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 pilgrimage to the

press, which by the way is tomorrow, and foundry, is the all-time favorite field trip for our students where they can literally see history in action, while also viewing the highest level of achievement in book-making. our current studio manager mark was trained at mand h and has been a central part of our team for four years. this year m&h welcomed the first graduateern intern as part of our new initiative, bay area partnerships. personally, i feel as if a loop that began in the early '70s, with my arrival on the book scene in san francisco, has been closed with this internship. i am proud and grateful to speak on behalf of this continuously vital institution. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> hello. my name is kelsy hall. and i work for rebuilding together san francisco. and since 1989, rebuilding

together has been bringing san franciscans together to fulfill our mission, which is repairing home, revitalizing communities and rebuilding lives. in those 30 years, we've brought together 30,000 volunteers and done repairs on over 4,000 homes in san francisco and 380 community spaces and non-profit spaces. the neighbors that we are lucky enough to work with, on average are 74 1/2 years old, have lived in their home for over 30 years and have an annual household income of $13,333.82. and these are families who have lived in their homes and in their neighborhoods for a very long time. and their property taxes are low, but they cannot afford the critical maintenance and safety modifications on their home, while keeping up with what you

need to get by. i was thinking about what it means to be a legacy business and have a legacy and to preserve the heart and the character and if the diversity of san francisco. and and i was going through thank you letters we get from our letters. and one of our neighbors charlene mentioned legacy in her letter. and charlene has lived in her home for 58 years. she lives there with her sister and her son. her father built that home for her. and he passed away and she's unable to keep up with the maintenance of that home. she wrote to us and she said what a joy you have brought to our home and family. i could never thank you enough for all of your expertise and selfless hours you have so willingly given to make sure the

armstrong legacy continues -- that my father put his sweat and life into. i hope the universe returns to you 3,300 what you have given out. so these critical repairs and deferred maintenance and safety modifications are often the difference between a family getting to hold on to their home and losing it. [bell dings] and so we preserve the legacy of families, like charlene and her family, and we also preserve the safety of our older neighbors, so they have grab bars and they don't fall in their home. and after 30 years in san francisco, we are trusted in the communities that we've been working with. and it's certainly a legacy that i'm proud to be a part of. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. mas -- [applause] >> good afternoon, commissioners. my name is paul gray. i'm a longtime volunteer with

rebuilding together. and i want to give the perspective as a volunteer. when i say long time, i've been there for a solid 10 to 11 years and a smattering of days when it was christmas and april. oddly enough i'm considered a kid when it comes to the volunteers. there are many tradespeople that have been there 20, 25 and a couple that have even been there since the very first year. the volunteers are very loyal and it's a wonderful organization. i've been part of probably 20 large projects and a few dozen small projects. and one thing that's always for sure when i walk out of that job is the homeowner or the facility -- well, we'll stick with nor a second. the homeowner's lives are drastically improved improved fa health perspective, a safety and a comfort. the things we can do in one day on larger projects a couple of weekends are phenomenal. as kelsy had laid out, we're providing critical upgrades to homes, that are keeping the

seniors in the city ages gracefully. and it's really truly the affordable housing, keeping that set of elderly in their homes and being able to pass it on to their children. we also do repairs on non-profits. san francisco is getting more and more difficult for non-profits to be able to stay, as we all know the economic pressure not only of residents, but of non-profits. rebuilding together does something no one else does. they fill a market from a business perspective that no one else does. we help other non-profits, who are just on the edge of leaving, provide services to their community centers and to their businesses, so they can in turn do the missions that they were set out to do. so i know there's many businesses and many entities that are need, in which to keep homeowners and small businesses here in the city.

everyone together does something again truly unique. so i urge you to do everything in your power to keep rebuilding together here, because other businesses will have the domino effect, if we're unable to do what we -- the critical services we do. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. [applause] >> hello. my name is zai. and i'm the outreach and volunteer manager with rebuilding together san francisco. i came to rebuilding together as an americorps member from a really small town in tennessee. so small that the people that i started kindergarten with are the same folks that i graduated high school with. so i'm really used to a pretty tight-knit community. and like knowing my next-door neighbors. when i moved to san francisco, i was horrified that i wouldn't know anyone. i moved here all by myself and started with rebuilding together, you know, just scare of the of this giant city that i've been dreaming about moving

to since i could remember. working with rebuilding together has given me an amazing perspective about the heart and the spirit of san franciscans. i have met people who raised their families in their homes, got married in their homes, gave birth to grandchildren in their homes. and it's just amazing to know that those people are so willing and ready to stay in their homes, and still volunteer and help people who live next door to them come together and just really feel like they're not alone. so i urge you to push rebuilding together into a legacy business, place or whatever it's called. to make sure that we're able to stay here and revitalize under moos and help this huge place feel smaller, safer and like you can call on your neighbor for a cup of sugar. >> thank you.

