we look forward to continuing this dialogue in the future. thank you very much.

>> okay. okay. we are ready to go. good morning, folks i'm larns corn field chief building inspector with the department of building inspection. with me i have karl hasz who is a general contractor who specializes in restaurants and a member of the city landmarks board. he has perspectives on restaurants. we have a lot of others coming.

some of you may be here who represent other city agencies. the small business commissions may be health and may be public works and fire. we will see who shows up. what we will try to do over the course of the morning is to go through and out line what you have. which covers my view of some of the big issues of restaurants and construction and remodeling. the reason that i offered to do this is because i actually love to eat. basically. and you know in san francisco -- this is the place to eat. san francisco's great. i just got back from france. i tell you the food in san francisco is as good or better than anything i have found in france. now, we can go into detail on that at our break. but san francisco's an eater's city. and i have been working with many, many restaurants over the years to help expedite their

permit processing or to help them understand the process. this is an extremely complicated issue. how you develop a restaurant. and i want to go through it and answer your questions. this is not a power point presentation. there is no set lecture here. this is to help you understand how to solve problems. i have an out line. we will go through it but i encourage you to ask any questions you want. i will repeat the question back so you don't have to get up and use the mic unless you want to. okay. and let's see. we can -- this hall is set up for 250 people it looks like and we have awful 15 of us. so, thank you for being here. i understand they are having a big class here later and that's why we are in here. it will probably be full by the end of the lecture. >> should i give my background. >> sure karl. >> everyone knows laurence's

background. mine is construction if restaurants for 10 years. i'm a partner in 3 restaurants in the city. vitaken restaurants from beginning to end from business plan all the way to opening. >> what is the end. beginning to end? >> beginning to end where i lead the situation. [laughter]. i don't do operations. we watch out for the operations, when we are laying out a restaraunt. >> uh-huh. speaking of beginning to end this morning as i was thinking about bringing stuff in to holdup and talk about i was looking at this book cook book of famous san francisco restaurants. it was published in the 80's. and i looked at the restaurants and most of them are not here anymore. and then i was walking here thinking, gee, it's too bad there is no place to get a good breakfast in the civic center area ever since the star's restaurant. everybody remembers stars in the

back they had star fish with fried fish it was an absolutely great breakfast place it didn't make sense at all. why don't we please take care of the breakfast short fall in the civic center area. thanks, karl for being here. you can tell us the restaurants you are involved with. >> teresa and picard and sirus. >> we may need to turn up the volume on this mic. >> picard, and sius in hills burg and opened bambooeda and sold out later. >> when people talk about kohn tractors who know what they are doing, karl's one of those guise. it's a special area to do

restaurant construction. it's as we get through this we will talk a bit about developing a team. a team to work on your restaurant. clearly that's one of the most important things to me as i watch what happens. if there is a weak point in the team whether at this time mechanical contract the equipment supplier the architectural lighting specialist the whole thing is delayd and costs sky rocket. people who do multiple restaurants develop a team, i would guess? >> we have developed teams. a gentlemen in the audience mentioned, are we supposed to learn the code. even contractors that have been around unless you specialize in restaurants there are so many codes from so many different agencies that it takes years to get to know them all. and you need somebody that gets into it because it's taken me 10 yiers to be sort of at the forefront on all codes from all

different agencies. there's no way you can step up and learn them. unfortunately it gets frustrating for folks when you step into it and you think your contractor knows whatçó he's dog the and architect thinks they know what they are doing but it has to be a team looking out for each other and experiencing everything and experience is everything to save you money. >> let me talk about all the different code necessary effect. they are not just the building code. many think the building code is the most important code that focuses on restaurants and our building permit. i have a copy of the san francisco building code here. i take it home and put it next to my bed and read it and become familiar with this. you cannot become an expert in this code unless you devote, as i have, much of your life in learning about it. you can take classes. people go to city college and you become generally familiar

