goal is to relocate k through 4 is what it looks like it's going to be now which is approximately 200 students, 200 and change students and supporting staff members to the palace of fine arts. and occasionally and for special events, k through 8 may be in the space. fortunately when we made the application, we thought we might have to have k through 8 there. fortunately we were able to keep that going in the jackson street campus and that seems [speaker not understood]. no changes will be made to the existing passive art, the fine arts building or structure. this is not an architectural building project. [speaker not understood] use of the property is effective from august 1st -- our lease is august 1st, 2013. actually before that, through end of june, 2014. there is an option to extend only through september 30th, 2014. the lease is with the department of rec and park. just want to hit on a couple key points.

this is absolutely a temporary relocation, a wonderful facility, neighborhood it is. we don't intend to or want to be there very long. we're only there because we have to. the project as i said is no new construction. we are using the building as-is, as provided by the exploratorium use. academy of arts i think painted it and did a few things. our lease is for 11 months as we said. we are using the exploratorium classrooms as they are in their currents condition. the building has been inspected extensively by the fire marshal before our occupancy. as we know, the house of fine arts for over 30 years ha provided educational and other enrichment opportunities focused on children. through the exploratorium. the building has a legal capacity of about -- in the space of the town school for boys has in our lease with rec and park, that capacity is for about 1200 people. the use as i said is primarily

children, but the capacity is 1200 people. while we would have liked to have kept jackson street and as you may know from both our hearings here before and conversations along the way and working with the department of planning, there is no means to keep the students in jackson street site and to get that building up to code let alone renovate it. fortunately, we can keep half the students in jackson street. finding temporary facilities for an education use in san francisco is very difficult. i certificatedctionv on the school board's committee to search for three years for a site. in that period of time, to find a site, there was zero capabilities. we talked to the private market, san francisco board of education, the union school district, we worked with the presidio. not that there weren't spaces we didn't like. there were no spaces to occupy. during the period of time there

was only one space that appeared, and that was in the fall of 2012 and that was the palace of fine arts. not the ymca, not the presidio or any other youth oriented private or nonprofit institution or public institution. this was the only option that appeared. the term sheet was signed by the school on december -- for park and rec site on december 20th of 2012, and by the city of san francisco's department of rec and park on [speaker not understood]. we had public hearings through the rec and park commission on february 7th and february 21st, 2013 with the lease approved [speaker not understood] by resolution public hearing february 21st. fortunately with the lease secured and the confirmation for the school, the school was able to commence its construction and require the relocation. i want to touch on our primary

concern which is number one, safety for the students and the neighbors. and our number two concern are consideration of our neighbors during our temporary stay. safety, number one concern on both sites. i want to focus on we've been working very closely with the fire department on all safety issues. and particularly we've worked closely with terry [speaker not understood], officer terry fogarty who is our local fire inspector for schools and don who is the lieutenant at the fire department who has been working on plan check. they came and inspected the facility before the school operated just last week, and wrote a glowing safety review on that [speaker not understood] approving the project as it was. i just want to note as san francisco's park and rec has learned, unoccupied public facilities degrade quickly. this facility was available between the exploratorium leaving and the long-term lease program which is going to be i

gather by rec and park. we saw [speaker not understood]. we're pleased the town school can help occupy the building, keep it active, keep it available for public use as well as for the school use and make it available, keep it safe, and keep it up during this interim period. we also appreciate the need for the conditional use permit and we appreciate the support from the planning staff. we appreciate the support from rec and park through this process and through our crazy time frames and the process that we are all working through. and lastly, we really appreciate our neighbors in the marina district who have to put up with a lot, especially right now seasonally, so, we want to thank them. not only is our intent to to be finished and out by june, we will be fully operating on jackson street by september 2014. that's my present aches. i'm here to answer any questions and help talk about any concerns you have during