neuromuscular next speaker, please. >> my name is misty palmer. and i live in the mount limb bus neighborhood and i have lived there for 36 years. i'm here on behalf of zazie. i knew katrine. in fact, i knew the person that owned the restaurant space prior to her. and under katrine's leadership, the menu really flourished. when jen came, they -- she expanded on that. and i have always just felt that she's -- she's been a real focal point for the neighborhood. coal valley is a real neighborhood. i hear people talking about the rebuilding and the sense of community. well, that's what we have in coal valley and mount limb bus. it's -- mount olympus. i admire jen's ability to higher wonderful staff, to keep them, to pay them appropriately. they're very loyal. she's very good to every single employee working with them to

accommodate their needs. and it builds on the sense of community, because you go in and you see the same restaurant people. i have a lot of national and international guests. and i always take them to zazie for what i consider a real neighborhood experience. and when they come back to visit, if they go nowhere else, they have to go back to zazie for at least one meal. and so i think that she's unique in what she has brought to the neighborhood. and this is what we all hope to happen in a large city, to have that sense of community. and she certainly fosters that. >> thank you. next speaker, please. [applause] >> hi. i'm jennifer, the current owner of zazie. although owner sort of implies that somehow it's mine. in many ways it's not. it is the neighborhood's. it is our employees. 38 employees and 38 families

that rely on me and i take that responsibility very seriously. and that's in addition to the some 200,000 people that visit us every year. so i really applied for legacy status, even though we have a couple of years shy of 30 years, with the awareness that landlords are changing, the neighborhoods are changing. i want to ensure, as best i can, that zazie can still be there for all of the workers that i rely on and that have become family to me. as well as for the neighborhood and the locals and tourists alike that come to us for that moment when you're not looking at your phone and when you actually have an interaction with a human being, that has a life, has personality. so i hope that you can consider us a couple of years early, so that in two years, when my lease comes up, we have a little bit more of an arsenal behind us to stand for coal valley and stand for my employees. and make sure that this little tiny place, that's just one of

thousands of restaurants in san francisco. it's those tinies restaurants that really create our sign. everywhere else has applebee central. thank you very much. we appreciate your consideration. >> thank you. [applause] next speaker, please >> hi, i'm sarah. i'm the director of programming at lyra corporation and the grabhorn institute. we are really grateful to be considered for legacy business status, as kathleen walkup so beautifully stated. we've been around for more than 100 years in various incarnation, teaching, handbook making and practicing type casting, letter press printing and handbook binding. we're open to the public every week for tours at 3:00. it is a very unique visceral way

to learn about handbook making and we're really grateful to still be around, able to share that with people. and we're grateful for your consideration, including us on the legacy business registry. we're also great toast s.f. heritage for making us aware of the possibility and for advocating to create this legacy business registry. so thank you. >> great. thank you. [applause] any more members of the public who would like to speak? come on up. >> i'll be really quick. i wanted to echo what everyone said about zazie. living in coal valley, it is really the focal point of our community and neighborhood. it's where i go with my parents when i'm in town, where i go to celebrate anniversaries, introduce new people to the town. it really is a vital part of our community. and i can't express my gratitude to jennifer enough. thank you. >> thank you. [applause]

any more members of the public? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioner. >> i wanted to thank everyone for coming and for creating really killer narratives. these are great. i can tell you put a lot of time into it. it will give back to you. you can probably already tell, writing down your historical narrative, kind of reinvigorates things and, you know, restates the purpose of what you're doing. it's not lost on us. i hope it's not lost on you how important you have for the city. thank you for being here. >> great. commissioner dooley. >> one of the greatest pleasures of being a commissioner is to learn about some very unique businesses, that i may not have been aware of. and it just is really exciting to see you're here and you're going to stay.