with it. but to become an exert it's like wanting to have surgery and learning trying to learn all about the surgery. you don't. you go to somebody who knows who's a doctor who understands surgery. you go to a lawyer, you go to a dentist you don't become an expert in all these things. that's the building code. i brought a cart with a few, a few of the other codes. just a few. let's see, here's the california mechanical code. that code is related to the hoods and ducts and ventilation systems in restaurants and buildings. hoods and ducts are a big issue we will talk about the california energy code. this has enormous impacts the state passed energy laws to reduce energy consumption and it reflects on the lighting you can put in how efficient your

heating system has to be and other things. here's the health and environment code. this is the city environment code. here's the public works code. the subdivision code, the police code. what does the police code have to do with restaurants it contains article 29 the city's noise ordinance. we have a special treat for you today charles salter one of the city's foremost acoustical engineers will talk about restaurant noise. he will be here at 10. that's contained in the police code. you say what does noise have to do with it? there is comfort for the people eating. there are ocea requirements for the people working there. there are 2 lawsuits i'm familiar with where employees say it's too loud to be in a

working environment. there is fixed noise for your hoods and fans on the roof. and then there is entertainment noise, which relates to not just live music and bands and recording music and all that but people going outside and having a cigarette and talking, public impact noise. all that is regulated in the police code article taken and article 29 is excerpted in the last 6 pages of your hand out. we will look at that later. >> we have the fire code. these are the local amendments to the california fire code. the fire department plays a critical role in restaurants and a couple of volumes of the planning code. and let's start by talking about the planning department. we were hoping to get joan us here who is a planner he may stop in in a bit. >> there is a hand out.

there is some up front and in the back. help yourself if you don't have one. right here on each side in the front and the back. take as many as you like. >> what's your name and what's your title? there are cards here with the hand outs. i'm laurence kornfield i'm chief building inspect or and have been for 18 years. worked here for over 20. there is a card here i can see it from here. and i have been a field inspector. being a building inspector is really a fun job because i get into everyone's attics and basements. you see everything. you see them raising ducks in the basements of china town restaurants. live ducks. or the guy building a helicopter in his garage in pacific heights. lifting the roof off the shed and lifting the yacht out.

so many interesting things in san francisco. crazy stuff and all the great restaurants. okay, back to planning. the planning department is usually the place that everybody must start. if you are thinking of doing anything in san francisco. opening a business ever any sort or improving your house. you are putting on an addition. the planning department tells you what you arellowed to do. what areas you can do it in and what the restrictions are. before anybody commits to a lease or purchase, you must check with the planning department. i have a phone number on the page 2 in the middle for the planning information count 558-6377. you can call them and say, i'm thinking of opening a restaurant on the 600 block of mission

street, am i allowed to have a small take out restaurant or a fast foodservice. am i allowed to have a small service restaurant in that location. they will look it up on the zoning mam upon. the zoning map divides it into categories that is not divide by a logical set up. the building code doesn't. they have small and large fast food restaurants and full service sit down and other types of divisions of restaurants much the local zoning for each neighborhood will tell you whether it's allowed as a matter of right under the planning code or whether you might need a conditional use authorization. or whether there might be other restrictions like up on fillmore near california street, i think there is a moratorium on new restaurant necessary that neighborhood. charles from slanted door is opening a restaurant up on california or pine off of

fillmore. he had to go to the board of appeals, which hears the appeals of determinations of city agencies relates to permits. the planning department said no there is a moratorium on new restaurant necessary this area and charles want to the board of appeals and said there is a moratorium but we had 3 or 4 restaurants go out of business and the moratorium does not take into account that we are trying to maintain the constant level of restaurant businesses so i should be able to add a restaurant that was in effect when the moratorium began and they approved it and it's under construction. it's well under way. the planning department has all the rules. i guess i should make the point clearly that almost everydition made by any agency in the city is appealable to somebody. unfortunately when you appeal it costs time and money and you don't want to have to do that.

