the largest slice of the pie is on the right, animal operations. our expenses for this year are estimated at 6.7 million just for animal operations itself. building and grounds again we are a 99-acre park as well and buildings grounds are over 4.3 million in expenses. where our revenues come from? thanks again on the next chart thanks to the city $4 million comes from the city and the roases slice there but we really need to get the revenues from the blue piece of pie there which is admissions and the dark purple which is retail and parking. those are people coming through the zoo actually through the gate both paying for retail and parking and admission covering the bulk of our expenses there.

again i just a quick dashboard here on the last three years, head count, and while attendance goes up we can employ more people and need to employ more people so for the last three years it's gone from 214 to 243 persons. also with that we can promote more folks. we went from five promotions to 12, and we were able to last year to fill 128 positions because you see how we're holding there throughout the recession and lastly you know that our zoo keepers are members of the teamsters union and thanks to the work of the hr team the union grievances have stayed relatively the same, one a year. we will work on getting that down and the last dashboard i have is also again as revenues increase we can invest in our animals. last year we had 1600 animals and this year we have 1744 animals and i just wanted to point out some of the new

animals and species that came to the zoo this last year, the wof wean and pandas and lemurs and we have eight species of lemurs at our exhibit and speaking of animals as i announced last month we had a new [inaudible] langer and it's a he and staff decided to name him "steffen curry" after the warriors player. it's about time we acknowledge the warriors and thought he was the color of curry, the spice and matches the point guard and a little fun there. we are building the south america collection with the af vary and the a adjoining exhibit and we brought in twoant loops and the smallest in the world and come from south

america. they're sweet. they're hard to see. very tiny but they're a courtable and in the lapunty exhibit and we have these and they're adjacent to the playground here and you can see them in the holidays and the new exhibit is there and kids are enjoying it. speaking of kids we too have a winter camp for two weeks. provides relief to frazzled parents including myself who still have to work and buy gifts during the holidays. this is almost sold out. we have the highest attendance ever for student winter camp this winter so thanks to the team back at the zoo, and then i just wanted to remind everybody we're doing our third annual zoo lights. full programs starts tomorrow and through december 30. we will have the lights off for

christmas eve and christmas so staff can spend time with the families. again this is free for members. we will have santa. we have a number of animal exhibits open and the giraffe bar and the komodo dragons and reindeer. we feature local musicians and this friday is the el camino dance group and saturday the popular ray tones but look at our website for rain and other schedules but so far we're ready to go and i wanted to thank the very high end retailer, neemen marcos and there is an expression that one person's trash is another man's treasure and they didn't need the trees from last year and a lot of the trees came from neemen marcos. they don't useornments twice i guess. [laughter] anyway i will leave that one

alone. just a reminder one of the greatest world's best biggest lego displaying will end in january and in the pachyderm building and sean kennedy built the lego displays and quite amazing. . the hummingbird is in the air and i invite you and the kids to come see them and a quickly where we are on repairs. i explained this to the joint zoo commission and saw the report of the our investigative igator -- [inaudible] but this is what the panels look like and for each of the doors. the black buttons causing it to either go up or down and the stop button. as you're aware of the protocol for each of the doors is keep the hand on the red button and

staff if in operation and four and a half feet high and 30 seconds to close. the speed is akin to a garage door if not slower. what we're doing now is retrofitting each of the doors so that it's no longer needed to press the stop button but if you relet's your button from the black button the door will stop on its own automatically. it's called a pressure control release system and i will show you a diagram. those are the safety protocols that are next and remain next to the door. there was a lot of press about the protocols and unless you need me to go through them but this is to remind the operator how to utilize the doors. this is the diagram of the back of house, of the gorilla world. the blue indicates where the panels are currently. the orange arrow

there in the bottom left corner and i don't know if i can get the laser there. that's where kabee and her grandmother slept so you can see where the operator was vis-a-vis the door and what we're going to do now -- i believe the next picture is provide another operating panel over in a second place in that top corner so there are two places now for a operator to utilize the doors providing more flexibility and enhance visibility and with that i finish my report and happy holidays. >> thank you. mr. ginsburg. >> thank you mr. politic. i wanted to. >> >> thank you mr. president. i wanted to thank the staff for hosting us at the employee event. we're at the zoo for a lovely sunday morning brunch and we had several hundred people.