our interim use occupancy. thank you for your attention. >> thank you. going to open up now to public comment. i do have a couple of cards. brendan duncan and john hook. good afternoon, my name is john hook. i'm a neighbor. i live on jefferson street. one of my main concerns -- >> sir, if i could ask you to speak directly into the microphone. my main concern is parking on baker street. it is an untolerable situation on scott street where the parents of the students have their cars lined up and sometimes they're double and triple parked to let the children off or pick them up. i'm not sure where they plan to pick up the children where there is parking behind the exploratorium. i'm not sure whether there is any requirement that the pick up is behind the exploratorium, but it should not be on baker street. baker street is already crowded

with persons who are looking at the fine arts palace and there should not be -- they should not be allowed to pick up their kids or just double park and that situation, i think that is a very important situation. i don't know what the answer is, whether they have any requirements of parking, but that should be -- should be the concern of this commission. >> thank you. next speaker, please. hello, my name is brendan duncan and i am a resident who lives within 150 feet of the subject property. i'm generally in support of the conditional use authorization, but i did -- when i had the opportunity to look through the documentation, i noticed that there was a mention that outside activities would take place at marina green. so, i was concerned about how the students would actually cross marina boulevard to get

to marina green and i started e-mail correspondence with nancy doddy who is the cfo for town school for boys. she mentioned to me that the students would actually be walking down marina boulevard to broderick and cross the intersection there and come back to the little marina green which i don't know if we can quite pull the projector here. [speaker not understood]. do i need to hit anything? there we go. [inaudible]. but basically the issue is that this is the house finance building. students will be coming out lyon street, [speaker not understood] the intersection of baker, broderick crossing marina boulevard, and then coming back to [speaker not understood] to come to little marina green. when i was discussing this, she mentioned the reason they were doing this was because the

other two intersections at lion and baker were not safe. ~ i actually totally agree with that in substance, but i'm not sure the right solution is to have -- hope that these young children are going to always go down to broderick and cross at the appropriate place. and, so, you know, i'm hoping that if authorization is given, which i said i'm generally in support of, there be conditions attached to that around the safety of these students because it sounds like their p-e classes and physical activities would be taking place on little marina green. and i'm not a traffic engineer so i don't have any specific things to prescribe, but i would hope that somebody who does know would take the opportunity to think about signage and traffic calming features that we would associate with schools that are zoned that way and what we normally see around school yards. also given that once the students are on little marina green, there is actually no fencing you would normally see

on a playground at other schools in the city. and, you know, the drivers that are coming down marina boulevard have no indication there's going to be children at play during these hours, so, that is all i have to say. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. patricia vaughan, [speaker not understood]. we're totally in favor of this and i want everybody in the room that's in favor of this to please stand up. now we don't have to have 50 repetitions. thank you. >> thank you. thanks, everyone. commissioners, good afternoon. i'm brewster eli, head of the boys. [speaker not understood] had to leave because of the parking question he brought up. our pick up and drop off is way around in the west side of the

parking lot. and, so, we have a whole system. it sort of breezed right through and keeps all of our families off any of the neighborhood streets other than accessing the back of the exploratorium site. so, his fears were allayed appropriately. my only comments to today is that i've been the head of the school for 25 years and as we brought the previous jackson street project in front of you sometime ago, one of the really fine moments there is our neighbors, in spite of the fact they were going to have to endure a lengthy and noisy and difficult construction project, did not resist the project at all. they said to us as a school, you have been a good neighbor. i have spent 25 years trying to being the elephant on the block, being a school that truly cares about our neighborhood. so, i can pledge to our neighbors our temporary neighbors in the mission -- in

the marina district that we will continue the same thing because i will be the one in charge of doing that. thank you. unlike several school mates, [speaker not understood]. with many sacrifices from my family, i was fortunate to diversify my role in educational experiences by coming to school in america 10,000 miles away. my name is flora montgomery matunga [speaker not understood] at town square for boys. that commitment to diversify student body [speaker not understood] is at the heart of what we do at town school. our statement of diversity is the best education for our students requires a diverse experience. our students have had opportunities to interact and learn from south africa teacher interns who teach in africa, global institute from cape town, south africa.

