Good morning. I'm canceling. I'm not really funny. Consilus were here for or economic development committee work session on a very exciting topic. Restaurants. We have been talking since this committee was created a year ago. The need of make pretty much taking red tape away from, you know, on the process of opening a restaurant making it clear for folks on the steps that need to happen at the same time. We just committed let the work of ensuring that we will have a couple of more inspectors to review permits in the Etiches side. And I know we're going to get an update on the hiring of those folks today. And I think we all received a copy, the draft. It's a very great first draft for this document. And we look forward to have your comments about it and then feedback from us. With that, I'm gonna turn it to the DPS team to take us off. Good morning. Glad to be here. Rebea Salbacan directed DPS. I guess on behalf of the county executive, we just want to say, for thank you, it really is a pleasure to be working on something that we consider as important as this. Just looking at some of the feedback even once we've set this initiative rolling, you'd see that people generally appreciate what Montgomery County is doing and understanding, recognizing the importance of, you know, highlighting restaurants and navigating the permitting process because it's, it can be difficult for some, but we're here to kind of see it through fruition and make this a reality and show that we're not just talking, we're trying to see this happen. And so we've been working diligently over the last few months and it's still a few steps to go, but we're excited about the progress. And this synergy working with our sister departments, HHS, as you mentioned, as well as, you know, the business center here, James Smith. So we want to make this happen for accounting. And so we have one of the first things is educating our consumers, our business owners, because that's the first thing. If anything, I would say as a permitting director, probably the most important thing, you know, from an internal standpoint is making sure our staff understands the importance of restaurants, it's not just another permit. These are people's dreams, these are people's families, these are livelihoods that are at stake and we really need to meet them in helping to facilitate that. And so I've seen now the prioritization, you know, when restaurant applications come in, people now know, hey, this is important. And that's really the important first step. But the other aspect again is making sure that people are educated and it's not just DPS. You know, we pointed this out and you'll see that through the the new guidance draft. It's a lot involved when you're dealing with multiple agencies and departments for some business owners who have no clue. That's not what they do. They're about the rest of our business. So we want to try to make this process as simple as possible, but educating them, giving them that knowledge upfront. We think we'll make a big difference in them, you know, cutting down delays and headaches as they go through our process. So, staff here can kind of expound a little further as to what we've done. After garnering feedback, you know, from our stakeholders, we internal stakeholders we've met with, again, the Business Center I mentioned, businesses, the business restaurant association, I think, with the critical one stakeholder that we met with. So we've taken that feedback and come up with some things that we think will help, but we still look for further guidance as we finalize this. Director Sabakhan, can you clarify for me, when you said that you made with, we met with stakeholders and you mentioned the restaurant association. Do you actually meet with restaurant owners? Not association, restaurant. Through the members, yes. Their members of the association have come in and provided feedback that we've taken into account as we put the guy together. Okay, thank you. But we want to do more. Yes. Yes. Good morning. It's on Motezzi, the Deputy Director of DPS. I have prepared a statement to read regarding the draft of the updated recipe for success. In our efforts to modernize and enhance the recipe for success, guidelines for prospective restaurant owners in Montgomery County, we identified that the existing materials were outdated and needed a fresh approach. Our goal was to streamline the information presentation to help customers get organized from the very beginning of their journey. To ensure we met the needs of our community, we consulted with external stakeholders, including Ms. Paula Ross from the Gatorsburg-German-Tun Chamber of Commerce, and Mr. Jean Smith at the Montgomery County Business Center, alongside several local restaurant owners. This collaborative feedback was invaluable in shaping the new brochure. As we developed the updated recipe for success brochure, we work closely with the staff from various departments, including HHS, ABS, as well as WSSC. Initially, we engaged a contractor, but ultimately decided to create the document internal. The result is a brochure designed by our PI-O graphic designer, incorporating expert insights from our team with the proof you see today printed by our county print shop. So this is from what guy. I'll go over some of the key features of the new guide in front of you. The new guide is concise, consisting of six pages, including a cover and a backsheet. It aims to import prospective restaurant owners on critical steps such as researching property. We emphasize the importance of verifying that the intended use is permissible before signing a lease or purchasing a property. Hiring professionals. We stress hiring licensed design