i live and work on van ness. i have been transversing that corridor over the years since high school. it hasn't changed much since then. there is no need to spend $125 million to tear up the street and do something that is a disaster. if you want to speed it up make the 47 a limited. do bulb outs and save time and hold the light. all of those things are done quickly and cheaply and they're taking away several of the stops. if you do that anyway with the 47l you will speed it up. there are other problems. obviously you're taking a way a lane of traffic. we have three. you're putting it to two and one of the lanes is a throw away and there is ups, other deliveries and ga badge trucks and people backing into spaces so you're cutting it down to one. all of the side streets -- whether franklin or gof or polk street they can't handle additional traffic and you're removing the left hand lanes. every time there say station or platform you make the traffic go along the sidewalk so that will make it a very unattendable sit

the exclusive right-of-way along van ness. for the rest of the run they will operate as they currently do along the traditional routes of the 49 limited and the 47 lines providing connection to other parts of the city and the 49 line will run virtually the entire length of the city. what goes into making a brt system? what is bus rapid transit? it's the dedicated transit lane is the obvious item but there are subtle features and signal authority and opt minimization to make sure the buses get the extra jump on the rest of the traffic lie continuing to allow the traffic to move efficiently. all buses to maximize the speed for which people can board the coaches and of course pedestrian improvements and high quality stations are critical to encourage people to use the system and feel comfortable being able to take the system to their destination along the corridor and walk the final distance. the expected benefits of the van ness project up to a [inaudible] percent in transit time. up to 50% improvement in reliability and expecte

pedestrian comfort along the corridor and enhance the van ness corridor infrastructure. i would like to talk a little bit about how the van ness brt fits into the operations of the mta and the future of the mta's development. as you can see from this map in the green it provides a north south trunk, an area where there is little rail currently available, so we will provide basically a high capacity corridor for the mta without having to build a rail line along van ness. it's designed specifically to hook up with the geary brt and currently in development and provide east-west connection point and connection hub at van ness and geary. as part of a larger mta network service for the van ness brt will be provided by the trolley and motor coaches currently operate the 47 and 49 limited lines. as you can see from this map the bus rapid transit project will operate in the exclusive right-of-way along van ness. for the rest of the run they will operate as they currently do along the traditional routes of the 49 limited and the 47 lines providing connection to other parts of the

block bounded by van ness avenue, geary boulevard, franklin street, and post street assessor's block/lot no.'s 0695/005, 0066; the cathedral hill mob site is on the east side of van ness avenue, between geary and cedar streets assessor's block/lot no.'s 0694/005, 006, 007, 008, 009, 009a, 0100. the hospital and mob, along with an underground pedestrian tunnel connecting the two buildings under van ness avenue, constitute the cathedral hill medical center consideration of a resolution of intent to initiate general plan amendments, pursuant to planning code section 340, to: aa amend map 5 bulk mapp of the urban design element to reflect the maximum bulk dimensions proposed for the cathedral hill hospital and mob; bb amend map 1 generalized land use and density plann of the van ness area plan in order to designate the cathedral hill hospital and mob sites as "the van ness medical use subdistrict" and increase the allowable far for the mob site from 7.1:1 to 7.5:1, cc amend map 2 height and bulk districtss of the van ness area plan to create a 230-v district coterminous with the hospital

item 28, ordinance amending the general plan map of the urban design element and van ness design plan for the california [speaker not understood]. item 29 is the ordinance amending the general plan maps of the urban design element for the california pacific medical center. ~ >> thank you. president chiu? >> thank you, mr. chair. colleagues, i am very excited that we are finally considering the final development agreement and related approvals for the cpmc project. a lot has been said about this project. i'm going to be very brief, but after years of discussion and months of negotiations this historic health care project will ensure our hospitals get their rebuilds done right and to ensure that san francisco has a health care system ready for the 21st century. in addition to ensuring that two critical cpmc hospitals are rebuilt and seismically safe, this project will not only address major health care and local hiring needs throughout the city, but transportation and specific needs in the immediate vicinity of these two hospitals. i want to take another moment to thank the entire villa

and i guess the question is, i know that geary brt is more controversial than van ness brt and i don't begrudge anyone their opinion about whether brt on geary is good or bad. my sense is that -- this is true with a lot of things in san francisco. instead of saying we're going to have a public process, we'll delineate it's going to be a six month process or one year or two or three year process or whatever we define it to be and we'll get feedback and a collaborative community discussion, we allow the community process to go on [inaudible] if someone comes forwards and says i have an issue it sort of restarts everything and i -- as we can see through the extreme drama around the very modest seqa appeal legislation that i did which is nothing more than set deadlines for when people have to file appeals and that has caused, as you know, a sig miff cant controversy. i know it's hard in san francisco not to have an open ended process, but to have process that goes on years and years and years, i just think that we don't do -- it's a disservice to the taxpayers and to the riders of san fran

