sort of path forward that is helpful. i felt really good about the first meeting. i want to thank everyone in the mayor's office as well for their help in pulling it all together. >> chair: thank you for that closing comment on this ongoing item that we will hear more about. is there any introduction of new items? seeing none. any -- commissioner walton? >> supervisor walton: thank you, chair peskin. moving pretty fast today, huh. >> well, it's been two hours. >> supervisor walton: just briefly. we've been hearing a lot from our constituents lately. and i've definitely personally experienced as recently as this past weekend, inadequate and inconsistent transit service, we're experiencing on the t-third light rail. the mission bay platform construction, with the bus substitutions and the shuttles, more frequent and reliable, in addition to the "t" line. i'd like to ask the

transportation authority to conduct a study, bringing back bus service on 3rd street. bring back the 15 and potentially routing it to connect with exsettlor and the bart rain to -- station to the south. >> chair: all right. noted. with that is there any general public comment? >> a call for the calvary to come. [laughter] to your rescue. sounded like that. so i'm asking the supervisors. when we have our projects that do the asphalting, somehow we

should keep in mind our children, school children, our youth and our elders when they cross from one side to the other. we kind of have those things -- the asphalt. and you don't have the crossing lines in place. three months now. on san bruno. and i have spoken here four times. you know, i have to stand there and see that our kids are safe. i have to ask like a policeman. why isn't m.t.a. doing their job? why isn't m.t.a. talking to somebody. do you all have a check list when you do the asphalting, the contractor did this, the work, asphalting, whatever. but did he put in new crosswalks, you know, after you asphalt over them.

you talk about zero vision. and all of this grade grandiose type of concepts. the basic things you don't do. go to san bruno. i want it fix within 24 hours. otherwise i'm going to paint the crosswalk. [bell dings] it's disgusting. four times i came here to the board of supervisors and i brought this to your attention. does anybody have the power in the city hall to make one call and get that work done within 24 hours? otherwise i'm going to paint it. [laughter] i really will paint it. thank you very much. >> chair: next speaker. >> hi, i'm here to talk about a new item. i don't know if it's number 11 or number 10. am i allowed to speak on --

>> chair: yes, this is general public comment. >> it's number 11 then. i'm talking about i'm from the citywide council for the senior around disabled. you've seen me before here. my name is mary woo. i am the secretary. we have -- we have a problem with house rules that dictate our behavior. and we ought to have the right to participate in the making of the amendments. we don't have a grievance process. we don't have an oversight board, which is required by the city. >> chair: so, ma'am, i don't want to cut you off. this is the transportation authority. >> that's why i was asking whether it's number 10 or number 11. >> chair: well, this is -- this is a body that disperses the

sales tax and has other -- >> oh, sigh. >> chair: i did hear your public comment last week and brought you to my office with regard. i'm happy to continue that conversation. >> okay. am i employed to speak during number 11 on the agenda items? >> chair: that's what this is. >> this is number 11. >> chair: this is general public comment. i want to inform you you're at the transportation authority. this afternoon we meet at the board of supervisors. if you want to talk about the rad program and house rules, it's probably -- we should probably go back to my office and work on that together. >> okay. >> chair: i did ask my staff to work with you, as a number of rad projects. >> i wanted to keep all of the supervisors aware that we would like you to get involved and help us to halt the process, that has been going on, where we have been excluded as a tenant

body. we are here for tenant advocacy. and we were not informed of any of the meetings that were being held two months at a time. every two months. and that's been happening since 2015. thank you. >> chair: thank you. and i have been trying to arrange and maybe you've had contact with the mayor's office of housing, this seems to have originate. you're welcome to come to my office after this meeting. >> we will. thank you. >> chair: thank you. next speaker, please. >> i'd like to provide a corporate commuter bus update. records request indicates that there are now 100 authorized buses at 24th and church in the morning. that means there's over 200 buses all day on 24th street. that does not include the buses that are dead-heading to begin a run in millie valley.

m.t.a. never placed a limit on the number of buses. the caltrain presentation today collides with the s.f. champ hub study that we did about two years ago, where 45% of the potential commuters, on the commuter buses, indicated that they would optimistic -- opt to drive if they traveled to a hub location. caltrain is a hub location. it's not out the front door. so unfortunately it doesn't seem that that's going to relieve any of the pressure off the 24th and church. the buses continue to idle in stage, awaiting for a time point departure, especially on castro and 25th street. and that entire area. we even have one us about that goes up to castro and caesar chavez and does a three-point u-turn, because you can't navigate the intersection and does that in the morning.

