investments that are greatly needed in the transit services that are greatly needed in my district, and i see the need to be able to look at how we fit in the region, and i support overall that as well as high speed rail and yet by supporting this i know i make it less likely to support transit services in my own neck of the woods, and that's -- i think that's part and parcel how it's very difficult for parts of my district and southern part of san francisco to really get the services we need. now cal train doesn't go through my district. it's close by. a lot of my residents from my district perhaps use it but there are other needs not being done, so i'm going to be supportive certainly, but i know this is

the dichotomy i face practically with every decision before this body that we're committing resources to places that aren't necessarily going to help my district and parts of san francisco that are needed. i see the director coming up. >> well, i can't miss the opportunity. mr. chairman, commissioners. assistant director. a couple of things. san francisco as the historic center of the region has had a long standing relationship with the regional transit service providers. it's not just cal train but also bart, ac transit, serves san francisco, golden gate transit. the multiplicity of providers is far superior to other places in it is region. there is a great advantage to the city in having that at our

disposal in a sense because it definitely result in the lotional advantage for businesses and for our universities and for our commercial life and so on. it even has effects on the value of real estate, things like that. there is always been a love hate relationship with the transit providers in the sense when it comes time to distribute limited amounts of resources we always think how we deal with the needs of the city itself and muni and its services and so on, but there clearly needs to be a relationship, and that relationship i believe firmly is more productive if we are at the table as a funding partner because then we have the ability to help guide the decisions that are made by the regional providers. i think in the case of cal train that is very, very

true. it doesn't take away the need to have resources to deal with the local issues and what your comment highlights is the need for a picture of investment that doesn't stop at just the local stuff but also looks at regional and tries to come up with a set of priorities so we don't have to make these decisions on a piecemeal basis, and one of the documents that we had put together in the past and are updating right now to help us make sense of the decisions is the san francisco transportation plan, this 30 year plan, that looks precisely at those issues, and the cost and benefits of being a funding partner to those, and then puts them in a context of the regional transportation plan, which is the larger sweepstakes how federal money is allocated, so in the end we wind up with a

stronger piece of advocacy and policy in transportation funding and allows us to capture more of the regional money and convincing the region to invest in high speed rail. we have made progress in that because the high speed strategy that the region has has bought into the strategy and we have initial phase of that until all of the funding is identified we have to make some early commitments, but there will be quite -- >> well, i can appreciate that by making the commitments now it helps leverage other funding from the feds and the region as well and there is a regional component as well, but we have another item coming after this and i know we haven't actually made a commitment from the mayor's office for uncertified funds of seven-point $5 for balboa park station although we

are looking for it. the needs are greater than we can list there and that is the nature that we see. i will be supportive of this but i want to call out the attention how we're faced with these tough choices that affect how we allocate local resources for even regional projects in which balboa park station -- >> the point is well taken. thank you commissioner. >> okay. any other parts of your presentation? >> any questions you may have. >> colleagues? we can go on to public comment. any member of the public would like to comment please come forward. thank you for your presentation. >> i am robert millbower in district 11. i appreciate the chair's comments about the

dichotomy about making the decision when you have all these projects lined up and few funds to go around, and just in the interest of transparency and i know there is a presentation on balboa park but what are the opportunity costs that we're losing here if we commit for this project and admittedly it doesn't have a direct benefit to me but balboa park is a day to day station that i use, and if you have been out there it's just a mess, so i want you to just heighten that we have to make these difficult decisions and sometimes we may have to reinvent the way we approach things. i'm not saying in this case because i support the goals of this larger project also, but i want everybody aware of what maybe lost in district 11, and i would like to have a sense of what the opportunity costs are going to be when we make these kind of difficult decisions.

thanks a lot. >> thank you very much. any other member of the public would like to comment? seeing none we will close public comment. okay. colleagues this item is before us. can we have a motion to approve this item and move forward with recommendation? okay. motion by supervisor kim and second by supervisor farrell and take that without objection. madam clerk our next item please. >> item seven is update on balboa park improvement. this is information item. >> good morning chair avalos, committee members. chufter fung with the authority. this is a status update on improvements to balboa park station. we are bringing this item. it's a multi-part presentation with participation of my counter parts at bart and mta. we know

there is high interest in the community and on the part of commissioners in improving balboa park station. the timing is also good. the authority approved funding from prop k and the life line transportation program and other sources for improving balboa park station. this is a chance to see how the improvements are advancing and also there are upcoming funding decisions including most immediately an application for the one bay area grant program. as i mentioned this is a multi-part presentation. i will start by providing background and context and then i will ask my counter parts to come up and talk about their projects. >> before you start let me just i was going to add some comments to begin with and i had a water spill on me and i cleaned it up and now i'm ready to go. thank you. i really appreciate this item coming forward. i have

