>> pilaties. it's a creation, an old regimen of exercise. really based on core engagement and core structure and core development. we do a lot of exercise in developing that and think about lengthening of the spine and our muscles. if you're a runner, if you're into kayaking, martial arts, cycling pilates are for you. >> programs are variety year around at various locations and to learn more come to the >> good afternoon and welcome

to the san francisco small business commission's regular meeting of monday, june 23, 2014. the meeting is called to order at 2:07 p.m. we will conduct a roll call. commissioner adams? >> here. >> commissioner 2019 dwight? >> here. >> [speaker not understood]? >> here. >> commissioner white? >> you have a quorum with 5 commissioners present. commissioners dooley and cartagena are absent. >> public comment? >> public comment and all public comment periods during the meeting is limited to three minutes per speaker unless otherwise established by the presiding officer. speakers are requested but not required to state their names. speaker cards while tionval will help spell names in the written meeting. please deliver cards to me prior to approaching the lecturn. >> do we have any members of the public who would like to make a comment on anything that

is not part of today's meeting? >> seeing none next item, please. >> approval of minutes from the meeting of january 13, 2014, action item. >> we have a motion to approve. >> move to approve. >> second. >> all in favor? >> aye. >> any opposed? motion passes. next item. >> that takes us to item 4, approval of minutes from the meeting of january 27, 2014. action item. >> move to approve. >> second. >> all in favor? >> aye. >> passes 5 in favor none opposed. that brings us to item number 5, discussion and possible action to make recommendations to the small business commission on board of supervisors file no. 140643. this is a discussion and possible action item and we have with us nick pavalotis, staff aide to supervisor eric mar. >> welcome.

>> good afternoon, thank you for getting my name right. [speaker not understood] on behalf of eric mar. thank you for the opportunity to present our proposed legislation. first i'd like to begin by thanking planning staff in particular [speaker not understood] for their incredible work in putting -- in bringing together the consultants from strategic economics to create the recent comprehensive study of formula retail in san francisco. we believe the study was long overdue and it does give us a detail and very well informed look at how formula retail functions in our city. on on june 9th this commission reviewed the planning proposal for existing controls and decided to recommend those proposed changes. our proposal agrees with the overall framing of the issues by ms. rogers. at that hearing, we, too, believe our existing controls are working in the way they were intended to work and that we do not need a radical overhaul, but rather some thoughtful tinkering in order

to update them to reflect our revolving neighborhood context. supervisor mar is committed to giving our neighborhood residents a strong voice in the economic development of our neighborhood commercial corridors and do leveling the playing field for those local independent small businesses that are the backbone of our economy and provide much of the character and unique charm of our various neighborhoods. the legislation that you see before you comes from meetings with community residents in small business owners, and also from an ongoing dialogue with the planning department. i think it would be helpful in order to frame this conversation to start by quoting some of the more telling findings that are found in the formula retail study that i just mentioned. at page 3, "some small independent businesses have struggled to keep up with rising rents even as the city's economic growth has attracted new national brands and allowed

other independent retailer to expand." at page 8, "the formula retail conditional use authorization process allows the planning commission to exercise discretion and respond to case by case concerns raised by community members. the majority of formula retail conditional use applications have been approved. however, in cases where community members have reached a clear consensus that a proposed formula retailer is not desirable and appeared at planning commission hearings, cu authorizations have been denied or withdrawn. at page 7, "formula retailers willingness to go through the formula retail conditional use application process depends on conditions in specific districts. formula retailers are more likely to submit an applications in neighborhoods with strong market demands for new retail and where they anticipate a positive reception by the community. at page 7, "a general re tail

[speaker not understood] appears to depend on factors such as the potential impacts on competing businesses and whether prospective formula retail tenants are filling long-standing vacancieses and/or meeting perceived community needs. in upper fillmore, for example, community members have raised concerns about large established brands competing with independent retailers. the decline in business that serves daily needs and the perception that formula retailers are lessen gauged with the community than independent businesses. along ocean avenue, however, many formula retailers are seen as providing valuable community neighborhood services although can be challenging to ongoing brie laytion ships with them. along gore i boulevard, the community has generally supported conditional use applicationses for formula retail that fills long-standing needs but organized to oppose formula retail that competed with existing small businesses. at page 8, "the relatively low

