existing establishments right now the planning code generally needs with conditional use authorization but provides exemption from the requirement for certain chair and massage and establishments that employ certified therapist this eliminates the conditional use authorizations for the cam tag establishment it didn't prohibit the reestablishment of a massage use or closed because of health or planning or other code violations that will prohibit the massage use for one year in the same location whether this massage establishment was closed because of the code violations and third-world the planning code considers is massage establishment on in the california state therapists to be a medical use this is use that is generally not needing a conditional use authorization it will no longer consider the

massage establishment employing the cam tech services a medical use planning department supports the draft one it restates medical incarnation in the neighborhood as you saw in the dph completion they've pleading lead to a concentration of outdoors this as impacts to the diversity of those retail corridors and two the department supports is it standard device it by moving the dlaevens to a certified by the city it reduces the confusion around the regulations and 3 the department supports the issuance with one year prohibition pits the operators open notice it is

one of significance supervisor tang i'd like to see the roster. >> oh, okay. >> thank you commissioner so sorry i came from another committee good afternoon. i'm katie tang i wanted to first of all, i have handout from the commissioners the summary for the two pieces of legislation thank you so i know that cindy from dph gave a brief presentation and overview highlighting some of the work that dph is doing in terms of massage regulations before you in front of the planning commission speaks to the land use changes we're proposing but really go hand in hand with the change with the health code as well in a nutshell cindy talked about this back in 2003 san francisco prior

to 2003 had massage establishments regulated by the san francisco police department then legislation passed to change that regulation over to the department of public health and so it there were a new set of standards in 2006, we establishment do in san francisco a process to make sure that all establishment that were opened up in san francisco applied for a permit through the department of public health and one of my predecessors that submitted a letter of support made that a requirement to have a permit for any massage establishment and fast forward to 2009 we created and a a new entity the california massage therapy it was a good one to

create standards across the stat if you're a practitioner practicing in multiple cities you'll have a permit to work in multiple jurisdictions but everyone will know the requirement were to get a practitioner license so certification unfortunately in san francisco we had our own permitting process that created a dial system in san francisco and some people you know applied for the exception from the san francisco and some didn't apply for any permits in san francisco and some applied for the dph program we have 3 sets of different establishments going on so then now what we're trying to do after ab 1146 passed that bill at the state level returned the local use back to the city because the state recognized that because of the dual permitting system if exists in some jurisdictions in california

that was difficult to have a complete oversight over the massage establishment so month of what we're doing cod fitted what it did and the construction is the conditional use use requirements for all massage establishments moving forward this brings it back to fiona mass legislation that is something over one hundred establishments have gone through and received a conditional use permit other thing we have tried to make changes we've met with stakeholder and do said that going to the conditional use process is onerous and costs money we would like to continue working with the planning department on one of the things we're discussing i don't know

that diego addressed it we're looking to see how to make it easier for sole practitioners those are people that are practitionersism and own their own business it is only them we're trying to exempt them in the process that will be accomplished through legislation, of course from your blessing that is something we feel strongly we want to mayor if it is you on you shouldn't be overwhelminged we're working with the planning department for an amnesty program we're certified through tmc and already in existence where a they've filled the proper paperwork we time to make it easy as possible for everyone to house their establishment permit and be part of our system so we contract and have proper

oversight so again, we're caught in the middle of the two programs we don't want to punish them severely we have them on record other thing we recognize in our finding section i think this is mostly in the health code we want to acknowledge the usefulness of the anyone else industry they do provide a healing serves for our constituents and their computers we want to recognize that despite the problems we've found with other establishment and many of whom are not here today we're also reviewing, of course the health and sanitation regards we're trying to give the department of public health more tools it is not all about land use there are other things to make that a little bit easier to catch those who have no interest

in compiling with the law those are a number of changes we're meeting with stakeholders to see what else we can do but really that's at conditional use permit is a tool it is used across many industries again, we recognize it is not the easiest process so wasn't we're interested in imploring is there a way to make it a shorter not as expensive when i'm sure you'll hear from destroys this is something by the feel is important especially for massage establishment that don't have a lot of resources and is it difficult to have a business in san francisco we hear that and we met with the commission to discuss thirty how to address this moving forward i

want to emphasize is that this land use requirement falls on the business owner not all business owners hold massage practitioner certifications if you're a practitioner that moves around to different establishment for example this falls upon the person that runs the business and not yours i know there is confusion about the various requirement but this is the land use control with the cu and that will fall upon the person that operates the establishment i'll be happy to answer any questions but this is i know the offer arching concern we have obviously is regarding human trafficking i'm fully aware that us putting those controls in place will not solve the problem i have human trafficking but i think there are components of going through a cu requirement that allows for neighborhood awareness and

