to be too generous are our land use when comes to formula stores, but we have pronounced needs that mom and pop stores would not solely be able to provide support for our neighbors, at least in the southeast. i can attest to that. thank you. supervisor olague? >> i just wanted to thank supervisor mar for all of your work on this and finally, i think i don't know if they have requested it, but i think this information might be of interest to the small business commission and the planning commission. so i don't know if you have the opportunity to pass on the report to them, but i think they would be interested in seeing the findings. >> thank you. so colleagues, can we continue this item to the call of the chair without objection? thank you. [ gavel ] miss miller please call item no. 2. >> item no. 2, ordinance amending the transportation code to redistrict large vehiclñ >> thank you, i know there is a lot of people here to testify on this item.

supervisor carmen chu is the sponsor. >> thank you very much, chair mar, for having this item before the committee today. i wanted to thanks supervisor cohen, who is a co-sponsor of this legislation. i want to layout of the folks who will be speaking today. i will say a few opening comments. the mta will do a quick presentation for you of the legislation. of course, the mta is here if you have additional questions. i believe that we have somebody from nancy miers from and the bayview station is also here to speak about some of the issues that they have faced in the neighborhood. generally the legislation is a fairly straightforward piece of legislation and takes all of two pages. so it's a pretty straightforward one. it primarily allows for the mta, who is the body who does regulate parking in the city overall to be able to restrict where they see that there is a need and where they do post

signs oversized vehicles as defined as 22' in length or 7' in height. campers or trailers, 5th wheel travel trailers, house cars, travel couch mobile homes as defined by the california vehicle code between of the hours of 12:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. this is not intended to be a citywide restriction. it's only area s where the mta would create management opportunitis in different parts of city. we first came across the issue because of many of the constituent issues in the sunset district. i want to be clear this is not something unique to the sunset. we have seen this problem replicated in other parts of city. colleagues i have passed out a number of remails that we received from all over the place, whether from the bayview or richmond district, et cetera.

we have a ton of emails coming through about this legislation. i would say that no legislation is perfect and that is why we did not pursue a citywide ban on oversized vehicles. in many parts of the city, especially the area that i represent, there is a lack of parking regulations that make neighborhood streets a very attractive street for the storage of large, oversized vehicles. this is also true where you have large, unbroken areas of concrete, where you don't have driveways or other things that break up parking available. we have seen panel trucks, construction vehicles, dump trucks, recreational vehicles, campers, parked all over the cro. city. for many of us, some of these vehicles are impeding the visibilities for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists.

they also create a very large barrier that present areas for undesirable behavior that we have seen in our neighborhoods. i think this is also true all over the place. we know that we have been working on this issue for quite some time. so this is not a piece of legislation that we brought willy nilly and off the fly to the board. over the past several years we have been working with our neighborhoods to really enforce the 72-hour rule and currently vehicles can't stay in a parking spot for more than 72 hours, but as many of you know that has been a very ineffective tool. by the time someone notices that a car is parked more than 72-hours and it takes a period of time before the mta or dpt and when they finally go out

there the 72-hour clock begins of so it's been a very ineffective way to regulate. so we're looking for a way to create a more flexible tool for the mta to manage parking in a better way. this legislation is aimed at oversized vehicles and to that end we did want to indicate we did meet with many people about this issue. we met with the homeless coalition and i understand that they are not supportive of the legislation and that letter has been provided to the committee as well. however, we did want to help to ameliorate some of the issues that came up. we did meet with some folks from hope, bevan dufty and others was the fact that many

of the vehicular people are reluctant to surrender their vehicles for case management. one thing we have been working on with bevan is finding a location to store vehicles should people accept services and try to move into a different housing situation. we're working towards trying to finalize something that could work and be able to house individuals, cars or rvs for a periods of time to figure out how to transition individuals. i know it's not an easy issue, not a slam-dunk issue. even though you will hear a lot of testimony will the homeless component and i certainly don't want to say that doesn't exist and people are not housed in cars. but there also a number people who are just parking their very

