i don't have the right to reject the older leases. so it's a variety. i could write a memo to clarify. so i'll do that. >> one more thing, an update on the butterfly space. i think we approved that lease a while ago. i walk by all the time and not seeing activity. >> we've been trying to get them to you, trying to get them in front of you in october, but absolutely, an update. >> any other news business. >> motion to adjourn? >> second. all in favor, adjourn. this is

the small business commission held on monday, september 23, 2019. the meeting is called to order at 2:03 p.m. the small business commission thanks sfgov tv for live streaming the committee. members of the public, please silence your phone and other public devices. the public is limited to three minutes per speaker. speakers are required to state their names. completion of the speaker card

will help ensure the proper spelling of the speakers' names. the speaker cards will be called in the order in which they were placed in the basket. additionally, there is a sign-in sheet on the front table. please show the small business commission slide. >> welcome, everyone. it is our custom to begin each small business commission meeting with a reminder that the office of small business is the only place to start your small business in san francisco and the best place to get answers about doing business in san francisco. the office of small business should be your first stop. all of our services are free of charge. the small business commission is the official public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about the policies that affect the economic vitality of small businesses in san francisco. if you need assistance with

small business matters, start here at the office of small business. first item, please. >> clerk: call to order and roll call. [ roll call ]. >> clerk: you have a quorum. >> thank you. next item. >> clerk: item 2, general public comment allows members of the public to comment on matters that are within the small business commission's agenda. >> do we have any members of the public who would like to make comment on any item not on today's agenda? seeing none, public comment is closed. next item, please. >> clerk: item #, approval of legacy business registry applications and resolutions. discussion and action item. the presenter is richard carillo, office of small

business. >> good afternoon. richard carillo, legacy program manager. sfgov tv, i have a powerpoint presentation. before you are seven applications for the legacy business registry. the applications were reviewed by me and heard by the preservation commission on september 18. for each applicant, the s.b.c. has been provided a staff report, the draft resolution, the application, a case report from planning department staff, and a resolution from h.p.c. there are copies on the table and the public binder. item 3(a) is adobe books and arts co-operative. it is a book store and art

store. adobe books opened an art gallery where friends of the shop could show their work. in 2004, adobe books made national news by the only store to organize by color and artwork by chris cobb. in 2012 they faced an untenable rent hike in a changing neighborhood. a book of supporters found a new store front on 29 street in the mission. the co-operative built a more explicit dynamic connection between the book store and the exhibition space and has hosted scores of public events featuring art, poetry, writing, and more. item 3(b) is anresco laboratories. the business is a laboratory founded in 1943 by dr. sovin

isenburg that does testing of food and food-related products. anresco is an acronym for research and consulting. in the 1970s, anresco did nutrient labelling. in 1980, the business moved to the bayview neighborhood and solicited businesses from the various nearby meat companies. they also developed a expert capability for testing food of pesticide and herbicide residues. they are only one of two commercial laboratories in california accredited for all procedures required by the states, bureau of cannabis control. the business is a family-owned business owned by the son of the doct

doctor. item 3(c) is the ha-ra club. the business is a bar in the tender loin that opened in 1956 by hank hanestead, a wrestler and ralph, a boxer. the name is a combination of their names. the s the interior of the bar has been restored to reflect the business's long history and the exterior neon sign is a recognized feature of the neighborhood. today the ha-ra club is the tender loin's longest-running bar. item 3(d) is the mechanics' institute. it's a non-profit organization established in 1985 by a group of mechanics who were

dissatisfied with san francisco's lack of libraries and dearth of educational opportunities for adults. the plan was to host a library, to offer classes and lectures that would teach new skills, to welcome everyone regardless of race or gender and to cost the user as little as possible. the organization moved a few times before purchasing its current location on post street in 1866. the institute built a three-storey building on the site, but the building was destroyed 30 years later. in 1910, the institute constructed a new nine-storey building that was declared a local landmark in 1981. today the mechanics' institute is the oldest surviving library in california, designed to serve the general population, and the oldest chess club in the nation. item 3(e) is the national picture framing centers inc. it is a picture store

established in 1974 as a result of the owner's experience in doing accessible and affordable framing. this store eventually became a full-service custom framing business. cheap pets was born in 1988. rather than change the successful format of the store, they changed the name. the company's production facility and headquarters are on pacific avenue. there are four additional stores around the city.