there's over 1,000 issued stickers on the buses. and about 720 or so buses that operate in the city. [bell dings] but that number is really reflecting a low number, because buses for facebook and genetey make multiple trips back to the city. 700 plus trips in the morning and the afternoon. so needless to say, with over 200 buses in noe valley, you know, i think we're exasperated and getting very, very concerned about it. thank you. >> chair: thank you for that comment and thank you for constantly tracking that and giving us that information. seeing no other members of the public for general public comment, public comment is closed. and this meeting is adjourned. [gavel]

>> good afternoon. welcome to the land, use and transportation committee for monday, september 16, 2019. i'm the chair of this committee, aaron peskin, joined by vice chair supervisor safai and to my left, supervisor haney. and we're joined by supervisors fewer and mandelman. our clerk is erica major. any announcements? >> yes. please make sure to silence all cell phones and electronic devices. completed speakers cards to be included as part of the file be

given to the clerk. >> supervisor peskin: could you please read the first item? >> item number 1 is ordinance amending the plumbing code to delete the local amendment to the california code referring to the san francisco public utilities rules and regulations and cross connection control, affirming appropriate findings. >> supervisor peskin: thank you. are there any representatives from the department of building inspection or the san francisco public utilities commission who want to speak to the fact that we are going to continue this, because apparently, those two organizations have not yet come into agreement on this. are you coming up on behalf of either one of those organizations, or just -- no, you're just walking around. okay. is there any public comment on item number 1? seeing none, public comment is closed. and, colleagues, this actually was one portion of the building code that came to us wherein

there was agreement between two departments. and i was told last week that they had come to agreement, but apparently they have not. so i'd like to continue this item to the call of the chair. is there a motion to do so? made by supervisor safai and we'll take that without objection. item continued to the call of the chair. please read the next item? item number 2 is hearing on state of the restaurant industry, including but not limited to strategies city departments are utilizing to support restaurant operators through the permitting and inspection process. >> >> supervisor peskin: thank you. i would like to associate myself with it. insofar as the culture of convenience, the culture of expensive rents and many other things, some of them imposed by

an array of fees and public policy positions that this supervisor and this government have voted on have had, i think, a deleterious collective impact on the restaurant industry. i want to thank supervisor fewer for calling the hearing and turn it over to her. >> supervisor fewer: thank you for allowing me to hold the hearing today on the state of the restaurant industry. restaurants are a vital part of the backbone of neighborhoods. in my conversations, many have shared what they love about doing businessed in neighborhood, but also have talked about the challenges of opening food establishments on our corridors. many of our departments have implemented a number of strategies to streamline and improve their support of our small businesses, but we know there is still work to be done. the goal of today's hearing is

to look at how departments are improving their systems, and also to look at how departments can work together to provide clarity in the overall process to provide a road map. i'm hoping today we can take a wholistic look at the climate of the restaurant industry in the san francisco and zone in on the permitting processes. restaurants and the variety of a restaurants and different cuisines help to make us a world-class city. and a culinary destination for people all over the world, but this industry is suffering now. and these challenges actually threaten their very existence. it is the hope of the hearing that we can examine how we as a city and county of san francisco legislators can support this industry. today we'll be hearing from the golden gate restaurant oh, the workforce develop, the

department of public health, planning department and tax collector. anybody else with comments? i see supervisor mandelman. >> supervisor mandelman: thank you. i wanted to just thank supervisor fewer for calling for this hearing. in my district, there has been a very steady and troubling drum beat of restaurant closures. and vacant store front, especially in the upper market castro area that i am very concerned about. and then we have also heard troubling stories from a number of folks trying to open new restaurants, about how hard it is to get through the various processes and permitting requirements. we made a mozest change to eliminate the -- modest change to eliminate the requirements, but there is a lot more the city can do to facilitate

