checkout -- i really was not convinced by that video that it is really going to screen out the purchase of a alcoholic beverages. in most stores i have seen that have automated checkout, it is 2 out of maybe 16 that have it. butwhen most or all of them are automated, i do not see how you can screen out. khyam concerned about the effect on the economy of the neighborhood. and the alcohol purchases. i will not repeat what other people said. thank you. >> good afternoon. in the exit -- i am the executive director of alcoholic justice. there is a new term on the face of the earth since the law kick

in january 1. that was exactly the kind of check out that this was meant to control. i asked mr. applesmith, are you going to enforce ab8183 and he said the judge told me to take it down. as an individual, i would love to enforce it. this is the kind of activity we're trying to control. it is too easy for kids to win when they have self check out or assisted check out as you saw. that is why the law is enforced -- in force. fresh and easy is the only company publicly resisting it. that is what it will continue to do unless you put in some kind of agreement with them. more importantly, we have to defend the mission alcohol district. it is clear there is a couple of

exemptions that were like that. bowling alleys and theater's most recently. you had a letter of determination which i now enter into the record for this conversation from september 13, 2010 that says, you are going to have a problem with this license right here. you will have a problem executing it. i was going to read from that. that is all right. you can have a problem because this district -- this is a continuing use, a continuation of the grocery store usage. it is not a formula retail. that is something they're trying to claim. this is a continuing use and has been abandoned for over 30 days. it has not been used for 30 days. it is clear in the mission district code on alcoholic beverages that if it is abandoned for 30 days it may not -- and establishment that sells

alcohol shall not be allowed to operate any further. if it has been abandoned, if the use of that license has been abandoned. there is a different section that refers to the section on liquor stores which has exemptions for formula retail. please respect what the alcoholic district is about. this conditional use permit, fine. i am talking about the alcohol issue. they should not be able to have an alcohol license exercised on this side. thank you. >> our next speakers. >> i am the director of civic

engagement at the central american research center. we have been around for 25 years in the heart of the mission district. all this time we have been serving family is from our community, around the city, actually. we operate in the mission. we are a few blocks away from the site we are discussing. i am a mother. i have my family there. it is a personal matter. we work with families, with us, children, -- youth and children. after all the conversations we have been having with fresh and easy they are refusing to find a way to accept wic, which is what our families need. our families are hurting with the economy the way it is. the fact we have not been able to resolve this issue around the alcohol self check out is outrageous.

we have a tattoo removal program there where youth who are trying to get out of the gang life are removing tattoos and re-entering society. we work with young people in high schools and the mission district that are at risk of falling into gangs. we know for fact that the easy access to alcohol is like poisoning our community. and this is an opportunity for your commission to rethink, take a moment and figure it out, how we can bring a new business that will be a good neighbor, that will enrich our community. we welcome new businesses, we welcome a new supermarket that will bring healthy food but not at the expense of our families and our use. i hope that you make the right decision for the mission district. thank you. >> thank you.

is there additional public comment on this item? commissioner miguel: a lot of issues on this one. the term startup does not apply here. recently entering this market would perhaps be the right way to put it. i am pleased with the possibility of mission neighborhood centers and had start programs getting together with them, the use of the other 5000 plus square feet. they are in negotiations on it -- the fact there in negotiations on it is good. this is -- i have certainly known for years, working with

the murals and parking lot, working with the greening of the building. it is a dilapidated pre-1950's site. it does not enhance that never it whatsoever. you have a situation where you have very large grocery retailers. it has gone bankrupt. ralph's, one of the largest in the country, the fact that tesco is coming in under their local name of fresh and easy is somewhat compatible in my estimation. let's cut down to the problems that i see that have been raised here.

i have been reading about ab 8183. it will have to wait. everyone will have to wait until it comes out of the courts, finally, and then have to wait longer until there is an interpretation as to its implementation. that is not something the planning department does, nor should it. it is something abc does on a statewide basis. that is their job. i do not see that as our job. the only thing i would like to ask the department about is the transition of the former license to the present tenant because of the 30-day period. >> ok. so the liquor license that

existed with the market predates the mission of gollott restriction of controls. and the types of alcohol you can sell by quality and size. the letter of determination that has been brought up in public testimony, it has been e-mail back to commissioners previously, only pertains to the continuation to the nonconforming nature of the license. it does not go in or explorer -- does not going to detail or explore the opportunities of a grocery store coming into obtain a new license that does conform to the restrictions under the

mission abc controls which fresh and easy has done and will be a condition placed on the approval or the recommendation of approval sent back to abc that they need these restrictions. >> they are in effect -- there would be operating under a new license with the restrictions? >> correct. cresskill license is gone. >> the old license is gone. >> the previous license has been renewed because it is transferred to new ownership. that transfer has been sent to our department for referral. we make a recommendation to the state agency on whether or not they can approve it. that recommendation will improve the conditions. >> what we have is a reconstituted under new restrictions license. >> yes. >> ok. i am trying to get that clear as

