supervisor mar: good afternoon, everyone. looks like we have a bill a good

turnout today. welcome to the land use and economic development committee of the san francisco board of supervisors. -- looks like we had a really good turnout today. are there any announcements? >> please turn off cellular phones and pagers. completed speaker cards and copies of documents to be included as part of the file should be submitted to the clerk. items at the appointed a will appear before the march 29 board of supervisors agenda -- items acted upon today will appear before the board on march 29. supervisor mar: i should alert people that item four, the sponsors have asked for that item, the settlement agreement, the lease agreement for the 49ers limited, sponsored by the mayor -- the author has urged us to continue that item to the next land use meet them -- the next land use meeting, and we will try our best to get all our

staff here, but we will still open up public comment at the end in case anyone showed up to speak on the item. please call item one. >> ordinance amending the planning code to require active ground for commercial uses. supervisor mar: mr. selma. >> good afternoon. i am representing supervisor mirkarimi, who could not be here today to introduce and describe this legislation. he has been consistently outspoken on the need to support the fillmore and western addition in the post- redevelopment era. a lack of controls in the air left haphazard zoning that has undercut the business on fillmore street between bush and

mcallister. prime real estate space has been occupied by offices and other non-retail uses, and this legislation works to help to address that problem and help the area to fulfill its goal of becoming a vibrant jazz and commercial district. the legislation requires ground for commercial uses on this section of fillmore imposing the same kind of controls that exist in many other mtd's in the city. the goal was to increase the amount of commercial activity and make the area more inviting to citizens. has the unanimous support of the planning commission and is also supported by the small business commission. as you mentioned, ms. rogers is here from the planning department. andrea baker is here from the planning department, and there are several speakers to speak during public comment about the

legislation. supervisor mar: thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors. as you have heard, this is a very specific and targeted piece of legislation that affects only a portion of fillmore street. the planning commission did review this legislation, and the commission unanimously recommended approval with a couple of modifications. the commission requested that the definition of active users be slightly expanded to include a new restaurant definition called self service specialty food as well as include outdoor activity areas, as both of these uses could help enliven the stretch of fillmore street. on behalf of the commission, i would like to thank the supervisors for sponsoring the legislation and incorporating the recommended modifications of the commission in the legislation that is before you. supervisor mar: colleagues, if you do not have any questions, ms. rogers, could you give some examples of what self-service

specialty food would be to liven up the district? >> yes. those could include a yogurt store. it is a retail function which includes major items, but there may be some wholesale excess reuse function here ebit supervisor mar: 90. is there anyone from the public that would like to speak? i have one speaker card, and i know that tom is from -- tom from livable cities is here. so he can come forward. >> andrea baker is here from the mayor's office. she was planning on speaking before the public comment. supervisor mar: ok, ms. baker. >> thank you, committee members. in the project manager for the fillmore economic action plan in the office of economic and

workforce development. the fillmore economic action plan is a result of an mou between the rich development agency and the office of economic and workforce development. to complete the economic development work begun by the development agency with a focus on increasing foot traffic and business attraction and retention, san francisco redevelopment agency transferred $800,000 to the office of economic and workforce development to support this work. we executed a very robust and community-driven planning process to identify how best to spend these funds. that process included two community forums, two expert walks -- one by day and one in the evening. property owners, focus groups, merchants surveys, and stakeholder interviews. during that process, we heard from merchants anxious to maintain their businesses during

the economic downturn and frustrated by years of ground- floor retail that is either sat vacant or been used for administrative services and, hence, effectively resulted in dead retail space along the corridor. i wanted to spend a few minutes telling you about our implementation plan. i want to talk about how this investment will benefit tremendously from the legislation and bring true economic vitality to this neighborhood. the implementation phase will focus on core funded initiatives, advertising and promotional activities, business and -- business retention and attraction activities, facade and 10 improvements, and streetscape enhancements and activation programs. in order to immediately increase

foot traffic and bring more people to the district, staff developed an event and promotion miniature grant program. the first of three funding cycles was completed september 15, 2010, and these events will take place between september 2010 and may 2011. most recent of these was mardi gras, which was a huge success and brought thousands of visitors to the commercial corridor. the second cycle of this program is currently being promoted, and the deadline for applications was february 18. in addition, we are also working with the community benefits district through the community planning process through the fillmore economic plan. promoting local businesses and events should be a high priority, as it will bring more people to the district.

our second funded initiative is business attraction and retention programs that support both neighborhood-based retail and micro businesses, including pushcarts and kiosk-base vendors. again, during the planning process, through community forums and service, we developed a list of neighborhood-desired services and amenities, which included more moderately priced food and beverage establishments, retail clothing and shoes, protists, and butcher shops, sportswear, and children's clothing, none of which are evident on the corridor at the moment. economic analysis has also determined that the commercial quarter needed a bank and atm to stimulate economic vibrancy. the staff of oewd has been working with the landlords of the neighborhood and their real estate brokers to successfully tested the numerous and the

store fronts that plague the west and east side of the fillmore commercial quarter. the fillmore center has five or six storefronts that have been vacant for years, and the 2010 closure of the businesses added three additional vacancies to an already sparse retail mix. the economic plan has set aside $100,000 to be used to attract appropriate and transform it businesses to the corridor and has been working closely and continuously in generating and directing retail leasing interests towards these vacant storefronts. we believe that in the next eight to 10 months, three or four of these businesses will tended vacant spaces within the corridor, and that those businesses will at least in part meet the requests for services from the community. we are also working on developing the following programs to provide business