concentration of formula retail in mixed use neighborhood with formula retail control in place suggest the controls are successfully limiting the amount of formula retail in the city's neighborhood commercial districts, although other factors are likely at play. in addition to the city's formula retail controls, other factors that could affect the concentration of formula retail in different neighborhoods includes the prevalence of formula retail before the control we hadthv into effect and the different retail market street that various commercial districts serve. at page 8, "by creating disincentives for formula retailers to locate in san francisco's commercial districts, the formula retail controls may help lower costs for independent retailers by making neighborhood commercial districts less attractive for formula retailers, formula retail controls may help lower rents in some districts reducing costs for independent retailers." we think that these findings point to a conditional use process that gives community

and decision-makers an opportunity to have a reasoned dialogue that generally reaches rational and reasonable outcomes and that make sense for both residents as well as businesses. we have no shortage of formula retail in san francisco and it generally is found where communities desire it in our city. our legislation aims to close loopholes that leave ambiguity in our code and [speaker not understood] our communities and existing business he and an opportunity to have a say in critical economic decisionses that have far reaching impacts. it also seek to bring a greater level of objective data into the decision-making process and increase civic participation. the following are the major components of our legislation. it expands the definition of formula retail to apply to businesses with 11 or more outlets worldwide as opposed to only within our national borders. here we are in agreement with the planning department's proposal.

it expands the definition to apply the subsidiary businesses that are 50% or more owned by formula retail businesses and here we have, i think, probably one of our major disagreements with the planning department proposal which does not seek to address this issue. it includes retail use he that have not been included until now such as gymnasiums, check cashing outlets, massage parlorses and others. the planning department also seeks to expand the number of uses that are currently -- that are going to be covered under the definition. our list is more expansive than the planning department's, and it includes uses that we believe communities may be concerned about, such ~ as

massage parlors and gymnasiums. [speaker not understood]. impact report and submit that report with its application. the economic impact report requirements specifically exclude small scale formula retail. that would be formula retail that is under 3,000 square feet or where there are multiple outlets already existing in the city that that combination of outlets does not exceed 10,000 square feet. we commend the planning department for also having an economic impact requirement. their economic impact requirement focuses on big box, on projects that are 50,000 square feet or more, and it also goes beyond where existing formula retail controls already exist. so, we stand fully behind that proposal. however, we believe that there are very serious economic impacts that even smaller

formula retailers can have on neighborhoods. we know walgreens, for example, which used to be a traditional pharmacy, has a variety of different goods that it now offers. and for many of the retailers that we talk to, particularly convenience store owners, the presence of those sorts of stores in their neighborhoods is truly problematic and has caused many of them to go out of business. so, we feel that it's important not only to study the impact of large-scale formula retail businesses, but to also scale that down and look at smaller retail -- formula retail impacts. our proposal would also expand notice procedures for formula retail applications, requiring more extensive mail notice, posting, internet notice. we are in the 21st century. and we feel that anything that the department can do to make our communities aware of when these projects are moving into or proposing to move into their neighborhoods, it's something

that should be done. here is another point of difference. we will maintain the number of outlets that's required to be defined as a formula retailer at 11. we know that this is probably one of the biggest, if not the biggest, point of contention not only between our proposal and the department's proposal, but also in the communities that have come out to hearings like this and made their, their voices heard. we do not believe that it is necessary or wise to increase the threshold number. the will of san francisco's voters a expressed through proposition g established that number and we do not believe there is a valid reason to change it at this time. we have been in dialogue with the planning department and continue to be in dialogue with them. we have used the information that's come out of this study to inform our own proposal and we realize that as we move forward, as both of our proposals move forward, there

may be common ground to modify some of the different components that each one of us has in our respective measures and hopefully at the end of the day we can come out with the unified proposal. so, we are continuing to talk to the planning department. that's all i have in term of my presentation. thank you again for the opportunity and i look forward to your questions. >> okay, commissioner questions. want to hear public comment first? okay. let's go right into public comment, then. >> mr. president, i have one speaker card from dee-dee workman. >> welcome, dee-dee. good afternoon. dee-dee workman from the san francisco chamber of commerce. i appreciate hearing the presentation on supervisor mar's formula retail legislation. i was here before you a couple of weeks ago when the planning department staff came and

presented their formula retail legislation to you. i guess i just want to point out the difference -- i think our perception of the difference between the two is that planning spent more than sick months studying formula retail in san francisco. ~ six months their legislation comes out of that study. it comes out of the conclusions of that study. it comes from data and research. it's been carefully examined. there is real method to the madness there. there is a reason why they're recommending that the threshold be lifted on formula retail locationses from 11 to 20, which we fully support. we think that that is an excellent recommendation that supports small businesses, especially local home-grown small businesses that might reach that level and then feel that, you know, the decks are stacked against them to try to go a little bit larger even though that's modest growth. really small businesses you can't compare small local coffee stores with a starbucks,

