Recipes to Expand Downtown Dining Finally Adopted

By Jorge Casuso

March 1 -- After nearly three years on the burner, the City Council last week finally served up a menu of recommendations to encourage more restaurants Downtown, especially on the Third Street Promenade.

Council members hope the recommendations hammered out by the Promenade Uses Task Force will reverse a disturbing trend that has seen restaurants pushed off the popular strip by retailers willing to pay what are among the highest commercial rents in the region.

The recommendations include eliminating the cap on the number of restaurants in the Downtown, expanding outdoor dining on the Third Street Promenade and relaxing regulations governing alcohol permits and sales.

Although last Tuesday’s vote was unanimous, there was initial disagreement over whether to allow new or expanding Downtown restaurants to serve alcohol if they meet standardized conditions, thus eliminating a lengthy permit process.

Under the conditions, restaurants would have to serve meals during open hours, only serve alcohol to patrons buying meals and draw no more than 35 percent of total gross revenues from alcohol sales.

“We believe that this is a set of standards that will see success over a period of time,” said Suzanne Frick who heads the City’s Planning Department.

Success, Frick said, would be adding two or three more restaurants to the Promende, which has seen the number of eateries tumble over the last decade.

Some council members, however, worried that easing restrictions to encourage more restaurants could result in a row of bars.

“We don’t have anything here about concentration,” said Council member Kevin McKeown, referring to the council’s decision not to limit the number of alcohol-serving establishments per block.

“One block on the Promenade could become in de facto a bar zone,” McKeown said.

In an effort to discourage the sale of hard liquor, Council member Ken Genser made a motion to apply the streamlined permitting process to only those restaurants that serve beer and wine.

“It’s important when people are selling alcohol (to know) that it’s a privilege to do that in Santa Monica,” Genser said, “but I do understand the need to make it (the process) less burdensome.”

Genser’s motion failed by a vote of 5 to 2, winning only McKeown’s support.

“I don’t think restaurants there to principally serve food contribute to alcoholism,” said Council member Bob Holbrook.

“I don’t think that (restricting sales to) beer and wine is the answer,” said Councilmen Herb Katz.

“To me it’s more what’s happening at the restaurant,” said Council member Richard Bloom. “You can have anti-social behavior only selling beer and wine.”

The Planning Department, Frick said, is beefing up staff and will actively monitor restaurants to assure they are complying with the conditions approved by the council.

“It’s very important that we monitor these establishments… to make sure they don’t slip into a bar,” Frick said.

The council also voted to expand outdoor dining on the Promenade to curbs, alleyways and the three center court areas despite a warning by the City Attorney Marsha Moutrie that “allowing central portions of the Promenade to be used as private dining space would pose various legal risks.”

Other recommendations approved by the council include allowing upper-floor restaurants to post signs, broadening the vending cart program to the Transit Mall and other feasible sites, adding public restrooms, developing modernized movie theaters with stadium seating and revitalizing the alleyways for dining and events.

The council directed staff to return quickly with a process for periodic inspections and an accompanying fee schedule. They also directed staff to notify applicants about the process.

Last week’s vote capped nearly three years of public hearings that included lengthy, sometimes spirited, debates, high-tech presentations and a walking tour.

The vote reverses a council action in the early 1990s to cap the total number of restaurants and alcohol-serving establishments permitted within each block of the Promenade and within the Bayside District as a whole.

The caps are not in danger of being reached, according to staff. As of February 2003, there were 59 “food uses” in the district, while the caps permit 76. While 52 food uses are permitted within the three blocks of the Promenade, 31 existed when the last count was taken a year ago.

Mayor Pam O’Connor acknowledged that the tables could turn once again.

“If there’s another shift down the road, another council can deal with that shift,” O’Connor said.