Diners Enjoy Outdoor Meals In Manhattan Beach Public 'Parklets'

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA — For months now, the Manhattan Beach City Council has held numerous public meetings beyond its normal schedule and been hyper aware of trying to help local businesses stay afloat during the pandemic.

To that end, City Council and city staff have worked countless hours to brainstorm, create and execute on rollouts such as allowing public sidewalk spaces and public parking spaces to be converted to outdoor dining areas when indoor dining was banned.

Now that outdoor dining on those very spaces [public right-of-ways is a term frequently used for the sidewalk space and parking spots that were converted into outdoor dining spaces] has been prohibited in Los Angeles County due to a Health Order that took effect at 10 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 25, the Manhattan Beach City Council, city staff and others have worked hard to create public spaces where people can take food they've ordered as "to go" from restaurants in the city and sit and eat outdoors.

In fact, the city now has liability for those spaces, which the restaurant owners turned over to the city to craft this new workaround to the ban on outdoor dining. Previously, when servers took orders and brought food to you in a particular restaurant's dining deck or space, the restaurant owners had to provide the insurance.

The Daily Breeze has reported that LA County health officials released the following information in a statement last Thursday night: “Customers may enter restaurants to purchase their take-out orders, but are not allowed to sit in congregant areas to dine outside of the establishments. Chairs and tables should be removed from outdoor spaces or clearly marked as restricted (with caution tape or signs for example) by the business owner.”

Senior Management Analyst for the City of Manhattan Beach George Gabriel told Manhattan Beach Patch Friday, "The City has not received any communication directly from the County on this matter. In reviewing the County Health Order earlier this week, the City did not find any prohibition on public outdoor seating. For example, some other examples of public outdoor seating are benches along The Strand and City sidewalks, and chairs in the Metlox Plaza."

Gabriel further said, "Also, the City is also currently unaware of any County enforcement action."

Gabriel also said, "Regarding the 'statewide outdoor dining ban,' this will have minimal effect on the County of Los Angeles, since the County of Los Angeles has already enacted an outdoor dining ban for restaurants. The state’s action would simply extend it to other counties that have not enacted that restriction like Orange County, San Diego or others in the Southern California region. However, like every new Order, the City will carefully review the language of the provisions to ensure that we are not in violation of any restrictions."