are correct -- architectural and visual interest on the site. i'll move into the open space portion. the purpose of this is to orient you in a little more detail about the spaces -- the open spaces provided at the site. we glossed over the last time. i will go counterclockwise around the site. one of the most important open space proposals in the project is the neighborhood commons. one thing that is lacking in the current neighborhood is a neighborhood gathering spaces that are centers of activity where people can congregate and hangout near their units. that is something that is generally lacked throughout the neighborhood, particularly acute. these neighborhood commons would the focuses of activity, small neighborhood pocket parks. they would be anchored by small

cafes and other small neighborhood retail uses, like you would think of in a corner store. they are about a third of an acre in size and they are distributed around the site so that every unit is within a couple minutes walk of one of these small neighborhood commons, where they could meet their friends or just get a cup of coffee and a paper on a sunday morning if newspapers continue to exist. that is one of the major neighborhood gathering spaces. the other major open space intervention and amenity that is being provided on the site is a whole open space corridor that essentially would permit the site everywhere from the southwest corner to the center of the project, anchored at a redesigned juan batista circle, which would continue to mainly

-- continue to remain at the core of the project. there would be open space amenities, the spine of the new open space system. it is important to note that this major open space system is only possible by the rearrangement of the blocks. there is no way you can fit open space of this size and character in the existing glut pattern. there simply is not any room for it. chairperson mar: the blocks were developed in a car-dominant era of the 40's and '50's. we are designing for more of an urban setting. >> yes. we will talk a little bit more about this designed specifically. this street system is certainly more oriented toward pedestrian and bicycle use, as well as incorporating open space more realistically in the project. the center of the neighborhood is juan batista circle.

rather than the lawn that is there now, the project proposes to renovate the circle and incorporate it as the center of a new storm water management system that would provide a seasonal wetlands pond in part of the circle, with improved public amenities and seating and so forth on the remainder of the circle. this pond would gather all of the water during storms and gradually distribute it out into a new creek system, which is essentially a restoration of a historic watershed that fed into lake merced. the stream would run southwest. along the street corridor, there would be an extensive system of passive open space, and programmed, whether it belongs, wooded programs, or pathways to enjoy, as well as an expansive

organic farm. the project proposes to engage a professional former -- farmer to take on this project. the value is not to provide food for all the residents, but to allow for educational opportunities and for residents to get their hands dirty and learn about agriculture and food production, as well as provide some opportunity for selling locally-grown produce to residents and others in the neighborhood. this stream corridor would terminate in what is called the belvedere gardens. right now, the southwest corner of the site provides no access between parkmerced and the major open spaces that surround it. this project would create new access through a stairway system that connects down to the public street system, which would be a major new access

point to connect residents to all the wonderful and expansive regional and city wide open spaces that are currently difficult for people to access from the site. adjacent to this corridor would be a new set of athletic fields , providing soccer fields or baseball to be programmed in the future. important to note that this athletic field also would be accessible to some of the institutional uses that are across brotherhood way, which currently do not have the athletic fields for their own use. the could use new crosswalks to access these fields. diaz plaza would be a new public plaza adjacent to neighborhood commercial uses. you might think of this in terms of some of our downtown alleys, more on the scale of the west

porto, if you think of that as a public plaza. the transit is an important component of the open space and the transportation system. we will talk more about the realignment of the light rail. this open space will take that exceptionally busy stop out of the middle of 19th avenue, where everyone has to cross a busy state highway and it is exceptionally dangerous, and put it in a generous new open plaza to serve both the s.f. state crowd as well as parkmerced. there would be plenty of room for people to wait for trains and pick up a cup of coffee. it would become a new central gathering space. lastly are the community gardens. there is a small community garden on site, located between the existing powers on the west half of the site, but it is

pretty small. the proposal is to substantially increase the size of the community garden so that residents have an opportunity to garden and grow vegetables and flowers and so forth. there are components to improve some of the existing open spaces around the towers that will remain. today, they are primarily on program lawn area. the project will be improving those with new landscaping to make more ecologically sustainable as well as more useful areas. another important component, which is not part of the public open space, but which is more of a semi-private, semi-public system, is a system of courtyards. there has been a question about how much existing residence cherished their courtyards and how much they loved it about