item 3(f) is new asia restaurant inc. the restaurant is an iconic restaurant in chinatown established in 1987. they have 100 tables and can host a banquet for a thousand people at a single events. they hold many fund-raisers, birthdays, lunar new yooer ooea celebrations. new asia restaurant was the first restaurant in san francisco's chinatown to introduce the use of dim sum pushing carts as a unique way of showcasing the food. item 3(g) is sodini's green valley restaurant. the business is an italian restaurant that is operated continuously at 510 green street

originally as green valley restaurant. the restaurant has retained its italian-american roots. in 1993, peter sodini and his wife purchased green valley restaurant, adding their name to the restaurant, restoring the old building and turning the restaurant into a thriving, popular north beach establishment it is today. approximately 90% of sodini's clientele are north beach residents. all seven businesses received a positive recommendation from the historic preservation commission. after reviewing the applications and the recommendation from the h.p.c., staff finds the businesses have met the three criteria for listing on the legacy business registry. there are seven draft resolutions for consideration by the small business commission, one for each of the applicants. your support of the businesses

should be as a motion in favor of the resolutions. in the resolutions, please pay close attention to the features that define the business. one approved by the s.p.c., the business must maintain these physical features in order to remain on the registry. for anresco labs it's testing services for foods. for the ha-ra club, it's bar. for mechanics' institute, it's library and cultural center. for national picture framing centers it's picture frame store. for new asia restaurant, it's restaurant featuring chinese cuisine. for sodini's green valley restaurant, it's restaurant featuring italian cuisine. this concludes my presentation. i'm happy to answer any questions. there are business representatives in attendance who would like to speak on

behalf of the applications. >> do you want to go right into public comment? >> sure. >> yes. >> okay. let's go into public comment. >> clerk: would sienna team come to public comment. >> my name is siennakong and i am here in opposition. i was at adobe for a year and a half and during that time i saw the staff mistreat co-operative members. this led me into the workings of adobe, and they have demonstrated a consistent pattern of violating labor rooltions in exploiting its members. it did not provide workers' compensation for the entire duration of employment at adobe books and co-operative.

they did not provide compensation for another lady when she was injured at work on march 28, 2018. she was injured in the eye and report her enjoy to the board of directors. they not only told her there was no compensation in place and insinuated that she was at fault since she purchased the decorations that injured her. even though it's been over almost six months now since injury, she still has not been paid and she had to pay the bills out of her own funds in order to avoid personal debt. third, adobe then retaliated against the woman for seeking workers' compensation. she found her hours reduced from 32 hours a week to 20. additionally, adobe has been unlawfully using volunteer

labor, despite being a for-profit enterprise. as you all know adobe claims they can get away with this because they a are co-operative. adobe has always claimed that it can't give money to its volunteers because it has made no profit, it still would need to pay for the labor of the volunteers. i also have -- these are the ones that i witnessed while my time is here. i apologize. i only found out about the meeting this morning. [ bell rings ]. >> i could provide further testimony from former volunteers and further documentations.

thank you. >> next speaker, please. come on up. sy. >> thank you for having me today. i have worked at mechanics' institute for 12 years as a librarian. mechanics' institute as a concept started in scotland in the 1820s as a vehicle for educating the working class. they typically hosted libraries, offered lectures on the sciences and emerging technologies and classes to teach new skills. this was a time in the world when there was no such thing as government-funded school systems, universities, or libraries. so the concept spread like wildfire, and at their height in the mid-19th century in the english-speaking world there

were over 100 mechanics' institutes in england alone. in north america there were a handful, mostly in canada and the eastern states. so san francisco's mechanics' institute is the only one in the far west and one of the few in the world that continues to operate on its original mission. the decision to found the san francisco mechanics' institute was made at city hall on december 11, 1854, and our founders all had boundless faith in the future of san francisco and a very strong belief in self-improvement through education. 164 years later, i think the founders -- our founders would be very proud of what it's accomplished and eager to participate in all that the legacy business registry has to offer and the security that it will afford us as our community grows. thank you so much for hearing me

today. >> great. thank you. next speaker, please. come on up. >> hi my name is john feldman. i'm one of the owners of adobe books. i wasn't prepared to defend myself against the allegations made earlier. basically, we are a volunteer-run co-op because we -- and there is no management, per se. there's a hired -- or an elected board of directors. we don't manage. we make decisions based on the way co-ops work. we -- we're elected by the constituency of the co-op and operate through -- the same way you guys do. we have a certain amount of people needed there and we vote on things. they're either passed or not.

