>> hi, i'm ann -- audrey, i think you stole my word, i'm excited, the facility is opening as well. what i wanted to do is come up here and show our support and then i wanted to introduce our new permit officer, dave frias, we will be making comments on the third item going forward as well, but no opposition, just fully support the program. i didn't know they applied for an alcohol license though. do we know that? >> it's not part of this commission. >> yeah. >> okay. >> okay. >> is there anymore public comment? yes? >> as part of the public, i was able to get a hard hat to wear and it wasn't quite as done as it is now but it was pretty

amazing, i know mr. klein's here, raise your hand, he's sort of responsible for it and i'm sure he would invite any of your commissioners to check it out, i'm not sure what state it's in at the moment but it's pretty cool. >> i'll do anything to put on a hard hat, so is there anymore public comment? seeing none, the matter is with the commission. >> commissioners, i have a book at home, it's called the harlem of the west and it talks about the jazz district in the western edition and how it was decimated by redevelopment after world war ii, it is exciting to me that jazz in san francisco has a central place to be, so with that, i move to approve. >> i second it. >> commissioner akers? >> aye. >> commissioner perez? >> aye. >> commissioner hyde?

>> aye. >> commissioner joseph? >> aye. >> commissioner tan? >> aye. >> commissioner lee? >> aye. >> awesome, good luck. >> yeah, good luck. >> i'll take that hard hat. >> alright, with that, i would like to call item number c, chadwick baumbach, like erma, dba, lot 46. >> so, this is an application for two permits you're considering this evening, extended hours and place of entertainment, 46 geary is between grant and kerny, this is a basement space ask the applicant intend to -- an up scale lounge, we've seen several letters of support are in your packet, at least 7 and we've received 0 oppositions of concern, and i believe central

station is still here but i understand the sfpd also recommends approval of this application. >> before we go on, we have one announcement from the dias. >> i believe i need to make this disclosure that mr. baumbach was a client of mine but that relationship ended in 2009 and i feel like i can sit on this permit objectively. >> alright, mr. baumbach? >> good evening, commissioners, my name is chadwick baumbach, this is my partner, gabriel mcwilliams and we are the sole owners of sf entertainment, the venue has been in existence since 2009 and since then, we're in the process of purchasing the existing lounge, lot 46, and lot 46 is located at 46 gaer -- geary street, a

block and a half from union square, the venue has been in existence since 2009 and since then, they've been operating it with a basement space of about 4500 square foot which consisted of two dance floors and a third floor which is about a thousand square feet which had a third dance floor, so two floors and three dance floors. musically, their format has been predominantly hip hop and top 40, once we take possession of the space, our plan is to close down for a period of likely a couple of months and what we plan to do is we do not plan to take over the third floor at all, that's going to be leased out to a clothing tailor, we're going to limit our operation tos the basement level with one dance floor, we're taking a space from two

floors, three dance floors to one floor which is the basement with one dance floor. so, we're decreasing the size of the space, therefore, we're decreasing the occupancy load by about 50 patrons. we'll also musically, we'll be playing predominantly down tempo music, eclectic jazz, rock, remixes, driven by mostly dj's but also one to three piece bands. we'll be spending a significant amount of money on redesigning the space, we've contracted with an award winning designer and plan to completely reinvent the space and make it more up scale and much more comfortable and nice, so after we submitted our application, we notified inspector van coal as well as

the san francisco police department permit officer steve mathias, we were able to meet with the officer last month and we met with him at the space and we talked about a little bit of our history, what we're about, what we've done, the history of the space and what our plans are for the space. we also discussed in detail much about our security plan because we know that that's very important to the police department as well as ourselves, and a couple of those key concerns that we addressed were the security personnel, we plan to staff one security personnel for every 50 to 75 patrons, we plan to have surveillance cameras at both entrances and exits and the cameras will be wide angled cameras able to not only film

