Park for a future investment with not just a set of projects right now, but also somewhat vetted set of projects that people can continue to develop if they want to seek additional philanthropy, if there is future geo bonds or general fund support. Our objective and principles that we use to evaluate the different projects we were proposing and developing were to, again, enhance Community Access into and through the park. To maintain the landscapes. To enhance views. I think thats one of the great hidden secretes of mclaren park, the views you cant get anywhere else and to create and build play opportunities. So this diagram i think gave us a general scheme, or framework for how to organize all the thinking about the different types of projects and how we wanted to think about this unique problem with circulation. Mclaren park has four distinct, 45 really, neighborhoods surrounding the park and the edges are actually one of the main challenges of the park. There are places, as ive said before, where there 1520 foot grade drop between the street, the neighborhood and the park. And knowing how to get in and out of the park from places as diverse as sunnidale, even mission, is a key challenge. Yda mission, is a key challenge. Again, this is where a lot of the trails are, this is where the great views are. Natural features. And then developing connectivity framework to connect the edges to the heart. Because that is actually not as simple as it sounds if youre showing up at mclaren for the first day. I have been lost in mclaren many times. And im sure im not the only one. So we want to come up with a framework that helps bring people from the neighborhood edges into the park. So youre not just hanging out on the playground on the edge and thats the only spot you know and youre wondering how to access the rest of it. Or you have a favorite trail or view, but create something that is predictable and understandable so people can explore and enjoy the whole park. So, we conducted a robust outreach process. We wanted to focus not only on the folks who know the park, but those groups that havent accessed the park or were unaware of the commission process, even for how to get resources. We started off with the Treasure Hunt that was successful. They were occasional users of the park. As well as doing open community meetings, we did focus group meetings, so for each one of the priorities we put forward today, we had at least one, and many cases several meetings to just develop the ideas. We took a road show to many of the neighborhood associations around the park and we also conducted an Online Survey which got us about 300 responses. What came out of that process, was a set of proposed projects that were bringing for you today. This is 6. 9 million of key priorities that we would like your direction to kind of continue forward with developing ideas for. And concept plans. And then in addition to the 6. 9 million, there is 2 million of the 4 million for trails set aside in the 2012 geo bond ordinance. So there is 4 million set aside, half of it weve proposed to go to golden gate and half to mclaren parks. Then we already, the commission has allocated 3. 1 million for mclaren. These are the quick start projects. Many in progress, some of which are completed and a few of which will be combined with the playground project. So all told, that equals 12 million. So 10 million of which is allocated to mclaren park in the ordinance, 2 million for trails, and within that 10 million there is also, in the bond report, 1. 5 million set aside explicitly for habitat and restoration features. As i mentioned, we alsoant wanted to prepare for the future. There are so many needs and great ideas, we also worked with our design team, cmg, to develop concepts which were shown at the Capital Committee of future projects that you could also continue to fund and would continue to enhance mclarens identity and the park experience. That includes developing points of interest further, giving the Upper Reservoir more identity and working on additional improvement for the amphitheatre and continuing to fund the bike park which opened four weeks ago, to great acclaim, and good user feedback. The gateways, particularly at crocker, amazon, oxford street, transforming the park, kind of entrance, neighborhood edge, and then really developing them, building them out so its clear youre entering mclaren park. This is a park experience. And those also all have concepts that could be developed into to help further the design. And then also just the connectivity work, whether its asphalt pathways, paving, or trails, there is really an endless amount of work that needs to be done to continue to improve mclarens fundamental connectivity infrastructure. So, in more detail, running through the pier one projects, wed like the approval of funds. Group picnic area restroom. This would add a restroom, that is a longstanding theme of feedback from mclaren park users and it makes total sense, you want a Free Standing restroom by one of the largest picnic areas with a new playground. Also again, 1. 