i've spent many an evening at the li po and i'm delighted to see that it's still going on. >> thank you. i'm just going to make a couple of quick comments. academy of ballet, an office right across from you, the sterling bank. you're right. the block in my 20-something years being there, you know, it's changed. i really appreciate your comments, especially with the open bible church next door. you know, we need to some more changes up on our block of market street. and then rebuilding together san francisco. i am very familiar with you and everything you guys have done. and you should be very, very proud of yourself for what you are doing and what you'll continue to do. there's been a lot of businesses that small profits and individual home ownerships that

i know throughout the city, that these people, these families wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you. so you really, really should be proud of what you do and what your organization does. okay. because that's like the fabric of this city. and what we're all about. and then zazie's restaurant, i love your restaurant. i have been there -- not as much as i should. i have been there a few times. i live up near mount olympus. you're right down the hill. we need to make sure you stay around for a while. so really appreciate that. so, commissioners, do we have any recommendations? >> i move that we nominate and vote for all of the businesses presenting here today to become our newest legacy businesses. >> i second. >> clerk: motion by commissioner

dooley to support all five resolutions, seconded by commissioner riley. roll call vote. >> commissioner dooley? >> yes. >> commissioner dwight is absent. commission laguana? is absent. missioner alexandriareer -- >> commissioner riley? >> yes. >> commissioner zouzounis? >> yes. >> clerk: motion passes 5-0 with two absent. >> great. congratulations. [cheers and applause] >> we're going to do one group photo with all of our legacy businesses over there with the commission.

>> rebuilding san francisco. lyra corporation. zazie. >> all right, everyone. one, two, three. i'm going to take a few of them. one, two, three. one more.

yep. perfect. one, two, three. okay. thank you. thank you. [laughter] >> thank you very much. thank you very much. >> awesome article. >> thank you. >> you've got to keep it going.

[laughter] >> clerk: item number 4, office of workforce development. update on small business streamlining legislation anded d administrative reforms. the implementation of mayor's small business budget investment. the presenters are joaquin torres, director of workforce development. laurel arvanitidis, director of business development. jorge rivas. acting director of invest in

neighborhoods. and bert -- >> correction, he's the director. >> clerk: director perform -- >> good afternoon, commissioners. as always, a big thank you to all of you for all that you do in support of our small business community. and our diverse communities of san francisco. we just wanted to take a few moments today to provide an update on the work that we've been doing. some of the policy direction that we've been taking. some of the legislation that we've been enacting, some of the investments that we've been making and how we want to continue to engage both with you and with the greater small business community in doing our work across san francisco. it's especially important for mayor breed in doing this work, for the continued success of our city. when you talk about building affordable housing, housing small business and neighborhood commercial corridors, creating career pathways to good-paying jobs. all of these pursuits are tied into a our larger goal of

fostering a resilient, diverse economy, that creates opportunities for all san franciscans to thrive and succeed here. i know you all know the numbers, spa small businesses are a key economic driver for the people of san francisco. they are the cornerstones of our neighborhoods. they define the culture of our city. they contribute to the character of every one of our neighborhoods, whether you talk about -- to the bay, view, to the outer sunset. there are community gathering spaces where residents get to know their neighbors and their success is essential, as i said, to advancing mayor breed's agenda on economic equity. i also just want to say that it really is an every day-to-day conversation that we have, how reframe of the discussions around how we want to support small businesses. so please be assured that those principles, those values about the work and value that small businesses provide are present in our everyday, day-to-day conducting of our business.

it's a path to economic success that should be available to all san franciscans, regardless of their background. we also know that small businesses recently in san francisco are he feeling the pressure, from a changing retail environment, from the easy veeps of e-chamber of commerce, from rising costs and, yes, from at times an overbearing, very difficult city bureaucracy. starting and growing a business in the city can have its challenges. but we are working and we have been working to make it easier, in partnership with all of you. whether it is by having more intentional forums and spaces for small business owners, to share their ideas and solutions to providing grants and access to capital, that's accessible to strengthen businesses and facilitate their growth, to introducing legislation to reduce vacant storefronts and streamline the permitting process. what's more in this past budget cycle, mayor breed entrusted us with $9 million in new investments, to empower entrepreneurs and support our

local small business community. misses, i want to say your guidance, your leadership and togetherrer with your director regina dick-endrizzi, benefits that work in the months ahead. as we continue to deepen our efforts to strengthen and uplift this industry that's a vital piece of our economy and culture. so today you'll be hearing hearm a few members of our team. the results of the small business roundtable, when we first came together with mayor breed during small business week last year. and what the outcomes of what those principles have led us to. the resulting $9 million and where we are in terms of providing those dollars to benefit our neighborhoods and small businesses directly. some of the recent and upcoming administrative reforms that are already in place. the small business streamlining legislation that we recently signed with mayor breed, together with supervisor vallie brown and later in a separate presentation, our construction mitigation efforts. i know you'll be hearing later on. these are all collectively a

