Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Land Use Committee 20240711

To call the roll, the screen that i have doesnt show me everybody who is participating, so im not sure why this device is doing that. But all right. Ms. Madam clerk, do you have any announcements. Yes, mr. Chair. Due to the covid19 Health Emergency and to protect board members, employees and the public, board of supervisor legislative chamber and Committee Room are closed. However, members will participate in the meeting remotely. This precaution is taken pursuant to the statewide stayathome order and all local and state orders. Committee members will attend through Video Conference and participate in the same extent as if they were physically present. Public comment will be available on each item on this agenda. Streaming the number across the screen. Each speaker will be allowed two minutes to speak. Comments or opportunities to speak during the Public Comment period are available via phone by calling the number 4156550001, again, thats 4156550001. The meeting i. D. Is 1466007437. Again, thats 1466007437. Press pound and pound again. When connected you will hear the meeting discussion but will be muted and in listening mode only. When your item of interest comes up star and 3 to enter to the speaker line. Speak clearly and slowly and turn down your television or radio. Alternatively, submit comment in the following ways, myself, land use and transportation clerk at erica. Major at sfgov. Org. If you submit Public Comment via email, it will be forwarded to the supervisors and part of the file. And they can be sent also. Finally, items acted upon today are expected to appear on the board of supervisors agenda on november 10th unless otherwise stated. Thank you, miss major. Could you please read the first item. Item 1, temporarily restrict landlords of eviction of commercial tenants during the pandemic. Call the number 4156550001, meeting i. D. 1466007437, press pound and pound again. If you have not done so already, star 3 to line up to speak. The system prompt will indicate you have raised your hand. Mr. Chair. And i want to start by thanking my colleague on this panel, supervisor preston as well as two of our colleagues on the board of supervisors, supervisors mar and walton for their cosponsorship. This may seem like an extraordinary measure but this is an extraordinary and unprecedented time in San Francisco and i wanted to start by thanking and acknowledging the mayor of San Francisco, mayor london breed, for the extraordinary steps she has already taken in a number of executive orders, and this legislation builds off of that. This is commercial eviction protection legislation, and lets be clear. Time is not on our side. Businesses are closing every day, not only in San Francisco, but around our country and i think we all know that its not just because of business losses, its also about inability to pay what we are establishing in rent that exists before the pandemic and no longer realistic in this new economy. And our imperative is to maintain the cultural fabric of different neighborhoods in San Francisco ranging from chinatown that i represent to japantown that supervisor preston represents, and other neighborhoods across the city, and we cannot afford to delay this because if we do we will wake up to communities like chinatown that are decimated with the unique Cultural Heritages that they represent, and i said earlier today that actually happened a half century ago in the case of the Western Addition and the fillmore district during the bad days of redevelopment and once those long standing Community Legacy businesses went away, they never returned. And we have to do everything in our power to do the same in this instance. We all have a shared interest in the stability of Small Businesses in San Francisco, and indeed Small Businesses are the vast preponderance of our employer base in San Francisco. As a matter of fact, some, over 80 of businesses in San Francisco employ ten people or less, and that shared interest extends obviously to lessors and Property Owners and landlords and Small Businesses and their employees as well as every resident and future visitor. And to that end, this legislation would extend the commercial Eviction Moratorium declared and extended by a number of mayoral executive orders and allowed by action by executive order by the governor of the state of california, my former colleague, gavin newsom, for all Small Businesses under 25 million in gross receipts for the full duration of the california Eviction Moratorium. It creates tiered repayment, for 25 or less employees, 24 months, and 11 and 25 employees, a year and a half. Businesses from 26 to 50 employees, 12 months to repay. And in the smallest tier, most Small Businesses operating in San Francisco, you would have the right to terminate your lease despite the contract. And as with the mayors declarations, we also acknowledge that small Property Owners are hurting as well. So if you are a landlord who owns less than 25,000 square feet totally in San Francisco, you can apply for hardship waiver from these requirements. And as with our covid19 response, San Francisco has incurred the earliest pains and have reached some of the earliest gains, albe it we have delayed the expansion of our reopening tomorrow. We are proceeding with our recovery but if we really want to fully recover, we are all going to have to share the pain between Small Businesses and landlords and come up with Creative Solutions to this problem. Thats the full thats really the only path forward to a full recovery. And this legislation gives options. It gives leverage to Small Businesses. It brings people to a table to negotiate and its really about encouraging that relationship between Property Owners and their tenants. Exactly in the same way that we have done on the residential side. And if you dont like the 24month repayment period, you can negotiate Something Else that may be shorter or longer and we really encourage folks to reach that alternative agreement and my hope is this legislation will provide the space for those discussions and negotiations and agreements to be realized, and if you are a landlord, i encourage you to do everything in your power to help your tenant survive. After all, given our retail controls in San Francisco you may not have another tenant in the future, and failure to do so will probably be less productive than working something out now. And i really want to, in addition to thanking my cosponsors, thank a number of attorneys who have been representing Small Businesses under extreme pressure, dean ito taylor, allen lowe, and in my office, my staff, lee hefner, and with that, supervisor preston, are there any comments that you might like to add or subtract . Nothing to subtract. Let me just add to thank you, chair peskin, for