more realistic program that would work for everyone, the orange dots you see, they're actually 60 feet tall and sitting on the field, in between the fields actually by unward. the intent is to lower the light poles so you can't see them from the perimeter and minimize the impact beyond the park the others are small lights along the pedestrian pathways, and the purpose of that is to have safe entrance and exit for the facility during evening hours. here's just a simple floor plan of the restroom. we're not intending to renovate the exterior. it's a historic contributor to the golden gate park historic district but we'll be guth the rest rooments inside, improving the size and scale of the fixtures inside so it acomdamentse the users and it

will also be ada compliant. parking lot improvement. currently the parking lot hosts about 50 parking stalls. it's an irregular shaped parking space and as i mentioned kind of in insafe condition. a lot of users come, drop kids off and let them practice and pick them up. there's not a formal pickup and drop-off zone, which we are proposing. there is a new pathway from j.f.k. we're going to expand the parking lot by 20 stalls. it will also share four new a.d.a. parking stalls and at the south end of the parking lot will be the new storage structure for the operations staff. so i wanted to talk briefly -- that's the overview of some of the elements of the project. i wanted to talk briefly about the golden gate master plan. i know neil mentioned it briefly as part of the general

plan review process but i wanted to point out that the department recognizes that goaltender -- golden gate park is separated into to distinct sections, the east end, the more developed area and the west end is more sylvan and pastoralnd we recognize that and respect that and try for that goal. but if you look deeper into the master plan -- plan, that concept an over over-arching concept but there is specific language in the plan that poisonous to athletic facilities and i want to just briefly touch on some of those. in the objectives and policies they recognize major recreation be areas in the park and beach chalet is clearly marked as the a major recreation area with specific purposes for athletic play, soccer. others have that also, like the fly casting pool or the golf course. they're intended for a specific use and that's the way the

master plan recognized thep. the second it in the recreation facilities portion of the of the master plan. it recognizes that this facility is heavily used, has maintenance problems is -- and is a recognized recreation facility in the infrastructure. then the last two sections point to two specific plan areas that are for the west end of the park. one is the west end plan. the other is the richmond-sunset treatment facility plan. both talk to each other in that section. the west end plan briefly reflects itself back to the other plan but essentially what it's saying is that the west end doesn't have the activity it should. we need to bring more positive activity to the west end and activate that space. the master plan considers adding a fifth soccer pitch where the treatment facility used to be. it also recognized that a 30 to 40-car parking lot should be added at that area. it contemplates the addition of

a 2,500 square foot pavilion which would be a community space, a place for roller skating, bike rentals -- those are all great and we think that our project dovetails with that goal. obviously with our field -- field and increased use the need to expand another soccer field to the south isn't necessary, adding an additional parking lot at the south end isn't required. we're achieve all those goals and that's clearly articulated in the master plan as a direction we should be moving. we shouldn't be expanding our recreation facilities, we should be improving the foot print are -- of where they exist now so they meet the demands of the public. you have have information in your packet. i don't want to read through this but i have some quotes here from the master plan. i'm sure you have read those. with that i want to talk briefly about next steps.

obviously we're here for approval today on the e.i.r. process. our goal is to move forward into design development bit end of the year and move forward in 2013 and it -- have a rickon cutting hopefully everybody can participate in in the end of 2013. do that i'd be happy to answer any questions. president fong: commissioners, any questions at this time? if not i'm going to go straight to public comment. because there is a large crowd and we want to hear as many as possible, we will keep the comment to two minutes. i have a number of speaker cards. chief is in the room and with your indulgence i'm going to ask the chief first. >> thank you, commissioner, i appreciate it. i'm here to speak a little bit about the two parks. obviously muni levy ward isn't

what we're talking about today but as a former captain of bay view and can tell you what it did for silver terrace and garfield in the mission and kimball playground where we actually have officers coach the kids, when the facilities renovated, it gives kids positive voice -- choices to engage in positive exist -- activity, and especially at-risk kids in the community of color. i've played on these since i was a kid. my kids played there. the police soccer team plays there. this is a fabulous location, but i have turned ankles and knees and i've seen how these kids play, again at gar field, kimball and silver terarkse whether it's junior giants -- the way that you can activate these spaces to engage young people, and if the lights have been reduced in height as they have been so it's not seen outside, there are things that have always gone on in the