result of very impassioned, dedicated people who want for make sure that they're listening to you and your constituency and our constituency. so i want to thank you for this opportunity. for the partnership and we look forward to the further conversation. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> thank you, joaquin. thank you, commissioners, for having us here. i'm the director of business development for the office of economic and workforce development. when mayor breed directed oewd to help small businesseses and to find real process change to alleviate the needs and concerns of our small businesses, we knew that our first step was to solicit feedback. as such, we called together the small business able, during small business week of last year. 45 small businesses participated in two sessions each. we worked to ensure the many businesses we invited were ones that we had encountered over the past few years. these are individuals that worked with our business solutions team, connected to us

to our neighborhood outreach or participated in our marketing efforts. bringing new voices to the discussion and trying to cultivate additional voices, to participate in and inform our city's work. so what did we hear? we heard a desire to create a small business express lane. people asked for us to continue to find ways to build predictability into their process. they said give me a check list and then you need to follow it, too, city. they asked us to recognize the cost of compliance. how much does it cost to change your straws. how much does the health care security ordinance and complying and recordkeeping cost for a small business. what's the burden for professional drawings that must be submitted for a change of use to add line sales to your business. they asked us to educate them. they want to make sure that brokers and property owners have a more realistic vision of what potential rents should be. and the timelines for tenant improvements and permits that will be required from the city.

they said they don't know what we're doing and they want to find it easier to find out the great work that the city is trying to enact. they asked us to articulate what's happening at 49 south van ness, at the one-stop permitting center. a feeling that our ncds seem out out of date. they asked how can they be reflective of today's needs. and they asked for a better and more proactive communication. they said that they don't know what we're doing, they don't know what resources exist. and they feel like they've given each department their contact info, yet none of us know how to get in touch with them. they want more resources from us. they don't need technical assistance, they don't need money. they need to understand how to comply. they need to understand what tools we have, so that they can just continue to operate. so these are commitments back to the community. if you are operating a business, our goal is to simplify and reduce your payments, to make

compliance easier, to improve communication, to create new resources for your business, and to allow for business model flexibility. if you're a new business our goal is to reduce the time it takes to open, provide clear pathways from idea, when you come to the office of small business' desk, all the way to operation. and to help you staff up. and if you're a neighbor or a resident, we want to support activation of vacancies and support the existing businesses in the corridors that you love. so how are we going to do this? for each of these columns, we've identified vacancies, we need to reduce the permit time. we need to activate vacancies so existing businesses don't suffer from vacancies on their street and implement vacancy assistance to understand the conditions of their streets. for permit streamlining, with he need to reduce the time. we need to implement flex retail to allow current businesses to

engage in new business models and explore new ways to create revenue. and we need to get our businesses opened faster, for our neighbors and residents to enjoy. >> can i ask you a quick question? >> yes. >> on the vacancy issue, and if you can -- on the updated zoning, because you brought up how out-of-date that is, which is like one of my things i'm carrying, because it hasn't been updated since 1987. i would really love to work with oewd. i know there was a gentleman who work used to work at planning scott sanchez, he's no longer around. all of the neighborhood groups worked with and we were already getting ready to change it. and then it went away. so that's something if we can tie those two together. >> absolutely. >> that was like -- that's -- i think that would help a lot. >> i think it's -- it's a challenging one. it's one that oewd wants to

embark on. i think we need to work closely with our elected supervisors and the mayor and the communities to make sure that we do it in a thoughtful way, that addresses all of the various concerns from the various stakeholders. >> oh, absolutely. >> we're ready. so what are we pursuing with our sister departments? i talked earlier about how talking to our customers was step one. now we need to work with our colleagues on step two. we're spending this year doing a deep dive into actualizing real solutions for our businesses. how can we simplify process? what are the ways to reduce referrals between departments, are there opportunities for coordinating inspections, how as we departments work together to improve process. how can we reduce costs, what fees can see economies of scale. what fees are obsolete and excessive and opportunities to discount fees in certain areas. how can we better use the info

to get information out to businesses. for instance, if a business got an awning permit 15 years ago, and we're about to reduce -- waive fees for small business we can week, how can we reach out to them and say the awning permit is 15 years old, do you need a refresh. we're waiving fees. how can we be more proactive, so businesses know what opportunities exist for them to take advantage of. that's what we're working on in the future. what are we doing right now? jorge is going to discuss the mayor's new budget items, targeted at increasing services and opportunities for our small businesses. >> good afternoon, commissioners. president, thank you, laurel for that. i'm going to cover this, the additional dollars that the mayor allocated to our budget. these are new, just a reminder these are new dollars above our

baseline. summary, there's $9 million. the mayor reallocated to the oewd budget, with one-time allocation of 1 million to recapitalize the revolving loan fund. $2 million over the next two years for the expansion of s.f. shines. and i'll go into more details of s.f. shines in a bit. $1 million of -- a one-time of $2 million for small business fee assistance relief program. a one-time over the next two years, investment of $4 million in the program called community cornerstones, which is a pilot program, which i'll share more details in a bit. oewd supports various access to capital programs. one of those programs is a revolving loan fund. since the program commenced in 2007, the revolving loan fund has actually allocated 177 loans for a total of about $5.2 million.