i think 300 to 400 people from the department and staff and their families. commissioner low and his family were kind enough to join us and we folks explored the zoo for the day and the staff was fantastic and the zoo looked great. and we wanted to say thank you. >> thank you for coming. i appreciate it. >> is there any public comment on this item? seeing no one public comment is now closed and this was discussion only. >> thank you. >> we are now on item 7, esprit park 800 indiana street shadow impact. >> thank you. >> good commissioners. i am holly peterson a planner with the rec and park's capital

building division and the report is shadow impact on esprit park on 800 indiana street and we have the developer for the project, avalon bay communities here. i think they want to say a few words after my presentation. we have the planning department staff here who have been responsible for the project entitlements and environmental review and here to answer any questions that you may have. just a brief overview of the policy for shadow -- analysis of shadow impacts on parks on rpd owned parks from proposed new buildings over 40 feet in height. the shadow analysis requirement was enacted through sunlight ordinance, proposition k and codified in the planning code and addition to the actual ordinance there was a memo prepared in 1989 by

the recreation and park department and the planning department which provides guidance how to evaluate shadow impacts on parks, both quantitatively and qualitatively. the proposed project 800 indiana street is located in the dog patch neighborhood at obviously 800 indiana street. it will include up to 338 new residential units and will be approximately 58 feet in height and this image shows the relationship of the proposed building to esprit park. as you can see it's kiltie corner from the park to the southwest. and these are the proposed building elevations showing the building envelope and the design. i know it's hard to see from where you're sitting for the proposed project. and just a brief description of esprit park. it is 1.83 acres located between

19th and 20th street in between minnesota and indiana streets and fairly densely planted around the perimeter with trees and open meadow in the interior and has an athletic circuit or exercise equipment and benches and picnic tables and frequently used and particularly for dog walking and dog play. looking at the new shadow that would occur on the park from the project at 800 indiana the new shadow would occur during the fall and winter months from october to march and occur in the late afternoon within the last two hours of the solar day. the memo provides guidance how to look at shadow impacts and it looks at the solar day which ends one hour before sunset so this project the shadow would occur during the last two hours

of the solar day. the average duration of the shadow is 45 minutes and ranges from 37 minutes to one hour and 54 minutes and the area of the park that would be shadowed by the proposed building is the southern portion of the park. i will show an image of that in a moment. so the guidance from the 1989 memo provides policy criteria for both smaller parks under 2-acres and large parkers so what it says that parks with less 2 acres in size that are already shadowed by 20% no additional shadow should be permitted. parks more than 2 acres when shaded less than 20% an additional 1% shadow load should be permitted, so as i said esprit park is 1.83 acres and the metric used in shadow analysis is total available

sunlight and measured in square foot hours and the methodology looks at the existing shadow conditions in the park and square foot and how much would the proposed building change that in percent change so for esprit park the current load is 10.85% and the existing shadow is that much of the total annual sunlight. the 800 indiana street would increase had load by 0123 percent and bring the total load on the park existing plus new building to 10 .97 of the total available sunlight. this image shows the shadow on esprit park on the day of maximum impact which is december 20 at sunset minus one hour so you can see where the shadow is located on the southern section of the park and i think it's worth noting that a lot of this area is currently

shadowed by trees. this slide shows other development projects, proposed projects in the pipeline in the vicinity of esprit park and there are two other projects besides street that have been reviewed for impacts and 650 indiana and on tennessee. and in both cases the new shadow by the proposed buildings wouldn't have a significant or adverse impact on the park. this table shows the details of the shadow impacts on esprit park from all three projects. that is 800 indiana as well as the 2 i mentioned that were reviewed and the far right shows the cumulative shadows on esprit park so for all three projects the total

increase in shadow load on the park would be 0.2 six 9%. the existing conditions plus the new shadow from all three projects would bring the total shadow load to 10.85% and looking more qualitatively at all three projects there would be new shadow both in the morning and in the evening hours. there would be new shadow all year around sept for the month of september and the new shadow would be located on both the northern and southern sections of the park so i think it's fair to say there would be small amounts of new shadow dispersed throughout the day and year and across the park. and the capital committee heard this item on december 3 and forwarded it without recommendation because the environmental review for the proposed project, 800

