to consider accommodating businesses that previously were rejected from the prior program and are now in the cu process to possibly reapply under the new program. >> right. >> switch tracks, basically. >> i'm sorry to interrupt, but president adams, can i ask a clarifying question? >> yes. >> the motion on the floor, the word bar, does that refer to the physical bar or a liquor license that allows for the sale of hard liquor? >> no, a physical bar. >> thank you. >> so i think per your intent commissioner dooley, that restaurants who are opening a restaurant that has a bar and a restaurant would not be eligible for the cb3p >> how about a liquor cart? >> yes. >> a hard liquor cart. >> i've actually seen that. >> then allowing, then making recommendation to the planning

commission to --. >> consider. >> to consider a process that allows current applications to be eligible to enroll. >> right. >> that would be eligible for the cb3p to enroll in that program. >> all right, so is there a second on that motion? >> second. >> all right, so roll call. commissioner adams, yes. commissioner dooley, yes. commissioner dwight, yes. commissioner ortiz-cartagena, yes. commissioner yee riley, yes. commissioner

tour-sarkissian, yes. all right, so that passes 6-0. >> great. >> next item, please. >> item no. 9 --. >> go away, dan. >> a presentation on the planning commission small projects team. thank you, kanishka, for being here. the planning department has established a team of planners dedicated to small projects only. this is something director rand just announced to the commission yesterday. i thought we would take the opportunity, since mr. sider is here, to have him present to the commissioner on this.

>> what's going around is not pleasant. thank you again, commissioners. for the record, dan sider with the planning department. i promise to be quick this time, commissioners, i have 5 slides. i'm here just to give you, as your executive director reported, a very brief update on the planning department small project team and like everything else coming out of our shop these days, this, too, has an acronym. so let's talk about the sprot >> you guys are creative. >> commissioners, the sprot is a program that's largely in response to -- tough to see here on the board right now -- but frankly some startling numbers about permit volumes. they are exciting but they are also a little intimidating, frankly. last year, last fiscal year the city issued

more than 25,000 building permits. about a third of them, a little over 7,000, needed to be reviewed by our department and of course 1300 were subject to more non-over the counter review. 1300 permits. now what's important is that just because we had those permits routed upstairs for a more detailed review, it doesn't mean they were necessarily large projects or complex projects. it could be things that are minor additions or neighborhood notice, something that just couldn't quite be handled at our information counter. so what do these 1300 permits translate to in terms of time? six months to get assigned to a ceqa planner, two to four months if you are lucky to get assigned to our planner that

handles entitlements and this does disproportionately impact small projects that don't have the financial backing to cover the carrying costs for that kind of delay. obviously commissioners they very far from ideal. our response to this, commissioners, has been to hire people but not only to hire people but to hire them strategickally. we'll talk about what the sprot is in just a second, but right now we have 5 planners assigned to it with another 3 likely over the next several months. so the sprot is this sort of unique approach to dealing with the particular part of our backlog, projects that don't require a planning commission action or a zoning

administrator hearing, these are generally what we call our small projects. they could be residential additions or changes of use, certain kinds of new construction. i think very importantly for this group, perhaps, the fourth kind of sub-bullet there which is interagency permit referrals, this is when the police department or the health department or the abc sends a referral to us saying, hey, we're about to issue a liquor license, is it consistent with the planning code. often times they comes at the very final stage of the permitting process for one of those agencies so a 30 or 60 or 90 day delay is very impactful. it's catastrophic sometimes for small businesses. the team is unique in our department because our current planning division, those that handle entitlements, are structured geographickly. so this is a city-wide triage team that gains some efficiencies

that aren't found in the department. unlike other sections of the department we have made an effort to fully staff this so this is up and running now and since the middle of december it's been really producing some good work which you will see on this final slide here. by any measure we are satisfied with the sprot outcomes thus far. we have dramatically decreased processing times for both small and conventional projects. small projects typically get assigned in 3 business days, work begins within a week. this actually has a spill over effect when it comes to conventional projects because those planners who were handling the small projects now have a smaller backlog so they are freed up to move faster with those complex and in the four-ish weeks since sprot has been fully staffed, we have had 110 building permits that have been reviewed or approved and