entrepreneurs to get a business established. i'm interesting in hearing more from departments and folks in the industry about what is going on out there. >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much. let's start with the hearing. i'd like to call up lori thomas, the policy chair of the golden gate restaurant association. >> thank you. first of all, i wanted to -- good afternoon and thank you, all, for taking the time. many have you have known me over the years. i've been in the industry for a long time. what i'd like to do is speak on behalf and give an expert summary overview of the golden gate restaurant association. i still own and manage two restaurants in san francisco. and we really appreciate your time. i know there is a lot of people who wanted to be here today, but have to run their restaurant, so we're going to give them

feedback. i'm going to read the overview here. so what we wanted to do today was address concerns we're having with hard issues our industry is facing. we're going to start with facts to bring everybody to the same page. this is taking the number of sales tax permits in 2018 and from the bureau of labor statistics, we have 2500 eating establishments and generating $4.7 million in taxable sales to the city. our industry provides approximately 65,000 working class jobs in san francisco alone. and we represent 52% of the city's entire retail sector. we help keep neighborhood corridors vibrant. we bring business to the retail shops, many of whom are struggling in the online economy and help provide tourists with san francisco's unique experiences. but we're seeing a troubling trend. up until about two years ago the number of restaurants opening

and closing was approximately equal, but based on numbers from ye yelp, we've seen the closings outnumber the openings by 9%. this is causing a lot of worry and we're not even seeing what we're going to count in 2019. 2020, we expect an even greater number of closings, due to many factors we're going to cover, that cover housing, permitting, economic pressures and vacant store fronts. we're going to provide proposed solutions and hope we can go further from here. let's start with the shortage of affordable housing. we all know this. it's directly impacting our employees. with median rents for a one-bedroom in san francisco around 3600 per months and limited availability of anything that costs less, housing in the bay area is way short of our

needs. even ownership in the city is out of reach for the leadership teams which causes them to think about moving out of state. those facing the greatest challenge are in the sweet spot of the earnings, $50-70,000 a year. these are managers, chefs. they're the most disadvantaged. we're wondering what can we do? we may look at money allocated to small businesses, maybe there is a voucher system or something that could help to offset the rent issues. maybe we can -- i know this is a tough one -- but expand transit hours so our employees can make it back and forth from the east and north bays and know they don't have to pay for über or

lyft to get home after everything is closed. permitting. i know a lot of members will give examples they've been experiencing. this can vary a lot, but if your a restaurant, it could take up to 12 months. it can be costly with the additional hearings. the rent you have to pay if you didn't negotiate it with your new owner. and also, too, you could risk being denied, which is troubling. the building permit progress, i know we're trying to make progress, but it's still confusing. and everybody that has done it successfully has been using an expediter, with i significantly increases -- which significantly increases the cost of opening a business.

is there a likely way that success could be delineated. is there a way to streamline? is there a way to overlap approval? i know there is a lot of progress, but we're giving an overview. so a lot of the restaurants are on the ground floor of buildings. and so we're the eyes and ears of what is happening on the streets. we hear from restaurant members of the daily challenges they face with both the cleanliness and the safety, whether it's the well-being of the patrons or the staff leaving at the end of their shift, restaurants continue to see a rise and lack of safety surrounding their businesses. neighborhoods with the most challenge, we know they're the most densely populated from locals and visitors, downtown, market street, the had mission, but we're also hearing from sunset and problems they're starting to see in neighborhoods as well. additionally, unfortunately, this summer a lot of us have

seen a business slowdown, particularly in the month of july, from leisure travel. and restaurants are seeing reduced foot traffic due to conditions on the streets. and members are feeling like it's not getting better and they shouldn't bother reporting these issues as often no issue is taken. where is the accountability to address our mental health and substance abuse issues? this comes from an industry where we're intimately aware of these issues. solutions. so let's work together to clean up your streets. ask the restaurants to participate and brainstorm what we can do and design programs that improve the emotional well-being of these communities. now we're going to get to my favorite subject. economic pressure. so i pulled numbers, because i feel that's the right thing to do. i first want to say there has been a lot of great policy i believe in and i know a lot of our members believe in.