living there. there will be courtyards of similar character in new developments as well. granted, there will be adjacent to maybe some slightly larger buildings. predominantly, there will be landscapes semi-private semi- public courtyards of a similar nature, particularly on the west half of the site, where the building scale is lower, and residents will slab -- will have the same opportunities outside their backyards if they choose to live on the ground floor. those on upper stories can come down to the courtyards to let their children play and do all the things people normally do. chairperson mar: so for the garden view unit folks that have the shared backyard areas -- you're saying there is going to be a number of courtyards connected to each of the different buildings, and also the six hubs of common areas

that are within minutes' walk of each site? >> that is correct. these courts are more private. the neighborhood comments are meant to be -- neighborhood commons are meant to be very public parks. these would be semi-private, more oriented toward the adjacent residents taking ownership of them and improving them if they desire, and manage on more of a block-by-block basis. michael yearney will talk about how these spaces will be maintained over time by the project. >> an important point is that when you do capital improvements there are always questions of who maintains them. the thing that is extraordinary about this agreement is because it is a single ownership of the city has been able to negotiate an extensive permanent magnets operations provision.

there are three types of public groups and public space on the project that will be covered by maintenance requirements. the public improvements that are required by the code today -- sidewalks, street enhancements -- all of the community improvements. that refers to all negotiated benefits, like the park system and the transit plaza and the real right of way, and all the transit-related pedestrian and bike-related improvements. finally, storm water management improvements. some of that infrastructure is visible. some is invisible. those are publicly-accessible items that will receive maintenance. this map is, i think, the best way to portray what the city is obligated to maintain and what the developer is obligated to maintain. in light blue, that is the area that would be permanently maintain by the developer, and

ultimately the master homeowners association, in perpetuity under the terms of the development agreement. this obligation would outlive the 30-year term of the lease. the ground areas represent streets dpw would be maintaining. the obligations are that the developer maintain all of these shaded blue areas in clean, workman-like condition. it must be approved and reviewed by the city before the agreement becomes effective. we get to look at the proposed budget and make sure we think it is sufficient to take on these obligations. we also have the right to enforce that agreement as a third-party beneficiary to it. this agreement is not just between the owners of condos or

apartments in the project site in the master developer. it is also between the city and those owners. we are able to monitor and get involved if there is a problem. a very important point. even though the vast majority of this site is privately owned and will remain privately owned, we have negotiated an attachment. i think it is exhibit g. public access requirements. we have very aggressive public access requirements which mean most of these spaces would look and feel just like a san francisco public park, except perhaps maintenance would be a little bit better. if any of you have been to yerba buena gardens, that is the model. fully publicly accessible, well maintained, non-discrimination provisions, full access during daylight hours, and the ability

for the public to get permitted for special events. even though this is a privately owned project, the spaces would function effectively like public spaces. this is just a list of some of those sites. all six of the neighborhood commons, the circle, the athletic field, and what we call the belvedere gardens. it is worth noting that although there is a significant amount of open space on the site today, most of it is in quasi--private use. what happens is a significant amount of that arguably suburban-style landscaping is converted to expressly public and more urban-style open space. so it is not just a start about quantity. it is really a story about quality.

finally, this is an overview of all the spaces. all these spaces are subject to that public access agreement. with that, i am going to pass over the presentation to josh. >> now we just want to take you through some of the corpse considerations regarding environmental sustainability as it pertains to the project, as it is a major driver of the design program and the impetus for the project. just to step back for a second, through planning, the way we view a lot of these issues of sustainability in terms of the macro picture -- what are the big land use and transportation choices that drive the biggest greenhouse gas and growth- related environmental issues? the context of all this today are a.b. 32 and s.b. 375.