your leadership on this issue, and also for i think threading the needle in a way thats smart, thats going to force some Property Owners to the table. I do think that there is in a sense the way it is right now and i think we all came together and appreciate the mayors leadership around the moratorium, and those have been, the ones done by executive order have been shortterm, and by their nature that makes some sense and i think this is the right process where we are looking at something thats going to be around longer, provide longer term protection, that it goes through the body, allows folks to weigh in in a way that they cant necessarily do so with the same public process on executive orders. But i also think that to me this legislation is very much about fairness. We have a situation right now where there are there are commercial Property Owners right now around the city who are doing what they should do, who recognize Small Businesses are hurting, who are coming to the take, taking less than the full rent, who are working out payment plans, who are waiving some rent, being creative in those solution. And i applaud the folks doing that. And then we have some landlords who are not doing that with their business, who are insisting that despite the suffering that their business tenants are going through, that residents across the city are going through, they are adamant 100 of the rent throughout a global pandemic, where Small Businesses have had little to no revenue. And i think thats an unreasonable position. And i think that one of the real impacts of this legislation should it move through and be passed by the full board is to force those landlords who have i think unreasonably dug their heels in to just begin acting like some of the more reasonable commercial landlords in this city and theres no reason why the unreasonable folks should be drawing blood, so to speak, and getting every penny of rent from people who cant afford it while other landlords are acting more reasonably, are giving folks a bit of a break and working out as something that works for everyone. So, i think thats the biggest impact of this legislation. Yes, this will stop evictions. Yes, this will force some folks to work out payment plans. What it will really do, it will change the dynamic that exists right now, and chair peskin, you mentioned japantown in my district, the Japan Center Mall has so many businesses and a commercial Property Owner that has not been willing to negotiate with the tenants, and theres a lot of detail in this legislation but to me the biggest impact is landlords like that are going to have to come to the table. The only thing that will make sense for them to come to the table if this legislation gets through. I appreciate your leadership and your staff and lee hefner in particular for all the work getting this right and proud to be a cosponsor of it. Thank you, supervisor peskin. And supervisor safai, i am wait i think for some late breaking amendments, so after we go to supervisor safai we will go to Public Comment and if i have the amendments i will introduce them. In either event, whether i have them timely during this meeting or not, we will continue the meeting to november 9th. Supervisor vice chair safai. Thank you, mr. Chair. Just want to say this is an obvious statement but i think it needs to be reiterated. I think some people want to live in a different reality. These are extraordinary times. These are absolutely extraordinary times. And because of that you cant show me one business in this city that doesnt want to remain in business. You cant show me one person that gets up every day thinking to themselves i dont want to pay my rent, i dont want to conduct my business. Its the opposite. They live with the anxiety of debt. I have a barber in my district and he said im thinking about just closing up shop. The weight of the debt on my shoulders feels like too much. I have too much pride. Im not the kind of person that wants to be in debt for the rest of my life. And that story plays itself out over and over and over again. And all we are trying to do, and i would like to be added as a cosponsor to this legislation. I thought i had conveyed that to you sooner, apologize for not getting it sooner definitely want to be a cosponsor. We are trying to ensure that peoples livelihoods can remain, that people can continue to have a place to go to work, and that our communities are not completely devastated. And thats what we are facing. We are facing the future of so many of these businesses, people that have put their entire lifesavings on the line and they have this massive burden of debt hanging over them, and then not to mention the threat of eviction. Not quite sure what some of the landlords are thinking, i think if they were to evict and massive evictions in commercial spaces they wouldnt then be able to turn around and rent these spaces, so im not quite sure what thats about. Allow there to be more period of time, for people to pay off their debt, to put a pause on the idea of evicting people during this crisis and these extraordinary times and this legislation meets that standard of measure and allows us to really get a balance back and hopefully well be able to continue to protect some of these communities and businesses. That doesnt mean the landlords will not be without collecting their rent because i know people will still be obligated to do that, and as supervisor preston said and you said, supervisor peskin, they will work out payment plans and a way to pay off their debt. The reasonable thing to do here is sit down and negotiate, and thats what this legislation does. Proud to be a cosponsor. Thank you so much for your cosponsorship. Madam clerk, open this up for Public Comment. James is checking to see if there are any callers in queue. If you have not done so, star 3 to be added to the queue. James, first caller, please. Yes, my name is dean erickson, im an owner after small family owned business, fit neighborhood fit, also a member of the San Francisco independent Business Coalition and also a tenant and a landlord, so i understand both sides of the fence, if you will. Im calling today to voice my support for commercial lease legislation allowing alignment of the commercial eviction mother moratorium. Its absolutely that the rent and threat of landlord eviction is mitigated like many. Like many, i have, as a landlord refusing to discuss our lease situation and putting a plan in place. I have requested a number of meetings, offered proposed solutions, expressed interest in longterm commitment, only to be ignored and my business is held hostage by my landlord. San francisco leadership needs to step in to set guidelines and reestablish meant the vacancy tax to support the Small Business community. Crush Small Business, provide landlords all the leverage and negotiations and set the citys economy up to fail as Small Business owners have to walk away from their leases. This again is the no brainer decision on our shoulders. One that must be acted on for the wellbeing of the San Francisco economy. Speakers time has expired. