lot of tree. they want to plant more trees? and they cannot maintain their ficus? i have to put that out there. from one phone call to the next i can go from working with appellants, to working with someone who is like you have done nothing to manage these trees. it is a delicate balance. we are trying to scale back. we have heard the public. i'm hoping this fall, we are really rounding the corner, and hopefully we will be focusing on replacement trees. we will have more information about a replacement plan citywide. >> commissioners is this matter submitted? >> commissioners? >> i want to thank the public for bringing before us, and for sticking around for the length

of this hearing. it has been quite a night, as well as staff. to the bureau of urban forestry, i think working with the sfmta to ultimately have a net gain of trees, in this area, by the 53 trees that are planted, it pretty entrepreneurial and a way to work together with city agencies to make sure we are doing things and hopefully disrupting this community less by having these projects be aligned. at the same time, i think it is incumbent upon us to maintain some trust by ensuring that we hold ourselves to the same standards that we would hold anybody else before this body. even the exercise of finding the contractor, and all of that stuff may happen, that is the process we have and that is a process we would ask any of the contractor to go through. even if it feels odd, i think it is worth it to go through. that is what we ask others to do. we should not -- we should be subject to the same standard. that said, i find this permit

was properly issued with the one issue that they should find the contractor for the removal of the tree without a permit and pursue that process. >> i think that was was eloquently said. i want to think the departments for coming out, spending time, even though you guys are on the clock. as well as the public that stayed here until 10:40 p.m. you know, sometimes, it seems like i am badgering i do have a lot of respect for your departments. sometimes, as my commissioners said, it feels like there is a weighted scale and we belittled tesla about one tree, and here we have a lot more. you know, that process, like she said, should be followed by everyone so that it is more clear. please, hopefully this gets done, so in two years i do not have to say how come those trees are not done?

if i am still here. >> do we have a motion? >> i would move -- i guess, i'm not clear about the finding thing. >> hold on one second. i don't think we can conditio condition -- i don't think this board can order public works to find a third party for something that is not directly before us. >> we can't. i would move that we would deny the appeal and uphold the permit on the basis of its proper iss issue. >> we have a motion from commissioner tanner, to deny the appeal and uphold the public works order on the basis that it is properly issued. [role call] that motion carries 5-0. the appeals are denied. >> we are done.

>> i would like to request that we calendar discussion about policies and procedures regarding length of our meetings. >> i will put that on the agenda when everyone is here.

>> good morning. here. this is thursday, september 19, 2019. this is the regular meeting of the recreation and park commission. will the secretary please call the roll. [ roll call ]. >> clerk: commissioner buell has an excused absence. this is the meeting of the parks and recreation committee. we welcome everyone here and we

ask that you please turn off devices that may sound off during this meeting. if you would like to speak on any item today, we request but do not require you to complete a blue card. unless otherwise announced, each person will have three minutes for public comment. neither the commission or staff will respond to public comment. if there is an item of interest to you that is not on the agenda and is under the subject matter of the commission, you may speak under general public comment, and that is item 4. last, if the fire alarms activate, you must exit the building in an orderly exit. the elevators will return to the first floor and are not available for use. please make your way to the closest area of refuge. inside the restroom is a city

box. please press the button and someone will come to assist you. we will be taking items 10 and 11 out of order and they will be heard after item 7. >> first i want to acknowledge parks alliance for their great party last saturday at party for the parks. it was a fantastic event and there was a lot of donors and money raised for the parks projects around the city. thank you for parks alliance and thank you to the department which also i understand helps support the party. so again, thank you to the parks alliance. the only other item i have to note was on a very -- i'm a very infrequent reader of the "new york times," and there was

an article that caught my attention that was called "dogs won't fix our broken democracy." a lot of this was how dogs force us to get outside and go to the public parks and force us to talk to each other and interact and the serendipity of casual alliances. there was a line that i'll read to you. it was spending time in public places, they're open to everyone and while situated to guarantee the people from all walks of life will cross paths. i think that really speaks to -- the author was talking about central park, but it really talks about to all of our parks. hopefully our general manager will discuss his letter to the editor, which i thought was very compelling and actually pretty moving for the general manager. so hopefully he will -- he's

brought the letter to the editor with him. that concludes my vice president's report. >> clerk: is there any public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. we are now on item 3, general manager's report. >> good morning, commissioners, as he scrambles to find the letter i wrote to the "new york times." if i can find it, i'll share it at another meeting, commissioner. you and i both reacted to that frank bernie column which i thought was fantastic. those of you who are familiar with his work should look it up. he does use dogs in the public realm as a metaphor to talk about the importance of public space. i think i noted in my letter that parks are essentially the most democratic institution that we have left and the most equitable institution.