professionals and contractors. Pre-design consultation. Customers are encouraged to schedule a consultation to address questions before the permitting process became. By the way, this is no cost to anybody. Submission process. Guidance on how to submit plans and drawings online. Licensing and inspections. Information on obtaining a food license from HHS and scheduling inspections online. Additional options are detailed on outdoor cafe seating and alcohol licenses. The brochure includes online link to relevant agency and charts outlining necessary permits, licenses, associated fees, average review cycles, and timelines. Additionally, VDPS have launched a new web page dedicated to interior alteration for restaurants, featuring a comprehensive process, reaching content that includes HHS information and fees. The finalized guide will be available online along with PDFs in both English and Spanish. A key takeaway for prospective customers is to contact us before signing a lease or purchasing a property. We are here to assist them from start to finish. Following today's feedback, we will share the draft key stakeholders and partners, including regional service centers, Chamber of Commerce, business organizations such as MCEDC and the Maryland Women's Business Center. We also have promotion strategy in line. We plan to promote the new guide through a variety of channels, including news released to media outlets, a new permitting services podcast, as our counties, Spanish language radio show, county social media platforms, and next door, digital screen in county buildings, and posters for visitors when they visit DPS. Hard copies will be available at DPS and we will distribute them at outreach events. The final version will also be accessible online 24-7 and will be translated to Spanish. Finally, we are excited to share these resources with our community and look forward to receiving feedback on how they help the streamline the restaurant opening process. Thank you. And then I'm going to turn it also to Ms. Gail Lucas if I miss anything she wants to add a little bit before we go to you guys for questions. I'm Gail Lucas, Chief of the Customer Support and Outreach Division and my role here is to answer questions and to support these two guys. So I don't have anything else to add right now. And sweet, love it. Thank you so much for being here. Before I open it up for questions, I do have lots of comments, but I don't wanna spend too much time like digging and editing this document, but I will say a couple of things that really, when I saw it unlike really, way too long, repetitive. When I saw the HTML website, it brought me back to the 1980s. This is 2024. What do we have there? The titles, number seven, optional ingredients, makes no sense with everything else when you have researched the property, higher professional, scheduled IPS, and then you have optional ingredients and just instead of just saying, you know, cafe seating or outdoor seating, just so you are consistent with everything else. I do not appreciate that you have a 311 number for people to call you. You should have a number designated for the person who's handling and managing restaurants in DPS, not a 311 number if this brochure is designated for restaurants. That's a huge no-no. And then you don't even have an email. Nowadays a lot of people just prefer to have email as the main contact just because you keep track. You keep a paper trail, whatever conversation you're having with a county agency. You don't have one. You have one for Etch H.S. which is also a generic email. Etch H.S. mailgoneymd.gov. That is not a set of one-stream line and really focused on ensuring that we are keeping people accountable for this. So those are my simple comments. But with that, we're moving forward because at least we have this that we can break down and and I so once you have like a second round of of this draft I do think we need to have an organized meeting with restaurants coming in and people especially those who have, you know, who participated in the tour, the DPS, and I did this past year, I wanted to see this and get their true feedback. I really want people who are going through the process trying now to see these and get their feedback. If this is actually something that they think answer other questions or not. So that outreach before this is released needs to happen with businesses that are not only Spanish-speaking businesses, but also folks who are from African descent, Asians, to see if this makes sense to them and it's digestible. I think that would make sense. What does that mean? With that, I'm going to pass the mic to Council Member I think it's digestible. I think that will make sense. What is comments? With that, I'm going to pass the mic to Councilmember Buckle. Thank you. Which mic am I? Thanks. I think this is great. I think this is a really just great. And I look forward to the final product. I just have a couple comments. I think that I agree it would be great to have a where you can reach someone directly whoever's on restaurants, because it's not as if this is going out to the general public and you're going to be flooded with calls. The targeted market is for restaurants. And so if we can get actual people who do that to answer the phone, that would be great. To me, the only substantive comment, cup two comments I have are three, I should say. I think that the requirement of the certified food service manager at all times is really an important piece that could be easily missed in the process. And so I would have that as a separate step under so contact DHS, HS, so of course they need to apply for a fee. But separate, they also have to make sure that they have the