scenery. until next time, get out and play!

>> this is the small business commission, monday, june 13, 2011 meeting, the time is 5:38 p.m. and the meeting is called to order. at this time, please turn off our cell phones or silence. item no. one, roll call. commissioner o'brien? commissioner adams? commissioner clyde?

commissioner dooley? commissioner kasselman? commissioner o'conner? commissioner riley? all commissioners are present. commissioners, item no. 2 will be continued until later in the meeting. enemy number 3, approval of the april 11, 2010 meeting minutes, explanatory dowmpts draft april 11, 2010 meeting minutes. president o'brien: do we have a motion to approve the minutes or do we need a minute to study it? >> i need a minute. president o'brien: o.k., we'll give one sec.

is everybody o.k. with it?

could we get a motion? >> i motion to approve the minutes of the april 11 meeting. >> second broon. president o'brien: any objections, seeing none, approved. secretary: item 4 will be continued until the next meeting. item 5, general public comment, allowing members of the public to comment generally on matters within the commission's purview and suggest new agenda items and there will be public comment taken after each item on the agenda. president o'brien: do we have comments from anybody on matters not on the agenda? seeing none, public comment closed. secretary: commissioners, item 6, discussion of possible action to make recommendation to the board of supervisors on board of supervisors file no. 110506 [planning code, police code, business and tax regulations code- limited live performance permits.]

president o'brien:a presentation? secretary: we have a presentation from supervisor mirkarimi and i have public comment we received a few moments ago. president o'brien: welcome. >> mr. president, honorable commissioners, good evening. ross mirkarimi, supervisor of district 5. this legislation simply aims to provide opportunity for artists and musicians and for cafes and restaurants where opportunity had not existed before or where there were prohibitions on cafes and restaurants in their inability to be able to afford the limited live performance permits because of how cost prohibitive those permits are. for a number of years, our office, as well as, i believe, many other supervisor offices, have entertained and fielded

heavy demand by residents and by merchant owners who would like to see as much of an enterprising attitude in had their particular neighborhoods to allow for cafes and restaurants to be able to afford the permits that otherwise have been very expensive and usually assigned to the cost scale of the much larger venues who can afford them because there's only a one price size that fits all. that price has discriminated against the small business operators which is why we have now advanced this piece of legislation. hundreds of cafes, restaurants and bars and other small businesses cannot legally offer their customers live performances because the only permit available is the one that is suitable for nightclub at a much higher cost. currently, a cafe owner wanting to offer modest live performances until 10:00 p.m.

would be required to obtain a place of entertainment permit which typically requires a $1,700 nonrefundable application fee. were the permit granted, the cafe would then have to create a security plan and make other arrangements associated with major events. a small coffee shop would require that at the same level as perhaps larger clubs you might be familiar with because some of you actually might have business partnership in one. in some parts of the city that a small cafe or restaurant owner would also have to obtain a conditional use permit from the planning commission which would cost upward to another $2,000. the current permit requirements are cost prohibitive for small businesses that wish to offer limited performance on their property for limited periods of time. meanwhile, those businesses would like to expand the range of what they can offer their customers, visitors and

residents alike, that otherwise they have been stymied from doing so. we believe that we found the right nexus in helping in this wonderful forward-thinking city to be able to help put to work our artists and musicians who otherwise cannot gain that entry of work in restaurants and cafes who are dying to be able to comport with the law to comply with the law and see that they are made valid in their ability to obtain the permit. we've noticed that because of the downturn in the economy, certainly nationally, statewide and city, that many of these restaurants and cafes are struggling to create and innovate whatever they possibly can to stay alive. now, even before the downturn in the economy, our office, which is very central, which our district is central in the city, and it covers many vibrant merchant corridors, has heard, over this period of time, how

can haveays and restaurants would like to have a leg up. we're advocating for that leg up. i'd like to thank my former aide, regina drizzy, who has a strong business sensibility about her which has been well deployed in this arena here and we've talked about this kind of business environment in us trying to figure out a way that provides, i think, small business with an advantage that had not existed before. we're using the existent geography of the current map already granted by the city and county of san francisco. we're not creating new geography. for the areas that have been permitted, we are simply establishing a new tier for those areas so it would not exacerbate debate of creating new zoning that would allow for this particular area, for gaining limited live performance

permits. we are simply just creating the new tier of costs so that those businesses that are approximately 200 square feet or less would be able to then obtain a permit at a much cheaper cost than they would have before. the application with the entertainment commission would be a $385 application fee and $139 annual renewal fee of 30-day neighborhood notification period upon submittal of a completed application. that is what this legislation is about. we believe that because it is significantly a reduced cost but creating a whole 'nother tier, that not only do i think this will be a very strong revenue generation generator, i think for the city, by allowing access to businesses where that access had been stymied, but then also activating a level of revenue and income and expenditure that hasn't been able to activate in

hundreds of businesses at this level. so that is the high points. i'm more than happy to answer any questions. president o'brien: commissioner adams? vice president adams: i really like this legislation. i think it's about time that, i think, this type of legislation will actually help with the character of many, many neighborhoods. in reading this legislation, i noticed that there were some parts of south of market that were excluded. is there any concerns there? my concern is along the sixth street corridor, there are several small businesses there and coffee houses that would really benefit by this ordinance. >> we're abiding by the geography that's already been established of where the limited live performance permits are allowed and we just simply overlaid in the existing area. i would be more than happy to