let me move on to our report for the month. so, mr. vice president, you were unable to be at the party for the parks because you were rooting on your cal bears. there is a great rivally between cal and stanford. there is a great rivalry between the 49s and the oakland raiders. there is a great rivalry between the san francisco giants and the oakland team. let me introduce you to battle for the bay which is this saturday which is california coastal cleanup day, san francisco and our amazing mayor london breed take on the city of oakland and their amazing mayor libbc schaff in a bet which city can turn out the most volunteers and collect the most trash.

this is important. our mayor doesn't like to lose. so to all of us san franciscans, please sign up, either with s.f. rec and park or with public works and join us. this is an amazing event. every year it's one of the largest volunteer events in the nation. across the country i think approximately 60,000 volunteers will help remove thousands of pounds of trash and recyclables from beaches and parks and lakes all up and down the state. here in san francisco, we're partnering with the port and public works and p.u.c. and the department of the environment. we need more than 2,000 volunteers at 16 inland and coastal sites, including the marina harbor, indian basin shoreline park. again, this year we are pitting our efforts against our friendly

rivals across the bay. there is a bet associated with this between the mayors and it involves the losing mayor having to go to the other city wearing other city's baseball jersey and participate in a volunteer event. did i say that our mayor does not want to lose this bet? please join us saturday. volunteers can sign up by visiting battle fortheb forthebay29th.org. saturday is one of those terrific days where things are happening in our parks. between 1:00 and 3:00 p.m. there will be a play day at west portal playground as we celebrate the upcoming improvements there. the playground is set to receive a much-needed renovation thanks to let's play s.f., which was the beneficiary for party for

the parks, commissioner, that you mentioned. let's play s.f. is an amazing partnership between the recreation and parks department and the san francisco parks alliance, where we are overhauling 13 of the most deserving and needy playgrounds all around the city, impacting 20,000 kids in those neighborhoods who use those playgrounds. and west portal playground is one of the 13. saturday's event will include food, games, brief remarks, and an opportunity to spend time with our neighbors, which we should all be doing more of. as a special side note, kaiser permanente -- it was announced that he has made a $1.6 million contribution to the let's play s.f. campaign. so thank you for the bottom of our hearts, kaiser, and we join you in your mission to let people live long and thrive.

next we are the u.s. national lawn bowling championships which we are hosting right here in golden gate park. the top men and women lawn bowlers will compete in the 2019 championships, hosted by our very own san francisco lawn bowling club. competitions will take place from september 24 to 27 and are free and open to the public for viewing at the club located just west of robin williams meadow. you can visit sfrecpark.org. we are also having a community celebration at christopher playground on saturday, as that playground gets ready to receive a much-needed facelift with new playground equipment and new pathways and some restroom

renovations. on september 28, we will be enjoyi enjoying ecocenter play day as our key event on public center wednesday. this coming saturday is coastal cleanup day. the following saturday is national public lands days. so parks, parks, parks, parks. we will be hosting a day of fun at the ecocenter at heron's head featuring a volunteer work party, fishing, bee workshops, a smoothie blender -- a bike-powered smoothie blender, and our mobile rock wall. that is right, a bicycle-powered smootie blender. that's what we do. heron's head is now, commissioners, as you know, under the operation of our volunteer staff at parks and rec. the ecocenter if you haven't

been there is really one of the most special buildings anywhere in the city. it's an entirely off-the-grid building that is used for environmental education and programming. it features its own solar energy system, a living roof, on-site wastewater treatment, a rain-water harvesting and reuse system. it's fantastic. our goals, since taking over as the program and operator at heron's head are to increase public access to the facility, provide more programs for youth, launch free fitness and nature programs for adults, and to provide community workshops and events at the site. come see it and come learn all that the ecocenter has to offer. the event is free and open to the public. for more information visit sfparkrec.o rrks grks. wait, there's more.

