Transcripts For SFGTV 20140610 : vimarsana.com

SFGTV June 10, 2014

Mtc. Is there a budget for that . The dollars, if we were to get that . Like what would you spend that on . Yes, so, the way that they have set up their grant program, and they did end up talking with us and it would generally go into state of the repair projects for muni and more investments and things like the rails and the overhead wires of the light system and the additional muni vehicles and so the things that we did not have Adequate Funding for other sources for and i think that the main categories were what we called transit sky way which is the rails and the overhead wires and the signal and switches that the light rail system and the trolly buses use. I believe that there is a line item for facilities because there is 7 million proposed in this bond and really a fraction of what we need to upgrade the facilities and i believe that there was a third category that will provide for the fleet expansion because anyone who rides the muni knows particularly at rush hour and particularly throughout the day our vehicles are at capacity, and so improving the reliability of the system, solves part of that problem, but even with that, we have current demand, and late demand and coming demand given the growth in the city that we need more vehicles as well. I believe that those are the three main categories, that will be proposed for the funding with that additional 550 million. We need that money. Absolutely. And secondly, what will be the time line and the roll out that once the voters did approve it, what is the time line in regards to implementing all of these . So, it varies, with the muni rightofway improvements, we have started, we will be complete with the design of the first phase in the presentation and there was a phase one and a phase two, and we will be complete with the design of the first phase and have the construction documents ready to go out to bid at the end of this calendar year and the funds will become available tip typically for around february and so we have timed this so we will be ready to go out now, and advertise for bids, for contractors to do that rightofway work, almost as soon as the funds are ready. And then, the second wave of those improvements would come some time 12 to 18 months subsequent to that. And with the bike and Pedestrian Safety improvements, they would be coming kind of more sequencally not in big chunks but as we get the design work done, we will be systematically putting those out to bid and a lot of those are done by external contractors. And so those will be coming in you know, over the course of the year as we do have and in the detailed documents we do have the expenditure plan, broken down by at least quarter if not month. So you can see for every expenditure category, when we would be anticipating extending those funds and so it depends a little bit on the category, but we have been working hard, particularly for the muni rightofway improvements that will impact a lot of muni riders to get those ted up and if it gets on the ballot and should the voters support it and we will get on the ground the construction immediately there after. Great, thank you. Any other commissioner questions . Commissioner, yee riley . Hi, director, thank you for the presentation. You are welcome. Could you go over, how we are going to repay this bond. I know that one is the vehicle free . The other one is. Yeah, so the general Obligation Bonds are paid from property taxes. And one of the ways that property tax rates are set, are based on how much outstanding debt the city has. And so, we already have property taxes property tax rates that are set, so that we can pay our existing debt load. We have sized this bond, so that existing property tax rate will be adequate to continue servicing the old debt as well as service the new debt that would be created from this bond. Because for, there are two ways that we are able to do that. One is that we are able to pay off old debt and so we no longer have to pay that debt service and so that creates room for a new debt service, such as this bond, or the earthquake safety and Emergency Response bond, that the voters overwhelmingly approved on tuesday. And the second way that we are able to do it is because as the Property Tax Base grows, and after some years, where it is slowed a little bit, it is obviously growing quite a bit now that generates more property tax revenue and so with the same property tax rate there are more revenues available to service debts and other needs and so it is always, all general Obligation Bonds, are served with property tax, and what we do as a city, by policy, not by law, but by city policy we only issue the new general Obligation Bonds such that the property tax rates will not need to increase as a result. Thank you. You are welcome. Any other commissioner questions . Before we go to general Public Comment . I, this is great. And it is much needed because i do know that we need more light rail vehicles. I keep hearing more and more about that. So, this is good. I want to open this up to Public Comment right now on items number 5 and 6. And do we have any members of the public that would like to make a comment on item number five or six . Welcome. Thank you. Good evening, commissioners henry, and this is good. Yeah, good evening, commissioners henry canolawiz president of district militants and i was in vietnam recently and i ran into a couple from copenhagen denmark and we talked about that and i do and in the city here and i am involved with Small Business and we got on to that bicycle lanes and stuff like that. And they said, that you know, they are having the same issue in denmark also, with the parking being taken over. However, what i did not hear, mr. Riskin mention of is the