an area with good weather and good views. i hear individuals here today concerned that they will lose access to the existing private club. there is no way that 165 residential units can support operation of the club. the operator will meet their memberships in the future just as they do today. while i sympathize with a few of these individuals, and the fears of the loss of the club are unfounded. the benefits far outweigh the negative impacts. thank you. commissioner miguel: john? >> in the afternoon,

commissioners. i have a business representative. today, i am speaking on behalf of san francisco -- because they are having meetings, we believe that it is adequate and completed. commissioner miguel: is there additional public comment? >> i just want to quickly address to of the objectives of the project. the one has to do with housing. let me show larry -- let me show you where this number comes from. it is the total development cost of the project.

the $345 million/165 condos, it gets you above $2.5 million. that is what it will cost to build. i also want to address the revenue of the poor. it will cost the city money. down here is a picture of the site. they are proposing one of the major sources of revenues. it will generate $40 million. they are entitled the term sheet all comes to the port. the environmental impacts are

that if it ever comes to pass, if it were to happen, what recreation centers would have to be closed because of the loss of revenue? there are consequences to the economics of this project. those have to be addressed. the are other sources of revenue that they claim don't exist. it is the other big reason for doing this. i want to suggest a couple of things need to be added. this is the fourth attempt to develop, does of the site. they tried in the 1950's and 1990's. the letters from former directors saying that the intention has always been to key the golden gate recreation center permanently their as

community benefits. i would like to ask in the environmentally superior alternative, the developer has great rendering at his proposal. we're putting up a nice clear fences. it is part of the deal. this is his advantage to keep it ugly. [chime] please include that. >> hello, my name is jill tannenbau. -- tannenbaum. golden gatway was the only

place i could find to play tennis and swim and outside. people come to swim and play tennis, socialize, meet people, do things. it is one of the most exciting places in the city during the summer. i would leave the city, because i have nowhere to go. >> i am showing the area along the waterfront. i tried calling of any -- up any eir that had an underground

parking garages. there is no eir that has been developed with an underground parking garages along the waterfront. i tried. and the redevelopment has none because they were all done before ceqa. there was an eir for a hotel that does not have an underground rock. parking is in the form of a turnaround area. what you have a 420 carbon rod that has excavation of 38-40 feet. the entire area that i was looking for -- and there is no

soil drainage. this is going to be excavating into a site that is going to have 110,000 cubic yards of soil. you will have sea level rises. the elevation his 0.95-0.91. it is basically at sea level. the sea level is rising. you're building a gigantic bathtub for a 420 car garages. the building has to keep the drug from popping up because the water level is so high. -- the garage from popping up

because the water level is so high. there is no discussion of hydrology except for the archaeology of the old ships. you cannot find any of this. it is totally missing a discussion of the impact of building an underground garage with sea level rising and a water cable that is already very high. this is an environmental issue, just not there at all. no eir's have ever been done for this kind of a situation. commissioner miguel: is there additional public comment? >> i just want to say that i

oppose as is. bicyclist can get hit. the recreation center is really important. my life pretty much stays east. i guess most of the folks stay east. look north of sixteenth. we are underserved, but we are sort of the atm for a lot of the

things happening citywide. i oppose this. thank you. commissioner miguel: is there additional public comment? if not, public comment is closed. commissioner antonini: thank you for your comments. i wanted to comment on those things that i did hear that had relationships to the eir, questions that need be answered. it may be something that the fifth is an analyzed completely, those entrances and

if they are adequately of about. there are questions about the adequacy of the traffic analysis. there were a lot of comments on the type of housing. there are questions about the recreational uses of the club. it would be open to residents. there are examples of that. the water displacement issue is one that is spoken to and it is mentioned as an impact. the analysis takes into account

all the possibilities that might occur because of the -- and that is probably about it on things that relate to the eir itself. commissioner sugaya: i will probably submit stuff and writing. -- in writing. one of the deficiencies, it could be done with respect to the announcements, and the that

we get is a photograph and superimposes a building. it seems to me that it is awfully static. the view is already blocked by trees, palm trees, what ever they may be. other buildings. talking about telegraph hill, in that area.

