[speaking foreign language] [♪♪♪] [♪♪♪] >> september 23, 2024. the meeting is called to order at 435 p.m. the meeting is held in city hall room 400 and broadcast live. the small commission thanks media service and sf tv. gov tv. we welcome participation during public comment. there will be a opportunity for general

public comment at the end of the etmooing and a opportunity to comment on each discussion or action item. public comment during the meeting is limited to 3 minutes per speaker. an alarm will sound once time finished. speakers are requested but not required to state their names. sfgovtv please show the small business slide. >> today we'll begin weminder the small business commissioner is public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about the policy that effect the economic vitality of small business in san francisco. thank you. please call item 1. >> item 1, roll call. commissioner cornet, present. commissioner dickerson, present.

commissioner herbert is absent. i see president huey walking in. commissioner ortiz-cartagena, present. vice president zouzounis, present. you have quorum. >> thank you. okay. with that, we'll now read the land acknowledgment. the san francisco small business commission and office of small business staff, we acknowledge that we are on the unceded ancestral homeland of the ramaytush ohlone who are the original inhabitants of the san francisco peninsula. as the indigenous stewards of this land and in accordance with their traditions, the ramaytush ohlone have never ceded, lost nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory. as guests, we recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. we wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors and relatives of the ramaytush community and by affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples. please call

item 2. >> item 2, approval of legacy business registry applications and resolutions. this is a discussion and action item. discuss and possibly take action to approve legacy business registry applications. >> thanks. thank you, rick. >> good afternoon president huey, vice president zouzounis. richard kurylo, legacy business program manager. i like to acnaj michele reynolds who provides assistance to the program. sfgovtv i have a power point

presentation. predicting my voice will not make it through the presentation like last time. i got water. before you today are 8 applications for your consideration for the legacy business registry. each application includes a staff report, a draft resolution, the application itself, and documents from the planning department. three applications were submitted to planning on july 24 and heard by the historic preservation commission august 21. eight applications were-sorry, five applications were submitted to planning august 19 and heard by the hpc, september 18. item 2 a is da flora. restaurant in north beach established in 1994. a intimate beloved restaurant

serving italian inspired cuisine. home made and locally sources. lovingly prepared food and romantic ombe auns. the chandelier is dimmed to a hew and candle light flickers against the crimson red walls. chef jen [indiscernible] traveled extensively through italy to perfect dishes as [indiscernible] fresh monterey squid, roasted with tomatoes and lemon and spice rubbed pork chop. features italian wines from small producers. featured tudition, the business must remain on the legacy is italian inspired cuisine. 2b is fabrix. the business is a fabric store in the richmond established in 1993.

sells fabric and trims sourced from local san francisco factory designer s and manufacturers. in the life cycle of fabrix, [indiscernible] other wholesale businesses end up buying more fabric then they use for a variety of reasons. they are left with extra yardage [indiscernible] buys the extras. customers can then shop for beautiful high quality fabric they can't get anywhere else at unmatched prices. feature tradition must maintain is fabric store. item 2c is new india bazaar. indian grocery store in polk neighborhood established in approximately 1987, which was when it first appeared in the telephone

directly. ry. sells [indiscernible] baked goods and every day indian groceries. the business also has water colors, sparklers and especially made sweets in stock for various indian holidays. serves a community center for indians around the city to congregate, run into old friends and speak their mother tone. [indiscernible] just up the street from city hall or deliver it right to you. featured tradition the business must maintain is grocery store. item 2d is russian hill dog grooming. the business is a dog grooming establishment founded in 1994. russian hill dog grooming provides state of the art dog grooming for all beads. believes regular grooming is essential for dog health and wellbeing.

30 years kept generations of dogs in optimal hygiene and looking fabulous at the same time. the core philosophy is attend to any and all breeds of dogs and provide the up most level of comp tent care. featured tradition the business must maintain is dog grooming. item 2e is sabella tivoli. family owned restaurant founded by [indiscernible] and son an tone. one of the few original fisherman's wharf restaurants still in existence today. opened as a fish stand and opened as [indiscernible] when the business name change from sabella to sabella and--run

by forth generation of the families. as one of the oldest see food restaurants, carry proud tradition of fresh sea foods and often one of the first restaurants seen when visiting san francisco. located at one of the most popular tourist destinations. one of the few fixtures of fisherman's wharf that ties to as a see food marketplace. featured tradition business must maintain is restaurant featuring sea food. item 2f is savoy tivoli, a historic community bar in north beach established in 1907 featuring amazing cocktails, live music and events. fueled by and fueling the arts, misfits and creatives of san francisco. nearly 120years the business has been serving up delicious drinks and good

times to locals and visitors who visit to experience the charm and history. the bar is also san francisco's house of many firsts. first coffee house, first ramon concert, first stage for beach blanket babylon, first bar saved by former mayor willie brown. the savoy history is varied and interesting as the drinks it serves. featured tradition must maintain is bar. item 2g is ten-ichi japanese restaurant and sushi bar. the business is japanese restaurant established in 1978 in the heart of fillmore district. a hidden gem that provides home style cuisine and sushi to neighborhood locals. the family owned establishment is more then just a place to eat, it is sank ware of traditions, warm lths invasion and friendship. the city ever evolving

landscape, ten-ichi beloved cornerstone of the fillmore dist rth and symbol of power of real and chosen family, tradition and the simple joy of home made meal one guest at a time. featured tradition the business must maintain is restaurant featuring japanese cuisine. important note, ten-ichi is having to move. this is inspiration for item 3 on the agenda, interim zoning control legacy business and neighborhood district. nate horell will tell you more about that item on item 3. 2h is treasure island museum. the business is non profit organization established in 1976. imagine a museum where the issues of today are examined and informed by history. grounded in the island heritage, the treasure island museum has stories to tell and opportunity to tell them in

the place where the stories occurred. housed in building one,b the museum preserves and presents history of one of the city's unique neighborhood via exhibition and free public program. reimagine the role of museum addressing relevant tauchics steering away from artifact delays and prioritizing audience engagement. proud to be a significant cultural intellectual hub on the island. featured tradition the business must maintain is museum. all of the businesses met the three criteria required for listing on the legacy and all received positive recommendations from the historic preservation commission. legacy business program staff recommend adding the business to the registry and drafted resolution for each business for your consideration. a motion in support of the businesses should be framed as motion in favor of the resolutions.

: >> thank you >> this concludes my prisonitation and happy to questions. there are business representatives present who may wish to speak during public comment, and to the legacy applicants in the room, after the commission votes on item number 3, which is the next item, we'll move to the hallway and take photographs. item 3 is related to the legacy business program. we can watch it live. thank you. >> great. thank you so much richard. let's see, i guess commissioners, any questions at this point? no questions. i think we love to welcome any public comment and if you are entertaining the idea, yes, please. >> i'll get started. my name is mike, the president of the treasure island museum. i'll start with a personal an icdote. i loved in san francisco all most 20 years and never went to treasure island and i went and noticed we are

the only business currently registered to treasure island. i just wanted to send thank tuesday the commission for considering us. assuming that we are worthy, we will continue to do our public programs, which our goal is again, you heard pre-public programming, we want to be a community resource and including that are [indiscernible] but also we currently are unveiling four public port chicago panels in panorama park, so to that end, we want to take some of the issues of the past and make them relevant to today, so that is our goal and we will hopefully live up to the trust you put in us. thank you. >> thank you. >> hi. my name is [indiscernible] the owner of fabrix and i do not get credit for starting the store. i took it over 2 and a half

years ago from bruce taylor who needed to sell it or shut it down. bruce used to go to the san francisco fashion center on towns end and back up his van and load up on fabric. it is high quality fabric, he bought and passed on to customers. customers like garment factory workers they would shop fabrics std and go back to the factory sunday when they can use the machines for free and make clothing for themselves and their family. manufacturing is largely gone in the city, but this store sill man ages to operate the same way. i back up the toyota and [indiscernible] hunter point, soma, potrero hill and pass the sabeings on to the customers keeping fabric out of land fill no recycling could. i'll give a quick story from two weeks ago. there is a new grove restaurant

opening in the mission, and [indiscernible] walked into my store. he bought 9 yards of mohair to make curtains for the private dining room. i bought the fabric from in potrero who bought for a private residents in the city but had extra yardage. this fabric could have ended in land fill but found a new life and new business in san francisco. at a fraction of cost they expected to pay. this story happens all the time at fabrix and we are so proud of the role we play for these businesses in san franciscoment we are the last remaining fabric supply store on the west side of san francisco and are as general stores cut selling sections, most customers tell us they are grateful we are here or they would have no where to go to get a needle threat and elastic. we are helping eastern europeans, asians, we make 54 all in the

store at the same time trading sewing tips. every culture every socio economic group [indiscernible] any given day, we help soon to be grandma pick up cotton for first grand child or help a woman purchase [indiscernible] fabrix can be personal and our store is personal to the people in our community. fabrix would like to continue to support the community in the same it support ed us 30 years and we believe this opportunity that you are giving us to join the legacy business registry will help fabrix stick around another 30 years and beyond cht thank you so much for your consideration and support. >> thank you. >> good afternoon. commissioners. thank you for the item and