55 of those interagency referrals that have been acted on and are out of our shop right now. commissioners, i hope this has been useful or maybe even encouraging. that's all i have for you right now and i'm happy to answer any questions you to answer any questions you may have . >> commissioner dooley. >> those things that aren't needed for public review, who makes that call. >> it's made by the staff at the information counter and it's generally a very objective decision-making process. if the planning code requires a hearing, if there's a project of a certain scale, we have guidelines, requires design review it will get routed upstairs. >> and once again is there a mechanism for public to tt

public note fieed something is going to go through under this, if the next door neighbor doesn't like this? ?oo to a member of the public the process is invisible. >> so the public will still have their possibility of input one way or the other? >> absolutely, it's the same exact process, just on a more reasonable timeline. >> commissioner dwight. >> i'm just wondering if there are cb3p and sprot tee shirts available in the coffee shop. >> no, but we do have coffee mugs. >> i think this makes sense just like the express line in

the supermarkets and banks. not everybody has to wait in line. >> this is awesome. i don't know who came up with this, but this is, again something that just -- it will make life a lot easier and you said some things about the last minute through the police or the -- it can be catastrophic. i've seen that happen when something is going to be approved and all of a sudden it's not and it's another 3, 4 months, especially when people are paying rent. >> all hired up. >> i want to commend you, this is awesome. great job. >> our team is pretty pleased with it. if we're making the community happy i think we're doing our jobs that much better. >> thank you. just to be on the same side are there any members of the public who would like to make a comment on item no. 9? seeing none, public comment is closed. thank you

dan, and thank you for coming. >> thank you, dan. >> we are going to take a break for three minutes. >> okay. >> five minutes. >> five minutes. (brief recess). . >> mr. president, we have returned from recess. shall i call item no. 5? >> yes, please. >> item no. 5 is the director's report. so week before last was the mayor's state of the city and his major theme for the state of the city

was shared prosperity and under that is 5 categories dealing with housing, transportation, women's empowerment and antipowerment and i got these from the mayor's site that outlined these in greater detail. the areas that intersect with small business and that we will likely be engaged with with the office and the commission will be under women's empowerment the mayor plans to host a women empowerment summit so that will include women empowerment, there is some minimum wage enforcement and i think transportation overlaps. in terms of improving transportation for both -- to help for businesses, employees getting to work easier and on time and also for customers. so those are kind of the three areas that i have highlighted but i will send you the link that outlines the plans in greater detail for the coming

year. i want to let you know that small business week is now may 18th through the 23rd. may 23rd or may 24th is the saturday, that's the weekend of memorial day so we will give the merchant corridors the option of doing it on the weekend of memorial day, they may want to take advantage of it, or the saturday before the start of small business week. so the beginning of february is when i begin to reach out to the merchant's associations to sign up, just to let you know that. then may 19th is the board of supervisors acknowledgement of small business in their district. >> do they know where they're going to hit flavors this year? >> we currently have the metrion reserved. we will be

doing the conference like we have done in the years past. we are able to, we are going to be part innering with city college chinatown campus but the conference will be held earlier this year due to their scheduling but we are looking forward to partnering with them. >> that would be like what we did with sf state on market street. >> uh-huh but we still are interested -- the first meeting for the small business week committee is this week. so we're still interested in doing some textile talk, people did like that and take a look and see if there's other things that we could be doing throughout the week to keep activities going throughout the week. >> great. >> since the conference this year will be on friday. the short term rental legislation, so last week the

office of of small business and oewd staff met with the tax and treasurer's office and planning regarding oewd, if you are going to be engaging in short term rentals. the key thing that we will be working -- we have already started to get inquiries about the process on this and the key thing for our, the staff at osb to be communicating with businesses is that if they have been doing this in the past i mean technically just because we now have a specific process for the registry program does that mean that they still had to register in the past with the tax and treasurer's office. so there will be consideration for businesses do need to give