and so on. and i feel like a lot of the rhetoric that's come out of this lately has really been to kind of demonize our local small businesses that are looking to grow, like people who love them when there is one or two or three, but suddenly they become like evil large businesses when they're 11 or 12, you know. it's just ridiculous. so, i really -- i would really encourage you to take the planning department's approach at looking at formula retail and coming up with legislation, you know, very seriously. and i think that supervisor mar's legislation, while there are some similarities, i think the differences are really kind of these large gaps between them and it really -- supervisor mar feels like it's really the intent is to really stifle larger businesses in san francisco, businesses from getting larger or larger businesses from coming here. we think there needs to be a

balance. we think that neighborhood commercial corridors thrive when this is a balance of all kinds of retail, both large and small and local and national, that that's really what makes a sustainable and active and thriving commercial corridor. so, i think -- so, policies that exist really right out the gate, make sure you're not going to have the larger players in there when sometimes it is apt the larger players that can fill certain places, we think that's a mistake. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> i received a few more speaker cards, mr. president. the next speaker is chris wright. >> welcome. ~ thank you. good afternoon, commissioners. my name is chris wright. i'm the executive director of the committee on jobs. i want to associate my remarks today with those made by dee-dee with the chamber. the chamber put together a

working group of chamber members made up of a large spectrum of businesses and they had some [speaker not understood] consideration with the planning department with its report. and i think that's the report that was produced by the planning commission. it's something that should -- we should all consider and i want to thank you all for your careful look at both these proposals. there's one point, though, that i'd like to bring up that is contained in both supervisor mar's and the planning department's, and that is further restrictions on atms. atms are in the community already. some communities are better served than others. will people go to atms, they get cash ~. they don't get cash to buy something on amazon. they get cash to buy something locally. i know in my neighborhood, supervisor mar's district, there are three or four businesses that i, that i shop at that do not take credit

cards and they only take cash. so, please take that in consideration. there's already restrictions, restrictions on banks themselves self-, bump atms offer access to people, residents that will ease their access to financial services, including cash. and that's something i would ask that you consider. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> mika brown. >> and after that, if karema pierce could be ready. thank you. >> welcome. ~ thank you. my name is mika brown as stated before. i am here to speak for myself, but also to speak for the elderly. my job is a home health aid, cna worker, so, i go into people's homes and i, you know, help them do like cleaning, grocery shop for them. my particular client at present, she loves to go out into the neighborhood.

she loves to go to her local walgreens and pick up her own medicine. she loves to stop by and say hi to her neighbors. and i feel that if stores like, you know, her local walgreens wasn't there or her local cvs wasn't there, then where would she go? she already has a problem with mobility. so, the seniors, the main thing is quality of life for them and that would affect her quality of life. it would affect my job because, you know, instead of us doing it together, which she loves, i would have to do it, which i don't mind doing it, but it's all about, you know, the client. and many times we don't think about our seniors in the community. we don't, we don't -- i mean everything is for kid, kid, kids, but what about, you know, the people that have lived longer than we have? ~ i think that that would -- if more of them could come here and speak for themselves, then they would do that. but, you know, a lot of them don't have that option.

a lot of them don't have money to pay for people like me to come in and help them along with -- to do the thing that they want to do daily. a lot of them are shut in. so, i just need you guys to take into consideration that that would greatly affect our quality of life with them not being able to, you know, take a neighborhood walk and do their own shopping and picking up their own medications. a lot of them do use walgreens, use cvs to get their meds there instead of having it delivered. everybody loves to get out and go for a walk, so, that's it. >> great, thank you. next speaker, please. >> following this speaker, the next speaker will be michelle grady. [speaker not understood]. i'm here to speak on behalf of myself and for the youth. i feel like the bigger stores provide jobs for the youth. i feel like now that it's summertime, we need these jobs

and it keeps us occupied and out of trouble. we need jobs so that when we get older, we can, like, have days that are regulated, a workday and have work experience. in the mom and pop stores, we won't be able to get those opportunities and working with different kind of people because all types of people come to walgreens. everybody shops at safeway and it's just -- so that i'm not just with one group of people that i'm able to talk to whoever and be around different groups of peep. i feel like mom and pops, some of those stores are just specifically for certain types of people when there's like targets and walgreens and stores that everybody shops at. i feel like it's more of a community thing to me, oriented, to be part of that. so, thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> that will be michelle grady. following ms. grady, we have

