>> 2:02 p.m. the small business commission and sf gov tv for televising the program life streamed at sfgov.org. members of the public, take your opportunity to silence your phones and electronic devices and public comment is limited to three minutes. speakers are requested but not required to state their names. completion of a speaker card while optional will help ensure the speaker's name in the report. speaker cards will be called in the order placed in the basket. there's an additional sign-in sheet on the front table.

i believe president adams already read the statement about osb. >> roll call. >> clerk: yes. [roll call] mr. president, you have a quorum. >> commissioner: next item two. >> clerk: it allows members of the public to comment on the mafrt -- matters in the jurisdiction and suggest future items consideration for items. >> commissioner: do we have members of the public to make a comment on any item not on today's calendar. seeing none 37 >> clerk: item three. approval of registry business and resolutions.

discussion and action item. the presenter is richard kurlyo of the office of small business. >> good afternoon, president adams, commissioners, office of small business staff. richard kurylo legacy business manager. sf gov tv, i have a power point presentation. before you today are three applications for your consideration for the businesses to be included in the legacy business registry. the applications were reviewed by me for completion and submitted to department planning staff on december 19 for their review. the historic preservation commission heard the applications january 16 and made positive recommendation to the small business commission. for each applicant, the sbc has been provided a staff report, draft resolution, the application and case report from planning department staff and a resolution from the hpc.

there are copies on the table nor public. -- for the public. item 3a is bix restaurant. the business was founded in 1988 by doug bix bederbeck at 56 gold street in the jackson square neighborhood. bix offers modern american cuisine, live jazz and a full bar. he still actively manages the restaurant on a daily basis. bruce hill is the chef partner at bix. under his supervision the restaurant has gained three-start status from critic michael bauer. yearly placement in the top 100 restaurants and top 40 ranking in the zagit guard. it's now the oldest restaurant in the jackson square neighborhood and continues to bring attention including foot traffic from the financial district and bix has a large

local following as well as international customers and it is known as a special occasion venue that hosts many private events. item 3b is for instance supply master. the business was founded in 1983. the family-run business sells disposable foot service items wholesale and is the largest food service paper supply food product districter in san francisco. he immigrated from iran in 1979 leaving the country after the iranian revolution. he started working at the little shamrock and eventually became the manager. neighboring businesses would frequently borrow napkins and towels etcetera. this smashgd the idea for the -- sparked the idea for the san francisco supply master. business has grown to a leading

bay-area distributor proudly servicing restaurants, bars, schools, hotels and institutions. the current location on mckinnon avenue in the bay view has a fully stocked 45,000 square foot warehouse and cash and carry will call and competitive pricing options and superior delivery service throughout the bay area. item 3c is schubert's bakery. the business is a family-owned bakery found in 1913 by a german immigrant. it originally operated under golden west bakery. it was known for it's quality selection of traditional german cakes and pastries. mr. schubert's retired in the 1940s and sold the bakery. the new owner moved it to a

larger space at 521 clement street in the inner richmond district. in 1995 schubert's were purchased by fourth generation bakers and honored the legacy by combining old world techniques and produce the favorite sweets among them are the neapolitan cakes which date back to 1913 as well as modern favorites such as swedish princess cakes and mango mousse cakes. the current owners are ralph and valerie wenslow. all three businesses received a positive recommendation from the historic preservation commission. after reviewing the applications and the recommendation from h.p.c., staff finds the businesses have met the three criteria to qualify for listing on the business legacy. there are three considerations for the small business

commission one for each of the registry applicants. note a motion in support should be a motion in favor of the resolution. in the resolutions, please pay close attention to the core physical features that define the business. once approved by the s.b.c. the businesses must maintain these physical features or features in order to remain on the legacy business registry. for the bix restaurant and bar for san francisco supply master it's supplier of food service products, for schubert's bakery, bakery. this concludes my presentation and i'm happy to answer questions. there are business representatives in attendance that would like to speak on behalf of the application. >> commissioner: great. thank you, richard, good job. any questions before we go into public comment? i want to invite supervisor fewer up here here to speak for

