childcare center. we really want to reduce that distance and increase the pedestrian friendly nensness of the city to allow folks to packing pass through i want to go to the blogged i have to walk more than a thousand feet what we want to do as this yellow line she's is make a public space between our public building and the ballroom this and kit a 35 to the open would i do space that lobbing would be activated so people could circulate through and onto a bridge on howard street. there's a lot of activity and development in this area new

things are happening and one is keep that in mind to the east particularly along filling so many student. we think this would be an excel positive thing. this is a bird's-eye view of the space activated by all kinds of interesting things. we're working with c and g architects and those are additional contents for planting in that space. and then the children's playground itself is one of the most in the course aspects of the center. we've had a really fruitful discussion process with the users of that space of whom i'm one with my daughter. we've got a lot of interesting feedback how to make a few

improvements. so at the left again, the yellow is the footprint of our new building and the blue is for improvements. the diagram on the right is for a new central or arrival place that's labeled seating. you can park our skrorlz and find a place to see the whole area where currently you come bro through the bridge it's xhefd and not the best spot for visibility. we want to create a new dedicated play area for toddlers who are mixed in with the bigger kids that's the erroneously. the new connection from the student runs east to west. and then the learning garden and the flexibility program units are there being a relocated from

other places within the block. made larger and sunnier. one of the things that we know is very important and we're working through that with all the industries is the difficulty of understanding this playground can be seen as a positive once again you're there you feel safe. we're looking at a way to balance the deserve to allow the public through this block not having to go around and upside down arrest the safety so the dining room on the right is a security line like a berm or planterer and would have things in it so people walking through this alley would have to walk into a gate to the playground.

that will allow you the comfort that your kid is not going to end up on third street. on the north side of howard street at the upper level the sister city garden just south of the fountains to the waterfall there's two restaurants there. and south of those radiance on the ground we're building our expanded lobby that's creating a new roof on top and this is the area of pink this is the area of work. we want to add that roof basically to the garden so expand the garden south towards howard street. sth that creates a new terrace from the north side that you could walk through the sister city garden and cross tln through an area this is a

currently planned but noted occupyable. if you walk towards howard's street there's benches and you can't walk through there we want to cut that so that path goes towards terrace for the seating for restaurants and it would actively have an interesting outcome over howard street. as great as the upper level terraces are you can't see the street this would make a better complexing connection that's the area in orange as we're building this lobby we're looking for playing verbiage signs. this is struggling for availability from the street we want to improve the visibility from the street. so this is a view from you

howard south side of howard street looking west. my this is the proposal the low piece on the right is the lobby. we're proposing a large canopy element above the terrace 80 is that terrace is a new space for the yerba buena gardens an open air space so it's a little bit of a transitional space from the gardens to the city. we are shoub be a large green wall and actually that green wall is on a part of the south facing wall to the restaurants. so the final piece of this we showed that diagram we'll love to circulate through the block.

the last thing we think we can impact is the bridge. as deepening mentioned there's those an existing bridge over howard street that's owned beby an an agency it kekd connects did upper level of the nestling and south blocks it's a functional bridge but if you don't know where you're going it's not obvious where you're going to end up the green line on the left is where you take the route from the north block to the south block to the children's park. it's a pretty circuitous us bridge. we want to replace that bridge open to the public that's wider

and more directly. we can move it to make it land in the right place and more gently. we like to think of this bridge as not a bridge between two parks but as part of the pack that connects the sides. the most notable is between like new york city. we think this block could offer interesting outcomes we think it could be a stronger connection between the two halves. so this is letting e electing north from the existing bridge it has a complained barrier that reduce it's width we want to make it wider and give places to

sit and different kinds of plantings and other features. this is looking back towards the city. the diagram here is a little bit confusing because what's there is a little bit confusing. if i was on howard street and wanted to get up to the mraurd i'd follow that doted line and it's confusing you walk under the bridge and up some steps and back into under the bridge. we want to take the dig san diego city council line and make it a straight shot landing at the point of the orange spot. you can see the playground and the children's creativity museum and see the bridge and car sell. if you need a ramp we'll have a

