>> good morning and welcome to the march 27th, 2012 meeting of the san francisco county

transportation authority. please take the roll call. >> we have a quorum. >> can you call item two? >> approval of minutes of the very 28 and march 6th? >> is any member of the public would like to -- is there any member of the public that would like to speak on this item? seeing none, public comment is

closed. >> thank you. can we take a roll call vote on this? >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> the item passes. >> items 3, the chair is report. >> the biggest issue we have been dealing with in the county transportation authority has been the issue of high-speed rail. specifically, it has been issued to provide funding for the electrification of the cal train which would allow us to deliver the extension. this is a far reaching plan which entails a major regional commitment.

we have been actively engaged with our colleagues and you will be hearing more and more details about this. we are expecting the revised business plan to be released by the high-speed rail authority which will happen at the end of this month and that will began the discussion of future investments in high-speed rail at the state legislature. i also want to acknowledge the fact that the u.s. senate approved its version of the new surface transportation act which needs approval in the house of representatives. the process to a riot at a successor has been difficult and the house of representatives is abandoning its own bill in favor

of the efforts at the senate, specifically focusing on the senate version. the current funding expires th march 31st. the key sticking point has been the unwillingness of the republicans to raise the revenue for transportation so we are hopeful that this matter will be resolved and that it will be resolved quickly. as you can probably see in the agenda, we have a presentation on county transportation authority projects in district 1 and 11. this is a follow up to something that i promised earlier and is important for us to do is that here after the county transportation authority level that we have a discussion about different projects that the

transportation authority is funding in the various districts and the first presentation will focus on justice one at 11 and next week we hear on districts to and 10. i would like to thank the staff for their work in making this happen and our hope is that as we proceed with these kinds of discussions that we will have a better better of what is happening on the ground and the different projects that are benefiting our various communities. that is the report and is there any public comment or questions on this? seeing none come out public comment is closed. >> item number4, the executive director's report. >> now we will hear from our executive director. >> my report is on your desks. a few things i need to

highlight to complement the chair's mention of the surface transition act status. the senate did pass its version on march 14th and i was in washington, d.c. when this happened. the house is another matter and the current extension of the existing transition act runs out on march 31st, a couple of days away. so, congress is working on another extension, the ninth in the existing of the existing transportation act. i am chagrined to have to say that my prediction that we will not see multiple years of transition is going to come true.

there has been debate about the value of a two-year transportation act which is the version that the senate put forward. it is better to have an act than to have extensions of an existing policy platform but there are many issues that really need to be addressed nationwide really and this cannot be done in two years. i continue to believe that the right thing to do is to push for another six-year bill and the larger issues of the nation needs to address where these can truly be adequately addressed. we will continue to advocate for that in the months to come. i included in my report what seems like old news item related to the draft fiscal year 201213

state budget which we did not have a chance to discuss at the february meeting because we had several other presentations and i did it because there is some good news and the preservation of transportation funding in that finding. there are some provided but not for the part that holds the transit operating funds. in fact, and to the governor's proposed budget, there would be a slight increase in those funds which would mean for the mta, probably an increase of about $2 million or $38-38 million -- $40 million. this is not a lot of money but a trend in the right direction.

there is a preferred land use scenario released as part of the process to put together the regional transportation plan and the single strategy. our expectation is all of the priority projects which have been approved by the board will be included in this element. san francisco pasquale to absorber a very significant amount of growth both in households and in jobs, 93,000 new households and 175,000 new jobs.

you heard about the high-speed rail initiative. i would say simply that this is really a great outcome of the initial move and initiative by it the commissioners. they have put together a fast start initiative on this. that work, which at the time pointed to a project that was over $4 billion, this has led to this initiative me by the authority to try to find a way to implement the operation system going forward started with a very significant amount of money out of the funds to pay for the interim stage of the way to cane.

also to make this extension a reality as well and to include some major improvements at the south end of the corridor. state and on this, we will have a detailed discussion about it at the april committee meetings and of the board as well but we need it to let -- take their own actions, and fat, tomorrow, to really understand the basis of our mou's. we will have this full discussion in april. a couple of major announcements, the first phase of the replacements of the existing dr access to the golden gate bridge is almost ready to open. we are looking at an opening for switchover date of april 27th, that is the end of next month.

