Small Business Commission of september 26. This is called to order at 206. This is televised live thank tooz sf gov tv staff. The meeting is viewed ochb sf gov tchb tv 2. Silence phone squz oretd electronic devices. Public comment is limited it too 3 minutes per speaker. Speaker requested but not require today state naiments, completion of a speaker cards will help inshurure proper spelling in the written records mptd deliver speaker cards to commission secretary. There is a sign in sheet at the front table for those that would like to be added. Please show our slide. It is our custom to begin each somewhat Business CommissionMeeting Office of Small Business is the only place to start you new business in San Francisco and best place to get answers about doing business. Firfs stop with a question about what to do next. Lets get going. Who all do we have today . Lets do roll call. Item 1, call to order and roll call. Adams, here. Dooley,. Dwight, herement ortizcartagena, here. Toursarkissian, here. Riley. Commissioner zouzounis, here. You have quorum. Mrs. President joining us are the City Attorney and new City Attorney matthew lee who are here to help us through the legacy business. Working closely with our office and with developing the rules and regs, so we have lots to put before you in general questions and getting policies and direction from you. I dont have the Legal Expertise so we have our City Attorney today. And then also joining us is our intern lewis who is here. Will be attending the meeting. Great. Iletm 2, general Public Comment. Members of the public on matteress within the jurisdiction but not on todays calendar and address for future consideration. Any members that would like to comment on anything not on todays agenda . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Item 3, discussion and action to make recommend aishz file number 160962, police code limit ded Live Performance permit. Director of Entertainment Commission to extend from 10 olauv to 11 p. M. The hours during which Live Performanceess may be presented in the union street nirebd commercial. For this item we have legislative aid from supervisor mark farrell kanishka karunaratne. Welcome. Thank you. Good afternoon president dwight and members of the commission. Kanishka karunaratne. The item is legislation to allow an extension of limited live permit hours in the Union Straight neighborhood commercial disterability. Existing laws allows this receive rive performance from 24 entertainment. These permits known as llp allow a business to offer Live Performance as a secondary purpose until 10. They are issued to restaurants and bars with live music. After have ing a llp for a year they can extend to 11 p. M. The Entertainment Commission may grant requests if there are no significant Public Safety or nuisance concerns relate today the establishment or llp. The ordinance allows llp holders in the union street neighborhood commercial district to apply to extend from 10 to 11 p. M. As they would be able to dine a majority of the city commercial corridors. There is only one llp holder, it is bus stop bar and they have had no complaints since having their llp issued a year ago. We hope your support this legislation so the Good Neighbor business has a chance to extend performance hours. Thank you for having me and available for question. Any questions . I have a question. Go for it, and what was the purpsh of the exception . What why is it in place . Because when the llp definition was created there were neighborhoods that did not want to ever extend past 10 p. M. Did you have any objections in the neighborhood . We do krobjection from had Golden Gate Valley Neighborhood Association. What purposedo they formulate the reason for the objection cephal . I dont think they have a objection to this business bullet t but concernbed a slippery slope. In this specific neighborhood . Yes. Commissioners any other questions . Okay, open up to Public Comment. Any members of the public that would like to comment . We have a couple speaker cards. Gabe fer oni and second is robert burr dough. Welcome. I own the bus stop on union street. Just looking to get the limited live extended for a hour. We are right now going until 10. 11 oclock would just make things a lot bet frr the performance of this license. A lot of the bands we get good bands. They all have second and day jobs so a lot of them cant get there till 7 so get at 8 and set up about 8 30 play for about a hour and half it it is over. People are just start ing to come off of dinner and 9 30 and it is over. We are paying the bands and trying to do this right and be responsible and dont think the extrahour will do harm to anyone but benefit the area, benefit the band and help us make this permit better. We are not asking for anything else. All we want to do is one hour. That is pretty much it. We are very responsible with it and there are customers that appreciate that we do keep caerfck closed and doors and windows closed. We try toto make this a good thing and think livens up the neighborhood. The neighborhood needs a little help and things like that this help. Thank you for coming out today. Okay. Any questions . We cant question, we can just listen. Okay cool. Thank you. Good afternoon commissioners. Im robert bar del. I was president the Golden Gate Valley Neighborhood Association when the limited Live Performance rep. Legislation passed and on board when we came on to support this 10 p. M. Hard cap. Golden gate valley itself took no position on the legislation. That is because so many people in the neighborhood had been traumatized over the years by the drinking problems that are associated with union street. If any of you know it, there are a lot of bars and restaurants, many stay open late