of these loan, i the majority have focused in high-need neighborhoods and supported over 60 women-owned businesses and 53 minority-owned businesses. as you can see, the repayment program is pretty high. the additional $1 million will allow us to recapitalize the loan program. this will allow us to provide low-interest rates to invest in corridors. we're looking at about 3.5% rate. but the loan is also available to citywide businesses or businesses across the city. the last time we actually provided resources to this revolving loan fund was in 2013, under mayor lee. and main street lounge is our partner in administering the loan. we're currently actually amending their contract, so we can add the additional dollars. next piece is the $2 million allocation for the next two years to expand the s.f. shines program, into the bayview, excelsior and lower haight.

the dollars support small business owners to make improvements to their storefronts and interiors. with the goal here is to make the spaces more appealing and accessible to patrons and contribute to the overall vitality of the neighborhood. we estimate that the additional dollars will support about 100 businesses over the next two years. just quickly, just some history on the program. since 2009, s.f. shines has completed 203 storefront improvement projects and given over $3.6 million in support. it has also allowed us to expand to various types of the program, not only s.f. shines, the regular project that you think about the entire facade, makeover that comes with the program, but also a quick awning program that allows these dollars to spread further. support of small business with an awning makeover, a quick

paint job to their storefront. and also s.f. shines is working with local non-profits to incorporate art na their facades and make sure it's culturally relevant. it could be around the holidays or particularly focused around themes. out of the dollars we put out there, 35% have supported women-owned businesses. and about 65 have supported minority-owned businesses. and this year alone, we've implemented 73 programs. we just closed r.s.p. that allows this election for the next contractors to help us implement the s.f. shines dollars that were allocated to our budget. next piece. the next piece we have here is a small business fee rebate program. as ismael of the mayor's -- as a signal of the mayor's commitment -- knowing that fees are a challenge for our small businesses, but also recognizing

the time that it would take for us to address them. mayor breed allocated money this year to provide immediate relief in the budget. the rebates will target relief to support businesses that are subject to ongoing regulatory license fees in san francisco. it will ensure that businesses receive a partial refund on their ongoing fees, beyond business registration, that are paid to the city for permitser such a cash register, print scanners, d.p.h. or the carbon dioxide tanks for the soda machines with the department of public health. oewd tax collector's office is ensuring the money reaches businesses this winter. we are designing the program so there is no need to apply or request the information. if you're a small business and pay fees beyond the business registration, through our consolidated building process, you will simply get a mail-in check. get a check in the mail, excuse me. we estimate small businesses

will receive a refund. 88. the next slide here we have is these san francisco community cornerstones program, which is a pilot program. recognizing san francisco's non-profit and small business is our community cornerstones or hubs for essential services and affordable resources that support low-income opportunities. for this reason, this year's $4 million one-time allocation will pilot the community cornerstones program. this program is a two-fold program. it will support about 25 to 30 small businesses, with commercial, physical improvements and technical assistance moving into spaces, acquired through the mayor's office small-sized division program. we estimate there's about -- we know about 13 buildings in the pipeline for now for the program. and we estimate about 34 commercial spaces are available to benefit in the program.

>> nice. >> for the non-profit side, we expect support 10 to 15 non-profits with financial assistance to complete tenant improvements in ground-floor spaces in newly constructed affordable housing sites. the timeline is we expect guidelines to be released in december of this year. the first application deadline will be february of next year. and awards will be announced, which non-profits will be selected for the grant dollars in march of 2020. with that, i'm going to go ahead and pass it over to ben on our team to go over business streamlining. >> good afternoon, commissioners. ben van houten. here with an update on permit streamlining. the small business permit streamlining legislation was introduced in december of last year. and it was adopted unanimously by the board and signed by the mayor in september. and it became effective

october 11th. so we're in the early days of implementation. but really excited about some of the new opportunities to come out of this legislation. i'm going to do a quick overview, recap of the legislation itself. and highlight a little bit how some businesses are already looking to pursue opportunities based on it. and then talk about implementation and next steps, kind of where we're heading from there. just as an overview, this is a very technical package of legislation. but really all of these pieces, that were a part of the legislation, came from real world situations. small businesses coming to the office of small business, coming to folks in economic and workforce development or others. and finding themselves stuck at some part of the process or finding themselves unable to do what they wanted to do, in order to strengthen their business, expand their business, moving forward. four main buckets of reforms in this legislation. bucket number one, enabling