and you don't necessarily win, either. there are appeal avenues for almost everything. of course, the same is true for the other side. if the neighbors. in charles case all the neighbors were saying, yes, we want this restaurant. but i have been to the board of appeals every wednesday night for over 15 years usually the neighbors say, no, we don't want to here. so, while you have an appeal right everybody in san francisco also has an appeal right and the appeal can be of any action or permit. so you need a lot of permits when you open a restaurant. every one of the permits is appealable. and what that means from my point of view is that the top thing you that must do is have a team that includes all of our professional help but your team should include your neighborhood, too. if you are not working with your neighborhood. if they are not with you, you

will not have a successful operation. you will be stopped and stymied and held up even if tea not an appeal you will find that your people will be complaining about the noise or the smell or the sound. even if it's not truly a significant direct impact they are unhappy and feel a need to have a remedy. because they are unhappy. you really have to take into consideration neighbors. what do you think about that? >> absolutely. getting out and doing leg work before you start construction to let everybody know what's going on especially if you go through a cu change where may be it was not set up terror a restaurant previously. paint a picture of what it will be. and their complaints will surface quickly. it's better to get them out at the beginning and talk it through and understand where they are coming from to work through it with them rather than

wait to get the anger and frustration built up and come on a complaint level. >> they will be upset if they are kept in the dark. if you put paper in the windows and the neighbors don't know. they will be upset. why are they hiding this? what's going on? if you are committed to something, let the neighbors know. put a sign up in the window. here's what's coming, we invite your comments here's what we are hoping to do. building a bridge in the community. >> something that is common is doing a meeting ahead of time. put up a sign in the window, and almost calling a neighborhood meeting right when you get going and meet everybody and introduce them to the team and get it going. it's great public relations. >> right you might say, it's my business and risk and money why should i do this with the neighbors and they don't like me and i don't like them.

that's a face of trouble. if that's your attitude in the neighborhood tell be reflected in your relationships. let me tell you a little story about the inner sunset. i have lived there for 30 years. i was the president of the inner sunset neighborhood association. i can tell you neighborhood groups, i love my neighborhood and i love my neighbors but all day long my phone will be ringing at work, what are you doing about the mattress in front of my house? okay, i'll call public works. a burger king opened on ninth avenue 15 years ago or so. and the neighbors were very, very unhappy about having a fast food chain in our neighborhood in a neighborhood of small businesses. and in the time from the time it opened to the time it closed, which was last year sometime, i

think. i don't know a single one of my neighbors and ever went there or would ever go there or have anything to do with them other than to complain if they didn't sweep up their mess on the sidewalk. they it very, very low business and hung in. somebody did their best a small investor lost his shirt, may be. you just gotta get the neighborhood on your side. if it's not the right place, don't do it. you are actually -- you have the world. you can open your restaurant anywhere if it's not the right place don't do it there. location and how you feel and how they feel is critical. somebody said, what if i can't afford to do certain things may be you should think if this is the right thing at this time. may be you need to diversify your team or investment strategy. we are at the planning

department here. so, before you make any decision about where you want to do or what you want to do. say you want to change from a small fast food to a sit down restaurant you must call the planning department. they have rules for every neighborhood. some neighborhoods have special zoning districts and special business regulations. >> it even goes from not fast food but let's say, instead of full sit down a different planning code than a partial service where it's a walk up counter. it gets pretty intcat. it's broken down well. >> very detailed. may be i will dig it out as we talk. other agencies, the redevelop am agency often takes the place of the planning department for buildings that are in redevelopment districts in the city. and for example, south beach or fillmore. the redevelopment agency has the

primary responsibility are ensugar compliance with their adoptive plans for redevelopment. if you are in a redevelopment area you should know that rightar way. you can call the planning department and they will tell you, you are in a redevelopment district and then go see the redevelopment agency. it makes it easier because the redevelopment agency has financing options. but they are bound by the city's master plan and the planning code. you may have to be responsive to the agency and the planning department. so if you are in the -- often it offers more incentives than not in terms of financing. >> so, that's the planning. okay. now we were talk as we before we started here about someone who's taking over restaurants. some of you were in the restaurant business and somebody here is taking over somebody's

