City Of Hermosa Beach: Press Release | HERMOSA'S TEMPORARY OUTDOOR DINING AND LANE RECONFIGURATION PROGRAMS EXTENDED THROUGH MAY 2022

Press release from the City of Hermosa Beach:

12/15/2021 3:45 PM

Council Requires Further Analysis and Environmental Study to Help Determine if Programs Should Become Permanent and Whether Additional Changes Needed

HERMOSA BEACH, CA – The City Council voted Tuesday night to extend Hermosa Beach’s temporary outdoor dining and retail program and its lane reconfiguration program to May 31, 2022. It also directed City Staff to conduct further analysis, including the required California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) study, before the Council determines whether the programs established to help businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic should become permanent and, if made permanent, how they can be refined and improved.  

The City Council created the programs last year when COVID-19 Public Health Orders required businesses to operate outdoors, and the programs were scheduled to end December 31. The Council voted to extend the temporary programs to give City Staff the time needed to conduct further analysis.  

“These temporary programs helped our businesses survive and kept our residents and visitors safe during the pandemic restrictions,” said Hermosa Beach Mayor Mike Detoy. “These projects also created a more walkable, bike-able and welcoming Downtown. Our action Tuesday ensures that we will fully assess the impacts of the expanded outdoor operations for our local businesses and the lane configuration program on the City’s traffic, parking and budget before determining whether to make these programs permanent and, if we do make them permanent, what other changes are needed to improve the programs.” 

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.  

While the City had previously required businesses to pay encroachment fees when their operations expanded onto public spaces like Pier Plaza, it waived those fees during the pandemic and allowed businesses to expand into other sidewalk areas and public parking spaces for the first time. Among the topics to be studied in more detail will be the appropriate rates to charge businesses that are operating in public spaces.  

The study will also review the lane reconfiguration program on the Downtown portions of Hermosa and Pier Avenues, which the Council approved in July 2020 to accommodate the construction of dining decks on those two streets. The lane reconfiguration program removed one lane of traffic in each direction on the Downtown portions of Hermosa and Pier Avenues. It also added bicycle lanes to those sections of the streets, nine new Americans with Disability Act (ADA) accessible parking spaces, signage and pavement markings.  

Other topics to be addressed include the need for permanent municipal code changes, maintenance and improvements to the right-of-way and programs to address the lack of public parking through alternative transportation and parking management strategies. The Council approved $60,000 to fund the CEQA review.   

This press release was produced by the City of Hermosa Beach. The views expressed here are the author’s own.