neighborhood a place where people come and subcontract it is in recent years we see a drop off of a lot of bookstores both national chains and neighborhoods by the neighborhood stores where coming you don't want to - one of the great things of san francisco it is neighborhood neighborhood have dentist corrosive are coffeehouses but 2, 3, 4 coffeehouses in month neighborhoods that are on their own- that's

>> good afternoon, everyone. the meeting will come together -- to order. this is november 21st, 2019, special meeting of the budget finance committee. i am chair of the committee. i would like to thank san francisco government tv for broadcasting this meeting. colleagues, can we please have a motion to excuse supervisors catherine stefani and raphael mandel and? we can take that without objection. thank you very much. are there any announcements? >> silence all cell phones and electronic devices. completed speaker cards and copies of any documents to be included should be submitted to the clerk. there are eight supervisors in the chamber. we are now convened as the special meeting of the board of supervisors.

>> call item number one. >> a motion for an election to be held and an ordinance amending the business and tax regulation on persons keeping ground floor commercial spaces and commercial districts and for neighborhood commercial -- [indiscernible] >> thank you very much. supervisor ronen? >> i am happy to make a motion to move this. >> great. >> thank you, chair fewer, members of the special budget and finance committee. i don't think i have ever been more nervous to talk about something given the amount of work it has taken to get to me. first and foremost, thank you

again on behalf of supervisor peskin. his regrets for not being able to be here today. the letter in the legislative file speaks to that. for members of the public, by way of brief background, this was last at the budget and finance committee and we made a number of amendments based on feedback from stakeholders as diverse as the chamber of commerce, to merchant groups, the members of public and commercial brokers who we spoke with. we spoke with supervisors who have expressed concerns. those amendments are geared and making sure this will not be affecting individuals and landlords. we are trying to do the right thing to activate our storefront so in order to do that, we inserted additional exemptions for vacancy. for instance, if the department of building inspection is continuing to consider a permit application, the property will not be vacant from the time of application to issuance of the permit.

and for a year after the issuance of that permit, so you can engage in those actual improvements and improvements to your property. we have proposed a deadline for the city planning department to act on a conditional use authorization. if that conditional use is not decided one way or another within six months, the property would not be assessed in that tax year. we have done other things to accommodate concerns, most recently we amended to provide that if a tenant goes out of business with additional time left on a lease, that they are not going to be punished for the additional remainder of that lease and the tax cannot be assessed for the remainder of that lease. we have amended to provide a two thirds threshold for amending this at the board of supervisors , provided it is consistent with the intent of the measure, and to the extent that there are outstanding concerns or unexpected anomalies in the way this is implemented down the line.

i think that this should provide some comfort that we can amend to improve and make sure this tax provides its function. i want to thank the small business commission. the office of small business director for their wholehearted support of this, which is actually the end result of a lot of work with the department and the commission to accommodate concerns that they had, again to the stakeholder commute -- community, i would also like to thank cosponsors ronen, walton, and haney, and as a final statement, commercial rent control requires an amendment to state law and i truly believe this is the most powerful and effective tool that we have to stabilize rent for existing small businesses. for perspective small businesses that need more leverage to bring those rents down, and to engage in lease negotiations, and ultimately to try to get these vacancies along our most vibrant commercial corridors built. i am available for questions.

>> thank you very much. >> would this be a good time to make a couple of comments from the conversations we had? >> yes, absolutely. >> i had good conversations with the sponsor. i just wanted to put on the record i know that the timeline of everything is condensed because -- for many different reasons, but we don't have time to make any additional amendments now before we would put it on the ballot, but i want to talk about some of the things that i thought were important in terms of the conversation that can be considered either internal legislation because of the timeline that we had to get this on the ballot. one of which is more of a technical thing as we are calculating the tax, the way that the legislation talks about linear footage along the public right-of-way. i wanted to ensure that we are also not including an ingress or egress that is not related to the business itself. often times our commercial storefronts on public

right-of-way his have a walk up to an apartment above the business. it has nothing to do with the business so we want to ensure it is clarified in the legislation that the tax is not being applied to the business for a space that has nothing to do with the business. we will work with the project sponsor on that. secondarily, and this is a lot more important to me as well, is that one year construction period. understand that the allowances that are made in this legislation to discuss the permitting, conditional use, so on and so forth, with the businesses, for instance, in my district often are not always fully capitalized. or always not coming with everything that they have to the table. and often that means slightly longer construction period, or sometimes disruptions in that construction period that are or not the intent or the fault of the small business itself.

