Supervisor Breed proposes protections for live music clubs in SF

Live music has long been a staple of San Francisco culture, but some fans fear it might be an endangered species. The problem, they say, is the explosion of housing construction near long-established venues that never had to worry about annoying neighbors in the past.

So on Tuesday, Supervisor London Breed unveiled legislation she hopes will help preserve those venues — and create some harmony with residents — by requiring developers and city agencies to consider their existence when new housing is built nearby and to notify potential residents of their existence before they sign a lease or buy a unit.

And in a huge win for club operators, it would also prohibit neighbors from suing a permitted music venue as a nuisance if that club is operating within the constraints of its entertainment permit.

Range of benefits

Breed said the entertainment industry not only is part of the city’s rich cultural history, but also brings serious economic benefits to San Francisco — an estimated $800 million a year in spending. Yet storied venues, including the Independent on Divisadero Street and Bottom of the Hill on Potrero Hill, are unsure of their future as new housing developments go up around them, she said.

“More than dollars and cents, these venues are an integral part of our culture, of what makes us San Francisco,” said Breed, noting that many decades-old music clubs have shuttered their doors in recent years. “We have to be able to coexist.”

Entertainment boosters who worked with Breed on the legislation, including Entertainment Commission President Jocelyn Kane, said it strikes an important balance.

“There is a need for housing in San Francisco,” said Tom Temprano, who DJs at numerous clubs around town and co-owns Virgil’s Sea Room, a Bernal Heights bar. “But the thing that I think brings so many people to San Francisco is its rich legacy of being an epicenter of live music. From Janis Joplin and Sly and the Family Stone to today, San Francisco has always been known for its nightlife culture.

“It’s a draw for young people moving to the city,” he said, “but we need to make sure that us building housing for them doesn’t result in the eradication of the soul of San Francisco, of what brought them here in the first place.”

Chance for hearing

A key part of the proposal is the requirement that the city’s Entertainment Commission be notified when a residential development is proposed near one of San Francisco’s 351 permitted “place of entertainment” venues. The commission can then choose to hold a hearing on the development and, prior to that hearing, conduct sound tests in the area, including during performances.

Following the hearing — which the developer would be required to attend — the commission could make recommendations to the city’s planning and building departments on whether there should be any conditions attached to development permits to help mitigate the impacts of live shows for future residents.

Terrance Alan, a longtime entertainment industry consultant who helped found the California Music and Culture Association, a lobbying group, said the testing and notification requirements would go a long way toward creating more harmonious relationships between residents and music clubs by getting everyone talking early on. Requiring the notification of prospective residents about the nearby venue is also huge, he said, because many residents have no idea when they sign a lease or buy a house of what they are getting into.

“I can’t tell you how many people I have talked to who say, 'I looked at the building during the day, or after work — I never looked on Saturday night,’” he said. “So the first weekend, after they have unpacked, it can be a little unsettling.”

Also Tuesday, at its last meeting of the year, the supervisors unanimously approved the purchase of 61 new hybrid diesel buses, bring the city’s total hybrid bus fleet to 175.

And they agreed to delay a vote on the reappointment of Wendy Paskin-Jordan, wife of former Mayor Frank Jordan, to the city’s retirement board, following questions over whether the former first lady had violated city ethics laws. The board will hold a special meeting on Jan. 7, a meeting Paskin-Jordan is expected to attend.

The board also passed legislation that will let parking lot operators do away with paper tickets, which they currently have to retain for five years, and a measure that is expected to slowly reduce the number of stores selling tobacco products in San Francisco. That legislation, authored by Supervisor Eric Mar, would place a 45-permit cap on tobacco sale establishments within each of the city’s 11 supervisorial districts.

Absentee homeowners

Mar also said Tuesday that he is looking into legislation to impose some sort of tax on absentee homeowners. He said the practice is increasing and creates “zombie” neighborhoods where owners live elsewhere most of the year and drives up housing prices.

Mar asked Mayor Ed Lee, during his monthly question time before the board, if he would support such a tax. Lee responded that preserving neighborhood character is a “high priority.” But he added that state property tax laws could make such a proposal “tricky” and said that he is more concerned with the city’s “thousands of housing units that are deliberately left vacant.”

Marisa Lagos is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: mlagos@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @mlagos