bushes in and around beach chalet, whether narcotics use, prostitution, a haven for auto burglars to play one foot off the gutter, it all activates the space and i think any time that's done it's a good thing for public safety and i for one would be for anything that gets more activity of a positive space especially for young people as we try to give kids positive choices here in san francisco. so with that i'll leave it at that. >> thank you for that. [applause] dd sin >> as we go forward with the public comment if we could deviate and take all those who have special accommodations? if we have anyone who has a

special accommodation that would like to speak now? come. i mean, come up. >> good afternoon. my name is george wooding. i work with several neighborhood groups throughout the city. san francisco, and i am against the soccer field being, synthetic soccer field being built in beach chalet. first i want to say i love soccer. my son played soccer. i have coached soccer. i've also been a sponsor of several soccer teams in san francisco. this project will permanently transform golden gate park by placing seven acres of plastic

and chrome and rubber artificial turf and lights on 60-foot-high poles. at least 60 seats for spectators. 9 project would permanently transform san francisco's crown jrblings golden gate park, a nationally recognized historic site which has been cherished for generations as -- for its naturalistic beauty. it's a unique natural area within the confines of a major estimate the area, only 500 feet from the ocean, is listed on the national register of historic places and is the first large urban park built west of the mississippi river. i do not approve of this project. this reminds me very much of when the cable cars were going to be removed from san francisco and there was one person that stood up and said no, you can't do that and now

they're a treasured asset to san francisco. you cannot pave over a grass field in an urban area with such limited urban areas. there are altern atevbs for these fields. especially you might want to consider the west sunset which is being considered in the 2012 general obligation bond. thank you very much for your time. [applause] >> if i can just interrupt for just one second, there is one thing i did not do. and that's to state that this, the planning commission and recreation and park commission will hold one public hearing for the public to provide testimony on all items that are listed below that i read into the record earlier which includes consideration of whether to certify the e.i.r.. following the public hearing the planning commission will consider action on certifying the final environmental impact report, adoption of findings

under the california environmental guatemala act and the recreation and parks commission will then consider action on improving the project and certifying the ceqa findings. i just want everyone to know that as you come to the podium to speak you have the opportunity to speak on all of those components and this is your only opportunity to speak on each component. >> madame secretary, may i add that while this is a heated issue that the two commissions won't tolerate any clapping, cheering, booing, hissing sounds and i think we'll get through this hearing in a proper fashion. ? thank you very much. ok. >> good evening, commissioners. my name is denise and i'm opposed to this project and i

think soccer is a wonderful and exciting game and more sports facilities are needed for our children. however, the selection of the beach chalet is inappropriate. it is such a beautiful meadow, and transforming it into synthetic turf is like telling our children that nature has a low priority for their lives. it is also hard to believe that school age children will be playing soccer into the night and in the fog. our society is -- with all its gadgets is already undermining our inclination as human to interactions. now we're depriving our connection to the natural world by killing off plants and animals now extant in the meadow and its surrounds. please find an altern atevb to the destruction of our natural

heritage. thank you. >> any other special accommodations? >> and then, you, sir. >> him. as you can tell, i'm blind. what i'd like to do first of all is say, it's interesting, today i was listening to cnn and they had a list of the five best cities in the united states for parks and san francisco was number one. now, i think one thing that's interesting, we always talk about our parks and usable space as though the sword of damocles it handing over our head and we don't have usable space. we should remember the rest of the world is watching what we're doing here. when john mclaren planned the pork -- park he cared as much about echo systems as he did

about usable space. if we are able to maintain the natural grass we can meet both goals. i'm also here to speak as a blind person. i rec hearing somebody talk about how the grass feels and looks like real grass but it will never smell like real grass. the reason i say this is next time you smeal -- smell ralph lauren polo i want you to think about what that smell was based on. it was based on the smell of fresh-cut grass. everybody in the parks enjoys the parks in different ways. one of my favorite smells in the whole world and since i've become blind six or seven years ago it's become a reeducation about how a human being with enjoy and appreciate nature. and one of my favorite smells that always makes my day is the smell of fresh cut grass. 9 sounds of birds singing -- i realize there is difficulty in maintaining a grass lawn but also would bring your attention