and talk through that with the project sponsor for the sponsor of the legislation. there are a few real-world examples in my district where either the business partner, one of the business partners walked away from the field temporarily and they were able to find new capital to finish the project, or simply they were waiting to have the savings enough so they could finally finish the work at hand. and in each scenario took a little longer than a year. my request would be for the sponsor of the legislation to consider an 18 month period for construction. i think that would be more fair. anything beyond that, then i understand it would make sense for the consideration of this to take place. i probably should have started by saying, in particular in my district, i look at this from two different ways. from the perspective of the people in the neighborhood that are frustrated with the high levels of vacancies, and i think

we have one of the highest levels of storefront vacancies in the city, we have worked aggressively to come up with legislation to work with the city, to work with the small business community, to work with landlords, to aggressively change the process by which businesses can open up. we went through a permitting process where many of the businesses, if they are principally permitted, would be allowed to go to over-the-counter permits. i think it would be healthy as part of this conversation with this ballot measure to have that conversation. i know that myself and supervisor tang did that jointly , but there's other parts of the city that also have those barriers. and i'm talking about if you are going for a change of means or the use, in many cases that have not been permitted prior. and in our district, these were not allowed on ground floor. we change that is part of our process, and now there are two

or three arts organizations that have co- located and opened up, which is added to the vibrancy of the commercial corridor, as well as the vacancies. at the same time, some of the businesses that were going in that were occupying spaces that were a different use did not have to go through the cumbersome process of neighborhood notification because we knew in the end it was a principally permitted business. i think it would be helpful to have a parallel conversation on this ballot measure. i think it would be something that the small business community would embrace, and i think it would be a complement, not of any contradiction to this legislation. so i am cautiously supportive of this legislation. i think the intent is to change the balance of power with the negotiations between small businesses and landlords and i think that is a good outcome. i think it is intended to aggressively deal with our vacancy and i think, as the project -- as the sponsor of the legislation has said, the intent as we won't collect any of this

tax, that we will occupy these empty storefronts, and i think that is also very important. i am cautiously optimistic and supportive of this, but i would like to see a few changes that i have asked for incorporated into the legislation, and then also that we have this citywide conversation about streamlining the permitting process for small businesses because i think all of us have heard over and over again from our small merchants and businesses that they want san francisco to be more friendly and more able to open up small businesses in a fast manner. so i think that is important. that does not mean completely remove any neighborhood input, what it does mean, let's have this conversation if we are going to create a tax, we should also talk about creating less barriers to opening up those businesses. that is it. i just wanted to say those few things and incorporate into the record some of the things that i had talked about with the sponsoring of the legislation that we would like to see

incorporated into the discussion , into the final piece of legislation. alternately that would trail this ballot measure. >> thank you very much. supervisor haney? >> thank you, chair fewer. congratulations and thank you to supervisor peskin for your years of work on this legislation and extraordinary leadership in bringing all of the stakeholders together and taking the feedback and amendments. this is obviously something that is critically important to everyone in the city, to all of the districts that we represent. district six has the highest vacancy rate and it has severe impacts on our neighborhoods when we have so many vacancies. obviously our small businesses are struggling and i feel like every week i hear about a business that is closing or being pushed out because of rent , and the way that we can figure out a whole policy agenda

to be able to better support them are critically important. it is also, for district six, it is an issue of public safety when you have corridors we have so many vacant buildings and vacant stores, and you don't have a lot of activity. there are without people walking around her people coming in and out, these are areas where we have a lot of other bad activity that is happening. i hear a lot about areas where we have vacant stories that other suspicious activities are happening there. if we can have more positive things happening, that adds to the quality of life for everyone this is one of the main things we need to do. i appreciate there's more about how we can facilitate speedy approvals and provide a relief from fees. all of that is so important. and also, in my district and other districts, there's also a lot of feedback about how we can address some of the other challenges that small businesses face relating to homelessness and mental health crisis.

