FACT SHEET
SMALL BUSINESS POLICY ASSISTANCE PACKAGE
MAY 16, 2011
Background: Small businesses are at the forefront of job creation and economic growth in the City
of San Diego. According to the City Treasurer’s Office the City of San Diego has over 90,000 small
businesses (12 or fewer employees) and they will generate almost $2 million in business taxes alone
this year, not including direct property and sales tax revenue. Quality of life, economic stability, and
the ability of the City to function are directly tied to their continued success.
Starting in February of this year, Council President Tony Young partnered with Councilmember Lorie
Zapf and the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce to assemble a set of small business policy
reforms that would demonstrate the new spirit of the City Council and provide concrete steps to
promote business expansion and job growth. Councilmember Lorie Zapf had already launched a
small business outreach effort driven by the question “What can the City do to help you create one
additional job?” That outreach effort was incorporated into this policy discussion to help generate
ideas which might be included in the final package.
Council President Pro Tem Kevin Faulconer and Councilmember David Alvarez, two councilmembers
who have emphasized job creation and empowering small businesses, joined Young and Zapf to
announce the package. “We should be doing everything we can at City Hall to incentivize economic
growth in our communities, and that’s why I am supporting these changes,” Faulconer said.
The result is a broad set of policy reforms that:
1. Support small business and reduce obstacles they often face at City Hall.
2. Reigns in new ordinances and outdated regulations through review and performance
measures.
3. Utilizes Business Improvement Districts as policy innovation zones.
4. Provides direct communication to the City Council from businesses that bear the burden
of onerous regulations, permitting and fees.
Policy Proposals:
1. Code Compliance Amnesty- This year, for a period of 31 days, allow building code violations to
be granted amnesty from penalties provided the permit applicant brings the violations into code
within a specific amount of time. The amnesty will be tentatively scheduled for August of 2011. This
item will help businesses that are concerned with potential building code violations in their effort to
improve or expand their facility. Chamber members and small businesses during the summits have
described scenarios where a budgeted project sometimes doubles or triples in cost because of
unknown code violations that become uncovered. This change will save businesses money on
projects and incentivize the correction of out of code improvements and business expansion.
2. Small Business Liaison / Code Compliance Representative- Reinstate the Small Business Liaison.
As a result of budget cutting efforts, the position of Small Business Liaison never was filled when the
previous liaison retired. This position was a vital point of information that saved businesses time
and money in dealing with the city. Reinstating the Small Business Liaison/ Code Compliance
Representative will help businesses quickly navigate their dealings with the City and save time.
3. Reinstitute Regulatory Relief Days- A full day or evening council session devoted to nothing but
business enhancement or regulatory relief policy proposals. Over the summer, this coalition of
councilmembers will launch an outreach effort with the San Diego business community to
encourage them to develop specific proposals. Tentatively the Council President will schedule the
first Regulatory Relief Day for September of 2011.
In the past, the City Council devoted specific sessions to hear the concerns of individuals and
businesses about City regulations. When that practice ended, the business community lost an
important forum to help the City make its policies more business friendly. Reinstituting Regulatory
Relief Days will provide opportunities for constructive criticism and reforms to city regulations that
will save businesses money.
4. Business Improvement District Enhancement/Small Business Policy Innovation Zones- The
Chamber and BID Council will launch an outreach process from May through August to explore
ways to enhance BIDs and use them as geographic zones to encourage business development.
Potential measures could include smoothing BID creation process, expediting permits within the
zone, lifting sign ordinance restrictions within the zone and creating specific programmatic EIRs (or
some variation) for the zone. It is our hope that this process will lead to a policy package that will
come to the Regulatory Relief Day tentatively scheduled for September of this year.
As San Diego has grown, the ability to incrementally change policies that affect commerce has been
reduced. Changes to City policy must now be applied throughout the city even though what works
in one area, may not be the best choice in another. Utilizing BIDs to act as pilot project sites for
various policy changes makes good sense for the city and for businesses. It reduces the investment
required to determine potential effects and unintended consequences for changes. It also provides
a proving-ground for things that will benefit the business community city wide.
5. Implement Sunset Clauses in Business Regulations- Create a Council Policy that would require
newly adopted city ordinances that impact business to sunset after three or more years unless
reviewed and renewed by Council Action. The Council Policy should also encourage the inclusion of
performance measurements. The Council will set up a tracking system that either the IBA or Clerk
oversees to keep Council and Mayor aware of upcoming sunset clause dates.
This item would require the explicit review and re-authorization on the extension of new
regulations. Policies that do not measure-up simply go away.