Julius kahn playground. And i was disappointed and angered and, frankly, ashamed to learn that this playground honoured a man who was so hateful, so discriminatory and exclusionary and if it was left up to him, he wouldnt have wanted me playing in that playground and wouldnt have wanted my family here. I implore you to follow suit with the board of supervisors and San Francisco community and rename the playground. I dont personal have any opinions about what the name is, just not named after somebody who represented such racism and hate. Thank you very much. Thank you. Clerk is there any other Public Comment . Commissioner anderson. Thank you, Vice President. I really want to thank everybody for coming out here. I, of course, will support the removal of the name of julius kahn and the young lady who just spoke used a good wore, horrified. When i found out about the history of julius kahn, i felt that sentiment as well. Ive been a district 2 resident for over 25 years. That playground was on the rota for my children and i. We called it j. K. Park. So im glad we didnt use that name. I dont want to slow down the process. I just want to put a thought balloon out there. Presidio wall. Regardless of your politics, theres been a lot of talk about walls out of the administration. This park is on federal land. Im having sort of a a hard time choosing a name that has wall in it because of donald trump and his symbology around walls. It is a lovely wall. It is an old wall. My favourite part of the wall is the fact there is a space in it with a bollard so you can get through without having to crawl over and hurting yourself. Im sort of about removing barriers. So if it wouldnt slow down the process, and i will not be offended if you dont take my advice or suggestion, i kind of like the idea of presidio west playground. I just wanted to put that out there. Thank you. So i just want to speak to something i heard earlier that kind of bothered me and just kind of get it out there. When theyre talking about the board of supervisors resolution to this board, it said that the board of supervisors was directing rec and Park Commission to do this. I want to make it perfectly clear that the board of supervisors are not directing me or anybody else up here to do anythi anything. They can recommend, and thats what theyre doing. Secondly, truthfully, on the whole im not for renaming things as a whole. When i read the naming policy, it says the only way you can rename something is in extraordinary circumstances. To me, this fits into that bill and it is an extraordinary circumstance. So i will be voting to rename this today, but on the whole i dont like renaming things because where do you stop . Like i said, this particular item i agree with and ill be voting for today. Commissioner macdonald. Thank you. I grew up im a native san franciscan. I grew up in the filmore. It will always be that for me. One of the things she said was, as you know better, you should do better. And so in my view, this representatives that. I just wanted to commend all of the Community Stakeholders from chinese community, from the jewish community, from the organizations represented in both communities, just on the courage that i know it took to even have the conversation. And i know that these can be very difficult and challenging, but i would submit necessary conversations. I firmly believe personally that our path to kind of the ultimate inclusion and embracing of our collective diversity is found in our ability to talk about it. So again, i want to commend each of you for your willingness and, i would also submit, courage to have the conversation. Lastly, with respect to the options, going along with commending the members of community and engaging in this process, i also trust that process. And i trust that youve landed where you feel comfortable landing and it is yours to name. So ill certainly be voting in support of it. Thank you. General manager ginsburg. Thank you, mr. Vice president. So as the jewish head of the Parks Department, i kind of thought it important to just offer a reflection or two. And so im going to offer a personal reflection as a jew and then offer a reflection as a director of the Parks Department. Julius kahn is does not is not who we are. He did not represent the values of the jewish community. There is a saying that is emblazoned on the wall of the j. C. C. In San Francisco and is known to us all, repair the world. Excluding people, excluding a race, demonizing people and stereotyping people is the antithesis of repairing the world and our responsibility to do so, which is frankly why were here. It hasnt been noted yet, but its also horribly ironic, disturbingly eerily ironic that this gentleman was in congress saying what he was saying ten years just ten years before across the Atlantic Ocean the exact same thing was being done to the jewish people in germany. So i agree with commissioner mazzola that this is an extraordinary circumstance. As a parks director, i want to go back to where Vice President low started the day a couple of hours ago, which is that this is a beautiful example of dogs and pa par parks fixing our broken democracy. A couple of people alluded to this but misha has had a good day today, so im going to give her credit. No young person should have to play in a park named after someone who didnt want them to do so. Its that simple in my mind. Its that simple. And i did find the letter that i wrote to the New York Times in response to that, commissioner. Ill read one sentence. Its not mine. It comes from an urbanist and park advocate, danny harris, also a jew. He wrote, as long as the human race exists, he will have an insatiable urge to live in public and experience the infinite beauty and possible of our public realm. As we do so, may we make civility contagious and democracy irresistible. Well said, general manager. Glad you