october 2, big truck day is back in maclaren park. this is one of our most popular events where we invite all of our little people to come to the park to see our biggest and coolest trucks from 10:00 a.m. to noon. you'll get to explore the city trucks, not just those that belong to rec and park, but a lot of our partners show up with their cool trucks that keep our city working, like fire engines and dump trucks. this is a free event. visit the website for more information. i have been to big truck day a couple of times and it is a mad house. then just around the corner, hardly strictly blue grass. everyone's free favourite music festival is back for its 19th year october 4 through 6. like every year it brings a cool and eclectic mix of musicians

together. this year it will feature many headliner headliners. this year festival operators are implementing additional security measures. so if i can be serious for a second. we will have increased sfpd and security presence. there will be a fence around the perimeter. there is a limited entrance this year at four locations only. that's how you get into this event this year. only clear plastic bags -- only clear plastic backpacks and bags will be admitted and no coolers or - and this is written - kegs. so don't bring a beg to hardly

strictly. more details can be found at hardlystrictlybluegrass.com. last night our staff hosted a meeting to discuss the expansion of our free tennis pilot program. we launched the program back in april coinciding with the closure of the golden gate tennis center. this will allow users to make online reservations for tennis and pickle ball courts around the city. this is really working and has been very helpful and has been very helpful for the tennis-playing community. more than 1500 users have made more than 6,000 bookings since we started. so we're seeing much greater use at the tennis courts and much more sense of reliability to know that a court is available. almost everybody seems to be behaving really well and

respecting the system. in august alone more than 1600 bookings were made. so we're going to expand the program at 12 additional sites around the city. we've gathered a significant amount of feedback from users and we will continue to improve the program as we move forward. finally, this week the controller's office unveiled an interesting online tool that allows web users to sort and view by neighborhood the result of the controller's offices biannual city survey. the survey came out in may in 2019 and we were very pleased with how well people view their park system. the city polled residents on their satisfaction of a variety of city services, including overall safety, reliability, and helpfulness of staff.

the latest survey completed in may gave an overall of b plus. the second only to the library. the quality of our programs received an 86% favorable rating, while landscape and parks received 84. these are good ratings. this new system allows you to view things by district and take a dive where people see our strong suits as well as opportunities for growth, areas where we need to improve. it's a useful tool for us and our staff. some highlights in this first cut, district 9, including the mission, reserves the happiest opinions for our recreation programs, parkland scaping and park parks overall. district 6 gave some of the highest ratings to the quality of our recreation programs at

94%. the online tool can be found at sfgov sfgov.org/citysurvey. if you are a geek and love manipulating numbers and on base percentages, you will love this website. so that concludes the general manager's report except for our video. this month in parks, which features our incredible nature play day we hosted a few weeks ago. [♪] [♪]

[♪]

[♪] >> commissioners, this was just an incredible event. so kudos to san francisco recreation park department staff. this was a collaborative effort between our policy and public affairs staff and some of our park maintenance staff. this was led by maria derona who is our children and nature coordinator. this is part of a much larger effort called the san francisco children and nature initiative, that was actually chaired by hydra mendosa and i.

a couple of years ago we were one of seven pilot cities to join the league of cities to think about strategies to increase urban equity in nature and to get kids out. san francisco has a mission station which is, every child deserves a nature-based experience every day. this was an effort to make that happen and i am very proud of it. that concludes the general manager's report. >> clerk: is there any public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. >> we are at number 4. at this time, members of the public may address the commission on items of interest to the public that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the commission and that do not appear on the agenda. with respect to agenda items, you will have opportunity to address the commission when the item is reached in the meeting. i have some blue cards. i have anthony and then sally

and then richard. >> good morning, commissioners. thank you. my name is lisa mccarth. i am serving the beautiful community of bayview-hunters point. we also convened a park collaborative. and just on behalf of the collaborative and community members, i want to thank this full commission for considering the additional allocation of funding to shareview park. as you know, this is in a very tight-knit community. as the park is and the video showed, every child deserves a day in nature. so we thank this commission for that consideration of allowing the children within that community and mccarther bayview to have additional green space

