Biosciences Task Force
MINUTES of the
SAN FRANCISCO BIOSCIENCES TASK FORCE
Tuesday, February 3, 2004 at 4:00 p.m. City Hall 1 Dr. Carlton Goodlett Place, Rm. 421
1. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL
The meeting was called to order at 4:20 p.m. Two new members were introduced: Gary Stewart and My Do.
Present:
Reed Benet
Amit Ghosh (DCP)
Jan Bolaffi
Madison Kilpatrick
Frank Chiu
Dr. Mike Le
Peter Cohen
Richard Morten
Sue Cone (DPH)
Karen Pierce
L. Michael Costa
Gary Stewart
My Do
Scott Williams
Theresa Feeley
Corinne Woods
Chris Geiger (ENV)
Absent
Rajiv Bhatia
Joe Raguso (Exc)
Lori Yamauchi (Exc)
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The minutes of the meeting of January 6, 2004 were approved as written.
3. COMMITTEE REPORTS
1. Cost Benefits Committee, Madison Kilpatrick reporting.
Reported that surveys were taken of feelings of SF citizens re biotech; brought in Marian Chun of Planning to discuss the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan. Peter Cohen mentioned that PDR (production, definition, repair) doesn't specifically include bioscience uses. Amit Ghosh: bioscience/biotech is a business type that is not regulated by the Planning Code as a use. Planning Code regulates uses.
2. Functional Definition Committee, Michael Costa reporting.
Need to deliver terms like clustering. Discussed sources for additional information for the legislative analyst. The Legislative Analyst appeared. Mr. Costa wants to create a hard copy glossary for the website that would link to resources.
3. Code Process Committee, Reed Benet reporting.
Re research, Corinne has taken the east coast and Benet the west coast. Discussion focused on Cambridge, MA. Ms. Woods: in the 1970's Cambridge became involved in recombinant DNA research and put together a complete package: file an application with city, what you are doing, what materials to be used; what permits will be sought, etc. Application then goes to a Biosciences Safety Committee for review. We need to know how other people have made it biosciences safe and predictable.
Mr. Chiu: believes that except for local peculiarities, all building
Elaine Warren, Deputy City Attorney: there are procedural things unique to SF but substance of planning, related codes and fire codes, substance comes from state law.
a) Ms. Woods introduced Tony Stolis and James Bennet, with Whitney,
Cressman Real Estate who have set up a life sciences section. Mr. Bennet and Mr. Stolis are working on a retrofit of an existing building in Dogpatch for bioscience. They described the work being done on this industrial building, built in 1983.
1. Industry Location Criteria Committee, reported by Michael Costa.
Discussed mandate of committee. Is gathering data and working on a matrix. Issue of what the industry needs to locate in a space. Part of issue is to educate community to what the regulations require. Will produce a draft.
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Jesse Blount, Director of Office of Economic Development, stated that the City is reinventing the approach to economic development. City is looking at biotechnology which has potential for generating jobs, business tax and payroll tax.
Ms. Woods stated that the Task Force was to prepare a report by February 22nd and sunset on April 22nd. She suggested that the report deadline be extended to August 22nd and the Task Force will sunset on October of 2004. Marti Paschal of Supervisor Maxwell's office said that the Supervisor would introduce the resolution.
5. REPORT FROM THE LEGISLATIVE ANALYST
Adam Van de Water of the Office of the Legislative Analyst appeared to offer services. Ms. Woods suggested that the committees provide Mr. Van de Water with a list of deliverables after the next meeting that might be used in the preparation of the final report.
6. REPORT FROM THE PLANNING DEPARTMENT (Eastern Neighborhood Plan)
Amit Ghosh, representative from the Planning Dept. distributed material relating to the definition of PDR (production, distribution, repair) and information on rezoning in order to understand the spectrum of different uses and activities; how they can be grouped; what the characteristics of those general groups would be in terms of space needs and location. Once that information is developed, then the task becomes routine for the Planning Dept. to look at where and how to regulate. Presently, regulatory scheme in Eastern Neighborhoods is M1 and M2.
Deputy City Attorney Elaine Warren said that the creation of a definition of bioscience or life science as a use category that we would make certain could be translated into an actual provision in the Planning Code. Need to define areas where this use would be allowed. Questions are: what is the use and what area(s) of the City should be set aside for this use? And what needs to be done in the Planning Code to allow this to happen?
The anticipated areas under consideration are Treasure Island, Visitacion Valley, Little Hollywood and the Mission District. Mission Bay and Hunters Point are Redevelopment areas and do not fall under the same regulations. Issues of proximity to residential use are appropriate to include.
7. ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 6:20 p.m.
