when i hear the buzz words that are used to discriminate against a minority group such as medical cannabis patients. the last speaker talked about a healthy mix of businesses. you know, economists talk about a clustering /e effect as an efficient way to increase business. why are there four gas stations around a corner. turns out that's an economic effect because it brings more vitality service and competition. so all of the arguments about a healthy mix -- just sophisticated buzz words that seems to me to undermind the basic principal we're bound to protect here in san francisco which is that if we're /tpwoeupbg to discriminate against people or businesses we have to have a good reason. we can't throw out buzz words, we need statistics. what i would urge you to do, since i believe notice of this

meeting was put out incorrectly by this committee. let's dispel some of the spirit can actually help attract more businesses. we're seeing revitalization of cars in san francisco, let's not give into fear and anxiety, thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> good afternoon, my name is gary. i'm a 15 year resident of san francisco. i live in district 11. i am the president of lucky dragon which is the new application at 3140 mission street. it took over a year for us to find a home at 2130 mission street due to very, very strict zoning laws to find the right property and landlord and it's a bunch of combinations of different things that have to go right in order for that to happen. we at lucky dragon have spent a

/pwupbdz /-l of money getting to this point -- lawyer fees, architect fees, health department fees, grants in social security is a burden, not operating. we feel that it 's unfair for us to be changed the rules on this late in the process of application. what we'd like to say is that if nothing else works, if all else fails, we'd like the supervisors to put in an a grandfather clause for those application that are in already. i have 500 petitions in support of lucky dragon at 4130 mission street. i'd like to pass those along. >> [inaudible] question for you. you had no idea that we were looking at this legislation all these months? because this was in planning commission about

four months ago and certainly was discussed before that so... >> well... >>... you were in the process during permitting, you knew this was coming forward and so tell me right now where do you work? >> i don't work anywhere right now. i used to work for mission organic, i don't work there anymore. in fact, we did receive a determination letter from the city of san francisco, which was a positive letter of determination acknowledging our efforts to open a new mcd and allowing us to go forward with the process and no, i did not know about this legislation at the time of applying for the permit. >> i'm very surprised by that. also, you will be before planning commission when? >> well, that's another thing that's upsetting is that we thought we had ha november 7 date for or dr and somehow it has been moved and cancelled.

also, 4130 block of mission street did not fall under the ordinance when it first came out and somehow the next two blocks all the way down to alemany were swept under the rug and put on to it as well. >> i'm not sure what that means. >> well, it used to mean that the ordinance was going to run from mission and silver, south. now application 4130 is north of silver. >> we wanted to make sure we got the whole commercial corridor. >> right. that was after i already applied. >> then you new about the ordinance? >> after i applied. >> i don't -- okay, sure, all right. thanks. >> hello, my name is joelle

and i support item /thaoe three and four. we need a mix of businesses and we have three mcd's. we don't need anymore. as a as a matter of fact, if if the 5201 club goes in, plus a club at 15 leeland avenue it means the i there will be 6 mcd's within the police department's district. we are bearing the burden because we're so close to the san mateo county border and san mateo does not allow medical dispensaries store fronts or delivery services so people are coming into our neighborhood to utilize our pot clubs. i want to see a mix of businesses on our street around and we do not have that. thank you. >> thank you. >> i'm an attorney and

represent lucky dragon. i wanted to make a couple of points. i /ae agree there were problems with process here. the notice for this hearing did not make the green zone in district 11 along this corridor. the second issue i have is really on the substance of the item number three which is that mcd's and patients alone are going to be subject parking restrictions, or requirements for a parking plan and transportation plan, whereas no other business is subject to those requirements. question is, why is the different treatment? why the unequal treatment when a patient's vehicle takes up no more room than that of a patron of a nail salon, bicycle shop, any other time of business. the third problem that i have with this, supervisor avalos, is that in fact, two public

