>> okay, we are on.

>> good evening and welcome to the april 14, 2014, meeting of the san francisco small business commission and the meeting is called to order at 5:32 p.m. and we will conduct a roll call. >> commissioner adams? >> here. >> dooley? >> commissioner dwight. >> here. >> ortiz-cartagena. >> here. >> riley. >> commissioner tour-sarkissian. >> here. >> commissioner white? >> here. >> the commission has a quorum with six members present. >> item two, general public comment, this is a discussion item. >> do we have any members of the public that would like to make a comment on any items that is not on today's agenda.

>> seeing none, public comment is closed. >> item three the approval of the march 24th regular meeting minutes. >> move to approve. >> second. >> all in favor, aye. >> that motions passes. >> the next item of business, is welcoming the new small business paul tour-sarkissian, so welcome to the commission. >> thank you. >> thank you mr. president. i request to speak. >> go ahead and speak. >> okay. >> and well, thank you for giving me the opportunity to introduce myself. i would like to start out by thanking the mayor for making it possible to serve on the commission with you. and i had the chance to meet with our director and acting secretary. who briefed me on the ongoing matters before you.

and told me also, how the work that you have been doing in this commission. so i... looking forward to bringing my contribution to this commission. and so briefly about myself, i have been a resident of san francisco for 34 years. and i lived in the inner richmond with my wife and two kids. i came to san francisco after growing up in lebanon and getting my education and my college education in france. i went to, i attended law school at usf. the being a co-founder of my firm for the last 26 years. as a small business of ten members, i am well aware of the

many advantages of running a business in san francisco and the challenges, of course. as an attorney, i handle business matters, state planning and trust administration and state administration matters. i would present a lot of business and new businesses and the system in the food industry. >> oh, great. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> welcome aboard. >> thank you. >> welcome. >> next item, please? >> it brings us to item five, discussion and possible action to make recommendations to the board of supervisors, on four legislative proposals related to the development of a plaza program in some city owned plaza, and this is a possible action item and you will notice four proposals have been identified and they are all interrelated to the plaza program and so i suspect that the presenter will discuss them altogether and but they are

specific questions and be specific if the recommendations vary on a particular item. >> good evening, commissioners robin, of the office of economic and workforce development. and get the height right here, and i am a little short. >> welcome. >> and so we come to you today with the informational presentation about a new urban plaza stewardship program that we thought that you would like to know more about, it is aimed at supporting communities and the efforts to activate the plaza and the program is for the city owned spaces that fits the specific criteria that are outside of the traditional rec and park jurisdiction. this is a packet that creates the creation of the proposed program and so we would like to take your time today to describe the programs. >> i will make a short presentation about the program and myself and lisa and ken rich, from the office of economic and workforce development will make themselves available for

questions. >> thought that i would start with the context 6789, and san francisco is known nationally for the innovative of enhancing the public realm and especially in the way that sustain stewardship models and support civic participation, the planning develop has the improvement of the parks program and in that it allows the parklets to be built and maintained by the adjacent property owners and also do the plaza that claim the under used roadway in the city and dpw have paired up for the streets parks program and that allows the community members to steward small little bits of public right-of-way in their neighborhood like median and stairways, and additional stewardship program is the sidewalk project and that is

the friends of the urban forest and all of these will help with stewarting the public realm. >> and the city's developed stewart ship partnership that support the sidewalks and the medians and transforming of parking spots in the urban oasis but the city has yet to develop a similar approach, and so we thought that we will tell you more about what we mean by the plaza to begin with. >> it includes that they are generally spaces over 2,000 square feet and city owned right-of-way or property and they, again are outside of rec and park jurisdiction and located in the active areas, like commercial corridors or other activated areas, and they also need to have an existing community process around this public open space as well as a need for activation and maintenance, and i would like to point out that they invest

in the neighborhoods and the business improvement program, have worked with merchant groups city wide to address under utilized spaces such as these plaza and have heard an interest from these groups in activation to bring vitality to the small, urban spaces and enhance the strength of these commercial corridors. so is challenge is that even though they enhance the city goals and the long term management plans may not be clear and so these spaces may have emerged throughout the city but usually individual city departments have been working to solve their longer term plans on a case by case basis and often reinventing the wheel with every opportunity and not coordinating among the city departments and so that is kind of how it is right now and we are proposing to a systemic