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Looks like we have 16 listeners and nine in queue. Good afternoon. Stefy, a resident of San Francisco, grew up in the east bay, city is a special place for my family and me. Come here to eat and shop in the Small Businesses around japantown and the city. We dont have any family here but Small Businesses made us feel like home. My parents visit me and often times shop at Small Businesses. 44 of the activity, and one of the biggest employers. Small businesses have made the city what it is today. Drive people like my family to visit. Communities that i care about, japantown. And built on dreams and livelihoods across the city and nation. Asking for your full support in its entirety and full support from the board supervisors next tuesday. We need it to pass to give the Small Businesses a fighting chance and a chance to be the vibrant, beautiful, diverse and unique home to so many. Thank you to the supervisors on this call and to the future supervisors who support this. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. My name is evan, my wife and i own a small Fitness Studio on Market Street and im calling in support of this ordinance. I think its instrumental in keeping Small Businesses afloat. A few things i would say, i think its good to align with the state. So much uncertainty with Small Business and doing it with the state, Small Businesses and landlords, more certainty of things. The only other suggestion, especially for the smaller tenants less than ten people, longer than 24 months, should have a Square Footage component. Ten people in the 800 square foot face versus the ten people in the 8,000 square foot warehouse. Another component to look at different rents based off of Square Footage. And i think a lot of us will owe 200,000, and its 10,000 a month in addition to rebuilding the business. In full support and i hope you guys are too. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Notified when your line has been unmuted, you may pegin your comments. Begin your comments. Hillarie, japantown for justice, coalition for the Young Leaders working locally to promote economic sovereignty. Asking for your full support of this ordinance in its entirety. As a fourth generation japanese american, my ties to the Japanese Culture and community directly correlates to San Francisco japantown. If this ordinance doesnt pass, not only will so many Small Businesses go under in japantown but decimate the community we have worked so hard to preserve and honor. These businesses are the heart and soul of japantown. Without them, japantown will cease to exist and future generations will never know and experience the magic of a cultural district such as ours. Please give our Small Businesses a fighting chance to make et through this pandemic. Support this ordinance in entirety and urge you and your coworkers do so as well next week once it passed. Eight in queue. Next speaker, please. Hello. Can you hear me . Yes, you may begin your comments. Ok. Great. Thank you. Hi, my name is nia, calling from berkeley, california but a graduate student at the university at San Francisco state university. Im calling asking for your full support of the commercial Eviction Moratorium ordinance today and the board of supervisors next week. I echo hillaries sentiments, im a fifth generation japanese american and come to San Francisco to connect with my roots by going to japantown and knowing the communities of color have consistently been displaced across San Francisco. It is important we continue to support the Small Businesses that continue to hold on to that cultural legacy, continue being Community Spaces for current and future generations. The covid pandemic has devastated Small Businesses, residents, tenants, not only in San Francisco but the nation. And i believe its in your power to stop that by resisting our communities to be harmed by the exorbitant rental crisis. I hope you will continue to save our Small Businesses and save what makes San Francisco great. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Youll be notified your line has been unmuted and you may begin your comments. Good afternoon, supervisors. My name is paul wormer, and i guess its a relief to be talking on something other than the all electric new construction ordinance. Thank you, supervisor peskin, for sponsoring this and supervisors preston and safai for cosponsoring it. Ive been involved in both the fillmore commercial district and japantown as a customer of Small Businesses. And they are vital and interesting. And it is essential that they be preserved. This ordinance is absolutely, one, a very important part to do that, so, thank you for introducing it. I urge its passage and thats it. Thanks. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Two minutes. Hi, my name is jerry chen, a resident in district one, a board member of the japanesetown task force and community member. Small businesses are crucial to the vitality of our neighborhood. And so i, you know, i thank the supervisors for creating this legislation, and i urge its full support, both here and at the board of supervisors meeting. Japantown as a whole and many businesses have weathered the american incarceration during world war ii as well as redevelopment, but in all these crises took a toll and now our community is once again vulnerable and at risk of the of covid19 and the pending weight of evictions. So i know there are many of our businesses, including our legacy businesses, that really need this support or else they are at risk of closing, and so i thank for writing this and i urge to support it all the way through. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Four left in queue. Hi, malcolm young, and i want to urge the Land Use Committee and the board itself to support this legislation with amendments that the committee im sure will consider and approve. You know, frankly this legislation is a lifeline, lifelines are critical in the era of covid. All the speakers on the floor have mentioned how Small Businesses are failing. At the same time, Small Businesses make up the life blood in many ways, the culture of our community, and thats certainly true of chinatown. So, i want to urge the committee to approve this and the full board to approve it as well. