i ride in the park every day. when you come up behind pedestrians, especially if they happen to have ipads in their ears, they are completely oblivious to the rest of the world -- if they happen to have ipods in their ears. they do not know you are behind them. that is a potential danger, and i think that is probably the issue. a park is supposed to be a place of respite, and the complaints we get from our members is they want to just go over and have a nice, quiet walk in the park, and this is a motorized vehicle. it is like the elephant in the room. you may want to deny it is there, but it is there. supervisor mar: can you reiterate the position? you are supportive of segways, but you would like to see them limited or eliminated from trails and pathways? >> correct. i also might point out that the pathways they pick vary from excuse pathways to those dedicated only for pedestrians and joggers, so you are going to have a real problem in what the rules are. supervisor mar: there was mention that there were some adj

use in the park. also, my limiting of the discussion here today is that we are talking about golden gate park only, not any other areas of the city, but also, we are trying to focus on the safety of the technology. i did go on a great tool -- tour by the vendor, i have ridden the segways, and i did see some of the routes that were used last year. also, i think this is an important issue that impacts the park. also, i know the recreation and parks apartment is a little bit understaffed right now with one of the main staffers out on leave right now. said he might not have all the answers to the questions that we have today, but thank you for being here. >> thank you, supervisor, for holding this hearing today. we are excited about the opportunity to discuss safety regulations. there has been a lot of conversation and newspaper articles about this. we are very excited about offering segways in the park. to back up a little bit, in 2008, the department began a yearlong trial program where we first offered

the park is right outside my front door. i am the other assistant manager, and today, i am sharing with you the list of etiquette rules we make sure every single guest has heard before they leave our training area. first of all, your tour guide will set the speed for your tour. if you disregard your guide's instructions, you will be removed without a refund. second, everyone has the right of way over a segway -- pedestrians, bicyclists, baby strollers, dog walkers, scooters, skaters. crosswalks can be busy, and we wait for everyone, which we really do stress, on foot or bicycle, to safely cross before entering. with may not stop for us, which we are aware of, so we do not proceed into a crosswalk until signaled by the guide. do not startle anyone. segways are very quiet. we slowed down and announce our presence by voice. we tell other users we are behind them and call out which side we will be entering on. many visitors to not have phones and to not hear us coming, so we greet everyone. head-on with a segway can be confusing,

golden gate park is entirely too big to be seen by foot. you cannot walk the whole park. you cannot drive the whole park. there are not trams to take you around. the best way to see golden gate park is by segways. i believe you should not only approve the san francisco electric tour company's tours, i believe you should rent them to everyone who wants to go. you selected a vendor to produce this result. i would urge you to leave them alone and let them do their job. thank you. >> good morning. warrick farmer. national sales manager for open top san francisco. i would like to speak to you in regards to two points. one as a tourist and one as an operator. i have lived in many cities around the world and i have taken in many segway tours. it is a fabulous way to see the scope of golden gate park. it is quiet, efficient, and safe. but it has been said at nauseam here today. as a tour operator in fisherman's wharf, in union square, and also golden gate park, we deliver thousands of people, especially to golden gate, who want to explore. we feel is a good partnership. we have ne

we do recycle in the park. we recycle at all of our indoor facilities and special events, so that's contributes to our diversion rate. the hanc center does not actually perform parks serving activities. prior to 2008, they did pick up paper at mclaren large, which is where the administrative staff is, but have not since then served the part in terms of recycling. supervisor mirkarimi: who assigned the 96% figure? where did that come from? >> the department of the environment. the last piece is that, as we kn,

i'm the plan manager for the glen park community plan. and i'm joined by john billet and we are the john and john show for glen park. here for you this morning and we're very excited to be here and present to some of the work we've been doing with the community over the last year and a half. as you're probably aware this project goes a little farther back. so if i could have the overhead. so just an agenda for what we'll be talking about today i want to give you guys some history and context into the planning work and the neighborhood itself. then we'll present a little overview of the plan package which are the materials you would have received last week in your packet. talk about the community process that has been underway and the work there and then our next steps and what's going to be coming up through the end of this year. so in 2003 the city received a grant to do a preliminary kind of community planning assessment for glen park. and what this was, was a series of intensive things that took park at the glen park elementary school f