especially in college and profootball season and can get hairy out there so a lot of people want to stop anything associated with bar squz rest rants. I have come to see it was a mistake. For the reasons gab suggested. The dands are getting warmed and people come in and bring a different crowd to the bus stop. I live a block away and lived a block away for over 30 years. It is a different crowd that comes in. It may be suburban rchlt live music is a good thing. It was a tradition on union treat when i moved in many were not here or too young to remember bullet there were several places included the matrix which is a high end venue. There was paw sawn madras which had a piano and singer, a very coom place. There were others. This is a way for union street to regain something and maybe bring a little life back, at least a little culture. We dont have a Movie Theater screen anymore, there is a very little it do and this is a small thing. 11 oclock isnt midnight or 1 a. M. Friday and saturday is cool. The Entertainment Commission has present discussion. If they want to say sunday through thursday done by 10 30 or 10 i think people at the bus stop can live with that. The Entertainment Commission is there and protect the neighbors who have complaints so ask you to approve this. Thank you very much. Any other comments . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Any questions . Commissioner toursarkissian, are you on the list . No im not. I like to support the legislation. I have been in the bus stop several time squz lived at laguna and broadway so it is right there and what i really like about it is, he promotes local bands. Like local San Francisco bands that are still around and still forming in the city. I had the pleasure of seeing a few there and he is absolutely right, they stop at 10 oclock and it kind of a bummer so i would definitely support this legislation up to 11 oclock p. M. Commissioner ortizcartagena. I concur with my colleague commissioners adams. Especially farrell is from the neighborhood. He has the pulse of the neighborhood and seeing what you say. I had businesses there in that area and definitely i think you are handling it appropriate low ly so i support the legislation as well. Any other comments . Alright. We can take action on this. Like to have a vote. I make a motion to approve the extension for the limited Live Performance. Seconded anybody . I second it. Ortizcartagena seconds it. All in favor . Aye. Aez opposed . That passes 70. There you go. Go have live music. Thank you. Alright. Next idem, please. Item number 4, discussion and possible action to make recommendation on the board of supervisors file number 1607553, planning code. Exemp son and general adsign penalties. All non xhrjs signs exempt from regulation. Increased penalty for display of general adsigns. Shorten for vilesh that agrew. Allow property leans for unpaid. Affirming the planning departments under the California Environmental quality act and consist wnt the general plan and 8 priorities policy section 101. 1 and finding public necessity convenience and welfare under planning code section 302. Discussion and action. Welcome back. Thank you. Lee hepner from Aaron Peskins aufs and here a couple weeks ago and happily returned today with clarification. This is file 60553, which in pertinent part enhances penalties for new illegal general advertising signs. We are not chaisking the definition of general definition or the deaf finition of any type of sign, we are however enhancing the penalties for new illegal general advertising signs which are already illegal. One the questions i just want to recap where we were last time and address the questions that came up. One of the questions that came up last time with respect to the definition of general advertise tg signs. That is planning code 6 o2. 7 and what does it mean for a sign to advertise a product that is sold or offered at the business . A general advertising sign set in the planning code when it is actually a fixed to a property is what we talk about, advertising something which is not sold or offered there or incident frl the business operation. The clarification from the Zoning Administrator is that it is mostly fact specific inquiry which is unsettling to the body but the fact is the general advertising sign which enforcement is taken are clear cut. A couple examples we talked about a coke cola sign, that is a general advertising sign and only sold at the wall greens. Thais a general adsign. A coors sign, like a neon coors sign on the enterier of a bar facing out isnt affix today a window isnt a general an advertising sign. What we are talking about is really signs that are painted on to the window or affixed like a vinyl sign on a window is general advertising sign. With resfeckt to gray area there, which i try today get to the it bottom of with the Zoning Administrator and think is really important with respect to enforcement of the law, i confirm the goal is compliance with the controls and that to the exthrent is flexibility in enforcement and that about getting business tooz comply with taking them down and only in the most extreme circumstances would enforcement measures bow taken. So, again, with respect to that enforcement, i think it is critical to understand the enhanced penalties we provide in the legislation giveathize city a tool against bad actors and the example that came up in the last hearing and prompted this legislation was the example of the verizon sign in super 50 put up on the exterior of the embear dareo tower jz took up 25 floors. This was such a egregious example and the city did not have a tool to require them to take that down in a expeditious time. We can issue a notice of violation and then the owner of the sign has 30 days