retail businesses to diversify their offerings. we have heard from retail businesses and informed by retail study as well, that in order to get patrons in the door, get them to browse the retail wares, get them to linger a little bit longer, businesses are interested in offering to-go food, coffee, pastry, that sort of thing. businesses are interested in hosting events. and so two pieces to this legislation, one, to remove barriers at the local level. it's really right-size the local code with the state code to allow our retail business to serve that to to-go coffee or pastries without building out bathroom access for the patrons. second lie, on the events side, we reduced -- or eliminated food and beverage requirements from entertainment permitting or retail businesses that want solve some accessory entertainment use. there's a catering company in south of market, that really

wanted to have to-go sandwich window to help activate that corner and the corridor and also to bring in some additional revenues for the business. they weren't able to do that previously, because you would have had to walk through their kitchen, while it was in operation in order to get to the bathroom. so they're really excited about this legislation and adding a new amenity to their business. thank you. another piece of this legislation, increasing opportunities for businesses to fill vacancies and enhance vibrancy. we really delved deeply into some of the more byzantine aspects of the planning code around n.c.1 zoning and limited commercial uses. there are certain parts of the planning code where the zoning for one neighborhood applies to other neighborhoods as well. and this was something that the business in coal valley found itself stuck by, that neighborhood cafe, wooden coffee house just trying to add beer and wine to extend his hours and

offer live comedy events, which was a part of the neighborhood character and culture for a long time. he found his business limited by controls that were intended for haight street and limit new restaurants on haight street. we established more reasonable controls, again where the controls for the neighborhood, they apply there, but reduced the buffers that create these conflicts with other neighborhoods. also we corrected or updated the code on the uses. it used to be in most neighborhoods an arcade, pinball, video games, that sort of thing was actually i think surprisingly restricted, owing to some 1980s fears about the impacts of arcades op young people. there's been increased interest in arcades, without the commensurate, negative impact on young people. so we worked to revise arcade

zoning. so as a result of this, arcades are permissible, permitted or with conditional use in a lot more -- many more zoning districts. we've heard interest from people who want to start arcades without alcohol or anything. the final piece is supporting open-air food service. our code, our health code had said that you need to keep your doors and windows closed at all times, which was a real challenge for businesses that wanted to have the open-air feel. and already, thanks to this legislation, a cafe in the mission, who inherited the business from -- or i talked to the prior tenant of this location, they said, oh, you know, if only a connection with the community. if only we had been closer to the sidewalk. and, as a result, of this legislation, that new cafe did not have to buy and install costly screens ford to keep their doors and windows open during business hours.

already saving businesses there. for our live music and other entertainment venues, we reduced duplicative requirements. previously if you wanted to get an entertainment permit, you would have to go back to the health department or go back to the fire department, even if you already have your health permit and fire permit. if you've gone through the building permit process, you have to go back to the building permit. by eliminating duplicative inspections, where somebody has just gone through the process, this can save businesses up to $600 in fees. and inspection fees. and up to a month in processing time to get their permits. and then we also right-sized some of the requirements for food service at our entertainment venues. final piece here is the most technical of technical legislation. there were a lot of places in the planning code where inconsistencies, migs in the code were leading to businesses getting different answers,

depending on who they were talking to at the counter. or required businesses to get letters of determination, to figure this stuff out and letter of determination means a few hundred bucks, another month or so of time. we really want to reduce the process and reduce the requirements to the extent possible. all right. a brief detour into the administrative reforms, that were announced as part of -- along with the introduction of this legislation last december. this is a -- these administrative reforms impact when a business has to go through the neighborhood notification process, to do a change of use, which in a lot of neighborhood commercial corridors, you have to do neighborhood notification, send out a mailer, post a sign on your property. that is a -- the notification itself is a 30-day process. but the entirety of the journey that your permit application goes on, is significantly longer than 30 days. so there's the time before the neighborhood notification happens, after you submit your

information and it gets assigned a planner and sent out for notification. and then after that, under the old system, your permit application would go from intake to intake and each of the permitting departments. so instead of being able to do it over the counter, it would go to the inbox over the counter and with all of the other more complicated stuff. we want to empower business owners to do as much of this stuff over-the-counter as possible. if all i'm doing is neighborhood notification, but not doing any building work, or doing limited building work, i should be able to do that, that back-end stuff over the counter at each of the departments. it's also better for the departments, because they don't have to have their intake inboxes full of stuff that could be approved over-the-counter. so, as a result, of this administrative rwhich was developed in concert with the department of building inspection, following neighborhood notification, d.b.i. can identify, haney, this is very limited scope of work. the rest of this can be done