5 million for restoration of natural features and habitat. Most of this work would occur been the context of also focussing on the connectivity projects around trails and the like. This is similar to the approach we took in the 2008 bond, where as were doing trails work, the point is to be on a trail, to see nature and we want the nature to be in good continue and preserved. These are before and after pictures from other parks, as well as mclaren, of what that means in terms of, again growing, restoring the habitat, restoring the plants around the area and also again, just creating a clearer sense of this is where people go and this is where the Sensitive Habitat is. The jerry garcia amphitheatre, we had a number of great meetings with permities, folks wanted small cosmetic improvements, make the green room look nicer. Improve the sound panels, et cetera. But then the idea that i think that has come out through the design process was really the idea of creating more flat space right by the entrance, because that would automatically allow you to program the area with a broader set of amenities that could support larger and more diverse crowds. If you were thinking about changing the types of acts or activating more, we need the infrastructure to support those audiences and right now, its very easy for us to serve 300 people there and its more difficult to serve a thousand people there consistently. Two other ideas identified for after, or if future funding is identified, is to create also temporary fencing insulation, so you could for events, for the purpose of crowd control, or fundraising or one thing or another. You could put up fencing, but it would not be permanent. You could take it down after an event. Lastly, the hill is very steep behind the seats at mclaren if you ever tried to picnic there. Its pick anything at a 45 angle, its not a great proposition, thats the third thing we identified as option. Tai chi, this is one of the stakeholder groups were able to connect with and had a number of focus group hearings with them and improve crocker and man sel, but if there is funding were open to lewis sutter in the mix. And then pathway improvements. This has been also on the radar for constituents from the beginning. This is our effort to take feedback in a map that was provided by constituents. And it identifies based on the constituents own evaluation like excellent to poor pathways across mclaren park. What we think well be able to do actually i think well be able to accomplish with the 700,000 that is allocated to pathways right now, is tackle the worst red zone areas. Were hoping to be able to tackle a fair amount of the orange. After that, i think we have a good conversation, weve shared this information with the operations colleagues. And thats a future funding decision i think about the way that these can be wrapped into an annual paving allocation or program to continue working on the list. These are just photos of some of the red zones. You can see these are literally just crumbling paths in many areas. And also, our last community meeting, there was a quest to allocate more funding, so we were able to fund Pedestrian Crossing of visitation avenue that will help connect the middle school in particular to the park and improve that access and make it safer. The john Mclaren Community garden received more funding and this will allow us to deliver the full concept plan as originally envisioned. With that, im going to introduce Melinda Stockman to talk through the trails portion of the plan. Good afternoon, commissioners, my focus working on this project for the vision plan was the trails and path focus area. Im here today to present information for you. This first slide shows basically a sample of all the different people who are currently using and would like to use mclaren park. So we have a real increased interest vocallized in Mountain Biking and offroad cycling and we have the brand new bike park that opened on sunnydale and wed like to add to that. We have dogs in the park, dog walkers. We have folks with different abilities, runners, trail runners and of course, little ones and older folks as well. As don mentioned with the trails and path focus area specifically, we were tasked with looking at a fairly robust trail system already in place with fantastic amenities like the philosophers way and what improvements can we make with the money given and what are the challenges . Im going to show you a series of maps, the first map shows the existing multiuse trails. By multiuse, we mean open to bicycles in the park. So these lines are showing man sell, its a street, but as you recall, we converted it to a multiuse path. And the other blue line is the fire road which starts at the new crosswalk that dawn mentioned across the street from the visitation Avenue Middle School and continues all the way over toward jordan on the west side the park. So that is the current legitimate offroad bike access in the park, 1. 3 miles. Through this plan and the process, input from a lot of stakeholders, this dark blue line shows the proposed increase in multiuse offroad access in the park. I will talk about the two loops, but basically, together with the existing and proposed, were looking at approximately 8. 