what's happening at both entrances and exits but what's happening across the street, and we also plan to have both entrances and exits well lit with security patrolling 100 feet in both directions and of course adopting a solid, good neighbor policy. also, after we submitted our application, we begafn doing our neighborhood outreach, we reached out to some neighborhood groups, we reached out to david volobis from the community leadership alliance, we had several great discussions with him, we became members of the group, we gave a presentation at the group meeting this month and i've also received a letter of support from him. we've also had a great conversation with michael nulty with the alliance for better district 6, went over all the

details of the project with him and fully supported by him as well. in addition, we contacted donna fikarota with the union square association and was able to give her a tour of the space and told her our plans and we feel positive with that and finally what we feel as equally as important, we went door to door and talked to all of our neighbors, we introduced ourselves, talked about our project and our plans and it seems like we have a lot of support from our neighbors and we've been able to acquire several letters of support for the project. aside from that, i'd like to answer any questions that you have. >> do we have any questions from the commission? >> just, is that a rhinoceros

head in this picture? >> yes, those are pictures of inspiration, those are not the picture of the venue itself, we got together with the designer and come up with some designs we felt we kind of wanted to culminate together and bring together for the project. >> and if i may, that's a hippo. >> it's a hippo? >> that's a hippo. >> you're right, it's a hippo. >> i know you said you haven't started with construction, do you have an anticipated date of open, is it next summer? >> yeah, sometime in the spring. >> in the spring? >> yeah. >> and then what kind of -- i guess do you have promoters coming in? >> a lot of the events will be, you know, done in-house, but we might bring in some promoter. i've been producing events in the city for a long time, so i'll be doing a lot of the programming, but from time to

time, we'll likely bring in promoters. >> and following up on the promoters, we do have a promoters registry up on the entertainment commission website and all promoters must be registered with us, so if you are using promoters, i would suggest they register with us and make sure they have. >> certainly. >> okay. >> what entrance are you using for your face? >> you know, originally, we planned on using gary street, that's still our anticipated entrance. >> and where's your smokers going? >> the smokers will be on the backside, we'll create a little area in the back for them, we'll have security back there as well. >> i just wanted to thank you and comment you from the community outreach you've done, i appreciate that and also for adopting the security plan that you have, so good job. >> thank you very much. >> okay, would anyone like to make some public comment on

this permit? come on up, don't be shy. >> good evening, commissioner, we are supporting this project, i believe you have our letter of support in your packet, i just wanted to add that previous owner was somewhat complaisant and their security plans, and by word of mouth, they described the place at ghetto, these people want to turn this around, these people are very responsible and considerate of the neighbors so again we support this project. thank you. >> thank you. >> mr. nulty? >> hi, my name's michael nulty,

i'm the executive director of alliance 6, i guess my first question is whether or not they're going the keep the name lot 46, it wasn't clear. the license says one thing and they're here on the calendar it says they are. anyway, the owners have contacted us with their executive summary and security plan. the alliance for better district 6 land use committee is neutral on the place of entertainment because we have concerns about their floor plan because they didn't provide us with the floor plan and their security plan is only a one-page which seems to be a deployment plan, it's not a detailed security plan. we wish lot 46 the best of luck and we look forward to working with them with did community -- the community late -- late e but at this point, we're

neutral. thank you. >> thank you. >> hello, steve mathias from central station, we would like to recommend approval and our only requests are that they retain video for 30 day and is paren that to the police department upon request and then also similar to the last establishment that weapon went over, they have a hands-on approach, if there was a promoter or third party, they have a manager on site to look after the establishment because it is their license. as far as the extended hour, we're requesting the venue operate for 6 months with a good track record before going the 6 months. they have a fresh slate, it's just i think with our comfort level as far as being able to manage all the clubs in the

district, broadway corridor, erie, to have the concern as far as on gary street until 2 a.m., we're requesting we have a 6 month period and evaluate on whether the extended hours be appropriate. >> i want to ask why you think that 6 month period would be appropriate? i mean, because if they start now with an after hours permit, then you will be up to speak with the new business as it happens and i'm wondering why you think a six month wait period, was your thinking behind that? >> just from the standpoint, just opening up a club during the regular hours going to 2:00 is a challenge, it is a challenge throughout our district and having to manage that. our point is that providing that they can manage that well, which i think that they will, i met with them, we've gone over their plan, i think they'll be fine, our comfort level, we