food service managers trained and I guess that's certified So I think about making that a separate step because that that's one that You know at the end of the day, you know, they're all ready to go and they haven't done this step. So I think that's important. And then also, this is a question. So for the outdoor seating, the public right away permit, that's if it's on the public right away, right? So if they want outdoor cafe seating on their private property, they don't need to have this stuff. So the other cafe seating is for the public. It's on. Yeah, so yeah, it's on. So the other cafe guideline is for the public right away, the sidewalk area. Right. So perhaps it would say if you want to install outdoor cafe seating on public property, because that might think that if any outdoors, the way it reads now is that any outdoor seating would require that. And then the only other thing is the outside agency requirements. I worked with a lot of businesses through the years who are just starting out and have never had a business before. And they don't even know that they have to get the federal and state income tax number. So you have the room here, you have space here, you have the sales and use tax license. You might consider federal and state tax ID number and just how to who they would have to go to get that because it's surprising how many times people start a business and they don't have a tax ID number. So those are my just initial thoughts. I think it's great and I think it'll be very helpful. Council Member Seals. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. Interesting point there. I don't know the backstory on it. I know that the general concept, and again, I only work with the team, the general concept was the notion of an image that symbolized, you know, we were open for business, you know, in the permitting sense, to kind of give that sense that we're really trying to facilitate. I mean, that was a general concept, but I can't really give the genesis of why that specific image or... I mean, we had different images, really at the end of the day, really we just, we had different images really at the end of the day. Really, we just, we had different pictures even in the restaurants. People sitting in a picture of all kind of different, you know, like, we're talking business owners, potential business owners. And I don't think I've taken a picture with a business owner at a ribbon cutting or that has come in here in you know a shaft or a waiter's uniform. So what I'm saying is more than anything is just a picture at this point. I mean if you have anything else you know be more than happy to consider that for a change. I don't think we were trying to say this is a business owner. More than anything it's just a friendly face, welcoming, if you're open for business. So that's 3D. That was the intent, nothing else. But we can consider what you're proposing. Thank you. And then how much of the budget was used to create the booklet? It was all done internally. I mean, this is that's why we were going to go out with the contractor, but along the way, we just stopped it So everything you see is not any charge that I have to check how much we this is this is all done by the county So if there is any charge usually we are not getting charged if it is is very minimal Okay, all right and then Someone else has already mentioned the 311 numbers And are you able to provide direct lines? I believe we already have it. We have a line that anybody wants to contact DPS. I'll turn that over to Gail to talk. The reason that we have 311 just in case if anybody else that calls, usually people, 311 is available. Otherwise, we will post a number for DPS that's dedicated to the restaurant. I think that would be helpful because we're trying to streamline the process. People don't want to have to get triaged and go to another number. They should be able to get a live person. And I don't know if we have staff currently that's available to take calls. We have staff that's available to take calls. We have staff that's available to take calls. Okay. We have not in DPS for a number of years had direct law, we used to have direct law into the public. And with the advent of 311, we scaled that back. We have a couple of direct lines for other purposes that can be repurposed for this. Okay, so how many staff do you have assigned for direct access to take calls from the public from restaurants who are having trouble with their family? Right, and we have about eight staff that are assigned to take restaurant calls. That is what they work on in addition to some other commercial permits. We're looking at revamping that and reorganizing that so there may be a smaller cadre of folks that are just assigned to restaurants or just assigned to specific permits but we're still working through that but right now there are eight folks. We have a staff of 30 permit technicians. Any of whom can answer these questions and any of whom can talk to the public and who are assigned to answer questions from the public and from 311 every day. Okay. I'd like to add, Council Member, in addition to the customer service piece typically up front, I remind you that we actually last April, just past April, set higher at a assistant position to the director, and the basic premise was to have somebody who had excellent service skills and technical skills who could assist. And that person is already assisting. They've been several restaurants that they've been involved with in helping shepherd projects or provide assistance where we weren't previously able to do that with the attention that it needed. So now we have that at the back end, while they're going through the primary process and