Include an anchor that drives foot traffic to the district, and an anchor could be a fullservice Grocery Store or another large retailer or it could be a cluster of smaller stores, related Retail Stores or restaurants; some sort of use thats a little cluster. Other businesses in a healthy mix include restaurants, nightlife and entertainment that compliment retail sales and provide gathering spaces for potential customers and potential services and Fitness Centers that provide needed services and also help to draw foot traffic. Professional Services Provide needed services in an officelike setting directly to the general public, but even uses like office and housing that may not serve the general public help generate foot traffic and the demand for retail and ncds. So what all this means, diversifying the mixes in an ncd so that retailers can support their customer base, is it should include a range of storefront sizes, and storefronts should be designed to adaptablity, and be able to serve a wide set of uses. It also means that the office uses that that are not open to the general public could be located off the ground floor or on the periphery of an ncd. Limiting ground floor retail requirements for new development to the strongest locations for retail could also help reduce potential vacancies. So we talks a lot weve heard a lot today about vacancies and the work that we did suggests that limiting ground floor retail requirements could help to reduce those vacancies in the future. The final conclusion for our study is around experiencetial retail and the people visiting our entities. By offering a fun dining and shopping experience, ncds can help to draw foot traffic. That means continuing to maintain and enhance the public realm is criticizing, so prioritizing pedestrian comfort and safety, keeping spaces adaptable and attractive can help to draw customers to an area and keep them there to make purchases. Also, as we have seen in ncds in San Francisco, celebrating local, historical and Cultural Assets can contribute to a unique and interesting environment, so programming festivals and events can draw people into the ncds, as well. And finally, high capacity district organizations can help districts to create a great experience for residents and visitors. So these type of organizations include Community Benefit districts, merchants association, Community Development organizations and other types of management organizations. And i believe with that, im going to pass it back to martin. So perthe request, we wanted to go over some investing neighborhoods and go over some of the ncds that support our districts and Small Businesses. But first, we wanted to have a common definition of vacancy. But first, i want to recognize that were all talking about the commercial districts supporting them, their vibrancy, their vitality, and what they have to offer all of us, whether were businesses, residents or workers. And one thing that we all accept as part of a healthy district is vacancies. Its defined as an empty storefront or its occupied with a noncommercial use. As is mentioned beginning in 2013, our staff conducted biannual physical storefront vacancy surveys. Were out there pounding the pavement as part of our program, and we want to also say that while we recognize that these underutilized spaces which may not be open on a regular daily basis, those are not counted at vacant. Those are occupied from our point of view, but while theyre not tech knee vacant, they certainly do have an impact on Community Perception in a neighborhood. What is a healthy vacancy from our perspective. Economic developers usually use from a five to 10 range. That said, the perception of whether or not there is a vacancy problem in a particular neighborhood commercial district can vary. The numbers have value, as does each districts Population Based on their priorities and circumstances. Sometimes even when the vacancy rate is within a healthy range, neighborhood stakeholders are concerned about vacancy. What you see here is that the citywide vacancy rate has stayed low, even through the recession beginning in 20 or coming out of it in 2009. As the bay area economy grew out of the recession, increase for retail space created competition, and we can also see rents growing quite quickly in retail spaces. The retail rent vacancy last year was was 3. 2 , and this provides some concern when vacancies in a neighborhood get too high, as well they are too low. When vacancies are under 5 , we worry about those rent rising, and a needed change that we li a space for needed changeover time that we see in a corridor. We define vacancies in two different ways, either as active or inactive. Active means we have an identified or commercial tenant. Inactive is we do not have a tenant. We have historically divided these vacancies into these categories so we can refer businesses to storefronts that are technically available even if not proactively being leased. We report these annually to the controllers office, and for the purposes of the retail setting and as a way to gauge corridor health, we analyze a combined effect of both these active and inactive vacancies. They both have a value to us in terms of what residents are seeing and experience and also how we work in a given space. Its interesting to note when we began tracking in 2013 to 2016, that active vacancy rate, where we see our programs really having when packaged and tailored and curated in a way, we can see them having an impact here in terms of the active vacancy rate declining by about 1. 