report sustaining san francisco living history is our response as a historic preservation organization to increase the displacement of long-standing local businesses and nonprofit and arts organizations in san francisco which, of course, is a very timely issue this past weekend the san francisco chronicle had a lead editorial engrossed the city to do more to help the assets in facing displacement in san francisco for those of you not familiar with san francisco heritage we're 4 that-year-old historic preservation organization our initial focus in our early decades was primary an architecture presentation, however, in recent years increasinglyly we've focused on cultural heritage preservation

this is a timely topic in san francisco as we see in the news everyday to give you some examples of why we undertook this report and felt the need need to do so first of all, let me describe with cultural heritage assets are their primary intentively cultural heritage nonprofits and cultural establishment not protected by traditionally landmark protections we've found like marcus books that the landmark protection will not help those businesses find a way to find protection against evicts and rent increases or provide assistance with property acquisition that is so necessary included in the second slide

examples of ongoing issues related to cultural heritage assets including the elbow room this evening there's a preapplication meeting in the community where they will discuss plan to demolish that building and replace that with a 5 story residential building that displaces that building the club the building next door is demolished for a residential building that shows very much related to your discussion before us oftentimes those places are threatened by new adjacent places that make them incompatible a long term gay bar in the mission that closed last year and the recognizing i didn't theater that is facing renewal and the operators are concerned about their digital

ability to afford the space and marcus books i'm sure our unanimously amount they declared a landmark to have funds to increase the rent because the property was purchased by a new owner and sam a labored in chinatown that was opened as a restaurant for over a century and had to close because of a code violations i wanted to point out as well our focus with this report has been an incentive based approaches in addressing this issue rather than regulatory controls as the initial step we'll discuss later on our recommendations are based on a number of case studies and effective approaches adapted by another cities phasing the same issues i'm going to turn it over to

desiree smith your preservation manager at heritage she's on the front line in mission and south of market with the filipino community and addressing some of those issues she'll provide further background. >> good afternoon, commissioners so this next slide with are a series of existing cultural heritage initiate initiative that are underway in the city for several years the first been japantown heritage the economic stblth strategy that was a 10 year plus practice those process that grew out after a japantown town and 2001 that created the chinatown pilot project that process included the writing of the statement of the neighborhood and the cultural heritage inventory of various

cultural heritage asset the effort was lead by the japantown in participating with the connective development xhouflt firms and department of workforce development through their investment program the end result included the needs for assessment and japantowns future for the economic base strategy as a historical cultural with the just a minute community we have a historical district south of market one focused one is aimed at preserving the filipino cultural resources and the second on lgbtq resources in that neighborhood neighborhood those reports awhile distinct from each other offer similar ideas of upper and zoning

programs to conserve social areas draft report describing the proposed cultural report were presented to this economy in 2011 so then in 2012, the historic preservation commission to the h pc the two folks presented a cultural heritage designation program for the assets as well the districts they offered idea around economic incentives like a property tax abatement for the fee waiver were designated as like festivals and other cultural affairs then san francisco heritage our organization in 2012 launched

the legacy bars and restaurant program we have the detail on the slide legacy bars and restaurant is a initiative to bring attention to the san francisco bars and restaurant initiative we have on online website people can go and learn about their favorite neighborhood establishment and we'll learn later on in the presentation this has led to the proposed policy initiatives around creating a citywide legacy and lastly i'll mention the latino cultural districts as well as the latino contract statement too initiatives underway to recognize the latino heritage throughout the city of

san francisco the latino district is specific to 024th street and both of those initiatives are still underway so back in 2013 last year the heritage felt that all of those initiatives were great but lacking a cross communication between the various neighborhoods and planning department and the organization so we really toptsz bring everyone together to move forward with those projects on a citywide level and so we organized a community summit called the san francisco living history and partnered with local community groups the planning department and the oewd and had two panel discussions one discussion of existing initiatives and identifying the challenges and the afternoon we spent a good portion of the day

discussing solutions around the problems and challenges our main challenge is identified, of course, displacement being a major focus in addition there were other choojdz identified including aging building stoke to make capital improvements and distribution and the murals and traditional practitioners and leadership the difficulties with the nonprofit organizations a loss of identity amid the missed opportunities because of the lack of heritage programs and an out growth of on and on cladz to other parts of city or regions so since the 2013 community