inspections, and I think it will make a tremendous difference for those that don't have the luxury of having a big designer that's savvy enough to go through a process or even the contractor, but having somebody internally helping them where they see assistance is needed, I think will be a big boost. Yeah. I'm only asking because restaurant owners shouldn't have to call us to find out where their permit is in the process and we shouldn't have to escalate a call. So we need to have a direct number and someone who can answer the calls when they call DPS. Okay. As Natalie mentioned, it is a pretty wordy document. I don't think it's too long. I just think there could be a bit more visuals to break up the text. It's very text heavy and it would be nice to have, I mean it's telling you to go to this website or it would just be helpful to get some, I don't just more visuals and to it. And yeah. Can I just say that the goal of doing this was to make it not as quite as text heavy. This was the original restaurant brochure that we had, which was a series of individual pages in a folder. We tried, and this is very word heavy. It's very link heavy as well. And so what we tried to do, what we strived to do, is to make it something that was easy to hold on to, easy to keep, and was more visual and more interesting. So we can certainly try to whittle it down, but we didn't want to lose essential information in the kind of the whittling down from this to that. Now, I agree. Yeah, I'll add that part of the earlier feedback that we received, it's not a typical from a printing. When we put out outreach information, it's common that it's taken that it's too technical, especially for restaurants. We get it. So that was some of the early feedback that we got. We just as you stated, more visuals, more workflows, get to the point. And we thought we kind of captured it, but I knew we probably needed to be tweaked a bit going forward. So we absolutely did. We noted on some of that feedback. And as pointed out, getting that feedback directly from those restaurants, I think it would be critical as we take that next step. I'm glad these are, we're printed in limited quantities. So once we get the feedback, we can continue to refine. So that's good. In section two, there's a reference to hiring a professional. Is the design consultation, is that mandatory or? It's encouraged. We would love to see 100% take advantage of that because, you know, I believe in, theoretically, it will cut down on, you know, a lot of the misunderstanding or assumptions made when they sit down with us. Even if it's a concept, you know, we can provide that vital feedback as far as basic requirements, whereas many times where they don't take advantage of that, it's, you know, you're relying on us essentially for quality control. And we'd rather you not take that chance, get as much information up front. And when you have that information, your time period would be a lot quicker, because there's less back and forth on review comments and mistakes and the actual drawings submitted. Is there like an association that one could contact to access a directory of professionals? Professional that are contractors. Designers. Designers. Designers. Designers. Designers. Designers. Designers. Designers. Designers. Designers. Designers. Designers. Designers. We don't have that. We don't we don't suggest a recommend. I'm not asking for a specific one but I'm assuming that there's an association. Every industry has an association of professionals and so if you put in your manual that I mean it doesn't say it's recommended or mandatory. It's very vague. And so one, making that that's a barrier to doing business here, I have to get a design professional. Where would I get one from? So a state, all this profession I have to be registered by the state of Maryland. And I think we have a link to that that makes sure these people are registered, the contractors that you're hiring also the architect, the consultant, you should be registered with the state. These are the people that are professional engineers or licensed registers and those are the people should be submitting the plans. That's what we want to make sure they're not just going and hiring these people that are not familiar with all the codes and regulation. Yes. We should just clarify whether it's mandatory or not. Yeah. I think that's a valid point. The reality is these permit types will require professional because they are commercial. Now, granted, we don't, as a permit agency, we don't make recommendations, but there's nothing precluding us from pointing them to the restaurant association, as members, to the, pointing them to the restaurant association for those members to the AIA, you know, to the engineering. That's certainly we can consider that. Okay. And then there's a reference to a Maryland-specific design professional, is that a requirement or another suggestion? Absolutely. When that's a state requirement for seminal documents, you know, for permits seminal documents, it would have to be a Maryland license architect or any. So it couldn't be anyone from the DMV. It must be from Maryland. Yeah, it would have to be certified by a state design professional. Okay. So it should make sure that's required. That language is mentioned is required. In section three, can you add contact information and clarify if this consultation is mandatory or voluntary? Yeah, it's it's it's we we highly recommend that because it's beneficial to us and us, I mean to them and us. Free of charge, so yes. Okay, so highly recommend, would make me want to tap into something that's free of charge before I go for a final review, so that would be helpful to clarify. And then