one of the businesses. welcome, supervisor. >> thank you, very much, commissioners. thank you for hearing me today. i'm here to ask your support for schuer's bakery and moved to the district in 1959 and it's been an anchor institution in my neighborhood. i think they single handedly introduced the swedish princess cake to the pastry eaters of san francisco. it's not only a business i think the whole corridor depends on for foot traffic but also it is a strong community member they donate a lot to the community eventses and beloved. if they were not there it would leave a huge void and whole in the neighborhood. so beloved is schubert's bakery on christmas eve there's a long

line outside, i was one of them, to get my swedish princess cake for my family. this is a business that serves all of san francisco. i thank you today for your consideration. thank you. >> commissioner: thank you. any other members of the public that would like to come up and speak about a business. >> clerk: i have speaker cards for sherman surmon. >> ryan burmon speaking on behalf of my father and supply master. today's a huge drag me out of b today with b and we take great pride inting in san francisco. we're very entwined in san francisco and we have sf laguna

hospital, project open hand, self help it's a lot of these organizations that welcomed my father and gave him a shot to operate and grow a business and start a family and have something to pass along to me. again, i'm very thankful for this and to carry on this legacy as a legacy business here in san francisco. thank you very much for your consideration. >> commissioner: great, thank you. any other public comment? come on up. >> thank you. my name is doug bedderbeck the owner of bix restaurant here to answer any questions you may have. did i want to take the opportunity here today to say how much help the business registry, business legacy registry office has been. they have made it very very easy for us to navigate the homework.

it's not really that much homework but it's still homework and rich in that office was extremely helpful and happy to answer any questions. we have been there 31 years and hope to be there much longer. >> thank you. >> commissioner: any other members of the public. seeing none public comment is closed. commissioner dwight. >> commissioner: well, i don't know but one of these businesses first hand but bix i'm a huge fan. what a great place. it's like stepping back into herb can san francisco when you go there. the butler painting on the wall is epic and the mural behind the bar and my wife go for thursday night jazz and dinner and it's an you some place. thank you very much and here's to 30 more years. thank you. >> commissioner: commissioner dooley. >> i also have to say how great bix is. i've been to some wonderful

special events and occasions there. it's a lovely place to go and very valued in our neighborhood. >> commissioner: thank you. commissioner riley. >> bix is one of my favorite restaurants. it's a treat when i get to go there and schubert's is one of my favorite bakeries. i love their cakes. >> commissioner: commissioner zouzounis. >> i want to congratulate all of our legacy business applicants today and a special shout-out to san francisco supply master. i work with my dad. and i love to see our family businesses and small and pop businesses that are city venders and we need to continue trying to do that and make sure the city supporting that process to keep it up. >> commissioner: any other commissioner comments? i wanted to say first off bix

restaurant one of my favorite in the city. i'm there at least once a month with my boss for cocktails an hors d'oeuvres and also schubert's bakery. i actually go there at easter time and stand in a long line on good friday for like two hours. schubert's bakery is city wide. i know people who go to schubert's bakery from all over the city. that's just an institution and you're right if anything were to happen to they don't know what would happen to clement street. san francisco supply master, congratulations. you lived the american dream. you came here and started your own business and so successful. i was on this project and i know you deliver to other nonprofits in the city and part of the fabric of the city and county of

san francisco. congratulations on this honor. do we have a motion. >> move to approve all three businesses. >> i second that. >> motion by commissioner dwight and a roll call vote. commissioner adams. >> yes. >> clerk: commissioner corvi. >> yes. >> clerk: commissioner dooley. >> yes. >> commissioner dwight. >> yes. >> clerk: commissioner yee riley. >> yes. >> clerk: the motion passes. >> commissioner: congratulations. okay next item. >> clerk: board of supervisors

no.181201 by amending the health code to align regulation of restaurant and closure for outdoor food service and restaurant requirements with state standards amending the planning code to care clarify a type 23 liquor license may be used consistent with liquor 24 licenses for food service requirements and reduce the distance measured for retail sales and services and uses in neighborhood commercial zoning district to any neighborhood commercial district to reduce the distance measured for non-conforming uses in residential mixed and residential transit-oriented district to any neighborhood commercial district. to amend the definition of general entertainment to include amusement game arcade and allow permitted use in outdoor

activity area operated between 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. and to allow limited restaurant use as an accessory use amending the police code to eliminate certain duplicative inspections in entertainment licenses an live performance locale and affirming the department's determination under california environmental quality act and making findings of consistency with the general plan and the eight priority policies of planning code section 108.1 and public necessity convenience and welfare findings pursuant to planning code section 302 discussion and action item. the presenter is ben van hauten of the economic workforce development as well as juan carlos of the legislative supervisor for district 5. >> commissioner: welcome. >> thank you, president.

