>> good morning, everyone and welcome to the thursday, march 7, 2013, meeting of the board of supervisors, neighborhood services and safety committee, my name is david campos and i am the chairman and we are joined by supervisor yee. mar is in route, and the clerk of the committee is derek evans and we would like to thank the following members of sfgtv staff, jessy larson and lolamelconian. >> do we have any announcements? >> yes, sir, please be sure to silence all electronic device and include the speaker cards and any of the documents to be submitted to the clerk. and items acted upon today will be appear on the march 19th,

board of supervisor's agenda unless otherwise stated. >> thank you very much. we want to thank the members of the public who are at the hearing today and who are watching. mr. clerk, if you could please call item number 1. >> the hearing to consider the issuance of a type 42 on sale beer and wine license to andrew and jennifer hall for the beer haul located at 1 polk street. >> we have the first item is a liquor license request. so if we could first hear from the applicant on this item? >> just to note that we had been joined by supervisor scott weiner. >> good morning. good morning. >> my name is jennifer hall and my husband and i are opening a wine bar, located on the ground

floor of 1 polk, we are thrilled to open in a revitalization of district six. we want to be given the chance to be successful and here to request that you consider our business for a full 42 license. drew and i have lived in san francisco since 2005 and currently we reside in supervisor mar's lovely district and our 11-month-old daughter, and we both grew up in small businesses. my grand parents owned a store, and my great grandfather started a business in china town and actually the first in the china town to have a car. >> i worked in my aunt and uncle's grocery store, earning a if you coins as a daily wage, that is where i learned the importance of customer service and the value of hard work. drew group up with similar

values. his strength in project management, and he has also been known to insist on being in the field, whether installing bike racks. he has been on dozens of projects throughout the san francisco and the bay area and most excited about building out the beer hall. we have both witnessed our family's dedication and entrepreneurial spirit. chaos in the small business world. and we have always dreamed of starting our own business and creating that same work ethic for our family. >> i'm andrew hall. >> if you could ask the clerk to... >> i'm andrew hall and it is very nice to be here in front of you. and late, 2010, i like many people in the bay area and across the nation lost my job and when this happens, after you get over the initial shock, you start thinking about your life and see what your future

holds. i saw this as an opportunity, i have worked in construction all of my life and i always had a passion for home brewing and craft beer and knew that i wanted this to be the focus of our family business. i understand my wife who also shares my love gave me the green light. >> i went into full discovery mode and realized that the popular craft beer had exploded in the last few year. >> we are planning to be the

premier location in san francisco to taste, buy and to learn about specialty craft beers. it is a hybrid of up scale shop meets classic room. there is a strong focus on promoting beers and brewers and our selection of beer and wine will be on the tap and by the bottle and over smaller. our expected hours of operation will be from 3:00 p.m. to 1 on p.m. on the weekdays and we will test lunch crowd and as we are more established and more people move into the neighborhood we believe that it will be a good option for patrons during lunchtime, since we are aiming for the after work crowd we anticipate three to 10 p.m. being the busy time. this is a small window which is why it is critical to serve and sell to go our businesses to succeed.

and could i have, the powerpoint working? >> and so, a little about our location. this is us, this is a snapshot of our area. we are in the middle there. these are the high-end, residential properties that are right next to us. these are the residential properties that are either in construction, slated to be starting construction, or in the initial planning process. within one block radius of us, we have over 2,000 luxury, condo and apartment buildings, and an aimless snapshot there is no off sale of craft beer and wine. us again, and these are the office buildings in the area. market square, fox plaza. and here is another office building that is just getting

started with new tech companies. we have got thousands of employees and huge office buildings also within one block of our location. in addition to that, we have all of the government agencies and workers that are in the surrounding local. we intend to provide the growing number of company workers twitter, one kings, lamb, dolby to name a few and residents are argenta, fox plaza with a sophisticated lounge to enjoy a glass of wine and a bite to eat and the ability to sell bottles for home consumption. >> currently a place like this does not exist in the neighborhood and we would like to serve the community. >> to engage the neighborhood. >> we have been very active in our community out reach from the very beginning. we first reach out to inspector