following up on [indiscernible] my name is ang lina, staff supervisor chan and delighted to nominate fabrix for consideration in the registry. it is one of the last remaining fabric stores where folks of all walks of life are able to go in and pick up both things that are essential as well as things that inspire creativity and in terms of it being a part of the how clement street changed. i grew up running behind the giant spools around many folks who were seamstresses who went to fabrics to source materials for their livelihood and i think today the store continues to serve a really diverse array of folks not just in terms of ethnicity but industry. we have folks who are design students and makers and homemakers and folks looking to pick up nicks and nacks and tips of the trade getting their

start or returning customers to the space, so i think it is essential part of what we xoe as the clement corridor, so we look forward to fabrix being added to the legacy business registry. thank you. >> thank you. >> hello commissioners. my name is--oriley and i'm here with my brother, steve omono on behalf of ten-ichi restaurant. it is a honor to be with you today. my 17 year old daughter spoke wednesday at the historical preservation commission, and i would like to reiterate her key points, because she said it way better then i ever could, and i hope i get this right. we are honored to receive this

legacy business designation. ten-ichi founded 46 years ago by my hard working immigrant parents. my late father and my mother. would be so proud of this designation. legacy i looked up legacy and said something of value passed through generations, and my daughter and my son worked at our restaurant during covid and they would represent the third generation of our family to be part of ten-ichi, so this was definitely a true legacy business. over the past 46 years, ten-ichi has weathered many challenges, most recently, the covid pandemic. sadly, we are not going to be able to survive the eviction of developers ing the name of revitalization put it is my

hope other independently owned businesses are protected from our fate. i hope that the legislation that is being introduced offers legacy business more then just a title. i know that there are grants and lovely things like that, but i'm hoping there will be oversight from the city if a developer evicts a legacy business they should i think the-they should receive help to find a new venue. the tenants should be granted some option. i feel it st. the right thing to do. further more, i like to see a faster streamline permitting process so that the closure between venues could be minimized. my daughter said best wednesday when she said she loved the

character of each neighborhood and if we allow developer s to boot out legacy business, what are we leaving for the next generation? again, i just are wanted to say thank you. we are incredibly great ateful for the legacy business. it is a incredible honor and bitter sweet. any assistance the city can offer us to find a new venue would be greatly appreciated. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> good evening. my name is--from the india bazaar and wanted to thank you for giving us consideration for legacy business registry. we have been around since 96, i took over 96 when my son was born and we still have him in pop ison in the

front window so people can see him and now he is a 30 year old man. and we want to continue being at the same location, the same kind of business. we haven't changed the outlook, we have just done upkeepment and i have customers who have been coming around the last 35 years and children who are going to school at galileo and now are businessman and they still come around and smaup shop with us. thank you for giving us the consideration and to share our joy . i have cookies out there with boxes. if someone is allergic they can take a look at the box, but please enjoy. thank you. thank you again. >> thank you. thank you very much. >> hello commissioners.

greetings, my name is paul rosely, here to say a few words on behalf of the savoy tivoli a bar my grandmother bought in 1981. growing up i felt a sense orphwonder and excitement and as years past i began to realize how significant a impression it had on the city of san francisco. childhood friends often express fondness of memories at the savoy while working there as a bar back, i mount countless patrons young and old who would roam around the bar reminiscing about their own cherished moments. savoy as a unique tangible energy and impossible to ignore the rich history. to me it feels like a living breathingantty.

entity. there is now doubt the savoy is bigger then me and my family. it is cultural hub where san franciscans and visitors gather. on behalf of my grand mother and family, i want to thank you commissioners city council members and elected officials considered savoy tivoli for the legacy business registry. i like to extend gratitude for the city and its people. our history is built by your support. thank you and may the savoy tivoli continue to be a space for everyone who steps through the doors. it is honor to have the savoy preserved through this designation. thank you for your time and consideration and best of luck to all the other businesses here. >> thank you.

>> evening. my name is dawnmic farland coorner of [indiscernible] the forth generation in the sknrz like to thank both commissions for this great honor. i came across this quote from warren buffet. my son is a senior at son jose state and he has me looking at all kinds of different people to expand my horizons other then athletes. the quote goes, "someone sitting in shade today because someone plant ed a tree a long time ago". sabella is that tree. that shade is covering many people in that community on fisherman wharf. i don't think you figured it

out, but i married one of your grand daughters. he would look across and wonder why his supervisor was there. i have been on the wharf since 1986. i was a sophomore at rearden and my first job was on the crab stands. i continued my career there and now have partnered with gina, the grand daughter of sabella. i thank you for that as well for marrying your grand daughter. frank sabella lived with hez daughter angie and son in law milo for the last 30 years of his life. he lived to the age of 102. right now we have the third, fourth and 5th generation thin crowd today. fivth generation kids started to work the business. my nephew, [indiscernible] and son worked a capacity of the business. i xoe know you are heaven and

giving us your signature wink. this legacy honor is for you and lou. i like to end by saying thank you to the commission and my great family that supported me over the years. it is a great hahn onor to be nominated for this. thank you. >> thank you. >> my name is steve. here representing ten-ichi, i'm a customer and been in the community about 14 years and grew up in the bay area. it is great you have this establishment and happy to be a resident here the last 14 years in the neighborhood. ten-ichi serves fantastic food. the reason i'm standing up here, it is a wonderful place. woo talk about it is like cheers.

you know everyone there, i made many friends and there are many more and there are generations that come there. i made friends who children are now there that they didn't have before. i wanted to say thank you all for this opportunity and i hope you make the right decision and approve ten-ichi and all these other places too. i have been to pretty much all of them and they are fantastic. thank you very much and good luck to all of you. appreciate you are also in the community. thank you. >> thank you. anybody else want to come up for public comment? >> hello, my name is jen mcmahon, not a big public speaker, used to be in the kitchen. i owned da flora restaurant and we like to continue serving our sit a

and communities and visitors all over the world. very grateful for the opportunity. the greatest complement we received over and over is people feel they are in our home or grandmas house and we want to continue to honor this complement. thank you. >> thank you. i'm glad-- >> hello. i don't have anything to prepared, but i want to thank you commissioners for thinking about us and this, and i am [indiscernible] here with my lovely wife. we have russian hill dog grooming and been around a long time and taking care of people like the late senator diane feinstein, and charlotte schultz, they passed away, but many counts of dogs coming and going and we love it and i

hope to continue to do this for the next 20 years. i'm pretty old. all the gray hairs. i have two lovey boys we brought up in the city. we have been to all the different businesses, so just happy to be here and thank you very much. >> thank you. any other public commenters? public comments? it is really not that scary, i promise. [laughter] okay. well, seeing as no further public comment, public comment is closed, and commissioners, any questions, comments from here? commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> i just want to thank all the

businesses for coming. i know it is hards to make it out of this time and day, get away from your business, the community, so i appreciate your efforts. like i always say, i appreciate what you contribute to san francisco. it makes me proud and it is a gift that we give to future generations, so your hard work here and the future hard work of it had generations is what makes frisco frisco and i thank you and truly grateful for everyone of you and all your businesses. like somebody said, i have been to every one of you accept the dog grooming place. [indiscernible] thank you. >> commissioner dickerson. >> i feel this is a family reunion. this is wonderful. as i sit here and think about every-i have visited some of your places, but the one that sticks out the most for me is when i had my dress made for

my son's wedding and i went to fabrix traveling to come to fabrix. everyone said you have to go to fabrix, so that-when i saw it, i was like oh my god, what a wonderful memory. what i like to say to all of you, you all are legies. when you think-i love hearing when you say your children and your parents and you all had a part in building these businesses. it is essential to who we are as a city the essence of who we are as business owners, and just to be able to be in the room with many of you with all of your intellect ual property that cannot be written down. your experience goes beyond what can be written down, so to be able to pass it on is probably the best thing you can do for your children. so, i want to say thank you, all of us here as well are business owners. i dont know if you all know

that, but we are all business owners as well so we are sitting here looking at you--you want to sit and tell me a few things. i just hit 5 years, so i'm looking at all you and thinking, oh my god. i want to say thank you for all your work, diligence, purse erseverance and love for what you do and how you sever your city and community and the fact so many are coming to you after all these years, thank you. [applause] >> well, i have a lot of notes here. i don't know where to start. one thing that really comes to mind is exactly what you were saying commissioner is that, we are all small business owners up here, and like, to know and to see how many

generations have come through the institutions that you have built for our city is just incredible. i had the opportunity to work for my father as well as have my kids work for me, and/or alongside with me. and, seeing them come in oen the first day and i was like, my daughter isn't going to make this. i was like, i don't know. [laft] laughter] and seeing her grow within month jz be able to train other people and open and close the shop on her own. doing so many things that it is the immense sense of pride. you never really felt for yourself, but you see in your children. it is really a interesting place that i have gotten to be at now, and like, you know, i think that's the thing about

small business. i am sitting here through this whole piece and i'm like, i cannot cry again at this like every commission meeting. i feel this is the part that i'm like, why does netflix not do a special on this? this is the credible. incredible. the amount of people that put their lives out there. your baby is being baby sat by the neighbors in the popasan chair. these are things that don't happen when your main focus is on profits and your main focus is on just flipping a business. this is really beyond any other things people maybe think small businesses are about. this is like really building a family and building an institution and that family kind of like keeps exteneding beyond your borders, beyond

your maybe biological families, so i don't know, this is the beauty of small business and really hoping that you share and celebrate in the new club that you are probably going to be approved to be in, and you know, really celebrate this part of being a real institution in san francisco. i think i don't really-i could go on, but don't think we should probably. any other comments up here? >> this is so inspiring just to see all you have done and hear all the stories and how much impact you made. as a small business owner, this inspires me to continue and also to [indiscernible] i really like

the thing about you planted a tree. somebody planted a tree and now it is giving shade. congratulations to you and thank you for all you have done. >> i'm compelled. i want to say, it is ten-ichi japanese restaurant and sushi bar? you were compelled to just say, if there is any help from me--yeah. i wish i could snap my finger. i didn't want that to go unheard and i'm hoping for resources to come your way and you are heard. that your voice is heard, and i know there is a lot of places coming up in the market downtown. there is a lot of opportunities i'm sure. i have a strong feeling i dont think it is time for you to give up just yet.

