The city came one step closer last week to passing new permanent rules allowing restaurants to maintain pandemic-era outdoor dining areas on their private patios and parking lots. (Note: While this ordinance will affect many restaurants in our general readership area, it does NOT include most of our Larchmont Blvd. restaurants, which have their outdoor dining spaces on sidewalks and street “parklettes” in the public right of way. Those spaces will be governed by a second new ordinance, which hasn’t been released yet. See the “Next Steps” section, below, for more information on that new law.)
Background
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when most restaurants were forced to close their indoor dining spaces, the city used its temporary emergency orders to create a lifeline in the form of a simple permitting process to quickly and easily legalize new outdoor dining areas on either restaurants’ private property (such as patios and parking lots), or in the public right of way (including sidewalks and streets).
But now that the COVID-19 emergency orders are expiring, the city has been working for several months to come up with new Al Fresco dining ordinances that will allow restaurants to convert their temporary outdoor dining permits to permanent permissions and keep their hugely popular outdoor spaces open.
To do this, the city has been taking a two-pronged approach – creating one new ordinance for al fresco spaces on private property (patios and parking lots), which will be governed by the Department of City Planning and the Department of Building Services…and a second ordinance, governing al fresco spaces in the public right of way (sidewalks and street “parklettes”), which will be managed by the Bureau of Street Services, Department of Transportation, and the Bureau of Engineering.
A draft of the proposed ordinance for outdoor dining areas on private property was released earlier this year, but met some strong protests, especially from restaurant owners, who objected to several specific aspects of the proposal. These included:
- A lengthy and expensive new permitting process, even for restaurants already operating successfully under their temporary permits.
- An even longer and more expensive discretionary approval process when alcohol service is involved.
- A limit of five parking lot spaces that could be used for outdoor dining.
- A limit on the size of outdoor dining spaces.
- A mandatory 10:30 p.m. closing time for outdoor dining spaces near any kind of residences.
- A ban on any kind of music in outdoor dining spaces.
- A ban on using outdoor dining spaces for private events.
Also, both restaurant owners and others at the hearings on the first draft of the Al Fresco ordinance expressed dissatisfaction with the two-pronged, two-law approach for legalizing outdoor dining on private and public property, saying it makes the process confusing and overly complicated, especially for restaurants that have both kinds of al fresco spaces.
In early April, however, after considering stakeholder feedback on the first draft of the ordinance, the city released a second draft of the proposed ordinance for outdoor dining on private property, which made some significant changes. In the second draft:
- The permit application process will be simplified, and restaurants will be able to apply online, with no fees for restaurants who have had temporary al fresco permits, and minimal fees for new applicants.
- Planning Department approvals will be “by right” for those already in compliance with provisions of the new law.
- Restaurants that have a temporary Al Fresco alcohol permit, and other valid city and state alcohol permits, will be “deemed approved” to continue alcohol service under their permanent permits.
- There is no limit to the amount of space on a restaurant’s private property that can be used for outdoor dining.
- There is no limit on the number of parking lot spaces that can be converted to outdoor dining space.
- Outdoor dining will no longer be limited to the ground floor of a building (so decks and rooftops can now be used, too.)
- Outdoor dining spaces can now be used for private events.
At the same time, however, a few previously contested restrictions from the original ordinance remained, including the separate application processes for al fresco permits for private and public property, the ban on any kind of music in outdoor dining spaces, and the mandatory 10:30 p.m. closing time for al fresco dining spaces near residences.
Recent Developments
Last week, on April 27, the City Planning Commission held a public hearing on the latest draft of the ordinance, and during the comment period it became clear that, for many stakeholders, the new draft is a big improvement. Many of the restaurant owners who spoke at the meeting (most of whom had also criticized the previous draft ordinance at City Council Planning and Land Use Management hearings), thanked Planning Department staff for the latest revisions.
At the same time, however, many restaurant owners also said at the CPC hearing that they would like to see some further revisions, particularly in the mandatory 10:30 p.m. closing time and the ban on music in all outdoor dining spaces.
“We’re in the hospitality business,” said Aaron Robbins, who owns a restaurant in Sherman Oaks. “And music makes it more hospitable.”
Others said there should be different considerations for different kinds of businesses, and different kinds of locations. For example, Justin Randi, who owns the Baked Potato jazz club in Studio City, said his business, especially, needs to be able to play music – “We’re a jazz club!” – though he said would also be happy to maintain volume limits that could be set with new provisions in the ordinance.
Several speakers also requested further clarity in the city’s definition of “enclosed spaces” in the new draft, the kinds of inspections that might be required, and whether or not LADBS has the resources to perform those inspections in a timely manner. And there were also comments about the proposed rules for alcohol service, which would currently require all alcoholic drinks to be poured indoors and brought to outdoor customers by wait staff, and would require all patrons to be seated while drinking, preventing the use of high tables at social events.
After the public comments, the Planning Commissioners considered these items and, after the discussion, Commission President Samantha Millman proposed several possible adjustments to the current draft of the proposed ordinance. These included:
- That City Planning staff study and report back on options that might allow some sort of low-level ambient music in outdoor dining spaces.
- That Planning staff further refine the language defining “enclosed patio,” so that it’s clear that these spaces require some sort of air circulation and do not include structures with four walls and a roof.
- That the closing time for outdoor dining spaces be changed to 11:00 p.m. for outdoor dining areas within 250 feet of residential zones (meaning properties zoned exclusively for single or multi-family residential buildings, not commercial zones with mixed-used buildings that contain both residential and commercial units). (Outdoor dining spaces that are not within 250 feet of a residential zone would continue to have no mandatory closing time.)
- That only applicants who do not have current or pending judgements for wage theft can be approved for permanent al fresco dining permits under the new ordinance.
- That wait staff could prepare outdoor drinks from a portable bar cart outdoors, but those carts/bars could not be used to sell individual drinks directly to customers.
In the end, the commissioners voted unanimously to support the current draft of the Al Fresco Ordinance, and to send it forward to the full City Council with the above recommendations.
Next Steps
The current draft of the proposed al fresco ordinance for private property (patios and parking lots), will now move back to the full city council with the CPC’s recommendations for further consideration, discussion, public comment, and a final vote.
In addition, according to representatives from the Department of Transportation and Bureau of Engineering, who spoke briefly at last week’s CPC hearing, it looks like the city is now also very close to releasing a draft of the second Al Fresco ordinance, which will address outdoor dining areas in the public right of way (including sidewalks and street “parklettes”). That ordinance is the one that will have the most direct effect on most of our Larchmont Blvd. restaurants.
Jaclyn Garcia, Senior Transportation Planner with the Department of Transportation, said at the CPC meeting that she expects the draft of the Al Fresco ordinance for public property to be released sometime this month, and finalized around the same time that the ordinance for private property is voted on, so that both programs can launch this summer. “Even though we’re starting a bit later,” Garcia said, “Eventually, I think we’re all going to come to the same place sometime in summer.”
Finally, Hagu Solomon-Cary, Principal City Planner, also noted that the city is planning – as requested by many stakeholders – to create a unified application portal for al fresco dining on both public and private property, via the current BuildLA planning and application website. The portal, said Solomon-Cary, will have links to all the various departments involved in the permitting process for both kinds of al fresco areas. She said a timeline for the portal hasn’t been finalized yet, but it is “top priority” for a current interdepartmental working group.