to play safely and just to be kids. thank you. >> thank you. >> i'm anthony smith. i'm here in support of jackson park. it must be identified as a priority for the funds in the next park bond. as you mentioned, sir, the event this weekend that was very successful, and jackson park hosted a wonderful part of that. i've been a resident of the city since 1980. during that time i've played ball at jackson park in rec and park leagues. i've umpired many games and coached many games at jackson park. i've had the reward of being part of team camaraderie and sportsmanship there. i've seen children achieve

triumph and learn from their strengths and find their gifts. i've cherished these experiences all along. i've also witnessed two very disturbing trends. one is because of social trends that promote highly competitive pay to play groups prevails, there is a drop in participation in youth separate and aparts. not every kid thrives in highly competitive environments and not every kid can play on these pay to play teams. why should these children miss out on the positive learnings of team play, camaraderie and sportsmanship? while not destined for college scholarships, team play is a critical skill and can be a gift that every person experiences and needs in their future lives for their future success. we all know this. you're exhibiting those skills

right now. the other trend in recreational programs is they're treated as just another dropoff child event for the two working parents. total family participation in these programs must be encouraged for total family enjoyment and family and child development. having a facility that supports the activities and the environment that promotes total family participation is an opportunity that we cannot miss. team-based athletics and activities, why is this so important to consider jackson park? because of all the choices that you folks need to go through, it's got to be tough decision-making. there is a growing area here. new families are coming and this is our chance to grab these new families and keep them in the community. san francisco loses families to

the suburbs, thereby losing culture and connectivity. let's stop ceding our families to the suburbs. let's build a state-of-the-art community center at jackson park. thank you for your time. [ bell rings ]. >> good morning, commissioners. richard rothman, park and open space committee representing district 1. i wanted to talk about the outside lands and i guess the upcoming strictly hardly concert. i've been going to the planning meetings that supervisor mar and supervisor fewer have had either before or after the concerts to deal with the traffic issues. when we've had these meetings, they've made small changes.

but staff need -- doesn't seem to listen to the people when we want to make changes that are pretty substantial. i know these are only three-day events, but there's still a big impact on our neighborhood in the parking. there's no reason why -- i won't go into the proposals that they don't take us seriously. so i think rec and park needs to work with another plan m.t.a. in getting serious how to reduce the traffic for these events in the richmond district. i understand for the hardly they're only going to have three openings, and three of the openings are in the richmond district. i hope that they will have parking control officers and

other -- and tow trucks. they usually don't have it for this event, but i hope they will since they're going to limit the entrances to the park. i don't mind the events. i just mind that the traffic impact. a lot of people in the richmond are seniors and they need maybe to go out to get medicine or something then don't find a parking spot when they come back or their home health care worker needs to come and visit them and can't find a parking spot. so i hope the staff will work with m.t.a. and the event sponsors to come up with some new parking -- new proposals to manage the traffic in the richmond district. thank you. [ bell rings ]. >> thank you. >> clerk: i have a blue card for sally roth.

>> good afternoon. my name is sally roth, and i am associated with the sunny side conservatory. we had a very sad experience recently. we tried to have a concert and it just wouldn't work. okay. i'm sorry. we tried to have a concert and it just wouldn't work. we had the permit. everything was all set. when we went there, there was no one to open the conservatory. so we called. we always call rec and parks police. their response was, you don't need to do that, not at this hour. no, no, nobody does it -- i said, we have a permit for 4:30. they would not come.

they would not answer it. i called them over and over again. it was very, very distressing. there seems to be -- i don't know. there's just a failure of reality or something. if this happens again, because we will have another early program going, but it's for kids, i don't know what i will do. so i just am looking for some answers on the parks patrol and what they do and what they don't do. i will say that the parks patrol was questioned by some of the people in the administration portion of rec and park. they were informed that they were -- that they, the people

involved, were not phoned until 7:00. now -- and they were apparently very convincing because other people reported that. but that is absolutely not true. we started at about, you know, 4:30. we probably first called at about 4:35 and went on from there. so that's -- [ bell rings ]. >> -- that's my complaint and my concern. they seem to be a very -- what shall we say -- unstructured group that takes care of that kind of thing. i don't know. but anyway, that's about all of it. i just wanted to make my feelings and my frustrations known. it's not good.