like to examine it after six months and seeing if going with the extended hours is appropriate. >> in my eye, i see it appropriate as having clubs closing at different times so you don't have 2:00 in your entire district, all these people pouring out into the street, don't you think it would be helpful in managing crowds to have an extended hours here? >> to a point, but also we have to look at what our personnel levels are. a lot of times, there's officers that are held over until 3:00 margin for a time and that would boost that even further, so we want to make sure that the patrons are able to leave the establishment and we have to manage that that there aren't the fights and the drunken brawls outside, so it would extend the operating time for the police department as

well. that's another factor that we look at as well. >> thank you. >> i have something to add to that. what if the music shuts down at 2:00 but everybody's able to leave by 2:30 so you don't have that intensity being pushed out at one time? >> well, i have to ask the commission, at that point, would there be an extended hours issue if it were cut off, then it wouldn't be an issue. >> you can't be in the building? >> no, you need an extended hours permit. >> but still grant them -- >> would you do that to your club? >> yeah, our music's off at 2:30 and everybody out by 3:00 but most people are out by 2:30, you don't have the intensity at 2:00, my capacity

is bigger than that. >> i have a question for staff. they have applied for a poe and an extended hours permit, correct? if we continue the extended hours permit for six months, that is not within our purview, we can't continue for more than 45 days, is that correct? >> 45 business days from the received application. >> we cannot continue it, so what you're asking us to do is deny it, and to separate these permits and deny the extended hours and approve the place of entertainment and i'm not likely to want to do that because -- upeder -- under the code, we cannot continue for more than 45 days. >> does the applicant have the ability to delay it further than that time period? >> i'm sure the applicant does. you're going to put that pressure on him? okay. >> as far as options, and

granted it's the commission that makes the final call on that. >> but in reading his application, it seems to me that after hours for this particular business and this particular place seems part of his business plan, part of his -- of what he's doing, so we've gone back and forth with after hours before. i tend to agree with commissioner hyde that staggered closings make more sense in general in most neighborhoods but in business plans that require after hours, it's part of their business plan, to tell them they can't have that part of the business plan tells them they shouldn't succeed and i don't think i'm willing to either continue it, deny it or take it out of their business plan, so i'm probably going to vote for extended hours. >> i also wanted to point out that on exhibit c on their

security plan, they do say that video surveillance will be kept for up to 90 days. >> right, we wanted to make sure that it was not only retained but also provided the police department upon request, which i don't think that's going to be an issue. >> any other questions for the officer? okay. >> thank you. >> is there anymore public comment? alright, then the matter is with the commission. >> well, i mean, for me, you know, staggered closing as you say, in my experience in 12 years of having my place, it helps on public safety situations because not all your security is taxed and suddenly people are in the street and you're trying to round them up and get them on their way, even if they had extended hours for half an hour for now and they

can always -- i don't know what the deal is, but at least if we're going to do extended hours, from my point for public safety, i think it's a plus, with we shut off their music or whatever, we can discuss that, but, you know, i'm kind of for extended hours to a point. >> commissioner tan? >> it doesn't seem like -- i think in their plan, it's to have programming go on potentially until 5:00, it's not necessarily to say we have to start the music at 2:30 so it could be slightly staggered, so i'm inclined to support both the place of entertainment and the extended hours, i think the request here is 5:00 and i don't see a compelling reason

not to support that. >> is that a motion. >> so, i move with that -- >> is there anymore comment before -- >> can we discuss after we move? >> yeah, great. >> so i'm moving to approve both the place of entertainment and the extended hours permits. i don't know if you want to divide that, with the place of entertainment permit to go with the police department's recommendations on condition that they hold the video for 30 day and is make that accessible to the police as well as have an on-site manager when there's outside promoters. >> okay, hold on, clarification, you talk about extended hours -- >> i would like to second that. >> commissioner akers? >> being new to this process, i'm going to be asking a question, if we grant the

permit and there's problems with the venue, isn't it in your purview to address those issues, we're moving forward with the benefit of the doubt, then we can address the problems with the extended hours, address that later, correct? >> correct. >> so, basically you're saying let's grant it at 5:00 and if they have issues, we recondition it. >> yes. >> as we've done with other clubs in the past. >> i have a clarification, when you said you move to approve both the place of entertainment and the extended hours, did you put a limit on to 5 or did you just say extended hours? >> in the application, it says 5:00 a.m. >> unless you limit it, it's 6:00. >> right. i'm going to go with what the applicant applied for. >> okay, 5:00, okay.

