Can we do and theres lots of important topics we face every day. Thank you. Im the u. S. Bureau chief of philippine inquirer and the resident. Id like to thank the board of supervisors for giving a well deserved honor to sandy kloss. She founded new American Media which is the first time a National Ethnic media collaborators were brought together to be a part of a Larger Community and to sandys tireless search for resources and wide networks. New American Media was able to provide unprecedented access for us, ethnic journalists to engage in fellowships and news makers and the access to opportunities will surely be missed. Thank you very much. Thank you and congratulations, again. Supervisor breed that concludes our 2 30 commendations. Congratulations to all the honorees. Its now 3 00 and well go to our two, 3 00 p. M. Special orders. Madame orders call items 25 through 28. The clerk items 25 through 28 comprise the public hearing of persons in the determination of exception from the quality act issued as a categorical exception from the Plan Department for the transportation agencies proposed hairball project and create a new bicycle lane including installation of a new high visibility of the crosswalk as well as the removal of ten Parking Spaces and two loading zones along westbound avenue. Item 26 is the motion to affirm the determination the intersection Improvement Project is further exempt from further Environmental Review and reverse the determination subsequent to the adoption of findings and the appropriation of findings. Supervisor we have before us the appeal of the exception from Environmental Review hairball Improvement Project in district 9 and 10. For this hearing well be consider the adequacy and the completement of the environmental row view and determination for the hairball Improvement Project. Without objection well proceed. Ten minutes for the appellate and ten minutes for each speaker en support and ten minutes for the adept and ten minutes for the sponsor or representative and ten minutes for speaker and opposition of the appeal and finally up to three minutes for rebuttal from the appellant. Is there objections to proceeding in this way . If not year opening the hearing and no introductory remarked from representatives of district 9 and 10 and supervisor roben sorry. I just wanted to acknowledge, colleagues, there was a request for me to recuse myself from this appeal on a purported personal interest in the hairball. I certainly have been public in noting my concern about certain conditions present at the hairball and i have committed to investing resources in finding ways to improve the safety and functionality of the hairball. That said i never previously commented on the issues before the board today. I can and will remain objective in hearing arguments and base my decision on what has been provide to each of us as members of the board and to the information provided and comments made at todays hearing so i will not be recusing myself in this decision. Supervisor thank you, supervisor ronen. Well ask for the appellant to come forward. Have you ten minutes for the presentation . Is the appellant not here or maybe in the overflow room . She submitted a letter that she would not be coming but based her argument on the written comment. So shes not going the presentation . Thats what was written in a letter distributed to us. Supervisor breed so anybody in support you have two minutes. If theres any members of the public here or in the overflow room in support of the appeal you have up to two minutes. Seeing none ill reopen Public Comment if someone comes in from the overflow room to speak when they do so. So we will at this time close Public Comment for support of the appeal. Now well hear a presentation from the Planning Department. Though you have ten minutes you dont have to use the entire ten minutes. Good afternoon, president breed and board. Im with the Planning Department. Joining me today are lisa gibson Environmental Review officer and a principle planner and were joined by sfmta staff including the project manager and others. On november 20 planning staff send a memorandum for the categorical exemption and the response was further supplemented on november 27. The appeal was filed by the appellant on october 19. She submitted an opening brief and rebuttal brief. The decision before the board is whether to uphold the departments decision to issue a categorical exemption and deny the appeal or return the project for additional Environmental Review. As described, the departments responses, the Department Found the project would not result in any Significant Impacts on the environment and is categorically exempt from review. To provide context the hairball refers to the area in San Francisco why cesar chavez street and bayshore boulevard and portrero avenue link to highway 101. It would include modification those existing rightofway between gerald ave between barnville ave and install high visibility walks and cre move ten Parking Spaces on westbound gerald ave and overall the project would not involve the construction of any permanent structures and consists mostly of paint and installing softhit posts. No existing travel lanes would be removed as part of the project. The appellant contends the project does not fit the definition of the class 1 existing facilities categorical exemption. Its a mischaracterization under a class 1 exemption. Here it would result in minor restriping and changes to the existing street to serve various modes of travel and not remove a travel lane. The extent of the construction activities is minimal. Therefore the class 1 exemption was properly applied. The appellant said it includes revisions to the project analyzed under the San Francisco bike