November 2, 2005

MINUTES
of the
BACK STREETS BUSINESS ADVISORY BOARD

Wednesday, November 2, 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 4:10 p.m.

2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Approval of minutes was held until the next meeting.

3. GENERAL ADVISORY BOARD MATTERS
Mr. Cohen announced that he testified at the hearing on the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan before the Planning Commission on October 27; he reported on the work of this Task Force and conveyed its general policy position.

Mr. Cohen raised issue of Advisory Board vacancy; suggested position could be filled by someone in investment banking or from an academic institution. Greg Asay of Supv. Maxwell’s office reported that Michael Potepan, professor of Economics at SF State has been contacted and expressed interest in serving on the Advisory Board.  Greg will report back at the next meeting.

Due to the holiday, the January meeting has been changed from January 4th to January 11th.
 
BSBAB
Minutes
November 2, 2005
Page 2

4. COMMITTEE REPORTS
a. Research Group:  Gabe Cabrera (OLA) and Mr. Cohen summarized work to date.  Currently there are no zoning protections for PDR businesses.  Additionally there are no business assistance programs or economic development strategies specifically tailored to PDR businesses.  Key business clusters in SF besides those identified in the Planning Dept. report are home improvement supplies and construction supplies.

b. Business Research Group:  Mark Klaiman and Bob Legallet summarized the Committee’s work to date.  The committee has created a long list of potential businesses to interview. The goal is to interview between 50 to 100 businesses.  It is currently developing a draft interview form. 

The two committees will collaborate on developing the interview questions so that research efforts reinforce the business interviews and vice versa.

5. FUTURE DISCUSSION ITEMS
MOEWD is planning to give an update presentation on progress with the Economic Development Plan at the next Task Force meeting.  Draft “nuisance legislation” if available will be reviewed at the next meeting.  Plan to begin working on rough outline for Task Force’s report.  Peter Cohen will start this and get feedback at the Research Group meeting.  It will be reviewed and discussed at the full Task Force meeting in January.

6. ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 6:00 p.m.