can you list the website they need to visit section 4, the specific website? We want that. Okay. In section 4, because we have a list of resources here. Yeah, but if you're referencing a website, it would be good to have it there. You also have a section of important resources, but if you're referenced in something, it should just be right there. The exact website and the URL should be there. This may be available virtually, so if I'm in that section, I would want to click on that specific website and not have to go to another section to access the website referenced. That's all I have for now. Thank you. I thought those were very important points from Councilmember Sales and it's part of the editing of the stop command that needs to happen. And I think it is true. Just the fact that you have in the third page important resources what a whole bunch of websites that makes it really confusing is you have a niche section that website that actually relates to the topic. It makes it easier for people to understand and follow the process. And again, it's very repetitive in many of the sentences here. And I, once you have another round of edits, and we have next, Councilmember Glass, who I'm sure is going to have more to say. We would love to see your second draft over email. We don't need to have a session here so we can comment. Council Member Glass. Thank you very much Madam Chair. This is a good conversation we're having because we've gotten to a place where we're streamlining our processes. That's the goal. And the secondary goal, the more important goal is to make sure that people are aware of the new processes to save them time and money. The problem that we're having today is we are literally editing by committee, which is never helpful. I do not intend to copy edit. that we're having today is we are literally editing by committee which is never helpful. I do not intend to copy edit. What I intend to do is say I think this is a very welcoming design. The contents within it I have a few questions. It says the first thing on the the far left of the front page when you open it up, a guide for opening a restaurant. It says, do you know that restaurant owners often contact Montgomery County Department of Permitting Services after they sign a lease or buyer property only to find out that their proposed use in that zone is not allowed. How prevalent is that and how do we address it better? Because this is not going to address that issue and having that documented and it needs to be in there, I get it. But how do we prevent individuals from signing a lease only to learn they can't do what they intended to do? Honestly, the one thing we want everybody to take away from this brochure was this thing. Honestly, that's the most important part of this whole document because people, and I think it all goes to education and people not being familiar with the process over here, how you go about opening a restaurant and people usually go and knowing or not knowing or who's providing that voice to them, they get into some sort of a lease or they purchase something and then they come to us and it could be some in industrial park or somewhere that the use is not allowed And you know you have the call the zones that what's allowed what's not a lot and Now you bought you lease this thing and you are not able to do what you want to do That's what we wanted you to have before you pick up it before you sign on a dotted line Give us a call or it could be the use is a lot, but really it's a change of using that premises. It's not the previous use was something else. Now you want to go to a restaurant, it requires all kinds of different codes and regulation that may be costly to you to turn it. And that's the important thing, the cost to them more than anything else. So what happens in those situations? So that's how prevalent are they? They are. I mean Gail deals with that a lot more than I do on a daily basis. But those are the ones that really they come to you guys or bring it to your attention that oh my god this is costly or I've got a spend hundred thousand dollars to sprinkle the building. I mean there are ZTAs that have been introduced over the years to help mitigate issues when it is a public benefit as opposed to a private enterprise. But let's stick to the private enterprise, right? Someone, a mom and pop, open, they have big dreams and then learn after they sign the lease. How many complaints or SOS calls do you get? We probably see two out of ten, three out of ten folks that are in that circumstance and they come to us after they have signed on the dotted line and we start talking about things like change of use because the space you're in was a shoe store. Now you want to make it a restaurant. The things that you have to do to bring it up to code to do that. We see folks in old buildings that may have been grandfathered in for previous use, but now you're bringing a new use to it and the cost of it to bring it up to code or to make the changes that you want to make. So probably two or three out of ten folks we see are in that circumstance and we work with them to try to figure it out. We work with them. We have talked to, I have talked to landlords, I have talked to folks that they've signed leases with, with realtors to talk about some alternative to folks. And we have done a lot of brainstorming on how we can help folks get around some of the things we've done code modification hearings, for instance, to help folks through some of that. Sometimes there is no help for it. And we are in the uninviable position of having to tell folks that you can't do what you want to do in that particular spot. And again, I've talked with landlords. I've talked