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker, please. Hi, paul, executive director of the japanese cultural and Community Center of northern california. I live in San Francisco for 60 years. Small businesses are the heart and soul of this city. If this ordinance doesnt pass and the moratorium ends the end of november, there are going to be hundreds, thousands of businesses go out past the holidays. You know, its not just going to affect Small Businesses, when they start to close down, they are going to blighten neighborhoods. Impact is beyond just businesses, you know, they make up the economy of San Francisco. This is crazy that, you know, we havent already extended it and the governor allowing for this. You know, hopefully when we take over the white house and the senate and the stimulus package can be passed, you know, there will be further support to support the economy of this nation. I mean, its the only way its going to happen. I understand landlords are hurting, but you know, its just doesnt equate to some of the landlords who own several properties, multimillions of dollars to a mom and pop business thats all they have. And thats all they have had for decades. And they are going to put them out of business by this, you know, deferred rent that you are going to have to owe in 4, 5 months, and its just going to balloon payment their rent. It will put them out of business. This ordinance has to pass and more government intervention. The only way this situation is going to be solved because this covid pandemic has no end in sight. So we dont know how long this is going to go and how far its going to continue to impact our economy and our Small Businesses. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker, please. Hi, my name is jean erickson, im a Small Business owner, i own Fitness Studios, and im just calling because im hoping for the full support of the commercial moratorium ordinance. As a Small Business community, as a Small Business owner that has put everything into my businesses, with you just really need help to make it through this pandemic. You know, im a landlord and im also a renter, so i can see both sides of it very clearly. But dealing with a landlord who will not even respond to my email, she wont take a call, she wont meet us to talk about it. And we are just sitting here with months and months of rent piling up. You know, ive done my best to pay what i can right now with my business only open at 10 capacity. Just recently being able to open at 25 capacity. But ill tell you, its really daunting to think of having to pay all this back rent so quickly to her when we havent been able to be open and we have lost almost all of our business during this pandemic. So, im going to urge that we make the ordinance longer than 24 months. I think its just a really heavyweight to be putting on these Small Business owners to have to pay the heavy, large sums of rent back so quickly. So when we are talking about we are talking about thousands and thousands of dollars that you are asking us to pay back in a relatively short amount of time. There needs to be help so well stay here and we want to keep fighting to be here. Otherwise, its just a lot of weight on the Small Business operators shoulders. So, thank you so much for helping us out and thank you so much for starting this dialogue and trying to help Small Businesses actually talk to their landlords, and create a more positive out come. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. You have two minutes. Chris chen, im a Small Business owner in the Japan Center Mall, owner of a cafe, and i want to thank you for sponsoring the ordinance. Ordinance will greatly help my Small Business. We have been highly impacted by the pandemic. We were closed for a few months and extremely slow climb back. Revenues are down by more than 60 and the landlord is not negotiating with us. We have tried over and over again, but we have not heard back. And this ordinance will greatly help us with a reasonable repayment plan. Thank you again for sponsoring the ordinance. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. You have two minutes. Hello, matt, a stakeholder in San Franciscos japantown. Call in support of the ordinance. Its full of Small Businesses and the businesses are what make japantown special. Without the business, there would not be a japantown, and i hope you would support this for they have a chance to pay back past due rent. Its not their fault they did not have the fund to raise rent, and continue to have Small Businesses for future generations to enjoy. Thank you, i hope you will support this. Next speaker. Hi, my name is tracy sylvester, owner of e. H. S. Pilates, located in the mission on valencia street. As a board member of the Mission Merchants association, delegate of the district of merchants and a member of another association s advocating for Small Businesses for over ten years. Its important we do all we can for Small Businesses, the heart of wonderful city of San Francisco. Alignment for the Eviction Moratorium by state order. Thank you for your time. Thank you, next speaker, please. Hi, can you hear me . Yes, we can hear you. Begin your comments. Hi. Hi, supervisors, im a resident of district one and a fourth generation japanese american. Im calling to express my full support for this commercial eviction protections ordinance. Like many other minority groups in s. F. , in the Japanese American Community we have a history with eviction in San Francisco. Essentially evicted from s. F. By the u. S. Government in world war ii and then in the 1960s due to redevelopment. Every time we have been kicked out, we have come back to our japantown and even have some Small Businesses here that are over 100 years old. Here again in 2020 we are at risk of getting evicted and this is devastating. Japantown has already lost i think at least seven Small Businesses since shelterinplace began and ive been talking to some of of the Small Businesses here, they are telling me that they are getting charged interest for being late on their payments, some of them 50 a day. Yeah, and these Small Businesses are a huge part of our community. So i really urge you to help us save them, and thank you so much for your work on this ordinance. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Hello i am a resident of the outer sunset and i work at a communitybased nonprofit in japantown. Im calling today to express my support for a commercial moratorium extension and ordinance to enforce it, and i do want to extend my appreciation to supervisors peskin, preston and safai as well for their support and for having the foresight to place policy on the table that will protect our Small Businesses in our communities Going Forward. I am, like many of my colleagues on this call, very concerned about the future of the japantown community and other communities throughout the city. Small neighborhoods with their local businesses are all at risk with the pandemic and without protections in place, you know, without pathways for businesses to be paid back rent, in exorbitant amounts, they will not be able to survive and as others have pointed out on this call, the lifeblood of the communities in this city would not exist without these protections. So, i do want to urge the rest of the board of supervisors to support this ordinance Going Forward and i am hoping for the citys recovery in the future. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Mr. Chair, james indicated that was our last caller. Thank you, madam clerk and colleagues. I will now close Public Comment and let me just start by thanking all the members of the public for their Public Comment this afternoon and as i indicated earlier i do have quite a number of amendments to make to this file which we will continue and those amendments reflect the ongoing evolution of this piece of Public Policy and you will recall that we actually introduced this legislation before the governor extended his original order that was order number n8020, which increased our window to pass this kind of legislation as a local government as well as prior to the mayors most recent 28 supplemental declaration issued at the end of september. The amendments which im about to describe have been circulated to my colleagues and will be included in the public file where anybody can examine them and comment on them again at our hearing on november 9th before this same committee. So, going down the list of those amendments on pages 12, updating the findings to reflect the updated governors executive order and the local supplemental declaration which i just mentioned which extends the protections through the end of march 2021 and november of 2020, respectively. Page three, inserting a new finding that the Small Businesses for the ability or inability to pay back losses for the covid19 pandemic. Page three, line 22, and page five, line six, inserting a series of new definitions for covered commercial tenants, means businesses with less than 25 million in annual gross receipts calculated on 2019 numbers and what that means is that these are businesses that experienced Financial Impact related to covid19 forebearance period, moratorium period, and the four tiers of commercial tenants i described earlier in the meeting. Page five, line eight, the protections that align with each tier for businesses less than 25 million of annual gross receipts that have suffered Financial Impacts, they will not be able to pay rent and the landlord will not be able to get possession during the moratorium period. Tier one businesses, 24 months from the period we discussed earlier, tier 2, 18 months, tier 3, 12 months. And page six, Small Businesses and landlords may arrive at alternative arrangements, i spoke to earlier. Subsection c on page six allows tier one businesses only to terminate the leases during the moratorium period without any liability of rent payments or penalties that comes following the termination, and subsection d, hardship for landlords that own 25,000 square feet of area, and a waiver to landlords who can demonstrate hardships. Subsection e on page seven prohibits late fees or interest from accruing on payments missed due to Financial Impacts resulting from the pandemic and i may next week delete one other subsection, subsection i on page eight, but am not going to do that today, so those are the amendments that i am offering and are there any comments from vice chair safai, cosponsor or member preston, cosponsor . All sound good to me. They sound good to me. I did have a question and i dont know if its a clarification of the existing state of the ordinance or would require potentially additional amendment. If you want to move forward and adopt those amendments before i raise the question it doesnt pertain to these particular amendments. Ok. It does not pertain to the amendments, madam clerk on the motion i just made to move the aforementioned amendments, a roll call please. [roll call vote taken] three ayes. Supervisor preston. Thank you, chair peskin. Here, and maybe this is for deputies to the one thing im trying to understand and make sure is that i think there are some legal questions around where rent is owed under leases. There are some disputes and unsettled questions of law, frankly, as to what extent rent is owed under certain circumstances for a business. So, theres quite a bit of case law, some of which ive looked through, around the commercial frustration of purpose doctrine in which when a Government Order shuts your business down to 0 because of an unanticipated situation. Under what circumstances you may have the right already without the ordinance to either terminate the lease, not pay rent. What i want to make sure, and i want to make sure my understanding is correct of this. Im not a lawyer and dont know this legal theory, like a force mejure concept . Yes, and different concepts, impossibility various defenses, to unanticipated situations that shut down the business and that is one typical contract provision. I think whats important, these are, for the folks who represent the Small Businesses negotiating with the landlords, the question is to what extent do these doctrines apply, what extent in a situation might the tenant not be on the hook for rent. And my purpose for bringing it up, make sure nothing in this ordinance could be read to require a payment, lets say after the moratorium period when we have language about penalties or the obligations to pay, that we are not expanding in any way a landlords right to collect rent. So i dont know, from the deputy City Attorney, maybe as is, we are not expanding those rights. Or waiving those defenses or do we need a provision that says nothing here is intended to to create an obligation to pay rent that may not be as common law, or statute, do we need a provision to make it clear or is it already clear . Madam deputy City Attorney pearson. Hello, everyone. You raised equitable defenses available to tenants who may have an argument that rent is not due under theory of probability, they were not able to do what was in the contract during the term. And i have to be honest, ive read these amendments only in realtime, i had not seen them before they were distributed. I think the suggestion that you are making might be a good one, to just add language to clarify that nothing here is intended to foreclose the availability of the defenses and we can look at that this week, this item will be continued. Thank you, deputy City Attorney pearson. And thank you for raising those really fascinating questions that i dont really understand but i think i do. Yes, thank you. And if we need something next week i think as, in my quick read of the amendments on, you know, just like i was looking at page, what is it, page six, the new c talks about for example, a tenant opts to terminate their lease early, you know, it talks about responsibility for unpaid rent, right . And again, i im confident we are all on the