that meets the needs of the north beach neighborhood. this is a diagram which shows the existing site conditions with the existing library and location of the children's playground at the busy intersection of greenwich and columbus, and the tennis courts located at the center of the site at a distance of about eight feet below the children's playground. this shows the proposed phase one, which would include the construction of the new library, the closing of one block of mason street and the completion of the new park block. phase two would include future park improvements, including the new children's playgrounds, to be relocated at the center and heart of the site and also, the relocation of the tennis courts, so that the whole park

block becomes connected and the library is now integrated into this new full park block. the 701 lombard site actually offers great opportunities. it's at the crossroads of north beach with incredible views to the coit tower, st. peter and st. paul's church, the crooked part of lombard street and transamerica peer mid. it offers great opportunity to take advantage of abundant natural light and ipping corporate these important landmarks into the library and also to provide great connection to the expanded park block. as this diagram shows, the triangle offers a clear diagram for how to incorporate the three important program areas of the children's area in one corner, the adults in a separated space in the main part of the triangle and a separate teen area, all with a centralized and efficient staff area at the center of the proposed building.

this is a more detailed plan showing phase one, with the one block of mason street closed. and, again, you can see in greater detail the centralized service area and the golden color in the middle, as well as the three separate program areas, all public spaces -- library spaces are on one floor, and it is connected to the park in a secure and safe manner. the closing of lombard -- excuse me. the closing of mason street was done on a temporary basis in the summer of 2009 very successfully. this was to study in real time the impact of closing this one block. subsequently last summer, this one block was also closed on sundays for farmers market. another interesting aspect of the 701 lombard site is the

topography. there is approximately a little over eight-foot change in topography from the top of the triangle to the lower end of the triangle on lombard street. and we took advantage of that topography to enter -- create the new central entry point at the mid block, and thereby creating an accessible entry on mason street and also an entry on columbus avenue. again, this is a more detailed plan of the configuration of the new library. on the first floor, as mentioned, all of the public library spaces are located on one level, with a central point of service. and upstairs there's a separate community room on the upper level, which can be accessed after hours and can be closed off from the main library. again, this diagram just shows that the new library is 59%

bigger than the existing library, which is shown dashed in in red. the footprint of the existing library. and accomplishes all the goals set out by the library in terms of the separation of the children, teengs and adult area, more seating, a separate community program room, an efficient workspace and an increased capacity in the collection. another important part of the branch library improvement program is to support the city's goals for sustainable design. this project is designed to achieve lead silver rating and, again, incorporating a whole host of sustainable design strategies and energy-efficient strategies. another important aspect of our design is to respond to the context of the neighborhood. we have studied the building and the contexts surrounding it in terms of the rhythm and proportion, incorporating the scale of the 12-foot-wide bay

into the design of the new building. we looked at the surrounding neighborhood buildings as indicated in this slide, as well as the existing architecture of the north beach pool and clubhouse. and our approach is to make a contemporary interpretation of this neighborhood context in a dynamic new library building. this is for the columbus after facade constituent tral point of access at the middle of the block. you can see the clear story windows which wraps the top of the library underneath the floating roof, as well as the corner windows, which will become lanterns to the community and provide views from the library. this is a rendering of the main entry point looking towards the adult reading room on the right-hand side of the screen. this is in the adult reading room looking back towards the

central entry, and you can see the upper level where the community room is beyond. and this is a picture of the separate children's area at the corner of columbus and lombard. and finally, this is a view of -- from mason street and columbus avenue, showing the new park pavilion and the expanded park block, which will create a new civic presence for the north beach community. with that, i'd like to turn it over to karen. >> hello. karen, planning unit of the recreation and parks department. thanks very much for allowing us a few minutes to speak a little built about the project. i just wanted to mention that we have here a model of the project we are continuing to

trying to develop for the park. we can eventually get funding to build the park portion of the project. again, one of the advantages of this preferred master plan and the ways that we propose managing the park and the library build-out is it allows the library portion of the project to proceed while the rec portion still seeks funding. i wanted to also mention that one of the things that i know you all know well, because you're very familiar with the city's general plan, but the recreation and open space element of the city's general plan has designated this area as an area of very high need for a long time, and i'm sure in the future i think that chinatown-north beach will fill the areas of high need and still continue to find opportunities to increase the open space. the area around the park is estimated to have approximately .4 acres, less than half an acre of open space per 1,000 resident, which is 95% below the city-wide average of nine

acres per 1,000 residents, as discussed in the master plan e.i.r. there are lots of other estimates about the number of acres per open space, but they're all well over half an acre. i also wanted to mention that in this project, we would be gaining approximately 12,000 square feet of new open space in one of the densest areas. and by doing this, we would be able to expands and improve and optimize the play areas and allow the new children's play area, which is over 3,000 square feet bigger than the existing children's play area to meet new safety, a.d.a. requirements, new features, such as game and picnic tables, provide additional landscaping and seating areas. those are seating areas, which is something that's definitely come up through the process and just plain old green space and i'd like to put another view of the model. i think this also kind of