with folks that they've signed agreements with to see if there's some way they can get out of it, or we can mitigate it, or move to another one of these properties that somebody may have So we've tried to mitigate that but sometimes there is no help for that We have done a podcast about You syn occupancies and making sure that you come to us before that we are planning a podcast About restaurants we have been on Montgomery Aldea to talk about what you need to do before you sign the lease. We have worked with the office of Consumer Protection for them to talk with folks about what you do before you sign the lease. We've partnered with them. We will partner with them in the future. So we've done, we've put out press releases about it. We've done a number of things. Nothing hits everybody. And unfortunately, there are folks that get missed and those are the folks that come and are upset in our lobby. But we have done a number of things to try to get that word out. Thank you. Director. Lucas, and I thought that was a great question from the glass because to me, it looks a point, pointed out, you know, two out of ten, three out of ten. That's way too many, far too many. You know, I'd rather see that one out of a hundred. And even that, in my opinion, we want to minimize the amount of damage to these business owners. Yeah, I'll say over the weekend I was out driving through Bethesda and one of the shops, albeit not on the rest of them, one of the shops that we toured Councilman of Phoenix, and the dollars, if I'm not mistaken, it wasn't there. And so that hurt me to see that. And I'm not saying it's a permitting issue, but again, I recall hearing some of the struggles that she encountered during the process, and I'm pretty certain that she'll attribute some of that to what she went through in the program. So we don't want to see that happen. And so we want to make sure that they are armed with as much as information that they can be, you know, to really prevent that. We could I keep going? Yeah, just one more thing. And I love the director mentioned that this is not just a flyer or a document. I scheduled this session just on this topic because of how important it is. I had meetings with DPS and journalists who cried in front of me because they have no idea. They could not understand the process. The reason why I need this to be perfect is not because I like to copy it, I believe me, I do not. But it's because of the need. That restaurant that you mentioned, that lady, she's gone from that space because she have no idea of what she was getting into. She had a dream and she thought that because she had a dream and she had a little money to give to a landlord, everything would work out great. That is not the case. And now having restaurants and business through the county to be vibrant and successful. If we don't do our best, you should know what they're getting into, then we're failing. That's why this needs to be awesome. and I think it's a great first step and we're giving you all this edits not because I want to be a pain to you but because I really want you to be to have a great document that every time we have a festival and event which we all do with a table I want to have this on my table and give it out to people to help you do outreach and this should be in Spanish This should be in Harek this should be in in French Russian whatever other language we have in the county Because it's that important in those folks who and I wish I could say the ethnic populations like the Latinos the Africans are the ones who are suffering the most no That made a great in front of me. It was that American born, you know, fluid, with English, a chef, and he had no idea what he was getting into. So the ignorance is everywhere because we're not doing a job of educating folks. So I feel like I have to say that. Oh, we, we, we, an ideal back to my colleague, cancel member, having less. We appreciate that. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Right. So again, this is all geared towards helping entrepreneurs exceed and you know with a 20 to 33% I'll call it a concern rate of folks who've signed a lease and are concerned that it is in It's unattainable what their goals would be, right? And then you combine that with after after you jump through that hurdle, the latest data I saw was about a 17% failure rate in the first year, right? One of the most volatile businesses out there. But I want to go back to the point raised about the landlords. What is incumbent upon the landlord? Because let's be honest, if you have a shoe store and someone comes in, they're gonna have a conversation and say, I wanna open up a restaurant, I wanna sell some food. The landlord, I would assume, hard word to use, right? But I would assume the landlord would know what can and cannot be done in their property. And so where do we go from there, right? They sign a lease and then are told they cannot have a kitchen of any sort or a heating facility or something. Whose fault is it? Well, I hate to keep pointing to education, and we try to do as much as we can to hit all of our external stakeholders in the to wide spectrum. The property owners, I think in many cases, assumptions are made. you know, they may see, you know, we have one, you know, not too far away. I think assumptions were made, oh, it was a business. So it shouldn't be, it shouldn't be, no change of use. Well, they don't understand the technicality going from what's considered by code of mercantil use to a business, technically that's a change of use and that triggers a different set of requirements. So some of that's a little bit of education, but we hope, again, I mentioned the free consultation. Those things will