the teach africa program [speaker not understood] was a first for me and [speaker not understood] commitment to provide a broad platform of diverse experiences for our students. town school committee comprise of students, board members, faculty and administrators is a vehicle which we actively seek to set goals and continue commitment to diversify our student body. we do this in a number of ways, including having planned volunteers, outreach, admissions committee, to reach the board of supervisors preschool community. as a school community we host [speaker not understood] for lgbt, asian american, latin american, and african-american families. we also have opportunities for families to join and participate in school cultural celebration events. our commitment to socioeconomic diversity is equally vital. to that end, town school has board approved $1.2 million for tuition assistance, 20% of our families are on tuition assistance.

and finally, town school is a school where learning is prized, school is essential, and where boyhood is indeed celebrated. thank you for your time and consideration. good afternoon, my name is jennifer warren and i am the lower school head at town school for boys. and it is my distinct pleasure to work with our approximately 200 students that would be occupying the space at palace fine arts. and i would like to reassure you that safety is our number one priority and that crossing marina green and having boys either on little marina green or the chrisy field area is something our entire faculty has already taken multiple field trips experiencing and working through processes and procedures that ensure the boy's safety. i am happy to respond specifically to our neighbors if needed. inside our space we have 83,000 square feet for our boys to run

and play ~. it is not our intention to have the boys doing p-e every day over at marina green and crossing the street. indoor space will accommodate much of that need, but we will be seeking that outdoor time, both for recess opportunities as well as academic explorations in conjunction with chrisy field and the opportunities that are educational in nature over there and we look forward to those opportunities this year. we have worked with the fire department exclusively to make sure that the area is safe. we have practiced our drills and making sure that that is at the forefront of everything we do as an absolute priority to us. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. good afternoon. my name is robin may and i have a son at the town school for boys. i live in the city and i'm actually a native resident of san francisco. my family and i moved within walking distance of the palace of fine arts.

in an effort to respect your time, i am here as the parent representative for our 280 plus families. at the public meeting with rec and park we did have many parents present. our parent community is thrilled with the opportunity to share this amazing facility with our sons. in the time allowed, i cannot begin to share with you how overjoyed the boys are to spend their days at palace of fine arts. thank you for your time and your consideration. >> thank you. my name is alan [speaker not understood] and i'm a san franciscoes are department and parent of a town school boy. and i just wanted to support this project and if anyone in the neighborhood has any concerns, they can come to any of us, including me and we'll work with them. thank you. >> thank you. good afternoon, i'm

[speaker not understood], a resident of san francisco and the chief financial officer for town school for boys. i've led the negotiations on behalf of town school with the san francisco rec and park department. i know that our project sponsor has covered some of this information, but it was a huge part of my life in the last year or so. i'd just like to share a little bit of that experience. in 2011 the trustees of town school approved a building project for our jackson street campus and it was clear that the size of the project would require us to relocate a part of our student population for one year. we began immediately searching for possible places. as you can imagine, that was not an easy problem to solve. i was losing sleep over this. it was for a year and a half that we were turning over tables everywhere in the city looking for a place. we couldn't believe it. all of a sudden we started seeing in the paper all the

time, the exploratorium is moving out. we began receiving suggestions that we should seriously investigate that space. it seemed like a long shot because of the city requirements of working with rec and park, we knew that it was going to be a process. the beginning of [speaker not understood] from the beginning to the end of the negotiation process with the rec and park department was a really great experience of two groups trying to come together with each of very separate constituencies working together to come to terms that we felt very good about coming to the rec and park commission in february to propose. both of those hearings in february, we had no public opposition and at the end of the february 21st hearing, the lease was approved and our problem was solved. we then got a lease from the city attorney. we went through that whole