plan. Three bike plan projects are located within the vicinity but they were implemented in 2012 and 2013. The form the existing conditions and project vicinity and were considered in the exemption determination. The current proposal overlaps improvements made on bayshore boulevard in 2012 but its a new project not identified in the bike plan. The city addressed safety and improve accessibility for all modes of travel is the case here. The appellant also claims due to the large Traffic Volume with the loading zone removal, the project would have unusual circumstances precluding the use of exemption. The appellant is incorrect. Again, the project would not remove travel lanes and know no reduction of pathways would occur. It is not leading to an unusual circumstance. The appellant brought up parking and these are social issues while theyre concerning theyre not seeking appeal. Further the remove of two underutilized commercial loading zones would not be considered an unusual circumstance so a class 1 exemption was determined to be the properly level of review. Other issues have been addressed and our responses the appellant claims the current project compliend combine combined with the other project thus weve addressed the other concerns in our responses. For the reason stated in our appeal responses and statements made at the hearing. The determination complies with the requirements of class 1 categorical exemption is the appropriate Environmental Review determination. The appellant has not provided substantial evidence to refute the conclusion of the department. Therefore i urge you to uphold the departments exemption and deny the appeal. This concludes my presentation and planning and staff will welcome any questions you may have. Thank you. Supervisor breed seeing no names on the roster well have up to ten minutes for the mta to do a presentation about the project. If you would like. If not, thats no problem. We can do a short presentation. Im tallia lang the project manager at the sfmta. Just to give you a quick overview of the project this is the hairball area. Were working on different segments. Its being worked on by public works and the subject of the appeal is the portion of gerald avenue between barnville and bayshore and bayshore boulevard between gerald and marrin. This is the project area map. The purpose of the project is to propose changes to make gerald avenue and bayshore safer and easier to using and address issues including a heavy vehicular volume that conflicts with the large number of cyclists and theres a right move that creates conflicts with pedestrians crossing. One Pedestrian Fatality occurred in 2013. This is a picture of the area looking south of northbound boulevard and marin street and this looks towards barnville avenue. This is an existing site plan. North is to the right. This is a picture of what we are propose. Theres a new bike line on southbound gerald avenue adjacent to marking. The parking is removed for a knew protected bike line. Theres upgrades at barnville and gerald avenue and marin street. As planning mentions, no travel lanes are removed. The lane are narrowed on bayshore from 19 to 13 feet with no effect on vehicle traffic. This is the existing Cross Section of gerald. This is the proposed project including the curbside bike lane running northbound and adjacent to parking on southbound gerald and theres a sixfoot area this is the Cross Section and this is being implemented. Thank you. Supervisor breed thank you, and well hear from one of those who would like to speak in opposition. Are there any members of the public that want to speak in opposition. Seeing none the Public Comment is now closed. The appellant is not here and the hearing is now closed. Supervisors, anyone wants to make any comments or motions . Supervisor colin. The hairball sits between district 9 and 10 and the project is critical in helping us deliver the pedestrian and Bicycle Safety improvements thats part of the city and frankly its been badly needed. So because many paths intersect in this area this interchange is challenging to navigate and theres points of conflict between vehicles and pedestrians and bike bicyclists. The project is long overdue. We spent many evenings discussing the future of this particular hairball. Then when you throw in the bike line its part of a much larger strategy to connect residents from one side of the city to another and heavily traversed. It lends to the citys vision zero strategy and sits into a longterm vision we have that i have support to provide more Mobility Options for residents into the southeastern side of the city speaking on behalf of district 10 constituents. After the hearing and the presentation from the Planning Department today i believe the proposed project is consistent with the site exceptions and i have not received evidence or a valid opinion to refute the conclusions of Planning Department and id like to make a motion to uphold the determination and deny the appeal before us today. Thank you. Supervisor breed so supervisor colin you want to approve item 26 and table 27 and 28. Thats correct. Supervisor breed is there a second by supervisor ronen. Colleagues, i just want to start out again by appreciating the appellant for paying tension to the process and for engaging in the decisions and appealing the decision that she didnt believe received enough review. I think this part of the public process is a very important one and one i very much support. And the impact on unusual circumstances or accumulative impacts are untrue. I think these are very minor changes that are consistent with the categorical exemption and i really want to appreciate the work. Its essential work to protect pedestrian and bike safety in the area which is quite