1 miles of bike trails. And paths. Finally, we have the overlay here of all of the proposed pedestrianonly trails as well as multiuse. So one thing i want to point out, dawn showed this in a previous slide. One of our main conceptual moves is to have a large loop that is open to both pedestrians and cyclists in both the north and south half of the park. And so this map accomplishes that and we really are tasked with balancing, how do we get bikers on trails through the woods and have different topography and different alignments while keeping some trails for pedestrians . This is our effort to do that. You likely have seen other maps circulated from Community Members. Were realigning some trails. Were proposing to close and restores other trails and restore them to natural features. Ill talk a little bit more about that. So the total here, the approximate total for all of the trails paths shown is 18. 8 miles with 8. 1 miles open to bikes and the remain der pedestrian only. I also want to reiterate a point i made at the Capital Committee, what are we asking for approval on today . Because i know the vision plan is a little different level and were trying to create an identity and comprehensive plan for mclaren. All this work you see here is trails, we will return with more detailed Concept Design approval level prior to getting a contractor on board. So today, were really asking for your approval for the expenditure of the 2 million for trail predominantly trail improvements and path improvements. Were also asking for your approval of the organizing principles and hierarchy of trails, and the balance of the pedestrianonly and multiuse trails. And finally, were asking for your approval for the prioritization of the use of specific 2012 bond funding, for improvements in the four designated Priority Areas shown on the screen at this time. In addition to that, as dawn mentioned, there is operate 1. 5 million set aside for the restoration of natural features. We anticipate that this design for the project would be built into the trails improvement project. And that we would again develop more Detailed Design and come back with those details as part of the Concept Design approval. So these are the four priority projects areas we identified. We shared these with the community in june of this year. We are planning some improvements to calm traffic and increase Pedestrian Access on shelly drive. This Upper Reservoir area is going to have a crossing that connects the blue water tower and the path and the philosophers way on the west side of shelly with the philosophers way, as well as the path down to the reservoir on the east side. In addition to that, in this area, the asphalt path and steps which go down to the reservoir are in deteriorating condition and we would like to make that more of a natural surface trail, less steps and define the access with more planting. We also would like to repair the paving on the ramp that is south of the reservoir and look at accommodating bicycles on that ramp and adding signage. Because as you get to the bottom of the reservoir, it takes you to the amphitheatre and picnic and we want signage to let people know where theyre going. This is the big one, the shelly loop interior. Its the area between the Group Picnic Area that will have the new playground and the amphitheatre. This area as you see from the photo, the photo on the bottom in the middle shows how wide the trails are to really like roads and in some cases, we need to keep them a certain width for maintenance vehicle access, but we have a lot of drainage problems on the trail. We would like to regrade and put in drainage features and define the trail. We would like to make a crossroads between the dog area, amphitheatre and group picnic so folks know where to go. This shows storm damage from last year. This is an area where we have our gray fox creek and we have opportunity to do a lot of restoration. We have Community Groups using this area, so we want to enhance it, but keeping the natural feel. The third priority area, the connection between lewis sutter and man sel courts. This shows the current asphalt path from the lewis sutter playground toward the rest of the park. We went out and did a site visit and the slope on that path is 19 . Ada slope required allowed is much, much less than that. Were looking at realigning that path and looking into the possibility of making it firm and stable, but again a little more natural feel than asphalt. And were also looking to reconfigure the asphalt path and steps closer to the man sel courts and were looking to accommodate bicycles on a multiuse trail that meets ada guidelines, but weve worked with the guidelines in Glen Canyon Park and Golden Gate Park and there is lot to do to make it interesting and exciting. For some of the trails were looking to realign or close in the area, would we use some of the natural features funding to scrape up the soil, to put seeds in, to put Erosion Control to go back to grassland habitat. Last but not least, the visitation avenue corridor. This is the area that runs from visitation and hahn intersection, up to the visitation Avenue Middle School. We worked with volunteers for outdoor california, a large volunteer group about four years ago to rough out a trail corridor in the area. However, its very sandy. And so we would like to work with the contractor to stabilize the soil surface and again, we have a lot of exciting things going on there with the Community Garden improvement and the puc rain garden. So this would be a new multiuse trail from the park entry. And we would like to have a lot of Habitat Restoration plantings there and were working with