same page from a policy perspective that it would be the opposite of the intent of this ordinance to in any way create obligations for rent thats not otherwise owed, and it would defer to the city of attorney and you chair peskin as to whether something is needed to clear that up or not. And that is certainly not my intent and really appreciate your calling that out and as deputy City Attorney said we have a week to investigate that so relative to the item that has been amended, i would like to make a motion to continue this one week to our meeting of november 9th. On that motion, madam clerk, a roll call, please. Motion to continue as amended to next weeks meeting. [roll call vote taken] you have three ayes. And supervisor safai, appreciate your cosponsorship and supervisor peskin on the leadership side and for all the folks pushing this at the local level. Item 2, ordinance amending the planning code to designate the history of medicine in california frescoes and toland hall, 533 parnassus avenue as a landmark, and appropriate findings. Members of the public who wish to provide public item, call the number on the screen, 4156550001, and meeting i. D. Is 1466007437. Press pound and pound again. If you have not done already, star 3 to sign up for speak. A prompt will indicate you have raised your hand. Mr. Chair. Thank you, mr. Dam clerk and colleagues, i want to thank you, i think it was just about three months ago last day of july we passed a measure asking the Historic Preservation commission and the Planning Department to investigate this incredible set of murals by bernard barok in toland hall on the u. C. S. F. Parnassus campus as a potential landmark. I want to thank the Planning Department as was the Historic Preservation commission that ultimately did the research, presented the case report, and recommended this unanimously to the board of supervisors and i would like to start by turning it over to falia lavalee, from the Planning Department, and then to the university of california vice chancellor brian newman, and i think strides are being made to preserve the work of this incredible muralist whose frescoes are at coit tower, be learned, and the greatest fresco muralist, diego rivera. So with that. Thank you, supervisor peskin. Just one moment while i share my screen. Can you correct me as to how i pronounce your last name, please . Lavallee. My bad. Its all right, thank you. Are you seeing an image on your yes, we are. Ok, great. And its an incredible image. Yes, it is. Thank you. Good afternoon, supervisors. Planning department staff. Before you is an ordinance recommending landmark designation of a history of medicine in california frescoes. Created by artist Bernard Zackheim and his assistants from 1936 to 1938. Artwork is composed of eight panels, and two more panels, on toland hall, university of california Parnassus Heights campus. Frescoes depict california medical history with images of doctors, Lab Scientists and other medical professional, and of suffering and recovered patients. As supervisor peskin mentioned on june 23rd he introduced a resolution to initiate landmark designation for the history of medicine in california frescoes. Land use committee and the full board of supervisors voted unanimously to recommend and approve the resolution, effective july 31, 2020, with the mayors signature. The proposed landmark designation was heard by the Historic Preservation commission on august 19, 2020. Voted unanimously to recommend approval of landmark designation. Its significant with the association of the history of the Work Project Administration federal art project as a work that displays higher values and characteristics of new dealer ra mural artwork and the work of Bernard Zackheim. 1936 to 1938, and at the time of the Historic Preservation Commission Hearing we had three emails and one letter in support of the designation from the public. Separate from the designation, the Preservation Commission made a recommendation that was included in the resolution that was forwarded to the board that the history of medicine in california frescoes be kept together and retained on the ucsf Parnassus Heights campus in a manner accessible for the public to view. Thank you, that completes my presentation, but im here if you have any questions. Are there any questions from Committee Members . Seeing none. Vice chancellor newman. Or miss alden. Vice chancellor brian newman is here, i think hes just getting off his mute. Thank you. To the chair, let brian know his mike is unmuted, so he can speak, you can hear him. Mr. Vice chancellor. Can you hear me now . Yes, we can. Im sorry, i i think i had my default on the wrong set of speakers, apologize. Dont worry, its the time of covid, brian. Can you see me as well . Yes, sir. Okay. Well, chair peskin, members of the supervisor, apologize for that and i thank you for having me back here. I participated in july as well as the Historic Preservation commission. Ucsf remains neutral on the actual ordinance but i want to give you an update on what has transpired since that time when we spoke in july to see if you have any questions about the actions we are taking relative to the zackheim murals. At that time i mentioned that we had a request for proposals out on the street soliciting bids from qualified teams to conserve, remove, transport and store the murals so we could proceed with the new research and Academic Building on the campus, on the ucsf campus, and that r. F. P. Was successful, two highly qualified teams present bids, a thorough process of reviewing qualifications as well as the bids themselves and we selected the Conservation Services g. C. , and group as architect of record to proceed with this work for the university of california San Francisco. So we have awarded the work to them. As you know, they are currently engaged in relocating the diego rivera murals, to sfmoma, they will not begin the Engineering Work on january, but they will be on campus the beginning of january at that do the works, although they will probably not be located to the end of summer. End of the contract in october of 2021. So we were moving forward with that work, but just to be safe, as i mentioned earlier, we also engaged with an outside ven tore, cy art to do high quality digital recordings of the murals themselves, and that is completed. Expanded contracts to do similar works on the other murals at ucsf, so we have a full record of the zackheim work at ucsf. The next step, once the work is underway, to work with all the stakeholders, as well as the broader ucsf on the future display of the murals themselves. We have been collecting ideas and suggestions from all kinds of stakeholders and over the next several months, we will answer the process where the murals will go. But our intention is not to leave them in storage forever. We plan on engaging