certification and some input from the community this is what it is used as a tool i hope to get our support moving forward i know there is so many more work and nonprofits parntsz, etc. i hope that your commissioners can see why this is a valuable tool to us a in particular situation if you have any questions, i'll be happy to answer them. >> okay. thank you supervisor tang for the sake of time any direct questions for the supervisor. >> commissioner richards. >> so a lot of the establishments i'm aware of in my neighborhoods are sole proprietors i guess the question from the land use decision they have to apply might it they be put out of base because they're not zip code. >> they're solely operating out

of their own home the people that are operating out of home or out calls go to other people's home in a moment required to have a conditional use authorization permit and won't be required. >> commissioner johnson. >> thank you commissioner chan so for coming here today, this is a quick question so for your health code amendment are you saying that you're trying to harmonize the with the dph requirement to make them the same or will there be a dual sort of system. >> there will be a dual system because the c m organization c is done through the state law there will be the existence of two programs meantime we're trying to deal with it you can continue to get the c m ac certification and if you're having the exemption we need you

to apply for the dph establishment permit to keep track of the establishment so c m t c they don't issue licenses for establishment they only do it for prathsz and therapist so we issue servings for practitioners and establishment we're saying if you quality for a c mp c cervix you need to get a permit. >> from the land use decision you said it was what with the land use operator so there's a lot of talk about you mention number of hours in training and other things established so what requirement will they have to have if the business owner is not a practitioner. >> so if it is a business owner not a practitioner they'll not

have to get the 5 hundred hours of training or 2 hundred under dph we felt that was important to file proper paperwork with the city through dph as an establishment owner so we know who they are with issues we can contact them they're not part of the system currently if you had received if one hundred percent of your therapists in our establishment are certified through the c s t c program your supposed to file piecework with the city an exemption so you're exempt from the local land use controls previously unfortunately, many people didn't do that those are people out of our system. >> in terms of the hours i i know that maybe the confusion there is currently under san francisco dph the requirement to complete 2 hundred and 50 hours

of training and the c mp c requires one hundred housed they recently have a written test in multiply languages and so there has been talk they want to raise the bar san francisco, california you require more hours we've found unfortunately it didn't matter if you satisfy all the hours people unfortunately violate the law. >> last question i think that is talked about before how do you envision the cu process you talked about the neighborhood notification that is important but in terms of the decision the commission and leverage we have in land use regulation how do you envision that any of our hours or operation or things

like that had help with the flying issue of the establishing 9 and tracking the businesses. >> the first one was the neighborhood notification that was important the conditional use is a contemplation tool in terms of land use; right? so being able to see where their location in the sunset we have 50 of them to let the neighborhood know what's coming in they have an opportunity to have input your obviously a good operator not opposition but questionable behavior or proposal then the community has an opportunity to weigh in and the second thing put conditions to make sure they can only stay in operation until temple at night it is required but making sure that when that condition is placed on the permit being

issued if neighbors see they're in violation you can report it and there is actual action to correct that situation to it gives it terror weigh in terms of the conditions that wish not unreasonable and some are open until 10 at night and other things to think about for instance before you apply for the permit you check a box to demonstrate you've gotten the massage practitioner and findings reed ready to go those are things to make sure that all the prerec are in place prior to getting the conditional use permit. >> thank you commissioner antonini. >> supervisor tang thank you for your legislation pro tem we've heard it is estimated from

thirty to 50 percent are involved if illicit activity if it is passed it will allow the city to close down the illicit businesses that don't glow the permit to get approval. >> it is 207b9 in terms of of the ones in existence already i'm sure you're aware of we can't go retroactive but it gives the city more tools it does that is helpful if you're establishment has been shut down for a violation we had it written to say you can't open another massage establishment within that one year period if the stakeholders they want to extend to 3 years what we're eagle currently a lot of time

are being shut down and others come into the same spot under another name because the land use is the land that designation for this land will stay there people will go into the sites and we see problems this legislation allows for the ability to have it land rest for you know a good 3 years if there's any violation found in the establishment. >> thank you. i would be in favor of the longer than period. >> we'll have to amend to 3 years. >> okay. thank you very much. >> thank you, commissioners. >> commissioners i'm resume my presentation by reiterating why the planning department supports the conditional use requirement again there was a public analysis we've heard it is a

tool for many uses and can help defer negative effects open the corridor because of the nature of the process including the public hearing we believe it allows good operators to shine and filtered out another proposals and we're in favor of the catch-22 because of the conditions of the approvals that accompany other issues so the planning department is aware and in general support of the proposed amendments for example for the sole practitioners the planning department is in favor of the practitioners establishment in the sole prarthsdz is limited to one practitioner per storefront as well as allowing one massage table or one massage room under the definition we believe that