Community Members to make that happen and to get more Detailed Designs. This would connect with the new crosswalk at the middle school, so that trail users could walk up the trail and across the street to the fire road. And we would like to have interpretive sign here and working with the Planning Department separate from bond funding to look at the possibility of doing a sidewalk along visitation avenue and weve determined there is sufficient need for both a sidewalk and a multiuse trail and they meet sort of different experience preference. So, now get into the best Management Practices. We have mansell, which is a wide street and has striping to designate where bikes go and pedestrians go. This path on the right is at the mansell in the court area. Its showing sort of typical asphalt path. Some of the paths are wider than six feet, but this one is just wider than six feet. Moving into trails. In order to accommodate bikes in a safe and balanced way and to minimize user conflicts our team has determined that five feet wide is appropriate design width for multiuse trails and three foot wide for pedestrianonly trails. I want to point out that a lot of the trail work were doing is in existing areas, so were either doing small scale widening, in some cases narrowing the trails as i showed before. We looked up standards from other places and this is well within the acceptable ranges, best Management Practices. We looked it at the state parks and our goal is really to provide recreational opportunities that people can go for a ride after dinner, teach the kids, tool around, but were not aiming to be a china camp or really challenging Mountain Bike only resource. So this slide shows trail within the park. You see its kind of combination between the left and the middle photo being 5foot wide trails and the middle trail is segment of philosophers way. You can see the granite marker. And the photo all around the right is 3foot wide existing trail. Another point with outreach, were building the trails designed at five feet, but because we really do have limited maintenance capacity as one of the Community Members mentioned, we anticipate that the trails will shrink down to four feet. So this is an example from another park of a trail right at construction. Either improvement or new trail and again this looks like a construction site, looks barren and then soon after the vegetation repopulates and it looks more rustic. We anticipate that the multiuse trails would be between 45 feet. Other best Management Practices weve used for other projects and are excited to use, the slope of trails, how they drain, erosion and the surfacing we use. The bottom of the slide, you see think different surfaces. Asphalt, thats the new mansell. You see park tread, which is a weve used that in several other parks and it meets the ada requirements firm and stable, but it has a natural feel. And then on the right, a lot of the trails we are planning to keep as they are and the dirt is just fine, but we have a template we can use depending on the goal of the particular site. The top photographs from the middle to the right show actually another area that our Natural Resources division worked on, so in the middle photo the trails are muddy. If youre walking with tennis shoes, youre in trouble. The photo to right shows drain, where the contractor brings in large rock and puts the dirt back on top of it and that allows the water to run under the trail. We did that in Glen Canyon Park, its successful. This is something well be doing in the four Priority Areas. Another set of best Management Practices, trail realignment and decommissioning, Habitat Restoration. We do trail realignment and restoration for a lot of different reasons. Predominantly, if the trail is steep, were concerned about the user safety and the trail in the long run. In the area near the labyrinth just north of mansell we would realign the trail there, provide the same access, but close and restore the very steep trail. In other areas, the trail might be considered redundant. Its going to the same place as another trail so we would try to find a balance and maintain that and restore to natural area. Hazard tree mitigation. This is just in the four areas. We look at the corridor around the trail. What branch or tree can fall on the trail . We have the arborist and we do pruning and removal accordingly. Unless there is hazard, we do the courtesy 30day posting on that. Habitat restoration is another tool wed be working with the contractor and likely be working with the community to do stewardship there. Finally, signage. So we have developed a family of trails signage we used at Glen Canyon Park and twin peaks and they include the placards that have key destinations and how to get there. We have signs for the park that show people, what are the species here, how can you help. And on the right, images of the philosopher way markers that are special and unique, and were working with the Arts Commission to find out how can we meld that signage and route with the standard signage. With that, i would be happy to open up for questions for dawn and myself. President buell public comment. Peter . And then sally, albert and chuck. Good morning. Speak into the mic. Good morning commissioners, my name is peter richards. Im along the designers of philosopher as way, funded through the Arts Commission several years. Philosophers way is a public art project that inspires people to be mindful of their surroundings as they traverse a 2. 