>> alright, so we have a motion on the floor to grant both with conditions placed on the permit for entertainment, that they retain the video for at least 30 days and provide it to the police department as well as having a manager on-site and we've had that second. >> and a clarification of hours? >> and then until 5:00 with the extended hours permit, pardon me. >> the only thing i wanted to add was that those conditions will be placed and they'll be identical in both of those permits, they're under both sections of the police code, so they will be placed on both of

those permits. >> thank you. >> sure. >> call roll. >> commissioner akers? >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> commissioner hyde? >> aye. >> commissioner joseph? >> aye. >> commissioner tan? >> aye. >> commissioner lee? >> aye. >> good luck. >> good luck. >> which brings us to item d, i'm going to butcher this name, i'm sorry, masae matsumoto, dba festa, do you want to come up and address the commission? >> welcome. >> so, it's a karaoke and cocktail lounge in the japan town mall. this permit application would allow them to have karaoke performances, this is a venue

that has one stage so this is not a venue with multiple room karaoke and the granting of this permit would allow them to come into compliance, please don't hold it against them that they operated before without a permit once it came to their attention that they needed one, they came right in and have been cooperative throughout the application process, they've done extensive outreach to their neighboring businesses and even to the residents across the street which is not super necessary since it's in a mall and their entrance faces the interior of the space, there have been no communication tos the commission of opposition and sfpd northern station recommends approval of the application as well. . inger good evening, i'm not masae matsumoto, masae is my wife and she has asked me to speak on her behalf this

evening. i hope that's okay. >> that's great. >> if there are any questions, thank you for hearing our application. there's a description in detail of festa of the permit application in section e so i'll try if i may to summarize the key points as briefly as i can, festa is a small wine, cocktail and karaoke lounge, it's located in japan town, it's in the building which is the same building as the movie theatre there, and it's located on the second floor of the maul, right next door to the bookstore which you probably all know. the business has been operating in its current form and in the same location for over 40 years, so it's been around a while. it's quite small. the maximum capacity is 45

people and there's just a single karaoke machine with a small stage and mic. so people can stand on the stage and sing and we just about get two people on the stage. the clientele are mainly young to middle age professionals, i don't call them yuppies but it's that kind of a category and they include a lot of out of town visitors and also local ex-patriot managers, a lot from japan, they have a large tradition of japanese song and clients in addition to local people. the hour of operation, 7:30 is official opening time, the business usually doesn't pick up very much until about 9:00 and last orders are at 1:30 and everybody's out by 2:00, there's no live entertainment,

no professional entertainers and all the singing is done by the customers, all of whom are amateurs, some i have to say more amateur than others, some are pretty good but they all seem to have a lot of fun. masae provides a large range of songs ranging from romantic, japanese, american, korean, chinese, spanish, any others? no, so that's the range of languages and they're all used quite a lot. as far as we know, there are no major problems or complaintbacker complaints and we've had positive clearance from the police department. i think it's fair to say that festa makes a positive contribution to the local business environment and the local economy. last september, we learned that the regulations for entertainment permits for

karaoke recently changed and we moved immediately to try to move festa into compliance with the current regulations, we filed the application right away, unfortunately i had to leave for europe almost immediately after, but we worked closely with the commission throughout and we completed i think all the necessary inspections and approvals from the city departments including the police department, the fire department, building including basic building and electrical, public health and the planning department. we also completed a fairly extendbacker extensive outreach program per the good neighbor policy, we talked with a large number of the surrounding businesses in the same building and masae's also made contact with people who are living