does the rebuild of the c pmc hopeless an important component of our economy there's no more important projects than the moscone it's on a world designation since 1980 we look forward to approve all aspects of this project in moving forward thank you. >> thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners john from the yerba buena i apologize. i i was outside when i called my name i have good news. first, the settle time are our museum is set for final approval this tuesday it provides the safety improvements we've

requested and second since the eir hearing six or seven weeks ago we had an important discussion about exactly what the things it can be done and the city made it clear they want to move forward there's a technology cattle the biggest part is widening the east side of the effort sidewalks from howard to market there are a series bottleneck that can't be part of the moscone but picked up in the environmental clearance and should follow after that so this case we're definitely on the right track so thank you >> thank you.

>> sue hester my office has on on market since 1980 i know when a conference is in town by the pedestrians on the street right in front of my belief i submitted comments on the eir and wanted to bring them to attention right now a couple of the of the years for multiple days howard street is closed when it's closed to mission to market street and terrace street i don't think goes to fulsome it causes class. anything that doesn't improve traffic control and traffic officers at the intersection is not a solution for the area around the conference center we

need improvements beyond the mini area around the conference center which todd could has done i applaud them but no one is telling the conference that is coming to town the sales force in particular everyday multiple day the street is closed you have to post traffic control officers we have the complication of the big date you have to had effective i've suppressed that effective traffic control by people that control traffic and pedestrians don't talk on their phone they know their job and can overrule the traffic signals there's a problem getting around the streets with conferences moscone must be told with part of the

conference operator they put the burden on the conference operator sales force has billions of dollars dollars they can afford to pay for the traffic control 83 and that's when our working to have the approval for the moscone center it should be conditions imposed by this commission there's a major, major disruption to traffic flow not only to pedestrians by cars and buses and trucks every time there are an event we need this as pedestrian controls are patrol officers controls are weak that's it thank you >> is there any additional public comment seeing none, director ram. >> thank you, commissioners. thank you. i want to thank

everyone and this obviously is a fairly subsequential project and planning staff has been involved for some. i was or want to briefly talk about the pedestrian safety improvement this area can use subsequential pedestrian improvements so we've been working on this boo-boo fore the moscone expansion as well as the selma capitalization it's come down to that the plan we'll be doing for the area will include a piece that will be implemented by moscone as well as other pieces that will be implemented through the impact fees with the projects and selma. as someone pointed out mr. harmon we're looking at the eir is looking specifically at the possibility of turning fulsome

and howard into two way streets it this will prove peaceful and make that more pedestrian friendly and there's a lot of support from the community to make the traffic work, of course. there's a number of things we're collectively working on to improve pedestrian safety and commissioner antonini and i think it sounds like a wonderful improvement and since the last time we talked about this in the right direction i have questions. i understand that we're going to have an increasing a captain of the north and south see 5 hundred and 15 square feet how did that compare with other cities we're in competition with and our total expansion after this is finished >> i know that's a better

question for the sponsors to answer in terms of the conferences. >> mr. hartman and whoever else has answers. >> commissioner. thank you for your question moscone ranks 25 in the nation in terms of of the size with those improvements move forward 80 up to 17 i that's encouraging but why not in the top 5 base your competing with chicago and new york and las vegas but if we don't cap capacity they're not going to come no matter how appealing i'm

concerned is this big enough i'm not opposed to what you're doing but would have looked at something bigger perhaps having a bridge connecting moscone north and south so people don't have to get out open the street and go to west. >> understood. the purpose of mushgz is different from other larger conventions in count i and las vegas and new york moscone attracts professional conventions we're not in the business of competing with the others who have no more sales oriented car shows physically it would be nearly impossible to get it that size of las vegas or new york or chicago >> that's true i guess the other question there was a time when we had major political

conventions of 56 and 54 the republicans then the democrats used medicare's moscone in 84 and claimed half the people couldn't see the stage i'm not sure that type of setting you have to take advantage of an arena we'll have in mission bay for that type of convention is speak something we're open to. >> another great question i don't know if sf travel staff can answer that. >> good afternoon john san francisco travel you're absolutely right we're not in a position to hold a democratic or republican convention i don't know if the republicans would come here (laughter) we need a big event space the

ideal space would be an arena similar to the sports arena that would eastbound helpful particularly in light of the fact we'll be connected by light rail so to be able to pursue something like that once that's complete we have the complete portfolio of assets but it opens up to another realm of events similar to what you were saying it helps us to compete for the much larger ones we can't right now what w with the expansion of moscone. >> that's important because there's a cashing i can't that comes with the major political convention and cleveland is happy to get the conventional in