talked a lot about balboa park station and we need great investments to go there. i see the station as full of amazing resources from cal trans to bart to muni. we have bike access, a lot of pedestrian access. a lot of it doesn't work well. it's constrained environment. the infrastructure is out dated and not much improved since the original design and structure of it as things were built. there were incremental changes recently and conflict at the site between the transit and transportation modes. i see one of the basic conflicts there. there is a sense that this site is maintenance yard, maintenance facility for muni as well as a place for tens of thousands of people go through on a daily basis either in their cars or on foot and bike, but mostly by

transit riders and that's the basic conflict, but there are many other conflicts that go on there. pedestrian issues are difficult especially if you're a person with a disability. there is limited signage how to get around. it's limited. we don't have electricity to run next muni there. the list goes on and on and it's something i committed time and effort to actually make sure that we can have something move forward. it's really hard to coordinate all the different entities from cal transes to bart and muni to work together. it's something i want to see happen. actually i have been working with many residents in my district and districts around the area and we have a advisory committee and i am excited and

the membership being approved by the board of supervisors last week and we will have the first meeting and that will bring coherence into how we're planning around the station and bringing things together and i want to thank the mta and the ta for bringing that together and i commit my office and working with the residents and departments to make sure that we can move this station forward into the 21st century and somewhere right now in the 1970's so we can do better and we will. thank you. >> thank you chair. you actually given a lot of my presentation. so with that in mind i will skip through my pieces and hand off to my counter parts. as the chair mentioned there are complex multi-interactions here. there have been efforts to improve the conditions via multiple studies that the agencies have been

involved in. some improvement ideas emerged from those studies and are under way or construction but there are more to come and there are funding decisions on those potential improvements, so just a quick update on some of the work that is being completed already. about a year ago the west side walk way was open and on the image to the right. that project was sorely needed and allows pedestrians to access the station from points north and west to get to the bart part of the station. the remaining item there is get those pedestrians to the muni light rail boarding areas and there is a project actually under way to make that final connection that bart will be talking about in just a bit. there has been a new crosswalk installed at the intersection of the 280 northbound on ramp and

ocean avenue to help pedestrians access the station from points north and to the west. i mentioned before that there have been previous studies by the agencies involved to really think about how we can improve this area and this facility. some of them have been funded by the authority and they have resulted in improvement ideas that are now moving forward and we will hear more about today. the work specifically that we will hear about today is the east side connection project that will connect the walk way to the sfmta portion of the site. bart is working on signage improvements and by counter part from bart will speak about that. sf mta has advanced improvements and funded by prop k and my colleague will talk about what they call the fast track improvements and

other improvements as well. finally there has been some movement on the idea of transit village on one of the pieces of land right around balboa park that is called the upper yard. sf mta will talk about that as well and at the end i will talk about a circulation study the authority is conducting in the area and give me details about that. the chair mentioned the new balboa park advisory committee so i won't talk much about that but i know they're constituted, pointed have been made and looking for a first meeting in january of next year. so with that at this point i will ask my colleagues from bart to give some updates on the projects that they're working on. >> chester just briefly. january of next year? we have a committee constituted. i guess

january is not too far away. >> it's not too far away. we have been in contact to get something done in december but my understanding is that schedules are a little conflicted so january seems to be the -- is that right? january seems to be the first available date. >>i thought we were still in summer. it's only two months away. thank you. >> hi good morning mr. chair and commission members. i am todd morgan and with bart and the capital development group. i am here to talk about our project under way and as was mentioned we're a year past completed construction on the west side walk way and well used these days. our current project -- let's see. i guess it's up on the screen -- has four elements. this is the base project. this project started kind of small.

our director has been involved in this. the director's desire has grown the project and the four elements up there are the crosswalk which is item one takes us from the west side to the east side and a pass through and you don't have to guthrough the trains or the paid area to get there. definitely needed and ada accessible. it would bring you to the other side of the station and where we would construct a new key stall and demolish the existing and the new and work closely with mta on this and that is element number three is the new key stop. element number two would be a cover to the new walk way and nice in the elements and it's going to look nice and not just

functional and esthetic is the intent and then you will see -- i will point it out, from essentially item number three to item number four is a salmon colored linear figure on the graph or the picture and that is going to be a new walk way so we will bring people over across bart for free and it will be a true ada constructed or accessible constructed and new improvement for the site and gets people walking where it's not such a great area to walk so that is our intent and that is our project. we are 35% complete on the engineering design. we have an estimate and design drawings and we are coordinating with mta on this. we started small but

i guess i am pleased to announce beyond the $2 million of life line money approved by this body for this project plus the programming of about $870,000 of prop k which hasn't been allocated yet bart is adding -- state share revenue money we're adding $5 million to the project because the need is that great, so that's our east side connection project in a nut shell and broad brush. >> so that east side project -- let's see. 2 million -- $8 million all together. does that cover all the aspects of the project and all these four? >> it covers those four. we have a few desires beyond the graph here and if i can speculate we will be adding more money to those as well. there's a new geneva

structure there and integrate with bus stop. >> so everything else is fully funded. >> yeah. no small thanks to our director for that. >> that's great to hear. the time line with that overall? >> so the timeline and i guess -- chester can you help me? thank you. i need a little coaching here. there is a timeline here in the following slide to where we would like to be complete with design by this coming spring and advertise in the summer and get going with construction mid to late next year -- probably not late.