process. and in middle of july we were given authorization to begin preparations to move into the building for the school year. as other speakers have said, we are delighted with that opportunity. it is -- it was a win/win for everyone involved and a couple of good things i think came out of it. one of the things for the city i think is that with the level of activity down at the palace of fine arts with the america's cup, the public rest rooms were overwhelmed with people so the school agreed to take on the responsibility for taking care of them. thank you for your consideration. >> thank you. is there any additional public comment? okay, seeing none, public comment is closed. if you don't mind, commissioner, i'll start off with a couple of questions i have for staff. and first of all, let me say

that obviously town school is a wonderful institution and i'm excite today see the expansion on jackson street. i do think this is a good interim temporary use of space, [speaker not understood], and a good use for the school. but my question to staff is, so, was it a matter of timing that the school year obviously was going to start and the applications were going in that i understand that there was fire -- have been fire inspections and that now we're seeing the cu just a few weeks after the beginning of school season, school year? >> yes. >> so it's a matter of missed timing? or we did our best? >> right, i think just working with, you know, different city departments, i think the timeline. there was some overlap. so, right now they're trying to take care of some of the issues with fire marshal, address that, the school special requirements. so, they were trying to meet a

lot of issues and considerations at the same time. >> okay, thank you. so, i'll probably have some similar thoughts and maybe some commissioners have and that runs kind of consistent when we see schools come before us and some of the concerns of neighbors involved. and their questions that maybe the faculty want to address, and that is is there a program -- i'm sure there is -- in place for drop-off and pick-up, someone that will answer that question? >> yes. that was one of the issues, you know, for almost all schools, pick-up and drop-off. so, as part of the plan set, on sheet a.0.2, [speaker not understood], the main driveway coming from lumbar, it leads to lyon street is the white dashed line on the map. so, from lyon it goes into the

back of the building. there is a very long driveway. >> correct. >> so, where the heavy bold or white circle is, there is a door there. that's where all the pick-up and drop-off will occur. and once the kids are dropped off, the parents may go back to marina boulevard. >> okay, okay. >> yeah, it was an issue that the school considered and took it very seriously. >> great. mr. miller mentioned that safety was a top priority and i agree. there are a lot of cars there on marina boulevard. lumbar street kind of comes to a confluence. anyone who is trying to run across or walk across marina boulevard understands how busy it is. my question is, i think it was already alluded to, those organized classes that are using marina green, if you can give us some assurance, i'm sure there is, that they're

escorted if they're classes that all of the kids understand after school that they don't go about their merry way without giving consideration to the high traffic area. one of the public commenters mentioned there are no school signs and this is an interim use. so, i understand there is maybe not need for that, but i think we should take extra consideration given the number of cars and the speed at which they travel in this particular intersection. >> right, or perhaps the school could just have more monitors when the child or the children are crossing. and i think they don't do that. one of the family members said all the time on a regular basis. on occasions that they do, they probably will have extra staff to help monitor and make sure that all the kids are safe. >> representative of the school, mr. miller, do you have a comment? i'll start this and i may have jennifer warren who is the school head who can walk through the protocol, tackal the signage [speaker not

understood], and i'll talk about the accompaniment. can you hear me okay? signage is something we'd love to do more of. we talk about preservation. it's a historic building. our signage is limited on the facility grounds. and, so, we were restricted in terms of what we could do in the time frames that we have. >> yeah, my question -- my comments weren't worried about signage on the space, but leading up to the school a block, three blocks away. if that is the preferred direction, now we're getting into the public domain. i think the school will be very proactive if we can do that. the community felt that signage was good we would be very pleased to do so. there's two things i want to highlight. the recreation program is -- outdoor recreation is supplemental to the core recreation for the boys. we do have tremendous space indoors for recreation. we actually salvage the turf for the [speaker not understood]. it is actually inside the palace of fine arts available for recreation use. for our students and also

