Mayor London Breed introduced the Small Business Recovery Act in mid-March, building on the streamlining of certain regulations and processes introduced in Proposition H, which passed in November with more than 60 percent of the vote. The new legislation would expand the neighborhoods in the city where quicker permitting and easier notification requirements would apply.
“San Francisco has some major work ahead to recover from the devastating impacts of the pandemic,” Rodney Fong, president and CEO of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement. He said the city should “tear down the obstacles that make it difficult for our small business community.”
Proposition H’s streamlining “is helping small business owners throughout San Francisco, from adding a second restaurant location and transitioning from a retail establishment to a restaurant, to opening a new storefront,” said Breed. The new legislation would help by “expanding that simplified process to even more neighborhoods and making it even easier to start or operate a business in San Francisco.”
Small businesses will also benefit from the deal reached by the Board of Supervisors and the mayor on how to spend a $125 million surplus for the current fiscal year. The agreement, announced by the mayor and Supervisor Matt Haney, chair of the Budget and Appropriations Committee, targets the money for a range of initiatives to help people impacted by the pandemic, and it dedicates $15 million to Supervisor Catherine Stefani’s plan to waive business and licensing fees for establishments most impacted by the stay-at-home order. Another $24.8 million will fund small business loans and grants, including $1 million for grants to small businesses victimized by property crime.
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