2016 it helps to get la broken and other things didn't help either. >> the expansion itself my thought is you're working on making the underground spaces wider and is there any thought given to sub merging howard street and having that as part the convention center >> we knew we were losing $2 billion in revenue we went through a bunch of things but we were constrained by the budget and the demands and needs and sensitivity to impacting the area so those considerations were take into account and other

infrastructure issues that made it difficult to expand it as well. >> i encourage you this is encouraging and look at the connections between the west side and the north and south is very important i thank you and also dovetailing with the central subway everything fits together. >> we'd love to see the central subway into the fisherman's wharf. >> i'm supportive of seeing howard go two ways that's a good thing and perhaps you'll be able to in their u narrow it to some degree to make that more pedestrian friendly. and " of the actual area a little bit large and people - the crosswalk side in the middle and the widower part between

third i fourth makes sense and i'll speak in favor of the not to the center to fund the widening of sidewalks towards market but collective through the plan and central corridor we have to find the funding to make the sidewalks easy to get to. without a convention their narrow and oftentimes hard to get through the areas we're moving in the right direction and i'm supportive. >> commissioner sugaya. >> yes. commissioner antonini asked some questions i had you already answered and i'm going to say i thought that size wasn't completely driving engine you have different types of conventions we can caterer to.

i don't know for a fact do the types of conventions, conferences that we caterer to produce more revenue for the other types of things the spending is higher and i have a question about moscone west it isn't part of this particular design at the moment but some point i assume we're going to have to talk about better connections and expansion in this direction that brought up another question does the city have control over the parking garage on third is it possible to expand in that direction if it's needed we'll getting him or her get to in another 5 or 10

years >> thailts. >> commissioner moore. >> i appreciated the presentation particularly your presentation i've not heard one like that but since the issues surrounding the issues are so complex i'm 3re6b9 that the department talked about the drirmdz that are the doctors are vague and many used before and the details responder out it will help to understand the challenges of the eir proposed having said that, this is an unusual project the convention filled never met challenges it was creating an island and what we're doing is not a subtle way of enlarging the building and retrofitting it and creating a

mini district which the department presented a while back it's a wonderful step in the right direction this will hepatitis things tucked in and the massiveness of the building creates a subscription and it helps so i'm happy with the transform. >> commissioner johnson. >> thank you very much. and thank you for the presentation. i have a couple of quick questions a little bit unfair advantage having been the successor of the other commission they control the land so when the moscone captains was beginning that was one of the public forums for presentation on the project so the first thing i'm glad to see a number of positive changes in the design and in the pedestrian and

street close from the first review there's community input and that's great. a couple of quick things i know you know, i feel like i'm going to be the bicycle person when i had the presentation on embarcadero one of the questions on the successor agency the bicycle situation on howard street given the set aside bus stop for the buses to drop folks off that interfered with the current placements of bike los angeles along howard street but vuchl in howard street is two ways i support that but it shows up in the eir and the symmetric's that the planning commission sees it's an important part of the pedestrian

circulation as well as accommodating for bicycles and the second thing i was looking for one of the major pieces of the public comment we got a successor agency was about business access on the north side of moscone center along yerba buena gardens so those businesses on the second floor above the yerba buena gardens there was a number of people who came and were concerned about access through the businesses not only during the construction but actually post construction when you have the bridge because the egresses i need from the moscone north and south bypasses some of the businesses above yerba buena gardens so i was looking for the sxheemz are there concessions made and maybe

a staff member can answer my last comment you know the successor agency staff is looking at the beyond all doubt plan there are a number of models and different ways of managing the garden in the future but seems like with the moscone expansion it is putting pressure on the garden to accommodate for people to have the moscone center that hopefully, will be built to 3 hundred nights a year and have a lot of days being used so i want hope that the planning department staff is also working closely with successor agencies with the plan and if possible it would be great to get a presentation on how this is coming along so that concludes my report. and i have the question about the access along yerba buena gardens for someone to answer