found your letter to the editor. Having been raised in a japanese, chinese, mexicanamerican get ghetto in fresno, california, created by antiameric americaamerica amea sentiments and isolated in terms of schools, businesses, and w t what whatever there was in terms of lifestyle in fresno, i have no doubt that we need to take this action. Im really actually very emotional about this because it raises i mean, it creates i mean, it asks me to face all of that discrimination that my family was subjected to. So its going to be a very important statement for me to support this. The only question that i have is how i mean, what the process is going to consist of. Because it creates a problem for two names to be put forward and for us to participate in this renaming process. Commissioner anderson has brought forth another suggestion. So i would like some clarity as to how we go about this process, how we or whether we or are we to be involved in actually deciding which name is picked. And if we do have the liberty or the opportunity to entertain any other recommendations, such as the one posed by commissioner anderson, so this is kind of a confusion that im experiencing at this time. How are we going to go about making putting forth this motion is a concern that i have. So as i mentioned, thank you, commissioner. Completely heartfelt story that you provided in your background. Again, the process that was put forward the rec and Park Department was the two names that went through a Community Process. They had voted. The top voter was presidio wall playground, and the second top tier voting was the pacific west. So if the commission its basically before the commissioners, those two suggested names. If the commission comes back and says you want to merge or reconsider, were happy to go back to the Community Process again, but i dont know if thats something the Commission Wants to do at this point or if they want to consider moving forward with what was suggested. It was one of the reasons i just want to add. It is of concern to me because i too agree with commissioner anderson in terms of the law, because this is another part of history that im experiencing in terms of the donald trump wall. So i really want us to make sure that we get this right. This has to be right, at least for this time and this age. Yes, and with current events, unfortunately, it has that perception. So thats why theres two options presented to the commission. Both options are not suggested i would like to Charlie Ferguson on whether there would be any objections to presidio west playground. I think the answer is no, but let me just tell you where the two names came from. Again, we wanted a connection, whether its a name of a person or a name of a location, we wanted a connection to the playground. West pacific comes from the west that its west pacific avenue that the playground is on. There was a strong feeling that for geographical names it should be something that a newcomer to San Francisco, a new family to San Francisco could immediately figure out where it was, if it was named presidio wall, because the presidio wall is a finite object, or west pacific avenue, they could google and see where that was. Even if they were a little bit confused and just picked pacific avenue, that of course is immediately on the opposite side of the wall from the playground, pac avenue, the wall, and then west pacific avenue on the other side of the wall, and then the playground. So the answer is no. We did talk about things like west presidio or that sort of thing. We thought that that would mislead people locationally. Because if you go thank you. They would think the far western thats all i needed to hear. I withdraw my suggestion. Thank you. Before i entertain a motion, i also just want to make a comment that the shadow cast by the chinese exclusion act was long and broad. It affected supervisor fewers family, hall of famer commissioner gordon chen, it affected my family. My grandfather was also a paper son, a wong, not a low. It was a long, dark shadow that cast across this city and across the nation and, in fact, affected many chinese americans. We now know that that was wrong then and it is wrong now. We have the opportunity today to make a statement that we are coming together to correct that wrong. I just want to say that this is a Broad Community support throughout the chinese community, all of chinatown was in support of this. Thats a rare feature japan town, the filipino community, soma, jcrc, the interfaith council, all the elected officials in San Francisco, all coming together to say lets fix this. I think this is a proud moment to show what we can do together and correct a wrong. I move to approve. All in favour . Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Clerk we are now on item 1 1 transbay parcel f Howard Street shadow on union square and willie woo woo wong playground. Before we hear this matter, i have a conflict of interest. One of my partners requests heins. I entertain a motion for recusal. Move. All in favour. Aye. The gavel is yours, commissioner macdonald. As staff is setting up, if i could ask the gentlemen who are standing, if you need to stand, if you could stand on this side, as opposed to the side blocking the door. Thanks. Good morning, commissioners. Good morning. I dont believe i have a powerpoint in my opinion, but the beginning point i think i can cover verbally. Good morning, general manager. I am brian stokkel, with the planning and Capital Group at the rec and Park Department. Im joined by nick foster at the Planning Department who will speak later. The item before you today is the transbay parcel f project shadow on union square and willie woo woo wong playground. A review of the shadow cast by this project supports the objective 1. 