Do you like the current outdoor dining areas along Larchmont and other city streets? Hate them? Don’t care…or have suggestions for improvements?
Back in May of 2020, as restaurants struggled to stay afloat during mandated closures in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Los Angeles launched a new Al Fresco Dining Program that allowed qualifying restaurants to apply to take over additional street and sidewalk areas to expand their outdoor dining space. The program was originally intended to be temporary, just one of many health emergency measures instituted at the time, but it has proved to be very popular with both businesses and customers (including many of our Larchmont Blvd. restaurants). So the City Council has now asked the Department of City Planning to considering options for making the Al Fresco program permanent.
To collect feedback and input, the city opened two surveys about the Al Fresco program in June – one for dining patrons, and one for restaurants participating in the program – and there’s still time to take the surveys and weigh in with your thoughts on outdoor dining, if you haven’t already done so.
The surveys take less than 5 minutes to complete. Just click one of these links to get started:
The survey – which has so far tallied responses from nearly 2,000 members of the public and 250 businesses – will close at 4 p.m. on August 22. The Department of City Planning will then use the feedback to help draft a new ordinance outlining rules for a permanent outdoor dining program (as requested by the City Council), and new outdoor dining regulations for the city’s zoning code.
So if you love our Los Angeles’ new outdoor dining areas, hate them…or have more nuanced opinions and advice, please click one of the links above and let the city know how what you think.
For more information and additional links to the surveys, see planning.lacity.org/plans-policies/outdoor-dining.
