Supervisors advance ordinance loosening rules for arcade games in small businesses

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday passed on first reading an ordinance amending the Police Code to reduce restrictions on the location of mechanical amusement devices and arcades, ease permitting requirements for many small businesses and make related procedural clarifications.

Supervisor Breed said the amendments aim to simplify the code and reduce burdens on small businesses. Breed said the revision keeps a permit exemption for non-bar businesses with up to 10 games, maintains a one-game exemption for bars, and creates a staff-level permit process rather than requiring many businesses to go before the Entertainment Commission. She said the amendments also remove an application fee for certain small businesses that would otherwise have paid $740.

Breed said the Entertainment Commission and San Francisco Police Department raised concerns about oversight for bars with multiple games and that the amendments were crafted to address those concerns while reducing costs for small businesses. She thanked staff at the Entertainment Commission and the police department, and Deputy City Attorney Francisca Gessner, for help drafting the changes. "I ask for your support in moving this legislation forward, and finally, giving Ms. Pac-Man the permit it needs to live on," Breed said.

Supervisor Kim had previously offered a land-use committee amendment to allow a bar to have up to four games before needing a permit; Breed said the new package is an alternative approach that keeps certain exemptions for non-bars and establishes staff-level permitting for others. The board took the motion to amend without objection; supervisors took the substituted ordinance as a first reading and scheduled the second reading for the following week. No roll-call vote was recorded on the ordinance at second reading because the item will return for final action.

The text of the ordinance as described by staff removes obsolete code provisions, clarifies appeal procedures for entertainment permits in the business and tax code, and makes environmental findings. Breed said the small-business commission had voted unanimously to support the amendments after presentations during the August recess.

The amendments as presented do not change the city's authority to review public-safety concerns; rather they create a narrower set of cases that will require commission-level review. The ordinance will return to the board for a second reading next week where formal adoption and a recorded vote may occur.

Notes: this article summarizes the discussion and procedural outcome recorded on the board floor; the ordinance text itself and final vote tally will be available when the item returns for second reading.