that last one requires local jurisdictions to reduce vehicle miles traveled. in the bay area, fully 40% or more of our greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation, from cars and trucks we drive. that is largely driven by land- use patterns. this is something that holds true across the board, whether you are in los angeles, chicago, or new york. vehicle miles traveled is a direct reflection of density. the average bay area residential density around the region is less than 10 units an acre. that would be predicted, according to all the empirical data, the average miles traveled per household is 20,000 miles

per year. it would be expected, assuming that something, you know, totally unexpected happens, and it would somehow beverage from all the patterns in evidence around the country and around the bay area, it would be expected that these units, with people who live in the units, with dry barely more than 5,000 miles a year based on the patterns established. once you multiplied that out by the number of people that will be living here, the number of units occupied, that is a reduction of over 9 million miles. it is important to remember that whoever is in these units in the future, they will live somewhere. if they did not live in parkmerced, where are they going to live? their patterns will follow what this chart will for it, and they would have read a greater impact

on the city and the region and the planet as a whole. that is the context that is important to remember when a value in this from a sustainability standpoint. it is not just about an individual building or an individual person, but the overall patterns that are amenable, they are just sort of fact. the largest improvement through the greenhouse gas reductions would be coming from this basic land use transportation program in terms of the design of the development and the number of units and the location of transportation. project as proposed other improvements, and we will talk about those in the second. will talk more about the transportation measures, so i will skip over that, but it is not just the land use program, which improves the transportation habits of people who have been supporting

programs that make that possible. in terms of the buildings themselves, it is important to note that existing buildings have an energy future, and a lot of resources went into putting it together. when you build something new, it takes some time to recoup the earlier investment and the resources that went into the existing building you are replacing, but as michael pointed out at the beginning, these buildings were built in the shortages of the time. it will take somewhere on the order of 20 years to 30 years to recoup those costs, but this new development will be here for many decades past that. the substantial investment it would take to continue to upgrade the existing buildings would make it more efficient, and it will this essentially eclipse in a couple of decades by the substantially more efficient quality of the new building. supervisor mar: what do you

think would be the life expectancy of the structures built in this project? >> presumably 100 years or more. i cannot say specifically. we would hope that they would be at least the quality that was built they did before the era that this site was originally built in. we would assume many decades. definitely well past the life of what the trade of would be in terms of the body energy on the site now compared to new investments. there is a sustainability plan that is part of the document that is a component of development agreements, and the sustainability plan contains very detailed metrics and implementation action that the project sponsor has to undertake over the life of the project to address different issues, and there is a monetary program that the planning department is responsible for, issuing reports on how the project is complying with these measures over time. and the two main areas, other than the land use transportation

program, our water and energy- related. there is three main aspects that the project would be considering. first is the reduction of potable water use, the reduction of impacts on the hetch hetchy system, specifically. second, the reduction of the combined sewer flows through our treatment plants, which are, as we know, very stressed, particularly in what weather conditions. it would be to improve the local watershed and restore the conditions that created developments of the site. i talked a little bit about the storm water system and the creek system. the goal from redesigning all these streets is to make them key elements of the ecological storm water system, essentially carrying storm water to a centralized creek system, which sort of filter it through natural buyer remediation and carries it eventually to lake

merced, and they are restoring the original flow of the watershed. this would also substantially reduce the stresses on the southwest treatment plants and would reduce the amount of -- overflows into the ocean and improve water quality. it is also important to note that you can see on the map on this slide, the city has a recycled water ordinance. certain geographic areas of the city are part of the ordinance area such that any new development has to be eventually serve buy recycled water, once the puc make that available. you can see most of the area is not in the recycled water area, but parkmerced is. so this project would not be just dual plumbing the buildings, which is a legal requirement, but would be installing distribution systems

in the streets with piping so that once the puc makes that recycle water available, it would be a simple connection problem, rather than the puc having to go back 20 years from now and say, "we need to rid of all the streets again at the cost of many millions of dollars and put in the distribution system." that is one thing this project would be doing in preparation for that. so all this simply means that even though there is a substantial increase of people living on the site, the amount of potable water from our hetch hetchy system that would be used would be almost negligible in terms of the increase. the estimates are that differ unit water usage would drop substantially so that all the landscaping changes as well as the efficiency and recycled water system.

