mayor as all departments are to the mayor on the 21st. i just wanted to close before i turn it over to keith to remind us all of the vision statement and the mission statement that the department adopted last year as a kind of guide for what we do and we believe the budget that we present to you today and the next couple of weeks reflects this statement. i will also tell you that when i presented this to the hpc yesterday they raised concerned that they had not seen this and i will take responsibility for them not having been involved in the creation of this and i'm going back to discuss this with them. with that i'm going to turn it over to keith martini. >> good afternoon commissioners, my name is keith martini. i'm here to present

the details for the draft program for the next two 2 fiscal years. i will start. at this time the city is expecting a general fund shortfall of just over $100 million in fiscal year 14-15 and over $118 million in fiscal year 15-16. these projection are much lower and much lower during what was issued in the last budget project. the economic outlook has improved over the past year. many uncertainties still do exist in these numbers such as the economic uncertainty, the results of this city's union labor negotiations as well as continued cost in increases in

employee fringe benefits. as for the budget instructions for our department is to reduce general fund support by 1. percent in fiscal year 14-15. to $40,000 and by 1 percent which equates to $67,000 for 15-16. we don't receive much general support from the general fund. there is an additional one 1 percent contingency reduction in fiscal year 15-16 and instructions by the mayor department is reveal of departmental fees and we'll be submitting a budget to the mayor that does meet his instructions. here is an overview of the

department's base staffing level by division. at this time we are not expecting any significant staffing changes over the next two fleer -- fiscal years. it represents the staff we do have on hand. we are considering proposing additional new staff to continue with the increase that we have and the backlog. when i come to you february 6th you will see those proposed new positions. so now i would like to go into more detail about the work program inform each of the five divisions in the planning department. starting with the planning division. you can see with these numbers the staffing is to remain relatively stable. each of the program areas over the next 2 years. the majority of the staff in current planning is dedicated to working on the application

review of the large volume of applications that do come in. it's over 56 percent of the division that works on application review. there has been an increase in applications over the year for building permits for existing alterations as well as condominium and subdivision additions. we have the current staffing level reflect the increase over the few years due the public commitment for better public service through expertise and reduce wait times. staff will also be continuing different training efforts to remain up to date on the number of changes that occur to the planning code over the year. there will be some on going process improvement as well for the maintenance and keep of the various guidelines and documents that we make available to project sponsors

and the public. so now moving on to the citywide planning division. the division is proposed to remain stable over the next 2 fiscal years. the changes of the distribution of the fte's to the work program areas is for only of the reorganizationing of the representation of the programs than it is of the actual location. it's a reporting of the organization change as it is a function of moving people around to different functions. the major themes underlying most of the division include designing, funding and implementing public improvement to support both neighborhood and growth. guiding growth over a horizon to meet citywide and goals for

orientate transient and pursuant to -- related to land use and design at the scale of the neighborhoods street and building and developing and evaluating policies and programs to support and maintain a diverse population including housing affordability and job sector diversity. moving on to the environmental planning commission division. again the environmental planning division proposed staffing is to remain stable over the next 2 fiscal years. staff have completed eir's such as the mexican museum and the san francisco water supply project and peninsula seismic upgrade project among many other projects. some on going include the warriors arena 925 mission street, the central

corridor plan, the mass cone yum project and the expansion project and many other projects. the division's transportation analyst have been active in interventions concerns high speed rail into san francisco and the associated implications around the areas of infrastructure. moving on to the zoning administration and compliance division which houses the zoning administrator and the code enforcement team and the program. the division experienced some minor increase in staffing this year and it is expected to grow due to the complaints we've seen. staff has closed more than a thousand complaints but the backlog is

still pretty significant. finally the zoning administration where they are work to amend the municipal codes as required by the planning code and working on major projects around formula retail and reorganization and simplification of article two of the planning code and the assessment on regulation on medical cannabis as well as many other projects. the case group is working on the development website as well as the community ambassador program and engagement work. we will also be implementing a new cashiering system where we'll finally be able to allow project sponsors to make our fee payments online as well as use debit and credit cards to provide more customer service and higher accountability and we anticipate the goal line date in a couple months in

march of 2014. we'll be working on continuous maintenance of that system over the next 2 fiscal years. so now moving into performance measures that we track on a regular basis to ensure we are delivering services and along the lines of the mission statement and use this as well as other information to inform management and operational decisions that the department makes. in the current planning division these are the four measures we track. due to complexly and the additional requirements of the planning code, the time it takes to bring new stuff on board and the increase in volume and increase in backlog, the department has been unable to meet many of the completion targets set for these measures over the prior years, but we

have seen a little bit of i am improvements in application and discretionary review over the year. onto the citywide planning division. the divisions engage in a variety of complex policy design activities that is challenging for us to track using quantitative methods for performance measures. however we have tract division on general plan referrals within 45 days and there is implementation group programming development impact fee revenue that does come in the door. the environmental planning division reviews hundreds of cases every year due to the increase complexity of ceqa. eir's continue to take 2 years