to wlfer -- whenever the astroturf was aremoved from candlestick park it was a call for local and national celebration. so think about what you would be depriving me and other people in my community if you replaced it with synthetic turf and thank you for your time. [applause] thank you. >> again, no applause, please. >> all right. my name is jarrod faulkner. my father was with the recreation and park kept for -- department for many years strit from world war ii through the year he retired. i was inculcated in a lot of this stuff in the traditions of rec and park. basically golden gate park was originally intended to be a very rural in character. it was an outgrowth of the teachings of frederick law

ohmstead who -- olmstead who designed central park. the western side of the park particularly was supposed to be kept rural. what's been proposed in this case with the astroturf and everything else is turning everything on its head. i know my father wouldn't have approved of it. jack spring wouldn't have. virtually any of people -- people around rec and park over the years would disapprove of this. there are several issues involved. first of all as to endangered species, the san francisco garter snake which is very endangered and the red leg frog, another very indangered creature, they're particularly here for san francisco and the northern peninsula. golden gate park is one of the places where they still survive. also the bright lights that are being brought in are going to create a lot of problems on the pacific flyway.

those 60-foot klieg lights are just what's needed to drive the birds off. the whole thing is frankly a monday atrocity. i -- monstrosity. i was a recreation director in the patcht before 1908 and i know a lot of the playground like mission, sunset, i was a director, i've seen what they've done. they've wrecked them with astroturf. frankly it's an abortion, nothing else. i strongly urge you to disapprove of this. thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners, or nearly good evening. i wish -- i'm adrienne burger. i live here in the city and i read this letter for myself and for an organization i'm part of. action for nature say child-focused organization opposing recreation and parks

department's proposal to introduce artificial turf parks into the golden gate park, replacing natural plantings with rubber and chrome material. it degrades the habitat, removes windbreaks, trees and decreases the darkness of the night sky and the wild nature of a -- an ocean beach. it will require a major area of the park to be paved. it would change the overall character of the western edge of the park from a sylvan retreat to that of an adult complex for sports. action for nature encourages young people to better their environment and foster love and respect for nature. for 10 years action for nature has given awards to children around the world 8 to 16 who have done something wonderful

to protect or improve the environment. one of last year's winners was clair drosske of san francisco. her research shows -- showed that runoff levels of be artificial turf had dangerous levels of heavy metals and would to -- potentially be dangerous to the health of humans and wild life. in addition because of the proximity of the artificial turf to the ocean the runoff water could also endanger myron -- marine wild life. and synthetic turf does not biodegrade and would end up clogging land fills after 10 or 15 years of use. belinelli -- >> thank you. >> thank you very much. may i leave this with anybody? >> thank you. i'm going to call several names at a time and if you -- ok. are there any parents with

children? ok. why not don't we do this. we're going to all night tonight line up on the left hand side of the room so if you need to depart early with kids, and young man in the blue, why don't you approach the podium? i will say tonight if we have an opportunity -- if you have an opportunity to get your point across in less than two minutes, that would be great. if you find yourself with comments and positions that have been mentioned before, you are welcome to abbreviate your comments and if you are speaking from a groip, a team, an organization, maybe you want to have all your teammates and organization raise your hand in support, that might help us get through the evening as well. so thank you. the mike is yours. two minutes. >> and mr. president, all of you on this side, on my left, i

need i to line up over here so you don't block the doorway. if you could just move to the other side of the room, we with would very much appreciate it. >> my name is kurt freudenberg and i play on a soccer team called the sunset stars and i think we should change the beach chalet field into a turf field because last, like a few weeks ago when i played there i slipped and i hurt my back really badly, and usually when it rains, it usually makes a lot of mud and holes and a lot of kids slip there. and sometimes when i go to places like that or sometimes like the polo field, it's usually closed because they're making new grass. and when i want to go to south

sunset soccer fields, it's turf so i usually want to go there but it's usually all filled up because everyone wants to play on the turf. so i think we should change the beach chalet fields into turf. >> thank you. ok. those who are organizing the kids coming in, if approximate you can stop bringing them in until some leave the room -- [laughter] >> we need to -- i mean, again, you create a fire hazard. you're standing in front of the doors, there's no way to get out in the aisleways. this side of the room is obviously crowded. those who are not on that side if you can go back outside and just wait for somebody to leave and then come in so that we can get through this. reasonably. >> next speaker? >> i just want to -- >> soir the did as a parent when the grass fields are very, very often closed for rain and not necessarily because it's raining during the practice