let's hold on a little while longer and i'm just standing with you. i just didn't want you to go unheard. i'm sending good wishes, support, prayers for you and your family and your business. >> i'm glad that the next item will come up and then we'll have hopefully some good discussion and i encourage everybody to you know, take the opportunity to voice your thoughts and your experience, because i think that is really what we need. as small business owners, we don't get out of our business too often, and i they think that is really the challenge for many people. our voice isn't necessarily always the loudest because we just dont have time to come to things like this, and we don't have time to write

letters and to organize. we are really just try toog do what we can every day, so thank you very much for extending the opportunity to kind of be a part of this process, because this is really something that i learned about and i have found very valuable as a small business owner, to understand how all this-how things can change. okay, without going further into the next item, what do i have to do now? i have to take a motion. would somebody like to make a motion. >> i absolutely make a motion to pass for all of these beautiful businesses. [applause] >> i'll second. [applause] >> alright. i'll read the roll. [roll call]

motion passes. congratulations. [applause] congratulations. >> next item, please. >> item 3, board of supervisors file 240909 interim zoning controls legacy businesses in neighborhood commercial districts. this is discussion and action item. the commission will discuss and possibly take action on resolution imposing interim zoning controls for 18 month period to require conditional use authorization prior to replacing a legacy business in neighborhood commercial districts and neighborhood commercial transit districts and chinatown community business district, chinatown visitor retail district and chinatown residential neighborhood commercial dist rblth.

rict. printing is nate horell aid to board president aaron peskin. welcome nate. >> thank you. hi, everybody. hi, commissioners. hi, legacy businesses. i'm glad to have been able to hear that first item. that was really moving and i think i want to come down here every month. evefen i dont need to, because that is heart-warming stuff. so, the thing before you was absolutely put into motion because of the situation facing ten-ichi and other folks on fillmore street. what the proposal would do is it would require conditional use authorization at the planning commission to replace any legacy business in all mcd

and mct across the city, and including the chinatown zoning districts because they have separate zoning. what i want to say about this is, basically if you are getting rid of a legacy business, you have to-they have a hearing and have their day in court and hear why the landlord should do this. this isn't perfect, but it is a emergency measure that our office thinks is absolutely necessary to send a message to developers that a wave of speculation and getting rid of legacy businesses is not something we tolerate. i also want to say, it is not something that we are doing in isolation. the interim zoning controls is a special tool that allows you to create this type of thing quicker because it doesn't have to go to planning commission. it is a thing the board of

supervisors can do to respond to kind of emergency situations and try to prevent harm such as displacements like these. it is intended to preserve neighborhoods and mixes of businesses et cetera and it requires the planning department to study the zoning proposal and propose permanent legislation to try to fix this problem. i would also like to say that, it is not-this is one small aspeth of something we can do. we don't think it is perfect. it is adding a stick to the legacy business program and which supervisor peskin helped create and absolutely supports the carrots involved, the stable grants and the grants that result in longer lease terms to provide stability for small businesses.

those already exist and probably should be expanded. we initiated a drafting of legislation at the same time and everything is on the table. i think we absolutely-businesses like this deserve relocation assistance. i think they deserve right to council. . i think the city should arbitrate the disputes. we are looking into everything that can be done legally, because commercial rent control is illegal, so there is a pretty hard state legal environment around this, but this was one thing we could do quickly. to give more about the context. as you probably heard in the new, the situation on upper fillmore came to our attention because a billionaire venture capitalist purchased a couple city blocks and not engaging in good faith

negotiations with these small businesses and basically said, we can't have a restaurant here. we want to have something else and it was just not bargaining in good faith and the other across the street, the other legacy business still has 6 months on her lease and i think we hope this will change the balance of power with them as well. yeah, i think sushi ten-ichi is a real warning sign. the other thing to bring up here and the reason that we didn't justify to upper fillmore is that other small businesses reached out to our office after we announced this because we pointed out that, the timing was such that most of these purchases happened after these city blocks were identified as candidate s for upzoning, which means that the city is

intending to incentivize development on these parcels and when you do that, you signal to developers that it is a good thing to start buying them up and we think that is not unrelated here and to just highlight that context, we understand as you may have heard that the city of san francisco is required to build 82 thousand units of housing by 2032 and the planning department put forward proposals publicly that have concentrated that development all most exclusively on neighborhood commercial districts, and you know, in our office we are absolutely supportive of meeting our housing needs, especially affordable housing needs, but don't think it needs to be done at the expense of small businesses and especially legacy businesses, so i think it a warning sign and

this is one action we know we could take. it currently exists in four zoning districts, it exists in north beach, polk and mission. i think on pacific, so it is something that we heard from community advocates. we know it is not perfect and we really think the city like has to take action to take these things into account when they make the zoning proposal, so we just want a very deep study of this including all the possible tools to make sure that we are not sacrificing these businesses when we are contemplating redeveloping neighborhood commercial corridors. happy to answer any questions and really enjoyed hearing from all the legacy businesses. i really think legacy businesses are special and it is about the

users, it is about the folks who-it is about the owners and also about the business practices maintained through different owners and it is about collective memories of being there, and i think it is worth doing everything we can to protect, so thanks. [applause] >> thank you very much nate. commissioners, any comments or questions? vice president zouzounis. >> thank you for the presentation and drafting this legislation. can you just walk us through what interim means in this sense and if there's an expected changes to what is resolved in this current draft to be done for this legislation? what that looks like. >> great question. interim zoning controls in this

case they would last for 18 months, which is as long as they can last. they don't become the planning code, so they are just effective for those 18 months and it gives the planning department time to study this issue and propose permanent legislation either of this kind or another kind to try to address the problem that was identified and they don't go to the planning commission, they go to the land use committee on likely on the 7th of october. we are trying to go as quickly as possible in order to try to help the legacy businesses at risk. >> thank you. i guess per your experience with planning and the neighborhood commercial districts, do you feel like this is amenable, the department can figure how to make this

long-lasting or are we thinking we might have to bring this back to the commission with more concrete compromises or something? >> i mean, i think the conditional use process is definitely not perfect. there are things about it that could be improved and we are totally open to input from you all and from any of the legacy businesses here about you know, other things that would help in these sorts of situations. like the suggestions are really good about relocation. yeah, i think the order of operations is not great. it would be better to make sure that the landlord understands exactly what you know, they have to go through if they want to replace a legacy business and make sure all parties

understand that is the requirement. i think that would help a lot. but yeah, we are open to-i do really think that the zoning that is created in order to fulfill the housing element, they are going to rezone these commercial districts. it is basically inevitable, so what that actually goes into that and like, say if you demolish like path of one side of clement street and merj all the lots, are you creating a floor plate that is 4 times as high and no way anyone could be located in there? there is a lot of details in there about how that could work out that i think could address these issues. >> thank you. we'll keep an eye on this and make sure we give our support along the way and keep a eye if it comes back. one last question, how would this impact a change of business as a legacy business owner is also the

building owner and they decide to change their business? >> that's a good question. i think-that-it depends if they stay on the registry or not. if they are moving from the registry and they no longer want to operate a legacy business, then the conditional use would not apply. i suppose if they wanted to-if they owned a building, moved the legacy business elsewhere and wanted to replace it, and still want to operate the legacy business, then i think they have to get a cu. interesting question. >> i'm just trying to get if there is aamicable exchange of hands whether the building owner or business owner come to a conclusion we need to change this use or we are not going to get

in a situation they have to wait 3 years. >> no, they definitely don't have to wait 3 years. it takes a matter of months, but that is a really good question and i think it is bit clunky figuring what to do in those situations. : >> i was looking what were the exceptions and just making sure we had-we were not inadvertently making it harder for a legacy business to change if they needed to. >> yep. >> thank you. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> thank you for the presentation. tell supervisor peskin we appreciate the legacy businesses. it is not specific on this legislation, but some of the stuff i have been working on to preserve legacy businesses working with the planning department to make it very easy

for ground floor commercial tenants to convert their space into condo which they can break out for multi-use and the second piece is for the city to have financing available to the legacy business so they can buy their property. in addition to the stick, make a generational wealth for local small businesses so they can own their grandkids can own and that property will never be developed because we own it. that's the ultimate goal. thank you nate. >> thanks, absolutely. >> we'll take public comment in a minute. any other--go ahead. >> sorry, one more question. i know there is another at least one legacy business i know that is in current litigation to deal with an eviction.