all of these things together with this vacancy tax will help to create an environment that is more friendly for not just small businesses, which is very important, were more healthy and vibrant neighborhoods generally. thank you for your leadership. >> thank you very much. supervisor brown? >> thank you. just a couple of points. i definitely agree with supervisor safai that probably the 18 month period is probably more reasonable. i also really want to look at the size of the space because i will take, for example, in my district. they have larger spaces, and they do not want formula retail, but they also have a moratorium liquor license moratorium, so why restaurants could actually come in, have a liquor license,

and probably take those spaces, they are not going to do that. there is no way for them to even get a beer and wine license and restaurants have a hard time making it without be a and wine. when we are looking at having a taxation on certain corridors like that one, we need to look at the details of it. no formula retail, and then no restaurant that could have beer and wine, then what do we do with the larger spaces? i think that is kind of unfair for landlords that if we are restricting them, then how do we work with these landlords to make sure that there are options for them to get people in, and also definitely streamlining. that is really important. there's so many of those spaces where i've talked to landlords and they want to rent, but when people come in and they find out it might take them two years to open up, they just do not have the financial ability to do that

i think those things have to be in conservation as we move forward. thank you. >> thank you very much. supervisor walton? >> thank you, supervisor fewer. i want to make a few comments in terms of what we are attempting to do for small businesses. we definitely understand the issues that exist and how hard it is for small businesses here in san francisco. supervisor fewer and i are currently convening and talking with our small businesses in a working group. one of the conversations is about streamlining the permitting process. i want everyone to know we are listening to our small businesses and we are working towards a solution. it is also very real and some of our corridors. some of it is due to irresponsible landlords and the decision that they make. if you are working hard to get businesses into your community, if you are working hard to get a broader investment in your community, nothing is worse than businesses and potential

businesses looking at blighted communities and seeing empty storefronts and vacancies on some of our commercial corridors so this initiative ordinance works to address that and i just want to thank supervisor peskin for taking the lead on that, and everyone else who cosponsored so this could be on the ballot. >> thank you very much. let's open this up for public comment. would anyone like to speak on this item? >> good afternoon, supervisors. first of all, i want to thank leigh hepner for coming up. he was also at the council meeting last week. i also appreciate the fact he understood some of the recommendations. there had been amendments made to this legislation. not all these landlords are bad actors. most of them are really good.

some of them have only increased their rent annually. but then you have the ones who are really determined to keep their place is empty for years and years and years. something has to be done. how long can we put up with this it doesn't impact all your small businesses in the area. also, there are less people on the streets. it will make it safer. we have to look at the characteristic approach. we need to have a character. why is it only that some can do that and others can't? let's make it apply to every small business that wants to open this city. a conditional use hearing, up to nine months, if not more than that, plus the cost. it should be must -- much less than that. formula retail, fill's coffee, a

local company. born and raised in the city. they want to move into a place, they have to wait just like everybody else. i think we can look at that. once again, i do think this legislation is good, but the time element of the supervisors that they pointed out can be a problem. on the whole, it is really good to see this moving along. thank you for all your hard work >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> we are a local san francisco-based company that specializes in street retail. i had been attending a number of these meetings. i attended the last small business council meeting where supervisor peskin's aid was

testifying what this ordinance is, and the question was asked, county vacancies are there? and supervisor peskin's aid it says he thought it was around 3,500. the small business council head said, i think it is more like a thousand, maybe 500. the reality is, the report i'm providing to you is what commercial real estate brokers used to find property, all the information. it is available on a subscription basis. the reality is, step one, knowing what your vacancy problem is is to know how he vacancies you have. today we have only 148 buildings that are actually vacant, with 323 spaces available in the m.c. zone. all other vacancies are currently under the permitting conditional use process. if you look at the report that i gave you, you will notice that when a property becomes available, it is a 14 month