i can. ok. and as far as enforcement is concerned, that is going to be abc. in my mind. can -- and i will ask the director, can we put a condition of approval on this that they are required as soon as the ban is lifted or the moratorium is lifted to apply for wic here? >> the answer is yes. >> because i would not vote for any motion of approval. just personal. as far as some other issues that were raised, the property easement is not within our jurisdiction. that is something for the courts

decide -- the courts to decide and not for us to deal with. as far as the murals are concerned, if everyone -- anyone tries to restore murals on someone else's property, it is my opinion they are violating the law anyway. only the property owner or the original artist in agreement could do that. i do not think that is an issue for us. that is all i have at the moment. commissioner antonini: just to reiterate, thank you for answering. i want to make sure i am clear on this. we have determined that ab183 is in process and that will determine the type of check out procedure that will be allowed statewide. >> i am not certain as to how that law will be interpreted and will apply to this particular

site. i would -- commissioner antonini: right. it would take jurisdiction if we were to approve this and whatever is decided at a state level will take jurisdiction. to get bogged down in details of this is not something we have to do because state law will take precedence. >> the enforcement of the law will not fall on the planning department. >> that is what i understand. commissioner antonini: i understand that we can set the condition that they accept the wic food stamp program. we heard in the beginning of your comments that a fresh and easy was trying to get that, but there is a much -- for there is a moratorium and it would not be able to get it until the moratorium is lifted. >> that is the information they delivered for me. -- to me. commissioner antonini: the reconstituted liquor license is

what is before us. all this discussion of the older license is not relevant to the situation because it is in a different form that conforms to when it is re-granted. if it conforms to the mission alcoholic special use. >> any license would have to conform with the mission abc constraints. commissioner antonini: thank you. i have a few additional comments. thank you for your answer. the issue that underlies this. unionization is not a land use issue. we're not allowed to make that decision as part of our decision making process. that really is not something we can take into consideration. in fact, we will have 20 to 35 new jobs and they will be local hires. that is beneficial and we have a

price point that seems to be very comparable to other markets such as safeway and lucky. the price point will be less than the markets that were there before. probably. >> i am not familiar with that comparison. commissioner antonini: it certainly would be comparable. ok, that sounds fine. then we are verifying the fact that all the previous uses have been formula retail with the possible interpretation of the -- if they know whether or not it fell into that category because it was on the border. >> it is difficult to establish because they were adding stores and immediately -- within a relatively couple of years, started selling them off because they were going through bankruptcy. the other important thing i would note is the president of

delano's was a former executive of cal bell market so there was a lot of transition between the two grossers. commissioner antonini: the nearest supermarket of this size would be about 1 mile from the site, is that correct? >> a little over 1 mile. that is a general grocery store. commissioner antonini: a general grocery store. some of the neighborhood stores that have products would not have the kind of ready that you would need from a supermarket, i would thing. >> correct. commissioner antonini: in many ways they're not competitive because they sell things the smaller markets would not sell any way. that sounds very good. i had a couple of comments but thank you. the rest are not questions. i was happy -- i think this is a good project. it activates a site that has been vacant and a blight for a

long time and it will provide jobs as was pointed out. there was all -- other commentary about places like lucky and safeway being local and small. they're not small. there are larger or of equal size with tesco and fresh and easy. their headquarters are in the east bay. they're not local. i do not see them as being any more local than this organization is. the 15 meetings with local organizations is impressive, adding the bike space is, donating food, and -- donating food is laudable. the subletting to a head start or the mission neighborhood center is laudable. i think we're getting a healthier food which is something that people are always asking for. i think this is very good. we frequently hear how markets will not come into economically

challenged neighborhoods and when they do, i think they should be encouraged to do so. we hear people say, we do not want them here. i think we have got a letter from supervisor malia cohen and not necessarily supportive of this particular thing, but supporters of the store that has gone in in the bayview. all the same issues that are being raised would be part of any fresh and easy as well as its 32nd and california store and those have been approved and seem to be functioning well. i am in favor of this. it was also presented that the owners of the property had tried to work with the previous grocers to try to find other markets to come in with specific reference to markets that were union. they were not able to find any. i think this is what you're going to have to have. i think it is going to improve a lot.