one carlos contino assistant to supervisor van houten and this is very important legislation for our office and district. small business the fabric of d5 as for the city. we may have more corridors per person than any other district in the city. and in her first week in office supervisor brown went to the haight where she lived to visit our small businesses because of what's been in the paper often in the last year about the problems around vacancy and the difficulty of successfully keeping open the brick and mortar businesses. we got out and spoke to small businesses at the outset. what we heard from them time and time again was how difficult it

is to open a business here and how confusing and stiflie regulatory framework in the city can be and just what that does to the creativity and energy that small businesses really need to be successful and to continue to thrive and adapt to the new retail environment and brick and motor development and we brought flexible use regulation to district 5. this is the second piece of small business legislation. we're happy to be here in conjunction and collaboration with the office of economic and workforce development. we think this is really thoughtful legislation. it does what we believe and what we're hearing from small businesses the city needs to do which is get out of the way to an extent and let them adapt and evolve to a quickly changing retail environment.

i just want to say we couldn't be happy to have introduced this legislation with oawd. we are committed to it and makes other proposals to our small business regulatory framework but we believe all of them are important and necessary and we appreciate your time and consideration of this matter. >> great. good afternoon commissioners. i'm ben van houten and i have a presentation. thank you for hearing this item today. as juan carlos said this say component of a -- is a component of a larger storefront strategy supervisor brown roled out and has administration, reform and investment and i'll talk about

them but the bulk will be on the piece of legislation. a little bit of a backdrop of how we got here. believe you heard before that last year and last february our office released a study on the state of the retail sector that was conducted by the firm's strategic economics. i won't spend too much time on the retail study but had a very insightful conclusions some of which informed the legislative package. retailers are experimenting with new strategies including food and beverage, events entertainment to attract customers and keep people coming to their stores to check out their offerings. additionally the study identified regulations and land use as obstacles and a number of the forestronts that appear -- storefronts are caught up in what could be a long and tedious

permitting process. the role nightlife businesses can have in complimenting retail where they can bring people to do shopping and traditional brick and motor. this legislative package was informed by our experience in small business assistance. it is a lot going on here but these are really ripped from or drawn from specific cases we've encountered of businesses facing these challenges. and the package was developed and defined in consultation with planning and health, fire, helping to inform the legislative approach. so the two big picture goals in the legislation, one, help new businesses save time and money in the permitting process and fill vacancies more quickly and not have them spend time and money on places they can't open

and allow them to help evolve, adapt and expand as they would so like. it is late in this package. this is an an umbrella attempt to organize it into four overarching categories. i'll try to discuss it as a high level the dozen or so components of the package but happy to answer any questions afterwards. first off, enabling retail business to diversify their officing to strengthen business models. under that goal we have a couple different strategies. first of all reshgs introducing the bare with -- reducing the barriers for food service. increasingly retailers are interested in setting up a coffee stand or the ability or a catering company that wants to

sell to-go sandwiches. those are challenged by health code requirements under state law a business is required to have a public-facing bathroom if it's offering food for consumption on site. locally we have a more narrow approach. if a business is selling food that is prepared for consumption whether it's for on site or off-site you need to have a public-facing bathroom. that's a cost challenge that could be a prohibitive barrier for businesses. our proposal is to align local code with the state code to say a retail business can offer to go food service without triggering the bathroom requirement. second point under here, helping businesses incorporate entertainment and events. we have seen a significant growth in the use of what's called a limited live performance permit which allows a business which isn't trying to be an entertainment business but offer limited entertainment in

conjunction with what they're offering. in the current code the police code says in order to get a limited live performance permit they must offer food or beverages on the premise which say -- is a barrier for a retail business trying to get people in the door and we want to take the food and beverage requirement so any retailer can offer limited live performance entertainment assuming the zoning allows. second bullet point or big picture category, increase opportunities for retail restaurant nightlife businesses to fill vacant storefronts an enhance neighborhood have a bran door -- vibrancy and generally in the commercial corridors a patio or rooftop area is limited

