>> energy calculations to meet the energy code requirements. there is a special form that your design professional will fill out. they will go to an expert because they don't know all the details of the energy code. they will hire an energy code expert to fill out the forms. >> an energy code expert. >> they may not know. >> right. >> have to find one? >> for your simple cafe it may not be complex. >> there is energy and noise issues we will have with our space. >> we want to see your seating plan because we based on the seating plan we look at your exiting. in the building department. and make sure you have the correct exist width and the right number of doors. more than 49 people you need to have 2 exits. nothing but trouble. san francisco you have a

property line well on each side and the back doesn't go anywhere, how do you get 2 exits? people put a corridor up one side and it runs down the side of the restaurant and out front. or if it has alot of street frontage the separation of exits is good. 50 percent half the diagnol distance. if you have a rectangular restaurant you look at 50 percent of the diagonal distance and that's how far the exits have to be. as we adopt the new california building code based on the international building code it says that separation only needs to be a third. it's less in a building that has fire sprinklers. which is many san francisco buildings. that will really help in small businesses and restaurants with

the terrible exiting problem. in a sprinkler space a third of the diagonal distance as of january first. and only one exit is required for a residential building. as of january first. that's a huge thing. not fur but for us. we haven't be able to figure out how to get people out through the required second exit. that's the sort of stuff your architect will prepare when you do a submittal. you will do 2 copies and the question you were about to ask is how long it takes us to review the plans? the building department as instituted over the counter plan review for something as simple as a cafe we can probably do it over the counter now. for a larger restaurant it would be a week until we assign it to

a plan checker and get it done within a couple of weeks. what happens when we start to review a plan is we develop a list of comments and questions and give them back to you and the monkey is on your back. it takes as long as it takes until you get it back to us. we will look at this and at this point you call to make an appointment we sit down and do it we don't just put it in a pile. we are working hard to cycle through permits especially small business permits where time is of the essence and sensitivity to time is extreme. if you are thinking about getting a permit come to the building department at 1616 mission and ask general questions. walk around and talk to people, get a feel for what's going on. we offer the service as the fire department and planning

department a preapplication plan review where we meet with your engineer or architect to answer code questions they might have. and if you need information on that pick up my business card at the front and the back and i will be happy to talk to you how you schedule that. typically not required for restaurant stuff it's for larger complicated projects. or call me. i sit there all day waiting for you to call me. why don't you call me? what's wrong? i thought we had a good relationship. >> technical issues considered in plan review. we talked about assembly occupancy stuff, exiting, 49 people or less one exit 50 or more 2 exits. we talked about disabled access. seismic upgrade don't get into a problem by getting a lease on a building that needs a seismic

upgrade. i attached a copy that talked about where the change of use triggers a seismic upgrade. an increase of 10 percent to the occupant load and increased the occupant load by more than a hundred have to do a seismic upgrade. really expensive. don't get into that without knowing it. >> [inaudible]. >> okay. thank you. that's back there in disabled access. the california building code says that you need to provide access to all areas. but it has an exception to restaurants you may have a mezzanine up to a certain size without providing an elevator as long as all the services provided in the mezzanine are provided at main level. you can't have a dance mezzanine where that's the only place you go to dance.

regular foodservice and the size of the mezzanine is restricted according to the building code, you don't have to provide disabled access to that mezzanine. it's an exception under the california title 24 chapter 11 b. and people we have many mezzanines in san francisco and people take advantage of them. okay. seismic upgrade. mechanical we talked about duct termination, fire suppression. california energy code, i mentioned how complex that is. yes, ma'am. >> [inaudible]. >> sure. >> [inaudible]. >> they send it out every january. you can see what the general increase is so you can project out. 7,000, 3,000. not that much. may be 119 or 120,000.

utility issues we were talking about, karl mentioned how utility issues can be a big thing. karl you want to talk about that. >> in dealing with upgrades if you had a space that wasn't a restaurant previously, getting water and sewer is not the issue. getting power and gas from pg and e is. from the beginning get that process started. get the applications into pg and e. the timing is frustrating. we are working with pg and e to find an efficient way to get it going. you start at the beginning where you need a utility room for your gas separate from electric. that's part of your original framing and improvements to the

building. but you don't get the engineer drawings back for a while. please get the applications in immediately there are blackout periods between thanksgiving and christmas you are not allowed to do trenching in the streets in shopping districts and large commercial districts. that can impact you because all the sudden you will not be able to move forward. >> a lot of lead time. have to jump right on it. yes , sir. >> [inaudible]. >> forethe applications for gas? >> honestly, i have never gone

into that we always try to get the utilities to the building. the supply fact or i have not taken into account. >> that's another reason to have a contract or who have restaurant experience on the team much we had a client that did a build out, spent alost money and realized after he put his plants in he didn't have enough electricity to run his restaurant. so it required a long process with pg and e to supply him with more power. and trenching and it upped his start up cost by 125 thousand dollars which was his working capital. just a little word of advice about that is you don't have to