illustrates how now you can actually pass through the park by closing mason street to vehicular traffic, by creating a plaza between the two spaces. that's a little dark. but basically you would now be able to move from the library through the park through the new playground and have views of both tennis courts and the multiuse area used by basketball players, roller skating, soccer players, by softball on occasion, but many, many, many different sports and people, kids learning to ride their bikes, that's one of the things people talk about in the planning process as important. so i just wanted to mention those things that are really, really important to increasing open space at this park. the current -- and the last thing i wanted to mention is

that the new two-story library design at 701 lombard street would accomplish collection and service functions in the community meeting room with after-hours access on the second floor. this is an important thing for all naineds across the city and this would allow for that in this design in a smart way. so we appreciate you taking the time to consider all the motions before you and we'll -- we're willing to answer any questions. >> thank you. i'd like to open it up for public comments. we have three speaker cords -- cards. joan woods, pat tura, allen edwards. >> yes, here i am again, joan wood, i live about a block away from the site we're talking about. it all looks very nice on the

overhead. >> i need you to speak in the mic. pull it to you. >> thank you. i need a will the of help, don't i? they don't tell you this building is bulky and will look something like that. they also don't tell you rec and park doesn't have any money to revive the playground that's phase two of this project. it started out as a library in 1988 and we were told 24

libraries were going to be renovated. it's transformed itself into something entirely different in march of 2008, when rec and park saw an opportunity to do renovations on the playground but they don't have the money to do it. they did donate this lot and this is where i come in, i was part of a very fierce struggle in 2003 to take this lot away from developers and the reason we took it away from developers is that we didn't want three-story condos, period. it's as simple as that. the library would be very ugly if it were allowed to go forward. mr. betner produced a letter in 2003 and he accompanied it with some material from the general plan and part of that said that

in the general plan, in the recreation and open space element, policy 4.4 was to acquire a development for open space and residentable neighborhoods, giving priorities to areas as an open space. i think everybody agrees that north beach is one such area. proside open space for neighborhood commercial districts. most times, when the city employees come up here, they start talking to you about a park. there isn't any park. there isn't any park in the plan, period. it's just a playground. it's not a park. this plan is not going to make it a park. >> good afternoon. my name is pat, i'm here to

speak on behalf of the playground. there were a number of comments made earlier regarding the shrinking of the playground and the loss of joe dimaggio baseball area. currently, that space that is the baseball section of the programming now is smaller than regulation and it is not used for baseball. people go and practice hitting balls and with the current design, as you can see, that space still exists. people will be able to play just as they always have. so it's not like there was a resource of joe dimaggio baseball that is being lost. the programming was well vetted in the public process early on to see what the public wanted in

that programming for that space and that has been maintained in addition to enhanced with the new children's playground. thank you. >> thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners. my name is evelyn, i'm a longtime san francisco resident, a park user, park supporter and library user and library supporter, although as you can tell from the book i'm reading, i refer reading e.i.r. i very much support this master plan and i urge you to certify, approve, whatever the wording is these three things inside a, b, and c so the master plan can be implemented. thank you.

>> howard long, friends of the library. i submitted a letter earlier, the last paragraph should be read into the record. the ordinance for changing the zoning should not specify use for the new north beach library that is not compatible with such zoning as inappropriate to specify in the zoning ordinance. also the construction on the city street we all recognize is contrary to the san francisco general plan and probably likely, if understood clearly by the average resident, wherever they are on any street, any district if they understood clearly that a neighbor adjacent to them would be constructing into the sidewalk or street, i

think one would recognize most people would oppose it for various reasons and that needs to be clearly thought out in how that is communicated rather than having many models and renderings which tend not to show property lines. the alternatives available to mitigate these issues need to be evaluated. the general master plan is a very beautifully presented drawing. as an architect, i appreciate the high quality of workmanship in the model rendering, the drawings, the computer generated drawings. but i recognize there's a certain salesmanship in any type of drawing you present in evaluating the square footages of the master plan versus other plans, it turns out that because of the introduction of much circulation, that the master plan has much less square

footage that's useful than other designs. in fact, the current, existing open design with a large joe dimaggio softball field, at which he did play, contrary to the e.i.r.'s attempt to separate joe dimaggio from actually having been at the playground as historically untrue he did play there almost every day. he learned to play softball there as many, many generations have. he play -- the playground can have much larger square footage of recreational space even without the mason street closure, which i am not advocating one way or the other, but if one were to look at the triangle and playground itself and how one could reorganize it, preserve the library, preserve open space at the strategic corner intersection of lombard

and columbus that one could gain much more open space, not have any impact as far as environmental impact and i think that's the best solution. >> any additional public comments? >> thank you. the previous speaker talked about views and another previous speaker, perhaps carried away by a certain passion, talked about them as well. i observe a simulation of a walkaround of that library that the architect presented at a separate meeting and it was interesting because if you drew in a pie chart the walkaround in my opinion, and i was watching

for this plarly because i had been alerted to the loss of views down mason street as pointed out by a previous speaker and by mr. bradley wide mimbings re, the circle was not complete but left out a slice of the pie. the slice of the pie of the full circle view was that view down mason street, which would be a view that would be obstructed as you've previously heard when the new library, looks like bigger than two stories, when that's installed. the drawing that had been provided to the public have not shown clearly how much that library impinges on what would otherwise be sidewalk space and street space. i think mr. widemire showed 19