available for the -- in our lease we actually have public accommodation. so, that space is available. and maybe you can come up and talk about the students. these are not unescorted students to the public domain. maybe you can talk about the students that go at a time, what the procedure is [speaker not understood]. walk them to and from the green. any classes going over there which is approximately 24 students, those would always be a minimum of three adults escorting the boys over there. one of them being our on-campus security guard. there are handheld stop signs that they would hold in addition to the legal stop that is there per the city. and that will be used to escort the boys over there. there have been specific guidelines set up for playing sporting events parallel to the bay as opposed to perpendicular to the bay to address the students not being as close to the marina traffic as they could be if they were the opposite way.

and all of our faculty has been over there. as i said, multiple times to really walk through that and understand what those expectations are and can at any time request additional support and parent volunteers should they feel the activity requires that. >> okay, great, thank you very much. >> if i may add, just clarify one point with park and rec. why we don't need to do more activation of open space immediately at the building. a question came up, why we use inside the building and little marina green. and it's that the open space around the palace of fine arts is a designated -- it's a nonstructured recreation area. since we are a group use, we do not interfere with public access. we actually go across. so, that's why we have a protocol, but that's why we choose -- that's r why we're going to those recreation areas. >> got it. commissioner moore. >> i just wanted to express my full support for the project. i think it is a very wonderful continuation of the application for the expansion of the school

on jackson street. i think it's very serendipitous that we find an appropriate interim user for a facility which needs to be occupied and needs to stay within the active public eye of san francisco given its somewhat peripheral location and accessibility. i believe that the low-key hardly noticeable reuse of the building is not really an issue. i think the school understands living in density and living with care, so, i am in full support. i believe that the question i had about accessibility impact on neighborhood was partially because they use the rear of the building rather than the more tighter edges to the public roadway surrounding it. the marina green, if you observe it on weekends, has little league soccer where parents watch the safety of children crossing or potentially losing the ball into the driveway of marina boulevard. i believe that there is enough

common practice. i know that the unsignalized crossings on marina boulevard are sometimes an issue because particularly out of town people who do not know the rules about pedestrian don't always observe it, particularly when people abruptly step into the roadway. with the numbers of people described to attend to the students, three on 24, i believe that the boys school, i live next door to it, i think you can really watch children of that age with that type of ratio. so, i'm very much in support and would move to approve. >> second. >> commissioner sugaya. >> yes, i don't always do this, but i'm going to do it anyway. my firm spent a long number of years as a preservation architects for the palace of fine arts and it finally came to fruition. it is it was a wonderful project for us ~.

so, i'm really, really happy that with the exiting of the exploratorium that there is a use that has come in, even if it's on an interim basis because one of the worst things that can happen, of course, is for the facility to stay vacant. and hopefully rec/park in this interim time can find a user that will take over and continue to use the building. the park itself i'm not worried about because it is well used and people love it a lot, but i'm glad this interim period is being taken care of so to speak. >> commissioner wu. >> i have a concern with staff. we're voting on a cu today and we're able to put a time frame on the cu because it's clear how long town school wants to be in that facility, is that correct? >> yes. >> and, so, you know, on other projects we orphan say the cu runs with the land. even though the cu runs with the land, because the motion very specifically talks about

2013 to 2014, it is limited. >> yes. >> okay. and i'm very supportive of this interim use. i think it's a great use, but i would have concerns about a private use permanently being in a public space, but that's not what's in front of us today. >> right. that would probably require a separate conditional use authorization. >> okay, thank you. >> commissioner hillis. >> i'm also very supportive and happy to see the building being reused in the interim period while rec/park and the neighborhood figure this out. just a question on it seems this needs a cu. it's a school use in -- is it because it's not a public school or why does it need a cu in a pu district? does a school need a cu in a pu district? >> it's spelled out in the planning code section under 234 that in a public zone if elementary school, a high school will require conditional use. and not