i'm just going to quote some of the statistics, because, unfortunately, some of the policies now have been in place to the point they're breaking the business models. wages. since 2012, the wages have gone up 52% due to the minimum wage and the ripple effect on the payroll. this is a huge number for the industry, if you look at the national statistics, only keeps 3-5 cents on the dollar. so we can go through numbers later, but this has a huge effect. health care. the spending requirements have caused the business costs, the spend to go up 37% in just since 2012. and combined, these two costs are making it much harder to stay in the red, particularly if you have a large amount of employees like i did at rose for example. so taxes and permit fees. we know we try to fix the gross receipts and payroll tax a

couple of years ago and it didn't turn out. i know there is more reform planned. these taxes for smaller restaurants add up to thousands of dollars a year. it's a huge amount of money, you guys. and additionally, there is yearly increases in permitting fees. i won't tell you the cost of the table and chairs permits on union street, it will blow your mind. the other thing, too, i want to mention and you've heard this before from me, we need utilities, but they're monopolies and they're going to assign whatever rate increases they want. pg&e, water. we have no say and no way to combat. all these costs put together are breaking the business models. fast casual and smaller bars and restaurants with little employees on their payroll are going to make it and they're still continuing to grow, but full-service restaurants, in particular ones with larger number of employees on the

payroll are seeing unsustainable costing. what are solutions? i hate to say this, but i'm going to, i think we should take a look again at the hcso and see if there is way to modify and adjust this ordinance to make the policy work, but make it for affordable for the restaurant business and look at what resources do we have that work that gavin is doing, with kaiser holding their rates and things like that. we would offer to participate, and i would really like, the gross receipts and payroll tax reform. you can have as many representatives from our industry. if there is different ways to do it, i would like it not tied to the payroll. vacant store fronts. this is a huge, huge thing and we're all seeing in the neighborhoods. we're painfully ware of increased rents and vacant store fronts and inflexible landlords.

and increasing rents make these vacancies more and more likely. on king street in the press today, two are closing. tony is closing one of his slice shops. not only are existing restaurants looking not to renew leases, but new businesses are going to have to come up with huge cash or be large chains to make this work. what is the solution here? i don't know, maybe there is a couple here. one i'm thinking, is is there a way to incent the landlords to lease spaces? or a way to give tax breaks to restaurants to help them locate in areas where we're seeing the highest vacancy rates. there was an enterprise tax zone in california, that doesn't exist anymore. is there a way to do that? that helps when you have concrete numbers to put on the table. in closing, we want to ask that

you consider restaurants cannot just raise their prices to offset the costs. customers will either stop dining out, order less and god forbid we see an economic down turn from international or national issues, we're going to see more close. we're concerned about the viability of our industry and we're willing to be at the table. thank you so much for your time. >> supervisor peskin: thank you, ms. thomas. before i hand it back over to supervisor fewer, i think as your presentation elucidated, this is an intertwined very complicated web. i think in order for -- i'm going to say this to the departments -- for this hearing to be successful and while all 11 of us and the mayor focus on homelessness and larger societal problems, i think we've got to boil this down to things that we can do.

so, for instance, i agree with you that -- as a matter of fact the board has taken steps in other policy areas to deal with the issue of fees, which are paramount in -- particularly when you're starting a restaurant when there are over 20 fees. some of them, you don't have to avail yourselves of if you don't want the entertainment permit, if you don't want sidewalk table and chairs permit, you don't have to get it, but you have to get a dbi permit for the place. you may or may not if you're moving into a previous restaurant space, depending on the zone, have to get a cu. mr. star will speak to the fact there are provisions for expedited cancel uses and they -- conditional uses and there is the department of public health as to food handling, which is an ongoing

fee. that is something that this board can focus on beyond issues -- i mean, yes, it is true that san francisco is at the forefront of health care and minimum wage, but we have been surplanted now by state and even to a limited extent federal behavior. and we're seeing that throughout many, many states. i would like -- in order for this to be productive, because i totally agree we want this industry, at a minimum, survive and at a maximum thrive, as was the case of many years. which is still an empty space that is causing me grief in the middle of north beach. >> sorry about that. >> supervisor peskin: it is what it is. you're not the only one. supervisor haney reminded me that when the giants lose, less people come to south park.

