>> good morning i'm laurence cornfield chief building inspector and like to welcome you to our brown bag lunch we do the third thursday of every month at the department of building inspection. we invite you to participate so call for information and join us. our next talk is on decks and balcones. today we will talk about commercial restaurants in san francisco. we have a lot of people in the audience who are restaurant exe experts and architects and industry people. i should talk about commercial restaurants and how to get permit issues resolved and problems resolved during lunchtime. is probably not a thing that's going to attract a lot of people in the commercial restaurant business because they work at lunch and they are not here. hopefully we can broadcast this and may be if there is an interest we will do it at a future date. another thing, perhaps we should do this at a restaurant because we want to support restaurant necessary san francisco. we did last year have lunch at town hall restaurant we will do that again later this year. we have a lot of topics to cover today, before we start i want to tell you my opinions e of course this is my own opinion not the opinions of the building department, my opinions on restaurant and the values they bring to the city. whether a 2 star, 3 or no star restaurant. restaurants serve san francisco in an integral way. this is a tourist city. a destination city. a lot of people live here because of the unique interest that san francisco provides and the entertainment industry and including restaurants provide a lot of that that make living here a joy for so many of us. and people say, what a wonderfully successful restaurant they must be making a lot of money. there is this image that somebody is benefitting at the other end of this commercial restaurant thing. i have to tell you knowing many in the commercial restaurant industry it's a very difficult to make a living if you are the owner or manager. more than think of from 24r point of voy restaurants provide a tremendous benefit to the city. there are a lot of people that have jobs in restaurants. suppliers and contractors have impacts throughout the city. we have to understand that restaurants provide social well being for the city. an economic base, this is an important thing and the department of building and inspection i do our very best to resolve restaurant issues. so that we can move along restaurants. one of the big things that hangs up commercial restaurants is the length of time it takes from the concept to the opening your doors and being able to bring customers in. one of my goals here is to try in help you understand how you can resolve some issues and may be how you can design your process to do restaurant remodels in such a way that you don't step into a pothole that slows you down in this thing. i know there are people here with other points of view and mr. kevin westly from the golden gate restaurant association is here. >> we started this project a year ago with spur and the mayor's office getting expediters and restaurant tours and getting myself and city employees involved and trying to define the problem and we have want todd create disappointments that would be general guide lines but we answered every detail problem is not public. it's meant to be a generic guideline to follow knowing the circumstances will constantly be changing. this is something we vetted over a week ago and these are edits. i don't know if this has the final edits. >> probably. is will be a fluid document so if you were to use itto a project and on page 2 you think this would be helpful, we would love the feedback. we found out people did not understand the process for a change in use permit as one example that oftentimes they dependent investigate properly with a contractor in the space to know the electric standpoint would be. we tried to give them things they can look at before they sign their lease and move forward. my interest today is to continue that education. my own background i have opened 15 restaurants in san francisco for 30 years. i have been through the process. each is unique to the space. whether it's on city or port or private property, there are different rules for each one. the confusion we found in the group between accessibility standards for title 24 and the ada, i don't think the entry level restaurants understand that as well. >> the city through the small business commission, i believe, has a group of various agencies as well as private interest groups working to develop guidelines for how to facilitate restaurant necessary san francisco. restaurant remodeling and rebuilding. i presume you are part of that group? >> yes. >> they have come up with draft guidelines which includes 3 parts. i have copies. these are just the drafts which are a road map for how to get through the san francisco process in restaurant development. things you should know while you are starting that. 10 tips in getting started. i have a hand out which reflects some of the issues that are being addressed by this special group. this hand out reflects the building departments involvement to a large extent. not a lot of the other agency issues but on the first page i talk about all the different agencies involved. i think kevin had mentioned planning and changes of use and so on. planning and redevelopment agencies are clearly involved. as is the port and any other agency that has the over all jurisdiction of the area where you want to build. some say what you are allowed to build. the building and fire department tell you how to build it. if you want to open a restaurant here in 1660 mission street. we have john's restaurant down stairs. say you want todd remodel it you have to go to planning and say, are we permit todd have a take out restaurant in this location or a fast food restaurant in this location? the planning department and redevelopment and port and others have very, very specific regulations it's almost block by block. have you to bring into the planning department your address so they can look it up on the zoning map to see what you are permitted to have. before you get further involvement in a restaurant the first thing you have to do is see if it's allowed in this location. in many cases you will need to get a conditional use or other authorization which takes months and expensive and can be a deal killer right there. all these other agencies are involved the fire department are involved they are involved in assembly occupancies with an occupant load of 50 or more. the building department looks at construction reasonable doubted things the fire department looks at fire and life safety regarding exiting and sprinklers. health department is involved and permitting and inspection. the entertainment commission, this is a new change within the last 5 years or so where any restaurant wants to have live entertainment or a dj or anything defined as entertainment by the city -- is