i had made posters -- we had made posters -- [ bell rings ]. >> thank you. >> things for the people, everything. >> thank you. >> yes. >> clerk: is there any other public comment? >> good morning, commissioners. i thought i would trying to be speaking a little bit about the cougar issue, the puma issue at the park. there's going to be a concert soon. they talk about the western edge of golden gate park. the cougar itself is probably more frightened of the people than the people frightened of the cougar. if there was going to be a

sharpshooter, they're going to have to get different bullets. they can't be using the full copper-jacketed. they ricochet all over the place. now, on the other part, i'm in favor if you could be able to catch the cougar and that's not very easy to do with a good, fast cat. when i'm looking at it, i'm looking at public safety. there's going to be a concert coming up very soon. the cougar probably is not going to be around there. it should be on the alert of the park patrol people. if it gets noticed, that's good. but out on the walk they've already posted signage that you're not to travel alone. but if you carry something like a rock or something, don't throw it at him. if you have a rock. just keep it in your hand.

if you're going to fight a cougar that rock is going to do a lot for you. i don't recommend it. if you have a handgun and a permit to carry, you can do so. but if you have a starter gun, that would also work. it just makes a loud noise, bang, and the animal is going to spook. you want to spook the animal away from other people. you make yourself big and a lot of noise. okay. that cougar thing, i think it's something that is going to be at the park, and the rangers should be informed of before the concert. thank you. >> thank you. >> clerk: is there any other public comment? >> good morning. i wanted to address the commissioners and to let you guys know how appreciative and

grateful we are for you guys supporting us with the shoreview park. as being a resident there for 31 years and to actually see this park had been abandoned for so many years and to see our dreams of the community for the children is estatic and i wanted you guys to know from the bottom of my heart and representing the keys of the community, we are greatly appreciative. thank you so much for the vision coming true. thank you. >> thank you. >> clerk: if there's no other public comment, we're going to move on to item 5. >> one more hand went up.

>> my name is janice powel and i'm from shoreview park. we thank you for everything that you're doing for us and the key is to have their playground. we're going to have a park again. we had one before, but things happen and we're just happy. we've been working with this since 2017, and now we can see it's going to happen. then we were told we're going to have the ground-breaking october 19. so we're very, very happy and we want to thank you. >> thank you. >> clerk: is there any other public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. we are now on item 5, consent calendar. commissioners, is there any item you would like removed from the consent calendar? is there any public comment on the consent calendar? i have two cards, actually. judge julie tang as well as -- i can't read this name, but an m.

crawford. oh, okay. thank you. >> my name is majiah crawford. i am the associate leader for the community association which is the lead for the filmore turk community association. i grew up there. my mom has used that park for over 15 years where she knits and hangs out with her friends. i want to thank rec and parks staff for all their support for helping us to get to this point. i want to thank the rec and park staff as well. by the designs that you've seen, there is a great need for the redesign. there are many seniors centers, low-income communities, and many

children. this is a pretty utilized park, but with the renovation it will be able to maximize the use. i wanted to come here and say we're very appreciative. the community is in a lot of support. there are hundreds of people who have been part of this process. i want to thank you again for everything that you've done to help us get to this point. thank you. >> thank you. >> clerk: is there any other public comment on the consent calendar? seeing none, public comment is closed. >> commissioners, do i obtain a motion? >> moved. >> seconded. >> moved and seconded. all in favour? >> aye. >> clerk: we are now on item 6, san francisco zoo.

