Restaurants to pay a fee for outdoor dining in Manhattan Beach
by Mark McDermott
The Manhattan Beach City Council last week implemented a $1 per square foot fee per month for restaurant use of public space for outdoor dining decks, a pandemic relief measure enabled by the city a little more than a year ago, which, until now, was free.
The fee structure was devised by city staff after Council in August asked for a “reasonable, but nominal” charge for the use of city sidewalks and parking spaces. City traffic engineer Erik Zandvliet told Council that the fee will be fair because it is proportional — the more area used, especially by larger restaurants, the larger the monthly fee will be. The costs for individual restaurants will range from $176 for Uncle Bill’s to $1,132 for MB Post.
“That is certainly, in the staff’s view, a fairly reasonable and nominal fee,” Zandvliet said. “Those fees definitely can be absorbed by those restaurants.”
According to staff, between June 2020 and August 2021 the City waived $886,618 in revenue from unused parking meters, use fees for the public right-of-way, and parking citations. Zandvliet said that the recent increase in parking rates to $2 an hour brings parking revenue back to what it was pre-pandemic, when the 71 spaces now used by restaurants were used for parking, leaving the current unreimbursed costs at $15,971. The $1 sq. ft. fee will generate $15,374.
“If we were to in essence make ourselves whole, or try to make it to a point where we are not subsidizing the outdoor dining areas, this is the amount that we would probably be looking for — it equates to about $1 per square foot per month,” Zandvliet said.
Public testimony was mixed.
Resident Jim Burton questioned the staff’s financial assessment.
“We are bleeding money to make these things work,” Burton said. “I’m baffled to hear how this financial assessment only looks at parking when we’re not looking at the rest of the financial impact…. You’ve got to look at how much money we are spending to make these dining decks work at the expense of our dry cleaners, our surf shops, our shoe shops or card shops or flower shops or optometrist or sunglass shops — there’s so many other non-restaurant, retail that has been absolutely, adversely impacted.”
Resident and business owner Andrew Goldstein said the city received federal pandemic relief funds earmarked for uses such as helping small businesses.
“The city was given $4.2 million of COVID relief for problems such as this,” he said. “Instead of making restaurants pay back money to our city, why don’t we find ways to use our COVID relief funds to help the parking situation, or retail businesses, and traffic problems that are arising from the lovely outdoor space that all of us enjoy?”
Owner Dario Vullo of Nando Trattoria implored the council to allow maximum use of outdoor space to help restaurants recover from a devastating year.
“It is imperative that we keep, as is, the status of the patios because our clientele, they don’t want to sit indoors,” he said. “I mean, I have an elderly population, they want to sit outdoors…The shrinkage of the patio to just the front of our business is not going to solve any situation. We need to have the possibility to recoup [after] one year of bleeding.”
Councilmember Joe Franklin said installing the decks already cost the restaurants money during a difficult time and since they are slated to be dismantled by January 3, the city could afford to waive all fees.
“I think that’s something the city can bear,” he said. “I believe there are federal funds, and I believe we’re still going to get some FEMA funds as a reimbursement…The fair thing to do would be just not charge anything until the decks come down.”
Councilperson Steve Napolitano questioned if the impetus for allowing the decks — the state of emergency declared by the city due to the pandemic — was still valid. He said allowing free use of spaces could constitute an illegal gift of public funds.
“Again, when you’re 18 months in, is it still an emergency?” Napolitano said. “I think we are open to a gift of public funds. challenge This is public property, and it’s being used for private gain. I think we need to charge a nominal fee for that.”
Councilperson Richard Montgomery said the nominal fee was more than fair and made the motion to institute it. “No one’s forcing you to use [the public space],” he said, regarding restaurants. “Take advantage of it while you can.”
The motion passed unanimously. ER