indiana, was not complete at that time. on december 4 the commission certified the environmental report for 800 indiana street so the environmental review is complete and you're able to act on the shadow analysis and i will hand it over to avalon bay communities for a few words. >> okay. so i actually have rob pool first and then have the two of you come up so rob go ahead. >> okay. good afternoon commissioners. thank you for the opportunity to speak today. i am rob poole with the san francisco housing action coalition speaking on behalf of our 150 members. avalon bay and [inaudible] architects presented this project to the project review committee in early 2014 and our stance is all of the community benefits that the

project deliver out weigh the shadow impact on the park. this will bring a lot of housing to the city's job centers and along the transit line. it's very well designed. incorporates significant amount of publicly accessible open space, enhances the pedestrian experience providing landscaping along the sidewalk and widening the sidewalk. these are all the features you want to see in good urban development and promote those principles. the dog park is a fantastic addition as well so i hope you let the project move forward as it is and thank you very much for your time. >> thank you. >> then we have joe kirshaugher and peter waller. are you going to do it together? are you each going to do three minutes or doing it together? >> if we could each do three minutes. thank you. we have i powerpoint on the screen. thank

you very much. peter waller with [inaudible] architects. i will give a brief overview of the project. you have introduction of the site and you see the view of the warehouse and that tall over pass between the warehouse and -- thank you joe, and the park, and then the view from the other end, the south end with esprit park in the foreground you see the tall stand of evergreens and softens the impact of the over pass and in while you see what we're proposing to do in dog park and paid by avalon in the unused space by the over pass and a view from indiana the overpass is on the right so three distinct buildings, distinct architects and to reclaim the fabric of the neighborhood and the open space plan miller and

company took advantage of that right-of-way there to expand. the pedestrian realm, make it lush landscape and three open spaces including a wide central plaza and then the dog park on the right hand side. the streetscape was coordinated as overall plan from 22nd to 18th and reviewed as part of the project. you see the expansion of the plaza. calms traffic midblock. next slide is the dog park about 9,000 square feet. new lighting, seating, landscaping. i think a great complement to the existing useds at esprit park and briefly just looking at the experience from the park roughly in the middle of the park on a november afternoon you see the overpass, that stand of trees and before the project. when the project is add you see a little in fill

by the overpass and that area there -- next slide, thank you joe -- and again before the project and with the project essentially the view is of that project is just below the overpass modest impact as experienced from the park. thank you very much and i am here for questions and i will turn it over to joe. >> thank you commissioners. i am joe with avalon bay, the project sponsor and the owner and manager of this building when it's complete. so you heard from peter. peter showed photos of the project. what it's going to look like. you heard from staff about the the shadow impact. i want to talk about the benefits this project is going to bring to the dog patch community so to begin one of the most important benefits we will provide 326 apartments, new places to live and in fill

and part of the neighborhood plan and exactly where new housing should be built in san francisco. the city needs this housing and i don't want that over looked but more than of that benefit -- secondly as peter described we going to transform the streetscape here and important connection between the ed nodes and we have the shopping district and esprit park. right now it's uninviting strip of sidewalk. we're going to increase this down the street to 15 feets and generous bulb outs in addition to the 15 at the three 34r -- plazas and it's a generous public gathering space and as mentioned not only are we going to improve the area immediately in front of our site we worked with neighbors and another developer down the street to gain environmental approval for the improvements

and coordinated way and four block stretch here so another major benefit is the dog park. this is going to be built on public space and unimproved dead end street by the overpass and we're going to pay to build it and maintain it in perpetuity and it will be open to the public and i want to clarify it's not a standard thing for new developments to. do we feel it's above and beyond but we feel it's an absolutely ideal thing for us to be doing. we saw an opportunity to create something in the space and listened to the community and the concern for more dog facilities so we're happy to commit to make this happen. we have been major supporters of other neighborhood improvements. this is wood yard park. on the bottom is a renting and a photo of the finished project. this is an open space on a parcel on 22nd street and owned by sfmta

and adopted by community members who lead the effort over 18 months to create the play area. we are thrilled to be part of it. we supported it and helped to make it a reality and if you have been down to 22nd street it's filled with neighborhood kids and we're thrilled about. because we worked so hard to make a difference and responsive to the neighborhood concerns i am proud to see we got an unanimous endorsement from the dog patch neighborhood. a few other benefits -- we are paying $4 million in impact fees and further impact the neighborhood and we are paying about $21 million in inclusionary housing payments to meet the affordable housing and this is the equivalent of 75 new apartments. in conclusion we designed this to be a great place to live but more than that a great enhancement to the neighborhood and we are proud to be presenting it to you asking for your support. thank you. >> thank you.