is this legislation according to the city attorney would apply retroactively or is it just moving forward? if a business is currently in an eviction proceeding in some way or another, if it would still benefit. >> it would apply. >> it would? >> depends when it goes into effect, but i think that it will likely be if everything goes--could be connected in october and go into effect in november and if they are still in proceedings, then it would be important information in that dispute potentially. >> that's great. thank you. >> i have a few questions to ask. i'm curious as to how this piece of legislation is planned to interact with some of the existing

legislation that's on the book in regards to like vacancies and things like that? so, like how is this--knowing this is punitive measure to discourage somebody from coming in, you are going to be creating a vacancy and we currently have on the books like vacancy taxes to discourage vacancies so this will in essence create a vacancy of some sort, so how do you plan to have these two things meet? >> that's a good question. i don't think there is any proposal to give them a break on the vacancy tax. i think they are both- >> i guess i'm not concerned about giving them a break on the vacancy tax, because i'm thinking if this is big

conglomerate or developer they are probably not concerned, but as far as the city goes, it is all most like we are slightly uncoordinated perhaps in our movements and trying to discourage vac ancies in one bucket and creating vacancies in another bucket. our streets-ultimately i don't care how the whole thing shakes out. i notice on the street level is we have vacancies. >> i think that the number--so, if this deterrent doesn't work, it could prolong vacancies that would already exist by 6 months or less. >> six months for a ceu? >> yeah. i think finetuning exemptions to prevent that is a good idea, but you

dont want to get rid of the deturant effect. i see what you mean, but in terms of the many many many vacancies you see out there, this is not likely to contribute to-i think it will be just such a small proportion that and that there are so many other times where this works and you never hear about it, and so it is hard to quantify those times as we. well. it is a short-term thing. i don't think it is going to result in tons of vacancies longer then what would otherwise have occurred. only in the cases when it is not working, but totally--it is absolutely a concern and not our goal. >> i mean, i think maybe it wouldn't necessarily feel like a quantifybly like significant number, but

these are vacancies that would be where there are long standing businesses, so i think in terms of my kind of like emotional connection to the space, i would notice that this business was not there. or i think these businesses are probably in places that are located in place s that are significant like for a neighborhood, so that is just one of my concerns. i think the other is that, as a commission, we have been working really diligently and working really hard to find places in which we can remove cu requirements, remove discretionary review requirements. a lot of things that hinder businesses from being able to move in swiftly into a space, because we heard for many years now, we signed our lease and it took us 2, 3 years to get through this

permitting process. how do we get through this faster? my concern is that to add another cu to the books is like counter--again, like, i don't know, counter all the other action that we are taking. i guess my question is, outside of the cu mechanism, what are some of the other things that either your office or in general you think would be very successful in being an alternative that doesn't add additional cu to the planning code? >> i think it is great question. we have initiated the legislation drafting process to try to do something that is not just this, because we totally share your concerns. i think relocation assistance i think right to counsel for commercial tenants and legacy businesses in particular, i think if there is a way to have

the city do arbitration or something that where you can whatever is legal in that regard we are trying to figure it out. i think about the zoning how the areas are rezoned matters a great deal in terms of lot mergers and stuff. i do think you can't get there with only carrots. we are dealing with very big bad parties here that have no interest in our long standing community serving businesses and you know, they are not going to be coaxed with streamline, so there has to be a combination and we are absolutely open to any other protections that you guys suggest. yeah. >> at the end of the cu process, what generally happens? you have your meetings.

you give all the notice out to all the people within a certain radius then you have meetings, and then who ultimately decides like, whether it is approved or not approved? >> the planning commission. >> and so the planning commission generally kind of like makes decisions based on like number of public comment, or like how does the planning commission do you feel like generally--? i mean, i'm just curious in like being curious outwardly for people-i feel for us this is a forum for us as regular people to be able to represent ideas and thoughts as like everybody else who isn't privy to like how city hall works so i think it is helpful to think quhoo is making these decisions and ultimately is this enough of a

sway for-because like, if a developer has billions of dollars let's say and they are able to pack a room this size full of people who believe that the cu should be over-ruled or over-turned or whatever, that then is this a mechanism that in the end of the game will continue to be a thumb on the scale for small business or just another hurdle that people can't afford to kind of like go through? >> i think first of all, it is really only a hurdle for the landlord. >> but is it a hurdle that they can--if they desired enough that they could jump over? because i think when you are in business the way i look at things, it

isn't a binary yes or no t. is a scale. you weigh each day is this worth it or not worth it. generally i'm guessing somebody who has profits in mind they are thinking is this worth my time or not worth my time and efforts and for them a lot of time and effort is way worth it because they have a lot more resources then somebody like me who i'm like i can't afford to do that for half a day. i mean, as a hurdle, i wonder if this is high enough hurdle that it is going to really disway a large entity to say i'm not going to take over the spot of a legacy business? >> yes, i think it is a high hurdle that gets jump ed over from time to time. it was jumped over last week at the planning commission. they voted to approve a cu for

getting rid of uptown bar on 17th and capp. it absolutely happens. i don't think this is perfect. i think if we wanted to make a higher hurdle, i'm open to suggestions . there is no other good suggestions out there that provide a stick and it is really something that urgently needs to happen. i think a higher hurdle could be instead of making it conditional, you just say it isn't permitted at all and we thought about that and that's hard to wrap your mind around, because it is like what would happen next after that? that's--so have this system with the cu that is a way of kind of looking at the particulars of what's going on in each of these cases and getting people a hearing to air what's

happening. i definitely don't think it is perfect. i think there are other ways to go about it, but i think it is urgently needed. >> i agree. i agree it is urgently needed and i think that you know, bringing it to light here is really helpful, because this idea that there is no other possibility is probably false. i think there are probably possibilities. i think you have a room full of incredibly resourceful people and that's one thing i really urge any legislator, anybody who is in the business of making ideas into laws. small businesses are incredibly resourceful. we are filled with people who have really creative ideas to solve a really tough challenges on daily basis and i think this type of forum is a really important mechanism for something like this to go through, because i

bet there probably is a really creative solution that maybe perhaps widening that lens might be able to help solve in a way that isn't as--i don't know, singularly punitive perhaps. but that is where i'm going to leave it for right now. i see another comment. director tang. >> thank you. thank you nate, and congratulations again to the legacy businesses. since there are so many legacy businesses here and this has been talked about during this presentation in the last, i want to make sure that everyone is aware of some of the services that office of small business offers. the immediate assistance for relocation, we about little over a year ago started a service with a commercial leasing specialist in the office who is a licensed broker and can help people find relocation

spaces in dire situations. we helped people who suffered from fire disasters, flooding, or you name it. that's what this position is for, and we will be adding one more position that sort to our office in this coming year in the process of hiring because it has been such a valuable resource and they are not obviously helping you fiend a new location, they help you understand how to negotiate a new lease or to renew an existing lease agreement, and to put you in the best position, because there are a lot of brokers, but this unique in terms as we represent you as a small business owner and this is a free service as well. and then, i know that it has been mentioned mediation support or legal services, so we are also a part of the office economic workforce development and through that department there are contracts in place for legal

services. we can always use more, but there are typically at least two organizations that we refer people to if you need help with actually signing off on a lease agreement, because we are not able to provide legal services through our office, but we can refer you to a city partner for that, so i want to make sure you are all aware of those services, because businesses can get displaced any time for any reasons. again, fires being the most dramatic, and we have been able to again, help people relocate pretty quickly and so, i just wanted to put that out there and make sure you are all aware of it and we also have permitting specialists who understand all the recent changes and the laws. ones we initiated here at the commission to make things go faster and so those resources are available again all for free. you know how to reach rick, the legacy business manager if you need to get connected to any of those resources.

we have been talking about the conditional use authorization as part of the legislation, but i want to make sure you are all aware of the wrap around services that are immediately available. and then one question for nate in the legislation there are two exceptions where the cu would not apply. one is that,b the space that was immediately prior it occupied by legacy business is vacant 3 years and the second one is legacy business decided on its own to remove from the registry. what if a in the situation that a legacy business wanted to go into a space that was formerly occupied by legacy business, would you consider removing the cu requirement in that kind of situation? >> legacy replacing legacy? >> yes, because now it isn't an exception so want to see if that is something the supervisor would entertain.