parking, what they have done in copenhagen by the way is they are doing garage and they are losing Parking Spaces but they are at least providing garages for Small Business who do need the people who do drive to buy supplies, and paint and on the ladder or whatever the case may be and otherwise what is going to happen is that everyone is going to go to lowes or to home depot and so your small Hardware Stores and places like that and not that they are able to complete because they want them coming over to find a place to park to be able to load the product on to it. And so again, there is a thing missing in this and this is either the important part and we should think of putting garages in and i think that would have helped. Thank you. Next speaker, please . Welcome. Small business, and small Hardware Store and everyone is going to go to lowes with. And i dont want to beat the same dead horse but there is no mention of parking all of these improvements are greatly needed and i think that they are wonderful. But they all, not most of them, most of them result in more Parking Spaces being removed and more yellow zones being moved, the Small Businesses and especially the neighborhoods need to have the trucks come in and drop off the merchandise and need to have the trucks or the small delivery vehicles to take them out. And i take the muni a lot to work and i walk to work when i get to market and van ess where there is a huge walgreens on the corner, and the area trucks are parking half on the sidewalk, and they dont fit into the small little zone for them. And there is no place to go. And i am looking at that and wondering what is going to happen in my neighborhood. I think that parking should be a part of this and we can find a lot of empty lots that we can put the off Street Parking to take care of the ones that have been taken away and our city lots and private lots that can be doubled, please, when we deliberate think, think of asking for more parking and bringing it up to what it has been in the last couple of years, thank you. Thank you. Good evening, commissioner mies name is paul rimer and i had not intended to speak on this item but hearing the first two speakers i want to speak from a consumer point of view, i tend to walk or take Public Transit and i believe that we need to do more investment in the Public Transit. But, there is the issue of the consumer who needs to pick something up that requires a car. I have found, for example, that it is actually more efficient for me to go across the Golden Gate Bridge for certain items. Rather than driving for example, to the cap plastics on van ess. Largely because the transportation flow in this city and the parking issue, is so unfriendly for these types of errands and i do think that this issue of adequate parking to support the merchants is a critical issue and i wish that i saw more to that, thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon, and i didnt come here to speak on this issue, but i cant resist it. My opinion is that you cant really trust mta and other departments as well to use the money that they say that they are going to use it for. I know that there are anxious to eliminate as much parking as possible, which will directly effect me and i have a disabled plaque and it is very, and i am 86 and it is difficult for me to walk places and so i do drive and i use the disabled plaque the way that mta took the money away from the muni bus and Maintenance Plans and do what we wanted for the exit of the subway machine is a good example of taking it from one barrel and before you start endorsing the plan for the huge amount of money be careful and make it restricted thank you. Any other members of the public . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Any more commissioner questions . Okay. Go ahead. Commissioner white . Can i get director riskin back up . You know, parking is an issue for Small Businesses in San Francisco. Is there any plans in the future in regards to providing more parking . As far as structures or just, you know, keeping parking on the streets in some of the busier corridors . Yes. And so first of all i wholy understand that parking is very significant issue, and not just for Small Businesses, but for residents, and for lots of people, who are in our city. And it is the stewardship of parking and management of parking is something that we take very seriously as a result of that. Right now, city policy that does not support the construction of the new Public Parking garages and you know that there is a lot of city policy that actually goes quite in the other direction especially for what is right here at some point last year and the Planning Department is beginning an update of the transportation element of the general plan, and i think that i have suggested to this body the last time when we talked about that is that that might be an opportunity to revisit that city policy, and we are proposing here, and it consistent with the city policy and also because our needs for these other modes is so much greater, it is really focused on making these other modes of transportation, particularly transit, but also, other modes of transportation, more attractive so that they are more viable for more people and so that there is more space, and less competition, for those who want or choose to drive. There are some people who will choose to drive and there are some trips for which, for many of us it will make sense to drive, and particularly if you are going to carry your drop off large things. And so to the extend that we can improve the design and the management of the rightofway, and to make more viable, it will pull the cars off of the road so that those that want to drive will have less competition for Parking Spaces and we are mindful and we have a lot of feedback