7 , whereas citywide, you see those vacancies actually increasing by. 9 . When we start looking a little closer at the five highest neighborhood have a cab see rates within our invested neighborhoods portfolio or the five lowest, we can see that some are greater than the healthy or normal range, and also some are very comfortable. But the average, generally, is within that healthy range. And im going to ask amy cohen to come up right now to talk about some of those factors that contribute to the vacancies. Good afternoon. The bla report started to identify some of the causes of the vacancies in San Francisco and we just wanted to try to describe it in a very colorful picture quickly. And in our experience, this office has done a lot of work filling vacancies and doing more comprehensive commercial corridor work. In particular in low income neighborhoods, but also in moderate and higher income neighborhoods around the city. And we wanted to just share our experience, which is at the very core of this picture that im calling an on dion is a building owner, and the building may have investors. Anything you do to try to fill a building comes down to the owner and motivation. If they are not motivated or willing to lease the space, its very challenging. A couple of other factors as you work out from there are brokers, who may or may not work for the owner, or round rents. If they think they could get a higher rent they could hold out if the owner is sort of aware of what the considerations are. The next layer out is really the building conditions, and i dont have to say much about that, but that can be an insurmountable challenge. They might not have the capital, or sometimes they do, but then encounter Something Else as theyve already gotten into the process and then they cant afford to move forward. The neighborhood conditions have been talked about a lot today. These influence some retail more than others. Many businesses want to gravitate toward where other businesses like them are successful or where theres a lot of spending power or high income or density to be the spending power. And many of the businesses that are only reliant or very much reliant on foot traffic are very sensitive to challenges in safety and cleanliness or other challenges like parking. The city regulations and processes hit both the neighborhood side and the business side. Again, i dont think these are new issues, but at the building level, theres a lot of regulations to navigate, and at the neighborhood level, there may be use restrictions, some of which are intended to prevent certain types of businesses from coming in, but others which maybe arent, but are hard for landlords and brokers to understand. And then, a prospective tenants ability to navigate all of this is another challenge, and some of them have a lot more capacity than others, and some are only going to have the motivation if theres a very high demand and very big payoff for them to go and open. And this is why we see formula retail sometimes being able to navigate processes because they have the corporate hitiein an support. And then finally outside of this is all the trends in retail generally, which weve been talking about today. I just want to let you know that we have experiences trying to deal with all of these different layers, but it takes a lot of time and understanding to know where the hurdles are, and a lot of Relationship Building and a lot of infrastructure with community partners, brokers, and everyone else. So i think that with that, im going to turn it back. I just heard that the definition i provided might have been captured incorrectly on the closed captions, so active vacancies are defined as those which do not have an existing or identified commercial tenant, do not. In terms of the programs that we provide to support both our corridors and Small Businesses and of course invested neighborhoods, is there to focus on Small Businesses but also the targeted neighborhood commercial district. Our programs are designed and deployed based on significant conversations with Community Around their priorities and desires. Both are internal and external capacity. The resources that we have available to support both Business Services and neighborhood improvement projects, all of those are aimed at realizing an economically thriving safe, resilient, sustainable district that meets the needs of our local residents. Some of our services are available citywide where others are more tailored to a specific neighborhoods needs when we are looking to concentrate and prioritize our efforts. At the time right now we have gun looking through an equity need, where we can inour time and or resources. In those targeted commercial districts, we partner with community, board of supervisors members and other agencies, and through that we have opportunities to develop, package, Deploy Services to address the particular needs of that district. The ability of us to track these vacancies and the data that we shared is a direct result of our vested neighborhoods program. As we track vacancies and make neighborhood resources available, we have employed various tools to prevent and both fill vacancies. Here, youll see when we think about the space as a whole, the commercial district planning and management that we do in support of Economic Development plans, the powerful work that our Community Benefit districts provide, in terms of both a heightened level of services and also a sustainable committed level of resources based on the work that they do, the importance of our merchant associations and our nonprofits who work towards Capacity Building to make sure the Community Members are well supported and informed in what the city can can do in partnership with them in service of their neighborhoods. Cultural district planning. Based on what weve seen very positively achieved in japantown. In addition to that the japantown cultural heritage. And reminding folks that experiences in their neighborhoods can be a very powerful tool both to celebrate the identity of a given place but also to remind the people of the specialness of any given district. And finally, public