it is hard to believe after so many years of pushing this project forward. the first phase will entail a closure of the entire access to the bridge for a three day weekend. during that weekend, there would be the completion of street level the tort behind -- street level detour behind the palace of fine art. this is a tremendous engineering feat and it would be accomplished demolition in just one weekend. this is one of the innovations, the many innovations that the project is coming up with, rather than lengthening the suffering for two or three months, noise, dust, for the neighborhood, for the habitat,

for the protected habitats in the presidio and so on, it was decided that we would do this in one weekend. a large portion of the demolition expertise of the country is descending upon that area for the weekend of april. the day after that, but the general public will be circulating on it a safe facility. this would be a temporary facility and told the lanes are built but it would be a safe facility with two lanes in one direction and three in the other and a movable barrier that would allow the number to switch following the directionality of the demands. i am very pleased to announce that. the other thing i wanted to mention is that part of the presidio parkway will be done.

this is a long-term, low interest loan. i am very very delighted to let you know that the credit council on march 16th recommended approval of the $250 million. the action alone is with the secretary and i am very confident that we will have that officially approved, probably in the next few days. that would insure that we would have financial flows in may which is really a tremendous conclusion to 8 decades loan sagas to see this project finally done for the benefits of the public and also to the benefit of improved access and improve conditions at the presidio. the subway is making a tremendous amount of progress,

it is nearing completion of the final design the contract is at 85% complete. completion is expected by may of this year. the second notice to proceed, the construction of the lunch box was issued on march 14th, the same day that the senate approved the surface transportation act and the fourth and final notice to proceed is anticipated to happen in july of this year. that project is becoming a reality as well. the notice to proceed will await action on the agreement by the federal transportation administration that is also expected in july. the transportation committee is meeting tomorrow and thursday and is expected to approve the final arrangements related to the final funding deal for the

presidio parkway and other projects that are now priorities for the improvement programs. there was a request from the committee to bring back a report on what is happening with the side posts, the demise of the redevelopment agency. i simply would like to mention to the board that i have had discussions with the planning director and with the mayor's office of economic development. there is a significant amount of activity trying to figure out a solution for that. i plan to have the published reports to you on a monthly basis until we figure something

else out. there is no intention to let that project sit there. there are projects that we're working on related to the stations and the steady and therefore it is a significant issue for us. we released a call for projects for the lifeline transportation program back in february and we have received applications by the march 14th deadline. we would have action on this. there are several other projects considered as well. there is an expectation that you would be making a decision on the certification this fall and

this is getting ready for spring out reach and you can read more about that in the report and online at our website. we are on target for the resignation of the authority. i will skip over the rest of this but i would like to highlight just a couple of more things under management. we have had program manager funds for clean air and we received a notice with no findings.

all of the people making and all that this was right. i would like to congratulate a few people who have had promotions, guarding with elizabeth, our new deputy director of technology services. she has been with us for several years now, 1st as principal transportation planner. she is very focused and a major force in forecasting not just the authority nationally. we are delighted to be able to have her lead at this section now where she will distinguish herself. we have also had a promotion in the planning division where we

have a new principal planner. he is a key guy on all of the planning efforts including the bay shore intermodal and the planning study and it things that we have been doing. he also could spare his the plane divisions on the u.s. 101 corridor. and we're really delighted to have him with us. the programming division has announced the promotion of a

new principal transportation planner. he is recognized both in the agency and beyond that also the various state, regional, fund programs. he has managed projects for everything from the block grant. he is a creative mind in the division. we are delighted to have him step into that new role. in the planning division, we are delighted to announce the promotion of jesse taylor, the senior transportation planner. several of you have interacted with him. he is a driving force behind the pricing study. he has been working on the central freeway transportation

study and a major hand at in the analysis report on shuttles which is generating other reports to do this. i'm delighted to welcome our new administrative assistant. she has shown great initiative and a great attitude at the office. this concludes my report. i am happy to answer any questions. >> thank you. do we have any questions for the executive director? >> you mentioned the sustainable community strategy. at some point i was wondering if

i could maybe see how the types of projects that have been approved through this process? i now that cb75 and ab72 encourages that we build this to encourage the use of public transportation and as opposed to the automobile use. that was one of the goals in an indirect sort of way. i am wondering if there is a way of finding out whether or not the types of projects that are being built, how they do reflect the needs of the workforce in the areas as prescribed through

the arena's. i am wondering about the cost of housing, the nature of the development and how equity plays into some of those developments. >> thank you very much from the -- for the question. the more in depth answer should probably wait for a specific presentation at the programs committee. let me tell you that in my estimation, and i have been observing this past three decades, the region has done the most comprehensive discussion of that topic. in a very long time.