MINUTES
of the
BACK STREETS BUSINESS ADVISORY BOARD
Wednesday, August 11, 2005 at 4:00 p.m.
City Hall
1 Dr. Carlton Goodlett Place, Rm. 278
1. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL
The meeting was called to order by Chair Peter Cohen at 4:08 p.m.
Present :
David Beaupre (PORT)
Peter Cohen Al Lerma (MOCD)
My Do David Lupo
Oscar Grande Jennifer Matz (MOEWD)
Mike Grisso (SFRA) Michael O’Connor (SBC) (DCP)
Mark Klaiman
Absent:
Mark Dwight Robert Legallet
Louis Guidry Jasper Rubin
2. DEPARTMENTAL PRESENTATIONS
A. Department of City Planning
Jasper Rubin presented the department’s definition of PDR businesses, (production, distribution and repair), its present state and their future. He distributed Planning Department reports on the topic.
Department interested in what has been going on in SF’s industrial zoned areas for a long time. Had to define the activities were that used it. Looked at the nature the activities as business activities. Looked at standard industrial classification codes, SICs, which was
Back Streets Business
Advisory Board
August 11, 2005
Minutes
Page 2
The standard source used by government to classify businesses according to what was produced. Replaced by NAICs, the North American Industrial Classification System, which sorts business by what the process is as much as what they produce.
DCP identifies businesses by land use and has described PDR as a set of businesses that share three key characteristics:
1) Limited ability to pay rent ($.50—$2.00)
2) Require certain building types, e.g., flexible space with features such as loading docks, clear storage, etc.
3) Activities often are incompatible with housing because of hours of operation, use noxious materials, produce noise and light.
Finding that it is difficult to come up with an exhaustive list of PDR uses that can be plugged into the Planning Code.
Basic facts about PDR in San Francisco: comprise about 11% of total jobs (68,000 as of 2002). 35% of jobs are on land not currently zoned industrial; many are small construction firms run out of someone’s house or an auto repair shop on a commercial street; greatest demand is for 10,000 square feet or less. Majority of PDR employees are San Francisco residents.
DCP focusing its attention on PDR, largely in Eastern Neighborhoods since that is where most of the PDR businesses are—comprises just about all industrial land in SF.
EPS (consultant) report: PDR jobs will increase 13% by 2030 provided that appropriately zoned land is available. Presently 45,500 jobs in the Eastern Neighborhoods, and they occupy about 17.8 million square feet of office space.
Consultants characterized existing conditions and then looked at a future possible scenario to ascertain if the demand would be met by the supply. Department created a workbook that defined three different options for possible configurations of industrial land in the Eastern Neighborhoods—preserve so much land for housing and so much land for PDR. Option B was the middle road—would rezone land in Eastern Neighborhoods.
· 6.5 million square feet projected PDR building supply deficit: part can be “recaptured by refining Showplace Square zoning; part can be recaptured by counting supply in West SoMa area
· Option B projection would displace 20,000 jobs; 7,5j00 would potentially remain in areas rezoned to non-industrial; 12,500 would presumably relocate to other PDR-zoned areas.
Back Streets Business Advisory Board
August 11, 2005
Minutes
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· Eastern Neighborhoods will use 3 zoning classifications: PDR-only; PDR/Residential mixed; housing mixed-use
The draft EIR is supposed to be done by December; public workshops are planned for the fall.
B. Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workplace Development
Jennifer Matz reported on strategies utilized by the Mayor’s Office to attract and keep certain kinds of businesses.
1. Biotechnology—although we have UCSF at Mission Bay, Biotech is not coming to SF and three issues appear to be factors: parking, payroll tax and perception as SF as “business unfriendly.” Changed allowable parking ratios at Mission Bay; Mayor sponsored a payroll exemption that addresses venture capital funding needs for the industry; Mayor pursuing a public relations campaign with SF winning the competition for being the headquarters for the Prop. 71 stem cell institute.
2. Digital media businesses—not like dot-com businesses, connections with SF State training programs
3. Mission Bay—public/private partnership; major public investment in infrastructure through tax increment reimbursements to the developer; additional public investment through planning and redevelopment process.
4. Strategy is clearly define an industry—identify problems and particular needs City can help with
5. MOEWD—Consultant to be hired by September to create an Economic Development Plan; it is intended to be a 5-year plan; scope of work for the plan can synchronize with the Advisory Board’s work; MOEWD will arrange for consultant team to attend Advisory Board meeting in October for a brainstorming session.
Back Streets Business Advisory Board
August 11, 2005
Minutes
Page 4
3. OVERVIEW OF ISSUES ADVISORY BOARD MAY CONSIDER IN FUTURE MEETINGS
The following topics were suggested for the Advisory Board work plan:
· Define “backstreets businesses”
· “Best Practices” for light industrial economic development strategies (identify overriding themes)
· Backstreets/PDR businesses at risk (and why)
· Business to business linkages (i.e., linkage analysis)
· Business clusters (both by geography and by sector/activity)
· Profile of Backstreets/PDR business workforce (aggregate data as well as distinguish by neighborhood)
· Profile of workforce needs by all industry sectors (including “new” sectors such as biotech activities, digital media production, etc.)
· Key factors for Backstreets/PDR businesses (i.e., land/space needs; financing considerations; workforce needs
· Workforce training programs (existing; potential, i.e., best practices elsewhere)
Policy Questions:
· What defines/constitutes “obsolescence” (of an individual business or a business sector
· How can the City create business retention strategies as well as business attraction strategies
City Agencies Coordination
·
“Best Practices”/models
·
Neighborhood-Specific Variations
·
“Parking Lot” Issues
4. ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 6:05 p.m.