as far as ms. kong's allegations that we're exploiting them, we literally have no -- we literally make no money. as far as i can understand, as far as the co-op law works, people that are -- once you become a member of a co-op, you have -- i'm sorry, i wasn't prepared to have to go through this. once you become a member of a co-op, you are an owner and we decide at the end of the year to decide what to do with our money that we've made. we can either take it and put it back into the co-op or we can take that money, which of course you said dividends. when we started the co-op we decided to just put the money that we had back into the co-op. that's what we've done.

the people that come there as volunteers, the first 40 or 50 hours can -- from what i understand in the co-op law, can be recognized as trainees. and they would become worker owners. that's my understanding of that. as far as the person that we have, one employee that was hired, at that time, and now the laws are changing with contracting, she was a contracted employee. so under that contract situation, it wasn't exactly the same as a regular, hired employee. and -- [ bell rings ]. >> -- as far as her injury we told her we would pay her when we had the money. we were waiting for a certain fund-raiser and we were going to reimburse her. that's my side of that, and i hope you take that into consideration. thank you. >> thank you.

next speaker, please. >> hi, i'm jim drago and i own cheap pete's. this is my fifth year of owning it. one thing i wanted to point out is about half of the employees we have, 85 employees, all live and work in san francisco. we've done a real good job i think of making sure that these employees can make a living. we pay higher than minimum wage. we work hard at that. we're very proud of that and wanted to point that out. we have employees that have been working for us for nearly 15, 20 years. i would say about a third of them. so we have a good, strong community presence. it's something we're really proud of. i wanted to point that out. thank you for considering our application. >> great. thank you. next speaker, please. come on up. it's your business. let us hear about it.

>> hello. i'm speaking on behalf of sodini's green valley. i'm mark sodini. i would like to thank you all for everything you're doing for us. in short, the restaurant employees everybody that works there lives in the city. i've had employees over there for 20 years. the restaurant opened in the early 1900s, and i've worked it six, seven days a week for the past 29 years. i just love north beach. i love the city. i still enjoy coming to work and i love this process. thank you very much for listening and thank you for all your help, richard, greatly appreciate that. thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker, please. anybody else? come on up.

>> hi. good afternoon, commissioner. i have the honor to have the owner of new asia restaurant here today. >> sorry, english ... >> he said "thank you, thank you." i am very pleased that i have the opportunity to meet and work with mr. and mrs. so who's coming on working with a legacy business, got to know their narrative and their history. i'm particularly very -- it's a blessing for them to have the restaurant there because -- as rick already mentioned, it is one of the largest ones and they

employee on average every single time is around more than 50 employees and they serve as to a lot of new immigrants coming from asia, hong kong, taiwan, they come over here and stay in chinatown. they are one of the major employers who help them to settle down and help them to settle the family down. so i think this is one of the greatest contributions that new asia restaurant has to do for the entire immigrant community here in san francisco. one other interesting thing is mr. so told me that my restaurant is the second-largest washrooms in chinatown. i said, what do you mean by that? he said, i open my restaurant to customers and non-customers because i know that a lot of people have natural calls. i would be more than happy to

open my restaurant to them to use, whether they are my clients or not. mr. so keeps on saying that because his english is not good. so he asked me to just translate for him. again, thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you for your time. >> any more speakers? public comment is closed. commissioner dwight. >> i love new asia restaurant because my wife and i walk by there every saturday night on our way to eat in north beach, but we love to see the celebrations going on, whether it's a wedding or some party. and it's just a -- it's sort of a bell weather of the vitality of chinatown to see it so lit up and everything going on there. it's a very festive place.