amend the legislation to create that, but at risk of also perhaps stimulating a resistance by those who would like this to be prohibited area, that remains open to debate. so i would be more than happy to. vice president adams: my concern is along the sixth street corridor because i know there are issues on the west side of soma and we could exclude that but i know the small businesses and coffee houses and that resurgence in that sixth street corridor, that this legislation would help a lot of those businesses. >> i absolutely agree with that. i tell you what our strategy was, was to seek as much consensus -- it's not easy -- but try to seek as much consensus between resident-driven organizations or resident-merchant driven organizations in these

neighborhoods that would welcome this. some, in particular, south of market, feels strongly that there will be a cordoned off area that is not necessarily enabled to benefit from this legislation. do i think that's a wise idea? not necessarily. but i do believe that perhaps lessons learned, they may warm up to such an idea later on. president o'brien: commissioner dooley? commissioner dooley: i was wondering about the part of the legislation that says it's 10:00 p.m. for the first year and then they can apply to be open until midnight. my only hesitation with that is that i feel like midnight is heading toward late night again and i would feel that some of the neighborhood residents will feel like it's easier to accept

if it's strictly 10:00 p.m. i just wondered why you had that kind of gray zone there. >> it's up until 10:00 p.m. commissioner dooley: but it says after the first year it can be extended till midnight. >> well, i think based on good behavior, i was looking for an incentive in the fact that it could be renewed but we were looking to incentivize. that's something that, you know, you think would somewhat counteract, i think, the corpus of this and i'm open to that. commissioner dooley: or at least maybe allowing districts to keep the line at 10:00 while others would be o.k. with continuing until midnight. >> all right. so duly noted. i'll keep an open mind to that. president o'brien: commissioner clyde?

commissioner clyde: supervisor, thank you for sponsoring this legislation. it is very dear to my heart. i am a small business owner who would love to have it in the code that i can offer entertainment in my small establishment in the afternoon hours during sunday brunch and that we can do it without, you know, real restriction. this is for live performance, this is for small venues whose place is not principally as a place of entertainment. i mean, my preference would have been to exempt all small venuess with fewer than 50 people just completely as the city of oakland did but, of course, that was not possible, so i think this is a great compromise. i would encourage you to look at the n.c.t. districts, the westportal, i believe, is currently not in the plan. >> that's correct. commissioner dooley: and also,

back to the south of market, the small business community, i think with outreach and information may be more supportive of this. there are restaurants and venues that would like this and, you know, i would just hate to see them excluded if there were a way to draw, that a neighborhood commercial district could say in the planning code, we would like our district to look like this after the fact, but i do think that there's some wisdom in going broader and then allowing a neighborhood to drill back down, as opposed to just exempting at this point, going the other way. >> my instinct is with your instinct, the politics, and in us trying to, i think, appeal to many representatives citywide but those who feel strong about the idea of keeping the

prohibitions in place for whatever reasons that they want to deny the future bob dylans or tracy chapmans to come in their cafes or restaurants to play on the cheap, i don't know. but in this particular case, allowing that entree seems to create some concern so i'm hoping that the test is that this initial step of our legislation works and works quite well and that i think it may be due time people will see the benefit of that by the word of mouth stream to business to business that will signal to those in the forbidden corridors that they, too, may want to join. commissioner dooley: and i want to point out the public safety benefits in having a lively and engaged street scape in our commercial district and the

benefits of having young people engaged in art and performance with all their neighborhoods. most of our neighborhoods are mixed neighborhoods with young, middle-aged and elderly people all with all kinds of skills that should be offered in our cafes and bars and restaurants and art spaces so thank you very, very much. >> my pleasure, but you're right, initially the legislation was citywide, it was vast, and did not overlay with the existing prohibitions but created the new permitting structure as a right for everybody citywide. we received considerable feedback, both enthusiastic support and those who had advocated for prohibitions in their particular mixed use corridors, they wanted to retain those prohibitions so i think it will take a little show-and-tell to explain why i think this will be uniquely important economically to the business

environment and then helping put, you know, san francisco's enriched environment of artists and musicians to work throughout the city and i think that this can catch on, i really do. president o'brien: commissioner adams? vice president adams: i appreciate your comments because you hit the nail with that one and i think about, you know, san francisco's a tourist town, o.k., and we get people from all over the world and a lot of conventions here and a lot of people come here because they want to do stuff in the evenings and this ordinance will make people go out and get into the neighborhoods and see our city and want to come back and back and back and spend money in our small businesses and cafes and everything so i really like this, but i do like to stress the area south of market, westportal, pacific avenue, that i didn't see on here, because i do think it's important that -- i mean, i love this legislation. i think it will help tourism but

i would like to see it citywide. >> i agree with you. vice president adams: i know there's the politics that you have to deal with but i can't thank you enough for this legislation because it will help a lot of these small businesses, especially the cafes and small restaurants and bars because a lot of them don't do entertainment because it costs too much. supervisor mirkarimi: so we're looking at about 30% of the cost of what is already required of what the permitting and the accessory costs are so for us to create a new tier at 70% reduction at the current costs and thinking there are hundreds -- and i'm not kidding, what we've been able to survey in the corridors eligible for this -- hundreds of cafes and restaurants that we think that could take advantage of this in the not-too-distant future over that period of time really could change the landscape of

entertainment in san francisco and helping the businesses that really are looking for as much of a leg up as they possibly can. you know, and keep in mind, it wasn't that long ago that we just inaugurated the first park in san francisco in the fifth district where the impression of many visitors to san francisco is that we would be the u.s. version of maybe paris, france, where they would expect to see a lot of outdoor seating and more cafes and more sort of the sidewalk engagement where people are sit being and dining and they're enjoying and there's music and it really is only in the last four years has this commission with the planning commission and entertainment commission been able to coalesce through the mayor and board of supervisors together by now emancipating our sidewalks so that there is that vibrancy. so this is really i think just a next step from what had already