actually, with that, i will turn it over to peter to talk about transportation. >> thank you, josh. good morning. what i would like to do is walk you through transportation as proposed by the project but also lay a little background about the transportation plan that went into shaping and designing the project and figure that the next steps. to take that off, i would like to talk -- you might have seen the principles of the parkmerced planning project. i would like to tether each of these principals took a major transportation aspect. for instance, one of the goals is to build an environmentally sustainable environment here and i would say the transportation and transit-oriented development are key to sustainability. increased housing rentals and for sale, and when you look at the cost of living in sanford cisco, you have to figure the cost of transportation as well,

transit-oriented development programs support more affordable living, not just how you manage the cost of the housing unit itself. it is the whole lifestyle. creating transit-oriented development neighborhoods really means creating safe, comfortable, pedestrian access from residents to transit centers but also residents to services and job sites in the neighborhood. create a social heart for the community. i would recommend that the transit hub becomes a major social heart. we will talk about that later. and finally, providing a diverse community is one of the goals of the project. multi modal access, making sure the u.s. bicycle, pedestrian, transit, shells, driving, parking here of all of these pieces to help a diverse community feel at home in the new development. i do want to emphasize how much review went into this project for transportation providers and

experts in the city. even as early as 2008, was up and looking at the 19th avenue corridor study. it was requested by supervisor elsbernd. very helpful for us, to look and say if there were a project in this corridor, what would that project impact be? what would it look like even if there were no project? how might that affect quality of life? the 19th avenue study was first initiated in 2008. at the same time, we have the transportation impact study for parkmerced, so we had this parallel analysis that could help us look at 19th avenue in the big picture and specifically parkmerced, so we made sure they had a chance to look at the impact. we had special meetings with transit operations with safety and construction to look at all the alternatives and to give mta's preferred recommendations to go forward. we had passed review of proposed

projects. an interdepartmental agency of the fullest apartment, fire departmentapartmentdpw, -- fire department, police department, dpw. we published the 19th avenue corridor study, which gave us that 30-year snapshot long view of what is happening, and at the same tiny eir was -- the same time the eir was published. it is more than light rail. all these muni lines come together. we have the benefit of the first time muni in 25 years re- examining the transit network, and we got the latest data coming together in 2009 to help us finalize our transit plan in 2010. we also sat down with rail operations and said it we are going to live the streetcar about a 19th avenue and bring it in to parkmerced, can you verify

the costs we are assuming a feasible? we sat down with them and make sure that was recorded in our fiscal analysis, so we brought the fiscal experts, the rail operations experts as well as the planning experts fear finally, we brought an overview of the project this year, and back in september of last year, we did a snapshot overview for the entire mta board as well. i want people to understand how coordinated the work was in developing this transportation plan. i will talk a bit more about the 19th avenue corridor study, but i would like to show the rub boundaries of this site. it gave us a chance to look at 30 years of growth on 19th avenue. the project we look at specifically included san francisco state. we looked at it as a potential housing growth area. these are smaller developments

in the corridor. we look at those numbers and thought if they were to reintroduce the proposal, how might impact the corridor, so we were being conservative looking at the most potential growth that could happen. we looked at the school of the arts and at the balboa park area study, and of course we looked at parkmerced. we put those numbers together to get a series of developments, which i will get later, but the point is to say to give broad look at 19th avenue before we got on the details of the project. i will hit on some of the mode accommodations. starting, for instance, with -- it is hard to see on slide, but the very idea of smaller blocks. is what makes the best neighborhoods in san francisco walkable. we are simply emulating those characters. really designed more for the automobile -- supervisor mar: we do not have

the slides for this in our packets. if this could be provided later, that would be helpful. >> i think we are getting someone on that right now. i apologize. it you like, i could speak slowly. looking at the breakdown of blocks and superblocks and pedestrian scale blocks, this is pedestrian improvement because it gives people that many more short cuts and options for walking around, but again, we took advantage of the better streets plan -- supervisor mar: one thing i noticed is you cannot figure out where you are going. it is very confusing, but it sounds like with more streets or different alleys and streets, it might make it more understandable place to walk, i think. >> i would agree with that, and i would say that the definition of major streets, for instance -- there are some streets that