consideration about whether -- individuals need to give consideration as to whether they are going to be honest about their past years because there will be back business registration and back taxes, you know, the transit occupancy tax that will be due. so we will have some discussion with folks around that in terms of, you know, making sure that they give consideration about that, you know, because basically if a claim is filed against them and if there is looking into them, finds out that they weren't honest and that they did back business registration and transit occupancy tax, there will definitely be penalties assessed to them. but that process the planning department does have it up. it's also noted on the business portal in terms of the process

individuals need to go through to register. so they do need to get a business registration before they file their application with the planning department. >> i have a question about that. >> uh-huh. >> how does that work in terms of short term rental so this is different than a b and b, i thought this was all -- this is something different. >> this is all part of it. >> they are businesses? >> they are businesses and they have to submit the transit occupancy tax. >> so everyone has to do that. >> you aren't saying there are businesses that operated just renting short term rentals illegally, rather than individuals renting their homes. >> if you are renting to make money on this then you are a business. so that is the perception of the city and the tax and treasurers a office.

so that's why i'm saying that while we now have a codified means with the planning department that does not release people of their obligation that they actually in the past were, should have been paying the transit occupancy tax. >> is that going to be an amnesty program, i wonder. >> i think, i mean the tax and treasurer's office will not say a blanket. the probability, the key thing i think is that we want to encourage people to register and to come into compliance. >> get right. >> better to get right now than later. so the next is there are four pieces of legislation that i

have given you copies of to take home with you and the dates that they are scheduled before the commission. so there is a regulation relating to residential uses that are being developed near places of entertainment. supervisor tang is introducing legislation to develop more criteria around massage establishments and requiring them to be conditional use again. previously any state-certified massage establishment did not have to go through the conditional use process but that was changed at the state last -- at the end of 2014. so now local municipalities can do a conditional use around massage establishments. and then the castro neighborhood commercial district, noe valley and upper market there are some changes

to the -- i didn't put the full title in here -- around office space conditional use for financial and certain business services, ground floor commercial. then i also want to bring to your attention that supervisor avalos has called for a hearing on the impact of the minimum wage increase on small businesses and city-funded nonprofits. this will be in february. so with regard to small businesses i will be meeting with oewd i think his interest is to see if the city is giving some thought in terms of assisting businesses helping them prepare for the minimum wage increase and what other plans that we have in regards to that for business assistance. and then there is a hearing to

explore the short term and long-term strategies to alleviate the flooding along folsom street. any time there's a major rain they experience flooding. >> there used to be a like there. >> supervisor campos called for that but it is not scheduled. then in your binding, commissioners i have included the meeting schedule for 2015, we didn't get a chance to discuss this so i wanted to be sure it was fine with you. we will have our normal schedule for the may small business commission meeting. in terms of staffing updates

we are in the second round of interviews for the business counselor project manager position and hope to have that finalized within the next couple of weeks, not necessarily the person working but the position, the candidate finalized and starting the process with dhr and then dhr is supposed to have the list finalized for me to begin scheduling interviews. >> finally. >> that concludes my director's report unless you have any questions for me. >> no, no questions. public comment? do we have any members of the public who would like to make comment on item no. 5? seeing none, public comment is closeclosed. >> i have one comment, regina

president adams last year come up with the thought about small businesses being impacted by the works throughout the city and had suggested that we should maybe have hearings --. >> construction. >> construction. and i think that that idea was a good idea because a lot of businesses are being impacted by construction in the city. should we not --. >> we can bring that up under new business. >> maybe bring it to --. >> i got a text today from somebody, you know, who knew i was coming here today and said, okay, i got a problem because of the construction in front of my place and business is down by 40 percent. i know you see a lot --. >> it was on our agenda for