>> i think absolutely. i think i have to talk to the drafting attorney, because i thought that that was already possible under this, but maybe i'm misunderstanding, so yes. >> thank you. >> vice president zouzounis. >> thank you director. and thanks again nate. as president huey said, this is also a educational forum for us so thanks for entertaining our questions. i think the big question that we have as proprietaries of commercial uses is what does the transition from commercial to residential use look like since these are being identified-these parcels are identified for residential upzoning. of course a commercial lease may be to retain on the bottom, but i guess i'm trying to understand when it

says, the legislation keeps noting non-residential use. can you just help me understand if a developer is trying to evict a small business to build residential doesn't--that would have to go in by dealing with the commercial use and then be able to upzone for residential. so, is there a way that we can protect the small business while also being able to have housing? are these-how do they have a correlation and can you just help me understand the non-residential uses that keep being named and what if residential use comes in and

tries to do this process, does it apply to them too? thank you. >> i think the answer is that in these neighborhood commercial districts the ground floor is still commercial, so it is non-residential. it is just trying to like narrow it to say, i think it is pretty unlikely that --i don'ts think you can do it now, build residential ground floor and i don't think that is what they are contemplating. i think they are talking about putting residential on top of ground floor commercial. another side note about that. they can by-pass through a state law

called sb423 under certain conditions as well. it was just created by scott wiener, our state senator. i don't know if that answers it. >> i was trying to understand the nomen claicher of non residential use and you know, i recently retired my family third generation as well and from behind the counter of a retail shop and it took a really long time for us to find who we trusted with a sale of a business, and i think a lot of small businesses, we don't have the skill to be properly vet sometimes the different proposals that come our way and i just want to understand like how to spot these developers that may be

coming in promising to keep a business and then change everything. understanding if they are coming in with a commercial--it is non-residential use, we are keeping the business and then changing things and i'm just trying to help the small businesses understand the different use factors that might be coming to them if there is a sale on the table. >> got you. >> okay. thank you. >> commissioners, any other comments, questions? >> i also had a question about-is the marina have no commercial use districts? >> no, no, no. oh, like why is it named? >> yeah, because one of the legacy businesses i'm-what if you are

not in one of these areas? >> they are probably under mc. they are not--these are the named neighborhood commercial districts and there are others under not named. >> so, is there a case a legacy business wouldn't be on one of these corridors named? >> this includes all of-it isn't every single legacy business in the city. it is most of them, because most are located in neighborhood commercial districts. the only ones that are off of this particular map would be like industrial uses. >> okay. >> which is good to point out. i think the majority are covered by this. >> thank you. >> downtown is not on this either. that is a good point. >> alright. seeing no other comments or

questions, let's open it up for public comment. >> good evening again. i just had one suggestion to make. if the legacy business, wherever they exist kwr and the landlord buys the build and they want them to move, could they issue a conditional building permit they have to bring back the legacy businesses to the same location? provide [indiscernible] in the new building? instead of just kicking them out and not giving them any options? because, when we work on the business, we don't plan on moving time and again. if this is forcing us to move the landlord also should be given condition that they should bring back the

legacy business at the same location. and they have more room anyway, so they can rent out the other spaces to other businesses. the existing legacy business should be given the prosperity to be brought back to the same location. my suggestion. >> thank you. >> i can say that is definitely on our list of things we are looking at in our office and also the-it has been raised by the planning department as a potential response to the rezoning of these areas, but that's informally has been introduced or proposed. >> i'm steve, ten-ichi. i want to second what he said. in our experience the last 3 months we were bummed out by not having options. i remember when we had to sign

the termination agreement. they wanted us to give us our request like what we wanted and i gave them three different scenarios where it is like, hey, you know, can you give us temporary time to say bye to our regulars at reduced rent or give us a bunch of money so we can move to another location or offer something because you are buying all the properties, can you offer something and all three were shot down. it is like no, just get out. that is where it is like, what i kept saying, i was all 4 news platforms and what i said, this is so unsan francisco what is happening. i first the initial meeting i was more like, really, you dont want us? here you are buying this building and going to have tenants. you are starting with a new business. you dont want a legacy business? it was my ego that jumped in first, but after it is like, can we have either of the options would be fine, just

give us something. there was-nothing. we closed yesterday, guys. yeah. but we are looking for another space. thanks guys. >> [indiscernible] >> i am not a small business owner actually, so this is educational. one thing i talk about and live and go to all these places and there are hundreds that come to steve's restaurant and probably can speak to all these place s. i live in cal hallow. you have seen union street and how long it takes to [indiscernible] i'm not a lawyer and don't know the answer, i work in business tech sales so a decently smart person, but what i see from business perspective, you have affordable housing and concern programs if you buy something you must

do something. it is crazy his story, why would you not keep that business and the fact that developer has so much money he doesn't care, i think is also terrible because people like myself that live here, i love those places. i go to clement street and the mission and all the way out to noe valley to bernal height s to go to a place. fabrix, i have been there and have friends that go all the time. my mom who grew up in san mateo knows about that place mpts i say this piscsly because it would be wonderful if we can help these people with all this money in the world make the right decision and say you have to keep that local business and if you dont want it, you dont get to buy here. that would be really great, because we want to see these places survive. i'm not a lawyer and can't fix everything like the affordsal housing units that need to be built. it is nice if you displace something, you can build all the other stuff you

want, but you have to keep that business if they still want to be there. thank you. [applause] >> any other public comment? seeing no public comment, public comment is closed. this is a action item. >> yes. >> so- >> can i make a motion with two recommendations to the supervisor office? take into consideration what director tang put out. exemption for legacy business moving into another legacy business, and definitely the second consideration, you heard from small businesses in san francisco, like some type of first right of refusal to return or

making mandate. i think there is precedent already in the codes on other things for affordable housing, so you can just copy that for commercial. [applause] >> i second that. >> okay, motion by commissioner ortiz-cartagena to support with recommendations to allow a legacy business to come into the place of another-of the exiting legacy business without the cu requirements and to explore first right of refusal. >> second. >> first right of return. >> is to be much--can we--i dont know how to formulate what i'm thinking right now. one, i want to really appreciate that

the supervisors office-you are looking at legacy business and really thinking hard about solutions to preserve them and recognize the value of legacy business in our city,b and in our neighborhood corridors. this is something really really special, and i appreciate that you sat with us today too. so, for me, this is very-a really important time, because we are going to have a changing neighborhood. my concern is still adding additional conditional use. conditional use to our existing planning. i feel like if there

were--because my concern is that like, i don't want to look at a piece of legislation and say, there we fixed it. this is not fixed and we talked-i know you said that repeatedly, but i feel like we say that now, but once it is approved and once it is on the books then often times people say there, we fixed it. legacy businesses are saved. i just dont want that to happen, because i feel like there is so many other things that need to happen in order to support our small business community. so, that is my--i dont know what that recommendation looks like in terms of insuring there are alternative or not just alternative, but there are other mechanisms in place that you

know, will really-will be the carrot, the stick, whatever it is. i think there needs to be more. and not just--because >> [indiscernible] >> yeah. >> can we recommend during the planning department process of figuring out the long-term part of it? as part of the recommendation. this is just the interim until they do more in depth look at this policy, right? >> i want small businesses to be a part that. i know that is asking a lot of people's time and, but i want-this has been a very valuable i think time for

our commission. >> i think president, this is where like we advocate for other programs, parallel programs like the office of mayor's office of housing. the small sites program. sthat key when the money is available so they can-instead of a developer purchasing the building and non profit, purchase the building and our businesses won't get the place and it also satisfy the affordable housing when possible, so i think we do have mechanisms in place. i think advocating and champ yng and funding them. the regional bond for affordable housing was off the ballot. that would have brought in 2.5 probably to the city and we would have been able to you know, finance a lot of more purchase of these small business. it is a huge systemic-that is why i brought up the planning thing. carving multiuse buildings or business owners can own their part of

the parcel and then it doesn't make it as attractive to develop if you have ground floor retail. you can't build around it. i'm with you, we have-it is systemic. i'm working with planning to put it on code, because they do it in new york. in new york they separate commercial. it just gets complicated with ho a fees and what not, but nothing is impossible. these are not the laws of nature. these are laws of man, so anything can be changed. >> okay. did you want to include some kind of recommendation of requesting a update maybe? like a report back to the commission? i'm trying to help verbalize. >> if i can help you. i think a lot of what we tried to

recommend from this commission body is to be weary of unintentional consequences, so i think maybe what you are asking for on behalf of small business-future small business entrepreneurs is that this isn't going to heed small businesses changing with the changing world and it isn't going to add more hardship on small entrepreneurs that may take up the task that business space. i mean, maybe it is something that we include in some planning is them to be able to tell us the potential business determination--the obstacles that may yaet more harder ease of business in the future from this and just us to understand that scheme that may be put in place.