meetings you indicated you had contacted planning commissioners and staff with respect to these pending applications in order to /pr*efpt them from going forward and we don't think that is proper. that's interference with the department's administration of the law as it exists now, not as you would like it to be at some point in the future. and that is why these applications have been delayed and in fact, they were submitted prior to your legislation and the legislation was expanded. the corridor was expended in order to pick up lucky dragon and those are some of the concerns. there are some others, but there is no need to rush this forward. people should have a meaningful opportunity to participate in this process and this attempt to hush and rush this legislation through is not

right and -- >> thank you. next speaker please. >> hello gentlemen, supervisors, my name is john stone. i've been a registered voter in san francisco for a few years now. as well, i was born very close to here. my mother was born in the city and my grandmother before her. now, i wish to tell you why the -- >> can you speak into the microphone. >> i wanted to tell you how this would directly affect me. i am a cannabis patient, but i also work to the best of my ability and often i work in the area that you are referring to as the so called green zone. one of the problems i' i've

had, even though i don't live in that neighborhood, but i do a lot of work out there, but often time i don't have a lot of time maybe grab some food some place and i go back to where i go, but it makes it much harder for me to have to go to other parts of town. further more i'm sure i'm not the only one in this position, so other people are going to start looking elsewhere for not just your medicine, but their dinner and groceries an things they need after work before they go home and again, you might want to consider that as well. i mean, the [inaudible] could be dealt with and other concerns, you know. i mean, there's obviously the crime is not as much of an element

around, you know, such establishments and time has proven that. for goodness sakes, if anything, you know, it's been limited already. let's not make it worse. thank you. >> okay. are there any other members of the public who'd like to comment? if so, please come forward. right over here. anyone else who would like to comment, please come to the podium. >> good afternoon. my name is gwynn and i'm [inaudible] supervisor avalos's legislation. i live near mrd and i've witnessed increase in foot traffic since it /oefped which i feel is a good thing along commercial corridor, over many residents and merchants feel these businesses are an intrusion into family

neighborhood and they increase loitering, public smoking and other quality of life problems we are dealing with. marijuana smokes contains many of the chemicals as tobacco smoke including cyanide. i don't believe the public was sufficiently warned about these risks or current anti smoking laws are being enforced. we have a large number of schoolings and senior centers and these populations should be considered when determining what types of businesses are good for the area. i think it's good to diss distribute mcd's throughout the cities i am in favor of the legislation. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> hi, thank you.

i'm brian webster. i am the chief of staff at the institute of workers center. i'm here as the spur union representative for local five, united food workers division, medical cannabis division. we have 32,000 members in the bay area and here in san francisco mission organic center in district 11. we had spoken earlier before the meeting, supervisor avalos, and pretty much agreed to disagree on this, buff but i did not realize we have 25 union jobs at mission organics around we want 25 more union ufcw jobs at the lucky dragon at 4130 mission street.

per ufcw it's about the jobs and economic development. we're also for human rights and patient rights, but we take jobs and policy and politics very seriously, especially our union member jobs so we definitely do make endorsements, we count votes and we definitely keep report cards. i ask you to not further restrict the permitting process and wait for the planning department to do its study on expanding the green zone. there's consensus on there and there's a big split where i believe most people against this conditional use, less than 500 feet system. i don't think our union shops should be treated any more different than our safeway union shops or our walgreen's union shops so i am here to

support the workers at mission organics and the future workers at lucky dragon. thank you. >> thank you very much. i'm excited there are unionized medical cannabis workers in the district and actually there's a place that could really use union support and that is the manila oriental market street. it's a great place to organize new workers as well. probably about 25 workers there as well and the neighborhood has a great deal of difficulty with this store because there are deliveries that come all hours of the day, all kind of debris in the parking lot and in the corridor and we know if there was union standards in

this place we would have a much better experience in the neighborhood. that'd be a great thing to see your union helping out with workers there and bringing up standards of the neighborhood. >> my name is kevin johnson. i think there should be more expansions on the cannabis clubs opening up in the city. the people talking about the young people hanging out -- well, if you put 'em all in one spot there's certain places that young people can't go to run into other young people. so that's where your problem come in. there's certain areas of the city, some young people on this side of town can't go to this side of town. you got a problem there. also, in 1981 i was rear ended by a streetcar, i had six operations, they told my i'd

