tv [untitled] April 30, 2012 1:00pm-1:30pm PDT
1:13 pm
>> good afternoon, everyone. the meeting will come to order. this is the meeting of monday, april 30, 2012, of the land use and economic development committee of the san francisco board of supervisors. my name is eric mar. to my right is supervisor malia cohen and scott wiener. alisa medicaler is our clerk.
1:14 pm
-- miller is our clerk. >> please silence all cell phones. items acted upon today will appear on the may 8 agenda, unless otherwise stated. supervisor mar: thank you. ms. millioner, we have six items before you -- miller, we have six items. please read item number one. [item one read.] supervisor mar: thank you. colleagues, as you recall, this item was heard at the last meeting and then amended and approved, and then we heard testimony at the last meeting that it's been continued to this meeting. it's a simple measure that would allow more attractive store fronts along the make merchant corridors of the richmond district and i strongly urge your support. in addition to the small business owners and others that are supporting this effort, it was also supported at the
1:15 pm
planning commission, where an amendment was made to also include another measure that supports small businesses by limiting lot mergers, so that smaller merchants have more of a say in the process. so, colleagues, if there are no questions, let's open this up for public comment. is there anyone from the public that would like to speak on item number one? seeing none, public comment is closed. colleagues, can we move this forward with a positive recommendation without objection? is that ok, colleagues? great, thank you. ms. miller, our next three items, two, three and four, could you please call all three items together. >> [reading item number two] [reading item number three]
1:16 pm
[reading item number four] supervisor mar: thank you, madam clerk. we have this item that's sponsored by the hearing by supervisor olague. there's the other item sponsored by president david chiu, and then there's item number four that's sponsored by president chu and supervisor ferrell. why don't we start off with president chu. >> thank you, colleagues. i want to thank the members of the public that have been focused on this issue of tour buses. to frame why we're all here, i know everyone in this room absolutely appreciates tourism as an economic engine for san francisco and the role that tour buses have in bringing millions of tourists here to sfg. i've seen in my district and i know supervisor olague has seen in her district that
1:17 pm
unfortunately we have had tour buses that have created numerous quality of life problems for quiet streets. we have had numerous complaints about tour buses idling too long, blocking traffic and using loud amplification systems. this is a topic that i've been working on for over a year with the san francisco m.t.a., with the police department, other city agencies as well as neighborhood folks in my district and representatives from the tour bus industry. there have been two things that we have done in my district to move this forward, and then today we are considering two other legislative items. and i know in addition to that supervisor olague wanted to also hold a hearing generally about this topic but also specifically to hear from residents of alamo square, who i've also heard from from district five who have had issues around this. about a year ago because of some of these concerns in the north beach neighborhood, the m.t.a. moved forward with prohibitions of tour buses on certain blocks in the north
1:18 pm
beach area, and in particular, with some of the most quiet residential blocks in my district. in addition to that, i asked the m.t.a. to help develop our city's first tour bus management plan, and this is a plan that has proposed different solutions for better tour bus loading and parking throughout the city. and i'd like to ask -- i think jerry robbins is here -- to help outline what that tour bus plan policy is for my colleagues. in addition to that, i have two pieces of legislation, colleagues, that i'd like to ask us to consider. one is a piece of legislation really to legislate the aspects of the tour bus plan that will be outlined from the m.t.a. the second piece of legislation deals with the topic of loud amplification systems. as i think many of you know, if you live in these residential neighborhoods, when you have open-air buses with loud loud speakers, particular during times of day that are not conducive to the quality of
1:19 pm
life of our neighborhoods, it creates issues. and initially i had proposed that we require our tour bus operators to implement essentially a headphone system. this is a type of system that has been used in other cities around the world. and i certainly got an awful load of feedback from the tour bus industry that this was a system that was going to have a number of implementation issues and cost issues. so i have introduced a substitute piece of legislation that was worked on with the tour bus operators and the san francisco m.t.a., and i want to thank all the folks that worked in recent months to do this. the substitute legislation will establish a regulatory system by which our department of public health will license tour bus operators that have buses that have put into their control systems the ability to make sure that sound does not travel over 50 feet. and that is the state law
1:20 pm
requirement in this area. this is legislation that we unfortunately can't vote on today, because it requires a certain period of time for it to sit. but at the end of the hearing today, mr. chair and members of the committee, i'd like to ask that this committee call these items at the call of the chair to come back in two weeks, so we can vote on them and send them to the full board. and at this time i'd like to ask mr. robbins if you could outline what the m.t.a. has currently been doing to really address the situation of tour bus management citywide as well as to comment on the legislation we have in front. and i realize supervisor olague just came. and if it make sense, if you'd like to make any opening comments to help frame this. supervisor mar: thank you for being here, supervisor olague and thank you for calling this hearing as well with president chu. >> when i first was appointed in january, this was an issue that was brought to my attention by a lot of neighborhoods or residents, particularly of the alamo
1:21 pm
square area, who were dealing with a lot of issues around noise smmbings the impacts and the -- some of the impacts of the tour bus stops and just the quality of life issues that were basically weighing on residents of this neighborhood. also, i believe that in many ways -- i'm glad that i had the opportunity to speak with the tour bus operators, but it just seems to me that at the time i wasn't aware that supervisor chu had been working for some time on this issue. but one thing that i found is there seemed to be a certain way of approaching it that maybe was more focused on neighborhood impacts instead of citywide policy. so at some point i'm hoping that this is the first of several conversations. i haven't looked at your legislation yet, but i'm sure