be highlighted doing those meetings, but we have to let the property owners know those things. Don't misguideide, you know, these, you know, respective tenants. Oh, you'll be fine, you know, it's, it's, because sometimes they're telling them the wrong information and they're in for a world of surprise. Well, that's, that's what I'm trying to get at, right? It's the misinformation that's out there. And we know that larger, more complex business transactions and property deals and entrepreneurial ventures. Those business owners hire law firms and they hire government affairs specialists to dig into the land use specifics and the regulations and work sometimes with you all and us if a problem arises. And here we're talking about mom and pop who don't know anything about this, let about zoning or any other commercial uses. And I would assume going back to that word that a property owner would know what is permitted on their property. And well, and right, and there's a snicker, because while some might not, others do, when they're just happy to sign a lease. Please. Usually you're big developers, just like you said, they have land use attorneys, they're familiar, you go to a shopping center. And they just pike and roll. Hey, this is the businesses you come in. I think as you go down, like, you know, the moms and pops, they go and they're trying to get, you know, a store, not in a shopping center, maybe a long road. Those are the property owner. How much are they aware of the zoning? Yeah, they know they have a use and occupancy for the property. So they have a UNO and then the customer comes and wants to lease, oh yeah, I have a use and occupancy. You can do your business over here. Or once they come in and that's the problem, how yeah, you have a UNO on the property, but the use is for this type of business. It's for a retail, for something else. That's, you know, not that they all, I don't wanna say they all know unknowingly. They're tricking somebody, but it's also them having that education that that that that that that that I'm not I'm clearly not implying anything and I'm not pointing anybody out right where we're speaking about realities and while There are ins and outs and people who know and don't know that applies to the entrepreneurs, but clearly it applies to the property owners as well And so let me let me just bring it back here because what we're talking about I think is potentially a secondary avenue of education while we're talking about the restaurant, those that want to open up the restaurants clearly there might be an educational campaign for some of the property owners. But back to this this this flyer, this brochure. If, as you noted, the most important point is about the signing of the leases, I will copy at it this one time and say it needs to stand out. It needs to be just a little more explicit. That's what's going to be. That's not it. But we can work through that. And then the last thing and the chair mentioned this is having a few more languages. And not to overwhelm it, but at least have potentially on the back or somewhere else for more information in a particular language in the top five languages in the county. We intend to have this translated in a number of different languages. We need to get the English final. Very good. Before we can give it to the language folks to translate. Okay. And the Spanish is the first one we are doing. And then as we go on other languages absolutely Just one thing I want to come back to that that you mentioned about Yeah, when you go and you know you're putting a contract on a property Hopefully you have some Fisibility study that hey 20 days or 30 days. That's what we want to make sure those guys call us within that 20 days or 30 days before The contract is finalized. Hey give us a call That's the whole thing. Then maybe we can help you. This is the use of what's your intended use and what what you have on this property. What is allowed or what is not? Yeah, I mean, even if it's as simple as the property owners directing those perspectives, Henitz, hey, just contact DPS. Yeah, we're encouraging the pre-design meeting, but even before that, we want them to contact us. I'll take a call and try to, you know, my best advice as well as staff, and that's what we're here for, but we just don't want them, you know, making those assumptions and making necessary, you know, critical mistakes going further down the path. I mean, I see it quite frequently enough, you know, critical mistakes going further down the path. I mean, I see it quite frequently enough, you know, it's bad enough with restaurants, but, you know, breweries, you know, it's another example. That's a, it's more complicated. So it steps up, you know, you're dealing with zoning issues, you're dealing with fire protection issues, contact us, you know, want them to do their due diligence. That's just the bottom line. The more educated they are, the less likely that they're going to have those sort of missteps. And that's what we're really trying to encourage. And I should clarify that the signing the bad lease if I can put it that way, it's not just confined to restaurants. It's all kinds of businesses. And that, you know, two out of 10 folks that we see are not just restaurant tours. There are folks that sign leases for a number of different types of a flower shop was one. So there are a number of different types of business. It's not just restaurants that have that problem or that we are targeting saying come and talk to us first. We're trying to target that to every business or to every entrepreneur, every person looking to start a business in Montgomery County, come and talk to us first, because it's not just restaurants