Good afternoon.

This meeting will come to order.

Welcome to the February 6th, 2023 regular meeting of the Land Use and Transportation Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

I'm Supervisor Mirna Melgar, chair of the committee, joined by Vice Chair Supervisor Dean Preston and Board President Aaron Peskin.

The committee clerk today is Erica Major.

I would also like to acknowledge Matthew Ignao and Jaime Echeverie at SFCAP TV for staffing this meeting.

Madam Clerk, do you have any announcements?

Yes, the Board of Supervisors and its committees are now convening hybrid meetings that allow in-person attendance and public comment while still providing remote access and public comment via telephone.

The board recognizes that equitable public access is essential and will be taking public comment as follows.

First, public comment will be taken on each item on this agenda.

Those attending in person will be allowed to speak first, and then we will move on to a remote call-in line.

For those watching either Channel 26, 28, 78 or 99 and SFGov TV, the public call-in number is streaming across the screen.

The number to call in is 415 65501.

Again, that number is 415-65501.

And then you enter the meeting ID 2482 7030600, then press pound and pound again.

When connected, you will hear the meeting discussions, but you will be muted and in listening mode only.

When the item when your item of interest comes up and public comment is called, those joining us in person will line up to your right near the curtains.

And those on the telephone should dial star three to be added to the queue.

If you're on your telephone, please remember to turn down your television and all listening devices you may be using.

As already indicated, we'll be taking public comment from those attending in person first, and then we will go to our public call in line.

Alternatively, you may submit written comments to myself, the land use and transportation clerk.

My email address is ERICA, period M A J O R at Sf G O V dot org.

And if you submit public comment via email, it will be forwarded to the supervisors and also made part of the official file.

You may also send your written comments via U.S.

Postal Service to our office at City Hall.

The address is one Dr.

Carlton B.

Goodlit, please.

Room 244, San Francisco, California, 94102.

Finally, items acted upon today are expected to appear on the Board of Supervisors Agenda of February 14th unless otherwise stated.

And Madam Chair.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

Please call item number one.

Item number one is an ordinance amending the administrative code to extend the grace period for an additional 120 days for permit applications to operate under pandemic shared spaces permits, including any just add music approvals related to these spaces and to convert the shared space use into a post-pandemic permit and affirming appropriate findings.

Members of the public who wish to provide public comment on this item should call the number 415-655-0001.

The meeting ID is 2482-7030600.

Then press pound and pound again.

And if you have not done so already and you would like to speak, you just need to press star three, and the system will indicate that you have raised your hand.

Madam Chair.

Thank you very much.

Uh Madam Clerk.

So we have uh Robin Abad here from the planning department who has a presentation.

Uh we also have Monica Munowich, uh, who's uh up from the MTA, and we have uh assistant fire marshal uh Chad Law here with us as well uh for questions.

So uh welcome, Mr.

Bunn.

Thank you, Chair Melgar, uh Supervisors uh Peskin and Preston.

Happy New Year.

Um we're also joined on the phone by uh Michael Lennon and Gregory Slocum from uh the Department of Public Works, and we have a few slides to just illustrate the um outcomes of the proposed ordinance.

We'll also give just a little bit of statistics as to where the program is currently in light of this upcoming transition that we're all moving through, as well as some additional resources and grants that are available to shared spaces, pandemic operators.

As a reminder, shared spaces take place in the principally in the outdoors in the public realm.

We are transitioning what were private lot permits formerly and in uh private lots and on vacant lots to out of the shared spaces program and into the planning department's temporary use and conditional use authorizations permits.

Um we recently had an administrative deadline for pandemic permittees to submit an application for a post-pandemic permit due to the incredible outreach and public engagement work at Annie Yaelon, our communications and uh public education manager have done.

We saw the vast majority of pandemic permittees submit their intention with an application to operate past the pandemic.

There were about 350 or so that we have yet to hear from, and so we are redoubling our efforts to reach those folks through phone banking and other activities to first verify if they intend to operate after the pandemic and of course provide the support needed to get them to submit an application before the anticipated ultimate deadline of March 31.

Uh with the complex volume of cases, we are um we have seen a sort of plateau and in staffing levels, and we're working to um increase capacity in certain divisions to ensure that we can process all of these applications.

Um the reality of our constrained capacity, especially given new programs uh you know that we that the departments have been given to administer, um, is part of the rationale um behind uh introducing uh uh an extended grace period for this program.

So just to recap, without the ordinance, what the emergency declarations as well as current legislation uh do is uh provide a 60-day wind down period after the expiration of the pandemic program.

Supervisors, you might remember that you legislated an end to the pandemic program last year that will be coming up this uh end of March 2023.

So 60 days thereafter, without the ordinance, um, the city and operators um have that brief period to make all of the necessary accessibility and safety fixes, have their final site inspections, acquire a permit.

What the ordinance does is extend a grace period beyond that 160 or that 60 days to 180 days, allowing for departments to provide the necessary care and support and guidance to operators, um, and of course for those operators to implement their fixes.