i love that place. i don't go there, but it's so quintessentially chinatown. if it disappeared, i would be like, what happened to chinatown? so it's really great. i love cheap pete's. i've framed many pictures there. i had no idea that was both frame-o-rama and cheap pete's. and i've toured anresco labs. we went there when we were doing our c.b.d. research. i've been to mechanics' institute. it's a really neat, historic place. they have some cool books on the stacks there, if you want to see the world of analog books, that's a great place to go. congratulations to all of you for going through the process. >> commissioner riley. >> yes, i also want to mention new asia restaurant. that's the most popular restaurant in chinatown or outside of chinatown.

any time when there is a celebration like weddings, birthday parties, fund-raisers, and especially the chinese new year, all the family associations have a party there. so i personally go to new asia for banquets at least 10, 20 times a year. thank you. >> i also have been to many, many banquets at new asia. maybe not quite as many as irene, but it is a regular part of my year to go there. green valley restaurant, you're a part of our heart in north beach. what can we say? you're just part of us. i also visited anresco laboratories with the commission. i was really impressed by how professional they were and how

thorough they were. it was really an eye-opener to see some contaminated cannabis that they brought out to show us and show us all of how they run through all their tests to make sure that things like that don't come to the public. congratulations from everyone. you're all so well deserving. >> i want to give a shout out to sodini's. it was either you, golden boy, now i'm kind of older, i'm excited. your family is amazing. we love your food. >> and i just want to give a couple shout-outs, first off, sodini gangrene valley restaurant, that was one of my parents' go-to places because they used to stay at the washington square bed and breakfast when they came. that was one of their definite go-to restaurants. new asia restaurant, i have been to many banquets at new asia

restaurant, shark fin soup, and i've had a blast. national picture framing center, cheap pete's, every picture in my house and of my family has come from -- it is from national picture framing or cheap pete's. i've been to your other store and the one in san francisco. our company, we buy all of our frames from you. you guys are awesome and have great frames there. keep up the good work. do we have a motion? >> i would like to make a motion. we have an elephant in the room today with regard to one of our nominees. i would like us to have an opportunity to consider what we've heard today. my motion is to approve six of the seven resolutions, excluding

adobe books only for the time being so that we can learn a little bit more about what we heard. i think it would be irresponsible of us to just kind of wash over that. that's my motion. >> second. >> i have a point of clarification. maybe defer to staff on this. isn't -- it's my understanding that it does have to go through some sort of vetting with the city before the applications come before us. if there was a complaint it would have shown. is that the case or not? >> we generally do extensive research on the legacy businesses. they go through a big process. online we try to find out as much as we can about the businesses. we get news reports and things like that. for the registry we have not been checking with o.l.c. for all the applications. for the grants we do that because we don't want the

funding to go to the businesses before we check. we haven't done that for the registry. if you want, we can start doing that, if that's something that you think -- >> just to be clear, i don't -- nothing in my motion suggests that either -- that there's anything at fault. at adobe. we don't know that and there's no fault in the process. i think this is something we have not seen before and that we aught to cause and consider it's something we haven't seen before. let's see how we deal with this situation and avoid it in the future. maybe it's an outlier case and revisit it at the next round. most of the work has already been done. it's a matter of us doing our due diligence to be fair. >> with the legacy applications we hit all issues up front. you've seen that with all of the applications that we brought before you. we generally ask the businesses if there's anything we need to know, let us know, and we'll

talk about that beforehand. if there is an issue and the business did not bring that to us, that is partially their fault. so we need to make sure that we know everything before we do the application. >> let's sort it out. >> clerk: there is a motion to approve the legacy business registry registrations and resolutions as described in the meeting agenda. [ roll call ] vote. >> clerk: motion passes 6-0 with one absence. >> thank you. congratulations. [ applause ].

>> clerk: if the legacy businesses would like to join the commissioners for a photo on the floor, that would be great.