from the Small Businesses and the Small Business staff about recognizing parking impact and not just customer parking. But also, yellow zone issues and other things related to Small Businesses. And every day, every week, we work with Small Businesses to address issues they have, regarding yellow zones, or green zones. And in the big scheme of things it has been very, very little on the Street Parking loss, in this city, and relative to the i think that it is 280,000 on the street spaces that we have. And any time that we are proposing any parking changes, adds or subtracts, we are working very closely with our Respectful Community to make sure that there was no adverse impact and so, kind of the, and in the big picture as we dont have the plans at the moment, and nor would it be consistent with the city policy to build the parking garages any time that we are looking at parking impacts and we look at those, and in the large part, i think that we have been successful in doing so, and one example right now, we are doing a project on haight street where it comes in on market and converting that last block to a twoway, which will make it come straight into the city as opposing to having to jog around. There was some parking loss associated with that project, but there are also parking gains that we were able to have and the net result of that project was a net increase of that parking space and we do work hard to mitigate or offset any kind of adverse parking effects that we have because we know that that is important and just since i may, and just since the last point in terms of delivering, what we say we are delivering, i think that you can first of all look at the detail that is in the bond report. And in the bond ordinance. But you can also look at the Traffic Record that the city has build over the last success of bonds for we have done the two park bonds and the General Hospital bond, and the library bond and now, two, emergency earthquake safety bonds and i think that we have been very transparent and very diligent in making sure that what we told the voters we would do, we would do and increasingly we are getting those things done on time, and on budget. And so, i do want to assure you that should you vote to recommend this, that the detail, and the bounds in which to be legally obliged to operate in terms of this being a general Obligation Bond or very much circumscribed and delivering to the voters what we say we will deliver. Thank you. And any other commissioner comments . Or questions . Commissioner dooley . I do want to echo, what some of the speakers said about parking. I do think that the push toward transit first, has gotten to a point where it has become antiSmall Business. And you know, i think that there has to be a balance in personally, i dont really see it. I see it as a push to push cars off of the street and i dont see those places being replaced. Any other comments . Do we have any motions to approve or disapprove the items number 5, and number 6 . I move to approve. Second. We have a motion to approve, its ems 5 and 6. Commissioner adams . Yes. Dooley. Yes. Ortizcartagena. Yes. Yee riley. Yes. Commissioner toursarkissian. Yes. Commissioner white. Yes, the motion carry and we recommend approval with six votes in favor and none opposed. Thank you director. Next item please . Item 7, discussion and possible action to make recommendations to the board of supervisors and Planning Commission on bos file number to be determined, planning code formula retail and large scale retail controls a Planning Department initiated ordinance related to the formula retail, this is a discussion and possible action item. Welcome ann marie. Commissioners i am ann marie with the Planning Department and i am joined today by the commissioner burns who is the project manager as well as amy cohen from the office of workforce development. Thank you for inviting us here today. In the early of last summer there were approximately 9 pending or recently enacted proposals to change the way that San Francisco regulates the formula retail. In response, our Planning Commission recommended to the board of supervisors that they take a pause so that we could have an opportunity to study the issue. We recognize the success and seek to build upon the framework and we are talking about the changes around the edges. We would expand the process, in some geographic areas while reducing process in other circumstances, the formula retail definition itself, what makes you a chain store, would expand in some ways and contract in others, over all the effect will be tilted in the direction of exexpanding regulation, but we believe that it will be in a measured and balanced manner, that said, formula retail and chain stores evokes strong responses and we can expect to hear the passion today, we have already gotten feedback from those who want the more control and those who want less control that they would like the see the changes, this is a package that responds to input from those on all sides. And it may leave some folks seeking a different reaction. So, with that, lets begin. I would like to turn it over to commissioner burns who has been our fearless project manager and will give you the bulk of the presentation. Good evening, commissioners, commissioner burns, Planning Department staff. Welcome. Thank you. So here is the outline for our presentation today and i am going to take you through the four key aspects of our proposal. The first topic is changing the definition of form law retail and where the controls apply. Over all, this aspect of our proposal will strengthen the formula retail controls by expanding the definition, these changes will target large established chains while allowing the Small Businesses t

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