approach to that. >> so i described on the slide the city plaza that they could emerge from, i would like to say that it is not about creating plaza but supporting them as they emerge from the various city initiatives so as you can see, on the left-hand side, there are lists of examples, including invest in neighborhoods like i just talked about and the payment to parks and it can be area plans as well as in-kind agreements through the planning department and san francisco has many ways to help these spaces emerge. but sometimes when they emerge, from these various city efforts there might be a need for more activation and maintenance than the city's existing resources can support. that is one of the reasons that we are developing this plaza program today and the tools developed by the program will help to support the communities when they want to have more robust, long term strategies for these unique spaces.

a little bit more structure here for the program and there are really three main parts to the program and one is that we propose to coordinate city effort and one of the ways that we are doing that is to stream line the event permitting processes to encourage activation and so many groups around the city have said that they are interested in activation in the public spaces whether they are farmer's markets or music or cultural events and often times the process of doing permitting for these events can be cumbersome and often expensive and so what this program proposes is that for activation in these designated plaza they are lowered and less process in getting the activation and to encourage the activation in the spaces. also, it involves community based stewards throughout the process and so it support local out reach effort and potential

stewards will present the plaz plans and so when there is a potential steward for the space for most of the types of plaz a there will would be a non-profit and the city will release an rfp and they would have to bring a robust developed plan that describes what they would like to do with the space usually for a term of three to five years. and these would require and demonstration of local support like from property owners and nearby institutions like churches and schools as well as neighborhood and merchant organizations like business improvement districts or community benefit districts and so they really have to demonstrate how to support the space, and all of the plaza and potential plaza need the board supervisor and adoption approval. the program that we are proposing today is a program without the specific plaza and the plaza would come on line, be adopted by the board of

supervisors. they have jurisdictions on this, and one is right-of-way and spaces that are still streets and one is the city property is not owned by the rec and park jurisdiction and so the city plaza you can see number one there are plaza that are still on the city right-of-way and for some reason, the city needs to keep them in the right-of-way and they still need to remain in the streets and there might be vehicular access that is needed for a driveway, but it has to stay in that type of jurisdiction. and the other type is a city plaza and so that is when the space is no longer a city street and those are really the two types of plazas for the first time of the street plaza they would engage in a new type of permit to have that talk about how they are managing the space and for the city plaza

they would engage with a license of the city that would outline the parameters of the agreement. i thought that i would show you some examples here of activations since we mentioned the activation, these are examples city wide that they take place in the public space and some are them are well known like farmer's market and music events but you can see that there is really imaginative approaches to really activating space? ways that have a wide variety of interesting ways, my favorite one is the crochet jam, so that is the neighborhood volunteers teaching the folks how to crochet and the game nights as well as a big one. >> now that i have talked about the types of plaza and the potential uses and let's get to the question for a steward for the plaza might be identified and this is really at the core of the program and on the left there is a green box and that represents the plaza emerge

from the different city initiatives. and some of the ones that i mentioned before like it could have emerged from invest in neighborhoods, or pavement payment to the parks and at that point, city will decide if there is not enough resources to provide the long term benefits they would look to identify jurisdictionally whether it should be a city or a street plaza and two types that i described earlier and for example, the city plaza would have a request for proposals and process that you see at the top that ends in a board of supervisor approval process. and your overview that you have in your packet has a much more detailed version of this but i thought that i would give you the simplified one. >> so, the legislative summary, i know this is on your agenda you have the four pieces of legislation and we wanted to tell you about how they tied together and so the main part is the administrative code chapter 94 and so this is a new

chapter that we are proposing to add to the administrative code that describes this plaza program and has all of the goals and the structure of the program in one place. and it has some supporting elements in different codes so these are parts of different codes that are needed to have support the plaza program function including the planning code that will help to activate and allow the activation in the city plaza that we described and the public works code amendment will establish that type of street encroachment and the police code is an interesting one because it actually helps to do some of that stream lining of permitting for the events in the spaces and so for example, the police code one is really aimed at the high barriers that there are to doing music right now, and music, events that include music in these public spaces. if you want to do a small event, you have to pay about $400 per event which is a