wait for pg and e to do trenching your contract or can do that for you and it speeds up the process. >> yes, ma'am. >> [inaudible]. >> she said, you need to get special per mits for sidewalk from department of public works to put in sidewalk volts and they have regulations. it takes a long time to do trench and you should get youron

contractors to do the trenching. >> this stuff should be all in your leases. how much gas is being delivered, how much power and water and if there is already a sewer there. super important you don't get stuck improving the amp service. you should have enough power. >> a good restaurant contractor will help you calculate those loads. . you can call pg and e out to have them verify going to putting your team together in the beginning and doing the preinspections. >> let's finish up here and nobody is everybody is happy when we finish a little early. we can do that today. i wanted to finish up on page 3 after the permit is issued. you do construction.

forave large job hopefully there is someone in charge representing you the restaurant owner. and for smaller jobs you have a good relationship with your contract or and have regular updates with the contractor. how much do you update people? >> every week and check in halfway in the meetings so you don't slow the project. >> i advise a weekly meeting. what's coming up next week? what's the hangups? you need the inspection and they take a few days to schedule. it's not too bad these days. some take longer. your contractor scheduled that, i hope. changes are a killer. change orders, changes to

finishes whatever kind of changes in some cases the building department wants to seat changes and that can be a slow and expensive thing that's why we want to get everything set before construction. changes are a real problem. >> changes i would like to speak to a couple items. important clause we added to our can trabts if they come across a change and don't notify you in 5 days that change is in a sense not paid for. what it is it gets the contractors to get up front immediately. that there is a problem, let's deal with this now so 3 months from now you are getting hit with a 10 thousand dollars change. >> when you are done you want a certificate of completion or a temporary certificate. we will not issue that until

certain things are done including disabled access which is our highest elements. we do issue temporary certificates while minor things are taken care of. as longsa existings and disabled acsos is done we issue temporary occupancy. abc wants to see everything is completed. closing the project out is a big deal. >> everyone's dying to bring on staff. get them trained and opening statement doors. from the time you finish construction to the find you get inspections. the inspections will take a week if nothing was done incorrectly. from there is goes off and you get your abc or entertainment. a lot of things pending. the whole time you are training staff. you have to be hyper sensitive

to the end date so you don't hire too early. what always happens you get a get a crunch in the end and you had payroll a week too early and you just open it's chaotic and it never slows. giving yourself a buffer to get your staff to be traind and give yourself time to be trained it's not so hairy. >> okay do we have final questions or comments? >> yes, ma'am. >> you mentioned there will be code change in january how would that affect me in opening a cafe. >> what are the january code changes? there are very few. we carried forward most of the san francisco building code amendments.

code changes there are many have little impact other an the exiting one i mentioned. >> question in the back. >> an existing restaurant that's been a restaurant for a number of years there is no requirement for grease trap are there any model restaurants you need to install the grease traps that's not required? >> question was, do you need to install a grease trap if you are doing a remodel if not previously required. the building code requires grease traps. used to be at the discretion of the plumbing inspector. if you are doing improve empl s employments that mess with the plumbing you will probably be

required to put a grease trap in. if you are not doing that you may not be required. there is nothing in the law that says reto actively you have to install a grease trap. it's an existing operation. there is nothing in the code that says when it changes hands you have to do anything. i would think not unless that's the area and scope of your work. >> are there alternatives like the biofuel companies where you store the dwrees and they pick tup and use it for cleaner fuels? >> i think you are needing to trap it for that purpose. may be a different trap. i'm not familiar with the system that well. i expect you still need to have some kind of grease trap. they provide you with a receptacle that is not built in

the structure. >> good question. >> good. >> okay. we have one more question here? >> you mentioned going to the board of appeals you said you go every wednesday is it open to the public? >> in city hall every wednesday on the fourth floor at 5 o'clock it goes until it's over. it's fascinating and i encourage people to attend you get to see how important it is to work out the problems with your neighbors in advanced. at the board the solutions don't satisfy you or them they may be in the best interest of the public. that's not where to solve problems. >> i wanted to add to appeals it's sometimes a hardship. if you are in there listening they say hardship that's where you can't install a level landing. that's an appeal in a hardship.

>> and there are many appeal boards in the city. the board of examiners and the abatement appeals board. yes , sir. >> regarding hardship on an entry way where you have [inaudible] and the [inaudible]. >> you know, the question is, if there are utilities in the way and you can't put a handicap ramp is is that a reasonable hardship. i bet the answer is no. these appeals go to the access appeals commission under the department of building inspection. normally there is a way of solving that problem.

there are very few cases i have seen where disabled access is waived. i can't think of a single one and i have been doing this for many years. there is always a solution and i don't think any appeals board will say it's too expensive. it's too much an important part of the way we live these days to wave it. no board will wave it. call me and i can help solve it. there are always a way to solve a problem. thank you very much for coming. we will stick around if you have questions. thanks again. [applause]

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