blue. in anticipation of the first major phase of development beginning next year, the ticd and tida wish to move forward with the formation of the community facilities district and ifd over treasure island and yerb bruin yerba buena island for the developer to advance an initial deposit of $100000 towards the city's expenses in forming the districts. with this approval in hand, we would conclude the rfp process to select the special tax consultant and drafting boundary maps, and come back towards the end of this year, after validating the voting pool to submit resolutions ofip

intent to the board for approval to initiate the cfd and schedule public hearings. we would move forward with those public hearings in the first-half of 2016, with the expected target of validating the ifd and forming the cfd by the summer of 2016. with that, i will take any questions you may have. >> thank you. i see no questions from my colleagues. thank you for your presentation, mr. beck. i think there is another presenter. no? okay. well let's take public comment. are there any members of the community that would like to comment on item 4, or the presentation that they just heard? seeing none, public comment is closed at this time. [ gavel ] supervisor kim. >> would i like to move this forward with recommendation and just wanted to appreciate all the work that tida and that director beck has been doing.

>> motion made by supervisor kim. i will second that motion. looks like this motion will pass without objection. this item passes without objection. madame clerk, could you please call item no. 5. >> item no. 5 >> supervisor campos is the author of this item and will make a brief presentation and followed by supervisor campos, will be deanna ponce de leon >> thank you, madame chair and thank you to members of the land use committee for hearing this item. i would like to begin by handing out a revised version of the ordinance.

supervisor kim -- that has some of the -- >> thank you. >> some of the amendments that we're making and just to note, that the amendments that i am handing out and i would ask that the committee make those amendments and incorporate those amendments into the ordinance basically amend language specifically dealing with the purpose of this legislation. we actually received feedback from a number of folks specifically about this language and we have incorporated that feedback. that is the nature of the amendments that are included in that document. in may of 2014 this board of supervisors unanimously passed a resolution that established the latino cultural district for an area of mission surrounding 24th street. the purpose of the

establishment of this latino cultural district was to recognize this area as the center for latino culture and commerce, and to enhance the unique nature of 24th street as a special place for san francisco residents and tourists. in this sense, the latino cultural district is similar to other cultural districts in the city, whether it's chinatown, japantown or north beach. there are many reasons why this district was created, but let me just mention some of the reasons to strengthen and preserve latino arts and cultural institutions and activities. 2 to encourage civil engagement and advocate for social justice and three to, encourage economic vitality and economic justice for disparate families,

for working people for imgrants. 4, to promote economic sustainability for neighborhood businesss and non-profits. 5, to promote education about latino culture and 6, to ensure collaboration with another community arts and schools and businesses. to achieve the purposes of this latino cultural district, my office has been working closely with the mayor's office, with our residents our businesses, our artists and other community stakeholders, who have engaged in a process for the purpose of creating a special use district for this cultural district. as this process for the creation of a special use district is underway, we have many long-term neighborhoods-serving businesss in this cultural district that have closed or have been forced out of the neighborhood due to

skyrocketing rents, as well as the lack of commercial rent control in state of california. because of this phenomenon, the mayor's office and my office decided to seek intrhom interim controls where the merger would resolve in a ground? floor commercial use space of greater than 799 gross square feet. these interim controls that are before you make sense for a number of reasons: chief among these reasons is that smaller business spaces are more affordable and accessible to many businesses. something hugely important in today's market, where commercial rents are simply exploding. i will shortly turn over the presentation to deanna ponce de

leon and diego sanchez to provide data of the character of the latino cultural district. i want to simply say the following: that the interim controls that are before us are pretty modest and measured set of interim controls that we believe are needed as we move forward with the larger process for the creation of a special use district. i know that there are a number of individuals who perhaps may have concerns about some of the specifics of the interim controls. my hope is that as we move forward with special use district that the perspectives of all of the individuals involved are taken into account. i know that we have a number of members of the community here, who are who will be sitem. i also want to thank the number of stakeholders who have met with my office and i especially

want to identify the golden gate restaurant association, which has met with my office to discuss the specifics of the interim controls and as i understand it, will be speaking in favor of the interim controls shortly. lastly, i want to thank mayor lee, and his staff his planning department staff, the mayor's office of workforce and economic development for all of the work that has gone into it, as well as my office to thank hilary roan for her work. with that, i will turn it over to deanna ponce de leon and diego sanchez. thank you. >> thank you.