>> we are one of the most cost of effective zoos. it costs $20 for a san francisco resident to come to the park. we also were noted for our location and all the amenities that are located in and around us. it was a very exciting moment. we want to celebrate our 90th year. yeah, that's right. we've been around for 90 years. the first collection of animals were moved to the site that occupies the san francisco zoo and gardens. if you haven't been out recently, a lot of fun stuff going on. in honor of the 90th year, we're celebrating good neighbor free days, and that's every thursday

of the month of september. on september 5, the south bay got in free. on september 12, san francisco celebrated free day. this today, september 19, we're celebrating with the east bay. next thursday, september 26, will be the north bay. so if you hear this, come on out. it's going to be a lot of fun. again, in honor of our 90th year. we served the community in lots of ways. one of them is through our disabled -- this was a free event for disabled veterans. this is the -- since 19 -- excuse me, since 2012 we've been partnering with the veterans of foreign, war, post, 4103 south san francisco offering this free day for veterans. and this last -- this event --

i'm trying to see how many we had. we had 275 veterans show up for this last one. so it really is a real great partnership. we have another example of how we serve the community. it is through our family access day. this is the third year we've done this event. this is to really help families and individuals with handicaps come to the park and experience it in a special way. we open up the park half an hour early and we had more than 300 participants come to the park. again, this is the third year we've done this. again, it's very, very popular. i would also like to share with you one of our outreach programs. it's our zoomobile program. this program has been in place since 1964. we did presentation and over

14,000 kids learned and heard the lessons that we bring to the classrooms. that program runs from september through june. i just would like to point out that most people aren't aware of this, but for any san francisco unified school district, teacher, and classroom, every day is free day. all you have to do is make a reservation. it is free. again, any san francisco unified school district teacher and classroom gets into the zoo free. we have an exciting new program. we're more than a zoo. we're a 100-acre park, classroom, and garden. we just started a new pilot program. this is really unique and distinct. we'll have one of the first therapy riding programs. we're partnering with a third party who are trained and specialized in therapy riding. this is for kids with handicaps. they come and they meet these

horses. through this contact in many cases they become more communicative. it's a real family-bonding experience. again, it's a new pilot program. no other zoo in a.z.a., that's american zoos and aquariums in the united states. we're really excited. it really helps to define us as more than a zoo. it's with the brady therapy riding program. speaking of fun stuff coming up, we've got the ever-popular hay amaze. i was told it's one of the biggest ones. it's a quarter of an acre. there are nine dead ends. you're going to be challenged, and this is going to be running all throughout our zoo-tober fest. you're saying what?

zoo-tober runs through october. you can have lots of fun, special brews. come out if you've never experienced it. lastly of course is our very popular boo at the zoo. that is october 26 and 27. there again we do all kinds of fun stuff. that ends my report. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> commissioner anderson. >> i would like to say that i recently went out to the zoo and spent some time on the grounds. i brought my niece. i'd like to encourage everyone out in the audience to take a visit. the zoo is more beautiful than it has been before. the gardens are lush and amazing. the animals are so well cared for. i wanted to say thank you to all the staff that came out. the love that all the keepers have for the animals and for

their jobs is just palpable. i especially want to honor the woman who suffered a great injury. when tatjana shredded her arm, she went through an incredible healing process and is working in the leamer forest. she has such love for her work. i can imagine what it would have taken to bounce back from that. i want to commend all of you for the great work that you're doing and encourage everyone to go and visit the zoo. it's amazing. >> thank you. >> thank you. i'll pass that on to lori. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> clerk: i have one blue card, richard. >> thank you, commissioners. i wanted to talk about the mothers' building. i think you all received a copy of a letter from san francisco

heritage to the historic preservation commission, saying that the project has stalled. it really has. since the capital program finished the meeting in -- and needs with the funds we got from supervisor tang, nothing has happened since january, and not for a lack of trying between myself and jane tobbin, who has been helping me. just everything we tried to do, nothing gets the project moving along. if ashley could pass this out. a friend of mine or old acquaintance who i knew from the boy scouts and myself wrote up a proposal of how to use the mothers' building to start moving this process along.

and i think at this time what is needed is rec and parks needs to assign a staff member to help us with this because it's just becoming too complicated. i went to the zooological annual meeting on tuesday, and they gave a different price tag to what they report. the chairman of the board is a they're working. they tried to raise money, but they haven't talked to us. and i just think to get this project going that rec and park needs to assign somebody. i know a little bit about how rec and park operates since being on prozak. this contract doesn't have a staff person to manage it. i think this contract was put in place in the early -- or

somewhere in the 1990s, so i think it would be a great help for somebody to be assigned to get this project moving along. also, last time i came, beside the importance of beautiful murals, they also played an important part in the history of the women's movement, these five women artists in there were really pioneers in the art movement. these were some of the first women who started working outside of the house, started in the 1930s. so there's a lot of history and this building needs to be open up and shown to the public. thank you. >> thank you. >> clerk: is there any other public comment? seeing none, we are now on item