process before the space gets least. that is clearly falling to the problem of how somebody needs to get a permit to get through the process. it takes time. it is not just formula retail. the reality of formula retail needs to change because 11 stores is no longer a big business. to be a big business, you need hundreds of stores. >> thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> hello. storefronts maybe reducing potential sales -- sales and subsequent sales tax revenue and the proposed excise tax on empty storefronts might encourage competition in marketing. such properties resulting in the potential increase in business formation and possibly more

favorable lease terms and resulting in the collection of the excise tax on property which remains empty. and excise tax may also have the opposite effect, driving up rent while making it harder to market a property if the ordinance amendment were to pass. exempting nonprofits from the excise tax may equip such organizations with a competitive advantage providing that such spaces are least or sold on favorable terms, however, the added pressure to fill the space undermines the justification for the assumed process of the excise tax to begin with. the old bank belonged to a nonprofit in the field of healthcare, but it has remained sheltered, shattered, and empty as an eyesore in the neighborhood for many years,

absolutely littered with graffiti. exempting nonprofits from the excise tax does not sound like an equitable a reasonable idea. it undermines the intention of the ordinance amendment for an indeterminate period. successful business also attracts cereal vandalism. i will stop there. >> thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon. i am the president of the entertainment commission but today i'm speaking as a civilian and a business owner in san francisco. i commend supervisor peskin's office and the board for taking a look at how bad actor landlords are affecting the urban life that we have because empty storefronts to affect their neighbours and small businesses do suffer from that. i am cautiously optimistic that this might be a solution for compelling the bad actors to act

however, i am also a little bit nervous about this and i'm happy to leads that it is being proposed with the ability to trail amendments. i'm asking everybody in this body to really try to game out all the way is that this could backfire and affect small business in an adverse way. i think if we do do that, this could be a very solid piece of legislation -- solid tax to pass that would help. the other thing i would ask while i have your ear here is to take a long look at what policies that come from city hall specifically are causing vacancies in our corridors. there's a myriad of ones from the inability to open a youth places due to a -- new places due to permitting process that is frustrating and difficult to manage, and also from just the overwhelming cost of doing business for small businesses in san francisco as compared to other cities in california. i think, i keep saying this, but

they are against us and we are being forced to have less ability to compete with business than ever and i can't say this enough. what is more progressive than supporting small businesses over big businesses? right now it is completely flipped on its head. i'm hoping to meet with each of you coming soon to go over ways that we can address that. thank you very much. >> thank you very much. any other speakers? public comment is closed. colleagues, any comments or questions? i also just want to add that i think this is a positive step, but it is just one piece of it. we -- i agree that that we need to streamline permitting, and also, how to get a helping hand in getting tenants. this is just a small piece of it i feel like it is not the whole package, but it is a really good direction. i would like to make a motion to

send this to the committee report. >> so moved. we will move this to the november 21st board meeting. can we take that without objection? thank you very much. is there any other business before us today? >> this business meeting is adjourned. >> good afternoon. we will now be convening as the full board for this november 21 st, 2019 special meeting of

the san francisco board of supervisors. i haven't seen my colleagues in this room for such a long time. welcome back. madame clerk, please call the role. [roll call] mr. president, you have a quorum >> okay, thank you. please join me in the pledge of allegiance. [pledge of allegiance]

on behalf of the board, i would like to acknowledge the staff from san francisco government tv who record each of our meetings and make the transcripts available to you to the public online. madame clerk, are there any communications? >> yes. we have received communications from supervisors mandelman, peskin, and stefani affording the board of their actions and requesting to be excused from today's meeting. >> can i have a motion to excuse the supervisors? made by supervisor fewer and seconded by supervisor walton. if there is no -- any objection? the three are excused. plays call the committee report. >> item number one is a motion ordering to the voters that an

election will be held on march 3 rd, 2020 and an ordinance amending the tax regulation code an administrative code to have the excise tax on persons keeping ground floor commercial space in certain neighborhood commercial districts and certain neighborhood commercial transit districts vacant to find assistance to small businesses and making appropriate findings. >> okay. i was listening to the last meeting and i didn't chime in then. i will say something now which is i want to thank the author of this legislation for bringing this forward. we have been grappling with this issue for years. we have tried different things and it seems like nothing has been all that effective. there is a legislation that would allow for any of these storefronts if you wanted to change from the commercial retail business to put

residential there. if it is designated for family shelter owned business, which is still a commercial usage. and we have not shown much results. it was an approach. so here we go. without objection, madame clerk, there is a motion and we don't have to have a second. madame clerk, please call the roll. >> on the motion to approve... [roll call] there are eight aye. >> okay.