frankly a mess. I want to just acknowledge and talk about the hairball because it drives me crazy this part of my district. Its incredibly poorly designed. It reflects an era when freeway construction created isolating space and confusing routes. Its a mess and dangerous and needs to be completely rethought. So this year i have started working with city agencies to create a new vision for the hairball and as part of the overall plan wed like to reconnect the three neighborhoods in my district divided by the freeways. In 2018 well be flushing out the plan with constituents and stakeholders to make a longterm plan. What id love to see one day is the 101 trenched or capped between the hairball as both mta and the ta and Planning Commission all know. I know it will be an uphill battle but one we should be focussed on and should achieve. We need to react to the dead zones and open up public outdoor space, we need to create safe routes for walking and biking. Its heavily used by commuters this area of the city. At that point, we will need in depth Environmental Review because were looking at a huge project i hope we will accomplish as a city one day. I think that Environmental Review will help shape and improve the plan. When it comes before us in the future i have my colleagues support in a new vision for the very dangerous area of the alemany maze and hairball. Thats why ill support supervisor cohens motion and want to thank the mta for doing this urgently needed work. Supervisor breed thank you, supervisor. Because we have members in the overflow room and didnt make it in time for Public Comment ill reopen Public Comment for those members of the public who want to speak in opposition of the appeal. We have members here who want to speak in opposition of the appeal. Please come forward. Youll have up to two minutes. Good afternoon, president breed, supervisors. Im a commuter organizer on staff at the San FranciscoBicycle Coalition and would like to ask you firm the categorical exemption on behalf of our 10,000 plus members. Its an important entrance for the bike path under the 101 freeway to connect those biking between the areas and the hairball is the one and only way for people to bike and connect from the mission and other neighborhoods to the southeast of San Francisco. Currently jorrold offers little protecti protection and creates dangerous conditions and as a result its a highinjury corridor. Adding new lanes will by no means solve the issues associate with the area but a great step in the right direction. In the near term it the make the dangerous stretch safer for those who ride it daily. Our members ride the street with their families and loved ones and have been vocal in support of the project including those who wrote in in opposition to the appeal. San francisco is still mourning the loss of the 17 people hit and killed on our streets this year. If were to prevent these tragedies from occurring and reach the zero of zero loss on the streets we have to protect corridors like jarrold avenue. Thank you. Supervisor breed next speaker, please. My name is ye and here to up hold the appeal on the bike lane to make those walking and bicycling safer. I choose to bike instead of driving because i think its cheaper, faster, better for my health and for the environment. However, the biggest difference i notice in shift from driving to biking is safety. Its not as safe. On Market Street since the bike lanes are wider and mostly protected i feel relatively safe, however when it comes to other streets such as jarrold it is always challenging. Last week when i passed hairball i had to walk my bike because the infrastructure was not good and safe. I hit the fence and posts a couple time just walking. The unsafe experience made me want to go back to driving for safety reasons despite the negative impact of me driving. Based on my appearance im a believer of the idea if you build it they will come. Same is true for automobiles when we build a freeway. If we want people walking and biking safely in San Francisco you have to build safe infrastructures for them. Thank you. Supervisor breed thank you. Next speaker, please. Im fran taylor. The cochair of the changes on cesar chavez street and worked on the changes on portrero but theres an old joke you cant get there from here was invented for the hairball. I think whoever came up with this appeal and made it sound like this was some nefarious machination to split pieces off has never worked with the city. Its slow and piecemeal and the changes started in 2003 so please do this. Will will help the city and encourage older and newer riders intimidate this now. Thank you. Supervisor breed thank you. Next speaker, please. I ran a Program Close to this area on jarrold and pack and deliver supplies to nonprofits and schools using my bicycle so im very familiar with this stretch of road and can say despite being a very experienced bicyclist i avoided it like the plague. Its very scary. Because of the lack of infrastructure its one of the reasons i ended the program. Supervisor breed thank you. Have there any other members of the public who want to speak in opposition of the appeal. Seeing none, Public Comment is now closed. The hearing has been held and is now filed and with that we have a motion and a second to affirm approve item 26 and table item 27 and 28. Madame clerk on the motion please call the roll. The clerk [calling roll] the clerk there are 11 ayes. Supervisor breed the determination off the exemption is finally affirmed unanimously. Madame clerk please call items 39 through 31. The clerk a special order regarding the tax sale for the presidio common area and the board of supervisors approved a motion to schedule a committee of the whole for todays public hearing.