In February, Joseph Magidow’s soon-to-open restaurant in Glen Park was well on its way.
Before launching La Cigale, a 15-seat restaurant that will serve wood-fired Occitanian fare, he needed to add a sewer line: Cut open a few sidewalk squares, dig a small trench, and install a pipe. One to two days of work at most, Magidow said.
But then he received a puzzling note from the Public Works Department. The city needed to ensure that no “survey monuments” were being disturbed within 20 feet of the planned excavation, threatening $10,000 in fines if Magidow didn’t provide the proper documentation.
Your baffling, maddening, and sometimes hilarious encounters with San Francisco government
Survey monuments? “Nobody has heard of this dang thing,” Magidow said.
He isn’t the first to experience the tortuous maze of getting restaurants, bars, or other businesses off the ground in San Francisco — or simply staying open. That’s why The Standard is launching a series, Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, highlighting the frustrating, sometimes comical encounters San Franciscans have with their government.
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As it turns out, survey monuments are nearly invisible points that sort property lines, among other uses Public Works says are vital to keeping the city organized. You may have noticed them in a fleeting moment while walking: little, silver-colored metal tags or star-studded brownish caps installed flush on the ground.
Seth Boor, an architect of nearly 30 years who designed Sightglass Coffee, Black Bird Bookstore, and other businesses, had never heard of the requirement imposed on Magidow.
“We’ve painted ourselves into a corner with so many codes,” he said. “It is hard for any entrepreneur to get any business done in the city.”
Magidow was presented with options. He could pay the city $4,455 for workers to ensure that no monuments were in the area or hire a third-party surveyor to do it for potentially less.
But Magidow was certain there were none of the markings near the small area he was digging up. To prove it, he and his team found a Public Works map called Mon-U-Mental that shows the locations of the city’s survey markers.
It was clear to them from the map that none appeared within 20 feet of their construction site.
All set, said Magidow’s team. Not so fast, said Public Works.
Even though the department maintains that map, it would not accept it as sufficient evidence, Magidow was told. To ensure his business didn’t face further delays, he paid $800 for a private surveying firm to do the work.
The surveying firm’s submission to Public Works was a single-page, 58-word statement confirming what Magidow already knew: His business was in the clear. Public Works accepted the document.
Public Works spokesperson Rachel Gordon said the department informs permit applicants that construction can trigger the monument survey requirement. She said the city is responsible for enforcing state law in preserving the monuments, and that surveys must be completed be a licensed surveyor, but acknowledged that “a smoother, more transparent process to successfully open a business in San Francisco is in everyone’s interest to build on the City’s comeback.”
According to Gordon, 155 surveys conducted by third parties in 2024 found the need to preserve some monuments. In 61 cases, no monuments were found in the proximity of a proposed excavation.
It appears that builders are overwhelmingly choosing not to pay the city’s high price for a survey. Last year, just two projects hired Public Works to conduct the monument work.
And that $4,455 fee? Gordon said Public Works is considering changing the price “to better reflect the complexity of the field survey required for a particular project.” She said the work from the city currently involves “office research and, if needed, field surveying.”
Other business owners have had similar encounters with city bureaucracy.
The Center, a yoga hub in the Lower Haight, had to stop selling tea in June after the city found it didn’t hold the proper permits — fixes the business said could cost $50,000 and months of renovations. Businesses that have faced break-ins have described a challenging permit process for installing roll-down gates to prevent theft. Naz Khorram, who founded the wine bar Arcana in 2021, wrote in The Standard last year about a “year-long journey” to overcome “pressure groups abusing the [city’s] conditional use authorization process.”
Mayor Daniel Lurie alluded to the issues in his inauguration speech in January. “To our small businesses, who I know have been suffering: The era of a new restaurant going through 40 inspections and receiving 50 different answers is over,” he said. “That’s our promise to you.”
Magidow said his strategy throughout the ups and downs of launching his restaurant has been to remain calm.
“If you get stressed out about it, you’re not going to do anything in San Francisco,” he said.