kim stalker about the businessman and over all business concept two years ago in march 2011. he was familiar with the retail bar model as other wine bars used the same model and over the next year, during the search for the perfect location, we continued the dialogue with the police. we wanted to stay on their radar, and we wanted their support. upon securing one polk, october of 2012, we immediately reached out to jane kim who to my delight responded immediately. and we also reached out to the alu, the northern district police station, local area workers, residents, neighborhood organizations and i am sure you are hyper aware the committee. we are working with the civic center district in support of their mission to build a better, safer neighborhood for all of the workers and residents. we are also working with sfsafe dot org for the same reasons and i have a follow up meeting

with them next week to have a security assessment and join dolby in joining a connected business community. we are also working with small business commission and have been attending a central market partnership meetings by the office of economic workforce and development. i was at one of those meetings when we met the community housing partnership and also to have their support and also a member of femac and the community leadership alliance and working closely with supervisor kim's office. we have reached out to the ialliance for a better district six and presenting to answer their questions and tell them about our business. we hope to gain their support after presenting. we also are aware that we have eleven protestors. we received a contact info from abc, late january, and have reached out to all of them. our goal is to meet with them individually and come to a resolution. already, we have had one person

give a verbal confirmation of withdrawing his protest. we are going to continue these efforts. we did an event with the new neighbors and we were overwhelmed by their excitement and support. over 60 residents signed our petition of support, which is very validating for us to hear, how excited they are for a craft beer and wine bar, and retail store in their building. we have a copy here for your review. >> okay. >> we have also been sending our support letters your way. as we have been getting them. and we currently have over 30 letters and e-mails of support and our broad range of support comes from the ccbpd, somba and the community housing partnership and david lobos is here in support of the community leadership alliance and we know that not everyone will be happy but are pleased that our support comes from everyone, from non-profit to

residents and to the neighborhood organizations and we also have many supporters here today that you will see with the beer hall stickers. who range from our friends, entrepreneurs small business owners. and residents. >> if i may ask you too, we have a long agenda, that you could try to wrap it up, please. >> okay. >> we are asking that one police condition be removed. we received the police recommendations in november and were surprised to see the no off sale condition. we have been developing this for two and a half years, throughout the years i have been in contact with the alu and the district police stations it included a tasting bar and retail stop and go together in the 42 code which authorizes the sale of beer and wine on or off the premises. as all of the original inspectors transferred positions and as time ticked by it became our understanding

that we needed to sign the existing conditions to keep the process moving. this was in january and we have been working hard to get the condition amended ever since. until now, my wife and i have been taking on this entire abc licensing process ourselves. recently we have reached out to tar ans allen of cmac to assist us in that process. >> the type 42 model works with great success in other emerging neighborhoods in the city. having a tasting bar and retail shop is a successful business model that does not have to be open late as it is good for us as we are raising a family. each of the others have become a great edition to the neighborhood, we will be the first style of this business to focus on craft beer and secondary on local wine, we expect the take home to be 50 and take home 50. >> we need a full license, losing

the offset it makes it impossible for the business to pencil out. after you take out of the bathroom we are under 8,000 square feet. we are a small part of people's routines and not a large imposition. it was a surprise that the people thought of us as a problem and compared to the negative things in the neighborhood as we viewed ourselves as part of the solution. we know that there is high crime in the area, if you look closely at what we are doing you will agree that we are adding to the solution. there is a huge difference between the traditional corner liquor store and what is allowed and our business hours and no hard liquor sales believes demonstrates good, adult responsibilities. >> i am going to interject and ask you to wrap it up. >> in closing, the small family business, bringing opportunity for creating community by serving the dynamic and market

neighborhood. we are proud to have such an out pouring of support and personal appearances today. it will serve the public and the city of county of san francisco and ask for the two parts of our business that we need to be a success. on site tasting and at home. >> thank you for your presentation. >> colleagues do you have any questions of the applicant at this point? >> i know that we will have an opportunity to ask any questions as the process continues. if we could now hear from the police department, please? >> where is the police department? >> this is the most quiet this

room has been in quite a while. we appreciate that. >> apologize for the delay, my name is rich vancroy and i represent the police department and from the alcohol liaison unit and i believe that we are talking about 1 polk street. >> that is correct. >> the beer hall llc has filed a for an on sale beer and wine