that have that problem. Thank you for clarifying. Thank you for this. Making progress. Yes, and we have seen in the previous sessions that for any business in Montgomery County, we wanted to contact actually the small business center. That's what we have been saying to folks. But thank you for that clarification with that Councilmember Balkan. Thank you. I just wanted to say that while we have, we're talking today about small mom and pop restaurant owners, we also have small mom and pop property owners. And so we have to make sure that maybe that's the next step and certainly working with the Small Business Center about educating the small property owners in terms of when to bring in DPS and I think that's important. And also I think there's, we have to really talk about landlords who may know what the limitations are. My guess is that many don't. But even if the use is a restaurant use is appropriate for that site. It's very possible and likely that they don't know the full extent of the cost of bringing the shell into license certified space. And so I think that maybe that's a next project that we look at is how do we educate the landlord and the caveat that even if a restaurant is an acceptable use here, getting it up to code might be insurmountable. Great points especially for those landlords who might be third generation. I mean I have so many of those in my district. Guess I'll remember sales. Yes, as we're talking about the small business center, it would be nice to have their information included on important resources. Mr. Smith has already pointed that out. Oh, I got you Mr. Smith has already pointed that out. Oh, I got you, Mr. Smith. Thank you. So we don't have any more questions. OK. When do you think I do want to see the next draft? Please send it over. I don't know how long do you think you will take for those edits. And again, this is a partnership. It's not to tell you we got you. You didn't do this. And I know we're not going to agree with every single comment that has been made. But I, if you can send the second draft at some point soon, so this can be out as soon as possible. That would be great. Absolutely. I know we've already set up the next meeting with the restaurant association and I will make sure that they have, you know, try at least to get adequate number of members. If not, we'll have to, you know, try another approach and meeting with them. Yeah, especially knowing that not every single restaurant is a member of the restaurant association. Like I, like I'm serious when I tell you that I want to give it to those folks that we visit it. I want them to see it. And some of those folks are nonmembers of that association. It's a creative and reaching out to that extent. And we have, you know, the Hispanic Chamber, the Black Collective, the Greater Civil Spring Chamber of Commerce. You already mentioned the Germant of Gidesmaid Chamber. All of them are huge partners for us. And so just send us a draft over email. But please, you guys have the electronic copies. I mean, some of these people, you know better than us. If you make shares with them. I want to share the second draft, not this one, because this one has a lot of stuff. Then I can sit down with you and tell you more, okay? We're sharing this also with other people. Before we come back with the second draft, these are you know people that? Yeah, I would say if you want to share this draft so that we don't then find this perpetuity. I don't want to come back here. I agree. Today, September 23, when is your meeting again with a restri-association? I realize that we are sharing this now. We have to share it with all the people that I mentioned. I'm hoping we can be done with this whole thing before Thanksgiving. Oh, yeah. Before Thanksgiving. Let's just put that as a goal. OK. Is there any other question? Are we? Just very quickly. I just want to know how many new applications for restaurants do you think we have in the queue currently? Does every question have any questions? We ran some numbers. Year to date, we have 99 applications for restaurants, just specifically restaurants. And that includes alterations to existing spaces. And that's what the lion's share of them are alterations to existing spaces. So right now we have 99 in the hopper that are working their way through. I, my computer just died. No, right. Because we could tell you and we can give you that information at a later time, where they are in the process if they've been issued. Because a number of those have already been issued. They just have not been finaled yet. And how many have seen this initial version of the manual? How many of those folks that I would guess none of none? Very few of them because we have not shared it widely yet. We wanted to have this meeting before we shared widely. They have seen the old yet they bet. Yes. System, what nothing you. They have seen the old yet they passed. Yes. That's good that they saw the old one and that they have this new one. It may be helpful for the people who are currently in the process to give us immediate feedback and that would be a good frontline pilot feedback. With those folks we have their emails, we can shoot this over to them and ask them for their feedback to ensure that we are helping people who Immediately need this information. They may look at this and say oh, we didn't know we had to do this or oh, you know It could use this so I think those would be good people to vet with this. Thank you. I think it's a great suggestion And if they're not for their comments, thank you so much for your time and your effort and for moving this forward. And with that, we are adjourned. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. you