barrier than those interested in adding music to the spaces and those would lower the barrier by making it a yearly license of about 150 dollars. and so, and it adds enough process and lowers the barriers for those events. and this is a joint effort of the office of workforce and economic development along with the real estate division and the department of public works and those are the three main departments collaborating here and we have initiated the working group where we can see the members of that group on the bottom of the slide. and because this is a city wide program that we are proposing, additional out reach will

happen with every plaza that is proposed using all of the neighborhood groups around that particular plaza but we have taken an approach of trying to reach out to the stake holders city wide in this part. we are having an open house on tuesday and so if you like to learn more you are very much invited. >> 1, south, van ness and i will and i am happy to e-mail the invite to maybe christian or regina to pass it along to you, it is at 6:00, on the 22nd. >> okay, great. >> in the conference room. >> so, we also in the process of our out reach, because we introduced our legislation, way back at the end of january, we have gotten a lot of feedback, and very constructive feedback that has helped us learn where we can clarify the presentation more and clarify what the program is about and also we have agreed to make some legislative changes that address some concerns that arose. i will not go through all of these for the sake of time but

happy to answer the questions about any. i did want to point out the second from the bottom, the issue about formula retail and approved plaza and note that we are proposing to add additional language to the amenment to require that the formula retail in the plaza adopted under this program requires a conditional use permit. >> and in conclusion, i just want to summarize some of the high points of the program that it supports local stewardship efforts and enhances local economic development, goals. and enhances coordination and city wide and collaboration among many groups and continues to strengthen san francisco's vibrant communities and we think that this program could help to support the city's ability to provide more safe, clean and active city owned open pace and with that i am happy to take your questions. >> commissioner dwight?

>> great presentation, i have a question. can the events generate ren revenue and then it goes on to say, you can but you can retain some of it for stewardship and any would go back to the city and however, some of the allowed uses are for profit activities like a farmer's market and so i assume that the participants can generate profit for themselves. but, the money that would come from say, renting a booth or something like that is what is captured in this faq here. >> yes, and amenly realized that i left that bullet on my presentation here and i want to point out that you are correct that the revenue generated by the steward of the plaza and that may mean a fee for a booth in a farmer's market and that can only go back to that plaza and it also, if there is additional funds that they

generate a lot of revenue over time, we have set it up to go to cross fund other plazas in the program or the administration of the plaza program, but you are correct, thank you for the clarification. >> commissioner dooley. yeah, i want to thank you all and it sounds like a great idea, but i wanted to ask for an example of what formula retail would ever be considered appropriate for this program? >> well, that is one of the reasons we actually added continual use so that a vetting process can really happen i will say, that we have had concerned about the it in the plaza and generally that is very large chains like nationwide ones and one of the reasons that we think that the formula retail it possibility might be appropriate, is because some of them in san francisco, are quite small.

some local businesses actually do qualify as form law retail when they might just have over the limit of the number. for example a coffee cart, even though it falls in the large category and we would like to give the opportunity to think about whether that use is appropriate for their neighborhood. >> anyone could be a sponsor of an event and so you could imagine a large corporate sponsor of the event and should be allowed to have a booth at the event and say starbucks and they were selling their coffee or even just doing a tasting that is something requiring a permit. and this will be continual use. >> continual use, yes, and the continual use process, those uses of the space, that are especially long term so that was a certain that came up and someone could put a large chain restaurant and i think that you can think of some of the names of those and that would not be

any vetting that have and that is why we thought this was an appropriate addition to the legislation. >> commissioner ortiz. >> it is well thought out and a lot of out reach and so i thank you for that. the question and it popped up and i know the answer to any commission and they gave out to the merchant and some of them are established in the plaza not officially, i was wondering if a steward came in and would they be considered as existing? you are talking about the street arts program? >> we don't foresee any of the plaza because those are established boundaries to the arts program, right? >> yes. >> does it continue and there is a plasa that has the artists.

