Olympus Boardshop gets Boardwalk reprieve

Stand-up paddlers during the 2015 Beyond the Shore Paddlefest. BtS organizer Jeremy Godo Kiss was seeking a permit to continue a mobile SUP rental and instruction operation in King Harbor. File photo

 

Jeremy Godo Kiss couldn’t get away from the hugs, handshakes, and smiles after Tuesday night’s Redondo Beach City Council meeting — not that he’d want to.

“I was expecting to leave here with an absolute ‘no,’” the elated Godo Kiss said. “Not with the City offering multiple solutions.”

The City Council was scheduled to discuss a permitting process for mobile operators to provide stand-up paddleboard instruction and rentals in King Harbor. Currently, pop-up rentals – wherein an operator either meets a customer with a board at the harbor or sets up a physical rental point within the harbor – violate city municipal code. Two businesses, including Godo Kiss’s, were warned to stop by City staff.

Godo Kiss, the owner of Torrance-based Olympus Boardshop, went into the meeting expecting to be told that his mobile operation, which he has run almost continuously for years before his warning last summer, would have to end.

Instead, the City Council unanimously voted to grant Godo Kiss a Temporary Use Permit, with additional fees to be determined in June during Fiscal Year 2018-’19 budget discussions. Further, the Council also directed staff to begin discussions with Godo Kiss to lease a 500 square foot space along Redondo’s International Boardwalk.

The City Attorney’s office believed that they would not be able to produce a permitting process in time for businesses to operate during the summer season. Instead, the Council identified the 500 square foot space on the International Boardwalk – which Godo Kiss said he has inquired about in the past.

“For now, that would be the fastest way to get you where you want to be,” Emdee said. “That way, we don’t have to change codes, and it’s the fastest way to compliance.”

The temporary use permit was suggested by staff as an interim solution, to bridge the gap for the summer season, though Waterfront and Economic Development Director Stephen Proud suggested the Council consider permitting as a future issue.

As many council members said, this was among the hottest issues they had seen, with many residents of Redondo and Torrance speaking on Godo Kiss’s behalf. His business, many speakers said, is seen as a cornerstone to the paddleboard community.

Gene Smith, owner of Tarsan Stand-Up Paddleboards, was in favor of a strict permitting process that would “eliminate any riff-raff,” or unsafe operators.

“If one person gets hurt or killed, that’s going to curse all of us,” Smith said.

He was pleased, after the meeting, that Olympus would be able to continue business in Redondo.

“Justice was served for one of us original pioneers who does not deserve to be alienated or fenced up,” Smith said. “I’m proud of the Council and how much responsibility and thought they’re putting into this entire initiative. They got it right.”

However, not everyone was pleased. Patrick Webb, owner of the Paddle House on International Boardwalk, opposed permitting for pop-up businesses. Flyers and signage from his business argued the permits would create a “slippery slope,” leading to food trucks and “gypsy tents” in the Harbor.

He argued that Godo Kiss’s supporters raised a social media campaign to slam his business on Yelp and Facebook.

“This is a good thing that everyone can see: the bully wins here,” Webb said. “A Torrance, illegally-operating business can come to another city and take another resident down. That is mind-blowing to me.”

Webb went on to say that he was willing to explore breaking the lease with the City of Redondo Beach on his main building while retaining a storage space he also leases.

“Over the next four years, if I stay in that building, I’ll pay the city about a quarter of a million dollars,” Webb said. “I’d rather go smaller and smaller, charge a little less, and offset costs.”

There are potential concerns with creating any new lease, Proud said. A legally-contested agreement with the City’s estranged development partner, CenterCal Properties, requires the developer to approve any new pier-area leases, which staff will review.

But for now, Godo Kiss couldn’t have been happier with the dozens of community members who came out support him.

“I’m definitely going out [paddling] in the morning,” Godo Kiss said.

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