7 mile trail that goes around the perimeter of mclaren park. The inspiration came from not only the users of the park, the tai chi programs, but also my encountering a philosophers walk in kyoto, japan and heidelberg, germany. I worked with the rpd staff and really many miles of Walking Around the park. Were trying to understand the park in relation to the bay area and to the city. Because of our budget, we incorporated as many existing trails as possible. Some were wide, paved fire trails, others were very narrow, but all together, they worked quite well. The changes proposed for philosophers way do not impact our vision and in some cases improve on our original design. The changes include grade adjustments, Erosion Control, working in widening in some places, and some rea linements to address use conflicts. These should address the philosopher way experience. President buell thank you. Secretary next speaker, please. Hi, my name is Sally Stephens and i encourage you to approve this except for 3. 5 million for trails. History, the bond ordinance said the trail money could only be used in natural areas, which was areas managed by the natural areas program. I sat in scotts office, with him, sarah looking for a compromise. Ultimately, we agreed that the useonly natural areas language would be removed from the bond ordinance and the language said the money was to repair and reconstruct trails in mclaren and Golden Gate Park. There was no money to use in natural areas. I went before the board of supervisors to announce that with the amended language we no longer opposed the bond. Imagine my surprise to hear during the envisioning process, the rec and park staff insisted the trail money could not be used to fix the paths, but was to be spent in natural areas. That went against the agreement and was not what people voted on in the bond language. While staff backed down, it is truling that it happened at all. If you approve the money, what is to prevent staff from once again using the money in the natural areas. Theyve already tried to renege once, what is to stop them from doing it again. There is no mention of Habitat Restoration in the bond ordinance. The bond report was published about a month before our negotiations with supervisors weiners office. It was never changed to reflect what we discussed. It cannot be used to justify the 3. 5 million that is going to go much of it for Habitat Restoration. What matters is the language in the bond ordinance, not the report. If you cant trust what is in the ordinance that you vote on, then people wont be vetoing for future voting for future bonds. I have albert, chuck, robert, alex and may looen. All right. It wasnt me, thats for sure. Hello, everybody. Good morning. Good afternoon. President buell good morning. Ok, great. Im here to talk about the vision plan, 3. 5 million for trails, natural areas. When will the city and county of San FranciscoRecreation Department complete the master plan . 11, 3. 6 million finish grand opening today. Nicely done. We need that over here. I would like to put this on. Its important could you talk slower i would like this on the projector because this shows the location map, mclaren park in the center. And this is worth this is really, i hope everybody sees this, because these are working class people. These are people who just want to walk in the park, use the bathroom, not trip on a trail. They want the place where the grandparents can use the restroom in dignity, a water fountain, maybe lights. Thats what it was like originally. Never maintained. Always the same story. It wasnt maintenance, it was deferred maintenance. Now we got what we got. It fell in your hands because of lack of money, funds, lack of bonds. A lot of these dirt trails with being done without the bonds i guess. Not bonds, theyre grants. Know, there is free labor. Thats great. What about the asphalt paths . Where is all the money going . I want to say i thank everybody for the vision plans, but where is the master plan . When are we going to get it . Until we get it, ill keep asking, where is the master plan . Very thankful, its thanksgiving coming up, appreciate everybodys time and energy. Thank you. Secretary next speaker, please. Commissioners, general manager, here i am again, talking about my support for this plan, because my parents bought in mid 60s in that area because it was a familyfriendly neighborhood and it was a place that you could let your kids run and play in the park. It was two lakes, paths connecting them, there were horseback riding rides, it was family friendly. And after the mid 70s, approximately, things went to disarray like albert was asassei asseing saying, it was lack of maintenance. Abandoned. A lot of burntout cars and place to dump a body, even. Not a friendly place for families and they started leaving the neighborhood in droves. This is an opportunity of a lifetime, help mclaren park group celebrate, we worked hard to get the bond money and part of it is the letterwriting campaign. I think we should all be happy we have 12 million. Thats never happened in mclaren park history. So i just like to say i accept the envisioning and support it so we can