or longer to complete. some projects are put on hold by the project sponsor and which extends the processing time of an application from time to time. staff have been good at processing over categorical exemptions over the past few years. there is a backlog, staff has been able to close cases in the backlog. in particular this measure gets at staff initiating the enforcement proceedings on new code force enforcements that come into department. finally for the administration division. the legislative affairs staff continues to address changes to the planning code in a timely manner and the department plans to successfully implement the new tracking system within a few months and the it group

supports the staff by maintaining the up time of the department's network and respond to request for service. and as director ram mentioned, i did present this presentation to the commission yesterday. the commission that had following comments to make sure the planning commission heard about the vision statement and mission statement not being heard and they had some comments about the performance goal about the hrer performance measure and some ideas of process improvement to speed up that performance measure. and the hec expressed their eagerness to work with the planning commission in regards to the programs and large projects that have a preservation component. that

concludes my presentation. we'll be happy to answer any questions you might have. >> thank you. opening up to public comment if there is any. public comment is closed. commissioners? commissioner wu? >vice-president cindy wu: ju a couple comments. so it's really great to see increased staffing for development coordination of housing policy, that is clearly one of the major issues the department is dealing with. i thought it was appropriate to take leadership on that. in looking at the planning program, i see there is these larger projects and what's captured under neighborhoods like a deeper investment into needs assessment of community. i just want to sort of emphasize that part and i ask that that gets equal time as

the larger development projects. lastly seeing the plan around the implementation, a reminder that we had talked about getting updates on some of the plans especially around the eastern neighborhoods plans. >> commissioner borden? >>commissioner gwyneth borden: i want to thank you. i just had a question about the permit tracking system when we might see a live demo of that system again. i know we saw an earlier vision of it. it would be great to have it here for the public to see how it works and the other improvement you talked about which is online payment and if we can do it in this form, it would be great. >> tommy santo of the planning department staff. we have several public processes and we have people looking at it. we

have volume users and we are testing right now and we'll engage the public in the third process. we can bring that to the commission and show you what we've bp showing to the public and some of the high volume users by permit expediteers so we can bring that to you and show you what the system looks like. >> i think it will be valuable and we can have it on tape and peak -- people can look at it. >> commissioner moore? >>commissioner kathrin moore: on the design, i think it should be available, as we are going into identification of different housing types that our residential guidelines allow us to comment on the various housing types as it exemplifies the diversity of housing in san francisco. i

don't see that here and it appears that the common trends continue. it's great to see only allocation here which allows the staffing and other priorities make it happen to really dive into that. >> yeah, commissioner, that is on our work plan. it's a combination of between citywide and planning of staff divisions are working on that. it's not shown specifically here, but it's embedded here. we can call that out. >>commissioner kathrin moore: if you can say how it's going to be called out because for us to be able to track it, it would be good because we are spending more time in dr and cu where those tools are missing. >> as a director pointed out the urban design guidelines work program is split between the current planning and

citywide planning division. we'll work together and i will work with jeff johnson and make it a more explicit section in the program. >> i would appreciate that. >> when you see the more detailed budget in the upcoming meetings it will be reflected there. it has been in this past year's work program and is funding and will continue into next. >> commissioners sugaya? >> >>commissioner hisashi sugaya: yes. my understanding is that this doesn't currently reflect proposed in creases in staff which will be coming next time. we will see a different staffing allocation with respect to various line items, if you will. >> that's right. we'll come back with you on our thoughts of where it would be allocated in the work plan.

>> this reflects basically what the status is? >> that's correct. >> all right. that's all. >> thank you. >> if there is nothing further, commissioners, this is an informational item. we can move to item 11. item 11: 11. 2012.1427e k. zushi; 4155 575-90366 sharp park safety, infrastructure improvement, and habitat enhancement project - the project site is located within sharp park in the city of pacifica, san mateo county - appeal of preliminary mitigated negative declaration for: 11 the construction of a perennial pond, approximately 1,600 sf in size, located approximately 400 to 500 feet southeast of horse stable pond hspp; 22 realignment of a portion of an existing golf cart path located west of the fairway for golf course hole number 14 and east of the tee box for golf course hole number 15; 33 removal of sediment and emergent vegetation within hsp and the connecting channel that links hsp with laguna salada lss; 44 construction of steps and a maintenance walkway approximately 4.6 feet in width at the existing hsp pumphouse; and 55 replacement of a wooden retaining wall near the pumphouse with a concrete retaining wall at the existing hsp pumphouse. the proposed project is being constructed in accordance with a biological opinion issued by the u.s. fish and wildlife service usfwss and is separate and independent from the proposed significant natural resource areas management plan snrampp, which is currently undergoing separate sf 1112341234 >> good afternoon. i'm with the planning development and with measure the environmental planner. the item before you is