>> for sure. >> supervisor peskin: i would like to leave the hearing -- i'm not saying this to you, but to the other speakers and supervisors and my colleagues on this panel, with ideas of concrete, real things that we can do in the short-term. that was not to you, that was just kind of to make this a productive. >> i want to add thank you, one thing, i know there are things that aren't directly to this hearing and i hear you, and we all understand that, but if there subsequent meetings and other commissions or areas we could participate, i would be very willing to do that, as would my colleagues. >> supervisor peskin: and to that end, there is an evolving discussion between the board and the mayor's office and the controller's office. we know that 2020 is the year where a long thought about adjustment to the payroll gross receipts tax that has been plaguing us since the infamous

lawsuit brought by general motors and 51 other multinational corporations has been bugging us for 20 years. we're trying to figure that out. you should all be a part of the conversation. >> thank you for that. >> supervisor peskin: supervisor fewer, thank you. >> supervisor safai: i'll be bri brief. some of the things that we worked on in the past year have been about reducing buffer zones for permitting and some of the things we've worked on is expanding the use of commissary kitchens and restaurants. that hasn't panneded to full- -- expanded to full-service restaurants. the idea of second floor, i know in many cases zoning doesn't allow for a second-floor space to be utilized as a kitchen. those are the things we hear a lot from small businesses and restaurants that can be helpful.

so any of the ideas, at least as it pertains to this body. we are the land use committee. i wanted to add that. >> supervisor peskin: and thank you for leading -- obviously you see an engaged panel, but before i turn it over to supervisor fewer, as a high level you have changing consumer behavior through what we love to call the amazon effect. and then you also have a situation where individuals who do not own or control their buildings or have long-term leases are facing massive rent. i read the article about brown where their rent went to $14,000 a month. that is crushing. there are policy things we have been talking about relative to those. and it's not every property owner, but those property owners

who hold out for egregiously high rent and chase their places out. they remain vacant, which is a nuisance and blight to all of us. so there are things we can do, like a vacancy tax, where landlords who do not reduce their rents are going to be incentivized to do so. with that, supervisor fewer. >> supervisor fewer: thank you for the opening overview of the challenges of the restaurant industry. i want to concur with the colleagues, some of the problems are bigger issues than others. but i'm looking and i think there are some things and ideas we can come together as city departments to help you actually and bring relief. having said that, i would like to bring up katie skipper? the program manager of open sf.

she's going to give us an overview also of what open sf is helping with. >> thank you, supervisors. good afternoon. i'm with the office of economic and workforce development. thank you for the time to speak with you today about the restaurant industry and oewd's strategy to support restaurants. >> we have a number of programs that support the restaurants. they strengthen commercial corridors and provides support directly to small businesses, including financial support and technical assistance. we have employer services that connect job seekers to job opportunities. our hospitality services help train residents to enter the workforce in culinary food services, facility and building

maintenance. our night life sector development works strengthens the restaurant industry, working to connect businesses with city resources and advance policy initiatives to support the sector. and today, given the specific request regarding permitting, i'm going to focus on the open in sf that assists the permitting process. i wanted to give background about the program so you know where it came from. this program was in response to analysis the controller's office did back in 2015, that mapped the permitting process. one of the recommendations that came out of the report was that restaurants could really benefit from having one primary point of contact, someone to own their experience and work with them across all permits and agencies. so we moved forward to create the program based on that recommendation. it began with high level of research, including collaborating with our

interdepartmental partners, business holders and stakeholders to make sure we understood the process and the challenges and could position the program to provide the assistance needed. so we determined the number of the objectives for the program. the first is to provide a primary point of contact with improve the experience. that's really the heart of the program. so client manager works with a restaurant across the entirety of the permitting process through all permits across all departments. another really key objective was to have a wholistic and proactive perspective. as was mentioned, it is knowing what to expect up front, being able to negotiate time lines into our lease. those help restaurant owners have the tools to optimize the process. the program relies on a really high level of interdepartmental collaboration, so we can identify the needs of each individual business and support them through the process. and it also -- i'll speak to

this later, provides rich information as we go through the process over and over again to help us identify opportunities to improve the process. so since the launch of the program, at the end of 2016, 269 businesses have received assistance. this includes new restaurants as well as restaurants seeking to expand or add a license or per met to strengthen their -- permit to strengthen their business. businesses across the city have received support, and businesses are finding the program directly from supervisors' offices, from partner agencies such as planning, building and health, from oewd programs, office of small business, and merchant organizations and through word of mouth from prior businesses who have been clients of the program. as i mentioned, this work