good afternoon supervisors. my name is deanna ponce de leon and here on behalf of the mayor's office on workforce and economic development. before we get into the interim controls the punish -- the purpose of my presentation is to provide context with regards to the process we have undergone for the past two years and our involvement through invested neighborhoods in the lower 24th street commercial corridor. this interim control is one temporary intervention in a larger comprehensive process to ensure that the institution are strengthed within such a culturally diverse part of our

city in a process to develop controls for the proposed special use tribeding. district. it is intended to allow us to access the data and continue to metal with meet with the community to develop a longer term special use district. 24th street is part of mayor lee's invest in neighborhood where the vision for this initiative is that our commercial districts will be economically thriving, safe, and resilient and meet the needs of local residents. i'm going to say that we are proud of working very closely with the community and developing what those interventions are. each commercial district is

very distinction and different and so is every intervention that be come up with. we look at a variety of different things, but we make sure that our principles that are existing businesss will thrive, but there is a high-quality of life, strong community capacity and attractive physical conditions. those are all of the things that we strive for in a very healthy commercial district. the 24th cultural district, invest neighborhood boundary began from mission street to potrero avenue. since then it has expanded, but i will say most of the data that we have collected in detail is along those boundaries within that corridor. which is another reason why we're asking for this time in order to be able to explore further commercial presents within this corridor. the make-up of 24th street is a variety of retail, restaurants, et cetera.

to highlight some of those, we have a total of 164 store fronts and once again the boundary from mission street to potrero. we have a vacancy rate, if you look at the gray on the graph -- 9%. only 4% of those vacancies are actually advertised for lease. the rest are in transition. they may be under construction, et cetera. the highest percentage of storefronts is in the eating and drinking category, including the bars, if you turn to where the pink and red is. that is 31% of the corridor make-up. retail excluding markets and convenience stores in the blue is 21%, which is the next greatest. and in the orange is 20% of retail-serving -- i'm sorry -- of professional services,

which may include things such as beauty salons, legal services, et cetera, for the corridor. so for each neighborhood, when we go into the neighborhood, we assess the needs and we talk to the community. we have an assigned person -- in this case it's myself. over the past two years i have spoken to residents, non-profits, businesses, walked the streets. these are some of the summary of concerns that we have collected over time, and that we based our strategies of response to. so some of the -- in terms of strengthening and sustainability of businesses, some of the concerns raised included access to small business programs and services in spanish. that was a huge thing. while we had in the past services, one of the priorities of the corridor and of residents was to make sure that

language accessibility was there appropriately. retaining the businesses. there were -- the concern was there are leases that are expiring. some of them are short-term and many of those businesses have been in business for many years, surviving on month-to-month leases, putting them at-risk. ada lawsuits is something that we have been dealing with in the mission district and the changing market and being competitive and able to compete with that. in terms of strengthening sustainability of cultural institutions was a priority and makes up a huge part of the latino cultural district. it was some of the same things, expiring and short-term leases and strengthening those and access to funding. as a response, we have developed certain strategies and programs to make them

accessible. we focused on providing technical assistance to businesses. we have free consultations with business experts. we have lease negotiations services. and we will also be conducting a study, an economic study to guide some of our development strategies moving forward. in terms of strengthening and celebrating our cultural assets we worked together with the supervisors in creating the latino cultural district. we have supported arts by extending the same program we do for small businesses. also in the creation of the latino cultural district we thought it was really important to go out to the community and get a sense of what the residents, neighbors, et cetera, what they felt should be a latino cultural district? what some of the strength and