the motion passes. right now, one last thing. let's go to public comment. >> at this time, the public may address the entire board of supervisors for up to two minutes with items within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board. public comment is not allowed when an item has been previously come subject to public comment at a board committee. >> any public comments? seeing none, public comment is closed. colleagues, that brings us to the end of the agenda. madame clerk, is there any further business before us today >> that concludes our business for today. >> we are adjourned. happy thanksgiving break.

>> clerk: this is a regular meeting of the small business commission held on tuesday, november 12, 2019. the meeting is being called to order on 2:04 p.m. the meeting can be viewed on sfgovtv 2, channel 78, or sftv.gov. members of the public, please take the opportunity to silence your cell phone or electronic devices. public comment is limited to two minutes unless otherwise stat stated during the meeting.

please place speaker cards in the basket to the right of the lectern. speaker cards will be collected in the order in which they were placed in the basket. additionally, there is a sign in sheet on the front table. sfgov, please show the office of small business live. >> president adams: okay. welcome. it is our custom to begin and end each 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 to doing small business in san francisco. the office the small business should be your first stop when you have questions about what to do next. you can find us here at city hall. best of all, our services are free of charge. the office of small business is

your place to voice concerns 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. >> clerk: item one, call to order and roll call. [roll call] >> clerk: mr. president, you have a quorum. >> president adams: great. next item, please. >> clerk: item 2, general public comment allows public to comment generally on items that are within the small business commission's jurisdiction but not on today's agenda and suggest items for the future commission's consideration. item 1, members of the public, you are welcome to come up and

make public comment. >> president adams: so would anyone like to make public comment on items that are not on today's agenda? come on up. >> clerk: and members of the public, if there are going to be many of you, if you could lineup on the right side of the meeting room, that would be great. thank you. >> thank you for having me today, small business commission. my name is ben bleiman, and full disclosure, i am president of the entertainment commission, but today, i am speaking as a citizen and a small business owner, myself. small business is in a serious crisis as we speak. businesses are shuttering left and right. entire blocks are lying vacant with no hope in sight, and a lot of this is possibly well meaning but unintended consequences of actions taken in this very building by our city leaders. we need city leaders that recognize our situation right now and see it as the crisis

that it is and take immediate action to help us. this is why it was such a relief to us for the past recent history to see a reinvigorated small business commission that really seemed to be asking tough questions of our city leaders, tough but respectful and really holding them to account on the effects that some of their proposed actions would hold on our businesses. when you did that, we cheered. my point is not to call out people or to shame, but it's to beg and ask our city leaders to work with you in doing the job that you have been given, and -- and to thank you each individually and together as a body for doing the work that you do and let you know that we have your business. on that account, i wrote a letter to the entire board of

supervisors last week. it was signed by over 200 local businesses of all different stripes, and colors, and so we are here to tell you that we have your back and we hope you keep doing what you're doing, because without you, we may all die. >> president adams: thank you. very much appreciated. [applause] >> good afternoon, commissioners. mario mcgann, president of the council of district merchants. long time san franciscan and small businessperson in san francisco for 25 years. i unfortunately don't know all of you and some of you may know me too well. i wanted to congratulate you on crossing a chasm of -- the last meeting or a couple of meeting ago was confrontational. if anyone who knows me, i always say dialogue is messy, but it is necessary.