provides us a really good window into what some of the challenges are, what the points are that the businesses are facing over and over as they go through the process. it helps this program work as a feedback loop where we can identify some of these challenges and work to smooth them. so a couple of successes in that work recently have been at the beginning of this year, oewd worked with dbi on administrative reforms that expanded the number of businesses who can receive their building permits over the counter. that is a huge savings for those businesses in time. additionally, recently, a small business permit streamlining legislation that was supported unanimously by the board and signed by the mayor last week. it included a number of code changes that will have real 'em packets for the food and beverage -- impacts for the food and beverage business. a lot of them came directly from the one of on one work with restaurants. there remains opportunities for

improvement, which we'll discuss today and this program will be a good lens to watch that. finally, looking ahead, we want to continue to expand our outreach. we're serving a large number of businesses but want to make sure that every restaurant knows it's available to them. we're also thinking about how to increase capacity. the budget and legislative analyst report prepared at the request of supervisor mandelman on the castro areas, looking at store front vacancies, is a tool. i'm thinking about the larger conversation around reducing vacancies. there is interest in how to increase capacity for the program to serve more restaurants and potentially in the future business sectors. we also, as we think about inclusiveness and equity, we know the permitting process can be inaccessible to many and we want to make sure the service

can meet the needs of our perspective entrepreneurs. of course, we will continue our interdepartmental collaboration on this work, which helps us to identify areas to keep improving the process. smooth the permitting process for the restaurants. as a final note, i want to mention, we recognize as a dimension that permitting is just one issue a much larger and complex environment for the restaurants. this program is just one way we can help our businesses, our restaurants, put their best food forward as they launch and be in strong a position as possible as they launch. and also grow and adapt to meet the changing demand. so, thank you for your time today. i'm available if you have questions. >> supervisor fewer: any questions or comments? >> supervisor peskin: could you remind us of your name? >> katy sherping. >> supervisor fewer: you

mentioned many of the permits being streamlined. which ones are you streamlining? >> the legislation that was signed last week did a number of things. i may not have them all off the top of my head. it reduced some of the duplicate inspections that would happen. if you did a build-out and apply for an entertainment, you would have to do that again. so that goes away. there are other areas where we updated our health code for example to be more in line with state health code around when restrooms are required to be accessible for patrons. this expands opportunities for businesses to, for example, have like a small coffee cart or something like that without having to provide a restroom for their customers. there were a number of other pieces of this legislation. the piece that was talked about most in the commission had to do

with the buffer zone and honing in our zoning so it's most applicable in the neighborhoods where it was originally intended. >> supervisor fewer: we heard from the restaurant industry about the money that is associated with all of this permitting process. so with open to sf, how much can an entrepreneur look to save going through this streamlining process? >> the open in sf program doesn't change fees for any of the businesses. if that is your question, what it does is help guide them through the process, so the way that i most see people be able to save time with the program is two pieces. one is i really try to make sure we're engaging with restaurant owners before they sign their lease, as was mentioned, you can adapt to a lot if you're negotiated that into your --

you've negotiated that into your lease, but if you're not expecting it, and you already pay rent, it's challenging. so it's being proactive with people so they know what is going to be expected of them. and another piece, if you know about all of the permits required of you in advance, you can set them up and do certain things at the same time and have the process work in the right sequence and save time. >> supervisor fewer: so helping them get organized and navigate. >> yeah. >> supervisor fewer: are you doing an evaluation process after you help the clients to see how we can make it better? >> that's a good question. it's something we're working on. oewd in general has been working on getting feedback from businesses and we're hearing about the program. and then we've considered launching a survey with these businesses to hear back from them after the process, how it

worked for them and what could have been done better. >> supervisor fewer: how much -- what is the budget for open in sf? >> it's really just one fte. >> supervisor fewer: i actually think since this is sort of a new initiative, the collection of data on this and also the feedback from the restaurant industry would be really helpful. is this something we want to expand on? is this something they find helpful? is this something we want to put more funding to, to reach more people? i think the survey and the feedback from the people in the industry is probably the most important aspect i think. when we come back to reevaluate what we're doing, are we doing enough, could we do better? if you could give us an update, that would be great. >> great. >> supervisor haney: thank you, supervisor fewer. it seems that in some ways that particular program around open