>> who is in charge of that? >> we have a principal planner and tim chin and myself. i'm on the money side. we have a few other team members throughout the district that work closely with the director on this. >> thank you. so the project manager's name? >> steve capler. >> thank you. >> he's joined me today if there are questions about that. there is one more element that is included here and i can address if you're ready. >> go ahead. >> that is the weigh staging and signage and we have approved by this body a million dollars of life line funding for this project which we have a tentative date of february to go to the bart board to award and weigh funding and signage and

we like you and want to work with the community groups and the supervisor on this and we want to prioritize balboa to move ahead -- amongst the first stations to go there and the funding has been identified. the one down side of the recent bond sales the life line funding didn't come through so bart has to identify a solution to cover the million dollars for a short time until the state sells sufficient funding. >> great. what i see conceptually is great and we have been in communication with bart and i think there are a lot of elements that will work for folks and moving quickly and making sure the fund suggest available is key and i appreciate the work being done

and i know the director from bart is very helpful on that. >> played a very key role yes. >> that covers the bart elements i was going to cover before sf mta comes up and with that they are here to talk about their components. >> thank you very much mr. morgan. >> okay. thanks todd. good morning chair avalos and commissioners. i'm going to report briefly on some other improvements that we expect to deliver in the next few years. generally came out of recommendations from the balboa park station capacity study. todd was already talking about of course the pedestrian bridge and walk way that is in the center of this slide, but you

can see there are other improvements for bringing the station area that will improve safety, accessibility and comfort and convenience. here are the key tracking improvements and starting in the upper left. we have the weigh finding signs. bart is going to be putting some on their property but of course there are needs for the overall station area to help people make transfers, to help them find neighborhood attractions. you have a handout i believe that includes a couple of maps of proposed locations right around the station area within one to three blocks where we intend to put in signs. some of those will go in hopefully by the end

of december, so there's also need -- >> i actually took a tour with ms. walton last week. we had the signs going to go -- yeah, i think it's a good plan with that and i am glad to see it's going in so thank you. >> also need for weather protection, especially in the bus boarding areas, the transit plazas on geneva avenue, both sides, so we are planning shelter canopies to help with that need. there are needs for improved lighting, and we are working on the pedestrian scale lighting. that is the sidewalk and cross walk entrance and lights closely together.

important need to widen sidewalks and improve accessibility, widen the sidewalks on geneva avenue, the bus loading areas. ocean avenue also has some problems with curb ramps and this image is showing where the sidewalk has a significant cross slope problem. we're going to correct that. >> what's the plan for that and how soon? right now it's inaccessible. >> yeah. that should be done within the next about two years completed. we have life line funding which is for corridor improvements and used for those accessibility improvements. >> thank you. it's on ocean but on san jose as well where it's inaccessible sidewalks and

ramps that are actually very dangerous. >> right. so i think san jose crush ramp improvements are done by the green yard rail project and fully funded. our board is going to be approving the contract this afternoon. moving on to -- speaking of that contract one of its key components is a new accessible boarding platform on san jose for the j and the k where people are now boarding in an area that is very close to the tracks. it has major safety inaccessibility problems so this will help address that. >> are those tracks actually going to be moved? right now there is the bench point i put on the screen last week at the board of supervisors meeting so the tracks moved and the poles

taken out? is that part of the project? >> we are moving to move the poles to remove the pinch points. there isn't enough room to change the track alignment. it's so tight and part of the overall big squeeze, but that is something i will talk more about. >> great. >> finally on this slide in the lower right flashing beacons. with more people walking on ocean avenue on and from city college and crossing with high speed traffic and a flashing beacon should be funded to make it safer to cross that off ramp. >> the way they're crossing right now is called willy-nilly. >> hopefully we can take care of that. so chair avalos you were

talking about the problems -- we're calling the k j walk way and go between the san jose geneva northwest corner and the bart mezzanine entrance, and you can see those poles in yellow. it's kind of hard to make out, but there are three poles that create the pinch points. one is already funded and designed to be moved and we're working on concepts to take care of the other two besides putting in other measures that would separate the pedestrians from the tracks. like a very low berm with flexible posts and discourage people from walking next to the tracks. they won't need to get as close anyway because they won't be getting on the j and the k at that

location with the new san jose platform. >> that walk way is used by people coming up geneva and to bart and the place with the lowest slope and if you have a wheel chair or stroller that's the only way to go. >> right. that presents a dilemma and best for safety to close it off but exactly as you're saying that is the level part that people need to use. another area that we're dealing with and the ocean view platform. right now the northern most stop when you're coming up from sf state and the ocean view is