and in the last calendar year from july, 2011 to july of 2012, there were 60 police calls for services which generated 11 police reports. the premises is located in plot 560, and this is a high crime area as defined and the plot has 71 police incidents recorded for 2011 and the applicant premises is not located in the high crime area. the premises is located in the census track, 0124.02. and the applicant from the current located in undue concentration area. there is ten letters of protest, recorded by the alcoholic beverage control unit and there were 12 letters of support recorded with the alcohol beverage control unit as well. there is no opposition from the northern police station, the alcohol licensing unit recommends approval. the following conditions have

been recommended to the california department of alcoholic beverage control. >> sales and service and consumption of beverages shall be permitted between 11 a.m. to 12 a.m., midnight, sunday through thursday, and 11 a.m. until 2 a.m. on friday and saturday. number two, the sale of alcoholic beverages for off sale consumption is strictly prohibited. number three the petitioners shall be responsible of maintaining free of litter adjacent of the promisses of which they have control. loitering is to stand idlely about and linger without lawful business is prohibited on any sidewalks or property adjacent to the licensed premiseses under the control of the licensee, as despikted on abc form, 257. number five, graffiti shall be removed from the premises and all parking lots under the control of the licensee within 72 hours of the application,

if it occurs on a friday or a weekend day or holiday, the licensee shall remove it within 72 hours following the beginning of the next week. number 6, the exterior of the premises shall be equipped with lighting with power to eliminate and make easy the appearance of all of the persons or about the premises. the position of such lighting will not disturb the normal privacy of any neighbor residences, no noise shall be audible beyond the area under the control of the licensee as defined on abc form 257. number 8. the interior lighting maintained there in, shall be sufficient to make easily decertainable the appearance of all patrons in the portion of the premiseses where the alcoholic beverages are sold or delivered or consumed. >> the petitioner shall utilize electronic surveillance and equipment to be able to be viewed the outside of the premises including all entrances and exit and that is

monitored and recorded. this electronic surveillance shall be utilized during the operating hours, said electronic and recordings shall be kept 30 days and shall be made available to the department, and police department upon demand. on january 15th, 2013 this year, andrew hall the applicant was contacted and agreed with the recommended conditions. thank you. >> thank you, very much. colleagues, any questions for our police department? >> and i would simply ask for future reference, these kinds of proceedings i think that it is helpful to have the police when the applicant is presenting so that you can hear what they have to say. i think for the other items that it is important when that presentation is made. >> absolutely. and i apologize for being remis, in that. >> supervisor weiner? >> thank you, mr. chairman. and i have a question about the recommended researching for the being able to buy and to take the 6 back of peer off site. my understanding is that the

applicants are not agreeing to that. am i right about that? >> that was brought to our attention, unfortunately on the 11th hour yesterday and that is why i brought up the fact that we had discussed this in january with the applicant. and we are open-minded about it, and we have no objection in the future of modifying that, but at this point, when they came to us yesterday and spoke to our colleagues, we have there is other businesses within that area that we would have to actually accommodate as well with the off-sale. and so at this point, there is simply no reason but to say to the eleventh hour they contacted us and we were not prepared to modify it at that point. >> but if the department is open to it in the future, why wouldn't we just do it now when we are actually allowing this business to open? it just seems like that kind of restriction, i don't know that

i understand the rationale for it. i mean it is one thing if you have a business that has not demonstrated problems in the history, but this kind of business the model is shifting and so, these kinds of craft beer establishments it really is a combination of on-site and also people able to go in and take the beer off-site. and so, i just... i don't think that i totally understand the rationale. >> the basis for that was as we explained was i felt that within the year's period of time, 60 actual calls for police service to that area was accessive as well as they had 71 police incidents in that plot. >> but i mean, not this business, certainly because they... >> for that address and i think that prior to them actually

doing the construction when there was a business there, they had problems in that area. >> right. >> where we are concerned as you know, is the polk street corridor is genderfying and there is a lot of business and it is away from the other area where all of the other night clubs are available. and simply, you know, we would have to have a little more time to research that before i could make a informed decision to go ahead. we are as a said, open-minded and the communication level was there and the fact was that we discussed each one of these conditions with the applicant. and at the last minute, i feel that our department would be remiss if we went ahead and struck that particular condition until we... in fact i would ask for a continuance, and then we could go through that and just have a further discussion and we would be able to give a more qualified answer. >> i just seems to me that whatever the calls for service were unrelated to this business. and i say that it is also from personal knowledge that before this job, i worked at fox plaza