build the park for the sake of our youth. Its time, the opportunity spans several generations. Its at our door and its mclaren parks turn to shine. President buell thank you. Next speaker, rob are the, alex, may lien and josh and phillip, please. If ive called your name, you can come up and stand on either side and be ready to speak. Hello. Im a Mountain Biker, hiker, wildlife enthusiast. I cant think of a better way to spend the 2012 clean and safe Neighborhood Park bond money. Than on trail improvements in mclaren park. The Recreation Survey shows San Franciscoens view walking and biking as the most important feature of parks. Im happy there is a rerouting and closure of redundant trails that scar the park. The building of trail will come with destruction of the dwindling Natural Resources. People in crowded urban spaces need them to provide them with an escape. Equally important is that the Natural Resources are a haven before biodiversity, birds, bees, bugs, salamanders and other critters that live among us. Its critical that any destruction caused by the wonderful trails be mitigated by careful restoration of native plants, grass and natural areas. We cannot give invasive weeds a foothold. Why . They have not adapted to them. A study shows that over 90 of insect species with plant species and group of related plant species, these insects have not had a chance to develop a tolerance for the chemical defenses in plants, like mustard and radish that thrive in the disturbed soils. I urge you to plant california wild flowers along the trail and bunch grassesry with deeply which are deeply rooted and provide hiding spaces for the wildlife. Thank you. Secretary next speaker, please. My name is alex and i represent 949 petitioners on a petition asking you to withhold approval of the trail and path portion of the mclaren vision plan. We do not agree with the trail widening, access restrictions and closures. During the whole envision process, most tried to approach with openness, but as each meeting passed, we realized this is not about trails and paths, but a preexisting plan forced on us. There was no discussion of the trails to be closed or trails to be widened. Instead were told vague statements that trails are eroding and sensitive plants are trampled. These are trumpedup statements. Majority of the trails have no erosion, but its on the few recently built trails. We stay on the path because the trails are where we want them. This map shows all the trails that are going to be closed in areas. If recognize vegas Park Department want to add rules, they need to engage the community in real conversations with real meetings. We have been asking for maps since the 80s, but they have installed restriction signs with some being noncodified. What makes this park what also makes this park magical besides being wild, there is discovery. This plan loses that. We cant be coerced into preexisting plan or be told we must obey a noncodified rule. Mclaren park has requests that are not prioritized. Stop the cycle of neglect. Do not approve the funding for the trail and path plan as this has not been a communitydriven process. President buell thank you. Good morning, i am the Community GardenProgram Manager for the recreation and Park Department and im delighted to be here today to speak in support of the mclaren park Community Garden funding that is before you today. When i first visited the garden years ago i was struck by how charming and beautiful the site is, on the edge of mclaren park. The garden has been well loved despite the Poor Condition of the garden itself. It makes sense, besides being in an ideal location, its at the end of the residential street where there is tons of community support. Chief among them are wonderful, garden coordinator sean smith who is sheer today to here today to speak on behalf of the garden. This garden is in the area where there are many families that could benefit from increased access to Community Food projects like gardens. Shawn and others have been advocating for a complete renovation for years because the state of the gardens infrastructure has been impacting Community Engagement. Having recently visited all of the Community Gardens across the program, i can see how critical site design and build decisions are to enhancing Community Engagement at our sites. This increased funding will create really engaging new opportunities to bring more people into the garden and create more opportunities for Community Engagement. It increases the plots by 80, doubles the number of plots and creates other infrastructure that we can develop programming around. So i want to thank you for the support for the project so far and the Capital Division for the design and urge you to support the funding request for the Community Garden. President buell thank you. Josh, phillip, jake, charles and tom. Good morning, commissioners, my name is josh, im the executive director of Outward Bound. Were weve worked with the students and adults, having worked with 10,000 students at this point. We use local parks as one of the areas we introduce students to the Educational Opportunities of the outdoors. And we highly support moving forward with the John Mclaren Park vision plan. Mclaren park is one of the best kept secrets from people beyond the five communities around the park, but we know having