ramp for accessibility rather than a elevator so this eliminates that public elevator. so this is a diagram model view it shows in i'm standing on howard street looking at the children's museum the bridge is on the reporter and moscone center on the right and everything in red we're proposed to get rid of are. we'll build a plaza in its place and really open up the connection up into the gardens that's much, much more gracious and direct or at the left is a visitors center that will be attached to the convention center and it's actually under the bridge so that avoids the

problems of pedestrian bridges that's really under it so pit an encompassed place under the bridge will make it well lit. this is another view of what the proposed building might be we're still working on the details of architecture. it's very light and transparent. we're using lots of types of glass some clear and some glassed. its expressing the horizontal line with the cloud roof. and finally, a view of the open corner at the 3 and howard street showing the circulation of the building at night. thank you very much for that and the team is here to answer any questions that you have.

>> thank you many further comments from staff. >> i have - that concludes my presentation thank you. >> thank you just making sure. any public comment on this item >> i have 9 speaker cards. please come to the pompous in this order (calling names) >> good afternoon board members, chairperson johnson and director. thank you for conducting this workshop. i want to talk about the history of this place.

mike's center has had an ongoing relationship with the gardens for a long long time. you are all probably two young to recall the wars over yerba buena and it's construction where the city had approved plan for sill losses to accommodate another 9 mile square root of office space as well as the convention center. after steno years of lawsuits to stop this plan george mucking e moos con put together a plan and licensed to people's dreams that would create a special place for

families and children in the center of the city that is rare to find. after extensive planning you don't i can't tell you how many people put in their efforts the main exponents that no one would come national that the convention center could precede as long as as it was underground. it's hard to take away those imaginations that the subpoena perish aeblths that could on that but the people who worked with the agency staff to design i mean right down to brian telling us how to nut a floor of

an eye ring but people who worked with childcare helped us to design those gardens this particular piece for children to be safe away from a great deal of traffic. the moscone team and adam has worked hard to make those improvements acceptable but they've not changed their program from day one only trying to make it acceptable. the purposes of the original design and our asking you consider the community statement the yerba buena city community statement which is the stakeholders position the users the garden users position

concerning the expansion of the city and county center that finds the above ground uses unacceptable. thank you >> thank you chairperson johnson i'm andrew robinson i'm the director of the yerba buena project. i'm here to speak in favor of the project. we know that context in which the moscone expansion would take place and has expanded in the past. we think the howard block could woman a theatre stage particularly that the breakdown of the block between folsom and howard which is fenway we've

heard from our community for a street light plan that the blocks don't offer social interaction. we see the exciting stunts and want to see the benefit that moscone succeeds but the neighborhood succeeds as well. he want to see moscone reach out to the neighbors they've been responsive. if security issues can be addressed if the bridge go really opens up the children's creativity museum we support that. thank you very much. >> (calling names). >> thank you. good afternoon, commissioners. i'm john president of todd could

and it was one of the community organizations involved in the original moscone collect group that adapted the convention center below. all the moscone projects we've been involved in the north hall project the moscone west and now this completely unaccepted fourth expansion of moscone center. we very much support we're one of the stakeholder and support of the statement that was presented to you. but i want at that drawing your attention to one the negative go aspects. as dpiblthd on the diagram is a net loss of usually open space of the children's playground. it's a net lose i have 4 hundred

and 5 thousand square feet. it's unacceptable to our community and we'll fight that to the to death. i'm hoping that will not be necessary. i'm hoping i this commission will make clear to the moscone expansion there can be no net use of the children's playground on the block it's a crucial and second helen wasn't quite right the expansion of the moscone garden was smaller than the one presented to you today. what changed in october of 2013 last year, we saw the addition of a second meeting ramps the original proposal of 2 hundred 12 or 2013 only had a one story edition but they added a one level.