whatever is allowed, would be grandfathered in, and incorporated into any future plaza. >> commissioner white? >> i have an interesting question, just as a private plaza that are used for community activities i know in my community, the plaza has been recently activated with a grant, you know from sf beautiful. >> you are saying that it is privately owned land and they are going activation on it? >> yes, those would not fall in this program, this is for the spaces that are only city owned.

they would not be limited to not doing that in the plaza. in fact, they did a temporary activation that was kind of one of the inspirations for the program and a future space in the cop and hub plaza.. >> how many venues are there in the city? >> none now, because we don't have the program and then it will be added and you know, i can that there is, and we wrote in the legislation that the goal was to attempt to have 3 or 4 before the end of the physical year. because we have at least that many that are in or have the needs that could be met by these tools. and if the communities, you know want to have them as part

of this program. >> what are those locations? so the one is actually the cop and hub plaza and that has done a lot of community out reach about how to activate that dead end that they see as not as an aspect to the neighborhood and there is a lot of crime and bumping and things that are happening and not contributing to the neighborhood and they have been on board to the activation of the space and these tools will help the activation happen easily. >> okay. >> commissioner rilely? >> my question is similar to commissioner dwight. >> do you have a list of all of this plaza? and why is it not under the recreation and parks department? >> the reason that it is not under the rec and park commissioner is that this is a set of tools for spaces when there are not enough resources under the rec and park to address that specific space.

so, any time that it arises the question is could this be part of the rec and park and so this is a set of solutions when the rec and park either is not the right fit because it is for parks, or just is not not and it is not going to happen that way. and so, it is a good question, why it is not under rec and park, but it is really a set of tools that will help to address those spaces that are not addressed by rec and park and so the other question that you had about a map and a location. is a tricky one for us, and there are quite a few, eight or ten or so, many of them the community process is not really fully done and so us showing a map of where they are going to be would not be in the process

and helping to decide on a case by case process and if there is not a full environmental review done for a plaza that it could put us in the jeopardy to say that there is a plaza and there will be a plaza in that location, but it has been, you know, the planning commission had similar feedback and, so we would really consider that. >> and current plaza like jay warner plaza would fall under this and even though they are already established >> they would not, and no plaza will fall under this program, unless they were proposed to be adopted there is not any automatic slide in and to that end, the plaza is a space that has the temperature use through it. >> and i know that you guys have done the out reach over there and everybody appreciated it especially with the entertainment portion and yes, they have been doing a great temporary activation in that space, and so it does, of the

criteria that i just described for the plaza it hits a lot of those boxes. commissioner riley, why does this fall under the rec and park. >> i was a part that have and we did approach park and rec and because it is a street and technically a street and if you look at that plaza when you drive by, there are mechanicnysings in there and so in case there is an emergency, all of the potted plans get moved and everything gets moved and you can, you know, bring in the emergency vehicles in there and the emergency train for twin peaks ton sxl that is why it never went and stayed with dpw instead of park and rec, and i know the other one, san jose, and it is the same thing it is like they have it so in case they need to activate the street they can activate the street and they get the use. >> yes. >> which is amazing. >> that is an excellent clarification, is that some spaces don't lend themselves to being taken out of the

right-of-way. this is a great option for these spaces. >> let's take the public comment. do we have any members of the public that would like to make a comment on item 5 on either a, b, c, or d? seeing none, public comment is closed. >> moved to approve. >> second. >> and before we do, i want to thank you, because i have been involved with this, so that i, you know, the la of the five or six years, but some of the ones in my neighborhood and i helped to start a couple of farmer's markets and i do know for a fact that you did do the out reach for the farmer's markets which does a lot of the neighborhood markets in the city and i know that you were talking about the castro, and the beautiful mgm management and so you really have done your homework and i got to

thank you all for doing that. because when i know that when you talk about these groups, they are all excited and you get them excite and that is what it is all about and so thank you. and so on that motion, we have a first and a second. >> could i get clarification for the maker of the motion does that include the recommendation of approval for the future amendments including the retail requirements. >> yes. >> commissioner adams? >> yes. >> dooley. >> yes. >> dwight. >> yes. >> ortiz-cartagena. >> yes. >> commissioner riley. >> yes. >> commissioner tour-sarkissian. >> yes. >> commissioner white. >> yes. >> it passes seven votes in favor and none opposed. >> takes usit