1:22 pm
that some of these issues around noise that would have to go through the health department is a step in that direction. but i think in many ways that there doesn't seem to be a citywide policy around the behavior of this industry. so at some point i think it might be good to start the conversation here, but then to continue it and to really look more deeply at some of the other impacts that tour buses have on our neighborhoods. we are a transit-first city, so we certainly don't encourage individuals renting cars and going about the city on their own. but maybe there are more productive ways in which we can engage muni around this issue, and also, i think there should be further discussions around the routes, the hours, the noise levels, of course, and
1:23 pm
the impact that it has particularly on neighborhood commercial districts and residential districts. so maybe there should be different rules that apply in residential districts and maybe certain considerations given to neighborhood commercial. i know that there have been times when i've gone down haight street, which is where these tour buses frequent and it's 1:00 in the afternoon and you're dealing with delivery trucks and you're dealing with tour buses, and you're dealing with pedestrians, and you're dealing with all these different people who are just trying to move around haight street in the middle of the day. so i just think that we have to look at it more comprehensively than just d-3 or alamo square or whatever, because i do believe that it has to be looked at in a more comprehensive manner. i'm happy to be part of this conversation and look forward to finding solution sthass
1:24 pm
would ease the burden on residents who live in neighborhoods that are attractive to people who are visiting our beautiful city. dd supervisor mar: thank you, president chu and supervisor olague. i wanted to add also that a number of residents from eighth avenue and 15th avenue on the richmond side have often over a period of time complain beside the loud amplified sounds and also the increase, it seems, in the number of tour buses going through fulton street. actually not far from where i live as well. i'm impacted by it as well as the residents of the richmond district. i know in some of the documents we have, it has some streets that are limited, and my hope is you can consider some of the streets in the inner richmond in particular that are also impacted. but thank you so much for calling the hearing. >> and mr. chair, if i could make one more comment, which is some of the things that i've been working on were specific to my district. but the tour bus policy that mr. robbins is about to discuss
1:25 pm
does have more citywide application, as does the legislation i have around loud speakers. i do think that if there are particular neighborhoods like alamo square or richmond or others that wants to think about additional restrictions in those neighborhoods, those are things that i would obviously be happy to work with you, supervisor olague or supervisor mar, in order to implement that. part of the conversation today is around the citywide management of tour buses. maybe it might make sense to hear from mr. robbins. >> eventually we may want to lock at certain citywide regulations and neighborhood/commercial versus residential, versus look at the different zoning types, see what's there and move accordingly. so i think that might be one way of approaching. i and then eventually we'll want to have a conversation, i think, about the shuttles. but i think that is a separate conversation. supervisor mar: so, mr. robbins. >> thank you, supervisors. jerry robbins with the sfmta
1:26 pm
sustainable streets division. about a year ago our department drafted a tour bus parking management plan to look at tour bus issues throughout san francisco. some of the issues that are discussed in our draft report include improving enforcement of tour bus passenger loading zones, establishing more tour bus loading zones where necessary, establishing paid on-street parking spaces for tour buses, so they can park someplace when they're waiting for their tours to come back. facilitating a plates for tour buses to be -- place for tour buses to be parked overnight. currently there isn't any place in the city where tour buses can park securely overnight. and also, considering the establishment of a permit program to permit tour buses to operate in san francisco, and
1:27 pm
that's something that the legislation that supervisor chu is bringing forward today would help us to accomplish. so that's pretty much summarizes what's in the plan. we've released it to all interested parties and we're happy to take comments on that draft proposal. >> could you tell the public what the process isst >> the first step was to make some changes to transportation code section one, which is on the agenda this afternoon. the future steps would need to be approved by the sfmta board of directors following public hearings and outreach with all interested parties. >> i have a feeling there are a lot of folks in this room that would love to give you feedback as well as see this policy
1:28 pm
become enacted as soon as possible. do you have copies of it that you can circulate to folks who are here? >> i don't have enough today, no, but i can email them to anybody who would like a copy or send copies. >> so one thing i might suggest, and i know supervisor olague is in touch with her constituents and we are in touch with ours in district three, as i'm heaping to circulate this to all the folks who are here that we have emails to, and hopefully get any feedback over the next couple of weeks to then move our legislation forward that would implement one piece of that, and then hopefully kick it back to the m.t.a. to finish up the rest. >> great. and i just wanted to mention that, i guess we have a list of presenters today. we may call you back, i'm quite sure. so thank you. >> i also know that there is someone here from the department of public health,
1:29 pm
and i'm not sure who that individual is. but tom, who manages noise issues, promised me that there was a staffer that was going to come to present on the specific proposal concerning loud speakers. >> good afternoon. my name is patrick, and i work with tom. he's the manager. couldn't be here today. i don't have a really prepared summary for you today, other than to say that the health department has reviewed the ordinance specifically around the idea of a 50-foot rule, audability rule for the loudspeaker tour buses. we did do sort of a feasibility study of the buses to see whether or not that rule was practical and determined that it was. you can operate the bus and the audible speaker and have it not be audible from 50 feet away, and still have the people
125 Views
IN COLLECTIONS
SFGTV: San Francisco Government Television Television Archive Television Archive News Search ServiceUploaded by TV Archive on