use and not eligible for the expedited processing. that means if a coffee shop wants a back patio open it's stuck in c.u. for that amount of months and times before it can do that. this proposal would amend that so an outdoor activity area open between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. would be a principally permitted use and conditional use for the other hours. it doesn't remove the areas from the rest of the permitting area and neighborhood processes would still apply and liquor licenses and those processes would apply but for land use that's the approach to making it easier to start a patio in the neighborhood commercial districts. secondly, nc1 zoning. a number of parcels in nc1 people want to do retail,

restaurant, nightlife businesses. under the zoning currently for an nc1 parcel the planning staff has to look at any district within a quarter mile of that parcel which in some of our more dense areas means you're looking at the zoning for many commercial districts to find the most restrictive one. this would look to instead of a quarter mile because that can have unintended consequences where a business owner gets call up by zoning two commercial districts over, this would propose a 300-foot measuring stick instead of a quarter mile to look to the closest neighboring commercial district within 300 feet. in terms of supporting open-air food service. there's again a distance between state health code and local health code. state health code says there has to be the area of where food is

being cooked or prepared has to be fully enclosed so a kitchen has to be fully enclosed but the designing area doesn't. the local code said the entire thing, dining and kitchen area has to be fully enclosed which limits the ability of open-air food experiences and to add the sidewalk vibrancy by having the front of their business open to consumers. we've also seen it impact manufacturers with roll-up doors and would be interested in a food or beverage component and there's the misalignment between local health code and state code. this would align the local health code with the state code to ensure while the areas where food is prepared have to be enclosed designing areas don't. and finally arcade uses.

that's 11 or more pinball machines is called an amusement game arcade and due to oversight the arcade is not called out in most the neighborhood commercial districts an therefore not permitted. which is too bad because there's been a rise in arcade-style uses in recent years and there's been entrepreneurs looking to start arcades or have an arcade component. there's a business in the upper haight which is a screen printer with arcade and those businesses are challenged by the way we regulate. this proposal instead of having a separate category of amusement game arcade, let's move it all to general entertainment where there's similar uses are regulated. next up, strengthen music

venues. so a couple of impacts here. first in the process of get place of entertainment permit for an entertainment venue, presently one needs to secure inspections from all the permitting departments even if that business has just gone through the process of getting all the inspections in order to establish the use or in order to get a health permit or get a place of assembly permit from the fire department. if a business is currently holding a fire permit or health permit or recently gone through the building permit process and gotten all the signoffs it doesn't need to get duplicative sign-offs which will save businesses time and money in the process. additionally, this proposal would abetter -- better align the entertainment venues with those that also operate as

restaurants. in order to operate an all-ages business a restaurant typically has a restaurant license because there's no restaurant venue from the state. so they operate a kitchen. unfortunately, some of the local eating places requirements are out of step with 51% of steps coming from food sales and this would remove music venues as entertainment venues from that requirement. finally, there's a number of cleanup provisions where the code simply is not fully up to date and has confusing provisions so this is to codify existing interpretations of the code and to help people successfully navigate from when

they bring their plans and ideas to the planning counter to get to a successful project. just briefly to touch on the administrative reform piece because i know that was something we wanted to highlight, separate from the legislation but late last year, there was a change made to the building permit process that will benefit a number of small businesses. specifically it centers around the area notification. when a business submits a permit application that would require neighborhood application that is taken in and the planning department holds on to that while the phot -- notification happens which saul well and -- which is all well and good but then it makes its way from department inbox to department inbox. voen even if i could have done

a project over the counter for an entertainment use to a restaurant i'm doing no work on the project that still requires going from count tore -- counter to counter adding to weeks and months of delay. late last year d.b.i. updated one component of the information sheet. permit application where's there's not a substantial scope of work. now an applicant may seek over-the-counter review. d.b.i. can convert that permit to over-the-counter eligible which will hopefully empower businesses to navigate through the process and be able to take control over the permitting desks an getting the signoffs and reducing departmental intake queues. .d getting the signoffs

and reducing departmental intake queues. . finally one last note on the storefront our office will make approximately $1 million in investments an services to support retail storefronts city wide including efforts such as assessing storefronts, buildings, corridor to see what the challenge is and what's causing vacancies and case management including the idea of generate pipeline of prospective tenants to fill storefront vacancies and new program work focussed on the experienced component in terms of how do we help get people to corridors and to businesses in order to support neighborhood retail. that was a lot of technical stuff but i'm happy to answer questions or expand more ob that. >> commissioner: commissioner dooley. >> i wanted to bring up with the