i don't know how to word it. in a proposal. >> i think when you describe it as like wanting to avoid unintentional consequence i think that is really accurate, and i think the mechanism we have been using has been to think-i appreciate that this is a interim solution is to think about laws in the way that we kind of evaluate anything in life. it is like you make a decision, you see how it plays out and you decide what the milestones and mechanisms are to be able to determine whether it is successful or not, and so, i think if we have assurances there are mechanisms that will be in place for us to be able to see-i think that also goes into looking at the things that are on the books current ly and in the neighborhoods that currently have something like this. i think insuring that planning,

your office, who ever is involved will actually analyze like is this a helpful deterrent? how helpful and should we continue with this? i think for us to really have assurances that it isn't just going to sit on the books for all of eternty, i think that would make me a lot more comfortable. >> [indiscernible] the big guys get past it. >> everybody knows the conditional use is this crazy san francisco process that takes millions of years for a business to open. >> 6 months. >> 6 months. so, our commission typically does not like that. we want people to be able to open a business at the speed of light, however with the displacement, this is stick to like deter a potential developer like i don't want to

go through this very very you know crazy bureaucratic process, so it does discourage displacement. here on our commission we typically do not like anything conditional use. we want people to get in, but there is a 18 month clause so that is what made me comfortable . there is 400 legacy businesses so maybe 400 conditional use, but that means every business would need to be displaced so that is very small. the few that are potential risk, we are in this 18 month buffer, so they can have the consequence we do want, in the 18 months if you are on 6 month lease, it is the stick. it isn't like the stuff on the planning code [indiscernible] we had legislation here since the 1800's that make

no sense, so i think what you are trying to say, we dont want legislation to be in perpetuity that later has a negative impact. i feel within 18 months we can review and probably have intended effect of the stick for now. >> thank you. >> the motion on the table with two recommendations and i can provide a summary of the commentary you had here if that still is something we are prepared to vote on. >> i think so. commissioner dickerson seconded, so i'll read the roll. [roll call]

>> motion passes. >> thank you for the presentation. >> thank you very much. thank you everyone. congratulations. thank you for sitting so long for-- [laughter]

>> next item, please. >> item 4, board of supervisors file 240798, change of use designation and permit exemption. this is discussion and action. the commission will discuss and possibly take action on ordinance amending the building code to exemp the requirement for architectural

drawing for building permits to change use designation that do not increase occupant load or class and add to the list of work exempt from needing building permits. director tang will review this. >> welcome director tang. >> thank you all. speaking of trying to remove barriers for small businesses, trying to get into either a new space or to change their use or to go into or expand, whatever it is. this legislation is part that effort. so, we have seen real life examples where let's take for example you have a restaurant that wanted to add a liquor license so they became went from limited restaurant to what planning department calls a full restaurant. they are not doing any construction, there is nothing changing, but we are told by the city they needed to submit a building permit application,

which usually requires architectural plans. anyone who has gone through that, it is tough to spend time to find an architect and spend money roughly average maybe $10 thousand for this work, and so this really is trying to address those kind of situations where you are really not doing any physical improvement, you are just changing a planning use designation and not changing occupancy class or load and so and then you would either get to by-pass the building permit, depending on your situation or in the cases where you are changing the building use designation, then you do have to submit a build ing permit application, but if you meet these requirements in the legislation such as within the same occupancy class, that you

actually can do what is called dimension drawings so you don't need to have a license architect you have to hire for the plans, but instead you can do a computer generated set of diagrams with all of the elements identified for plan review staff. so, again, this is just a effort to simplify the process as much as possible. we had a pilot program in place for all most two years and had about a dozen businesses go through this process, so it may not be huge in numbers, but for those dozen or so businessess it is meant a lot. they saved a lot of money and time. didn't have to go through conditional use authorization or anything like that, so this is again, a summary of the change of use and happy to answer any questions. >> thank you very much. commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> thank you director. this is awesome.

i'll give you another case. i was talking to colleague, i will not name the business, we were discussing the agenda and she mentioned there was a business that got beer and wine and hasn't been able to roll it out because of this change of use because they cant afford the architect and when they did raise the funds to pay for the architect , san francisco architects are so back-logged so it can take 6 months to a year for a architect, even if you pay top rate before you can see your project. this is great. this is good. i feel better after adding a conditiont al use. [laughter] >> we are at a neutral [laughter] okay. any other comments?

i think-- >> this is good. >> [indiscernible] >> absolutely. >> yes. we are sitting here celebrating. it feels good. [laughter] any public comment? oh, yeah! >> i just wanted to say, [indiscernible] sf new deal and i wanted to say, it is really gratifying that director tang and her team are looking at the planning code and i hope this is the first of many and continuation to hundreds of changing of the planning code. i think we should look at every moment to make it easier for small businesses to launch and operate and change of use, so i just want to say, thank you and obviously very much in support of this resolution. >> thank you.

[laughter] >> good evening commissioners. so, i just want to echo what director tang was saying, how it might not be like hundreds of businesses, but just a handful of businesses, it will be so helpful for this. the businesses we have been working with, like we said, the difficulty part is like coming up with the $10 thousand to pay for the architect and then even when the sf shine program was out, the wait list. the businesses we were able to get in but the back-log of the architects that are on the list, they were telling us there is a wait list of 6 months to a year and if we pay out of pocket some were like, we dont do this, we only do it by that list. this is amazing and like i said, it will be a home run for those small businesses, so thank you guys for doing that.

i totally approve of this. >> thank you. alright. i am assuming there is no other public comment. [laughter] sewing no public comment, no further public comment, public comment is closed. commissioners, would anybody like to make a motion? >> i love how y'all give that to me. yes, i would like to pass this motion for this, absolutely. >> i like to second it. >> motion by commissioner dickerson, seconded by commissioner carnet. [roll call] >> motion passes in support.

>> next item, please. >> item 5, impact fees for changes of use from production distribution and repair to other non-residential uses. this is discussion and action item. the commission will hear and possibly take action on an ord inference amending the planning code to eliminate impact fees for change of use from pdr, production distribution and repair to other non-residential uses as specified. directser tang will also present this item. >> welcome back director tang. >> thank you everyone. also part of the portfolio of making things easier and cheaper to do business in san francisco, is piece of legislation sponsored by mayor breed to eliminate impact fees associated with change of use project. typically speaking, there are certain neighborhoods more then others that typically have more of what is

called, protection distribution and repair uses. those are typically industrial, agricultural uses, automotive service station or repair, arts activities, commercial storage, wholesale sales and storage. those are just a few examples of what pdr uses are. generally speaking, impact fees are imposed because when you either change to a different type of use, or you build new construction, you are adding impacts to the city infrastructure. in cases where you are going into a existing space and not enlarging it, to us it did not make sense people would be assessed an impact fee. we dealt with real life situations. i will give you one that to maybe help explain this. let's say you have one bio tech company that is technically doing

manufacturing work under the planning code use designation. they go away and then another bio tech company comes but they are actually research and they are classified as laboratory under the planning code. because that switch, they were assessed a $14 thousand impact fee on top of permitting fees just because of again, they switched from away from a pdr use to non residential use which is another world word for commercial use. there are plenty other examples of this. we've seen childcare centers accessed a fee because they decided they wanted to locate into a former pdr space. we have seen some restaurants or breweries. chocolate makers, dance studios and so forth. so, this legislation would

remove the fee that is associated from pdr to another type of commercial use, and that would be in effect essentially indefinitely. so, in kerry research found that generally speaking we see average of 5 businesses assessed this fee each year, so not a huge amount, however, when they are assessed this impact fee it could range from $14 thousand that example i shared earlier to we have seen upwards of 100 to $200 thousand, which is crazy, because it is charged by square footage. other impact fees will still apply, but we want to get rid of the ones that do with pdr conversion to other type of uses. i do understand there may be concerns for loss of pdr space. i totally get that, and so i just want to put that out front that some may be expressing concern about no

longer having this disincentive in place to remove pdr uses. so, that's in a nut shell what is being proposed and i am happy to answer any questions. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> thank you director tang. again, we are on the right track. removing barriers. have you done outreach and specifically thinking about the mission, because pdr, the limited pdr, they are sensitive to it, because it is very scarce resource. even in the city, pdr is hard to come by, so just wondering if you have done outreach to community groups or small businesses? >> yes. so, we have done some outreach to various groups, including meta in the mission. we met with sf made and nimba, which is

the-blank what it stands for. we met with several groups. this will continue, the legislation sits for 30 days so we have time to do additional outreach on this item. yeah. >> so, people who want to open pdr businesses, because i mean, i guess tonight we are seeing full circle of the same--it is basically the end cycle of like the earlier legislation, right? when needs for a city change and now we may not need as much pdr space, where do pdr businesses currently--like, if there is a loss of space, where can they go? >> they are typically in the north or sorry, should say, northeast and southeast part of the city.

i forgot to mention, we are removing the proposal to remove the impact fees, there are still other protections in place for pdr type spaces. there was a proposition x at one point, maybe within 10 years ago or so, blanking on the year, that set controls for preservation of pdr uses. if you are in a pdr designated use district, there are certain controls that disincent vice development or might have to have a conditional use for change of use. those controls under the planning code don't go away. it is just a fee if someone were to take over and the code actually allows it. >> the more i-incentive for

small business. so, they go probably through cu, they probably pass because the community would be welcoming to the change, but they are not stuck with this impact fee. if it is you know a huge mega corp, they probably won't get out of conditional use and the fee wouldn't be a deterrent anyway. that's good. we are no longer net neutral-- >> we are in the positive now? okay. this meeting is a lot of ups and downs. [laughter] okay. any other comment from commissioners? or questions? can we open it up for public comment? any public comment? i think public comment is closed, but commissioner--or vice

president. >> i know that the city had some kind of incentive for pdr space on the books because it was identified at some point as a area that we wanted to help incentivize more. am i wrong about that? >> i dont know if innocent visor or there are restrictions on what people can do with the space occupied under the pdr zoning districts. >> so, this is a-minding that? >> no, we are not touching that. it is only the fees associated when let's say you are allowed to do something to the space, whatever it is whether principally permitted or conditional use authorization. at the onedf end of the day you don't have to pay the impact fee, which is changing the use within existing space.

