolished and removed. master plan recommendations were discussed again in public hearings, and both commissions

voted unanimously to support the recommended plan in september 2008. our partner from the recreation and parks department is here as well. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i just have a couple of things i want to talk about in regards to the need for the part in this particular community. our resources in the north beach and joe dimaggio neighborhoods are very limited. the community engaged in a several-year public planning process and put forth a master plan which, by relocating the library, provides for a bigger, better, organized fraud with thousands of feet of additional open space, a larger playground, and safer, more visible layout of facilities. the communities -- community's need for open space is very significant.

just want to highlight some of the aspects of the neighborhood. north beach/chinatown residents have only 5% of the open space of other neighborhoods in san francisco. they have 1 5 acres for 1000 residents compared to a citywide average of 9 acres for 1000 residents. it is one of the densest neighborhoods in the country. there are over 3500 people below the poverty line within a half mile radius of the park and library, and we know from studying the way for users use their parts the people of lower income are more likely to use their local parts then travel to another area. the majority of the interest and an annual household income of $6,530.48490 $4. it is for these reasons that this neighborhood and this project qualifies to potentially receive $5 million in state funding to renovate the park. there are little or no back yards for housing in north

beach/chinatown neighborhood. this is one of the projects where we can start to make north beach and chinatown better for open space, so there are many advantages of this plan, which the general manager will list in a couple of minutes. thank you. >> upon completing the master planning process, the department's initiated with the department a major environmental analysis division in full environmental impact review process late in 2008, and that is our fifth reason for opposing the landmark recommendation for north beach. this is the eir. the draft library and parks plan is being studied in an exhaustive process that looks at the existing impacts to traffic,

chatelin, architectural resources, and the historic resources of the existing building as well as other considerations. these are weighed against the benefits of the project, which are many in terms of a large, functional library, accessible 21st century, stated that our library, a beautifully restored park, a safe, accessible playground, and a tremendous increase in open space and greenery. the library and parks departments have consistently heard overwhelming community support for this plan that represents the diversity of age, use, and culture of san francisco and north beach. we feel that landmarking the current building should not be used as a means of elevating the historic impact so that it has more weight than what is best for the community. >> good afternoon. i cannot help it, but i'm going to start with -- though, the giants -- go, giants.

i'm here to basically reiterate and reinforce the comments that have already been made. it does bear repeating -- first of all, we are very proud of managing the branch library improvement program. we have been impressed with not only the hallmark of the library improvement program, which is that we engage the community in a full and fully bedded process for each of the projects, and the north beach project is no exception -- full and fully vetted process for each of the projects. the library participated in a very exhaustive master planning process with many community meetings to insure that the north beach neighborhood residents truly had a voice in what would happen to the future of its neighborhood library, and it is fantastic to see this amazing turnout in the middle of the day because it shows the

commitment from residents that truly want a state of the art library. this has been going on for 7.5- plus years, and it is long overdue. north beach is a very diverse community. it serves almost 30,000 residents. what we heard loud and clear was the need to provide the community with a first class library, with full accessibility for all our patrons in area that would be dedicated to children, teenagers, shelf space to provide a diverse and large multilingual collection, technology upgrades, and i know some of you have been beneficiaries of the wonderful renovations and new buildings in your neighborhoods. we want the same thing to happen in the north beach community. the community explored numerous options, including renovation, and other alternatives, but in the end, the only way to provide

this very dense urban neighborhood with the library services they deserve in an accessible and state building is by replacing the outdated and inefficient branch library with new buildings, and i have been in this business for 30-plus years, and from a professional standpoint, there is no basis for keeping that library, even if we were to do an expansion, because it does not meet the programmatic needs for the community. not only now, but i generations to come, which is what we need to keep looking at -- but in generations to come, which is what we need to keep looking at. i have been impressed with the collaboration of our sister department, recreation and park, and the library. rarely does the community have an opportunity to create a severe vision in a very dense environment, so we need to take advantage of that -- opportunity to create a civic mission. keeping the assisting library will not provide adequate

services for the community. it reduces space, and expanding the existing library impact key recreational one part functions -- impacts key recreational and heart functions. we're very proud of our track record with historical renovations. only in cases where the community saw the need for a new, larger library was a new building design. we have received numerous historic preservation awards. we are very proud of our carnegie library, our workers progress buildings. we have several of those. and our century-old library that just celebrated 100 years last year, and with the opening of the park side library i invite you to attend this saturday, we will have renovated six mid- century modern library buildings. the existing building is not seismically safe, and it is woefully inadequate to meet the needs of a contemporary library