helps the planning department and code enforcement with the enforcement of counting of number of employees and we're in favor of an amnesty program we understand that the permits practice those process what about confusing especially, if two processes within the jurisdiction and a few ideas the skeleton elements should be included with the medical uses allowing the land use to govern their permitting process and building to allow the establishment to continue to operate awhile securing the land use approvals and some bars for the amnesty having a valid business license or dph certification or permit the establishment in question should

be functioning in this place for sometime and no open violations from the police department or the health department or the duplicating we believe that the amnesty should sunset after 18 months and on outreach to let people know about the amnesty and one booushgs we'll recommend that you recommend the code sections recommended be updated to reflect the new numbering or code section numbers that are effected to article 2 that was in effect on march 20th so that concludes my presentation. and i'll be happy to answer any questions. >> thank you very much. >> opening it up for public comment

(calling names). >> thank you, commissioners thank you all of you for putting together this legislation i'm wendell as you've read my own private practice i've been in business for 3 years and please if anything the nature of my comments let's see i really appreciate the work of agencies to keep our agencies professional and assessable in regards to today's proposal for conditional use permits i'm in favor of the maintaining the legislation it sounds like with the legislation in place or proposed that i only stand to gain from what the future ensues that sounds great to me when massage establishments use this

nor human trafficking they exploit e exploits the people and bring down the businesses in san francisco by offering low rates and the professional confrontation of the practice which many of us work diligently to chief the people and organizations representing this organization describe the education and certification and business registration requirements i've gone through this process analytic i dictate my life and spent will be a year in school with 8 hundred and 15 and a half hours and maintain the utmost regard for exceptional service and upholding every regulation in san francisco 80 keep that con

and my patients appreciate the service pass this regulation this is credible and economically beneficial and healthy in san francisco the city of love thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, commissioners i employ 25 massage therapists in the city and county of san francisco we're very much in favor of fair and balanced services we general winning see this as a problem, however, the conditional use permits is not an effect issue and we failed to

see the issue rises to the bar justified by conditional use permitting as everyone says is highly onerous to small businesses it is a very small business with a low margin and even some of the largest massage therapy establishment can't afford to pay rent to hold into a lease especially in today's market a turnover in one hour nature so in terms of the minimal impact if you look at a comparable businesslike a hair slogan not required to have a conditional use permit they have 10 or 20 people coming out they have higher track and more of a parking impact and acupunctureers they are innovate

required to have conditional use and coffee shops all over san francisco the argument requiring our industry to meet the bar doesn't hold water we haven't here we go e.r. heard a good why to san francisco to enforce its laws most the clients have severe pain or chronic pain or thoefts and in any case having readily assess without having to travel far is good so choking off massage in san francisco doesn't benefit the city this is exactly what that serves to do we support robust businesses so we supported having a higher bar industry we're designated where the data is having a higher

number of hours didn't work at weed out bad actors in our experience with referenced in the city are illicit operations that simply to the health department they were exempt, however, once we dug down no one met the education so lying about the bar and taking the bar is not the same thank you for your >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, commissioners thank you my name is gary i'm the owner and director of the san francisco moonl and bodywork our school has been in continual operation in the city of san francisco since 1969 over 45 years in the county i want to take a moment to articulate the educational process and requirement that are

new to be certified massageistic first of all no school could a certificate their students you can't go to school and claim to be certified you have to go to a school certificate school and through the department of public health or a certified massage therapist there the c a mc it can only grant certification if you will, and this organization has a restrict vetting for checks and balances will meaning 5 hundred hours of training and director o g department of education and fbi background check going to school didn't 0 affordable health care grant you 6th district only c m ac they have stringent background it informational level i bring this

up i'm sure there is confusion around the way someone receives a massage training for any school to offer the training they must go through a rigorous approval and the state agency that approvals those like massage or acupuncture or other schools need to meet the approval of the secondary education this is a state run government agency that over seizing those types of schools it will be impossible for a school to open without going drove the bureaucratic progress they can't produce a certificate by the c m ac or dph if the schools exist in sf mined unfortunately, they do this is outside of my knowledge how those places remain open not

through the infers of the c m ac they've disapproved 60 of those schools they've not certificate those students from those schools i know that the education requirements recommend to the massage progression is hard to comprehend i know this is a rather combraktd process please feel free to reach out to must thank you very much thank you for your time. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> thanks for having us i'm a left hand practitioner with the state of california and for efficiently years a business owner of a