in the city that we work closely with. thank you for being here. sf travel, thank you for being here. the building and a business association owners, thank you for being here. i want to highlight the hard work of the san francisco municipal transportation agency. we are thrilled to be working with you and your team. i want to thank the directors nolan, heinicke, brinkman. i think i got everybody. from the recreation and parks department, thank you. making sure we are connecting the city and connecting the parks. i want to recognize charlie johnson from the mayor's office of disability. i know we have a guest from the department of public works.

the commander from the police department, we are honored to be working with you. we have an sf frfolks from sf environment. an amazing showing. many friends here. you know our goal. is easy. we want to be doing this every day. make bike to work day every day, with your support we will make san francisco the must bike friendly city. thank you for your support, have the bike to work day -- happy bike to work day. [applause]

>> good afternoon, everyone. this is the monday, at the 14th, 2012, a meeting of the land use and economic development committee. my name is eric mar. please give us the announcement. >> please make sure to silence all cell phones and electronic devices. items act upon will appear on the may 22 board of supervisors

agenda. supervisor mar: we have three items on the agenda today. please call item number 1. >> item number one, st. encroachment for an outdoor child play area on redwood street. >> good afternoon. this request came to us from project management on behalf of puc in conjunction with the construction of a new building at 525 golden gate bridge as mandated, -- golden gate bridge as mandated, a licensed child care facility provide a minimum of 7500 square feet of outdoor space per child. since the child care standard was built into the property

line, they will be using the sidewalk, a portion of the sidewalk will be fenced in for this child care area. in order to maintain a safe path of travel around it, sidewalks will be bold out. this was approved in conformity with the general plan, and also by a mta. there were no objections. dpw held a hearing on this item. we received no objections. we respectfully request that you move this forward. thank you. supervisor mar: let's open this up for public comment. public comment is closed. can we move this forward with a positive recommendation? >> we have three amendments on the item.

the city attorney has admitted three minor changes. the first one, you have copies. supervisor mar: so -- >> would you like me to read them? supervisor mar: it would be good if you could read them into the record. >> the first one is on page 2. >> if it is ok, i can read them into the record as well. i have them also. supervisor mar: that would be great. >> the first one is on page two, lines 4 and 5. recognizes pc needs to sign and a knowledge the encroachment permit and the agreement. before the permit will be effective. page two, line 5 and 6, identifies the only in the encroachment agreement is in the clerk's file. dpw practice is only to forward

the agreement. page two, line 15 clarifies that the puc, given its charter a 40, only to obtain those permits that are legally -- authority, only to obtain those permits that are legally required. supervisor mar: i see a nod from our city attorney. we have close public comment. colleagues, can we move these amendments without objection? can we adopt this resolution with a positive recommendation? thank you. thank you, everyone. we now have items two and three. should we call them together? we are joined by president chiu. >> item 2 -- ordinance amending

the san francisco transportation code. supervisor mar: we are joined by the sponsor. president chiu: a couple of weeks ago, we had a lengthy hearing on the situation involving to airbus's -- tour buses in many of our residential neighborhoods. this is an issue that has been longstanding. many neighborhoods and constituents have complained about noise, parking issues, and other quality of life concerns. i want to thank the mta and staff for working to put forth a draft tour bus policy to govern how our cities tour buses would operate on our city streets. item number two, the number of

transportation code amendments to move that forward. i do have a couple of amendments to take out mention of a permiting structure that we had initially discussed. at this point, we will not be moving that forward. but i would like to do is invite up jerry robbins to walk through to talk about what the mta is currently doing. >> thank you. we prepared a draft management plan in february of 2011. in the last 16 months, we have implemented many aspects of that plan. i have a summary -- it indicates which items are ongoing, which items have been completed, and which items we have dropped.

so, in august 2010, we began increasing enforcement of two airbus -- tour bus loading zones. in september, we implemented 16 short-term zones in the fisherman morris -- fisherman's wharf areas. where they would not be blocking other bosses. that has been completed. in march through may of 2010, we met with. 39 pier 30 to improve -- pier 39 to improve tour bus

operations. we have reviewed locations am union square, and that is an ongoing effort. we meet every two months to discuss the situation there and tried to work out problems. supervisor mar: can you explain why pier 39 does not support that? >> we suggested that the taxis zones and bus zones be swapped. they felt it was not necessary. they felt it was working adequately the way it was. they did agree to step up their internal management of the zone to make it work better. we did not make any legislative changes. i think we have helped the situation somewhat.