in sf was created to give businesses, restaurants, a central point of contact to help them understand the different departments that they have to navigate and that sort of thing. is that how you understand it? there are obviously a lot of departments who will be coming and that restaurants would have to navigate through. would oewd view you as the right place to start to understand the various steps? and then if that's the case, are you saying that there is only one fte that is responsible for this? >> there is only one fte that is responsible for this. in terms of the right place to start, i think, yes, ideally, it's the right place to start so they have the information as they move forward across all departments. sometimes it works a little bit out of order, which is okay, let's say someone is interested in a space and so they go down to the planning department, to

the public information counter to ask about that space. they might get referred from there directly to this program to then come and get more of an overview before they move onto other departments. so it can work in multiple directions, but ideally, it works best if they find us first and get that sort of overarching picture of the process. >> supervisor haney: obviously, it's called open in sf, so a lot of this is folks who want to open a new restaurant. what about keeping restaurants open in sf? if is a business is having a set of challenges, maybe the rent is going way up, or other sorts of permitting issues, would they come to you to then help them navigate how to deal with the challenges or other types of logistical support that you could provide? >> yeah, absolutely. a number of businesses sort of in their attempt to grow, adapt to changing markets and

interest, want to, for example, add a permit, maybe expand their space, maybe move from a limited restaurant to a restaurant with beer and wine, which all require permits. so i help them navigate through that process. >> supervisor haney: so you're the right first point and then you can do the other? okay. got it. thank you. >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much. next we have stephen clock from department of building and inspection. and i think that we're going to cover the over-the-counter expedite the service. is that right? >> yes.

>> okay. good afternoon. i'm a senior building inspector with the department of building inspection. i'm involved in the planning review services where we review permit applications for projects. today, i'm going over the restaurant permitting process. to give you a little bit of background about the department, typically in a one-year period we do 70,000 building permit application reviews. out of that, in prior years, we've done approximately 900 building permit applications for restaurants, bars and cafes. these permits consist of all types of applications for the restaurants, including alterations, new restaurants and minor alterations. during the timeline, it's 44 days for processing of a permit

application. this consists of a wide range of application and also includes all other agency reviews within that time period. general review of the permitting process would be applicant comes and files for a building permit application. we conduct the permit application review. where we issue comments for outstanding items and then work with the applicants on working on approval. after that, we send the permit for permit issuance. once it's issued, they're approved for construction, they can go through the construction, conduct their construction inspections and once everything is complete, the project completion, they get their certificate of final completion and can open their business. restaurant permit process. so typically once a project is approved by the planning department it comes to our

position for review. there are two routes for the process. one, over-the-counter. and the second is through intake process. about 90% of the applications we review go through an over-the-counter process. this process within the department usually takes 2-day review and approval process. the intake process is typically similar, however, that time usually takes a little longer than the over-the-counter process. the difference is, intake application, the drawings and application are dropped off and submitted to the department and go through a sequential interdepartmental routing process which can take time -- take longer time than over-the-counter review process. we have a general review of a flow chart of over-the-counter review process. as you can see, application typically starts with dbi and finishes with dbi. throughout the process, these

projects do require some other agencies' review and this is where they're intertwined within the application process. such as some projects that require health department review would be sent to be reviewed within the process. and some projects for larger restaurants may require fire department review and so forth. some of the causes for the extra time needed for a very view, there is ongoing issues for a project and there is time needed for the applicant to respond to the comments and revise the drawings to comply with matters. other things that can create additional lead time, it's upon approval of an application. sometimes the applicant is still working on finding a contractor and do not get their permits issued until they have selected

someone. so sometimes -- other things that would be sequential review process, where in an intake situation, other departments may not see the application until previous departments complete their review of those applications. am some of the improvements we have made to help streamline the permits, we contact permit applications about our over-the-counter review process. for a permit such as restaurants needing conditional use, upon approval planning, they arrive through dbi. this is through the intake process. once we receive the projects, we contact them and inform them about the over-the-counter process, where they can come in, walk the permit through the over the counter tt area and then drastically streamline and cut down the review time needed for the applications. other things we have done, we

have created an information sheet which is available on our website for new restaurants and alterations to restaurants. in this information sheet, we have developed guidelines to inform applicants of they should expect. some of the major code requirements they need to account for. and other things to help them with the permitting process. we have also continued to broaden our reach to other departments to also incorporate them within the over-the-counter review process. so initially only building department would conduct over-the-counter for the building, construction and mechanical reviews and other divisions may not. since they have worked with us to broaden and jump on board with the over-the-counter review process, that has helped to streamline the restaurant permitting process as well. that's all i have for you today. >> supervisor fewer: okay.