>> clerk: item 4 board of supervisors file no. 190756. police code. cannabis retailers at permitted cannabis events. ordinance amending the police code to require that cannabis retailers at permitted events

hold cannabis business permits issued by the city that applicants for cannabis event permits identify the retailers that will be selling cannabis goods at such event sand affirm that said retailers hold city-issued cannabis business permits, and that recipients of cannabis event permits take steps to reasonably ensure that only said retailers will sell cannabis goods at such events; to provide that a material false statement made in connection with an application for a cannabis event permit may be subject to administrative penalty, cause for denial of a pending or future application for a cannabis business permit, and cause for suspension or revocation of an existing cannabis business permit; and affirming the planning department's determination under the california environmental quality act. may be, cause for denial of a pending or future and affirm that said retailers hold city-issued cannabis business permits, and that recipients of cannabis event permits take steps to reasonably ensure that only said retailers will sell cannabis goods at such events; to provide that a material false statement made in connection with an application for a cannabis event permit may be subject to administrative penalty, cause for denial of a pending or future application for a cannabis business permit, and cause for suspension or revocation of an existing cannabis business permit; and affirming the planning department's determination under the california environmental quality act. >> hello, i'm here on behalf of

supervisor mandelman. in 2018 there was an ordinance issued on this file number. prior to the development of this permit san francisco residents experienced unregulated sales and consumption of cannabis. under the pilot program authorized by this ordinance, the city issued its first temporary cannabis events to grasslands at outside lands in august. this first permitted cannabis event was a success with zero medical calls or calls to law enforcement demonstrating that a legal and regulated approach can provide a safe environment for cannabis sales and consumption. i will also add as a happy and positive side note said that this was the favourite part of

the festival. unsurprisingly. to further the goals of enhancing public health and safety and supporting our local small businesses, we are introducing an amendment that requires the following of cannabis retailers at these permitted events. first, to hold cannabis business permits issued by the city and county of san francisco. second, that applicants for cannabis event permits identify the retailers that will be selling cannabis goods at such events and affirm that all retailers hold city-issued cannabis permits. third, that recipients of cannabis permits take steps to reasonably ensure that only s.f. retailers will sell cannabis at such events. this requirement will allow regulatory oversight to ensure that the rules will be followed. it also appropriately for this commission ensure that sales

that happen at san francisco events benefit our local small businesses. this amendment will also require event organizers to demonstrate their support to further the city's equity goal as part of their cannabis permit application. many s.f. cannabis businesses are required to show their commitment to equity. and this extends to cannabis event organizers. commissioners, we have been pleased with the early success of these permits and feel that the amendments described here will make the program even better more event attendees. i look forward to hearing the commission's feedback and hopefully having your support for this ordinance. i would also like to thank and our colleagues at the office of cannab cannabis. >> thank you. any questions, commissioners? i just want to say that you guys

did a great job with grasslands at outside lands. you know, there wasn't any -- not one complaint, not one police action or event or anything. from people i know who attended, you guys had your act together. i think that was a great model that you did, and i can see you doing that at other events and in other neighborhoods now. i think you guys just did a great job with this and i like this a lot. do we have any other comments before we go to public comment? do we have any members of the public who would like to make comment on item number 44? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioners, do we have any support? >> sure. move to support the legislation as presented.

>> second. >> okay. roll call vote. again, grasslands was great. that could be like a model in other places. office of cannabis is here. >> i do like to say -- first, thank you so much. thank you to all of you. we like to look at this example as sort of the model for grasslands or for other events similar to that, because of course we don't want smaller events to feel like they have to take that much onus with respect to how expensive it can sometimes be. it's such a large event so it's different, but we expect it will be just as safe and enjoyable for the entire community, all of our future cannabis events. >> and they were all local. >> that's right. >> and that's the beauty of it.

>> yeah. and we really want to encourage that and support our local retailers. of course we want to create a space where all brands can be exhibited, but we want local businesses to be able to be celebrated in that space. >> all right. well, we have a motion. >> thanks. >> clerk: morges by commissioner dwight to support the legislation. roll call vote. [ roll call ] vote. >> clerk: motion passes 6-0 with one absenc]with one absenw.