are really good questions and i think one of the things we've done is we've been watching the van ness pro/skwroebgt closely and try to use them as kind of the trail braise blazer. this is new territory for san francisco. bus rapid transit is not quite a bus on the street and it's not a dedicated light rail line. it's something different from that and i think the agencies have been working together to try to figure out what that is and i think we've taken lessons from v ness in pulling we think we've gotten their eyes on the project and its details sooner in the process than they have for instance for the van ness project so we think we're saving time there because we're getting them in tune with what the project details are. one thing is with respect to the process with the van ness project, again, i think because of the newness for both the agencies and the community, they did things kinda sequentially. there was a release of a draft environmental document and then said let's focus on what will be the lpa and so sequentially it was a release of a draft document and then another proce

so, you have geary and van ness in their own planning process. they already started their planning process when the cup was getting going. we just left those to be a part of different process. you know, i'm not even sure what the latest of van ness is about to release or about to be certified, i believe. and geary is still chugging along, i guess. >> van ness brt e-i-r is within three or four months i believe going to go to the board for certification of e-i-r. >> great. come here, right? >> [inaudible]. >> then in terms of -- you talk about some of the different interventions in the market street. i was wondering how the church street bus only lane is going and the pilot going on and does that help inform some of the tep changes and can you give us an update how that is working so far. >> yeah, you know, it's been working really well, especially during the peak periods which is when we really needed the help. we're seeing a big improvement, almost 20% improvement in on-time performance. it's only a three-block segment if anybody knows, it goes f

this interim control is just on market street from 6th street to van ness avenue. first it's a conditional use and not a prohibition and understanding there are certain retail uses that are a positive to the neighborhood. second, we decided to enumerate the type of retail we're asking to apply for the conditional use, so i've actually distributed copies to land use committee and the clerk. we initially carved out exception for general grocery stores despite the fact we were able to introduce it in the formula retail we realize there is a need for grocery stores and we carved out an exception for that but after disukz discussions with economic development and the mayor's office we are applying this to limited restaurants and pharmacies and the other uses listed. third, we only limit it to sixth to van ness and acknowledging this half of market street is more residential and neighborhood oriented and it will box bigger retail east and the new mall. last i do want to acknowledge there are several pending legislations restricting formula retail throughout the city in d

. >>> you know, myths about sea creatures like the loch ness monster have gripped our imaginations forot hard to see where these myths came from. and we traveled to thailand for huge fish. >> reporter: he has been called the fish whisperer, which may not sound like much until you realize we're talking about monster fish, like this fish, the jaws, razor-like teeth that can take off a hand. this is like indiana jones, they track down the living creatures. 30 different species that few realize are living in the rivers, they can grow over ten feet long and weigh over 600 pounds. the living fossils, they're going to be extinct. he invited us to the best place, he says, really the only place in the world we're guaranteed to see monster fish for ourselves. we journey to the catch and release fishing lodge. here, grown men have been known to weep, well, at least shake with joy when they catch something even if they can barely hold it. and for him, it is a life time. under that surface, there are more monster fish under the surface more than any other place in the world. and in the water, i'm s

. >> it's not exactly the loch ness monster. still it's hard to explain, though. strange sight in san francisco bay. ,,

i want to thank or sponsors, kicker and van ness and jim and douglas and maratel and investigations. i would like to thank all the volunteers who made this possible. kathy, angela and everyone else who helped out today. i want to express my gratitude to the san francisco library for the last ten years and there is san francisco government tv and this is going to be broadcast throughout the year. so thank you. i would like to thank julie tron from the bar association. the bar association has been our partners in terms of providing defense for poor people. in cases where the public defender is not able to provide representation, those cases are handled by the private bar and they are doing an incredible job. so thank you very much for that. i want to thank jose as a who is a public defender and here to celebrate with us. we are going to start today by showing a brief video explaining the gideon decisions >> take this empty lot. today you would never know it but history was made here. mostly all is gone and so are the people. the principle they left is still standing. it was almost as b

>> yes. >> okay, the one thing that i noted when we did a lot of building along van ness is there is a lot of vacancies that took time to fill. they have to be carefully weighed. i believe we'll wait in the near future. also on the part of the urban gardens being an established, is there some notification to the public by the parks and recreation to turn them into gardens or is it just vacate lots. the public is often alarmed by the fact that they all of a sudden drive around to see something that has been a park is a garden. there ought to be some notification as to what is going on. thank you. >> thank you. >> if i can slip in one more announcement. i recently made an appointment in the department that i think you would be interested to know. dan cider is now senior advisor in the department. we've been working on projects and will be a member of the senior management team. we welcome back -- welcome him. >> i would like to thank dan for his 3 years working as zoning administrator and i definitely wish him the best of luck in this department. i don't think there are any items of in