>> thank you commissioner johnson just to answer our question about the connections i have an overview. >> it addresses that? >> so you can see this is the pedestrian bridge it is the enclosed condition space and this is the public terrace at the second floor level this is the direct public seas to the pedestrians so one can be in the businesses and come back to moscone. >> thank you. >> thank you commissioner hillis. >> thank you for your presentation. i appreciate that they fixed the public realm in the block to the

north the buildings were constructed kind of not facing the street but the garden this is once in a generation opportunity to fix that. i wish you and you do a good job along fourth and even on fulsome there's if there's not a staircase on fulsome at this point i think it's closed easement i don't know why don't anyone know about the staircase it's a grand - do you know why it's - >> (inaudible). >> okay. i wish this could go favorite because those two blocks are kind of bait improvements that is the next step but, you know, if you look

at third and fourth and along fulsome i get into the convention center it's not the most forward kind of use. i like the design and the elements of that but that, too is kind of inward are we making the same kind of mistakes we've made but i think that retail that's beyond the garden in the interior inside that block is hard to use is there a way to make a better connection along third with that space people use the children's playground it's active but not as active as 3 or fourth street. that's the most public non-convention active use here i'm worried it gets some of the

issues along the gasped >> yes. commissioner hillis that that is an issue we've focused on with the input eave received from some of the public it is a internal alleyway, in fact, it's where it was drawn from the president of the let's open kind of smaller walkways throughout the city our intention is to build on that scale to make it a rich place in terms of the program and including we hope was we move forward with the arts commission about potential involvement with the art spaces as well as the light and referenced some in the presentation and finally as it meets third street our intention so to take advantage of the

widower pedestrian spaces moving the ramp to make the introduction of that space actually at the street i don't know if it shows in the images but to bring the seating and tables at that corner cafe there in the moscone center to the street it's prepares is brought back into the street it would be great if alleyway would be the same but a pleasant educate and used as the public space for moving in and out it is actively used. >> i don't know if we could move up third street but again that corner of third and fulsome i mean third and howard is active but i people are on the corner draw them down into the space i agree every alley even

though we don't want them to be like a dog alley they've got to go somewhere. >> the other question i like the design the bridge it's being rebuilt why we build. we don't necessarily like bridges and kind of - it elevates it the area around the metro rinses are people are using the street to get up to the carrousel and other spaces more so than in the past >> yes. it's a good point. first of all, the reason to remove the current one it's not fundamental it didn't follow rule one of the transportation and move it making it intuitively clear where it goes the bridge goes over adjacent to the carrousel and the land is on

the conduit, if you will, one level above the playground so you've gotten there i can figure out how to get to the playground if you're there for the first time it's to the incident how you get to yerba buena gardens for example and everyone crows under the sort of viaduct it's not a pleasant part of the park in of the issue one and the second he in terms of absolutely. i agree the point of keeping people on the street has been an issue several times this is a unique part of the city because of the incredible amounts of crowds so the connection between the two important public spaces the playground and he did yerba buena gardens and those two

businesses above are really enhanced by having a park like extension between the two spaces. so i think a that's very unusual situation in san francisco and unique in this case it's appropriate because the two gardens are elevated so to get to them you'll have to go upstairs if i have a stroller or wheelchair and other issues that new brim will provide a real important connection between the two public spaces and done in a way that continues the language of the landscape as opposed to being a sidewalk across the street >> thank you. i appreciate that and i agree the design is great it just kind of adding another bridge to this space is a southern so thank you. >> commissioner fong. >> well, i had the privilege of

being a long term supporter those projects don't happen without dollars and there's one person in the audience that repeating really helps with the sf form and the tourists that's itself aid for this particular project we're looking at which is wonderful and thanks linda congratulations. as one speaker said every time a version is getting better and better we're in the spot it's significantly better and thank you, john for bringing to the attention of the public this is a good time to bring it up and appreciate that and for some people that come to san francisco for a convention this is the only part of town they see but for some maybe here for a longer time it's important for

san francisco and i think we've created a nice community for our visitors so look forward to seeing you again and congratulations open this project >> thank you. i want to thank the project team and public there's been a lot of work and look forward to your continued work together >> commissioners, if there's nothing further we'll move on to item 10 intention to initiate the planning code amendments related to consolidating and other subsequential changes to simplify code language. the matter before you is to nirnt the amendments and schedule a public hearing not before september 4, 2014. those persons existing the chafrmdz if you can do to

quietly we'll appreciate that >> good afternoon aaron starr planning staff. the item bruce before you is a department supported ordinance to amend the sections of the planning code to restraining order reorganize time tables to update and semiimply code language i presented that on june 20, 2013, and looked at it october i was overlook optimistic other than the timing but the year it took to bring this forward was good we hosted two meeting and drafted the 4 hundred and 60 page odd ordinance and have the city attorney reviewed the ordinance and signed it which took 5 months. today, we're asking toy initiate