over-the-counter. and that applicant can go from count-to-counter. saving people potentially two to three months in the permitting process. so final piece on implementation. obviously there's a lot of -- a lot of small fixes and changes in this legislation. so as part of thinking about implementation, we've been meeting with each impacted department. and connecting with them about education of staff, permit applicants, other stakeholders. you know, i think that the outreach and education needs, for both this legislation and also there's been a range of new policies over the last couple of years, whether it's flexible retail, temporary uses. all of these new tools out there. i think it's incumbent on us to make sure that city staff, that business owners and potential entrepreneurs and other neighborhood stakeholders, everybody knows all of the tools that are out there. we're continuing to identify challenges facing san francisco businesses. this legislation was developed

out of discussions with all of the departments, collaborative discussions. we're continuing to do some of that work to hear from businesses and hear from departments about what the fixes are that we can do to smooth the process. and again we're guided by some of these pieces of our retail study, that retailers are looking to do new things. they're looking to be adaptable and to expand their businesses in ways that might not have been anticipated by land-use permitting, technical rules and that we can find ways to have events and food and all of this stuff complement healthy retail environment. thank you. >> great. thank you. >> thank you. okay. do we have any commissioner questions? i first want to thank you very much for this presentation today. one of the things i firmly believe is this commission really depends on oewd and what

you guys hear on the street. what we hear on the street and working together in partnership to change things. and i'm going to go back to that legislation that the mayor just signed with the coffee house on coal street. and he's getting ready to do comedy now, which is great. i can go watch comedy, not take a bus. and i -- it's stuff like that or it's items like that that we are making a change for the better in small businesses, especially in these neighborhood corridors. i think -- if you tackle a lot of these issues and problems up front, you'll save on that vacancy space. you know, you'll prevent it. and you'll help that small business thrive. and, you know, like the awning program that she brought up. you know, i can't tell you how many times like, you know, in april i'm going around to

businesses saying, you know, guess what, in may you my want to apply for this. there's no permitting fee on it. i have actually seen a couple of businesses change like that. you know, we always try to announce it here at our meetings. but, you know, we need to get that out with other people. but i will tell you -- in the last few years, i am so impressed with the job that you guys do and the outreach in the neighborhoods. when i'm out there in the neighborhoods, and i have offices all over the city, you know, it's stuff that you guys do and they come up to me and, oh, thank you for taking care of this. thank you for taking care of that. and, you know, i'm the -- we're the office of small business. but i also feel like, you know, we're all one great big happy family and together making these changes. i really do appreciate everything that you guys have done. >> thank you. >> commissioner riley. >> hi. thank you for the presentation. and i just want to say that when

the mayor -- mayor breda nounsed -- breed announced $9 million new investment and the people were very excited to hear that. so hopefully they can fund a lot of your good programs. >> thank you. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> i want to thank you as well for your presentation. and i also want to let everybody know that these are things that are actually happening. this is not just talk. you guys are really doing it. i mean, i see it on the ground in my neighborhood in the mission. this is really having an impact. i can name three businesses right now that's either part of the revolving loan fund, the awning program. i mean, you guys are on it. like this is really happening. so this is exciting. this is real stuff happening. this is not just -- you guys are really doing stuff. i want to say thank you to all y'all. >> commissioner zouzounis? >> thank you all for your presentation. this is really informative of

exactly how these -- the mayor's ordinance is being allocated to the work. i have a quick question about the regulatory fee reimbursements. were there instructions? do you have to apply for that? >> no. no. as laurel arvanitidis mentioned, that if you've been identified in our partnership with the treasurer and tax collector, as having one of the reoccurring fees and again we're estimating about 8800, 8900 individual businesses who are currently having those reoccurring fees. they'll simply see that reflected on their bill. >> okay. >> i'm sorry. as a check. >> yeah. okay. >> so there's no proactive work that has to be done, for many of the businesses. male simply see it reflected. >> and is the cash register scanners, is that like the weight and measures see that you're associated with that? >> yes. yes. >> okay. thank you.