anyone who has an interest in this to determine where the best location, whether it be ucsf campus or at a Museum Setting where the works of art can be preserved and interpreted formally for the public. Ill leave it there and see if you have any questions. Overall, we are excited about the progress relative to the future of the murals and we are neutral on the specific ordinance, we understand the passion the community and all of you have, and thank the staff and the Preservation Commission for the work of the preparation of the ordinance before you today. So, with that thank you, vice chancellor newman, all rowing in the same direction at least as this aspect from Committee Members. Ill say quickly, mr. Chair, if thats ok. Yes, of course. Im, i would like to be a cosponsor, i thought i was, again, i thought i was already. This is a very important thing. This is a part of our history. I think there was some miscommunication, we have talked about that in the past and glad you are clarifying it today. A message that you were going to archive this via video. You said you clarified that. That to me would not be appropriate based on the history of the mural and the ability to preserve historic artifacts and pieces of art. Im glad to hear that ucsf is committed now to preserving this and we have the ability through endowment, and through benefactors to support this process, im glad that ucsf has committed to this. Its too important piece of would, to lose. Thank you. Member preston, any words . No. All right. Open this up to Public Comment. Thank you, mr. Chair. James from d. T. Helping out with Public Comment callers. James, if you could let us know there are callers, and go ahead and place the first caller on the line. Good afternoon, supervisors. This is willy from San Francisco heritage. I want to express heritages strong support for landmark designation of the history of medicine in california. Ucsf had as youve heard now selected a firm to remove it from toland hall and into storage. They have no plans to renew it to public view. I understand good intentions but no plan announced. This is a publicly funded artwork tied to the site in which it was created. We hope the specificity of this ordinance which recognizes how the arrangement and design of the fresco cycle is inspired by and tied to the parnassus campus. So i hope we are one of the stakeholders that vice chancellor will work with and on view at ucsf for the public too see. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon again, supervisors. My name is paul wormer. One of the marvelous things about San Francisco are the incredible murals that are found in places throughout the city. High schools, hospitals, Old Post Office buildings. And they really are a tremendous education for people. They tell stories that are easily accessible. They give slices of life. There is wit, humor, social commentary critique, criticism in there. These are important parts of our history. So i want to thank you for recognizing this with this legislation. Their importance is definitely related to their location. And because of that i just want to reiterate at mr. Labontes request, that these be publicly available at the parnassus site in a way that represents how they were originally used, if, yeah, how they were originally used, lets leave it there. And with that, i will say thank you for your consideration and thank you for introducing this legislation. Thank you for your comments. Confirming whether we have any further speakers. And that was our last caller. Mr. Chair. Thank you, madam clerk. Motion to send it to the full board with recommendation on that motion. A roll call, please. Motion as stated. [roll call vote taken] next item, please. 3, ordinance amending the Building Code to require new construction to utilize only electric power, all electric requirement, adopting findings of local conditions and confirming appropriate findings. Public wishing to provide comment on item 3, call 4156550001, meeting i. D. Is 1466007437, then press pound and pound again. If you have not done so already, please press star 3 to line up to speak. The system prompt will indicate you have raised your hand. Mr. Chair. Thank you, madam clerk. As you recall, colleagues, we duplicated this file and sent one version to the full board to be heard tomorrow and another version in committee as supervisor safai indicated he had some potential amendments, and with that, supervisor safai, the floor is yours. So, everyone should have received my amendments, about five pages long, im just kidding. But just wanted to see the chairs face. No, actually, there are two things i spoke about last week, one was the issue with regard to faults and how the faults play into the process of allowing a project that might be of a certain size to go from dual fuel to completely all electric and what that process is, and extensive process of conversations through the Building Department with potential builders and others. We are going to continue that conversation, its going to require more indepth work at the Building Department. The second issue, the one more pressing and outstanding but in terms of scale, very minimal but in terms of importance to those involved in and looking at it from a city planning perspective, in my mind, very important. And i think what we are trying to do with this legislation is to balance the extreme desire to achieve our environmental goals. We are an environmental crisis, there is a tremendous urgency as i think we have allstated before and state again, this is a phenomenally important piece of legislation and i think we are almost there. But with regard to those in the Restaurant Industry, a lot and feeds in nicely about the conversation not being able to pay rent, not being able to continue your business, worrying about the anxiety of having a business when the pandemic ends. One of the areas of our economy thats been hit the worst are restaurants. And when you look at this from a city planning perspective, yes, the ordinance allows for restaurants to reemerge and be permitted under their existing uses, dual fuel in existing spaces. It only allows a oneyear window for exemption for new construction. And when we are thinking about the mission rocks, thinking about the shipyards and thinking about all the development all over the city, those ever probably some of the places that need more commercial support and often times their desire to put restaurants there and heard overwhelmingly from those in the Restaurant Industry that this could be a deal killer for them and their ability to locate. So, we are going to continue the conversation, we dont have any amendments prepared today, we are going to continue the conversation with the Restaurant Industry and the Environmental Community but i will say off the bat i think one year exemption based on where