we have been working very closely with sf travel to approve the information that operators receive on how to operate in san francisco. we have a publication called the "motor coach update." it goes into quite a bit of detail. but streets they're allowed to operate on, which treats that are not allowed to operate on. we gave them the opportunity to contact me if they have suggestions on how that publication could be improved, or how the regulations could be improved. in august 2010, it discusses this permit system that we had envisioned for all tour bus operators in san francisco. every private operator would

need to work with our department to obtain a permit if they wanted to part in any of these specially designated parking zones about the city. we asked for feedback on that idea. we got some resistance from operators and we also thought it was going to be quite a difficult administrative task to outreach to companies across the country, explain this permit system, collect their fees, at issue a permit, updated every year. we are not currently proposing to pursue that at this point. that is a summary of what we have done so far. supervisor mar: when you expect the mta board to finalize this plan? >> i think we have implemented

the things that are feasible. i do not think there is -- most things were approved by the mta board as they were implemented. i do not think there is a need for them to come back and take a look at the entire plan. supervisor mar: you do not think there other things your agency can do to move things forward? >> enforcement is key. supervisor mar: to speak on the topic of enforcement, which is the topic that came up at the last meeting, i would like to invite -- >> i have been transferred over to traffic. i am working at mta. i will be coordinating the plan

to enforce any of the violations as they occur, targeting whatever locations are identified and whatever the plan is. we will be working very closely with them. i will be coordinating the activities from the district stations along with the traffic company enforcement. supervisor mar: no enforcement efforts has wrapped up within your division? >> correct. the boat ramp up as the legislation is rolled out -- we will ramp up as the legislation is rolled out. we understand the problems in the target areas and we will be dedicating our resources. supervisor mar: will you be able to track the number of citations? >> rouble issued the citations and violations -- we will issued the citations and the violations and then we will submit a full report. we have about 23 officers at mta

and we have 24 motorcycle officers that are assigned to mta now. supervisor mar: one thing that would be helpful is to understand month by month what kind of citations have been issued. many of our local tour bus operators will understand what they need to do pretty quickly. i anticipate it will be our out- of-town companies that will have more trouble getting into compliance. >> that is what we intend to do. we want to track it and see where everything is going. supervisor mar: in three months, if we could give a status report. and maybe every quarter for the first year just to understand how implementation is going? thank you. colleagues? the last person i would like to invite up is to talk about -- is tom here?

i did not see you. he is from the department of public health. he is responsible for the enforcement of noise issues. he has been working closely with my office and the operators are around legislative item number three. it gets at this issue of open- air tour bus loudspeakers. it was proposed in all these conversations of the department of public help set up a regulatory structure that his office is responsible for enforcing to ensure that our bosuses are in compliance with noise ordinances. >> good afternoon, supervisors. we have been able to meet with the operators and do some fields evaluations of their equipment and they're in a seat -- annunciation systems. we believe that -- annunciation

systems. we believe they can deliver an adequate message to their patrons and still comply with the standard at 50 feet. it is embodied in the state motor vehicle code. what we would basically do is have a local system, or local regulatory system, that allowed us to more fluidly implement the motor vehicle code compliance and have a direct location for members of the public to launch -- lodge their complaints. we could have a system or we could rapidly communicate those complaints to the operators and develop an effective mechanism for getting compliance. assuming all the parties involved try to comply with the

regulation. we are hoping for a cooperative interaction, one through which the operators recognize that it is in their best interest to try to accommodate the acoustical needs of the communities in which they are operating and report back to you how well that works or does not work. supervisor mar: initially, the legislation had an implementation date of june 1 of 2012. obviously, that will be overly challenging. i would like to propose that we change that date from june 1 to october 1. it is my hope that we will be able to get this program up and running before october 1. i want to give the industry and the department enough time to make it happen. i would have -- i would be happy

for it to be shorter. if that makes sense to folks, that is something i will propose. >> it would be helpful. >> i can tou hearr bhear tour bm inside my home. i know the 50-foot roll is a state code. can you explain why it is 50 feet and not 10 or 20 feet? as residents talked about the multiple buses in their area, there is a cumulative impact of the noise. could you explain a little bit about why it is 50 feet? it seems intuitively that it should be a better protection against noise in the vehicle code or local government been able to protect against that level of noise in a quiet