>> okay , thank you. >> seeing no public comment or-would we like to make a motion? somebody like to make a motion? >> motion by commissioner ortiz-cartagena to recommend with support. is there a second? >> i'll second. >> seconded by commissioner cornet. i'll read the roll. [roll call] >> motion passes. >> thank you. next item, please. >> item 6, approval of draft meeting minutes. discussion and action item. >> commissioners, any comments or questions? seeing no questions.

we'll open up for public comment. any public comment? no public comment. public comment is closed. motion and roll call. would somebody like to make a motion to approve the draft meeting minutes? i like to make a motion to approve the draft meeting minutes. >> i'll second it. [roll call] >> motion passes. item 7, general public comment. this is a discussion item. any members who like to comment on items not on the agenda today? and seeing no public comment, public comment is closed. next item, please. >> item 8, director's report.

this is discussion item. >> alright. you heard enough from me so i'll keep this really short. on behalf of rick, just wanted to invite all the commissioners to upcoming legacy business ix amer and heritage happy hour, october 10. at the blue light, district 2 at 1979 union street. that is october 10, at the blue light at 1979 union street. the within after that is november 14 at butter, which is located at 354 11th street. i will keep my update short. thank you. >> commissioners, any questions? no questions. thank you very much director tang. any public comment? seeing no public comment, public comment is closed. next item, please. >> item 9, commissioner discussion and new business. this is discussion item.

>> any--commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> thank you president. the last several years i have been bringing up the issue around mobile food and the--in conjunction with the state legislation, and been asking city departments and director department of public health came once and presented to us, but still we still don't have a pathway and now i'm getting really concerned and little frustrated with city departments. they are continuing to enforce on food mobile food vendors on the street, which is fine, but i am concerned because there is no legitimate pathway to get legitimate. if you are enforcing and no way to get a permit, that doesn't sit well with me and there has been publicized enforcement and i just want a equal playing field for brick and mortar and mobile food. i never talk like this, but i want the

various departments in charge to present to us and i want to know when are they going to have a actual permit pathway in place and it has to get done, because they can't continue to enforce if there is no pathway to legitimacy. unfortunately disproportionately effects people of color, so that is adding caveat that bothers me personally. >> can i add on that? are there i guess part of the inquiries from our commission in this area i would like to add, are there designated zones or what are the updates on the regulations here? how do we-when a brick and mortar calls and says somebody is outside my business, what is the best resource to tell a brick and mortar, versus the best resource to tell a perspective food vendor and how do we help

the small business community keep track of kind of these changing and growing regulations? >> i can address that. i think there are two things going on here. one, i know commissioner ortiz-cartagena is asking about comp pact mobile food operation, which is something that various city departments are in the process of working on so there is a pathway for more prepared foods to be able to be operable on the sidewalks, so those program parameters have not been finalized, so there is no-we don't know of geographic boundaries or restrictions or anything like that. with regards to when there is a brick and mortar location and you experience someone illegally popping up front of your commercial store front, we encourage to call 311 and report that. there are two main entities, one is department of public works,

which they regulate the sidewalks, and who is allowed to occupy the sidewalks and then the other entity is department of public health if food is involved, they need to make sure they are operating based on both local and state health and safety regulations. >> can i ask commissioner ortiz-cartagena, mobile food vending, are there other neighborhoods or places within the city that are effected by this right now? >> my work in community, it is concentrated in certain neighborhoods throughout the city, and it doesn't respect just everywhere like other issues we have. it is layered. layered because it effects our brick and mortar. it gives sometimes our compact

mobile food vendors unfair advantage, no worker comp and no lease. also, there is no pathway so some businesses on the street they either want to be legitimized or pathway to brick and mortar. it is layered so us as a city, if we don't have the parameters finalized, nobody knows the rules of the game and it is multi-layered. i yust want just want to know the rules, get input from the various key steak holdsers and there is a fair process whether brick and mortar or compact food. there is very clustered, the pier around stadiums, the mission district, it is multi-layered and i don't want to say issue, because i rather-i love entrepreneurs, but like, i think our entrepreneurs are potential. they want a pathway, but there isn't one and that is silly.

hey get a permit, but there is no permit. we dealt with this in the past and i think we have precedent because when mobile food came out and food truck came out, we have the experience, so we just need to finalize the parameters. we have been dealing with other issues around retail vendors street vendors, but i just-there st. no need. we put our city departments and these unwinable situationser when we don't need to. if there is legitimate pathway, everybody knows the rules, and it is different. but if there is no rules, then how are you enforcing? how is that objective and enforcing compact mobile food vendors and rhyme or reason? i know there is permits in place, but not for this particular kind of new model. >> uh-huh. >> we could do better then

that. >> thank you. thank you for bringing that up. um, any other new business from commissioners? a couple things i wanted to bring up were, one is on the issue of upzoning. i think we heard a lot about that today, and i know commissioner ortiz-cartagena you work on working group in planning or is it--and i guess my curiosity is really, we know that there is change ahead. that is why you are--and you are privy to kind of like being a part of the planning group. i'm kind of wondering, how do we organize as small business owners to have either our own working

group on the issues of upzoning and preserving our small business corridors, and insuring that the legacy businesses can continue to have space, and a viable pathway towards future generations? >> i serve on planning on the equity planning commission. i would love for them to present is probably the best and have those relationships. planning has taking a real effort to move the needle and one of my duties there is to be that representative for small business city wide. you know, there is a multiple--our coalition has different sectors. affordable housing, small business, all these various key stakeholders in the city, so we are not just heavy

on one side. when affordable housing colleagues are like let's do that. what about us? we are-make it vibrant in the commercial corridors. you need to make sure you are not just solely thinking about affordable housing and having unintended consequence as it effects small business. then also putting things in measure through planning, which we do have a voice that we the speculators like in the upper fillmore. that's exactly like all these things we put in place in the mission district kind of prevents and that's the constant fight. so, knowing the advocacy in certain commercial corridors that billionaire isn't going to the mission because he has to deal with these organizations we have been advocating and codifying all these restrictions, but the down side is then, we complicate it for our small businesses to go through permit. it is very complex, but you

could see the upper fillmore when they dont have advocates in the commercial corridor, speculators target those area. >> i'm wondering like, would forming a working group fwr the small business commission that focused on measures to protect businesses through--i guess upzoning or other types of planning changes be the right mechanism to be able to have these conversations where i think one thing that you brought up is owning your building. i think for some neighborhoods, i say like for a place like chinatown where i do business, over the century of however long like families associations own many buildings, that's pretty well

known knowledge, like, i think there are mechanisms that communities can put in place and it is like, can we share that knowledge to be able to figure out how we can you know, like those are recommendations that i don't necessarily think legislators would come up with. i don't know if somebody is kind of thinking about that at city howl. how to get more small business owners or how to get more groups, not just non profit groups, but groups of residents, groups of people to come together and actually have ownership over the city. like, i think we've fought a lot for tenants and for workers, but then like what's that next step to fight for the small business owners and small property owners? i'm just kind of curious whether a working group might be able to bring to light certain recommendations

that other bodies may not dream of, because they are restricted to kind of what's possible. like, i would like to propose putting together maybe a working group where we can really think about you know, what are some of the things that even if it seems impossible right now to have many small business owners maybe like owning their own buildings or whatever it s perhaps that's a goal we can try to work towards. because i think even tonight there were so many good ideas on how to preserve a legacy. like, we have i think director tang you noted too and commissioner dickerson, there is so much to be gleamed from people who have been able to successfully pass a business from one generation to the next. if we can prioritize that as a commission and say okay, what

are some of the pearls we can kind of like then codify? have meetings still, but like to be able to focus mostly on how to preserve the special thing we have right now in the city. that is one piece of new business. the other piece that i had was, i just wanted to bring to attention, i know that some commissions may or may not already know that there is ballot measures to consider removing

certain commissions all together, or reviewing certain commissions, so the two ballot measures are very different from one another. i also wanted to bring that to light like in this forum in case there is anybody listening who is perhaps not aware of it, but for us to also kind of--i dont know--it has definitely given me a lot of thought of why commissions are important and think that is also part of our perhaps, something we need to kind of--i know now that i'm on this commission why i think these are important, but i think now i'm recognizing how important they are to be representative of the voice of business owners and of the people. i just wanted to bring that to light. those are the two--oh, i think

also, we have opportunities too to kind of think the same about transportation. we talked a lot about planning, but i think there is a appetite to think how transportation and small business can work together more closely, so perhaps there is a working group or something to be resurrected with in partnership with transportation. i think now i'm seeing everything--the next iteration of wherever we are headed could be that all these thing s actually start to work together really seamlessly, because transportation working with travel and working with neighborhoods i all these things, i think it seems there is a appetite for that and so i want to make sure that small businesses and our corridors are kind of part that conversation as we kind of like start to see all these things happening together.