worked there over a decade, that park has been used by the communities there for decades. And it is neglected and we are excited to see that there is an opportunity here to reintroduce, not just the five communities that surround the park with John Mclaren Park, but the entire city and county of San Francisco, thats exciting to us, we look forward to using the park more regularly. One of the areas that is important to us is the trails and open spaces. We recognize that trails can be hotly contested in terms of the width, surface, their use, when to close what, when. But as an organization that uses the inherent chal ownings the outdoors to teach young people, even foot trails become part of our educational model. While we recognize there is dispute around the trails, we are supportive of funds that go toward improving those trails to use them with all types of students, young and old. Lastly, i would like to add that Outward Bound has a long history of working with recreation and Parks Department around the country, in baltimore and philadelphia and we see partnership between educational organizations like ourselves and city governments as key to using open space and creating future outdoor stewards. Were excited about this work and urge you to move forward. Thank you. President buell thank you. Next speaker, please. Jake . Come on up. Phillip . I have charles and tom scott. Could i get you to speak i speak for the California Native Plant Society which has donated over 1,000 hours to maintaining our National Heritage since 1989. Long before the department created this popular division, contrast this gift to the city with the department, some of whom dont even pick up their dog poop. Just as wetness is related to water, it cant be divorced and where are the trails being built . In natural areas. Trail needs throughout the city and this is only the beginning of filling the needs. This is a Popular Program and when occasion arises we can turn out supporters as we did from the natural Area Management plan that came before the commission a year ago, at which time supporters outnumbered naysayers 7542 by count. They have truong support by the strong support by the public. They disseminate false information such as this headline accusing the department of bait and switch. Why the hostility to preserving our Natural Heritage . The city is working to people love the grass lands with the spring and wild flowers and it provides rich grounds for the coyotes, hawks and other animals few people appreciate thistles which the Program Effective at keeping under control. The needs are great. Please help the program. Thank you. President buell thank you. Next speaker, please. If i read off your name, please come up. Again, charles, tom, phillip and then also dustin and fran. Good morning, my name is charles and im Community Organizer on traffic at the San Francisco bicycle coalition. Im here to speak in support of the vision plan, in particular were happy to see traffic calming on streets and bicycles. Bicycle facilities such as the mansell path and bike park are important destinations. We believe this plan is important first step in making mclaren park safe and accessible for all users. Currently, the average speed of vehicles exceeds the speed limit by 50 . These speeds paired with a lack of bicycle infrastructure, create dangerous conditions for people biking. This will slow down cars and make the streets safer for people walking and biking. We urge you accelerate the plans along visitation avenue and sunnydale drive. Next speaker, please. Good morning, im tom scott, long time advocate and volunteer and i took interest in the mclaren project when the bond measure passed. Ive attended most meetings and corresponded with the planners. After hours of research on the subject i concluded i support most aspects of the plan, the improvement in the theater, the gateway, but i strongly oppose the path portion of the project. The amphitheatre is popular and deserves support. There was great collaboration between the community and the project managers. They listened to the community and asked what we wanted. They had options based on input and came up with terrific plans. The trails and path portion could not have been more different. Since the beginning, its more of a sales pitch and less response to Community Input. Weve been asking the paths to be repaired for years. We want trails to be fixed. Many have asked that the repairs to the trail damaged by the horse riding concession. Rather than address the demands, the planners presented their vision for radically altering the trail system, which includes closing popular trails and widening trails throughout the park. Nobody in the community is asking for trails to be closed. Nobody wants their favorite trails widened. Personally im going to put one thing on here. Personally im sad to see what is happening to philosophers way. I appreciate what peter had to say. But its designed for peaceful contemplation while walking through nature. This calls for widening more than twothirds of philosophers way and converting it into multiuse, which will take away the intimate nature of walking through nature. Please, yes to the whole project, except the 3. 