january 3rd for north beach. >> mr. president, i think it's fine because you did bring it up under new business for us to discuss it under the director's report because in the past i have had future agenda items. >> thank you for bringing that back up because that's been on my mind. >> february 9th commission meeting is relatively light at this particular point so i could target to ask departments to come before the commission. is that what your interest is to have the departments come before the commission and --. >> yes. like i know, i mean every one of our areas, it's just one great -- i know we need to get stuff fixed and stuff done now, but celtic coffee company right here on mcallister sends me a text, my

business is down 40 percent since they've been digging up the place and he can't get deliveries in and they are not working with them. >> i'm hearing the same two ways. one is multiple projects going on at the same time that shut down an area or the opposite, which is one project after another after another, unceasingly in the same locations. >> and we know these projects have to get done. >> right. >> here's a good example. dpw did an awesome job with the castro street widening project. they had a person there at site so if you needed a delivery or you had a problem there was a one point person to talk to and i forget her name but it worked. so if somebody had a delivery , you know they would accommodate that for the delivery. >> like an usher. >> it really worked. it really really worked. if they

can implement that around the city and we can bring this up --. >> that's a great idea because it's someone on their team who speaks their language and they know if that person who comes to them rather than some merchant jumping up and down screaming about their delivery and they are going, dude, we have to do our job. >> and dpw on that project, i got to tell you, they did a great great job. and you heard very few people complain about that project because there was somebody to go to. >> commissioners, i do have one question because we do have the city-related projects but there's a good deal of just right around here on the other side at hayes valley, a lot of private development that's happening. so the question for you is do you want information, presentations on the intersection of that and what could be done to better coordinate -- it's one thing

for the city to make that directive, but we have city projects overlay with private projects. >> i think it's important because vickie was taking up parking for projects. frequently they are not there or they leave construction materials in what would normally be a merchant corridor parking spot. >> just abandoned on our street. we're still there. >> that is another large issue to folks. we've all seen them take up a whole block with something and then it just seemed like they left. >> they did. >> so commissioners, what would -- i will work to see if we can get this scheduled for february 9th since our commission meeting is relatively light. otherwise it would be maybe in march. >> yeah. >> but if you do have some suggestions or specific things that you would like for me to ask departments to be aware of

or to think about ahead of time, please if you could get those to me again maybe by the end of the week, that would be awesome. >> that's a good idea because otherwise we're just calling them on the carpet for some blue sky discussion. i think if we have some suggestions that have come from our constituents or ourselves in advance because that shows we've done our homework in advance rather than just saying, hey, we're getting a bunch of complaints and we're calling you on the carpet to explain what's going on. what do you recommend, business owner, what would you like to see? it's a really great idea to have someone on site especially for big projects to have someone as the liaison so it's one of their people tasked with kind of keeping the peace during the project. >> that worked. that was the first time i've seen that done. >> there's some big projects coming up. you're not going to do it for every project because it's putting another person on

the job but for big projects that makes a lot of sense. i like that. >> very good. >> also the timing of the work or different aspects of the work and taking the small business perspective is important. that's something. >> yeah, asking them about what their policy -- they have policies about overlapping and contiguous projects so i think that we battled that on port ero hill and people got in a tizzy because it violated their stated policy. we can ask them to come in and ask about their stated policy to mitigate disruption. they are not blind and they know what they do has the potential to disrupt business and they have some stated protocols around that. whether

they get followed or not i don't know. >> i think, for example, one of the things mark brought up what happened to those signs that used to say if the construction parking wasn't being used by a certain hour then it reverted back to public parking? >> that's a policy. >> i don't see those any more. >> they may not put them up but there's a law about it. >> i don't see them. >> if they don't show up. >> these are the kinds of things that are great. obviously what's recorded here, your questions, i can take that and ask the departments. just hearing the conversation we have our entertainment businesses good neighbor policies perhaps the commission could draft up, you know, a good sort of business neighborhood policy for especially for our private -- especially private construction projects that the planning department can incorporate into the entitlement process. >> maybe if we closed it