the hill. you have to have parking for that. this is a good access for them to come into for the condo rather than having them come off a tight street. i have never quite been a believer in this, we should try to make things blend been more closely. if you look at the back of the opera house, that was in addition done about 25 years ago. this was done around the same time and these blend in seamlessly. there's no reason why you can make this addition that is sympathetic to the windows. that is the parking situation. we will see what the commissioners have to say. quarks i would think that i would agree with commissioner antonini this time but he went a different way. that is very interesting. he makes a very powerful case for supporting the class housing and while a new construction, i often question that. i happen to live in that area for the last 8 years. i know the change this area has gone through. the standard buildings to not provide parking. you struggle on the street or i don't know what you do. it is difficult for the di

the offer from under the park is being pumped for drinking water. you can make comments on the eir by april 1, and on the other website, golden gate park preservation alliance, we have information on the water treatment project. thank you very much. >> next speaker please. >> good morning. first and foremost, i must tell you, the government owes a duty is to serve the public. on the accord, the name of their part must be restored. you promised me that if i helped with the america's cup, you would take care of that, but you reneged. to capture your credibility and do that, the board of supervirs killed it, and you should follow suit. there is no question about that. second thing -- we are furious and outraged to learn that there is no money to finish very park. they are going to do half of it and not the other half? what kind of have vast operation are you running -- what kind of half-assed operation are you running? the parts produced a lot of money, and i understand it goes to the general fund. there should be an exemption for that in certain cases.

parking on the first level, but there was no parking on the second. we now have 58 parking spaces. on two occasions in the past two years, when i parked at the valencia, i witnessed to the wheeler drivers to happen to be blocking my driveway, and asked the attendant if there were available monthly parking spaces. they were told that there were no available space is -- spaces. commissioner olague: thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i have lived with my husband at the corner of hide and greene streets for more than 30 years. i'm here today to specifically address the ability of middle- class families on russian hill -- middle income families on russian hill like ours who do not own a the raj, who depend on on-street or sometimes off street parking to thrive in this community. i believe as the commissioners, it is your responsibility to help us maintain this kind of diversity in our neighborhood. so i'm here speaking for some of the merchants in the neighborhood as well as people like myself. we need to be very careful about the issue of how man

i hear the concerns about parking. i want to be leaving the discussion that the school would be encouraged by us to continue to talk to the neighbors and support the institutional master plan with a caveat that we would like to at least continue to talk to each other. commissioner antonini: i think this institutional master plan is very thorough and complete. while there has been a discussion about general parking conditions in this area of the city, i do not think it really involves the school. as has been mentioned, very few if any of the faculty or students are using cars, and they seem to be accommodated. even with the increased attendance, i do not see that as being an issue here. it certainly is always good to have discussions. but i feel comfortable with the informational master plan. hopefully, neighbors can get together and deal with the general problems that exist in the neighborhood, if there are some. commissioner borden: i think this is more of an anti-gay issue. -- more of an mta issue. if only two out of

the parking is a concern. we may have to have a continuance or some more considerations to see if we can figure out a way that you can get whatever the appropriate amount of parking is, be it five cars or four cars. i do not think you are going to get eight cars, which would be the code -- 7. i do not know if there is enough space. whatever you do, you have to get the parking in there and you have to come to a place maybe with a ramparts to the parking garage, so that when they are approaching the street it is more level with the street. then you would have a chance to be able to move your car around and be able to drive directly out onto the street. peralta does have that retaining wall. you have to come out and make would be a right turn out of there. it is going to be really tough if you are trying to back up the hill at peralta. that needs to be worked out. i am sympathetic to the situation that to make the project work you probably need two units on each one. if it turns out the project sponsor can do it w

i'm the president of friends of mclaren park. it is one of the oldest neighborhood community park groups in san francisco. i give a lot of tours through the park. during those tours, a lot of the folks in the group will think of the park as very scary. it has a lot of hills, there's a lot of dense groves. once you get towards the center of the park you really lose your orientation. you are very much in a remote area. there are a lot of trees that shield your view from the urban setting. you would simply see different groves that gives you a sense of freedom, of being outdoors, not being burdened by the worries of city life. john mclaren had said that golden gate park was too far away. he proposed that we have a park in the south end of the city. the campaign slogan was, people need this open space. one of the things that had to open is there were a lot of people who did a homestead here, about 25 different families. their property had to be bought up. so it took from 1928 to 1957 to buy up all the parcels of land that ended up in