large vehicles all over the city and not even where think live. one study that the mta put out was an oversized vehicle parking study and found out of 208 vehicles for which the mta collected registration data, 121 were actual ly in the registered to san francisco residents and of ones that were, only 20% of those were actually parked within a quarter mile of their registration addresses so this is telling us that many people are parking their vehicles outside of where they are living. so it's a storage issue as well. again we heard much from our neighborhoods in the sunset and where it's impacting other communities and neighborhoods

across the coming up next some of the area has we heard about geneva and in the sunset and great highway and lincoln way that we have seen particularly impacted. fulton we have heard, very impacted by this, as well as brotherhood way in district 7. so this is something -- and the bayview, and a number of other places as well -- so i know this are a number of places that are impacted by the storage of oversized vehicles and sometimes individuals who may be living in some of the motorhomes as well. so i just wanted to put this proposal out there. i look forward to the conversation we'll be having today. and i will yield the floor to supervisor cohen, but after that we'll go to the mta for their presentation. >> supervisor cohen. >> thank you legislation before us and we have a number of areas all throughout the district that do not have parking restrictions. this has led to many problems

with a number of oversized and abandoned vehicles, many of which accumulate graffiti and obstruct pedestrian crossings blight in the neighborhood. and in evaluating this proposal, my office discussed the legislation with a number of merchants, as well as neighborhoods organizations. i will admit i look forward to having the ongoing conversation with the homeless coalition, but what i have heard from nearly all corners of the district, including bayview and other areas that they are actually in support of this legislation, because it's a pilot program that recognizes the impact of these [sthra-ebgz/] vehicles that they have on our neighborhoods and takes into consideration and accommodates those that may be living in their vehicles, families in particular. i know that sfmta has proposed a number of pilot locations

after consulting with many neighborhoods, as well as the police department and i would like to be added as a cosponsor to the legislation and i will be supporting it. >> thank you, supervisor. why don't we go to bond. >> good afternoon, mr. chair, members of board, supervisor chu, bonds yee from the sfmta. i think supervisor chu said it very well. i couldn't possibly add anymore to what she has detailed. but i do want to emphasize that this is a pilot that we're proposing. and we're very mindful of the double-edged sword type of impact it could have on outside residents and businesses. so we're going to be very careful in working with you and

businesses and everyone else impacted by this so select the locations that are going to be the most impacted by this proposed pilot. before-and-after evaluation, to )guq ",ñonly going to be implementing this regulation on streets that are going to be specifically signed.q;bi gb as in terms of the signage that is needed to effectuate this change. and i will be glad to answer c9ñ may have. >> actually, i did want to say that i really appreciate the map that was proved on one of the mta drafts this shows the most impacts areas seem to be district 10, 4 and 6 were about

80% of the identified 461 vehicles are located. and there is more minimal impacts, but i live on fulton street, near golden gate park. and i know there are a number of vehicles that people don't live in the ones that i see. there is more produce market trucks and larger rv -type vehicles that it doesn't seem anybody is living there. do you have any sense of what kind of vehicles of 461 that people may be living in? >> i don't have a specific breakdown, but i'm familiar with the ones on fulton because i grew up there. that is the situation where you have large vehicles being warehoused in the neighborhood because it's convenient to leave them overnight or for several days at a time. i can't speak for sure whether or not they are the byproduct of someone when is operating a business out of their home or just a convenient place to kind of just warehouse their vehicle

between their business activities. >> have we ever considered some kind of residential permit for vehicles of people that live close to them, that use them maybe for work or that may legitimately need to park it somewhere like along fulton, for example? >> right in this case if the legislation is put into effect, we'll on the be working on the blocks that we have consensus with the residents that they want that type of regulation in place. the ones that don't, or they have vehicles that could be impacted by this, and we would not include those blocks and they would still be eligible for parking permits if they are in such an area. >> thank you. >> thank you. and i believe we have also nancy meyer and officer sue levine to say a few words.

