for the city and county of san francisco. congratulations. [applause]

captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> is that your ring town? [laughter]

supervisor mar: good morning, everyone. welcome to the regular meeting of the transportation authority finance committee. welcome. erika cheng is our clerk. from sfgtv i would like to th ank bill and charles. i have done the roll call. would you please read the next

item? >> item #two. approval previous minutes. supervisor mar: please read item #3. >> item #3. recommend authorizing the executive director to execute an amendment to increase the memorandum of agreement with the recreation and park department by $1,229,380, to a total amount not to exceed $1,300,000, for palace of fine arts parking strategies implementation for the presidio parkway project and authorizing the>> item #3.

recommend authorizing the executive director to execute an amendment to increase the memorandum of agreement with the recreation and park department by $1,229,380, to a total amount not to exceed $1,300,000, for palace of fine arts parking strategies implementation for the presidio parkway project and authorizing the executive director to modify certain agreement terms. this is an action item. >> happy new year. to the new board members, i wanted to say welcome to all of you. it is also striking that in this committee they are the majority already and i wanted to say that we have already met with all four of them and we are looking forward to working with all of you. >> good morning, chairman. by m that is -- deputy director for the capital projects. it begins on page 9 of your packet. but would also like to introduce tori, with us from the department of recreation and parks. here to answer any questions you might have directly from that agency. i have a short power point presentation i will use to present this item. particularly because there are new members on the committee, i will take a couple of minutes to go through this project.

it will be very brief. i will describe in a general sense the plan for providing temporary parking at the palace of fine arts for the benefit of exploratory fine arts theatre. both are tenants of the parks department. identifying specific tasks and budgets for memorandum agreements with recommendations for approval. the presidio parkway project is the connector between the golden gate bridge and the city of san francisco. basically it transmits through the northern segment of the presidio national park. part of the golden gate recreational area. a vital transportation link in

the area. it is certainly the connector to the northern counties to the san francisco peninsula. the project has been planned in two phases. phase one in yellow, face to in blue. phase one will complete the southbound portion as well as new bridges and what is called a [unintelligible] structure, the segment of the roadway on highway 1 between macarthur tunnel on the left bound of the slide -- on the left-hand side of the slide. to be completed towards the end of 2011. that phase will open a detour that will allow us to remove traffic from the existing old

roadway, seismically vulnerable. we will then tear down the entire drive and build the remainder of the new facility. construction is scheduled to be completed on that second day in 2014. i would make note that phase two is being done as a public- private partnership. legislation for which was only approved in 2009. this will be the first public- private partnership under this new legislation in california, for which we are very excited. a quick graphic that gives you a sense of what the park where it will look like when completed, this is sort of a pigeon's i view, looking east from the palace of fine arts towards the west, the golden gate bridge. you can see that doyle drive as prominent as it goes through to the san francisco bay.

from the same perspective you can see that the road will be placed in a tunnel that allows free connection to the main portion of the presidio, opening up the area for recreational uses, providing a more private and scenic experience for drivers and cyclists. as part of the construction for the replacement, i mentioned a detour as part of that phase. it includes a bypass that is adjacent to the palace of fine arts and the eastern section of doyle drive, leaving richardson boulevard between the palace of fine arts and the presidio. that project will close a parking lot that is currently used by patrons visiting tenants at the palace of fine arts.

formerly part of the letterman army of research institute back in the days when the army occupied the presidio. based on the acronym, you can see that it is often called the lair lot. that property is federal property. it belongs to the federal trust. the parking that is there has been considered public parking and has been used as public parking for a number of years. supervisor mar: let me hold you up for a second. to the newest commissioners, jump in if you have any questions at all. hit the speaker button if you have any questions. at any time. thank you. >> there we go. once this parking lot is closed,

the area that exists now that has parking will mostly not be available for the three years of construction of the project. what is shown in red is the portion that will not be available. as part of the plan available today, parts of it will be constructed as part of the project with portions immediately to the left of the palace of fine arts itself, sort of in the middle in green. off to the upper left you can see another horizontal rectangles with green. those areas are designated as lots c and d. temporary parking seems to be constructed by the doyle temporary public parking project, for presidio,

contractors, and patrons visiting the palace. supervisor cohen: is that going to be demolition of existing buildings? >> no, but doyle drive itself has to be demolished before it can be built. until the parking lot can be made available. supervisor mar: this is the lair lot? >> that big triangle. yes, sir. supervisor mar: temporarily removing 258 public parking spaces, they will be relocated? >> we cannot replace all of them. there is simply not as much space to do that. we are replacing as many as we can. as characterized, this is the project that is characterized as the least bad of a number of not good options. we are looking at structuring it

at the yacht club, using facilities at the presidio, basically trying to make do with the space there and minimizing adverse impacts to the recreational uses of neighbors. basically, this slide demonstrates what i have just described in terms of temporary parking areas. i will mention that there is what we refer to as a small triangle parking lot down to the very southern end of the bottom of this graphic. a temporary parking lot that provides 23 spaces that are close to the palace of fine arts. this is to be a temporary parking lot that is basically a temporary parking area right now that is simply landscaped. i mention this for a few reasons. even though this only provides