realm enhancemente enhancements and events that are important to the community. We want to make sure, as well, when you deal with individual businesses that are our Small Businesses can stay open, that they can expand in the city and be successful. And as we develop our programs, we attempt to develop them with the various stages of any individual business in mind. Meaning that we want flexible programs that can support businesses thats starting up and or is opening multiple locations in the city or is thinking about other plans that they want to make. In this slide, their things that can help businesses strengthening retentions and applications, whether its around the ada program, when its around Construction Program that weve come to this body before, to alleviate them in the best way to deal with those issues. Or in the case of most recently, a westportal fire or fires in the mission, a support program to help those businesses. In addition given the rising real estate prices and economic pressures that so many of us have been encountering throughout the city, we want to make sure that were being particular about how we look at retaining and relocating when necessary businesses that are of important to us both from an individual perspective but also for the Overall Health of the local economy. Our access to capital programs also support that in terms of providing lowinterest loans to communities in a culturally component way, as well as investing in those areas where we want to see investment increasing, whether we talk about the bayview, the tenderloin and other neighborhoods. Also to support that, our sf shines and tenant facade and improvement programs, which can go a long way in being a useful incentive in partnering Small Business and Property Owners for the benefit of our communities. Some of those same tools can actually be used to attract businesses, and at oewd we also have an array of initiatives that also support these efforts, when we have target sector attraction services, when we talk about trying to atrack Grocery Stores or particular restaurants or nightlife to a neighborhood, arts, nonprofits, a production distribution repair businesses, Catalyst Properties that we can focus on, that have significance to a community, those can go a long way in terms of drawing someone who may not have been inclined to consider a certain neighborhood when packaged with a facade improvement program, and also the insurance that the bureaucracy can support them through that process. And as weve done since 2016 with our Small BusinessAcceleration Program serving over 160 businesses, weve certainly seen some success there. We certainly have a long way to go, but its a great start in supporting those businesses. Now to talk about the Planning Department, i want to invite up aaron starr from the Planning Department. Good afternoon, supervisors, aaron starr, manager of legislative affairs for the Planning Department. I want to go over the tools that we have to help the planning corridors, and help shape more inviting commercial spaces and corridors. So the first tool is the individually named neighbor commercial districts. There are two typed of nc districts in the see. Theres general neighbor commercial districts like nc1, 2, and 3, theyre individually named like noriega, and folsom. Unlike individual named nc districts, region district presents its own challenges, and theres not one set of solutions for every district. Next, vertical zoning controls are utilized more in the citys nc districts although they are used to a lesser extent in districts like the downtown shopping district and our Residential Commercial districts. This type of zoning control can be used to encourage more active commercial uses on the ground floor and less active uses on the second and nird floors, depending on how theyre crafted. Next we have our formula retail controls which primarily serve to preserve the aesthetic characters. Certain districts have taken these controls further by prohibiting formula retail outright or prohibiting certain types of formula retail like formula retail restaurants. The approval process can also be used to encourage or discourage certain types of uses, principlely permitting a use allows them to establish without permit approval, without mandatory discretionary review provide needed review and commissioner approval. And it can require that notice go out to neighbors within 150 from the change of use, and thats for 30 days. Its important to keep in mind, though, that conditional use approval and mandatory discretion year review are really only effective in ensuring that a proposed use is effective as a particular location. An approval with use is carried with the land. The focus is often on the operator of the establishment with you once the use is established the owner may change without commissioner review. We also have Design Guidelines, nonresidential use size limits, active commercial use requirements, and a ground floor 5 foot height bonus. These code requirements seek to ensure that storefronts remain attractive and fit within the control of a neighborhood. Id also like to clarify that about the active commercial use requirement. While require active uses on the ground floor in our 234 c districts, only certain streets or segmented streets require active commercial uses, and these dont necessarily have to be retail. Another tool we have to preserve commercial corridor character and other unique storefronts in San Francisco is our Historic Preservation review, typically done as part of our coke with a review, it ensur ceqa review, it ensures to bring storefronts you want to modern. Or appropriate incidental and subordinate to any such use. Currently accessory uses are limited to onethird of the floor area unless its a catering use where the product is sold onsite. In that instance,