>> good afternoon. i am nancy and i'm an enforcement supervisor with the department of parking and traffic division and we're in support of this measure. we have had tremendous impact in many communities like the mission district where the vehicles are so oversized you can't get a street line. and it's actually really dangerous for pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers. so we do support it and i'm here to answer any questions that you might have. >> thank you. >> supervisor or through the chair, if we could, i think the legislation again is a fairly simple one. it allows for the mta, if you will notice in the legislation it doesn't spell out

specifically what areas will be included. that is within the mta's board to put that into legislation because we want to provide the mta with flexibility to see how this parking management could help and what the impacts are. so we wouldn't want to put that into the legislation. and so again, it is not a citywide regulation. all it does is proves the mta with the ability to say in certain area s where we're seeing problematic issues that we're able to restrict oversized vehicles from parking overnight from 12-6 a.m. again we're seeing as a noted that there are a large number of people who are storing vehicles on the city streets without much consequence.

of the 208 surveyed registers vehicles that were oversized vehicles, again only 24 were actually parked within a quarter mile of where they were living. so it's a very clear sign this a lot of folks are using city streets, especially in areas that may not have parking restrictions or have unbroken sidewalk areas to park vehicles. so colleagues i would ask for your support. i know you are going to take public comment and i look forward to that. >> let's open it up to public comment. >> i have a number of speaker cards. if you do hear your name, please do line up against the wall and we'll go through one person at a time. [ reading speakers' names ]

then i will call more as we go. please come on up. >> good afternoon, my name is lisa and i represent laplaya park neighborhood watch. and just -- i want to say one thing very quickly about the homeless situation. this is personal opinion only. i see no reason why each neighborhood doesn't have a lot somewhere where they can house the vehicles where people are unfortunate enough to have to live in a camper. with that aside, it's one of the major issues and i understand that in this whole thing. i'm speaking only to safety. i have lived at ocean beach for the past four years. and in the last year, in particular, it has become far more dangerous situation down there. we have had armed robberies, things that didn't exist before. and i have heard information, i

don't know how accurate this is that people that i have seen -- i have seen doing illegal activities. but i have heard from a few sources that there were actually people that had warrants out for their arrests that we're being housed in some of these vehicles. i have been very active in calling in the vehicles. pretty much to no avail, as you said, carmen, by the time anybody gets around to it, they have moved a block away and there doesn't seem to be a lot of repercussions. i don't feel safe. there is a lot of waste, as carmen said that is being dumped. it's a

beautiful area, but mostly i just think that it's fair to limit the parking of these vehicles. thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon everybody. i am mary ellen collins and i'm a homeowner with the laplaya park homeowner. i have lived there for 15 years. and just as it says in the legislation, and in some emails that we have sent around, the increase of robberies, theft, assault, i can't tell you about every two weeks i'm hosing off human excrement from the side gate of my house to the threatening behavior that have i experienced because i have screamed to guys doing drug deals out of their camper outside of my house. i think the quality of life issues as a

homeowner and taxpayer that i'm entitled to and i'm not denigrating the efforts of homeless coalition. i applaud them and i want to see us come up with a solution pore them, but it's not safe for me to live in my neighborhood anymore. carmen will attest to me becoming 5' with a 6' mouth. i am driving anybody who will listen crazy. i hear you and really hope you continue to solve of the homeless problem and allow us to get some quality of life back into our neighborhood. that is why i am here and i'm hoping that the legislation goes through so we can have that. our neighborhood watch group is more than happy to help you in