summit we've concluded extensive research and summarized our finding in a report that entitled the same san francisco's living history and have a series of recommendation we contained 16 case studies from d o s and aboard including the private-public partnerships and community efforts all the case studies are in economic policies or marketing or education and next i'm going to turn it over to mike to talk about more compelling case studies that talk about the problem of displacement. >> thank you. i building that all of you have received a copy we brought executive summaries i want to highlight a bunch of

studies 16 in the report but pertinent to the issues of displacement and recognition are covered in the next slide and to give you an idea of the range of the policy solutions that the international cities had pursueed to he'd the diversity of cultural heritage in their cities the first is the assets of community value program in loped which enables community to nominate cultural landmarks and businesses for a designation as an actually community value in turn triggers a number of rights so for example, if a particular a class of resources is threatened in london is pubs and many have been designated as efforts of community value that enables if

there's a proposed sale it places a moratorium on the sale for 6 months and allows the community to purchase shares to purchase the property that's been done in several instances an interesting model to look at it and many of our recommendations in the report are drawn from this particular program also the bars program in argentina this is an inspiration for the bars and resident program and an inspiration for supervisor campos regulatory legislation that will be coming before you this program recognized designates restaurant and bars that are emblematic of bonding airs and got a official designation and plaques as well

as small grant to make capital improvements thirty to their businesses that's an example of american people approach other than regulation can be effective to those long term spasht that's what we hope to accomplish with the program the virtual program in perris this is perhaps the most extreme approach by a city government actually in paris they purchase property and leases that back to the diefrd mix of businesses to maintain that exist that traditional diversities like bookstores in particular like in this country are sclog at an alarming rate in paris that program is only a

couple of years ago but paris opposes a couple of hundred property and leases them back we have an exciting model here in san francisco with the community arts stabilization trust that of formed on a few years ago to have that for the arts organizations they've purchased two buildings their motto and purchase the building and lease that back with the intent to have the organizations bye the property and levenld other initiatives like transferable rights to help with the purchase of the property and in new york city they have one program in return for a landowners willingness to enter into long term nonprofit leases their give a tax abatement to

date there's only would one association center in new york but fully occupied with nonprofit tenants i'm sorry as you can see in the which you have summary a bunch the recommendations i want to focus on the sunset where heritage fields are for city action what we believe the priorities should be for the various city agencies that in some way interface with the heritage assets before i get into that i want to share a few recent developments since we've issued the report in september the preservation has held a series of elements for the general plan they've included policy in the proposed

element that addresses social and cultural resources to our knowledge is the first city to do so in this city the h pc taunted that in a number of hearing involve 2 henry adams and how the city through it's planning policies can recognize the significance of those resources and also help stabilize and sustain them over time then, of course, supervisor campos is proposed legislation or legislation to create an official legacy business registry in san francisco modeled after our restaurant program we're proud of we've

worked closely with supervisor campos in drafting in legislation it goes beyond the legacy including manufacturing and performance venues many of the types of places and businesses and establishments that are most threatened right now in this current economic climate it also changed our criteria and reduce the threshold to thirty years instead of 40 years this is the recognition for the stanford university that many of those businesses are most challenged when there's a first generations to the next based on are stakeholder meetings with a variety of those businesses the threshold was lower and it was a low barrier to entry to be on the registry, however, to quality for some of

the financial incentives especially a rebate they those businesses have to demonstrate their plan and how you demonstrate significance to go our local community okay. now to the priorities for city action as mentioned the preservation element is ongoing i understand it is going to come be implemented within the next few months and up for adaptation obviously a low hanging fruit to improve that element with the cultural heritage resources in there and we've tried to i don't know if you can see it in particular thence which is more relevant to

each recommendation i failed to note we've previously made a preservation to the historic preservation and made those same recommendations as mentioned by desiree there are many existing social heritages within the city unfortunately and the city and planning department deserves tremendous credit in developing the policies and doing extensive outreach to try to recognize a boarder range of social and cultural will assets and in some cases like japantown there's plans adapted, however, every effort is not implement we feel it is really before the city move forward we feel there meetings needs to be consistent misdemeanor doing and terminology for all the efforts