change that would no longer require a restaurant use to go with nighttime entertainment which i totally understand but my question is about existing businesses. for example, in my neighborhood there's a number of pretend restaurants that are actually bars. that's always been a sticky thing for us because they're nighttime bars. how will that effect -- will this go back and change the their zoning? >> i realize i should have mentioned and there's state requirements for anyone who has a restaurant liquor license issued by the state separate from the requirement and they call it bona fide eating place as well which is perhaps

slightly confusing. the idea is if a business is established as an entertainment use then it need not apply to anything that's established as a nighttime taniment use and if if you have different restrictions on nighttime entertainment across the city. >> would that mean these types of situations will be grandfathered in and won't bother to serve food? that's how they predicated getting their permits as a rest represent rant with entertainment and we already see a lot of violations of that. will that mean they'll all be great we'll just be bars now. we won't prevent like we have

food. >> under the state requirements they still have to operate a kitchen and have to serve food. that wouldn't change. so the state comes first? >> absolutely. >> commissioner: thank you. >> any other question. commissioner zouzounis. >> thank you for your presentations and actually caring about the line item day to day stuff that really meaters to small businesses but often overlooked. this is what we like. i am curious how you salt down with the -- sat down with the permitting departments and the police and d.p.h. and the conversations as getting rid of permits or fees is often a difficult process because it helps go towards certain funding and there's budget line items and stuff associated with it.

so i'm curious if there is some economic analysis if there was like money saved in this process or if it's going to cost the city some because we're getting rid much some permits. >> i think that in terms of reducing inspections, it's a savings for everybody and the inspection fees were tied to cost recovery of the time. in terms of the administrative reform enabling people to go over the counter opposed to department intake use will save the business owner time and help department staff to direct your energy to the more complicated projects rather than the stuff that -- duplicative work is expensive nor business own -- for the business owner and government.

i don't know an overall analysis. some of this is case-by-case but the ability to shaf in some cases -- shave in some cases months offer the permitting process is months everybody can be spending doing the harder stuff. >> thank you. >> commissioner: commissioner yee riley. >> thank you for your presentation. i think this all makes a lot of sense and will be very helpful to the small business owners. >> commissioner: thank you. any other commissioner comments? i'd just like it say this is great. anytime you can streamline the permitting process and get smaller businesses into their space, the better. i think this will help especially the vacancies in the neighborhoods that are just sitting there waiting for a permitting process. i know in my neighborhood have you a lease but they're not open

opening up for a year, year and a half. this will speed it up and i appreciate the notification process still out there because that's still important. so i want to thank you for your presentation. do we have -- we'll open it up for any other question or public comment. is there any members of the public that would like to comment on item under 4? seeing none public comment is closed. commissioners, do we have any recommendations or approvals or anything? >> move to support the legislation without qualification. >> i second. >> commissioner: >> clerk: commotion by commissioner dwight to prof a second -- to approve and seco

seconded by yee riley. motion passes 7-0. >> commissioner: great job. thank you very much. >> clerk: mr. president, before i call items 5 and 6 i'd like to read out a reminder for the election procedures for the president and vice president. the commissioner shall vote elect a commission president and vice president under separate agenda items for each office i'll call for a nomination. nominations required a second to be considered. nominees will then be provided an opportunity to make a statement in the order in which they were nominated. after nominee statements other commissioners will be provided a chance to comment. following nominee and commissioner statements i'll open for public comment. once public comment has been closed, i'll conduct a roll call vote on each nomination in the order each nomination was made. the first nominee to receive

four votes for each respective office shall be deemed elected. if no nominee received four votes it will be re-opened an the process repeat and after not less than three rounds it will condition the election for one or both offices to the next meeting. item 5, election of officers. small business commissioner president article 2 section 3 in election of the president must occur at the regular meeting of the regular meeting during the second meeting each year and that will serve a term of one year and voted upon as an action item. are there any nominees? yes. >> i nominate steve adams. >> second. >> clerk: okay.

would the nominee like to make a statement? >> commissioner: i'm honor and to serve as president one more year. every single person that sits up here is the reason why the commission's a success. it's not the president or vice president it's everybody as an individual. with your questions and the way you challenge when we have the board o