that mike give us a little better visual sense of what the impact of these particular buildings are going to be. it is supposed to serve the neighborhood. more than one person has come forward and said there are people from all over the city coming here. i don't know if that is an appropriate discussion. but some consideration for that issue, and maybe take a look. i don't know if this is private or not. if we can see what the membership. commissioner borden: the follow- up to that thought, a new club

specifically. if you look at projections between existing and that new facilities, whatever the impact will be is relative to a more modern club. i think it is important to address the things the referenced like the underground drug and the water table. i am sure some of the statements about the section needs to be better examined looking at all of the actual impact on pedestrians. and looking at other sort of parking and strategies that might make sense for that area. otherwise, those were just a few things that i thought of. commissioner miguel: i think commissioner sugaya's comments about using more modern technology are quite well taken.

i would welcome that. i will have written comments later, but just a few doubts. i do not think that the public trust with the hotel was sufficiently analyzed. just a comment to those that were talking about the 1962 agreement with the golden gate center, that was superseded in 76 in exchange. in my mind, this project is driven by probably a couple of things, mainly by the ability to create a parking sufficient to service itself. my wife and i are at the farmers' market at 7:30 every

saturday morning. our parking spot was taken away a couple of years ago, and other than a few motorcycle spaces, they have done nothing to replace those bases. -- spaces. i disagree with the statements that this in anyway takes care of any of san francisco's housing needs. i have to agree with the comments, i think it may have been someone that said these are extremely expensive. i'd love you are talking about the dollar equivalent for the spaces, but it is based on the number of units, not the value

and cost of the units. that is the way that that particular legislation was crafted. 34 units on the $2.5 million -- if they were a $600,000 and middle income type units. i really find a disparity in that ratio. i have to agree that the west side is an absolute mess. it is tragic for a main thoroughfare in san francisco. i have seen a number of plans that would take care of that. in a manner that the city is deserving of. that is somewhat aside from the

particular project established in this. >> if that is all, we can move on to public comment. at this time, members of the public may address the commission within the subject matter of the commission except agenda items. i have no speaker cards. commissioner miguel: public comments in written form can be submitted to the department until the close of business on august 15. is there any general public comment on the non-agenda items? public comment is closed. this hearing is concluded.

>> the san francisco cons tri of flowers in golden gate park is now showing a new exhibit that changes the way we see the plants around us. amy stewart's best-selling book, "wicked plants" is the inspiration behind the new exhibit that takes us to the dark side of the plant world. >> i am amy stewart. i am the arthur of "wicked plants," the weeds that killed lincoln's mother and other botanical atrocities. with the screens fly trap, that is kind of where everybody went initially, you mean like that? i kind of thought, well, all it does is eat up bugs. that is not very wicked. so what? by wicked, what i mean is that they are poisonous, dangerous, deadly or immoral or maybe illegal or offensive or awful in some way. i am in the profession of going

around and interviewing botanists, horticulturalists and plant scientists. they all seem to have some little plant tucked away in the corner of a greenhouse that maybe they weren't supposed to have. i got interested in this idea that maybe there was a dark side to plants. >> the white snake root. people who consumed milk or meat from a cow that fed on white snake root faced severe pain. milk sickness, as it was culled, resulted in vomiting, tremors, delirium and death. one of the most famous victims of milk sickness was nancy hangs lincoln. she died at the age of 34, leaving behind 9-year-old abraham lincoln. he helped build his mother's

casket by carving the woodallen petition douche the wooden petition himself. >> we transformed the gallery to and eerie victorian garden. my name is lowe hodges, and i am the director of operations and exhibitions at the conls tore of -- cons tore of flowers. we decided it needed context. so we needed a house or a building. the story behind the couple in the window, you can see his wife has just served him a glass of wine, and he is slumped over the table as the poison takes affect. a neat little factold dominion about that house is actually built out of three panels from old james bond movie. we wanted people to feel like i

am not supposed to be in this room. this is the one that is supposed to be barred off and locked up. >> the ole andersonner -- oleander. this popular shrub is popular in warm climates. it has been implicated in a surprising number of murders and accidental deaths. children are at risk because it takes only a few leaves to kill them. a southern california woman tried to collect on her husband's life insurance by putting the leaves in his food. she is now one of 15 women on california's death rowan the only one who attempted to murder with a plant. >> people who may haven't been to their cons tore or been to -- do serve tore or their botanical garden, it gives them

a reason to come back. you think let's go and look at the pretty flowers. these are pretty flowers, but they are flowers with weird and fascinating stories behind them. that is really fun and really not what people normally think of when they come to a horticultural institution. >> "wicked plants" is now showing at the san francisco conserve tore of flowers. unless next time, get out and play.