weaknesses in establishing this and we have funding from your banner restoration. in terms of the latino cultural plan, it was a 6-month engagement process but again, we have been engaging with the community way beyond that. the process included community meetings and stakeholder groups and surveys. some of the results were -- led to the mission, vision and goals. a latino cultural district community and identified priority projects and now we're moving into the strategy phase after that report. which is again once again why we're asking for the prohibition of storefront mergers that we think will support the district and its

intent. so the interim prohibition on storefront mergers as you see, this is the existing boundary, where it's proposed. it extrudes mission street, but includes 22nd, potrero, cesar chavez and stems out all the way to bartlet. this is the boundary that we're speaking. it's to address concern as round increasing affordable rents and loss of businesss along the corridor. it's intended to assist in retaining the character of the corridor in terms of small storefront spaces and the diversity that exists within those storefront spaces and provide it along those blocks. it's again to allow us time to develop further, more long-term strategies. and we are estimating that within the boundary there are more than 40 storefronts that

could potentially be merged. so this is an example of one building that has a variety of different businesses in it, and located in the smaller storefronts and here we have just one example, in how it's to make the point of how it contributes to the character of 24th street and what we see when we walk along and these tiny storefronts. in this block, we have an art gallery, clothing store and skateboard shop and another clothing and retail, where people come and sell their own clothes out of that shop. here we have a bookstore and clothing. these two are some of the smaller store fronts located in the corridor. this is one is across from mission street, towards

bartlett. and that is it for my presentation and leave it to diego from the planning department. >> diego sanchez with the planning department staff. supervisors, currently the merging until a space less than 2500 gross square feet may be approved over the count at the planning department. the applicant would only need a building permit application with plans and elevations. a neighborhood notification process could not be necessary and design review would not be conducted under the current situation. as you have seen with some of the context provided, as well as preliminary services and the multi-month outreach to community stakeholders, it seems to be clear that this area is home to a large number of buildings that feature

multiple smaller storefronts. this appears to be a defining characteristic of the area. one that affords business ownership and employment opportunities to neighborhood residents. the interim control in the merger for commercial space is beneficial for a number of reasons. it provides time for survey, with respect to character-defining features at this level and time to formulate possible nuanced fine-tuned space controls, , if necessary.the planning department is not aware of any known pipeline projects, seeking to merge a commercial space that would be adversely affected by the interim controls. those that seek to preserve existing neighborhood retail services and those that seek to create opportunities

for resident ownership and smaller businesses . these interim controls are in compliance with general plan objectives. they seek to recognize and encourage diversity among the districts. they seek to promote high-quality urban design on streets and also seek to ensure [tha-ts/] mission neighborhood's commercial districts including 24th street continues to serve the needs of residents, including immigrants and low-income households. so those are the reasons why the planning department finds these interim controls beneficial for the area. that concludes my presentation. thank you. >> thank you madame chair and i don't know if it's a question for the mayor's office or planning or .

reasons why the planning department finds interim controls beneficial for the area. that concludes my presentation. thank you. i agree these permits should not be over counter, and i was surprised to hear that they were and i don't think there should be. i think there should be -- at a minimum, a heightened level of scrutiny. so right now it's a little bit like the wild west, where anyone can merge whatever they want and i understand that as along as you are understand 2500 square feet, you go in, over-the-counter, no notification to anyone. i guess maybe some could appeal to the board of appeals but that would be it. so i agree that should stop. i guess my question is and i have raised this as i had a conversation last week and again this morning with calle 24 and my question is why a

prohibition and not conditional use? i understand that ultimately the plan is to have that would include a cu. these controls that could end up being around for a while until the sud is put in place and things don't happen overnight when you are creating new zoning, why not do a conditional use? it seems like we're going from one extreme to another extreme, instead of trying something that i think can be pretty effective. i will say that for example, when in the castro and noe valley for a long time there was effectively a ban on new restaurants. there was a cap, a straight cap placed on the number of restaurants in noe valley and castro, because there was a perception there were too many restaurants proliferating and it effectively became a ban on

