>> good afternoon. the meeting will come to order. this is the regular meeting of the land use and development committee. i am supervisor mar. are there any announcements? >> please turn off cell phone and pagers. any documents should be submitted to the clerk. items not appearing today will appear on the april 12 agenda unless otherwise stated. supervisor mar: thank you. i would like to thank the staff of sfgtv for broadcasting today. >> the plan to reflect the adoption of the mission district streetscape plan. supervisor mar: we have mr.

david ellenbaugh. >> we will give you an overview of the mission street escape plan. the manager of the plan wanted to be here today to present to you, but she is out with an injury and unable to do so. she sends her regrets. the planning department established the city design group about five years ago. the mission was to focus on the design and planning of complete streets that are safe and pleasant. we want to talk about good street design. the idea of good streets are more than places to travel. there also places to linder and live out our public lives. the discussion about making safe streets does not focus just on actions to stop injuries and fatalities. those are extremely important. it focuses on ways to get people

into the street and to use them as civic and public spaces. since its inception, the design group has been committed to getting good results. i think we have been remarkably successful. today's project is one of those. our first street design project is now billed. it is helping to transform the visitation valley neighborhood. the rincon plan included living streets as a way to get linear parks out. the better streets plan was recently adopted -- recently came to the board for adoption. it has become the law of the city. we're working to make sure the ideas do not just like in the document but are implemented. we're working to build a website to pull together all the information about how to build complete streets in one place. we're working with others on identifying key walking streets

throughout san francisco. it prioritizes pedestrian improvements for safety and walking and enhanced connections. we're about to undertake similar efforts. we are working to come up with a street capital group that will coordinate funding for designs with in the city. we're also establishing a team to look at major streets to make sure that they are complete streets. the city designed group has worked on a way to make people think differently about streets. four plazas have been built. parks are springing up across the city. there is fisherman's wharf and jefferson street. we're now looking ed designs for the eastern portions.

we have design ideas out for masonic avenue. we're talking about how to accommodate bicycles on the street. we now have the mission streets the plan that was funded by a grant from the state. we worked with the mission residents who articulated a number of first improvements and projects that are already under way and others that we are looking for funding to implement. with that as the back room, i would like to introduce adam will walking through the major ideas of the streetscape plan. >> good afternoon. i am from the planning department's staff. i have a power point.

the general plan amendments are before you today. this is a plan we have been working on for three years. we're glad to see it coming forward. i will give a brief background about the plan and talk about specific projects that are in various stages of implementation. i will then talk about the general plan amendment and the board action. i am going to stand over here. the plan creates a vision for the improvement of mission streets and sidewalks to make them more vibrant as public spaces, better for pedestrians, and greener. we received a grant from the california department of housing that went towards the creation of this plan and the environmental review legally required to clear the plan. the plan builds off ideas and

other plans. includes transportation chemistry design, open space strategies to mitigate the effects of the new growth in the neighborhood and improve spaces. it creates a list of specific projects to help them make determinations about how to prioritize the development money that comes to them. it builds of a number of related planning efforts that give guidelines citywide. these were a starting point to see what the city was doing already in the neighborhood and how we could build on that and coordinate with those efforts so that we are not duplicating. the plan encompasses the mission district with a spur down to the

san jose area. it builds off of the mission plan from the eastern neighborhoods. there's a policy of creating green at the streets. policy 5.3.7 says to develop a comprehensive plan for the mission district. that is what we have done. we held a number of public workshops over two years. we have done extensive outreach to community and merchant organizations. we have worked closely with our partner agencies in formulating the plan. the plan includes a framework for how we might improve the mission district streets. this was the starting point. we will focus on streets that have a strong identity such as mission or folsom or major connections. we talked about how to create

screen connections -- green connections that connect to open spaces. we talked about how to create public life on the streets, of proceeding, pauses, as sector -- etc. for residential streets, we looked at calming traffic. we identified a number of streets for improvement out of the range of types of streets. we wanted to build on projects that already had some community- driven effort going as well as interagency plans. we wanted to the places we were likely to get funding to build these. -- wanted to look at places we were likely to get funding to build these. we know realistically they would

get built over time. there are limited resources for streetscape planning. we wanted to make sure we chose products that would be competitive. -- projects that would be competitive. we identified 30 specific projects. the plan contains designs for each of these. it contains project-level clearance for each of these. if there is an opportunity for funding, we can go after it and be ready to build. the plans include lane reduction on major thoroughfares and relocation -- reallocation of space. it also includes alleyway and plaza improvements with opportunities to reclaim space and make it vital public space. the plan contains an implementation plan. this is in the back of the plan. it is a timeline for different