time but if it's rained the day before or sometimes even the day before that it's very frustrating for the kids to not be able to get out and have their practices and games. as a parent we've done a lot of research from the emails on the safety of the turf and as a parent who obviously has two children that play soccer and love them very much, i'm not at all concerned about their safety on the turf. the lighting is very important because in the winter as you know it starts to -- >> thank you. >> oh. ok. >> do you have a group here? a team that you are representing? >> a club. >> do you want to bring them all forward and kind of speak for them? >> most of you might know me as an author and journalist, but i am also a volunteer for kids

and as of march i'm the president of vikings youth soccer league. vikings soccer programs have over 7,000 kids in the city and combined with police activities league, mission league, bay area scorers, many of the kids are here today, it adds up to 9,000 kids, which still does not include the other 3,000 kids playing c.y.o. and san francisco unified youth soxer. we're spread out over the entire city, every zip code, every elementary school in thely -- city where the kids play soccer. the question everyone wants to know about the kids is do they play at beach chalet? the answer is that primarily from third grade on, all the leagues put their kids into each other's leagues and we do schedule them at beach chalet and all these kids are affected by beach chalet. the question about grass fields is will they suffice? and the grass fields unfortunately are locked.

the better the field, the more it has to be locked. i know the concern here is will families be leaving and are families leave and is this one more thing? so our next speaker is a child who is moving to hills borrow in july over this kind of issue. ty swensson. >> yes, i am leaving to hills borough. it's because -- belinelli -- chime chime --ing [belinelli] >> it's because i really want beach chalet to become turf and there aren't that many turf fields so my family is moving so i can play socker for more time. of the year. >> my name is luke bronson and i support the turf. the reason is i live in the richmond neighborhood and i -- when i want to play on the school night when i have no

homework and nothing to do, when i go out to beach chalet it's always locked to let the grass grow or something like that. if it's turf they don't have to let the grass grow, and kids will be able to play and it will triple the playing time. if you triple the playing time it results in more fun for the kids and i think that's better, as a child. >> i'm shay coburn and i support the turf because a lot of the time when i'm at beach chalet on my team we -- when we're playing against tough teams which are every time, a lot of the time when we're running or getting a pass we either have our tracks are either missing the ball because it turns through holes in gaps or it bounces right over us, right over our foot [belinelli]

because it's not a straight feel. it's bumpy and has holes in it and i've actually almost broken my ankle in one of the geoffer holes at this field and i definitely think it should become turf. >> hi, my name is jake mccambridge. kids and coaches support turf. it saves san francisco money and water. kids and coaches support turf because it's more playing time and they can get better at their soccer. >> my name is benjamin and i also support the turf because i'm more of a passing player than a shooting and dribbling player. [laughter] so whenever i pass the ball on grass fields it usually always goes over a bump, which makes the pass uncomplete.

[laughter] >> hi, that's my son. my name is steve. five years ago we came to supervisors, i have a picture because the fields of san francisco were still terrible back then and we asked supervisors if they could please make the fields better. we refused to play on the grass fields because they were so bad. buckets of dirt to fill the holes. the fields of san francisco, no matter what you do -- i love grass, i love golden gate park. i probably spend more time in golden gate park than anyone else, ok, but the graves san francisco cannot be kept up how much work we need. crocker am adon, the person who said it's an aberation, if you want to see a great complex in this city, go to crocker amazon and see what they do there, 1,000 kids playing soccer all day.

it's an amazing place and we can build another amazing place. it's a great thing for the city and a great thing for the park. >> thank you. next group of players or -- ok. >> one more announcement. for those of you who are taking pictures, i really hate doing this all the time but when you use your flash it really does irritate some of the commissioners so you can take all the pictures you want to take, just don't use flash, please. thank you. i need some kids -- please stop bringing kids in. you keep doing that. please stop doing that. we're crowded. let some people leve and then bring some more in. thank you. >> i am an immigrant frp el salvador. i coach three-point different teams and this year, two of my teams were r