and in keeping with the goals of the branch library improvement program, which is safe, accessible buildings. the library commission endorsed the new site. i urge you to reject landmarking the existing north beach library, as doing so will impede our progress towards realizing that vision toward a state of the art library for north beach. thank you very much. supervisor chiu: thank you, and i see the general manager of our rec and park department, so if i could ask him to step up. >> good afternoon. i wanted to echo just a feel of the comments that the city

librarian made an offer a couple of our own from a parts perspective. luis talked about partnerships. you often as fast as city agencies to work together and collaborate and identify efficiencies and to really engage the community as one city rather than a separate department, and this in particular is a project where that has been done, and in my view, effectively well. i want to celebrate and compliment the library and our project manager's staff on incredible collaboration. the third leg of that partnership, and i think the speakers before me have talked about an extensive public meeting process and great community collaboration. if you look behind me, you will see a lot of people committed to and engaged in the process.

karen talked about the neighborhood, and she talked about it being one of the densest neighborhoods in the country, and she talked about how woefully lacking the are in open space in that particular neighborhood, but we have an incredible opportunity to add 12,000 square feet of open space for this neighborhood. this will increase our part side by 20% -- our park side by 20%. it increases the size of the children's play area and adds new features for our kids. frankly, it replaces a deteriorated playground -- it replaces deteriorated playground equipment. it creates a half from one side to the other. it provides very significantly

visibility -- significantly improved visibility and safety. it connects all of the park features and enables parents and staff to have a much clearer line of sight into the top playground and the children's playground than currently exists out there. we are in the business of state parks, and we are often asked to do it, and our needs and plans outstrip capacity. we have the opportunity to leverage millions of dollars under proposition 84. this was a project not included in the 2008 parks fund, so we have an opportunity to leverage that money now to do something very spectacular. it really is a visionary project, and i would encourage you to do all you can to support it. supervisor maxwell: did you say it would increase the playground

by 20%? >> yes, it increases the overall park size by 20%, which is about 12,000 square feet. supervisor maxwell: you would have money to continue the plans you have for augmenting the playground? it would not just the library would sit there, and the rest of it would not be able to be done at all? >> we have an application in with the state parks department under proposition 84. there are in here who criteria for the grant application and for the grant itself, and we think that based on density, based on income levels, and based on some objective empirical criteria that this pakr scores very high -- this park scores very high. we are anxiously awaiting to hear from that, but there is an additional round of funding, even if for some reason we were

not selected in this first round. it is our intent, our dream to see this -- >> do you have a plan c? >> if you give me a few minutes, i can come up with one. [laughter] supervisor maxwell: if you were to remodel the old library and have the triangle as open space, would you have as much open space as you will when you reconfigure this? >> no, my understanding is that under the existing design, if we are able to expand -- one of the alternatives is to expand the existing library, which results in a reduction of the children's playground, so you have a net change here of 16,000 square feet. if the plan that the library commission and recreation and park commission have approved that has been developed in partnership with the community, my understanding is that we add 12,000 square feet of open space.

if we expand the existing library, we would end up reducing the size of the children's play area by over 4000 square feet. supervisor maxwell: so you have less open space even with the try and go? >> the triangle has open space. it is subject to the interpretation about what the utility of that open space is. >> i was just going to say that the triangle can provide certain kinds of things, but in terms of a playground, the community expressed a lot of concerns about putting a playground on the triangle, and the plan in an environmental review right now would expand into the children's playground, essentially reducing the space we have. supervisor maxwell: right, so the trade bill is close to the street, so the concern would be that the playground would be closer to the street -- the

triangle is close to the street, so the concern would be that the playground would be even closer to the street. >> the last point i would echo from our city librarian is -- go ahead. supervisor chiu: any other final comments from city staff before we proceed to public comment? >> i wondered if i could identify myself. i'm the author of the landmark designation. i'm not part of the city, but i wrote the history of the building. supervisor maxwell: if you are not city staff, you are considered public, so when there is public comment, you'd be able to comment at that time. supervisor chiu: great. at this time, i'm holding probably a couple of hours' worth of public comment. i would like to ask members of the public that wish to speak on

behalf of either of the landmark designations to speak. let me just read the cards in the order in which i have them. just so everyone understands, we will give everyone an opportunity to speak, and obviously, there are strongly held feelings on both sides of this. i just ask for people's respect as we go through the public comment. [reading names] if you could line up on tehe left-hand side. i would also ask if there is anyone, as is our typical practice -- if you are disabled or a pair of has a young child, feel free to also join the line at this time. let me continue to read a couple more cards. [reading names]