if you're asking questions and the other side is getting frustrated or animated, you're probably asking the right questions. i come here on behalf of our 33 organizations, and hundreds of small businesses on the commercial corridors that we represent, to please keep it up. do not be discouraged. yes, transition is tough and it can be hard to take, but please know that we have your backs, and we will support you. please keep advocating for us. we have long thought that we have been either dismissed or totally ignored at times, or at least that's the way we feel, and a lot of times, legislation does not have a pulse of how small business needs to really function, and you are our conduit for that, and i commend you for that engagement that you had. i also ask everybody on all sides to take the high road, and to, you know, ask

questions, be professional, be understanding, be patient, but keep asking questions until the questions are resolved. thank you very much. >> president adams: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, commissioners. henry campagnolo, vice president of the small business association. in san francisco, small businesses are moving out, and a couple are not coming back. it'd be nice if the city could somehow get involved with help these folks could get back into the buildings once their soft

story is finished off. we pay fees, and if we go out of business, that's fees that the city won't collect. so it doesn't make sense for this city to try to collect fees and then have us go out of business. also, there's the issue of zoning and conditional use and things like that. they just take forever. you know, it can take seven to nine months for getting a conditional use. it's insane, and the amount of money it costs. and so i feel like we've got to do something about it, and what a body that can help us with that is you guys out here. i would like you to say hey, folks, let's sit down. what can we make sure that small businesses not only exist, but be successful and grow. thank you. >> president adams: thank you.

next speaker, please. [applause] >> hello, commissioners. jay chang with the san francisco chamber of commerce. we represent over 1,000 businesses, large and small. we're here to stand with all the small businesses here today in thanking this commission for your strong advocacy and your sharp questions. you know, this commission, like all commissions, is a public forum, and the purpose of the public forum is robust discourse. and when that discourse is robust,

legislative teeth and to make those legislative teeth give you an approval -- mandatory mechanic -- approval mechanism.

i had 65 employees at cafe flor when i started three years ago, and i have eight now. i have eight gyms and yoga studios thanks to the planning process that has taken up space on ground floor retail, replacing clients -- potential clients with people that are in a hurry and late for their yoga instruction and too sweaty, oh, i can't go home now, i've got to take a shower. at the end of their work out. they don't help the neighborhood fabric. they don't help my business at ca cafe flor. we need to relook at these neighborhood processes, but we need you people to say up or down when these ideas first come forward because the ones

that are currently saying that i don't believe they've ever run a small business, and that would allow this to run unchecked. thank you. >> president adams: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon. my name is duncan lei, and i am a small business owner. i'm here to let you know that i support you, also. the number of people that is in support of facebook and e-mails and texts is far greater than the people that are here and want you to know that. and i also want to say that -- to say thank you to regina who's probably been the most steadfast supporter, staunch advocate in city hall that i know for the last decade, so thank you, and we appreciate what you guys are doing. >> president adams: thank you very much. [applause] >> president adams: anymore

speakers? okay. public comment is closed, and i just want to thank everyone for their kind and awesome words. i think that means a lot to not only myself but all of my fellow commissioners. commissioner laguana? >> yeah. i wanted to say thank you for coming out. we respect working with the board of supervisors. we respect our leaders. we are here to -- purely as an advisory role. we don't have any teeth, as one of the speakers mentioned, so all we can do is ask questions with an effort to try and make the legislation better for all of us. everybody on this commission is a volunteer. we aren't paid a dime to come here, we aren't paid any money to try to evaluate the

paperwork and make sense out of it. we're all small business owners. we're all in crisis, we're all struggling. i don't know if i'm going to make payroll this friday. i came here because you guys are here. so i just want to say thank you, it means a lot to us, and we will keep trying to push forward and make this better for all of us, all citizens of the city. let's just come together and make it better for all of us. we can do that. [applause] >> president adams: okay. next item, please. >> clerk: item three, approval of small business registry applications and resolutions. action and discussion. the presenter is richard kurylo, legacy program director

of the of the small business registry. >> before you today are five applications for your consideration of the legacy business registry. the applications are reviewed to me for completion, submitted to commission on october 9, and heard by the historic commission on november 6. item 3-a is academy of ballet. the business is a ballet school located at 2121 market street in the castro neighborhood. it was founded in 1923 by

edward sassoon. the business offers training for chimp, adult, students preparing for a professional career and other benefits. when janet sasoon retired, she returned to san francisco and managed the business until 2009 when she sold the business to its current owners. item 3-b is li po lounge. the business is a bar established in chinatown in february 1937. it was named after li po. it is a small and unpretentious