new restaurants beyond converting existing restaurants. after a number of years, the prohibitions often have unintended consequences. other projects that people might want and without a conditional use there is no flexibility. even if everyone agrees to go through an entire legislationive process. supervisor bevan dusty -- we were seeing a proliferation of retail spaces to restaurants and the merchants had a concern that daytime foot traffic would collapse as more as more night-time restaurants were created out of existing retail space. supervisor campos and i worked together on legislation that we sponsored and the board passed

to say that you need a conditional use to convert retail to restaurant. it was not a ban. to my knowledge, no such cu applications have been submitted. i might be wrong about that, but i'm at least unawaiver -- unaware of any. i suspect if that is the case, people know there would be a lot of community push-back and that would not be granted. we have seen plenty of situations where conditional uses have been defeated. so conditional uses, it's not a rubber-stamp. you have to do a pre-application, community meeting, submit your application. it goes through a process. it has to go to the planning commission. the planning commission those approve has to approve it and whether it's approved or denied, it's unappealable to the board of supervisors. we have seen plenty of situations where conditional uses have been defeated at the planning commission or been

defeated on appeal to the board of supervisors. so the conditional use is a flexible process, where you are able to achieve what you are trying to achieve, while understanding that you can't predict every situation. you can have a situation, as i mentioned, where everyone thinks this is a good idea. but then, you can't do it. so that is the concern that i have and i would be curious just to know, the mayor's perspective, or planning or both; about why not do a conditional use and why instead do a complete prohibition? >> diego sanchez with planning department staff. i think the interim controls allow time to recalibrate the appropriate controls if that is going to be sought by the community. right now you have a different use restrictions. perhaps in this time, there is more outreach to the merchants and calibrate it -- we don't

know what that is going to be. there is also additional conditional use criteria that need to be formulated and this interim time would give time to formulate those with the community and other stakeholders. i think that is the perspective from the planning department as to why an interim prohibition in this time would be okay. it is not a permanent control. it is for a short period of time. >> potentially. >> potentially. >> potentially. it could become a permanent control. and once you have a temporary control, sometimes it can create its own momentum. >> true. >> to make it permanent. and i understand that it could include one-tailored to the community. the current use requires that the use -- i believe the term is "necessary and convenient." and so it's a term that amply,

i think encompasses the concerns that we have heard from the neighborhood and the character of the neighborhood. because i don't dispute any of those concerns. my question is about why -- and i respect what you just articulated. i'm not convinced by it. >> i think a lot of folks in the community and i can turn it over to other colleagues, i believe at this point believe that the existing conditional use criteria may not be particularly sensitive to the area is what i understand, but i will definitely allow my colleagues to chime in and add to this. >> deanna ponce de leon, office of economic and workforce development. we will be exploring a cu more

comprehensively, that may include other things beyond storefront mergers. when look at it, it's not the only piece and we need more time in order to comprehensive explore other interventions in the cu. in addition, i think it allows for a pause for the community to be able to focus and engage with us on thinking on different potentially what a cu could have? what restrictions it should have? as opposed to if there is a storefront merger that is proposed, and they have to organize around it. there has been many things that they feel pressured -- the community that we have heard and also the merchants. many of their leases are month-to-month, and are not being renewed. so they feel like that is an additional threat, where property owners may be looking to merge. so then it allows for a pause for us to engage in a discussion with the community without feeling that additional pressure that they may be

losing storefronts and it is a temporary at this point, prohibition. >> all right. i appreciate that. again, i'm not -- there is another side to it, but i do appreciate that explanation. >> supervisor campos. >> thank you. i don't know if supervisor kim wants to say anything but i wanted to respond to that. let me say that it may very well be that as part of a special use district a conditional use is the appropriate tool. but the point here is that this is a community that doesn't want to spend the next few weeks fighting about a specific conditional use and instead use that time to actually study long-term what it should look like? the notion that this is going to be a permanent or could be a