[TLC News & Alerts] TLC alerts: Support downtown Parking reform * plant trees this saturday in the tenderloin

[Tom Radulovich]

SUPPORT DOWNTOWN PARKING REFORM
Thursday, November 17
Meeting starts at 1:30 PM; ours is item 19 on the agenda.
Planning Commission
City Hall, Room 400

Supervisor Daly's legislation to reform residential parking in the  
downtown (C-3) districts will be heard tomorrow (Thursday) at the  
Planning Commission. This legislation is a long-overdue reform aimed  
at increasing the supply and affordability of downtown housing while  
preserving the downtown's historic transit-oriented character. This  
legislation will reduce the amount of traffic generated by new  
housing Downtown, which will help us in our efforts to reclaim road  
space Downtown for wider sidewalks, bicycle lanes, and transit lanes,  
and will allow Muni service to move more effectively through  
downtown's congested streets. A downtown that generates less traffic  
will reduce also reduce the public health and environmental impacts  
of traffic on the surrounding dense residential neighborhoods,  
including SoMa and the Tenderloin, and will facilitate goods movement  
to production, distribution, and repair (PDR) uses on the edges of  
downtown. It will also, by eliminating garage entrances and port  
cocheres on major transit, bicycle, and transit routes, reduce  
traffic conflicts and improve the attractiveness and safety of  
walking, bicycling, and transit use in our downtown.

The legislation proposes to:

1. Eliminate minimum parking requirements for dwelling units
2. Establish a by-right maximum for dwelling units of 1 space per 4  
units, with more units allowed by conditional use
3. Establish maximum parking cap for dwelling units of 1 space per 2  
units
4. Eliminate minimum dimensions and independent accessibility  
requirements for off-street spaces
5. Require any off-street parking to be below-grade , or on the  
ground floor and wrapped in active uses on all public frontages;  
partial exceptions allowed for     sloping sites with Commission  
review and wrapping of any above-grade parking with active uses.
6. Establish limits on width of garage openings to off-street parking  
and loading.
7. Prohibit sidewalk narrowing and port-cocheres for loading or  
parking, and prohibit garage entrances on Market Street, Folsom  
Street, Embarcadero, Stockton Street, California Street, Geary  
Street, Powell Street, Montgomery Street, and Grant Avenue.
8. Establish bicycle parking requirements for residential uses of 1  
space per 2 units for projects up to 50 units, and 1 space per 4  
units for projects larger than 50 units
9. Require 1 dedicated space for car sharing vehicles for each 200  
dwelling units
10. Require that parking spaces be sold/leased separately from  
dwellings in projects of more than 10 units, and provides exceptions  
for affordable housing projects.

The planning commission staff recommendation is in substantial  
agreement with the legislation, with one major exception; they  
recommend that the maximum be raised to .75 parking spaces per unit.  
The Commission will be under substantial pressure from developer  
interests and some pro-parking homeowner groups, allied with the pro- 
parking Planning Commissioners, to raise the parking maximum further.  
In order for that not to happen, we need your help telling the  
commission that you support the legislation and want to see the  
parking maximum kept at one space per two units.

Please take the time to do three things;
1. write a letter to the planning commission letting them know you  
support the legislation. We don't want them just to hear from the pro- 
car folks. letters should be addressed to Planning commission  
president Sue Lee, and may be faxed to (415) 558-6409, or emailed to  
commission secretary Linda Avery, linda.avery at sfgov.org. Please copy  
us at tom at livablecity.org.

2. Come to the commission hearing tomorrow and be heard; The  
commission meeting will begin at 1:30 in Room 400 of city hall; ours  
is item 19 on the agenda.

3. send an alert to your members and allies, asking them to come to  
the commission or send a letter.

The better and stronger we are in delivering our message at the  
Planning commission tomorrow, the likelier it is that the Board of  
Supes will be able to approve this legislation intact.


TENDERLOIN TREE PLANTING
Saturday, November 19, 2005
9AM – 3PM
Meet at Boedekker Park, NE corner of Jones and Eddy
Lunch provided
Please call Aaron Goldsmith at (415) 554-6613 to RSVP if you can attend.

For World Environment Day this June, TLC and the Neighborhood Parks  
Council announced our goal of creating a citywide Greenway Network,  
which will connect the city's neighborhoods, parks, and transit  
stations to one another and to the regional bay, ridge, and coast  
trails via a network of green streets and linear parks. The Mayor's  
Office has embraced the idea, and is organizing the first  
"Neighborhood Greenways" tree planting to "engage local communities  
in transforming streets with extensive new tree plantings, providing  
safer, more attractive connections to parks and other neighborhood  
resources. Over time, planting events across the city will create a  
network of greenways that increase access to the city’s parks,  
natural areas, and waterfront, improve pedestrian safety and  
encourage walking and cycling, reduce noise and airborne pollution,  
and enhance neighborhood quality of life." Sounds great to us! This  
weekend's event will hopefully be the first of many. Come out and  
plant a tree.


****

Tom Radulovich
Executive Director
Transportation for a Livable City
995 Market Street Suite 1550
San Francisco CA 94103
415 344-0489
www.livablecity.org
tom at livablecity.org




Tom Radulovich
Executive Director
Transportation for a Livable City
995 Market Street Suite 1550
San Francisco CA 94103
415 344-0489
www.livablecity.org
tom at livablecity.org



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