colleagues? any comments, questions? >> i don't have a question relative to dbi's chart, but i do have to say from real life experience, both relative to the opening of new facilities as well as in one case where there was a fire in north beach and actually, this board of supervisors passed special legislation to not allow another liquor store to relocate a half block away. it took longer to get that through various departments, actually i'm not looking at planning, that was remarkably cooperative and i'm not looking at dbi, no offense, mr. spitz, i'm looking at the department of public works, where i had to send my staff down get an encroachment permit. it's like -- we need somebody who walks these people through the various steps.

i understand why all these laws exist. i'm delighted we live in a society where people don't burn to death in their buildings because we require sprinklers and we verify that people aren't cheating. i realize that different neighborhoods have different desir desires, so we prohibit mortuaries and gas stations in certain neighborhoods, but there is always one other thing at the end of the chain. so this board in record time passed legislation to allow this particular business to locate a half block away. and we did it in less time than it took this owner to get to the bureaucracy, mostly because unknown to us, they were hung at the department of public works over an encroachment permit i didn't even think was necessary. i just want to say, if oewd wants to be a help, it's like track these cases, have them have the central point of contact that when we run into

some kind of bureaucratic thing, none of this is, like, arbitrarily capricious, but where they can unstick it. this is not to dbi. this is to mr. van houten. i don't think it's going to streamline for anybody if they can't get past the next department in line. i wanted to get that off my chest. >> supervisor fewer: you said there were 44 days from the time of permit filing to issuance. the average time was 44 days. that includes the planning department? >> yes, it does. includes the planning department as well as all other agency reviews. >> supervisor fewer: okay. i just don't understand why i'm hearing from people who have recently opened a cafe, restaurant, saying that it took them a year to do this. why would be that if you're

telling me on average it's 44 days? >> because a lot of them is over-the-counter. for the people who come in and out in hour, that compensates for the folks who are there for nine months. >> supervisor fewer: thank you, supervisor. >> yeah, because i believe a majority of them do the over-the-counter, which can take just a few days, a week or two. and then there are cases where there could be applications that take 9 months to a year. through our statistical review, it came out as an average, 44 days. >> supervisor fewer: because this is what i'm hearing. i'm hearing they're paying rent on these places while still going through the permitting process, so it gets super expensive and that is dragged out around this permit and that permit. and the wait time and more and more. so i think that -- i -- quite

frankly, when i'm looking at the chart, i'm thinking, oh my god, all the red tape we have to go through sort of. so hearing back about the ov over-the-counter process? >> we have had positive feedback because it drastically cuts down the time they need to get the permit. some of the remarks that are not positive is because they may not be familiar with the process, so sometimes they need to come through a couple of days to complete the permit application. and other things like the wait time. the process is kind of managed by the applicant. they themselves are responsible to take it to the different departments for their review. like within dbi we have a couple of subreview, so we have architectural, structural, mechanical, where you could wait in three our four lines just for our department. i think some of that, there is a lead time or wait time for each

section within our department for review, so sometimes, you know, that can take a little bit more time to complete the over the counter tt review process. but other than that, it has been a positive. and the feedback that has drastically cut down the time needed to obtain a permit from previous history. >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much. any other comments? seeing none, thank you very much. >> now we have mr. aaron star from planning. and this is how planning is supporting permit streamlining. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm the manager of legislative affairs for the planning department. i'm going to go over the restaurant approval streamlining efficients that the department has -- efforts that the department has done to date. we're going to start back in

2011, when we did the restaurant definition rationalization. we've been working on this for a while. to do this, we did something unusual, we created an outreach video using new technology, where you type in the dialogue you want, put it into the computer and these two bots talk it out. it was very popular for about six months or a year, but then the video became famous in planning circles. it received 30,000 views and got press, but what the ordinance did -- or actually what the video showed was that dialogue between the planner and a small business applicant. it showed the absurdity of our current regulations and why they needed to change. it was effective. if you want to watch it, it's under four minutes. just google hello, city planner and it will come up.