it in the -- i don't remember the add min code, i believe for the entertainment commission. have you to get a special permit. and this is sometimes difficult to do because you might be in an area that's residential if you have a restaurant with live music you may find your plans are at odds with the neighborhood's desire for tranquillity. and in fact that's often the case in san francisco where we have conflicts with night time entertainment and the residents. public works, public works department regulates most restaurant permitting to the extent in almost every case you have to do street or sidewalk work you may wish to have tables or chairs on the sidewalks you have to get a permit for encroachment from street and mapping. almost every case public works requires a permitting process. i'm sure we will hear more about that in a minute. i wanted to give you a general list of the agencies this is not exhaustive there are others the state agencies that regulate alcoholic beverages, abc. there are many others. i will turn that back to you. wanted to make a list of complicating factors. i get calls saying, how do i solve the problems. these are some problems. everything costs more than anyone imagines. is it 2 or 3? it's always more. san francisco has extremely high property, rental costs are high. local construction costs are higher in san francisco than in many other places in the bay area and around the country. that is because of in many ways because of the difficulty of building here. where do you get labor? your labor costs are higher every part of construction costs in san francisco are higher. so -- if you get out of town contractors not familiar with san francisco issues it's a potential problem because they come in using walnut creek or san jose concepts there is no park here all day. where will i park? and it spirals quickly. you have to have a long-term plan to how you will survive until something happens. many people don't, they get frantic in fact, as time delays in construction and eats into what they thought was their buffer. there is a pretty high standard in many restaurants for service which is not met with a bottom line minimal number of employees. people tend to have or want to have greater levels of service. so -- they have more employees. i actually have a friend in the restaurant business i visited a couple of weeks ago and he has a full time person who does payroll and employee benefit issues and does the bills. a full time person for not a really large restaurant. i was shocked that he say its's essential or he and the other managers have to spend free time doing paperwork. health issues, there is a huge health issue. i don't know if we want to get into it in depth. the requirements for san francisco to provide health benefits for small businesses where you have employment of 20 or more there is a certain -- weekly fee or monthly fee. >> it's per hour fee. >> okay. and there is another threshold if you are over 50 employees you have a higher level per hour fee; is that right? >> start necessary 50 in april it goes to a hundred. a business with 20-100 has one rate 1.17 an hour 2459 business needs to spend on health care. a hundred or more employees it's 1.36 per hour and goes up with the cost of inflation in the bay area. >> another thing in the health area is to think about properly training employees to handle food properly from the moment it walks in the babying door until the guests consumed their meal and left. the scareiest thing in the restaurant industry is hepatitis. if you have an out break you have to put it on your front door in a large poster for 60 or 90 days and offer shots to our clients that have been there. it will put you out of business. there is food safety certification required bite state of california. i couldn't emphasize enough that the proper handling of food is critical. if you know someone who got sick from eat nothing a restaurant you will probably never go there. that's the fastest way to go out of business. >> at the bottom of our page i have a note about experts. you or anyone, really. cannot be an expert in all fields. if people call me and say, what do i need to open a restaurant in san francisco, when they ask i know they really need help. they need expert help because they can't bottom trained architects or engineers or contractors or familiar with this massive building code. they need to hire an expert. don't try to become an expert. hire people are experts who have the experience how to get through the permitting process and know the regulations and rules. only if you do a small remodeling if your house if you are not stay at what you are good at. cooking or dentistry. don't become an expert in construction and architect. i sigh that as a problem. people go beyond their levels of ability. >> the next page the permits and licenses required. building permites required for construction. building code says you need a permit for everything except gut sxers down spouts and wall paper. you need a permit for most other things. you need plan review permitting. when you come and pay a large fee for us to review your plans before you get your permits. the street use permit. public works street mapping where the dumpster goes. issue permits for construction work taking place in the public rieft way. fire sprinkler permits get reviewed by fire departments. signs have a separate requirement under the planning and building code. although they are usually included with the building perm permit. if someone wants a restaurant design the sign acknowledges part of the over all permit otherwise it's separate. and lek signs have different permit requirements. additional licenses include those that the contractor needs to build including his contractor's license and his city business license to run a restaurant you need a bunch of licenses. a city business license. health department issues -- is it a what is the health department issue, do you know off hand? >> they issue a permit. required to have one owner or manager certified in food safety. actually prefer that you have multiple. i think it's in your interest to have multiple. and you pay a fee and that annual fee supports them coming in and doing what it scheduled to be quarterly inspections. and they will go through and the emphasis of the inspections is food sachlt temperature and microbiological safety. i worked in many cities in this country and never worked in a city where the relationship between the restaurant community and the department of public health is as good as it is here. i think the inspectors come in and make every effort to help the restaurateur understand the violation and how to address that violation. they try to help them avoid getting a low score or come back quickly in order to verify that the score has gone up and the food is in a safer mode. in general, the restaurant community preeshths the relationship with the public health and work to maintain