5 million for the trails and paths. President buell thank you. Secretary next speaker. My name is dustin smith. Been watching the microphone, trying to figure out how to manage it. Im cochair of the bike founders. We represent 150 donors who have financially invested in amenity in mclaren park, the bike park. Whose biggest concern is around trails and connectivity to the park. So im here to speak in support of the vision plan. I think rec and park folks have done a great job working with us, creating the bike park that was just opened on october 21st, with much success from the community, family, children from the neighborhoods, people from all over. We want to make sure that as this plan moves forward, were involved in the details of the trails development, to ensure that people can safely and have fun. Get to mclaren bike park and move throughout the bike park, that includes planning for hertz play ground as well as through sunnydale. We view this vision document as a malleable document that through meetings and Community Input well be able to effect the wild and winding nature of the trails so they are not wide and sanitized. We need those types of trails to move folks through the park, especially folks that may not be able to walk on their own two feet or move on two wheels, but we also want to make sure we keep the wild nature of mclaren park as people are moving back and forth. So thank you very much for the time to speak. Secretary we have fran and then shawn, rehn, chris and katy. If you havent put in a card and you do want to speak, just come on up and line up on either side and you can come up and speak. Go ahead, fran. Ill let them know. Over head, please. My name is fran martin and im affiliating the visitacion avenue project, serving 65 children and adults. Our Program Works with children from the sunnydale boys and girls club, the mclaren park Community Garden. Excuse me. Im here to represent these children who live in sunnydale. They have no accessible open space allocated for them and their families in mclaren park. Where they live is surrounded by single use facilities that cut them off from nature. They have no voice. It is our hope and desire that the mclaren park Community Garden will become the center piece of the Outdoor Education center which will include trails, rain garden and native plant, Botanical Garden extending from the middle school to hahn avenue. This will address inadequate access to mclaren park for expected population will be increased by 610,000 units of new housing in the next several years. The mclaren park Outdoor Education center is the only environmental educational component of the entire mclaren park process and is sorely needed. Visitation valley is the most under served neighborhood in San Francisco. Our children are equal, but lack opportunities to thrive and learn. It is our intention to fix the injustice that playmaker our community. The plague our community. To invest in our community, considering the burden of high density housing we carry for other nandz. We need the funds to build the garden, complete the trail begun over two years ago for the middle school to hahn avenue. I urge you to fund the entire vision plan, with improvements needed. I would like to commend shawn smith who is coming up next, for his tireless work on behalf of our community and weve been working with him closely. President buell thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Good morning, commissioners. Im sorry, im under the weather. Im shawn smith, native of San Francisco. Ive lived in the valley communities since 1993. I got started through this program for the don King Senior Center when the seniors operated the garden. But when they were too old to participate in it, i decided to volunteer and keep the grass cut for them and but they had moved from the center that was across the way, up to raymond street. As time went on, they aged on and they were unable to part pate in the gardens, so one of my main things was to find out who can help me and bring the Community Together and actually helping kids along with seniors to have an active Community Garden. Since it has been neglected for so long and now they have more beautification and renovations coming up. This is something that we would like to see in our Community Garden, we would like to actually ask you for the funding for the Community Garden and we thank the program, when youre talking about the vision program, for bringing this up to par. I would like to thank everyone from alexis, jake, fran, everyone involved in it. We also would like to add that in the future, if you can see that most of our children will grow older and as our children grow older, they can be taken care of because as we know, San Francisco is turning into a large city that has very, very small condensed area, so if you please, just give a little consideration to the children and to the seniors that are here in our city. Thank you very much, and take care. President buell thank you. Next speaker, please. Good morning, my name is rehn, im excelsior resident and daily park user. I support the plans except for the trails and path portion. I also want to be sure that the park is clean. We voted for 2012 bond called the clean and safe neighborhoods park bond, but no specific amount of money is set aside in the plan for keeping mclaren clean and there is no articulated plan to addresses trash and garbage in the park. I do want to give a shoutout to