board of supervisors file no. 190842: various codes - renewing and extending waiver and refund of investigation fee - persons registered with the office of cannabis - one-year extension of medical cannabis dispensary permits and temporary cannabis business permits. ordinance renewing and extending a prior waiver and refund of investigation fees imposed by building code, section 107a.5, for persons registered with the office of cannabis through december 31, 2020; amending the health code to extend the date beyond which temporary medical cannabis dispensary permits issued under article 33 of the health code are rendered invalid, from december 31, 2019, to december 31, 2020; amending the police code to extend the date beyond which temporary cannabis business permits issued under article 16 of the police code cannot be extended from december 31, 2019, to december 31, 2020; and amending the planning code to extend the date by which a grandfathered medical cannabis dispensary, as defined in the planning code, must have received a permit to operate from the department of public health to be deemed a temporary cannabis sales use, as defined in the planning code, from december 31, 2019, to december 31, 2020. the presenter is again tom

temprano, legislative aide to supervisor mandelman in the office of cannabis. >> welcome. >> it's great to be back with some more cannabis for you this afternoon. this ordinance will allow cannabis businesses participating in the city's amnesty program to continue to access d.b.i. waivers and also extend medical cannabis dispensary permits through 2020. following the passage of prop 64, the city commenced a registration process and allow existing non-retail cannabis operators to come forward and make themselves and their opportunities known to the city. this process disclosed 250 previously unregulated activities in cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, testing, and delivery, and allowed the city to begin to move many of these operations into the legal and regulated

market place. this registration process initiated an amnesty process for these operators to bring them out of the shadows and into a regulated and compliant space. these operators were then able to apply for a temporary cannabis business permit and as part of that process submit to inspections of the business premises. in an effort to ensure that these operators focused their financial resources on coming into compliance, the board of supervisors passed an ordinance in 2017, waiving and we funding that fee. that expired and due to unforesee delays and many processes that the applicants were subject to, some operators were not able to complete the inspections prior to that date. this ordinance will extend the deadline for these fee waivers

through december 31, 2020, so these businesses can pass their inspections and come fully into compliance. the ordinance will also extend the effective date of the temporary cannabis permits that these businesses are operating under through december 31, 2020, as the office of cannabis works do their permitting backlog and processes permanent license for these operators. finally, because we're getting all of the deadlines done at once, this ordinance will amend the health code to allow for additional 120-day extensions through december 31, 2020, of existing medical cannabis dispensary permits. these extensions are necessary to successfully transition our medical dispensaries to recreational adult youth sales and allows them to continue operation and remain in compliance while supporting our broader equity goals. as part of their permit, we are committed to supporting the city's equity goals and our

temporary authorization is a condition of their successful support for the equity program. commissioners, this ordinance will allow existing small businesses operating on these temporary cannabis permits to continue operating through 2020. we hope to have your support. i hope to be joined by our colleagues from the office of cannabis for any questions you might have about this ordinance. >> do we have any commissioner comments? >> i think this is another good cleanup ordinance that we need. >> i just want to echo that. firsthand, i've been helping a lot of small businesses go through the process. you hand hold them and make this easier. we appreciate that in the neighborhoods. >> it's helping get it out of the darkness and into a legitimate business. i want to echo that, i'm hearing

a lot of good things. any other commissioner comments before we go to public comments? okay. let's open up item number 5 to public comment. do we have any members of the comment who would like to make comment on item number 5. seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioners. >> i second. >> clerk: motion to support the legislation, roll call vote. [ roll call ] vote. >> clerk: motion passes 6-0 with one absent. >> keep up the good work. thank you. >> next item, please. >> clerk: item 6, office of small business staff presentations, san francisco massage regulations. discussion item. presenter is dominicadon van,

senior policy analyst. >> while dominicadon is getting set up to present her powerpoint, i want to extend a great amount of appreciation for the amount of policy work she's done. she's sent you the document. you may not have had a chance to fully read it, but because of it supervisor brown is utilizing this policy document to do the framework to amend the current massage regulations. and of course much of it follows the recommendations that the commission made when the first legislation or last set of substantive legislation was passed in 2015. so i will now turn that over to dominica. >> commissioners, thank you for

having me. it's always a little weird being on this side of the podium. sfgov tv, i have a powerpoint. today i'm going to provide you with a very high-level, as brief as possible, overview of the legislative history affecting massage regulations, existing law and regulations, issues and considerations, and the policy options which were all covered in the massage topic paper which you should have received a little less than a week ago. so to go over the legislative history, as you may be aware in 2003 the regulation of massage businesses moved from s.f. police department over to the department of public health. this was pretty significant for a number of reasons, but most importantly it legitimatized massage as a health service and established the linkage between massage therapy and healthcare