that. >> let's look at this hand out the draft from the small business restaurant task force. opening a restaurant, 10 tips. first tip about seek advice -- is what we are talking about. it's basically developing a team as i see it. you really need people who will give you expert advice. is that the intension? >> i think the intension is most restaurateurs are confident people they will put their food and reputation on the line and serve the public. it's like going to the movie theatre everyone has an opinion about the quality of the meal. you are putting yourself out there the self confidence can lend itself to arrogance when you are geth help from people on things they're not gooda. seek advice. if you are not good at construction you find someone to help you or have a contractor look at the space they can look at the electric panel and tell you a typical restaurant needs 400asms and you have toup grade your panel and knows the waiting list for the panel is 6-8 months so you should start that today if you are series about the project. the goal is to have help you go through the process as you go through. goal of the task force is not to have anybody with a big financial surprise at the end where they forgot a step and it cost a lot of money. >> who would be part of this? you have the contractor. what other advice might you need. would you be seeking? >> i think you could find somebody who is familiar with the zoning requirements. find out if you need a change in use permit. if you need an entertainment permit. if you are in a redevelopment zone they may be a problem. and to look at building and the thingsure not good on the and generally the contractor could help you. you could have the architect or designer early so they can give you an idea how much it will cost. typically they can say if i turn this room to a restaurant you need 300 square foot based on the size you have in your budget. that information to help get them started so it's not a surprise later. >> i encourage people to get an architect involved early o. i see architectural problems that could be resolved my not renovating the space or starting out by saying, we need to have a second exit and that will take a lot of square footage, here's how you might solve it. the architectural problems are significant time and money issues. okay. tip 2, develop an effective business plan. how does one develop a business plan? what is a business plan? >> i business plan should have a financial component for construction and preopening. have a financial component what you expect your profit and loss statement to look like. many have that experience those wlo don't there are on line tools to do that. the thing underestimate indeed opening a restaurant is the business plan should have a marketing plan about how you are going to traeshth different market segments and customers to your restaurant. if you are in a neighborhood and you open did you think about take out? did you think about an early bird dinner for people who can't afford rour regular fair and can at 4 or 6 in the afternoon. you look at the marketplace and develop a strategy to encourage them to come to your business. in my experience that's what separates the people who are effective coming out the gate and those who struggle -- simple things like working at the loeshgz, buying a counter and going to the loeshgz 3 or 4 different day parts and spending time counting how many people walk across the front door. you get an idea of foot traffic and get a sense of, will i have the foot traffic to support my restaurant. >> tip 3, check the zoning requirements, can you have a restaurant here? what type of restaurant? take out? the city has many requirements. you don't want to get tide up in a conditional use or tied up in a neighborhood disagreement they are difficult to resolve. i want to mention while we are trying to check the zoning and planning about historic buildings. a special interest of mine. san francisco is filled with wonderful old buildings that add to the character of the city and many restaurants are put in older buildings. when you impact the older building people get very upset. we have alternatives in the california historical building code. and the california historical building code superseeds the regular building code. for example, you don't have to make the front door of the restaurant fully compliant with the ada or the california title 24. this is an example. you my meet the california historical building code in a qualified historic building by having a door that is 31 inches wide instead of 32 inches wide. and may have a power door operator, keep everybody happy and preserve the facade of the building and save money. i encourage to you think about the historic building code and the values we are trying to save. >> 4, select a location already zoned as a legally permitted restaurant. not just zoned but was a restaurant once upon a time. it's so much easier. the utilities, gas, power. power is a problem. we mentioned that a couple of times. getting powers and gas pg and e has a big backlog. now in san francisco we are seeing restaurants and other businesses opening with temporary generators pending the final connections by bg and e. building and fire have a separate process before the builteding application you make a request and pay a fee. not large fee. and say this is our proposal and here's questions we have. we will give you a response in writing you can take to the bank. yes, you need 2 exits or no you don't need 2 exits and yes, you need fire sprinklers it's good to have a preapplication meeting with fire. if you are far enough along in your space and architect and designers so you know what the questions will be. this is not a general discussion. here are the issues we would like to address. we're happy to do that and 586139 is the number to call. >> there is a cost. preapplication meetings, you know how much? >> 300. 350 dollars? something like that a few hundred dollars. >> tip 6. work with a real estate attorney and contractor when negotiating the lees or purchasing a business much this is part of developing a team. we had a talk with real estate gp development people doing the not very nice way of saying it, flipping buildings in san francisco. purchasing buildings, improving them and selling them. some ask, why does it take me 8 months and they do it in 3 months? what's the difference? the difference it turned out on lengthy discussion is they have a team, they know what they are doing. they know how to get a permit. they got the plans prepared in a week. have the contractor move in and out and have a team together and know exactly what they will do. the closer you get to a team we everyone has a shared goal and knows what's going on and making money the happyier your project will be. that team includes your real estate attorney and your contractor and architect and your people who will run the restaurant should be part of