a declaration for a proposed project in sharp park. sharp park is approximately 417 acres in size and owned and operated by the city and county of san francisco's recreational department. the recreation park departments includes the locationses. the proposed project consist of five elements including construction of a perennial pond located approximately 500 feet. relining a path for golf course hole no. 14. the removal of vegetation within stable pond and the connecting tunnel that links horse stable pond. and the walkway, 16 feet wide and

replacement of existing wall and concrete wall. described, the california and to facilitate continued operations of pumps and maintenance of infrastructures. the project is being proposed consistent with bylaws. the bylaws were issued by the -- for horse stable pond for the maintenance walkway and replacement of existing wood retaining wall on the existing pump house. you have before you in the packet the draft motion are response to the appeal

letter and comment letter and the amended pm and d. the department established the pm and d. during the appeal, the department received a letter and on behalf of the wild life institute on october 8, 2013. ascribed in the appeal response both raise a number of issues including concerns about impact to biological and hide logical resources. cumulative impacts. exhibit a in your appeal packet addresses each item listed in the appeal and comment letters. please note that at the november 21, 2013, planning commission meeting in which the planning condominium the hearing inform are this appeal,

a comment letter was submitted. related to concerns to on going pump operations. all of these are addressed in your appeal packet. please allow me to highlight some of the main issues raised. the appellant asserts that the proposed project was expanded by removing a sediment for the connecting channel and this would increase the amount of water flow in the complex. based on this the appellant an asserts that the project would -- however, ascribed in the response, these assertions are speculative. the amount of

water flow in the complex are primarily controlled by on going pump operations which are managed by the san francisco recreation park department. in these existing pumps would not be altered as part of the project. therefore the appellants assertion of the operating of the existing pumps and change in the amount of water flow is not correct. secondly, the appellant asserts that the mitigation is deferred and unenforceable measure. it's not deferred mitigation with the means of ceqa and is enforceable. it can be found on page 85-87 requires soil sample testing prior to the proposal of the

sedimentation removal by the appropriate regulatory agencies. the mitigation measure also requires toxic pathway analysis to determine the measures depending on the soil sampling test and describe a set of measures to be under taken. finally, if the project is approved by the san francisco rec's and park commission it is also adopting a monitoring program for the project of condition of both project approval. it would include all the measures by the recs and park commission and reporting and complying with the local state and federal entities. the measure is enforceable and not deferred with ceqa. finally no

substantial evidence supporting a fair argument of environmental effect has been presented. this concludes my presentation. the recreation department and staff are available if you have any questions. >> thank you. opening up to public comment. >> commission president we should hear from the appellant as well. >> the appellant, please. >> for the benefit of the appellant, this is a new procedure adopted by the planning commission. you have 10 minutes for your presentation. >> thank you very much commissioners. my name is brent slater a director of the wild institute. i'm here to urge you to reject the motion prepared to you by the department

adopting this pmd and order the department to create a full environmental impact report on this project. the way of background i'm the executive director of the association called the wild institute to bring social and environmental situations together to make the world a better place but also been an athlete for most of my life and most of my youth i was involved in the game of golf. i played in middle school and high school and caddy at the golf course where i grew up in mission. so i know quite a bit about the game enough that in 2007 and 8 the director of parks and recreation asked me to address environmental concerns in ultimate effort that didn't produce any results to rethink the way we manage some of our courses but in that process i learned an extraordinary amount of the

golf courses we have in san francisco. based on my concerns about the environment, about justice and about this particular golf course there is no question in my mind that the future of one of the most important areas that san francisco manages in terms of biological conservation is threatened by the proposed project. it is being threatened by this propose project without any consideration of alternatives and the negative declaration and ignoring the comments as to why this project is misguided. just to give you a little bit of information as to why this piece of property is so important, i want to give you a few minutes about what this place is like for those of you who haven't been there and describe the sources that are found there. the frogs species sometimes known as twain's frog

because mark twain wrote a story about it and there is san francisco garter snake. under the circumstances a species that truly breaks my heart. it's the most beautiful serpent in all of america. it is our namesake and probably the next species on the san francisco peninsula to go extinct unless we do something about it. the recovery wild life association explained how to protect that from occurring. that plan demands that the population of that -- not only have that arrested but increase to transplant some of these animals to locations where they have been lost. that has not happened. the population of these species have declined greatly threatening the continuance of that species

globally. in addition the land itself sharp park has a rare -- one of the last coastal lag oons that has been undeveloped and also season -- our ability to adapt and gives us the opportunity without worrying about eminent domain to adapt to our resources and move them inland as the land rises. it's one of the most important aspects that this is managed in the state and that's why this is important. there is no doubt that the fundamental

issues is to enhance the amount of water to remove from that wet land system. it will increase the rate, the volume, the entirety of the number of days which the existing pump house can operate which will collectively increase the amount of water that is removed from that system. that water is essential to almost every single element biological element of that wet land complex which ought to be fairly obvious. to illustrate why that is so. the california red legged frog requires a habitat to hide from predators and in particular in order to breed. when waters are removed from that system too rapidly, the egg masses of the frog are exposed to the air, they desiccate and this air mass dries out and th