1/2 feet out of 67 feet, so between a quarter and a third of the corridor is being obstructed by considerable mass that's pushing into that space. i think that that's just one example of the way in which the, you like, sales pitch has been going, so as to not make the public aware and anybody else who is trying to review this of the real impact of this proposed building. so i urge you to consider those matters particularly as i'm describing the view, the impingement on the view, and other material that has been presented to you by myself and others previously. thank you. >> is there any additional public comment? seeing none, public comment is

closed. commissioner moore? commissioner moore: i'd like to express my preeshyigs for the view the architect gave us. as i said in other projects it's important to take ever aspect of the project, walk around the block, see how it influences design is the way the commission can understand what's intended here. while there are some bold moves which some people are not happy with, and i emphasize with people feeling that way, i do believe that what we get balances with what we give. i think it is a strong and convincing move to let the library participate and i personally have not, despite looking at it, have seen benefits of the old library and while the architect who designed

this library is a good architect, we'll have a number of more outstanding examples of his work preserved in the city under the proper us a pises of historic preservation. this particular library doesn't -- perhaps i don't use it enough, it doesn't have the qualities of the other works being observed. i am in support. i would like to ask the architect a few questions, if i may. all land use for the latter spaces of the project, tennis court, softball, baseball, multipurpose, hard scape, are horsontal land uses but they are vertical sports. and in some of the park and recreation's vertical sports areas, inadvertently, there has to be an edge protection so that

baseballs, tennis balls, whatever they all are, don't fly into the public who walks on the sidewalk. i am trying to ask you, how are you going to ensure that the neighborhood has maximum visibility of the sports and not get an opaque border along greenwich and haul street? >> i have a representative of the park with me. this is one case where the park as a site is very beneficial because of the grade changes, which you can see well in the physical model here. we can tip it up if that would help. because of the topography

changes, the park is below the powell street sidewalk and along greenwich street, there's a buffer, and then there is maybe a fence, a transparent fence, around the property for security at the site, which would also help in keeping the balls out of the public way and in the final park plan that you see in this model, tennis courts are actually located, again, below the sidewalk level of greenwich. >> thank you for -- commissioner moore: thank you for explaining that. i thought rec and park used the open space on larkin and broadway and in that situation an open cliff which is fun to watch, because there's a lot of activity and it's a very colorful, animated corner. i appreciate your explaining that and i think that's what i was concerned about. >> commissioner antonini.

commissioner avent nene: thank you -- commissioner antonini: thank you for a wonderful presentation. as you know, we preserved a number of appleton libraries, we reserve -- preserved a number of those in marina, and in my neighborhood, i think they were probably a little better suited to their -- the use as this one. number two, it's kind of appropriate that we are considering something for the joe dimaggio playground since this is the 70th anniversary of his 56-game hitting streak and there's a great book out now called "56" that talks about that, but it doesn't just talk about the streak, it paints a good picture of 1941 and what was going on in san francisco and new york and throughout the united states. in fact, some people commented

that we should erect a statue of diimagine yow at the playground, i think that would be a great thing, i'm sure that would fit into the plan someplace, the giants have put up statues of some of their players, but diimagine yow never played for the giants. the other issue is the distribution of the hard scape playing area and i do notice that they left people from the softball diamond, cut about 141 feet shorter and then right field remains at, i'm guessing at 260 to 270. aisle not sure what that length is there. but in any case, you know, if there would be a way to preserve as much as you can, although this area will be used for many different sports, of course, and it would probably be softball or you know, really little guys

hitting a tennis ball, up to maybe third or fourth grade where they can't hit it too far so it's a little too small even today for adults to be hitting a softball particularly to left field. so i mean, if there's a way to perhaps redistribute the tennis court so maybe there are only two there and one in the other direction or something and keep that hard scape. i think it's important to kids when they're growing up to be able to go out there and play ball and have a little room to do it. but that's, i think, a minor thing and i'm sure it would work within the present plan which is very nice -- a very nicely laid out plan. and i like the library, the design. i think as long as it's con tekt yule with the neighborhood, that's important but i think having a lot of light and open as you see it, as a beacon coming down columbus that will be really good. i like the two-floor option.

obviously the more, while still be consistent with the height of the rest of the buildings in the area, the more height you can put in and of course you have issues with accessibility but the more you can pack into less space and leave more space for playground, for bocce ball courts, for tennis and all the every uses you want to put in there, i think it's well worked out. >> commissioner miguel? >> i have the pleasure -- commissioner miguel: i have the pleasure of chairing the recreation and open space committee 10 or 15 years ago when this was being discussed, actually. so it's good to see it come to fruition. on the other hand, i worked with the library on at least two of their historic renovations and went with the entire plan and this is the end of that plan.