Year in Review 2022: Hermosa Beach extends outdoor dining deck permits

El Tarascos' dining deck is designed like an extension of its Pier Avenue restaurant. Easy Reader file photo

by Kevin Cody

In 2010, when Upper Pier Avene received a makeover, including a landscaped center meridian, a condition imposed by the city council was no sidewalk dining. The ban was a concession to residents who feared Upper Pier would become a noisy bar zone like Pier Plaza. 

COVID changed the sidewalk dining policy. In June 2020, to compensate restaurants for their loss of indoor dining, the council allowed dining decks, at no charge, in the parking spots in front of their restaurants. The council also approved expanded outdoor dining on Pier Plaza.

The dining decks proved so popular that while most businesses suffered under the COVID restrictions, Hermosa’s downtown restaurants flourished. 

This past January, well after the indoor dining ban had been lifted, the council extended the deck permits to June, but with a $1.50/month/sq. ft fee.

The dining decks had become so popular that during a June council meeting, Council Member Stacey Armato proposed the council adopt a “place maker concept” to pier plaza. “The dining areas don’t need to be dedicated to a specific restaurant. They could be for eating food-to-go meals,” Armato said. Council Member Raymond Jackson advanced the “placemaker concept” by proposing chess tables on Pier Plaza.

Pier Plaza restaurant owner Doug Haworth urged the council to extend the dining deck permits, once again. “Over the past 12 months, the Plaza has blossomed. It’s what distinguishes us from our sister Beach Cities,” he said. During the pandemic, Haworth remodeled his restaurant and changed its name from Silvio’s Brazilian BBQ to the more upscale Silvio’s South American Lounge & Grill.

The council voted unanimously at the June meeting to extend the dining deck permits through January 2023. In July, the council approved a 10-year Economic Development Plan whose recommendations included making the parking decks, the lane reductions and the bike lanes  permanent.

Not everyone is happy with the dining decks, and their accompanying accommodations. Retailers complain the current 17 dining decks deprive them of 35 parking spaces in the parking-challenged downtown. Commuters complain that the lane reductions sometimes slow traffic to a crawl. And the dedicated bike lanes have drawn swarms of electric bike riders, creating a new set of problems.

Hermosa Lock and Safe Shop owners Roxanne and Frank Hallstein have been in downtown Hermosa Beach for 47 years. They are closing in December because of parking lost to the dining decks. Photo by Kevin Cody

Hermosa Lock and Safe owners Frank and Roxanne Hallstein complained to the council that half of the 23 parking spaces on Upper Pier, where he has owned a store for four decades, are dedicated to dining decks.

“When customers come in our store, after circling the block five times looking for a parking place, they are so pissed off, it’s not a friendly atmosphere at all,” he told Easy Reader.

“The council says they want to make it like a hometown, but they’re running all the brick and mortars out,” he said.

Newly elected Hermosa council member Rob Saemann campaigned on a promise to solve Hermosa’s parking problem. But even if he succeeds it will be too late to save Hermosa Lock and Safe.

The Hallsteins announced they are closing their store at the end of the year. ER

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