we have a motion to move forward. >> thank you. we will take that without objection. >> thank you. >> i am getting used to how these meetings are structured. i thought that he would respond. supervisor olague: i wanted to comment on the letter from fran martin earlier. she pointed out that the oversight board or may oversees the formally developed areas. the other six redevelopment areas, we need dedicated staff for those remaining areas. i know the mentioned that you would be speaking with the planning director, but i agree that a lot of this transportation planning was centered around the housing

being considered for that area. particularly the [unintelligible] site that is up in the air. is there a possibility of getting some kind of a report back from the mayor's office on housing to see how they plan on dealing with these projects? it seems to me that the relevance of some of these transportation plans before us rest on the fact that it was being viewed that there would be new residence in that area. with a very comprehensive plan around housing and transportation and that sort of thing. so,-housing, i am not sure if that changes the paradigm here. >> you are correct. beyond that, not only is there rabbit -- relevance, which we

care about, but the opportunity for funding, because the region is looking for transitive development. as far as your request for an update, at the very least, what i can do is make the contacts between the different agencies. giving you a sense of where it seems to be moving. supervisor olague: it should be reevaluated, in a sense. supervisor avalos: can we get an update when it comes to the full commission? >> we will have contact on that, yes, absolutely. supervisor olague: it is concerning to me. i am sorry i did not comment sooner. supervisor avalos: we have

actually approve the item. we can, -- along to the next, item number 7. >> item #7. recommend approval of the western south of market neighborhood transportation plan final report. >> this item begins on page 49 of your packet. the transportation plan final report. we are seeking approval. there is a separate inclosure for this item. in my presentation today, i will be discussing the context and purpose of the study. the process that we undertook to produce the proposed improvements, a bogus some highlights of the needs assessment that be conducted. i will go through the community posts that we have received and that will then touched on the funding in the presentation as well.

i would like to thank our funding partners for this study. the transportation commission provided funds in addition to the ones provided for the study. i would also like to acknowledge the west and planning tax " -- task force. -- western planning task force. the first was the western planning community plan from the citizen planning task force, put together for the approval process. the idea was to take the recommendations for a small number to see some early implementations. there is a community based transportation program that we support on a regular basis to

address communities like this, with high population of low- income minorities. those two efforts spawned this plan. the idea is the two nearterm small projects were prepared for grant implementation. to get there, the plan used three avenues. we conducted an extensive community input process and we reached out to other city agencies to get input on the improvements that you were developing in the plan. the concept was born in neighboring conditions and focus really only on the ballot -- alleys. the first one shows existing

conditions. the diagram on the left in this slide shows the usage. it shows how the alleys are dominated by pedestrian traffic. four to five times as many vehicles. but they face less than ideal conditions. the diagram on the rights shows that there is a lot of seeding in the alleys. there are many vehicles going above the 15 miles per hour, and it creates an inhospitable pedestrian condition. supervisor kim: how do you actually calculate these numbers? >> we counted the number of pedestrians and the number of vehicles during peak periods over the course of a couple days. for the speeds, we hired

consultants to lay down teeth and count the trafficked. we also capture speed information. we have got a sample survey technique for that. >> thank you. -- supervisor kim: thank you. >> looking at the alleys as public space, in this neighborhood we know that there is a scarcity of park space. there is a real source of community space in this area on the streets. we know that the alleys are promising in some ways. they could release serve as the community space in the area. looking at them today, there are very few amenities for pedestrians. the sidewalks are very narrow with parking and one side of the

street. it does not serve its function as a community space. other problems that we noticed in the assessment included issues of crossing the major streets. most of these streets for four main arterial is in one way. right now where the alleys connect with the streets there are not any help for pedestrians attempting to cross the street. so, based on that assessment, with input from the community, the plans settled on improvements to three streets. for these alleys, we had two

improvement goals. we wanted to improve pedestrian safety by slowing down vehicle speeds and discouraging vehicles from using the alleys as cut through routes. we wanted to enhance them as community spaces, as i mentioned before, providing better quality neighborhood public spaces. to do that, our strategy is included what is shown on the diagram here. the final report actually has the full plan view of the improvements on pages 27 and 28, if you want to take a look at the full view, but this captures the typical sets of improvements, and funding crosswalks at the entries and exits, signaling to drivers that they are entering a different kind of space that is more pedestrian friendly.