projects moving forward over time. it is favored by virtue of not having the funding. -- it is vague by virtue of not having the funding at this time. a number of projects have received funding or have been completed. i will present a few of these now. we have identified specific projects. we have defined them to a conceptual level. we've gotten clearance for them. when we go after grants, the project's exist and are there. the other agencies and the community are on board. they are ready to go. they are able to receive the money. we've gotten over $4 million already to build the projects. >supervisor mar: this is like an idealist that allows you to go

after funding to implement parts of this. there are parts that are already approved. >> i will go through a few specific projects. the first is the 24th street mission park plaza -- bart plaza. bart had a plan in 2002 but was not able to get funding. we rejuvenated that and put it into the plan. it would improve pedestrian access and circulation to the southwest plaza. it would improve the circulation between the plaza and alleyway. it will open up the space towards the plaza and provide some renovations. reply for a grant from the tlc program and received about $2 million. here is an artist's rendering of

what it might look like. supervisor mar: supervisor cohen has a question. supervisor cohen: 1 concern of people in the mission district is the lawyer train that goes on in the plaza. are you taking that into consideration? >> the overall goal is to increase activity and the eyes on the streets of there is a reason for people to go to enjoy the auspices -- to enjoy the spaces. there is not a lot of sitting there now. it is not a pleasant place to go spend time. people are using it by necessity. you do not have people choosing to use it. when people choose to use it, it becomes an active, vibrant space. supervisor cohen: you are basing the assumption on what? >> you can see that in spaces

around the world. when you improve public spaces in create reasons for people to go there, they will go there. if they have to go there, they will go there. the measure of the quality of a public space is whether people will choose to stay and enjoyed the space. the plan does not address social issues or anything like that. it is physical improvements. the idea would be to make the attempt to activate the public space to be used in a healthy, positive way. supervisor cohen: i think you kind of picked up on my concern. we have homeless people laying around. you have got some seniors -- there are a few seating areas in the area. people are just hanging around. we do have to give the area a

facelift so that it looks nice and new for a few years. then what? i am wondering if there is more of a comprehensive plan or if some of the neighborhood partners have come up with something that would quell the loitering and violence that happens on this corner. anderson and is an important transportation hub. i understand it is an important transportation hub. >> that is a key component of that. we have worked with some of the merchants associations. meta runs a market on a weekly basis that creates a reason for people to go there to shop. looking at more things like that is a good idea. that would be the role of the

merchant community in the area or some of the other community groups to do so. supervisor cohen: there's going to be an amphitheater or stage area? >> it was sort of a conceptual design. that was the idea at the time terry of -- that was the idea at the time. many of the issues are related to the alleyway in the picture. you can see there is a big fence right there. it is not an open, visible space. it attracts the wrong element. to open that up and make it more accessible will make it safer and more comfortable. two more specific projects. one is on folsom st.. it is lane conversion from four

lanes to treat with a center turn lane. something similar was done a number of years ago. with the extra space, we would reallocate that to greening and pedestrian enhancements. there would be improvements for the buses. dpw is designing this and going through approval. supervisor mar: i am happy for the mission district. i am very jealous of the money that flows for areas that really need in the city. i hope that we can also seek funds for a supervisor c ohen's district and others.

>> this is through the program that the mtc has. the city generally gets four or five projects. there are other projects around the city that have gotten this money. second street in selma, broadway, and others. i am presenting the mission district today. this would take the existing cross section that is very wide and difficult to cross with a lot of fast-moving traffic and humanize that. we showed several options. the money that we have currently will not build the features. it is just for the sidewalk

greening, the corners, and restriping of the lanes. the other thing i wanted to highlight was the mission community market. it happens weekly on barlet street. it opened last july. we worked with a number of merchant and community groups to move it forward. then it opened. that is also happening. there are a couple of other projects that have been built as parks projects. the plan has ideas to make those permanent. those exist through the park's program now. it is pretty straightforward.

