City officials recommend ways to get more restaurants downtown
The city wants you to eat outside.
Officials say dining ‘al fresco’ is crucial to the success of downtown and are pushing for the expansion of outdoor tables in Santa Monica.
Retailers willing to pay top dollar for space downtown have recently threatened the livelihood of Santa Monica’s restaurateurs and, with it, the ambiance of downtown, officials said.
The Santa Monica City Council will meet formally in June to discuss how to ensure Santa Monica’s eateries don’t disappear. But before a decision can be made, council members said they must consider several issues that could stifle the plan.
“Clearly outdoor seating in California is the thing that sets us apart — the ability to do it practically year round,” Councilwoman Pam O’Connor. “Right now we’re still in the middle of evaluating all this. It’s all about balancing the mix of (retail and restaurant) uses.”
The Promenade Task Force — a group of local politicians, landlords and merchants — last week finalized a series of recommendations to the City Council aimed at controlling the balance of businesses in downtown Santa Monica.
Council members Herb Katz, Mike Feinstein and O’Connor serve on the task force.
“Outdoor dining is a critical component of the success of the Promenade,” said Suzanne Frick, head of the city’s planning department and a member of the task force.
Among the recommendations:
• Place dining tables in the middle of the Promenade. Restaurants should be able to compete for the right to put tables in the center of the Promenade, officials say. While there are some legal issues posed by the suggestion, city planning officials said they could probably be overcome.
• Use the Third Street Promenade’s kiosks for cafes. The task force suggested reducing the space allotted to 12-year kiosk tenant and clothing retailer “Mudra” from 750 square feet to 200 square feet. The store is located at Santa Monica Boulevard on the Promenade and is connected to the Santa Monica Police Department sub-station, which could also be relocated so the kiosk can be used for cafe use.
• Simplify the permit process for restaurants. Restaurants currently have to endure a “fairly cumbersome permitting process” to start or expand their outdoor dining, or to serve alcohol, Frick said. The task force suggested creating a system that would preclude the need for a “conditional use permit,” eliminating one bureaucratic step in the approval process.
2BB,• Relax the restrictions on restaurant “sandwich board” signs. The task force supported taking a closer look at making it easier for businesses to advertise their menus and specials to passersby on signs and banners. The task force split over whether sandwich boards should be permitted in the public right of way, where they may impede pedestrian flow.
• Expand vending carts. The task group favored expanding the downtown vending cart program and allowing for more types of vendors, including incidentals such as flowers and shoe shines. The task force decided against allowing major food vending, saying it would duplicate the offerings of downtown restaurants, detracting from their business.
Council members said they may support the recommendations, but stressed that no formal suggestions have been brought to them.
“I’m in favor of expanding the outdoor dining,” Councilman Bob Holbrook said. “And I think streamlining the permitting process is really important. Frankly, we probably ought to consider removing the street portion of the Promenade and having just a wide walkway.”
Some city officials have expressed concern over the legality of placing tables in the middle of Third Street, which is still zoned as a roadway. But City Planner Andy Agle said the necessary changes would be relatively easy to make.
“It’s a fairly discreet amendment,” he said. “We don’t anticipate that it be an especially involved process.”
Councilman Kevin McKeown said he’s concern over where street performers might go if tables take their place.
4ED,“We’ve heard from the community again and again that outdoor dining is a desirable commodity,” he said. “I’d be very interested in researching where we could relocate any misplaced street performers. I think street performers are as much a part of the successful equation downtown as dining and theaters.”
Kathleen Rawson, executive director of Bayside District Corp., the non-profit that helps the city manage downtown, said she is pleased with the recommendations but added that the group still needs to look at exactly how the mix of restaurants, street performers and pedestrians would ultimately work out.
Mayor Richard Bloom said he’d consider anything to help Santa Monica’s restaurants make it downtown.
“The root problem as I see it is the economics of running a restaurant make it difficult to turn a profit given the rising rents,” he said. “My sense is there’s a diminishing number right now and that’s not good.”
Bloom said he is looking forward to examining the task force’s recommendations in detail later this year and said the council will use them as a starting point for further debate.
“I think it’s critical to have outdoor dining,” he said. “The Promenade has a unique character and that’s one of the things that attracts people to it.”
“I think it’s critical to have outdoor dining. The Promenade has a unique character and that’s one of the things that attracts people to it.” — — RICHARD BLOOM Santa Monica mayor
While Councilman Ken Genser agrees that it is important to maintain sidewalk dining, he questioned some of the task force’s recommendations.
“All this stuff, how does it encourage more restaurants?” he asked “I just can’t see how the little things like putting up sandwich boards could encourage or retain restaurants.
“It might be a good thing to do, or it might be a bad thing to do,” he added. “But it really doesn’t have anything to do with retaining or attracting restaurants. I hope when we have our discussions (in June) we’ll focus on what the real issue is — can we do something to preserve the existing restaurants and encourage new ones to come to here?”
The controversy over dining ‘al fresco’ is not unique to downtown.
Gary Gordon, the executive director of the Main Street Merchant’s Association, said he’d like to see the city encourage outdoor dining throughout the city.
“Sidewalk eating is important on Main Street and elsewhere,” he said. “It is part of the celebration of living in southern California.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 26, 2003. Read the original PDF.