>> is there anyone else who would like to make public comment on this item? seeing no one public comment is now closed. >> commissioner low. >> again we discussed this at the capital committee and part of the problem with the analysis i think -- with the 1989 memo that parks that are less than 2 acres that has less than 20% of shadow impact load there is no guideline as to what that allowable cumulative limit should be. plus this is a recurring discussion, particularly with esprit park, where we have the cumulative analysis with projects that are in the pipeline but not the benefit what the shadow impact is or could add to the existing shadow that is being cast by other projects, so we struggled with this idea of the cumulative impact of whether we should

take a look at all projects in the pipeline and compare them similar to what we do for prop m or do we adopt the policy of first in first out. the first developer into the queue is the first one out, so it's a struggle, and i don't agree with the staff report that there is a significant shadow impact. however, i do think is there is a difference between this project and the two prior projects that came before us. i think avalon bay has done a great job in providing a community benefit program to off set any potential shadow impact on esprit park. they're providing open space, additional open space on site at their expense. they're providing a dog park fortunately they will maintain and police -- it's an inside joke for us, which it

was responsive to the community, and they are making a contribution to the childrens' playground so i think that shows a significant community program in addition to the affordable housing fees and impact fees they're paying that i would support this project to move forward. >> thank you. commissioner levitan. >> i could not state it anymore eloquently than my commissioner low has done -- no, i couldn't even though he went to berkeley. >> [inaudible] >> but i take this very seriously and i am increasingly having greater concerns with developments impacts in terms of the population increased to certain neighborhoods without consideration for those impacts on our parks and recreation, and in my mind there is no such thing as an acceptable shadow

on the playground. just go to one when it's cold and struggled with the shadows being cast so i appreciate the notion that you could have a formula of what is an acceptable amount of shadows but i am fundamentally of the mind they're not good for the parks but with that said everything that commissioner low said i concur with and appreciate the efforts that avalon bay made with this and as a result i can support this. thank you. >> thank you. seeing no other comments i would entertain -- was that a motion you made commissioner low? >> yes. >> and is there a second to that? >> second. >> moved and seconded. all in favor say aye. >> aye. >> so moved. thank you. >> we are item 8. failing playgrounds task force.

>> commissioners. dawn kamalanathan with the recreation and park department. i am here to present on the results of the failing playgrounds task force which the commission appointed a number of months ago and i just wanted to start off by saying i have been working here for eight years. i have easily organized facilitated or went to a hundred meetings and i have to say this is the best task force ever and i think that is really the result of efforts and attention of many people and i would like to thank some of those folks. first to really thank the committee members including commissioner mcdonnell. it was a thoughtful and reflective work and i hope they all become

advocates for the playground and keep them involved in our discussions going forward. i would like to thank the public that attended our hearings. we are representatives from merced heights, graton playground and mclaren and golden gate that kaism to the meetings and participated in the exercises and thoughtful and constructive in the feedback they provided. i would like to thank all of our staff who brought tremendous creativity to our approach. we tried a lot of new things in the way we structured this task force and the xdzs and the materials we prepared. steve our facilitator who is the facilitator for mission delores and brought that experience to his efforts with this task force and also in particular we had a unique approach in this task force and we co-hosted with it the san francisco parks

alliance and i would like to thank the staff of the parks alliance. we spent months in planning to make sure this was a successful experience for the public and both the committee members and i think greg moore from the conservancy says sometimes you need to go slow to go fast, and we took the time we needed to prepare and be thoughtful and focused about the issues we wanted to put in front of the committee members and i think that has paid off so i'm going to take you through today a little bit of the context within which we did our work and the process and then our ultimate recommendations and look forward to your feedback and questions. so a little bit of our context. as you are probably aware within the 2012 san francisco clean and safe neighborhoods park bond we allocated about 15.5 million dollars to focus specifically on