and the department of public health would now be overseeing administration of regulations related to massage. it had been regulated through the police code prior to that because it was considered to be an adult service by city regulators. in 2006, a fairly comprehensive overhaul of land use regulations relating to massage was implemented and mandated, and it required that massage establishments be subject to conditional use authorizations in most commercial districts. this was responses to challenges that emerged to you to variations in businesses and land use across the city, which led to an overconcentration of massage businesses, both legitimate and illegitimate in certain areas of the city. most significantly in 2008 a state law passed which set the stage for how we see massage

regulated as it is today. the state law limited local land use controls relative to local businesses as you may remember hearing about back in 2015. because of this localities across california started experiencing much higher volumes of complaints related to illegal commercial sex activity and human and sex trafficking, which was a very unfortunate, unintended consequence of that 2008 state law. in 2009, the city attempted to control for this in modifying certain land use controls with regard to massage, but it was extremely administratively challenging for the city to provide adequate oversight and regulation over both legitimate and illegitimate massage establishments. in 2014, the state recognized this and returned local land use controls to cities and countries, which is why in 2015 you saw two very significant

pieces of legislation which were passed which regulated massage in san francisco, which this commission did hear, both pieces of legislation and had significant commentary for. some of you were here during that time and may remember that. one ordinance significantly regulated where massage can be operated in the city and significantly limited where it can be operated. it also defined massage establishment as its own land use very distinct from other health services and other medical services. i do recall that one recommendation from this commission was that massage continued to be considered a health use for those purposes, but it wasn't. it also required that all new

general massage establishments, so that's any business that employees massage practitiones s undergo a conditional use authorization practice in sole practitioner massage establishments. those that are occupied by only one practitioner would have to participate in a neighborhood notification process. so both are fairly onerous and the conditional use authorization process, as we all know, is fairly costly. ordinance 7215 was also passed, and this ordinance comprehensively amended article 29 of the health code, which regulates how massage establishments themselves are licensed and how they operate and provided the department of public health with much more authority into oversight responsibilities with regard to massage establishments, including how and when fees and fines would be administered to

those establishments. the ordinance also requires three types of licensing for specific massage permits. one is for a general massage establishment, the second is for a sole practitioner massage practice, and the other is for outcall massage practices. finally, the last significant regulations that were passed were around this time last year in 2018. that ordinance added further requirements to obtaining massage establishment permits and significantly limited how many full practitioners could share a physical space and provided the director of the department of public health with more authority for accessing criminal histories of massage permit applications. when i was going through my research and looking at all of the prior legislation that's affected massage establishments and the background information for the last piece of

legislation, it was noted that one purpose of article 29 is to ensure that massage establishments do not become elements of the sex trade and engage in other human rights violations. and the amendments that were made would close enforcement loopholes and discourage that conduct that puts worker and client safety at risk, which as we'll see, arguably this has been very successful in that regard. so currently massage is regulated through the department of public health and it's regulated through the planning department, through the health and planning codes. briefly, as briefly as i can do this, before a permit to operate a general massage establishment or a sole practitioner massage establishment is issued, the applicant must satisfy two major

requirements. the first being an 18 to 19-page application and for general massage establishments and an $892 application fee. for sole practitioner massage establishments, that fee is $ 5 $635. [ please stand by ]

for general massage establishment listed as $1,389, per year, which is modified depending on what month the individuals applying for the annual license fee and for soul practitioner massage establishments it is listed as when $86 we had -- -- $186 read i am seeing all of this to show you how detailed this process can be for an applicant. for an alcohol massage business permit submit a standard application to operate, written operational procedures with background checks, a declaration of a health and safety workplace, 471-dollar application fee in their annual license fee is three and $50. for brick-and-mortar -- -- $350,

for brick-and-mortar they must ensure that there location is allowed as a massage use under the plan code. where general info practitioner massage establishments may operate is regulated through the planning code, as you can see. out of approximately 224 commercial zoning districts, massage is allowed in 91 of them, or about 40%. only 62 of those 91 on the first story only. that makes it extremely difficult to find a commercial base for you can legally operate massage, but also for sole practitioners, where most of the areas where you can operate are only on the first worry. that is also extremely limiting where you can operate area where first for a ground floor is much more expensive than thhi