for a long time. and that area has for a long time just an absolute dead zone and there were no businesses open at night and you would leave there at 7:00 at night and you were just walking and it was pretty creepy and the businesses that have gone in there, it starting to make all of the difference in the world and so, i think that it is in everyone's interest for this business to succeed and, for people to be going in and out of there at night, you know, if they are going to get a 6-pack of beer and whatever it is and to encourage that level of activity. >> i wholly agree with you, what i am saying is that there are other businesses that are type 42 that do have off sale that can bring what i would like for that and i think that it would be in everybody's best interest to continue this, that my office as well as the applicant to get together and have a more informed discussion and we can go through if need be, we can have some input from the community, because i think that in general that would be where we would be interested to

hear what the community has to say about the off-sale portion of it. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> and i just want to note a couple of points. we have some folks visiting the chamber including what i see are many young people, some students and so we want to welcome to the chamber of the board of supervisors and you are now witnessing government at work. and the meeting of the board of supervisors neighborhood services and safety committee. >> i know that we will be hearing by the way, from the district supervisor shortly, she had a prior commitment. but her staff has been working on this diligently and we will be hearing from them pretty soon. supervisor mar? >> thank you, i was going to ask about that. because my understanding is that supervisor kim from district six is supportive of striking the second condition of the baring of off-sale consumption and i would defer

to our colleague, but i look forward to hearing her perspective. i am looking at the i think that there were like ten comments of protest to the abc. and but i see many more supporters from community-based organizations and housing groups to just individuals that as supervisor weiner mentioned, showed a business like this with an off-sale license, won't be harmful for the community and will help actually revitalize an area. and i am really appreciative of the great information provided by the hall owners as well and a lot of the letters and e-mails and communications that have been coming in as well and so i am actually going to be looking forward to our colleague from district six comments and probably be supportive of them. >> thank you, supervisor. >> i do have a follow up question and i want to actually go immediately after that public comment. i know that there are many people who come to speak on

this item. to our police department, the follow up question, general question. and it is something that is related to what supervisor weiner was asking. i understand that in looking at an application, you will look at sort of what happened in terms of the number of incidents that were reported in the surrounding area and surrounding neighborhood. but i also would hope that if there are a number of incidents that were attributed to a specific address and directly connected to a prior owner, and that there is at least some consideration for the fact that the people that are coming in are not that prior party. and so, i would hope that there is some analysis of that. so i am wondering if you could talk about generally how you look at that. >> and i agree with you. we look at each case on a case by case basis. we will do a crime mapping and we will look at calls for

service and we reach out to the applicant and we obviously know that it is not there if it is a totally different business and a different applicant and we do not fault anyone for calling the police department. where you will hear numbers that there are 60 calls for service but we actually encourage people to call the police department if there are incidents whether it is for a permanent places of entertainment or if they are alcohol related and they do not get penalized for calling the police department and so we evaluate each case and we look at the scenario and when i say 60 calls for service those could be traffic by the officers using that address as a point. it could also be a theft report that are not, we are looking forward to the nexus of that particular address if there is an incident. so we heavily rely on and there is brought such the inception and i guess, in january, when the new board members came in, we agree with you, we look at community out reach and we ask every applicant to reach out to

their supervisor, and to reach out via their station and we ask for the captains to put in to their weekly newsletter that there is a new applicant and so we welcome all input, whether it is positive or negative. and then we make an evaluation on that. and essentially, the community we believe is the tail that wags the police department and if we get, positive or negative we look at it and analyze it and we have an open discussion with the applicant and that is why i encourage that we continue this so that we can have that open discussion on the off-sale condition. >> thank you. >> i'm now going to open it up for public comment. just to note, normally, i give the maximum number of minutes allowed which is three minutes. but i do worry about losing a quorum in this case and i know that we have a number of people who would like to speak, so i am going to limit each comment to two minutes. so let me read the names and if you can please line up as i call your name and the middle

aisle and anyone who would like to speak is free to also come up. julie bernel, natalia bushayer. >> henry, carneloist k >> aman do johnson, je. na pell. adam hall. (inaudible) please come on up. push >> please come on up to the microphone and that one. my name is julie pernell and i am a san francisco resident and i am supporting the halls in their business operation at 1 polk street. i am a richmond resident and the halls are my down stairs neighbors and so i have known them for three years and i can tell you with 100 percent support that they will be a huge addition to this neighborhood as business owners. i also in my professional life i have been