we are in the economy, based on where we are in terms of the search for technology that might replace the desire for a flame in the restaurant, i think we need, we are going to need more time than one year. But we have not drafted any amendments yet. We are going to continue the conversation, so i would just ask the chair after Public Comment if we continue this item to the call of the chair and will continue to work with those affected businesses. We did have some meaningful conversations with the Chinese Chamber of commerce, with the Restaurant Industry and well continue to have those conversations and hopefully come to some type of compromise. Thank you, vice chair safai. And with that, open it up to Public Comment. Thank you, mr. Chair. James with d. T. Checking to see if there are any callers. If there are any callers ready and go ahead and unmute the first caller. Hi, my name is daniel, thanks again, supervisors for hearing us speak and moving forward with this pressing issue. Last week we were excited to get in planned use. Im here as part of the Emergency Coalition and a resident in district eight. We are definitely concerned about any further exceptions. We actually, as you well know, did not think the restaurant exception was necessary, only sort of a Public Interest exemption to handle cases like the Cultural Heritage cases that are crucially important, as discussed in some of the previous items, so we dont feel extending the additional year restaurants are provided on top of the technical exception that supervisor peskin and mandelman worked through diligently is necessary. Many of the projects that were referenced, like the shipyard have historically poor air quality and burdened with air pollution and burdening them further with more infrastructure, whether its pipes or the poor indoor air quality, does not serve our equity goals. And we are excited to see supervisor safai taking a very holistic view and tackling other parts of the code to unblock the climate goals, and thats something we would be interested in in support of to see how that could evolve now. So, that i want to thank everyone for their time. Thats it. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other members of the public for Public Comment . Hello, my name is sarah greenweld, with 350 San Francisco, and the climate Emergency Coalition and a resident of district two. I would echo his concerns about delay. I was extremely pleased a meeting or two ago, the last meeting, at the progress and i could see that you have worked carefully on exemptions needed. We are continuing the conversation while very goodhearted and certainly wellmet is not terribly specific. So, i dont really know how to comment except to say that climate is not going to wait and the health of people who would be exposed to methane and other toxic gasses if you extend natural gas piping into New Buildings because they might contain restaurants, you know, thats not, health is not going to wait either. I would like to urge all possible [inaudible] on this. Thank you. One last caller. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon yet again, supervisors. This is paul wormer. And i wanted to follow up on the issue of sidewalk faults, and i want to tie it to the recent action in front of the federal energy regular latory between pg e, and raise the issue unlike cities in the Central Valley where everything has been built with airconditioning, and so retrofitting gas heat becomes simple. When you look at San Francisco, which doesnt have airconditioning, the electric grid is not up to the capabilities necessarily as a whole. And so this sidewalk fault issue is one small part of a much bigger problem of how do we get the Electrical Energy to the buildings and how thats paid. And i think thats more than just a building inspection commission, Building Department question. I think that really does play into sfpuc and cleanpowersf. It plays into a more integrated strategy to understand this complex problem which has a lot of interactions with different aspects of the way the city runs. And i urge you not to rush through a vault solution without understanding that it may react with, or interact with other solutions we need to move forward with the full electrification of San Franciscos infrastructure. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Wormer. Does that conclude Public Comment, madam clerk . No, one more caller that popped up. No worries, thats great. Next speaker, please. Hi there, chris, i live in district three, supervisor peskins district. I wanted to address this idea of further extending the exemption for restaurants. I want to be clear, this does not seem to me to be an exemption for restaurants. Seems to be more a bailout for developers. And the neighborhood i live in, there are countless vacancies that could be used for new restaurants so i dont think we have a lack of restaurant space. It seems to me we are trying bail out developers that made bad investments and they should be building all electric commercial spaces Going Forward. With the sidewalk vault issue, im interested in this. The it gives way too much leeway to developers to shirk their requirements, under the Climate Emergency goals and i urge you to consider this idea of closing this loophole. Thank you so much. Thank you, chris. And i think you expressed my sentiments quite well and i do think that supervisor safai is on to something as it relates to the vaults in our sidewalks and that is actually a piece of Public Policy that goes even beyond this legislation that has definitely worth getting our hands around. Any other members of the public that would like to testify on this item . James has confirmed that was the last caller. All right. Close Public Comment. And supervisor safai i believe made a motion to continue this item to the call of the chair on that motion, a roll call, please. [roll call vote taken] you have three ayes. All right. And that is our last item and we are adjourned. At 62942 working together we can support your children. Its been my dream to start is a Valley School since i was a little girl. Im having a lot of fun with it clapping the biggest thing we really want the kids to have fun. A lot of times parents say that Valley Schools have a lot of problems but we want them to follow directions but we want them to have a wonderful time and be an affordable time so the kids will go to school here. We hold the classes to no longer 12 and theres 23 teachers. I go around and i watch each class and theres certain children i watched from babies and its exciting to see them after today. The children learn how to follow directions and it ends up helping them in their regular schooling. They get selfconfidents and today, we had a residual and a lot of time go on stage and i hope they get the bug and want to dance for the rest of their