bobby collins. good afternoon. to me it's about choice and access. i want the choice to spend my dollars in the community where i want to. i want to be able to support businesses that i want to support. one of the things for me is target, and i have the opportunity to witness them support a low-income neighborhood, come in, tear out the whole library, put in an amazing library and fill it with brand-new books. mom and pop businesses are not always able to do things like that. forv me it's also about bigger stores being able to come in, providing better jobs, providing health benefits, and providing a living wage and helping to take the youth off the street, which gives them something to do. a lot of the times they can't find jobs. my daughter applied for the city of san francisco from the

job program. while she did get an interview, too many youth to give job to all of them. we bring in bigger stores, we're able to provide these kids a place to go, a place to work, a play to earn an income, learn how to budget, learn how to save, and get prepared to be viable members of society. san francisco is a very difficult verse city and i'm just encouraging you guys to look at it and open our horizons for more diversity by bringing in bigger store. thank you. >> great, thank you. next speaker, please. hello, my name is bobby. i'm here just speaking on behalf of myself in general, my thoughts, my ideas. i've been a san francisco resident basically all of my life. i moved out to merced a little

bit after i turned 18. and my first job there was like at burger king. in merced, i don't know if any of you guys know it, it's a place where you walk around, there might be stores about 10 blocks away from you. currently, when i moved back to san francisco, i moved and the job market around is not walkable. so, thinking about senior citizens not being able to walk about their neighborhood and access that's correct what i found is in my current neighborhood we don't have that. doe have a walgreens, but i wouldn't suggest seniors walk to it, hills might make it a little hard for them. and then you also have the different jobs that offer the firsthand experience for people my age. like i said, my first job was a burger king job. most people do start off working somewhere small whereas, okay, you're just out of high school. we'll offer you an opportunity to kind of gain a little bit of

experience inside of whatever skill you won't go into in the future, but it's a start. so, a lot of these places will offer jobs to people that are young, people that don't have experience. they're all willing to take more of a risk on these people than mom and pop stores. granted sometimes you can get a job in mom and pop stores, but it's a goal or temping or auntie or grandma or grandpa working in the back the whole time. that's what makes it wonderful, you walk in grandma behind the desk and grandpa hidv the store. that's wonderful. if they're not in the community for the family business, the only thing they're doing is taking money from the community and that's what they're doing. if they live there, perfect. more times they're not. they have somewhere else that they live. but if we're offering bigger businesses to take over the bigger spots that smaller businesses are not willing to take, then you're also willing

-- they're also willing to take residents in that community and offer them jobs or people that are hungry that are in that community that are willing to walk or transport or bus or park or check on them. but they usually come in and take over and kind of -- >> you have 32nd. they usually come over, they come in and it helps the community. then more people are willing to go and apply for a job in their community, that they're willing to make out the spaces that are on that store front. they are making it a little bit brighter, a little bit nicer whereas other people are struggling to invest and marketing. they already have that money. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> the next speaker card is for don saunders and then peter cohan after that.

hello, my name is dawn saunders. i'm speaking on behalf of myself and the youth i work with at larkin street youth services. i work with homeless youth. and the last time i was here i talked about how target kind of opened the doors for a lot of our youth. we work with youth from ages 12 to 24. and when target came to the city and they were doing their, you know, hiring that day, like you get an interview and then you get hired. i never saw my clients so motivated and have so much hope that they're going to get off the streets because they had access to jobs. mom and papa shops, i've never heard of mom and pop shops hiring on the spot in the community, especially youth. our homeless youth are so stigmatized in this city, like

a lot of times people don't even give them the time of day. they have their own assumptions. but when a big businesslike target comes and gives them a chance, like that opens so many doors for them. so, i completely support this, yes. and another thing, having -- not just having more of the big businesses in the city, but where you put them is important to keep in mind because, you know, i live in the bayview and the only place i have to shop is the food co, really, for groceries. and then there's liquor stores galore, but there's one walgreens that i can walk to, that's in walking distance. but i know if, you know, my grad ma, even my father would not want to walk to the walgreens from where it is, from where i live.

so, having these businesses not just put, you know, downtown or in chinatown or, you know, the big tourist money maker places where everybody can go to, but for san franciscans, people from the bayview also, you know, want access to these things. i know i want access to these things. the closest safeway for me is to go where? where do i have to go to go to safeway? i think i go to the one near castro. it takes me an hour to get there and i live in the city, on the bus to get there. that's ridiculous to me. but, yeah, so, if you could take that into consideration, that would be awesome. >> thank you. next speaker, please. good afternoon, commissioners. my name is peter cohen. and i was actually able to work on the formula retail controls ten years ago, 2004, and i

think