business. it is mentioned in numerous guide books as a place to visit when visiting san francisco. item 3-c is lyra business. m and h type, established in 1915, which is now one of the oldest and largest continuously operating type foundries in america. located in the presidio, lyra

corporation is owned by and works in conjunction with the nonprofit grab horn institute, established in 2000, which supports the only paid apprenticeship program in book binding in the country and houses one of the largest collections of type faces and associated ornamental cuts that reaches back in the 1800's. item 3-d is rebuilding together san francisco. the business is a nonprofit organization established in 1989 to promote safe and healthy housing and community spaces by providing home repair and renovation opportunities for homeowners and community spaces. the organization was established as christmas in

pr april foundation. until 2001, the organization's work consisted of one major annual event called christmas in april. hundreds of volunteers were assigned to ten to 20 homes and community spaces in san francisco. in february 2002, the name was rechanged to building together san francisco to reflect the nonprofit being secular in nature with their annual event still being named christmas in april. item 3-e is zazie restaurant. the business is a bistro established in 1992 and named

after a film. it quickly became a popular locals favorite restaurant. jennifer bennett joined as general manager in april 2000, then purchased zazie in 2005. jennifer took over ownership with a unique mindset determined to make the staff part of zazie. she established a 401-k with 4% employer funded match, and paid parental and sick leave. zazie is not yet 30 years old but faces a significant risk of displacement because of a

double of their lease the last lease renewal. after reviewing the applications and the recommendation from h.p.c., staff find the businesses have met the three criteria to qualify for listing on the small business legacy. your support of the businesses should be as a motion in favor of the resolutions. in the resolutions, please pay close attention to the core physical features or traditions that define the business. once approved by the s.b.c., the businesses must maintain these physical features or traditions in order to remain on the legacy business registry. for academy of ballet, it's ballet school, for li po lounge, it's bar. for lyra, it's type casting or

letter and book binding. for home together san francisco, it's renovation project, and for zazie, it's restaurant. that concludes my presentation, and i have individuals that would like to speak on behalf of the organizations. >> president adams: okay. we're going to go right into public comment now. don't be shy. >> hi. my name is zori carr, and i am the director of the academy of ballet. and i would like to, of course, thank you for helping us maintain the legacy of the academy of ballet. you made a -- the 85-year-old janet zouzouin very happy.

i'd like to thank supervisor yee and mandelman for their assistance in this designation, as well. i'd like to tell you why we did become a legacy business. after the building was viewed by the architect and chose it as a city legendary business, they told me why they chose a legacy business, and i didn't even know that it even existed. and then just because of turn of events that we had problems with the open bible church that used to be next to us -- both businesses were sold separately, all of a sudden, we need to find another way of egress. we got letters from the department of building inspector, i couldn't get any replies from them.

thank god for tom temprano who came in and said let's put all these people together and see what we can do. the last estimate for the exit is going to be between $150,000 and $250,000 which is not going to be feasible for the academy of ballet. i actually had to get a law firm for it. [please stand by]

>> by the way, our deadline was november 30th. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> hello, my name is kathleen walkup. thank you for the opportunity for me to speak on behalf of the lyra corporation as a legacy business. as a young printer in the 1970s, m&h foundry was our lifeline. in fact, just as my press partner and i had decided to open the first women's letter press job shop in san francisco,

since the late 1800s, we found out that m&h might close. that was such a serious employee to us, we reconsidered our ability to open a business in the absence of the foundry. luckily for us, the foundry was rescued from oliveon and it went into successful operation. in 2001, therefore, when a member of the presidio commission phoned me to ask if i could speak on behalf of m&h foundry and the move to the presidio, i was more than happen to support this application, since i had firsthand knowledge of its importance to the business and cultural community in the bay area. since the late 1970s, i have been professor of book art at mills college, where i have had the privilege of teaching new generations of students the arts of letter press printing and fine book making. once again m&h foundry is critical to our ability to provide type for the students' work in the presses. our annual