it is close to our building, and given the parking restrictions, there is rarely another place to park. in conclusion, the need typography, density, lack of public and private parking, and the importance of russian hill as a tourist designation reinforce the need for a garage that can be used by both residents and tourists alike. i respectfully ask you to deny this change of use. commissioner olague: thank you. i would like to ask those in front of the door to move because you are creating a fire hazard, actually, by blocking that exit. whatever order you prefer. >> good afternoon. my name is chris andersen, i am a member of russian hill neighbors. i will be short and sweet. i love my neighborhood, and i would like to add my voice to those that are opposed for all the reasons that were stated. thank you. >> good afternoon. i have lived in this neighborhood for 30 years. i have seen a lot of changes backward and forward, but this one, i have to come out and let you -- let everyone know if it is a no vote on this project. from every point of view as far as the environment, the quality of

and we're not for the executive park, we would not have the state park out there. one of the corporations that was originally invested out there put up the first million dollars. and that we needed to get that park started. and following that, my work with others to pass the legislation and to get that project funneleded. last year we had to go back to the negotiations with the states to help of the senator to come up with a new funding scheme for candlestick because the risk that allstate park had. and it was the executive park once again that stepped forward and worked with us to organize the co

the bart parking lot is an interesting concept. it is important we do not lose any of the existing parking we have. i was on the commission when the market came forth, and it has been successful, but an issue of contention was that it was not providing any parking. i think it has worked out well, is a great market. i think that that lot serves as a lot of purposes. we need to figure out how to use it in the best way, to serve the neighborhood at that as possible. you are going to have to work with part, of course, to see if they want to do something above grade, add additional levels, what the solution is. day lighting of the stream, if it works out, great. it would be nice to have a stream flowing through there, but all those things would have to be worked out. that is a year around. >> it is a semi seasonal creek, so there are some design features. we could also speak with the puc for ways to add additional water to it coming from other sources nearby. these are some of the engineer conversations. >> so it is not a year around. it

the parking should be on grade level, like all other parking in the neighborhood, especially those few who are lucky enough to have a garage. we have discussed this creative parking with the designer and owner, and they're not willing to scale back the size of the developed not, the size of the building, and their financial gain. instead, they want a noncompliant below grade parking garage, which does not meet the guidelines of our special use district. it is a recipe for disaster for all of the neighbors, the pedestrians. the real problem is the buildings are out of scale with the two-story single-family fabric. thank you so much for your time. president olague: thank you. >> good afternoon. my name is joan varney. along with bob, i own the property adjacent to this development. we moved there in 1989 and bought the property. i am a gardener by trade. one of the first things we started to do was clean up the neighborhood. there are a number of city islands that we turned into planted areas, pulled ivey off the walls. one of the things we also took on were of the lot behind our propert

i'm with the recreation and park department. in the community gardens program manager for the department, so the book of my presentation today will be talking about the program and also the proposal for the current site in golden gate park. please excuse me if i repeat some of the information that was brought up earlier today. i just want to be thorough in my presentation. in 2004, the recreation and park department prepared a recreation assessment through a consultant. in that report, it identified the recreation facilities that were in need on our part properties. as you can see, on this slide, the community garden is ranked 3rd as being the highest need. also in that same report, it identified the recreation facilities that are most important to households, and the result was that the community gardens was founded to be the fifth highest ranked most important facility. the need for more community gardens is supported through the recreation and open space element of the master plan -- i'm sorry, of the general plan. the convers

the project requires a variance from the parking requirements special use district and the planning code to allow five parking spaces where seven are required. the planning code section says off street parking requirements. 54-56 peralta street will provide a three off street parking spaces, and they will provide off street parking spaces. the 60-62 peralta building will provide no off street parking, while the others will provide five off street parking spaces that will be accessible from the adjacent building. two parking spaces will be reserved for the units and the adjacent 60-62 peralta avenue. and the discretionary review applications, the requestor expressed concerns, including building scale information due to the removal of a retaining wall. inadequate landscaping and lack of cooperation from the developer. the d.r. requestor suggested building mass reductions and density of development, provide off street parking for all vehicles in compliance with the planning code. proper communication with the developer and owner to require public works and public hearing of the proposed cha

proximity to major open space resources, the state park, the hillside open space and beyond that bayview park and emphasizes the importance of improving access to the resources and also at the same time includes the part of its internal network and small urban plazas and spaces to assure that they are appropriately activated with related use and adjacent buildings if new street bridge also provides space for greening and for storm water management and other similar activities. the subarea plan provides a heighth and discusses height and what i'll do is jump to one of the diagrams in the design guidelines even though we would like to focus on that next time to cover some broad urban design sitewide moves that we are making. and again, providing for substantial tall urban street wall along the major streets and looking to preserve the kilocations that provide the -- the key locations that provide the best views for small plazas and for adjacent activation. and also the federal guidelines encourage a wide mix of buildings, well mod lated, but also providing some propositions for tal