never walk again. i've head every pharmaceutical medication known to man but did it help me? no, my liver, high blood pressure, but medical cannabis has helped me get up out this chair. that's what it's done for me. so there's a lot of other things that you guys need to take a look at. you worried about your kids seeing this stuff. well, they gonna see it anyway. you go by medical cannabis clubs, you don't see anyone laying on street. you go by a liquor store? what you got? you got people laying on the street. this is medicine to us, this is not for the money benefit. this is not for the taxes

benefit. it's medicine. that's all it is. thank you. >> thank you. are there any other members of the publy who'd like to comment? and if not, we can close public comment. public comment is now closed and this legislation is before us live. i think supervisor wiener you have a question about some of the language in the ordinance? >> yes. to mr. star, we were just discussing about the notation for mcd's that's c hash tag which, my understanding that means the conditional use if it's within 500 feet of another mcd? >> correct. actually that's probably a typo. it should probably say p hash tag which brings you to the back of that section that says if you're within 500 feet it requires conditional use.

if it's not within 500 feet of another mcd it doesn't require conditional use. >> is that an amendment we should... >> i would recommend making that amendment to clarify. >> right now it says c hash tag, the hash tag brings you to the end of the zoning section and gives you the description if the mcd is within 500 feet of another mcd it requires conditional uses. i would recommend slashing out the c and putting a p. >> how many sections? >> just one section, one little area. >> okay. we can make that. >> so is there a motion to make that amendment? >> so moved. all right, and we'll take that without objection. >> okay. and thank you member of the public for being here and for expressing yourself on this

legislation. i understand how you -- many of you may believe this i'm associating mcd's with negative activity. i'm actually looking at the association comes with the current negative slide that's happening in our district and how many people in our district feel very uncomfortable with an increased number of mcd's that are coming in while we're seeing the corridor deteriorate with store fronts that are actually not providing really good activity, like, store fronts that are providing internet sweepstakes, gambling, and store fronts that are paying cash for gold and things like that. if we have a corridor that was going in the other direction where we saw a great diversity of businesses coming in where

we saw wonderful neighborhood serving businesses like bike shops and bookstores and clothing stores and art shops, we would see no need to move forward and we would see mcd's could actually enhance what's happening on the corridor. that's not what's happening and i think it's important that residents in our neighborhood have a say so on what the corridor looks like. i have petitions here from [inaudible] organizations and one of the mcd's that wants to start up, lucky dragon. and i'm seeing for the first time that people have checked off on here as residents of district 11. in the 14 years i've lived in district 11 i haven't had a single person come to me who said i need access to medical cannabis. i haven't had one person ever do that. i've been to many other places where

people do that, and at the same time, even though i have not had a single person from district 11 come and say that, i have actually been okay with medical cannabis dispensaries coming into the district. now we have three and what's it saying as a district and residents that we want to keep it at three and not have anymore. that is not restricting access to people who live in the neighbor mood who seek medical cannabis. we have three maces where you can get it. what i do see is by only having a certain part of san francisco that has access for medical cannabis, that we actually have very limited access all around and i want to change that and that's been my second item is all about and why i hope that our board of supervisors could vote in the positively on that to direct our planning department to give us some recommendations for future guidelines and when those come

forward i will move them forward. that's my word. >> thank you supervisor avalos and thank you to everyone on both sides that come out to testify today. first of all, despite the controversy around the mcd's, i want to congratulate the neighborhood for establishing an mcd. i think mcd's are incredibly important in terms of helping to have great vibrant neighborhoods. i know in my district we have two long standing mcd's. it's been really helpful, for example, in these neighborhoods where we probably have every other store front be a bank if we didn't require conditional use for financial services so