why don't we start with that. every speaker shall have up to two minutes. thank you. >> i'm penelope clark, a resident of russian hill. the north beach library also serves the eastern and northern slopes of russian hill, so we are very much interested in this. i support the new library. i was rather disappointed when i went to the landmark commission to find that those in favor of landmarking the old library felt that they had no obligation to consider the practical aspects of the library, the they simply felt that it was someone else's problem. but the design for the new library does indeed bring it into the 21st century and serves

the neighborhood so much more. i hope that you will not plan mark the library. i feel it is unfortunate that there are people so attached to it, but i feel we cannot be so sentimental about that with other, better examples of that style of library in the community. i think one of the important parts is either the closing or narrowing of mason street, which would give the park and library both more space to work with. the new library design, i think, is extremely surprising. i thought a trying to library was rented the chillier -- a triangular library was rather peculiar, but after studying the plan, i thought the functionality was really

exceptional. supervisor chiu: thank you. as individual speakers finish, you can start walking up so we can move through the line. >> i'm a freelance writer and editor. i have lived within two blocks of this library for 14 years, and i have been looking forward to the time when it could be renovated and improve. it probably serve great as a library in the 1950's when we were just talking about books. it does not serve so well now. to make. the first is i have been involved in the process since the beginning. i have gone to all the meetings. i'm not affiliated with the organization, but i have been interested for professional and personal reasons with the outcome, and i have been impressed with the fact that the process has managed to lead us to the best solution to a

very complicated problem. you know what all the factors are. one that has not been mentioned is the chain link fence covered with morning glories that currently makes up one side of the children's playground is also where a lot of people urinate. there are all kinds of things that have to be calculated into the equation that i think have been handled well by the people involved. that brings me to my second point, which is that this rehab- able library represents the democratic process at its best. it has been open, transparent, fully participatory, and very impressive as far as our city government at work with all the various agencies collaborating. third and finally, from my point of view, the arguments in favor of landmarking are mostly political and theoretical. they focus on a desire not to offend certain people and constituencies and to honor

others. the argument against when marking the building are substantive. we need a library that works. that people can actually use. finally, the new library plan has the advantage of keeping the old library open, as heavily used as it is, while the new library would be built, which other plants have not enabled us to do. thank you. >> good afternoon. the san francisco parts trust is the fiscal sponsor for the friends of joe dimaggio playground, and we have been working for the past five years on various improvement projects -- the san francisco parks trust. we are opposing historic landmarking, and we feel confident all the various options have been well explored within the community, and the park and community would be best served by renovating and

creating a new library. thank you. >> good afternoon. i'm a proud supporter of our renovated library as well as a renovated library for the whole san francisco's system. i'm asking you please not to recommend landmark status for the north beach branch. new or renovated functional libraries have been popping up all over san francisco. north beach library is not functional. cannot be made ada-compliant. the existing building is on park property. any expansion would mean property currently used as a place base would be reduced. demolition of the old building and construction of a new one on the trying to would give north beach residents increase

contiguous park space and a larger, functional, 88--- ada- compliant library. residents of north beach deserve that just as residents all over this city deserve a renovated library. thank you. >> hi e-mailed -- i e-mailed you. it cannot be easy. you have mothers and children and components of ada, and despite that, i urge you to consider the alternative of preserving a historic building. i just do not think that we have to tear down a building. why do we have to tear down something just to make something new? we all want a new library. thank you, yes, i have a supporter. lots of jobs will be created either way. not only is the city's historic preservation commission

recommended the building be preserved, but i heard tina from the planning commission say that this was a historic landmark. not all historic landmarks obviously have support. ceqa has not even finished their review, and the library never even presented adequate alternatives to demolition in the first place. i saw them here for the first time. the north beach library is a perfect candidate for rehabilitation and remodeling. why not? there is enough room to create additional space. the bocce ball got renovated, but nobody used that. nobody uses it. every time i go by, it is practically empty except for a couple of children's parties, so i think that is something to explore. there is the egregious offense that has taken place regarding a citizen having been forced into eminent domain.

supervisor maxwell, you even supported the plan to become open space, and i think we need to abide by our laws. a citizen lost their property in order for us to have open space. there are other points of note. the triangular property is too small to accommodate the project. a three-story building on this amount of space would be required in order to fit into library. please support the landmarking of these two libraries. let's work together to keep community buildings out of landfills. there is more than one road to a new library. thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i live about a block and have from the library -- a block and a half from the library. the only thing i agree with that was said by a city employee