i can see the cross section of the existing center of the proposal of about a year ago and then at the current proposal now which is a taller building and this slide from the 2013 presentation this is how massive it is ray's 82 feet above the garners. this will round the amenity of the children's playground. as you saw in the mraurgdz the openness disappears. they can add the center meeting rooms on top of their plan on howard street and we'll oppose and hopefully, you'll strongly oppose the structure and have the original design approved. thank you

>> good afternoon, commissioners. thank you. i'm alice light community planning manager of the todd could group. i want to use some graphics to support john's comments. so i'll start with the loss of useable open garden space in the included in your packet. on the right you can see in red the loss of what is current - can you see - sorry. our screens are - is the paper all the way on that paper the screens are flickering a lot. sorry i guess we'll look up here.

sorry. sorry just one second. better? oh, okay. i think we have the slow down here >> there's a hardcopy in the packet. >> so on the right is the existing garden and the red is the loss of this open space with the proposed expansion. the large escort loss is the tree of la it's a annoys quote

space. there's also the sundial garden and the children's learning garden those are all removed from the expansion plan to allow for the foyer exit of the expansion building. the additional space that's locht is the thousand i won't tell adjacent to the children's carrousel. currently the caregivers and parents use those for the tables while their children are playing. there's a lot of discussion will the circulation that connects from the street level to the carrousel area we we want to emphasize that this is not an acceptable loss of the gardens

open space. an additional - so there are a few places where we do so new open space. one of those is 25 hundred square feet that is part of the current foyer exit for the ball room. it's something we support but the loss of 24 house square feet seen in the orange which is adjacent to howard street at the street level can't be seen as a replacement of children's comparison because it's at the street level it's clearly a moscone convention use not a use of the children's play area. quickly i'd like to show the need for alternatives it this plan. this is the current view you just saw in the prior presentation. this is a view that shows was it

would looming look like if there were just a ballroom in the south area where the meeting rooms on the corner which city still copes it open and allows for a view of the skyline compared to the ball rooms above this closed the space much more. and also this current plan creates showed on the playground in the late afternoon. thank you. >> sonya and others (calling names). >> good afternoon, commissioners i'm sonya. i'm community advocate with todd

could. and i just want to speak very briefly about the public outreach from the project sponsor. it's been very limited at best. and we are requesting that there's more outreach done by the project spornt. i'd like to show a difference in the public meetings this is primarily of last year. of okay of the proposed development and expansion. and if you look at october it is extremely radly different in the expansion of the height it's two

stories >> i'm sorry ma'am, are you trying to show us here. can you probable cause can you turn the projector on. sorry when you're ready >> we can see it now. >> the expansion proposal, of course, as things progressed over the months but in the from april of last year at the public meeting and this is from october. the red spacing and bulk creating shadows on the children's playground there needs to be more public hearings and meeting and to have more comments. this stakeholders have stated

what they need but we need more input that will effect the entire city. thank you very much. >> good afternoon, commissioners i'm virginia from the yerba buena alliance we're a 23-year-old organization working closely with all the stakeholders of yerba buena gardens. this is a draft statement it articulates most of the feelings of the stakeholder. i'll not read it in its desirability. i want to point out some of the highlights. those points out include that

the primary priority of garden stakeholders is that no single use dominates the yerba buena neighborhood and we support of the conventional space. underneath howard street that satisfies the blow ground expansion center. we support it as long as the openness of the garden is not impaired. there's a contention around the bridges. basically, we want to say we want the bridges to increase circulation and enhance the public realm for circulation of the yerba buena garden and not serve as a primary use of the convention centers. we're concerned about visibility. we want to see visibility be

enhanced phenomenon nonprofits. the current patrol officers proposal has a negative impact on operations. we believe it should be limited to the site of howard or above the existing ballroom on third street. assuming that the proposals are minimal. potential expands on the moscone garage and the fifth garage might be considered. to build more on top of this roof will - the pedestrian amenities on howard street, the expansion project must include the