opportunities to local residents, and those our neighborhood-based retail and micro businesses, including pushcarts and kiosk-based blenders -- lenders. we are also driven by the community's desire to provide a legitimate outlet for micro businesses to sell their goods. oewd is working with the community to develop fillmore artisan marketplace, building on the success of the farmer's market. we anticipate the artisan marketplace will be located in the plaza across from the farmer's market and would have similar operating hours in order to attract growing attendance to the farmer's market. a third initiative is the facade and improvement program. a portion of the funds have been earmarked for a facade and 10

improvement program to emphasize 10 improving programs. we have received 28 applications and hope to provide a facelift, if you will, to between 13 to 15 storefronts. improvements will range from new store front paint, awning, signs, lighting, and enhance outdoor seating areas where feasible. oewd has engaged staff of the program as well as the agency's architect to consult on the strategies and to develop an implementation process for the awning and sign it program. building on our existing community, professional relationships, and programs, oewd's strategy is to leverage the agency's funds where possible in order to accomplish more economic revitalization goals, and as such, we are working with the arts commission

to secure a grand for $25,000 and the african american arts and culture complex will administer this. also, through discussions with the staff administering the cities challenge grants, we drafted a plan to establish a fillmore beautification and arts working group to assist in a work plan to bring art as a photo opportunity to visitors and locals along the fillmore commercial corridor. this legislation this policy, and oewd will work with any administrative business is currently located at ground- floor to relocate them to any of several second-floor vacancies currently available along the corridor. this legislation will contribute significantly to the work being done under the fillmore economic action plan. we are excited by the potential

to facilitate the development of an authentic neighborhood, which is the fillmore entertainment district, and we applaud and support supervisor mirkarimi's proposed legislation, which will go a long way to securing the economic vitality of this commercial corridor. thank you. supervisor mar: 94 the work of the office of economic and workforce development -- thank you for the work of the office of economic and workforce development. is there anyone else who needs to speak on this before we open it up to the public? >> i believe that is it from the city said what, but there are a number of people here from the public. supervisor mar: thank you. sounds like a tremendous effort to return to the glorious harlem of the west district with support from oewd and leadership from leadershipmirkari -- leadership from supervisor

mirkarimi as well. we have a number of public speakers. two minutes each. >> thank you, supervisor. i am daniel landrieu -- landry, born and raised in the western fillmore. i just wanted to weigh in from the community perspective, since the community, i do not think, was involved with the beginning of this process. i just want to make clear that we do support change on fillmore street and opening up the changes in dealing with the administration things that is happening near, but with conditions. one of the things that we have to focus on is really what happened in the past, and we have been saying over and over now for years that going forward, that we have to focus on the micro businesses in the area, focus on the small businesses, and the grass roots efforts of people who have lived

there all their lives and what to open up the business, so we address that. it seems to me, everyone is speaking of music, dance, etc., but there was a lot more to the black community in fillmore, as you all know, so we want us to pay close attention to the culture part of the community. let's not just continue to keep preserving music, jazz, and preserving fillmore music history. by the way, last year, the name was changed. i believe at one point, it was the fillmore jazz preservation district. then a change to the fillmore business district. but the community has not for years, until we made an effort to organize a community advisory committee, to help address some of the things that are never at the table, which the community wants, which is an organization

being recognized by city hall every time you propose something like this measure. but we support with conditions. thank you. >> good morning, supervisors. happy to be here in support of this legislation. there is really two things that you need to make a successful pedestrian-oriented commercial district. one is the buildings have to meet the st. well. thanks to a supervisor -- thanks to supervisor mirkarimi, we have a pretty good degree of st. control. you what a generous floor to ceiling height in the commercial space. is a lot of flexibility for different uses, also removes your second story residence a little bit further from the floor. if you walk of fillmore street,

it has a lot of those streets already. one of the things that is not working is the uses. there's a lot of office uses, and they have locked up those ground-floor space is. you cannot see in often during the day, and with office uses, people are not around in the evening, said the benefit that you get of small businesses being open and creating a little bit of night life, you do not have perfect stretches of fillmore street. we think this ordinance, requiring a pretty broad mix, but customer-oriented small regional business, nothing too large, and all the programs with the mayor's office, are really going to help make that stretch of fillmore a greater success. so we would urge you to support this ordinance. also wanted to add that controls like these have been in place in the union square area for about 20 years.

for the eastern neighborhoods and better neighborhoods processes, controls like this one were imposed in lots of neighborhood commercial districts. upper market street in district age or the up about half in district 10 have identical controls to this -- or the other dog patch -- the upper dogpatch in district 10 have identical controls to this. supervisor mar: thank you. is there anyone else who would like to speak on this item? mr. washington, you were on the list as well. >> ♪ land use, won't you lift me high above and all play its we'd play it great fillmore jazz when the fillmore jazz man makes it better he takes your blues away make the district make it better

again make it better today land use, won't you lift this district high above it all make it good make it a great fillmore jazz man and the jazzman makes it better, makes it good takes my fillmore blues away and you make it good, make it great, make it better today jazzman take my fillmore blues away you are going to do it great today ♪ supervisor mar: thank you. [applause]