it is a very useful tool in terms of having neighborhood commercial districts established and being /aeublg to have that basic level of dialogue and community input for various kind of uses and ensuring a diversity of retail and other uses. i think the dispute here really comes from the fact that we have a really distorted way of -- in terms of permitting medical cannabis dispensaries in san francisco. we have a very significant bubble around schools and other institutions with children, which is understandable why the city put that in place, but what's done is certain parts of the city if you fall outside of

that zone where mcd's can go, and other parts of the city where they can't go, and so you end up having concentrations instead of a little bit more dispersion. early they couldn't actually find a place where it would be illegal under zoning and they gave up. we had an mcd that was able to come into the castro and find a space at 14th and market and the castro is -- because of the hiv epidemic -- a neighborhood where a lot of people need access to cannabis. in three years i've never had a single complaint about that establishment. they're very responsible. there are good actors and not so good actors. i think it's always important to keep in mind that not all

mcd's are created equal. there are some mcd's that i think do a fantastic job. this is, as far as i know, and i confirmed this with department of public health before -- i believe would be the first time that a cu was established for mrd's in san francisco. in the past it's been -- has it happened once before? >> i believe west coral requires -- >> okay. you know, i would like to see a better thought out citywide approach to this. i think that would be extremely helpful 'cause right now i think we're going to start seeing patch work. with that said, i am supportive of moving this out of committee. i would like to suggest that normally if we moved it out it would go to next week, the 29th, instead we put it out to

the 5. i am a believer in trying to finds at least some common ground, if that is possible. we did that actually last week with a piece of legislation that i had setting park hours, we put that out for an additional week to allow some additional time. that's my suggestion that we put it out of committee to the full board of supervisors for consideration on the 5th. for item four i'd like -- that to me is not controversial and i have no problem putting that up for next week unless you'd like to keep them together? >> keep them together. >> so november 5? >> just to be clear, the clause for cu for dispensaries, that provision sunsets with the new

regulations that are citywide so that's written this this legislation so there wouldn't be permanent controls, but would be [inaudible]. >> given how things can sometimes move along in this city, i'm not sure when we'll get there. i suspect these will be in place for quite a period of time. >> i think the entire city and i think the impact that are disproportionate on certain districts should be taken into consideration by each of us. >> i agree and that's why i support moving this out of committee to the full board of supervisors. if someone would like to bottle this up to the full board i would like to do that. i was very impressed by the public comment by the neighbors and neighborhood groups and the

opponents of the legislation. there's a lot of passion on both sides. an extra week for a little extra conversation never hurt anyone and so that would be my suggestion. >> okay. so i could live with it going to the one after the board meeting. what i'd like to do before that is, not to -- i want to [inaudible] go three all these things twice. i actually would like to duplicate the [inaudible] for item number three and send that forward as is with a new amendment to -- that little minor we did. submit that forward to the full board and /kaoeup one in committee. the one in committee i would like to actually make some new language around clust ering so that it's consistent with what i've been saying and what i

have told members of my community that we would extend not the cu for new mcd's, not from 500 feet, but to 1000 feet so that would be consistent with what my word has been in terms of making sure we stay with the rate of this part of district 11. that would be my -- my amendment would be on page 10, change /-g from, like, line two, number 500, crossing out to 1000 and i believe -- would there be any other places i need to make, mr. star, an amendment? >> [inaudible]. >> i don't believe so, but i'll defer to the city attorney. >> city attorney, i don't believe so either, buff the committee could just make the amendment orally without

referencing the particular line my office can then go through and ensure that the references to 500 are changed to 1000 throughout. >> okay, that would be my motion that we duplicate the file, move one with the new amended version that is [inaudible] minor change that goes to the full board to -- >> november 5. >> and then we keep one in committee that has a new distance from existing mcd's of 1000 feet. >> okay. so we'll dunely duplicate the file and the first motion is to prove move the previously amended to the full board to be heard on november 5 and take that without objection. then the second motion is to make the amendment that super /sroeuz