other areas. we'll help canvas the area. thank you very much. >> next speaker. >> kareem, i'm a long time trucking owner here in san francisco: >> sir, could you please pull the microphone closer to your mouth. >> there is a number of companies near the san francisco produce mart. and we have been very concerned about this. two months ago i was at a hearing where toland street was trying to be -- there was a legislation that was attempting to have no-parking 12 a.m. to 6 a.m. everyday. if you go by the produce time literal any time in the night there are trucks everywhere and it would have a tremendous impact on us. i have been talking to the people who are doing this

legislation for several months now that it's supposed to be residential area only. however, it's written it can be anywhere. so our concern is that legitimate business use of the street at night by trucks, and buses, will be a big problem. and if you try to do it block-by-block, the only thing i see is that if you tag one block, everybody is going to move to another block. so it will just keep leapfrogging along like that. anyway, please keep in mind our legitimate business use for trucking and business activities. >> thank you. next speaker. >> hello. thank you for letting me speak. i believe this is unfair. this is an unfair proposition. i don't know why you came up with this. we live in our vehicle, me and my wife. we have a very enjoyable life. we decided to live in our bus

because we can't afford to live indoors. we like the gypsy lifestyle and if you restrict where we park, we'll have a tough time living this. is unfair. do you understand? this is also unfair for a lot of businesses that have big vehicles that need and burning man people that have their vehicles on the streets, artists like us. we don't think that some of the points brought up, like the safety issue. what kind of safety issue is this? so that tall vehicles -- i mean, there are tall vehicles everywhere. i mean, isn't the safety issue during the day when people are out walking and biking? this ordinance is only for at night, right? and then the other thing is that this is a

pro-developer and landlord bill, not for the poor, not for small business, not for artists. i would like to say it's unfair. let's see, we have a functional life. we are independent and we are responsible and we do not want the shelter life or small hotel room.

>> i can't believe that they don't -- they don't actually encourage people to move no their vehicles when everybody is getting foreclosed, and everybody is losing their jobs and this is actually a responsible option. there is a misconception that people that live in their

vehicles are irresponsible and lazy, but we have to be careful with the cops and careful with the parking restrictions and that we don't bother anybody. many people who live it they are vehicles, who are disabled people, emotionally socially disturbed people. we are some of the healthiest ones, but many people that is the only way they can live and if you suddenly paralyze their lives, it's just going to be more homeless people that are really freaked out. if suddenly they take your car away and all of your stuff, we build a life there for years and for me it's a dream to have this bus. i would love to be able to travel more, but i haven't become famous yet. i

am thankful it's not all around the city and you are actually considering a transition consideration. >> thank you. >> let me ask you this question, he talked to you outside earlier. how long have you lived in the city? >> i have lived in the city since '96 on and off. i was homeless for a long time. i slept in the park for a long time and i was undocumented and couldn't have my own vehicle. it was dream for me all my life to have a bus and travel around and be a musician and finally in the last few years we have had that. we have never had had a problem in the place we sleep. >> you have had the bus for about five years? >> this bus in particular for three years. before that, smaller vans. >> it's 24'? >> ours is 24' by 9'. but we have all the right

instruments and we can do our concerts ourselves of it. i don't see how i could even play my music in an apartment, because i would be in trouble with the neighbors . thank you very much. your time is up. >> my name is tony robles and on the board of heritage foundation. i think we would be remiss if we didn't frame this discussion in terms of class and economics. you talk about safety, you know? and harm being done to our community. let's not forget the banks. let's not forget the elders that end up in vehicles

or who end up nowhere. who have been incredibly damaged by our financial institutions, who are ending up in situations that nobody should end up. and nobody talks about the damage that they are doing. at least nobody in the media. you know, it's always those people in the cars. those people. the homeless people as if they were a tribe of people from outer-space. people who work, people who have jobs, they end up in vehicles. often times it happens. you know, you lose your place of residence. i know people that are employed that end up in their rv or end up in their car. and it's not a choice. you know, it's a result of extreme poverty. i mean, the housing, trying to get on waiting lists. trying to navigate those systems can