residential neighborhood. >> the standard is based upon the practicality of being able to house an annunciation system and had it function for the patrons or passengers and at the same time, the technology other than to have a personal fault -- personal amplification system or earphones. >> if the engine of a bus, that is a certain level of noise. p a system should be able to speak above that volume of the engine of the vehicle. that might be one reason why it is 50 feet? >> the reason why it is 50 feet is simply because from a practical standpoint, most stereos in cars and most

amplification systems on motor vehicles generate noise -- at 50 feet, it is tough to get its in the lower than that. >> for a convertible car or a car that has a cover on it that is not a convertible, i would understand that you would need your car stereo. but when it is an open air car like -- half of the companies have these on coverage vehicles, it is different than if it is a covered vehicle or a bus. >> they are vehicles like cable cars without sides and they had speaker systems that car formatted in a variety of configurations. what we observed is by turning them down to a level where they were audible for the passengers, they were not audible at 50 feet

primarily because of the noise generated by denise -- diesel engines. when they become very quiet, the announcement -- in other words, we will need amplification system that modulates with the ambient noise level. there is electronic equipment that will do that. >> i essene different examples and i could hear the tour buses go by my house from inside the house. but i was standing outside of city hall and a person who went by and i could not hear anything. it sounds like regulation of the sound is critical. i am not sure why i would hear it inside my house. maybe the ones that go by in the inner richmond need to be looked at as being too loud. >> the directionality of the

speaker system is projecting upwards? those are all modifications. that is why we need the extra time in order to be able to look at each individual bus. >> that was the testimony of people from whether it was north beach or the inner richmond on eighth avenue or 15th avenue, district 5, people can hear very clearly, and it seems like it is exceeding the 50 foot requirement. if i could hear it from inside my house, it is probably way too loud. >> is a matter of whether or not your windows were open. >> my windows were totally closed. they are very secure windows. >> it must have been a very loud. >> i want to thank you and your staff with working -- for working with my office.

as we move forward, there will be some additional conversations that need to be done. i am happy to encourage that. i also have thought the 50 foot distance is a long distance. it is one that is sent out in our state transportation code and i understand that is the model we are using. but i want to save this -- say this, if it turns out after six months that this issue of noise still remains a problem, i am still very interested in the initial idea we had, which was a round wireless headphones. the feedback from the industry was that the costs are around requiring wireless headphones would be significant. i've recently been educated, the wireless headphone technology costs have gone down dramatically. there are some very cost-

effective solutions akin to what folks use in museums in other cities that we could use. if this solution does not work over the next six or 12 months, i might dust that proposal off. supervisor mar: any other questions? public comment? >> free minutes per person. -- three minutes per person. >> i have a couple of cards. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i am a member of north beach neighbors and have the honor to work with supervisor chiu, the mta, on the ordinance that went

into effect on north beach. as you can see, in north beach, we were successful in creating a little sun. we're asking operators not to operate. these are residential streets, the border joe dimaggio playground. it is also an area right bite the communities -- a right by a community center. i do not want to demonize the tour bus industry. we all benefit from that. particularly north beach. we also need this enforced. there has been zero enforcement since this went into effect bridges this weekend, 15 -- went into effect. the signs are in a factual.

we have seen a reduction in some operators, many operators ignore it. and their drivers are dismissive or rude, at best. the operation of the -- the operators of the quacking bus actually had his passengers quack at our neighbor. columbus day, a broad way, we need safety. we really need them to honor this system. thank you. supervisor mar: it would be great if your folks could focus on that no tour bus zone.

to the operators, i continue to hear that you are working on making sure your colleagues are not violating the law, but i continue to hear from dozens of residents that what we agreed on still has not been met. i called up a number of other names. if those individuals would like to speak, now is the time. >> good afternoon, supervisors. thank you for the opportunity. i am with classic cable cars. i am sorry to hear of the recent comments and will do my best to bank sure that they are addressed. -- i best to make sure that they are addressed. i think we need to hear about it as well. i will go talk to my driver's immediately to address this. we would also like to thank tom and mta for hearing loss.

you've been able to find common ground for our organization. we are very appreciative. thank you for that. from the neighborhood perspective, i would like to apologize. we want to be good neighbors, too. supervisor mar, we will work to address those. there are a couple of concerns, thank you for the deadline. it helps the operators association to be able to implement this. there are a few concerns we have regarding the fee structure. if we could set up a meeting soon thereafter with the cochairs of tour operators association, that would be appreciated. there are many questions surrounding not. the other mentioned, i would like to talk about that is