>> yeah. thank you. >> commissioner dooley. >> once again it's great to see some action in this area. i also just want to add, perhaps i missed it in all of this, just the ongoing effort to get people to rent their spaces. i know in my neighborhood, there are a number of businesses, storefronts that will not lease for any reason for any price. it really drags down the neighborhood. and then we have a couple of really bad actor landlords, same thing. they own a lot of property. they either aren't putting it for rent or they want a represent that is not at all in terms of what it should be going for. so any of these things that we're going for, are really helpful. let's also push those vacancies for, you know, that are being held off the market. >> absolutely, commissioner dooley. i think that some of the investments that were listed can

certainly facilitate those negotiations, when there are additional capital funds, that can benefit both parties, to get that lease signed and to fill those vacancies. we look forward to coming back with you and sharing the other proactive measures we're taking to address vacancies, citywide collectively. i think that as you mentioned, some are much more problematic than others. we're looking forward to coming back to you and sharing more, either this quarter or the beginning of the new quarter next year. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> director regina dick-endrizzi. >> commissioners, so i, too want to extend my appreciation to director torres and to laurel and ben and jorge. we're working in a very collaborative manner, both our departments and what's really important, that's been happening

over the last year, is that we're aligning the priorities and then triaging how, as both agencies are going to accomplish our goals, to help our small businesses and streamline the efforts. and also with the s.f. shines program, the program manager with that program has been working closely with ria in our office, with accessible business entrance program and our grant funding. we're really trying to align and maximize all of our funding efforts and supporting each other's programs, so that we're really making it much easer for businesses as far as helping them. so that's -- it's really great to see how we're really working closely together. so accomplish our goals. >> great. well, thank you so much, commissioners.

if i may, i just wanted to say thank you very much for the positive responses. we're looking forward to doing more. we know that there's more work to be done. we're certainly not stopping or resting on any of the achievements that we've shared with you so far. i think that -- i think that we're -- we are living in a very complicated environment for small businesses, which is why the effort that director regina dick-endrizzi is talking about is so important, to make sure we're out there and supporting a diversity of communities much more proactively. we started with the job squad, the arm of the office of small business. we know there's more opportunities to convene, not only directly with existing merchant groups, but also convening our own conversations with community members to make sure that entrepreneurs at any stage are aware of the resources that we have, so people can gain more understanding about the positive impacts of partnership with the city could actually lead to. we're looking forward to talking

more about that this year as well. >> well, there's one thing that you forgot on here. but i'm going to give you some credit, which you should have a big shout-out for. and that is your fire mitigation. if you go to west portal and you're standing at uola and west portal avenue, right outside of the muni tunnel. it's open. you -- and, in fact, i remember when that fire happened. you guys were down there. and within a few years, that's all rebuilt. same businesses are back in business and that's something that you really should be proud of. because i know you, joaquin, were a big part of that. and you streamlined everything and you got those people back in business, the lion's shop, everybody. everybody is back in business there. and to me that was a miracle. because every time you had some tragedy like that, it would just

stay vacant or something else would happen to that spot. i do believe, through oewd, not only on west portal, i know on ocean avenue a lot of those businesses wound up going to other parts of the city and thriving more. , you should be very, very proud of yourself for the actions that you've done when it comes to those type of disasters. i hate to say it that way. you rose to the occasion and took care of those businesses. and you go there now. you can't even tell that building was totally gone and leveled. you know, it looks the same, but cleaner and nicer. so you should be very proud of yourself for -- i think that program is one that really, really has helped like invest in neighborhoods program and everything. >> thank you so much. i really think it's reflective of an incredible team. and so i just want to thank again jorge and laurel and ben for all of the work that they're doing and i know that jayda will be making a presentation later

on today, or to this commission. it's really extraordinary, committed, passionate staff that makes all of this work happen. we can all have a vision, unless we have the people around us who really do care about the small business community and about the small they provide to our neighborhoods, we don't see the results we collectively want to see. to all of them, just a huge thank you. and i really do appreciate all the time that you individually take at this board level and commission level to take extend your thanks to all of them. i know they appreciate it. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> let's open this up now for public comment. do we have any members of the public who want to make a comment on item number 4? seeing none, public comment is closed. again thank you. and thank you, laurel, jorge and ben for your comments today and for your hard work. and everybody else in the office of oewd, you guys do fantastic work there. so thank you. okay. next item, please.

>> clerk: item 5. oewd presentation. construction mitigation. the presenters are jada, jackson, prospect manager and jorge rivas. >> great, welcome. >> hor lay rivas. i want to go ahead and set up the topic today. so we've been having construction mitigation for a few years now. and it wasn't until lately that with jada jackson's support that we've been able to get this program off the ground. i want to go ahead and introduce her and i'll stay around for questions as well. >> great. thank you. and you have a very thankless job. we have a -- you have a lot of symphony from my -- from