23 spaces, this area is considered to be very important because of the proximity to the palace of fine arts. they consider these bases much more important than those that are further away. i have to tell you, of all of the elements of this plan commented on by the neighbors in the area, this one has generated the most hostility. this area to be paved is landscaped. the landscaping was mostly done by the loving hands of the neighbors, a contributing plants in their own time. they are distressed but we are talking about taking it. we promised that if we did we would go back and put in new landscaping once it is done, but there is a certain distrust in the minds of the neighbors that once the parking lot is built it will never be removed. i feel compelled to in the interest of full disclosure to let you know that there is some

opposition to this element of the project, although again it is a small facility that is considered very important to be exploreatorium and the presidio. a quick summary of the task budget developed by [unintelligible] park. what you are being asked to do is amend an existing mla. we issued a memorandum of agreement to allow work to start quickly. the early task was to balance at the yacht club. what we're doing now is amending mla to balance the tasks needed. the total budget amount, including an adequate contingency, is $1.3 million.

the correction of the memorandum of agreement, and i would be happy to answer any additional questions. supervisor farrell: how many parking spots are being lost? >> 258. supervisor farrell: what is the total hoping to be replaced? >> rather than stammering and giving you a guess, as i frankly do not a member, i have a member of the consulting team with me. well, could you please come up?

will is a project manager for the joint replacement project. >> referring back to the mat on one of the slides, lot c m blog d provides about 210 parking spaces. again, those do not come online until after we get on to the d to work. there is a period of several months before they come online. the biggest challenge is the deficiency in time before those come on line. we will eventually get 50 spaces back in the layer a lot. the green area on this map. that is a few months from now in between. the nearer term measure is to be the yacht club, about 30 or 40

additional spaces from what is there today. signed for an indicated priority, still technically public parking and new parking. the 30 that i mentioned this new parking achieved by restriking the lot. >> commissioner tim? >> what is the general attendance there today? >> the general tendency? i have no idea. i will once again turn to someone else. do you have information on the attendance of the -- supervisor kim: i am trying to

get a sense of the graft. >> i do not know the numbers, but i have an idea of the pattern. pretty busy with children on a weekday. lots of activity. they tend to be school kids. >> please come forward. >> it is 20% of the business. supervisor kim: is there something that we will be doing in particular for school trips and buses to make sure that there are special accommodations for them? >> one of the more difficult parts of the plan was figuring out where school buses and other buses transporting children can park while the children are inside. normally they would park immediately next door, now they must find their way out in the

middle of a construction project, go someplace and then come back. we do have designated areas to be the loitering lot for these buses. we have identified bus routes that are intended to minimize any buses traveling through the neighborhood. >> we have -- supervisor kim: we have designated areas so that these trips will not be duly impacted? >> that is right. supervisor kim: are we planning on putting up maps for folks? this is great for me, now i know where to park, but i know i have a difficult time parking there. is there some way that we will educate drivers? >> yes is the short answer. a component of the plan is what is referred to as way finding, a collection of things that we do

so that people can find their way. including sign imagage and other sorts about reached. the exploratory and maintains contact with schools -- explor itorium maintains contact with schools and are able to communicate this kind of information. supervisor kim: what are the main bus lines the code to this area? >> i do not recall the numbers. i know that there are three that provide access within the area. most of them are not considered particularly user-friendly for access to the exploratorium. the stops are some distance away and they are generally

coming from areas not easily accessible by school children or tourists. that is considered one of the challenges. the exploratorium claims that is one of their main reasons for wanting to relocate to the pier. supervisor kim: is there any discussion of increasing by cracks? >> cycle tracks? oh, by cracks. wonderful idea. -- bike racks. wonderful idea. we should encourage them to do it. >> i looked it up on the west side, they say they have about 500,000 visitors per year. about 1300 per day. as far as bicycles, but i cannot answer for the current or

interim plan, but one of the main issues with redesigning the parkway is to provide bicycle access, one of the things we have achieved. supervisor kim: that entire area is a beautiful area for using a bicycle. >> redesigning the drive will be a completely different experience for bikers. a highly enhanced experience. recreation and otherwise. supervisor farrell: the bus lines that i can think of off the top of my head, the 30 a.m. the 29. -- the 30 and the 29. i was intimately familiar with

this project and its impact on district to in the course of my campaign. given that the palace of fine arts is one block away from my childhood of, i do spend a lot of time there with my children. all of this ground is very familiar. i have generic reservations being discussed, especially given the time constraints. there you go. thank you. especially given the time constraints. what i would like to do, i have strong concerns on the 23 spot parking lot discussed earlier. it is only 23 parking spots out

of hundreds being replaced. it has been in front of the parks and recreation commission without being approved. there was a continuation of the december meeting and is right now public open space. as was mentioned, 10-2 by the neighbors. to be clear, this is not part of a neighborhood that has been impacted. i think it would be an injustice to the neighborhood there. excluding the lions street parking lot from this authorization. this is item no. 3 we are talking about today? supervisor mar: we are on item number three. supervisor farrell: no problem.

supervisor mar: task number three? supervisor farrell: i believe that it is no. 3 right there. it is no. 3. supervisor mar: do you have any response to the recommendation? >> i expressed our view earlier. this is a series of balanced bad situations. there are only 23 spaces, high valued. to the extent that this is an issue that is very important to the neighbors and residents, many of whom have been strong supporters of the project.