City Of Hermosa Beach: Press Release | Hermosa Beach City Council Extends Temporary Outdoor Dining And Lane Reconfiguration

Hermosa Beach CA

29 May, 2022

5:50 AM

Description

Press release from the City of Hermosa Beach: May 26, 2022 Extension To January 2023 Provides Time to Conduct Studies to Help Determine if Temporary Program Becomes Permanent HERMOSA BEACH, CA – The City Council voted Tuesday night to extend Hermosa Beach's temporary outdoor dining and lane reconfiguration program to January 1, 2023, to provide additional time to study the impacts of the program to help the Council determine if it should become permanent. The temporary outdoor dining and lane reconfiguration program was launched during the pandemic to help local businesses when COVID-19 restrictions required restaurants and retail businesses to operate outdoors. The extension the Council approved on Tuesday is intended to provide time for City staff to conduct further analysis of the program, including launching the required California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) study, before the Council determines whether to make the program permanent and, if made permanent, how the program can be refined and improved. "Extending the temporary outdoor dining and lane reconfiguration program through the rest of the year will benefit our business community and continue to fulfill our goals of making Hermosa Beach a more walkable, bikeable, and welcoming community," said Hermosa Beach Mayor Mike Detoy. "This extension also gives City staff time to complete the necessary studies to determine how this program impacts businesses, traffic, and the broader community before the Council decides on whether to make outdoor dining permanent." The Council also voted Tuesday to improve aesthetics and cleanliness of the outdoor dining areas and prohibit improper uses. These modifications included requiring coverings on dining deck barriers; ensuring proper stormwater drainage; limiting guests to the number of seats at outdoor tables; and prohibiting portable canopies, certain types of signage and advertising, and entertainment other than the "live music" currently allowed. The City has issued more than 60 permits for outdoor dining and retail operations since the Council approved the temporary permitting program in June 2020. Those permits allowed businesses to expand their operations onto their parking lots and public property, including Pier Plaza, and existing parking spaces on Downtown streets. To help local businesses during the pandemic, the City Council temporarily suspended the encroachment fees charged for operating a business on public property. In January and February, the Council reinstated encroachment fees for existing encroachments and extended these fees to the encroachments permitted during the pandemic. The encroachment fees add about $683,000 to the City's budget annually in exchange for use of the public space. Since the Council reinstated the encroachment fees, four businesses removed their dining decks, one business modified its outdoor dining area, and another eliminated its sidewalk dining. This press release was produced by the City of Hermosa Beach. The views expressed here are the author's own.