as well as all the improvements they are making to the neighborhood. i think that i am in favor of this. we will see what the other commissioners have to say. commissioner wu: my first question is about local hire. there are three other stores in san francisco. i am curious to know what their commitment was to local hire and what -- if there has been an update on whether they met that commitment. >> i will refer to the project sponsors on this one. >> i do not have the actual percentages. the bayview is approximately over 60% right now. the first store we opened, we

had to work with the city on that one. >> karen johnston. the first store was on -- under a first source hiring agreement. we worked with the office with -- for our hiring commitments on that location and that was the same case for the bayview store. since that time, we partnered with ycd to keep our local numbers of. that is our community hiring partner on going in the bayview. commissioner wu: do have specific numbers about how many of the current staff are locals? >> i know for 32nd and comment -- clement, it was tougher than that the code. our partners try to get that number up -- tried to get that

number up. we have hovered around 60%. that is in the 94124. and it is higher for san franciscans. >> can i follow up on that? we have some testimony here that says in the richmond district you promised 50% and that percent is much lower according to -- >> that was a tough one to get that specific zip code and it was due to the applicant pool. that was initiated by the city and the first source office in the beginning. i do not know what we have been able to maintain since then. commissioner wu: 1 question to follow up on that, the larger question is, who enforces and who monitors local hiring and -- is there any real enforcement mechanism to ensure local hiring?

my second question -- i do not think we can answer that today. >> we could probably ask the city attorney. you could make that a condition of approval. that is enforceable by the city. unless they are required to go through the first source program. we can check on that. i do not know the answer to that right now. commissioner wu: my second question is to ask president fong if we could ask the committee member who spoke about the permit and this idea about the reconstituted permit, i saw some head shaking. i wondered what your interpretation is of the situation. >> i spoke with abc yesterday regarding -- >> could you speak your name for the record? >> lisa duncan.

i spoke with abc yesterday and i did a query on their website as to this license. another member of the community did so as well. i was told by abc yesterday that the license, the previous license owned by delano was transferred to fresh and easy in september 2011. that matches what appears on the query. we can put these papers into the record. i was not told anything about our reconstitution -- a reconsittition. the license, type 21 license owned by delano, it says it was transferred on april 10, 2007

which is after the formation of the mission alcoholic beverage restricted subdistrict contrary to what the planning -- which she said. commissioner wu: does the project sponsor half of -- have response? >> there was a license that predates the alcohol special district. the alcohol special use district contains conditions of approval. in other words, you have to comply with certain conditions. this license predated that. if someone picked it up within 30 days, they would be exempt from those conditions that are contained in the mission alcohol restricted use district. the conditions that say no more than a square footage, you cannot sell 40's, highly

fortified wine. the lessons we have picked up is subject to those restrictions -- license we have picked up is subject to those restrictions. we will comply with that. commissioner wu: a license itself did not expire within those 30 days. >> did not. it still has a life but it is issued by abc. it can be purchased. it is no longer exempt from the controls. it would have been a nonconforming use. to start talking about technical terms, if it would have continued that. in order to do that it would have to do that in 30 days. there is no desire or intent to avoid the restrictions. >> just to clarify.

what it boils down to is the 30- day limit is the control under the special use district. in order for them to continue that would have had to continue that license within 30 days. that license is still sort of floating in limbo. to continue to license, we would have to propose controls that it meets the definition -- does not meet the definition of a liquor store. that is where you get into the conditions related to the fortified wine or the amount of alcohol content and also the square footage. fresh and easy is not meeting that threshold, they are not considered a liquor store, therefore, there are allowed to move forward. commissioner wu: 01 to make some comments around the nature of formula retail and whether or not formula retail is desirable in this location. there are the definitions of general grocery stores versus

specialty. there is a grocery store called duke loy at 18th and mission. i find it provides a lot of the different kinds of foods you would want to buy in a grocery store. it is kind of a one-stop shop. say that the closest brush restore is a mile away could be technically true but there are a lot of groceries available in the neighborhood. i know this small corner store does not count but there are eight within the three blocks. i took a walk around this morning. i find a mission to be very different than the bayview. there is a lot of food available in the mission. there are organic produce, fresh produce, and i think it is important to think about protecting the small businesses in the neighborhood along twenty-fourth, a long mission. this is my comments for now. commissioner borden: i had a

question for staff. there was a mention of a violation of the law which is in a lawsuit. are there any violations that fresh and easy have against them related to a call? >> not that i am aware of. i cannot speak to the other sites with the exception of this one. commissioner borden: that is good. i have talked to other people. some like to shop at buy-rite. it is expensive, not everyone can afford to shop there. that is the choice i do make. i probably will not be a user of the fresh and easy but there are other people who clearly will be

users of the fresh and dave -- fresh and easy, should it doing to this location. it is unfortunate that there is a real discourse with that community and -- the community and the representatives of fresh and easy and i hope there could be more dialogue if fresh and easy intends to do more work in san francisco. it is important to understand the community and what their needs are. we have had a struggle, we have gone back and forth on the issue of grocery stores. we have seen a decline for a long time. albertson's left and so on. we have seen a resurgence with wholefoods which no one ever seems to protest about wholefoods because everyone loves wholefoods because somehow they are held up to some pedestal. there are not union but people seem to local foods. i did not understand why. i do like whole foods. they get