we also included horizontal jogs in the travel ways. instead of a straight shot down the alley, vehicles and countered a jog that naturally slows them down. we created that by alternating the parking between the north side and south side of the street. we are also proposing that all of that sidewalk, that strategic location, provide room for additional landscaping and other pedestrian amenities. we have a more ambitious approach on wrangel street. under that scenario we dedicated the entire right of way to pedestrians. vehicles are welcome to use the street, but they must go slowly in yield to pedestrians, that way we can open up the entire street to serve as a pedestrian

based. it is a better use of space dedicated to pedestrians as well. i encourage you to visit, if you have not already. it is quite nice and affords you more flexibility, building a sense of place as a pedestrian base. in designing the amenities, we did encounter constraints in the considerations that we are highlighting your. we wanted to retain access for right of way. we did need to retain higher access. on some parking is another consideration. the community does use the alleys and we recognize that

that would continue to be the case in the future for improvement plans. we also encountered this issue of ongoing operational maintenance. the city has not had a clear policy with respect to which city agency is willing to take on the increments of operations and maintenance that along with improvements. that will be an issue that we will lead to follow and hopefully resolve, as we advance these improvements. just in the about the public input that we received, again looking at the on street parking issue, we wanted input from the community about the willingness to let go of those parking spaces to convert them into pedestrian space. the majority of the community really does support kent -- converting some spaces into pedestrian use.

on the right receive a percentage of responses. as you can see, over 70% of respondents in the survey wanted to give some parking spaces. on the left, the diagram shows desire by the community for more amenities. it seems the community is very interested in getting improvements there. given the community input we received in the process, the study struck a balance with respect to how much pedestrians wanted an increase in parking to be converted. turns out to be about 20% in the

plan diagrams included in the report. about five spaces per block. where there are only 11 spaces to begin with, creating a shared space meant we had to let go of five spaces to allow for flexibility. the neighborhood transportation plan proposal also proposed in mid block crossing on a number of streets. the plan evaluated three locations. as well as nitoma at 8th. oncoming traffic would get the red light. it would also shorten the crossing distance for pedestrians.

supervisor avalos: you had three scenarios. one was in the middle of the block in the scrap that one. what was the main reason for not recommending that? >> the application was developed as a potential recommendation in the middle, because for that location there was not an obvious preferred location. for the others it was obvious that the have the desire for crossing, because of the market on the corner and across the street there is a senior services center with a lot of people already going across. the other benefit to locating the crossing there is that it allows for the queuing of the

cars to not build up so far is to impact the mission street intersection. so, there are really minimal traffic impact that we are expecting. so, the same idea for the traffic impact is on the location of seventh and minna, at the mid block crossing. supervisor olague: i am glad to see that you will be putting a crosswalk between 10th and markets, which i think his family housing. and across the street there is a service for a lot of homeless seniors. bac>> that got high marks in the community. many members of the community were very happy to see that.

the report also includes a cost estimate of those improvements that i just highlighted. there anywhere from $2.5 million to $5 million. we think that these projects are very competitive for a number of periodic plant programs. there is a list on this slide on the right. they are described from the upcoming von opportunities in more detail. the next step for these projects include environmental. those are already under way. they were gracious enough to include these projects. so, these improvements will be

cleared as a part of that process. we will be pursuing funds, as was just mentioned. sf mta will need to legislate the curve changes. we will need to address universal access needs. designed to support all access and we want to make sure that that continues as we enter final design. we will need to resolve the ongoing maintenance issue question before we actually put them in place. we did hear from the community that there is some interest in incorporating into the project to highlight the cultural significance of the area with a

latino heritage. there will be a separate process for developing and incorporating parts into the improvements. that concludes my presentation. this is a final report and we are seeking approval in manhattan to take any questions. supervisor kim: this is a great study and it is great to see the data with it the anecdotal stories that we hear from residents around pedestrians as open space. it is great to see the you support those changes and improvements. i want you to reiterate how important those crosswalks are. this is a residential

neighborhood and often not acknowledge that way, but the blocks are so large and it is on friendly for residents to walk in the area. light is something that we often hear about as well. glad to see that that was in here. we appreciate the crosswalk recommendation. ninth street, i know that the heavy vehicle corridor, as the folks, 101 and 80, i am curious to see the traffic impact. i know how important the crosswalk is. i know that the commissioner had mentioned the market across the street. the families live on the eastern side and i know that there are a lot of families there where they feel the car's speed down the alley ways. they worry about the kids that play in the area.

