The Hermosa Beach City Council has moved to allow sidewalk dining in most restaurant areas, following al fresco eating on a trial basis. The council also agreed to study allowing sidewalk signs and other displays in front of retail stores, which now is mostly banned.
The move to allow tables on the city-owned sidewalks was approved 4-1, with Mayor Jeff Duclos dissenting.
Duclos pushed instead for an extension of the trial run through the summer, saying only two eateries were using sidewalk tables, and the effects of outdoor dining could not be measured by such a small sample.
(A small number of additional businesses have outdoor tables as well, but the tables sit on their own property rather than the sidewalk.)
With the change, tables will be allowed on portions of the sidewalks up against the buildings, taking up 30 percent or less of a sidewalk’s width.
Outdoor dining already is allowed on city-owned patio space in front of eateries on the Pier Plaza. With the change, city sidewalks can be used for dining all over town, except on the revamped upper Pier Avenue, which is governed by a special zoning agreement, and Pacific Coast Highway, which is controlled by state officials who do not allow sidewalk dining.
The change does not allow alcohol to be served on the sidewalks, and limits dining from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
In a change for the Pier Plaza, the council agreed to let restaurateurs extend retractable awnings all the way over their dining patios, instead of just halfway.
Councilman Kit Bobko suggested allowing retail signs and displays through permits that could be revoked, and would have to be renewed each year, for leverage to make retailers follow the rules.
Bobko said merchants on upper Pier Avenue, especially on the south side, need signs and displays to help attract business.
Previously, the council had heard a plea from Alex Abad of South Bay Brokers, who works in an upper Pier office complex and was required to remove a “lifeguard type of a chair” that he built in part to attract business.
“Everybody loved it,” he said. “…It was very ‘beachy.’”
Yolanda Reyes, of Anthology Boutique in the same office complex, said she had to remove a display rack from the sidewalk.
“This has affected my business a lot,” she said.