i think those were my biggest points that i had. anybody else? >> transportation and parking >> and parking. >> that is transportation. yeah, transportation and parking. >> i was talking to friends the other day and they brought up that there's not currently like a exchange program between bart and muni workers where they can like ride each other's transit for free. >> oh. >> i feel a lot of transit workers are also coming into corridors and needing to park and so i think it is-there are correlations to where small businesses because there is not necessarily city

designated parking for city workers all the time, including transit, so it does take away parking for customers too and so i think there could be sim bioses for freeing up commercial space. i love that idea. >> i also think there--so one other piece i have been thinking about is how we can support merchants associations and merchant groups, because we saw today, this was like, we kind of held them a little bit longer. the group of merchants we had here to listen to that piece of legislation, but you know, in a merchant association meeting perhaps these things would be brought up more regularly and people are more well informed with the resources that director tang spoke about and so i think if there is a way our commission can also encourage and create perhaps tool kits similar to

like, when we were tasked when oewd was tasked to put together a shared spaces kind of you know, format or you know tool kits to help people figure out and i know simon you have a lot of work to try to help systemize and make easy and simple many complicated things for small businesses to be able to utilize. i think if we are able to to that for people, like how to run an effective-what are the basic things merchants need and helping them through the first few steps, i think that would be a real positive for our equity goals, because not every merchant association has the same amount of funding and support and you know, all those things, so as well as understanding of how to be a leader in their community. so, i think with that, thinking

about how those can also-how our commission with help them, but they can also be you know, mechanisms to perhaps increase like things like way-finding. if they can help with transportation, transportation has a budget to create way finding and help people get around in the city. i think if our merchant associations were well versed in certain things they could--there is certain relationships that i think maybe could be strengthened a little bit to be able to get people moving around the city a little bit easier, because that is something i have been noticing, especially in chinatown is that, when you are there, you are on one street but you dont understand how to get one stwreet street to another. when i'm in the mission, if i'm

on mission, i'm not thinking about valencia. when i'm on valencia, i'm not thinking mission is one street over. i think that for some reason i don't know how that happens. [laughter] that would be number one solution. and i know that's been a challenge for many neighborhoods. you have one successful corridor and then another one, but somehow they are not connecting to one another. so, i think that's a opportunity that we have when we start i dont know, thinking with the people who are experts in that neighborhood. so, in lu of a retreat, i just put in a bunch of different things. [laughter]

so, i think that's it. thank you. [laughter] any other--public comment. any public comment? no public comment. alright. seeing no public comment, public comment is closed. any other things? nope. alright. next item, please. >> item 10, adjourn. . sfgovtv please show the office of small business slide. >> we will end with reminder that the small business commission is the official public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about policy, that effect the economic vitality of small businesses in san francisco. if you need assistance with small business matters continue to reach out to office of small business. meeting is adjourned. [meeting adjourned] braef

>> i think a lot of times we get in adult lives we are afraid to follow our passions and think life can't be that easy. but i truly do believe i followed my heart this time in my journal in city government i did not know that is where my passion lied. i kept following it and ltd. to great opportunity to serve the city. [music] >> i'm katy tang the executive director of the office of small business. >> small business contributes to san francisco's economy.

they provide the bulk of employment in the city and employing a million people in san francisco. and roughly 90% of the businesses are defined as small businesses. so, they contribute to the economy but also just the quality of life. small businesses are more then and there a place of transaction it is a community center. a play where people gather. know each other and form memories about the city. >> at the office of mall business i run a team this helps report all mall businesses in san francisco whether they are looking to stfrt a new business or expand or perhaps they are feeling with issues. our office is here as a point of information for anyone with a business that has 100 or nower employees. >> i was growing up i had many ideas of when i wanted to do.

i wanted to being an olympic swimmer. and i wanted to men be an architect, you name it i had many ideas for what i wanted do when i grew up. and i never anticipated entering in politics. this opportunity came along wh started working for former supervisor carmen chu and she became the district 4 sunset district supervisor. that was my firstent row in politics and government in a different level. and so when i was finishing up my time working for legislative aid i thought, i will go off and do something else. may be explore opportunity outside of city government what was then approached by this opportunity to also serve as a district 4 supervisor. if not the traditional route that many people think of when you enter in politics.

a lot know that is manage than i want to do and run for office. that was not part of my culture and upbringing with manage my parents were wondering why i wanted to go in that role this legislation and important because so many women when have it return to work after having a child feel embarrassed or don't feel comfortable asking their supervisor for will any lactation accommodations. i saw it as an opportunity you could use the position where you have tools creating legislation and pass laws and where people listen to to you help the community and pass cause catharsis important to the city and individuals. my family immigrated to the united states from taiwan. and they came here in pronl probably late 20's almost 30. and so, they came also in the

knowing english limp barely read or write but had to quickly understand english to i can't haveigate services and find a job in america. i grew up in the san francisco sunset district i spent most of my childed hoo up until i went off to college. so when i started working in city government, i think i had mixed reactions about my involvement working government because for some of our parents generation, there is i bit of distrust in government. i think there are questions about why i was entering in this field of work. i think you know when i went in city government i thought about my parents like so many other who is have to navigate city services and resources english first language and help the individuals both navigate,

intercept that is on an application approximate signage. it is fulfilling to mow to help people like my parent and feel like government is there to support them and not to harm them. my parents are happy that i retired early from politics and being a district 4 supervisor i could have continued on for a couple more years approximate decided to leave early. i think that over all they were able to see some of my work appear in the chinese newspaper. through that they were able to see i was able to help communities in a tangible way. >> the member of the board of supervisors. >> transportation authority. for the city and county of san francisco. congratulations. >> i think about one importance when i was worn in as district 4 supervisor. years ago, and someone actually came up to me during the swear nothing ceremony and said, wow, i'm traveling here from canada,

and i just i could not believe i saw an asian female worn in in this role a leadership role this meant so much that someone would say that and felt they were inspired by the scene. so -- i hope that as more people see people that look like them and more women coming in positions of leadership than i feel they can doing the same. person this inpyred me is carmen chu who is our city add administrator but also was district 4 supervisor when i worked with her as a legislative aid. at this point, i too, was skeptical of going in politics. i saw someone who had herself never seen herself in politics. got thrown into it and put her heart and soul and dedication to serve people. and it gave me the confidence to pursue that same job and i

honestly would not have either chosen or accepted or considered serving on the board of supervisors were not for carmen. >> if you want to make your business accessible. >> in my role in city government where i have seen the most challenge is people who don't know you and you are here to serve and help them that they classify you as our city government and here to hurt you. so, people will talk to you and -- and just you know treat you disrespectfully. and sometimes i noticed that they might do more to me as a female compared to my male colleagues. but you know i try to be empathetic. one of the most significant barriers to female empowerment we feel like we have to be 100% meeting all of the qualifications before we think that we are qualified to do a job. if we look at a job description

or an opportunity to come your way well is self doubt about whether you can fulfill the obligations of that role. i think that the confidence is huge and sometimes i think we make up for it by trying to gain more experience. more and more and more in whatever we can put under our belts we'll feel better. that may not be the case. we might be qualified with when we have already accomplished. i started rock climbing indoors a couple years ago as an activity to try to spends time with my husband and also to try something new and i finds that rock climbing there are so many parallels to life. you know when i'm on the wall i'm concentrating and trying to make it to the next piece without falling. there are daying you think i'm

not making progress. you come back and wow, i hit another level. and so i feel like in our daily lives and w we think we are not making enough of i change in the city. and sometimes we have to take out time to reflect every day as long as you try and give it your all and you look back you will have made a significant contribution there is no limit to where you go in terms of rock climbing. i want to reminds myself of that in terms of daily life. >> follow what it is you are interested in, what makes you feel excited about wake up every day. you never know and be open to all the possibilities and opportunity. [music]

>> brainchild the executive director 6 housing clinic in the neighborhood for it 90 years and talking about the history like the first web about family history and a lot of the clinicians found with a group of the community members. with the owner of cadillac the housing on the west coast and the tenderloin is a permanent climax of history of the neighborhood and the community art gorilla for whatever reason artists in the neighborhood. and we do public events as well as walk in (unintelligible) for residents

we have been known for has nothing to do with historically artist surveys and that makes us very unique and work producing about the cafe and a riot happened in the neighborhood in 1966 helping us on market street year-round indefinitely we think that the arts is an incredible way of experiencing history and really helps people think of themselves as history persons and especially for the house play really a part of the - and think that is generates for the - we are aware the art is important for people and important for the community mba and can be a really assessable

and engaging way to see history well. >> those are the ways as the art and history you're not going to see emotionally in th 5, 4, three, 2, 1. >> all right. good morning. >> my name is nateesha the development at bridge housing and this is an exciting day for you and i'm thrilled to see you it together with us it's been a long journey to