for them to move forward and that's one of our primary recommendations the historic preservation formed a heritage on assets to table that as part of the next recommendation as part of the legacy business registry the office of open space will be required to report back to the board of supervisors a in june of next year with a series the recommendation for how the city can further help those businesses beyond the rebate it is a modest incentive and as well as the center on that report and there are a whole class of students actually working on surveying the businesses as we speak and

legislation to be adapted. >> i want to thank you for the presentation the former time has expired. >> i don't know. i ran out of the time in in conjunction with the western selma my understanding is some of the two social districts in selma were identified and those related to the filipino community and lgbtq and we feel with the massive up going on for central selma that overlaps those districts interests an opportunity for the city to take formal action to recognize the heritage to make

sure they're not los lost in the development south of market so that concludes my presentation. thank you, again, for the opportunity i'm happy to take questions you might have. >> thank you opening it up for public comment is there any public comment? okay none public comment is closed i want to thank sf heritage for this presentation i'm in the registry san francisco is so expensive the case studies you've pot forward from others countries that is encouraging it's going to take deep dollars so the dollar exemption is a good start but in london and our own cultural programs are great models and

needed to stabilize to the department i know that this work actually, it can't stand alone in the preservation element or this presentation we have to talk about it when we do our area plan so maybe the opportunity was kind of lost in western i don't want to say lost missed in western selma land use is core to preservation we can't add on programs after we have to have land use controls to prevent displacement knowing that central selma is the last for now area plan that the department will be working on it is great that mr. kelly is here today, the citywide group is thinking where to go and if it's an in the direction of

neighborhood model the report how neighborhoods have self-determination how they meet their goals and the department what play a role in technical solutions they have a sense of that but they're that's great roll for the department to play. >> commissioner antonini. >> thank you for a wonderful presentation a couple of words of not caution but making sure we evaluate the entire history for example, in many of our areas they've changed ethnicly over the years like north beach and jackson squad car been an italian area but the international settlement and the same the south of market the filipino area you spoke about

before they were there it was an relishing and greek area we're not tied to an ethnic group but the entire history of the area from the beginning of san francisco and that we you know make sure that everyone in the whole city weeks ago in on how the heritage is going to be preserved and preserve as much as you think, in reference to businesses families will decide they don't want to deal with a business case in the joseph west lakd not in san francisco the same what apply they decided no tosto run it and other family bought it hopefully, will have the same name similarly to what is there now anything we can do

to encourage but while it's important to empower the people that live in a particular neighborhood at the present time they're part of the people that have gone through the area for a couple century your work is really good and appreciate of the materials. >> thank you commissioner richards again, i echo exactly with commissioner antonini said a fantastic presentation i got excited and i think it is hardly a week goes by without hearing another legacy business up for sale the lecture it was another club and 6 months ago we have the eagle thank god they have a share program people reopened the business but the property

ended up selling shareholders and another one in noah valley again legislation about how to get people to buy shares in a business this is the time i echo commissioner president wus comments about incorporating something in the selma plan around displacement and what the heritage district offer in terms of protection someone can help me. >> i'll address that for both of the proposed districts in selma they have a number of different strategies one of the core kind of regulatory recommendations to create a process call certificate of heritage compliance that would require proposed developments to demonstrate that either they're going to be retaining the

original use or tenant in the new development or if the business is not wanting to continue some kind of community relate use this is one interesting model in that case the developer could qualify for a immensity buns bonus the heritage has some restoration it's it's something worth looting there are a bunch of the strategies to identify and recognize the establishment a that's what we tried to accomplish to address commissioner antonini's comment been the changed we need to recognize that that's part of the reason to look at the

approach initially in terms of the registry those are tied up for businesses to elect that businesses are proud of their legacies to quality for assistance over the course the city helps businesses, of course, in mid-market and strong case for the long-standing businesses. >> what's interesting in the other proclaiming discussion on the discussion on the nonprofit and legacy businesses in my view so that's something i'll be looking for criteria around future projects. >> commissioner moore. >> two comments of appreciation that you're doing it at the time you're doing it i greatly appreciate our underpinning the statement for world cities is

not a notebook and cranny country but paris i appreciate this warning to the planning department and staff mr. kelly to really take a board and anymore comprehensive look at this juncture i don't think that the central selma plan can pass which indeed address what was presented as you're looking across the city the one neighborhood you didn't mention was chinatown the closing of the empress of china with no mitigating idea yet presented it will fall within a legacy registering