i know that public art worked, part of the central aspect is to create a filipino and lgbt cultural heritage peace. is there reason that we pick these potentially for the public art work? >> i think that i can ask paul to come and address that question. he has been closest to the development of those cultural heritage districts. i will ask him to correct me if i am wrong, but it has to do with the relocation specific history of the area. i understand ringold to be specifically important in the history of lgbt as a meeting

place. it is an actual site that i think people come to visit in san francisco. and it historically has high populations of filipino's. does that do it? >> that was great. there was a significant, historic with significant portion of the filipino community there, but i would not know where it was for the lgbt community. thank you. supervisor olague: i wanted to again talked about it and acknowledging all the work that has been done over the years. i am also really happy about the fact that there will be an alleyway program revision to

increase the public open space, an issue that, as we know, south of market is one of the most densely populated and highly travelled areas of the city, and underserved by public open space. i hope that the alleyway program will hope -- help to mitigate some of that. also, it makes sense to me that some of the residents are willing to forgo some of the parking spaces, as i believe that that area is one of the areas where there is car ownership relatively low compared to other areas of the city. so, i think that these are really the plans. that is pretty exciting to see. one question that i had is -- in

some of the alleyways, has there been any opportunity to widen the sidewalks? probably not. >> the only opportunity to do that is to take parking spaces. supervisor olague: ok, i answered my own question. thank you for your work. supervisor avalos: if any member of the public would like to comment, please come forward. >> i guess it is good afternoon, commissioners. paul lord, from the planning department staff. pleasure to be here. i do not think i have ever been before this committee. the coordination, environmental review, and the association with funding, from the standpoint of

coordination, this has been a model effort in many respects. not only has this been coordinated within the city family, but partnerships with in the community have been extraordinary. many of these ideas arose from surveys that were done within the community and town halls that were held. i know that commissioner olague attended them in 2007 and 2008. these ideas evolved by and large part from community input and recommendations. on the part of chester and tilly, they have the authority to take the lead into the next step for this effort. i do not want to miss the fact that in terms of coordination efforts you are probably also aware of the print program and the effort to make sure that

this is consistent with some of those proposed priority projects, which have also been an important part of this. am i going to be able to go beyond two minutes as staff? supervisor avalos: if we have a question we might be able to ask you at the end. >> in coordination, it has been a model effort. i think that chester hit on a key point that has to do with the fact that these will be cleared with eir by the end of the calendar year. [tone] in the absence of funding that will be shovel ready projects. supervisor kim: can you talk more about the process in your thoughts on the presentation? >> ultimately, as someone representing the planning department and ongoing efforts

to coordinate community plans, i would say that this is something that we would entirely support. there has been a tremendous iterative and coordinated process going back and forth with community agencies and ongoing presentation improvements for the neighborhood. the funding that chester had upon, quickly, there are a couple of things to come to mind. when the community benefit program was adopted, there were new developments. this was one of the qualifying set of improvements that could be funded in the neighborhood. the task force went as far as to recommend this as one of their three priority projects for the

neighborhood. later this year, when the study is updated in the implementation plan is proposed, these will feature, as very important projects, for the community and in the way that the eastern neighborhood will evaluate the use of funding taken from new development areas. the final point i wanted to make, and i think that gm can talk to the cultural issues, but when it comes to funding, we have also worked with the filipino american development association to prepare a community challenge grants for those memorializing treatments on those alleys. these improvements, particularly on mimment and notomoa are a large part of the extension of the improvements that were recently put in place by the

redevelopment agency, continuing the pattern that has been widely and happily received in this community as improvements for those alleyways. i will be here to answer any questions. thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners. this plan is predicated on the notion that the neighborhood boat slot -- rose substantially over the next 20 years, with a brand new neighborhood commercial district serving as the ceremonial main street of the community. at the same time, we must show the utmost respect for the existing population that lives along the alleys. the transportation authority is responding to the need we have