what we're asking you to approve this to change the general plan policy in the mission area plan that would adopt the streetscape plan into the general plan. the policy crowley says to develop a comprehensive plan for the mission. we did that. we want to change it to say improve the mission district streets and sidewalks in accordance with the mission district streetscape plan. that is the action before you today. supervisor mar: supervisor wiener? supervisor wiener: thank you for your work on this important project. i have a question about dolores street. are the only ones impacted 18th, 19th, and san jose? >> let me find it. supervisor wiener: i do not see anything except the stretch along the park and where

dolores ends. >> it calls for improvement and crosswalk treatments. that does not change the name configuration. the only place we proposed to change that is that san jose avenue. the seqa document include all the way up to market street. supervisor wiener: initially, there was a narrowing at market street. >> it is not in the mission street plan. is being discussed separately. we did not clear it with the environmental review. there is an issue about the historic nature of the dolores street median from the environmental review standpoint. we wanted to have that in the same document. supervisor wiener: there was some concern about traffic flow

at market and dolores. speaking of the historic issues, what is the status of the 18th and 19th? i know there was some concern expressed. i was skeptical of the concern. there was concern that it would impair the historic nature of the medians if the pedestrian safety work were to occur. i am very much in favor of doing the pedestrian safety work. it is important. i wanted to know if there was an update. >> through the review process, it was identified that the dolores median was a potential historic resource and did need more review if you were to make specific changes to the median. if we work to do work that touched the median, it would require additional historical view. that is my understanding.

that would be about $8,000 to $10,000. if you did decide what changes, it would not affect up. it would be $10,000 to do the historical view for the quarter. -- for the corridor. supervisor wiener: i think it is written. in terms of dolores and san jose, i have heard some concern about the impact on traffic flow especially on one area where people access to hundred 80 -- 280. can you comment on the impact it will have on traffic flow? >> let me put at the diagram -- the input of the diagram -- let

me put up the diagram. >> we do have an overhead. >> on page 40, there is an photo looking towards san jose. you can see in the southbound direction, there is currently one lane of traffic. the plan has two options with what to do. this would create a sort of a large plaza area that connects to the sidewalk and creates a public space. in the southbound direction, it is the same.

in the northbound direction, it removes a travel lane. there is one that keeps that from going north or east, i guess. and this one those southwest. this was analyzed in the environmental review and found not to have significant impact. the other plan is a little less radical. it is more or less the same, but it takes the lanes in the northbound direction to one lane. supervisor wiener: it will require a sharper right turn. right now, it is a soft right turn? >> that is correct. it is a very wide pedestrian crossings if you can see right here. you are crossing the only one lane of traffic.

maybe 30 feet of runway. this would make that down to one lane. he would be crossing 10 feet or 15 feet. >> have there been pedestrian safety issues? >> i am not sure. supervisor mar: i wanted to complement you and others for the great work. even though work on the alleys and small streets are really exciting. some of the existing projects i hope can really be a fly hidden pockets of the neighborhood, too. it sounds like the effort to create a strong identity in the district, it is different and more industrial than some of the areas. some of the goals might be different.

is that correct? >> another in here is what you would do with the industrial permits use streets. and because you have trucks coming in and out of there, the goals are a bit different. you want to retrain -- retain access, the workers to eat lunch. supervisor mar: i like the opportunities for public life, expanding the pavement to parks and use of existing roadways for more public gatherings bases. any other comments? let's open this up for public comment. is there anyone from the public that would like to speak? we have mr. francisco decosta.

>> from time to time i come to the land use subcommittee meetings. so that i can give some input. my experience comes from working on the procedure of san francisco where there were a number of landscape architects working with me on project. what you see here is the management plan. these are conceptual plans. conceptual plans are just that. conceptual. one of the ways to address conceptual plans is to have the people from the communities these stakeholders. when the gentleman was explaining to you where there was going to be this road that

has very heavy traffic, it is for the public. one of the things you have to think very deeply is about the particulars. if millions of cars are passing on the road, even though it is green over there, whether they will be breathing. you mentioned a few things like hot we need a green spaces. we need our young planners to be innovative. we need to create hope and green spaces. but the most important foehn is maintaining in. not just palm trees and a few flowers. nobody is maintaining that. if you go to bay shore, you have

these benches and the garbage is all over the place. they park in garbage all over the place. and some unruly elements always occupied the venture is so that nobody can come there. you can do your exercise, you can relax. but because of the unruly elements, you cannot use it. it is very simple. the conceptual plans are good. but most important is to have the stakeholders. what is really important is for the stake holders to come here and say, supervisors, you represent us, but we are represent us, but we are participating in quality of life