7, gene friend rec center concept design. >> i have a presentation. melinda stockman sullivan. i'm pleased to present to you this morning discussion and possible action to approve a conceptual design for the gene friend recreation center. the approval action as defined by the san francisco administrative code chapter 31 and this item meets strategic plan strategies 1 and 2 inspiring public space and inspiring play.

there was a feasibility study and concept design initiated for the center. this process is particularly robust in that finding a need and jumping right into concept design, we developed a hardy feasibility study working with members of rec and parks structural maintenance yard, operations, and other divisions and communities to look at both the physical bones of the property and gap in needs. over the course of the last five years we've had over 20 focus groups and at least three if not four and five meetings with core stakeholders who i'll recognize shortly. the work for the feasibility and the concept design was generously don'ted by the trust

through public land for whom the center is named. the feasibility study included a thorough analysis of potential improvements that could be made to the existing building and site and model four options from a very cosmetic, small-scale upgrade to a full demolition and new site with expanded programming. to continue serving a range of community interests, particularly under underserved groups, it was determined that the existing rec center would have a growing need for programs. it is only projected to expand continually. these boards show some of the needs of the center. i will go over this quickly because we have another slide that more clearly shows the existing site, but we use these kind of boards with both the

aerial and the photos to get reds and greens or things that people really like, community members like and want to maintain and those that were challenges. the rec center is located at fulsome and 6 street. it is serving many community organizations. these are some photos showing the existing site. when i mentioned to both people i know and even some co-workers that i'm working on this project and i mentioned the location of it, folks who were not familiar with the neighborhood often think this is a vehicle service center or potentially a detention facility. the huge iron pickets that face outward does not have a very welcoming environment. however, it has served a crucial need to many community groups and will continue to do so.

there are some assets of this facility that we wanted to maintain and enhance. you can see the beautiful natural light in the basketball court and some public art on the building that we're working with the commission on. this slide shows the current facility. one indoor basketball court, one outdoor court, one older-style auditorium that is serving many functions as a multi-purpose table. we have ping-pong courts in the lobby. we have an aging playground and an underutilized lawn. parks and rec worked with w.r. studio for the design. they were selected through a

competitive r.f.p. this slide shows in the bottom right-hand corner the existing facility at 16,500 square feet and the new facility at just under 30,000 square feet. so we are looking at nearly doubling the size of the center. i should mention over here on the left the outdoor space. one of our programming goals was to pretty much maintain or try to get as close as possible to the existing outdoor space because there is so little green space in soma. so you will see how we accomplish that. one of the other interventions is going from one indoor gymnasium to two. one multi-purpose room to three and expanding other supportive amenities. these are some precedent images. i mentioned at capital committee most of these with the exception of the top right are in places

that have open spaces around them. however, i'm including them here because we want to meet the street with this building and have light coming from the ground floor and have a closer relationship between what's going on inside and outside. these show the building plans. this is the overall plan with the building, again right up at fulsome and 6th. right now it's over in the middle. the idea is to have this iconic building. we maintain our outdoor court, but we've realigned that and pulled it up to 6th street and maintained the sunny, secure area with a new playground and a lawn in the back. one major feature of this building that we worked with extensively with our recreation staff, operations staff, and community stakeholders is that it's important to have one controlled point of access and to have a closer, safe feeling, especially for youth and also

for seniors and other folks using the program. so it's kind of balancing that street presence and folks knowing what's inside and also making the users feel safe when they're using the facility. this slide shows the layout of the first floor. you can see we have a large kitchen. the multi-purpose room is large right underneath the text here. we have a lounge so people can play ping-pong and games, not right in the main entry, and two basketball courts. the second floor as a divisible multi-purpose room and this large, open terrace. this is really meant to be an asset where folks can go out and do programming. there can be classes and conflict resolution among youth. it's really an outdoor space. finally the roof plan. not very exciting. i'll just take an opportunity to