Board of Appeals weighs downtown food-truck permits, continues most appeals and upholds modified permit after settlement

After extensive testimony from brick-and-mortar restaurant owners, property managers and mobile food operators, the San Francisco Board of Appeals on Dec. 14, 2011 continued most of the city’s first wave of Department of Public Works mobile food facility permit appeals and approved a separate permit after the permit holder agreed to remove two Financial District locations.

Appellants — including property managers of 50 California Street, local restaurant owners and business groups — argued that permits issued by DPW for locations within a 300-foot notice radius would directly compete with nearby quick-service restaurants, cause sidewalk congestion and trash, and in some cases conflict with one-hour loading/parking rules. Appellants presented petitions and said they had not been adequately noticed or that DPW had failed to exercise sufficient site-specific discretion. "This will just cause more trash," said one long-standing downtown operator; others warned of potential job losses at brick-and-mortar sites.

Permit holders and operators, including representatives for VK Industries and Docks of the Bay, argued the Board of Supervisors created the mobile-food program to encourage regulated street food and neighborhood vitality. Counsel Jeremy Paul pointed to the ordinance’s legislative intent and DPW’s suspension/revocation tools, and said permits are not permanent. Truck operators testified they must secure DPH sanitation certificates and typically prepare food in approved kitchens, pay sales and payroll taxes, and face vehicle and weather risks that constrain earnings.

A key procedural gap shaped the board’s decision-making: multiple permits on the calendar lacked Department of Public Health sanitation/certificate-of-sanitation forms required before operation. Commissioners repeatedly asked whether restroom/certification paperwork existed for the contested locations; DPW staff said applicants have 90 days to secure interagency approvals and that the department will suspend or revoke permits lacking required agency clearances.

Given the missing sanitation paperwork for several sites, Vice President Michael Garcia moved to continue all nine appeals to Jan. 11, 2012 to allow permit holders to provide the required DPH forms. Commissioners Fung and Goh voted Aye; the motion passed 3–0.

Separately, a permit for Docks of the Bay (permit 11MFF-0029) covering multiple locations was settled on the record: the permit holder agreed to withdraw 101 California (Pine Street) and 25 Beale Street from the permit. After appellants confirmed they would withdraw their appeals for those two locations, the board moved to uphold the permit as modified (with the two downtown locations stricken). The motion passed 3–0.

What commissioners emphasized: many voiced concern that the DPW hearing-officer record sometimes lacked detailed findings explaining how competing economic impacts were weighed. Several commissioners said they would be more comfortable upholding permits only after required DPH sanitation approvals were filed and site-specific impacts demonstrated in the record. Some said the city-level working group convened by Supervisor Scott Wiener and the Office of Small Business may help address notice and density questions going forward.

Provenance: The mobile-food appeals were called and introduced beginning at SEG 346; appellant testimony and permit-holder presentations run roughly from SEG 395 through SEG 3110; the board’s motion to continue occurred at SEG 3699–SEG 3736; the Docks of the Bay settlement and upholding of the modified permit occurred later in the transcript (SEG 3746–SEG 4375).

Next step: Most appeals were continued to Jan. 11, 2012; the Docks of the Bay permit proceeds with two contested Financial District locations removed from the permit.