2, the Strategic Plan strengthened quality of existing parks and facilities. As you know, the review of shadow on rec and parkland is codified by Planning Section 215 and the 1985 memo. What i will be doing, because this park both of these parks are within the downtown area and under the Transbay CenterTransit Center district plan, im going to go over some of the background on the Transit Center district plan and then move on to information about both parks in the project. If i can get the powerpoint on now. The Transit Center district plan was adopted in 2012 by both the planning by the Planning Commission with the rec and Park Commission. They rezoned the area around the terminal raising the shadow budget and the whats called the absolute cumulative limit of the shadow, also known as a. C. L. , for nine parks to accommodate this rezoning and developments. At the time the massing and height of each building shadow was analyzed with the shadow budget adjusted. Union squares budget was increased by 0. 19 and willie woo woo wongs playground was increased as well. The projects designed would be reviewed and designed in detail and analyzed and reviewed by the commissions as the projects rolled forward. Since 2012 and now the commission has reviewed and approved the sales force tower, 181 freemont and 51st street. We are now reviewing parcel f. Just to note the remaining budgets for those of the current two playgrounds in the plaza is 0. 063 for union square and 0. 3 for willie woo woo wong playground. Thats whats allowable before the project im presenting. At the time of the adoption of the tcdp, the commissions reviewed shadow analysis and image images images such as these showing where all the projects were in the transbay district and where they fell on all the various rec and Park Properties and other open spaces. Note that at the time of the tcpd plan it was found that plans from the buildings generally passed in early hours in the shorter months. Here is a map of the listed projects that account for potential shade on union square and willie woo wong playground. As mentioned earlier two of the projects have been built, thats the sales force in 181 freemont. One is under construction, thats 51st street and two of the projects have no plans for construction and the plan before you marked in orange. Now on to the projects and the parks. Transbay project f is located at 542550 Howard Street in the soma neighborhood and is immediately adjacent to the sales force Transit Center and its rooftop park, which is not under rec and park jurisdiction. The area surrounding the project includes a mix of highdensity, residential, and commercial mixes with varying heights of two storeys and 10 storeys, as well as towers ranging from 33 to 61 storeys willie woo woo wong can be seen. The yellow shows where the project is and the green circle shows where the two parks are. The proposed project would construct a new tower, a mixeduse tower with housing, hotel, and office space. Nicholas foster from the Planning Department will tell you about the proposed project, its public benefits, outreach process, and environmental review. Nick. Thank you, brian. Good morning, commissioners. Good morning, general manager ginsburg. I have a couple of sets of plans here for benefit of the commission for review, and unfortunately this is the only hard copy i have. The color glossy copy with thickbound paper, but its the only copy. If i could get it back, that would be appreciated. I also have a copy of the Community Plan exemption which is the sekwa document. Ill keep these comments brief. So the project, as brian mentioned, is the address range is 542550 Howard Street. We refer to it as the transbay parcel f project. Its totalling threequarters of an acre. Its 750 feet to the finished roof height of the top habitable floor and then 800 feet to the top of the roof which is mostly screening for all the mechanical equipment, effectively three primary uses in this building. 29 floors of residential. Thats about 434,000 square feet of residential area. 15 floors of office space, which is about 274,000 square feet. And lastly a hot, which would be about nine floors or about 239,000 gross square feet. There would be seven floors of shared amenity space for both the residential uses, so that actual tenants as well as hotel users on different floors. Below grade we have 183 parking spaces, a parking ratio of 0. 5 which is the ceiling for this district because this is a transitcentred district. Open space on site for both benefit of the hotel users, as well as residents in the upper third of the tower. I think one of the most unique features of this building would be this would be one of only four projects fronting on to transbay District Park that has pedestrian bridges. So sales force plaza, tower, and on freemore are the only projects built that can have abovegrade connections to the park which is of huge benefit. This project has an alphabet soup of entitlements before it. This is a highly, highly constrained site. The primary reason, there is a belowgrade large train box that we hope collectively will welcome future highspeed rail to the center. As such, this project effectively in layperson speak has to step away from the northwest corner of the project site. So the threequarters of the acre i mentioned is actually not the total footprint of this building. It is actually substantially smaller than that. The tower had to pull away from that corner. I will keep it short and avail myself of questions you might have. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Onto the parks. Here is a diagram of union square park. The square is an urban plaza with amenities, as many of you probably know, of a performance stage, a cafe, bike rental, an underground parking structure, and the future central subway entrance as you can see is in the lower southeast corner of the park. The 2012 analysis found from the tcdp that new shade fell in the southwestern and western portions o