Permitting process stymies San Francisco couple seeking to open coffee shop
By Kenny Choi
As San Francisco continues its post-pandemic rebound, Mayor Daniel Lurie and other city officials have been highlighting their attempts to streamline the permitting process and make the city more business friendly.
One supervisor is taking aim at certain permitting rules that are preventing small businesses from opening new shops, including a couple’s proposed coffee shop in North Beach.
Milana Ram has been tinkering with her coffee roast. When she does, she often thinks of her parents in India.
“The motivation basically came from trying to save the family farm. But now, once we are in this, we are so passionate about the coffee,” Ram told CBS News Bay Area.
She and her husband Himanshu Bhaisare studied and found jobs as software and electrical engineers, but it’s hard to hide what they really want to do next.
“The beans come from a small region called Chikmagalur, it’s a southern mountain region of India,” said Bhaisare.
They rent time at a roastery in Berkeley every couple of weeks and are selling their product at farmers’ markets.
But they hope to build their brand, by opening a brick-and-mortar roastery and café in San Francisco, where they live.
“We were pretty much one dot away from signing the lease agreement,” said Ram.
But North Beach permitting rules include a “prior use” requirement. That means a new coffee shop and roastery wouldn’t be allowed to open a location on Lombard Street, which was once a drycleaning business.
Ram and her husband couldn’t believe it.
“I went to two or three more offices in the same department asking ‘Is this really true?’ Because it made no sense to me,” said Bhaisare.
San Francisco District 3 Supervisor Danny Sauter has introduced legislation to eliminate that prior use requirement, among other permitting rules.
“It’s things like that that are really frustrating, especially when we have someone who wants to bring their business to San Francisco and we have all these barriers that are preventing them from opening up,” said Sauter.
Sauter believes by loosening the restrictions, it will directly impact the number of vacant storefronts in North Beach.
“We’ve already had about a dozen different small business owners reach out to us and tell us that without this legislation they could literally not open what they want to open. They could not grow their existing business,” said Sauter.
The couple have not found a place yet.
“I’m extremely hopeful that the bill is going to get passed, a new law will be in effect in a few months, and we’ll get our cafe on Lombard Street,” said Ram.
They believe they’re a step closer to opening their first cafe and roastery, and bringing Indian coffee from her parents’ farm to the Bay.
The proposed ordinance would also allow businesses to merge storefronts and expand into an adjacent empty space more easily among other things.
Sauter’s proposed legislation is expected to be considered by the Board of Supervisors this month.