to take it down. If you are putting up a big sign for a special event that sign is only relevant for the term of the special event which is much shorter than 30 days and need a different tool to leverage the cities enforcement power to get the sign to come down. That is what we are talking about with enforcement. A couple other things, there are a lot of definitions of various types of signs in the planning code. Window signs, roof and business and historic signs and there is a significant amount of overlap. I do cht to provide the good news that awnings and signs that name the business are not general adsigns, those are business signs so not taking about a sign that says original joes on original joes. That isnt a advertising sign or a retail store with the name or 25 percent off sale, that isnt a general advertising sign. That pertains to items somd in the store. I confirmed window signs are those adhered specifically to the window and i think while the primarily legislation is to add ad hoc illegal bill boards the enhanced penalties to the extent they are general advertising signs advertising something not sold or offered that that premise. I want to make a couple final points here. The first is that general advertising signs whether large or small do contribute to urban blight and should be removed. I thainkt think thats Good Foundation thmpt voters affirmed this with lathe 80 percent of the vote and the legislator grappled to find the right tool tooz enforce which is a ban on new general advertising signs. The second point to drive home is the process established by the ordinance, there is flexibility baked into this. I know it is less than 30 days we limited the window for correcting or appeals a notice of violation from 30 day tooz 3 days or 5 days in the event that notice is mailed out , but there is flexibility to the law and dont think it is practical this is used as is a sword against Small Business. This is a tool to get at the large bad actors like the verizon taking up 20 stories of embarcadero tower. I hope that addresses most of the issues that came umon the last matter. Thank you for taking the time to come back. Commissioners, any other question snz i have a question. Thank you for all the research it is significantly more than i prepared last time. Quite a bit. I see the materials are a example where it says examples of general advertising signs is that something you provided . No. One the examples that i have lut butt you may not have it i dont think i do. Advertising onit is a grocery store. I see. Would you say that based on the research you completed and the definitions that you have described to the commission, under what circumstances this sign would be considered a general advertising sign or otherwise not . This looks like a run of the mill Corner Grocery store with the pepsi cola and see it all the time so want to know what extent that falls under the definition of general advertising sign. Just looking at this, this is a general advertising sign and let me sflain with respect to a business sign, there is a inticate part the business sign that says if you advertise j and b liquor and it is a big signi believe this gets to your point commissioner. You have a pepsi logo in that sign so this looks like it is adjacent to the business sign and maybe not a part of 23459 business sign and that would render this a general advertising sign. If, however, the pepsi logo is integrated fl into the business sign as long as the pepsi logo is under 25 percent the sign it is a business sign and not a general ad sign. This looks like a general ad sign because it isnt part the business sign. You gave the definition of wallgreens and said there is coke ad it is general ad sign because it is incidental to the business. Would you say pepsi or coke is also incidental to the business . I think that falls in the same category. There will be a lot of signs in the city in violation ofim just telling you. There are quite a few. Just walking the streets of San Francisco a lot of Grocery Stores have signs of products they sell that may be considered incidental. Just making this legislation doesnt effect the definition of that signage. But there will be a shortening the period for remedying the problem. The Planning Commission could go after these signs today and give them 30 days instead of 3, so i think it iswe would speculate to say they are going to use this now to go after signs like this. This has been there a long time. Probably pepsi paid for the owners sign for the right. The reason i bring this up is not that i expect a major change in the policy of the city. Our duty is look from the Small Business angle and point of view. I bring it up so is it is clear. I think it is interesting question about enforceability and practical enforcement in the city. This is a new general ad sign it is illegal. But to the extent it isnt enforced, doesnt matter. What is a law is a law to the extent it is enforced. Is it important because we increase the penalties for this and shortening the time. It may effect Small Business. Pepsi sign even though it isthat is fine because anything already in place when the law came into affect was grand fathered so this general ad sign where you see the pepsi, that was there before the ordinance was voted in. I just dont want to [inaudible] whether it is grand fathered or otherwise. It is a fact that it will somewhat effectcould effect Small Business. Thats all. It isnt like it will change the definition but it is shortening the time and increasing the penalties. We should admit that at least. That is a fact. I think it is a fact and in my comments i think there is nexability flexibility to allow the city to work compliance and not jump towards fines. That should be reserved and thi