existing lease in other restaurant buying amount i said that's a really smart thing to do because a lot of times when you try to build a restaurant from scratch you have a problem. you have to put in all the utilities, we will go through that. a hangup is a hood and duct system through an existing building. in san francisco the 0 lot lines there is almost no way you can vent the conventional hoods and ducts. hood and duct, it's out of sequence. i will tell you there are 3 types of hood and duct systems in the world. there are residential. class 3. type 3. which are not required in your home. you do not need to have a hood unless your kitchen appliance the stove or something say this is must be used with a hood. and in many cases home hoods have recirculating charcoal fan.

they are regulated type 3 not required. type 2, restaurants have a type one or 2 hood and duct. a type 2 allows heat and steam. but not grease laden vapers. a type one hood is grease laden vap ors. frying a grill. the big difference is that a type 1 hood has to be all welded. and it has a lot of other clean out requirements and so on. as a type 2 hood is to get rid of heat and steam. exhausting hoods requires both the hood that collects the v ap ors and the exhaust system which is a duct and fan. where you are forcing air out you have to have air come in to

replace it. we have make up air requirements. make up air when you go into some cashes or in some dining areas you feel there is a breeze coming across the floor. and that often is because the duct is exhausting so much air it's trying to figure out it's sucking air in from every location in the restaurant. needs to be a designated place so that it can'ting closed so you have appropriate make up air. buying an existing restaurant or a lease is a good idea because they have the hood and duct system in place. it's hard to figure out how to put in a hood and duct it has to be a fire rated pass.it has to . it has to have a fire extinguishing system it's a big deal. let me tell you one of the secrets of the hood and duct

world is that the public works, is anybody here from public works? you could confirm or deny this. the public works department will allow a commercial hood to vent over the sidewalk so you don't have to take it up to the roof under certain circumstances. the circumstances are where you cannot reasonably get it up to the roof more than 10 feet above the sidewalk and directed up and not out and where it's not an impact. they have a regulation about no open windows above it. you can see one of these really cool hood and duct systems that ventulate that shoots over the sidewalk across the street from howard and freemont across from town hall restaurant. there is like a newish remodeled building across freemont street. there you will see a type one

hood vunting out in the front of the building. worth taking a look at. someone had a question, yes , sir. >> [inaudible]. >> right. karl. >> the industry term. there are 2 types of hoods that will take sort of the theodors and smoke. if you are doing, let's take a burger joint as an example. a grease odors. the wand will zap out the grease

that will take the odors with this. they are expensive. just right off the bat a hundred grand. it's not just the hood you are buying you have electric and water they take up a heck of a lot of room. on a requirement. requirement so you have in downtown areas more often because you are venting out and you may be not going all the way to the top because may be it's 20 stores up and inefficient to dump the air way up there because of costs. in downtown where you affect a lot of different people, usually how do i want to say. also where's the other one we did? okay, near a hotel. another one. anywhere where you have people

on long periods of time. necessary, honestly, it's always kind of like courtesy if you want to say open and not get in trouble with the neighbors much one story we had from before is a burger joint opened up downtown and they opened up and this whole buildings smokes every time the wind would blow in the schaub building. >> smog hog, they are designed to remove the grease from the vapor and either incinerated or collected as wells odors. there are not typically required except for not typically required although they may be a good idea except for specific locations. there was a regulation passed by the bay area air quality management district which regulated air quality in san francisco much the bay area

management district regulates all airborne emissions. dust and other pollution and lead and asbestos matters where it's in the air. their office is on golden gate avenue. i will give you their number. they passed a regulation that requires these kinds of collectors on grills over, i think it was 20 square feet. i'm not a hundred percent sure. which is to deal with the large fast foodservice grills. because it was such a persistant problem. but i would say, i would call the bay area air quality and management district. let me see if i can give you their number. >> [inaudible].